Anasazi: Introducing Prehistoric Cultural Groups

The Anasazi resided in the rocky drylands of the Colorado Plateau known today as the 4 Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. The center of their homeland was the San Juan River basin.  They moved frequently and far, for trade and to establish new settlements in response to climate changes, availability and/or depletion of resources, and undoubtedly for social reasons.

Because of their somewhat harsher environment, they were very skilled farmers who built water-control structures and they were very resourceful in their knowledge of wild foods and animal resources.  They not only planted corn, but developed and cross-bred strains of corn to deal with colder climates and shorter growing seasons.  They also planted squash and beans, and largely dry-farmed in arroyos or areas near springs where they could channel water with rock terraces, check dams, reservoirs and canal systems to their fields.  They needed to be flexible, so when crops failed they would resort to hunting and gathering.

Initially nomadic, they finally settled down by 500 A.D. with their bow and arrow, pottery, and permanent pithouse dwellings.  It was at this time that beans were added as a staple to corn and squash.  Above-ground masonry made its appearance by 700 A.D., with walled rooms.  Through time, second and third story units plastered with mud and whitewashed (usually oriented to the south for warmth) became the norm, both on land and within cliff recesses.  T-shaped doorways are typically Anasazi.

These people comprised three major groups: Chaco, Mesa Verde and Kayenta, subcultures of the Anasazi who lived in different regions of the Plateau and who exhibited very distinct styles of architecture, pottery and art.

The Chaco culture (of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico) was the first to peak, and the first to be abandoned.  It first showed up around 900 A.D., and is largely characterized by irrigation works and extensive road networks to outlier settlements.  It boomed around 1030 A.D., then between 1100 and 1130 precipitation declined and construction stopped, leading to abandonment by 1150.  Chaco masonry is the finest variety of all, characterized by large blocks of hewn sandstone interspersed with a chinking of small, fine and thin slabs of sandstone.  Anasazi masonry could consist of walls with an inner core of rubble, faced with a veneer of stone blocks, or it could comprise double-widths of stone block walling.  At Aztec, a Chaco outlier, a building of three concentric walls was uncovered.

The Mesa Verde/San Juan Anasazi people inhabited pithouses around 600 A.D.  Their population concentrated in the Montezuma Valley (west of Mesa Verde, Colorado) in 1100 A.D.  By 1200 A.D. they moved to Mesa Verde and inhabited cliff dwellings which were abandoned by 1300 A.D.  Mesa Verde masonry is the best known of all Anasazi styles, and is not quite as finely constructed as Chacoan masonry.

The Kayenta Anasazi lived in pithouses on Black Mesa (Navajo Mountain) and in Tsegi Canyon by 400 A.D., then abandoned those areas for the Red Lake and Klethla Valleys.  They returned back to Black Mesa and Tsegi Canyon by 975 A.D. and experienced a marked population growth there and in nearby places, abandoning all by 1150 A.D.  For a short time in the 13th Century they inhabited cliff dwellings in deChelly and Navajo Canyons.  By 1250 A.D. the population in Tsegi Canyon increased, added to by an influx of Mesa Verdeans.  By 1280-1300 A.D. all had migrated away to the east and to the south.  Kayenta masonry is the least carefully constructed of all Anasazi architecture.

As for pottery, the Anasazi had two types of ware:  A rough, corrugated utilitarian type of ware, brown to black in color, for everyday use, AND a grayware spanning a variety of styles ranging from black-on-whites to polychromes of more than 2 colors.  White-on-black appeared about the time when pueblos started replacing pithouses.  Through time, simple geometric designs evolved into more sophisticated design elements and even several individual styles are evident. Types of pottery items also exploded to include jars, bowls, ollas, ladels, pitchers, mugs, seed jars, effigies and figurines - some even with handles, intricately decorated and embellished.  The Chaco people were known for their tall, cylindrical jars, and the Mesa Verdeans excelled in classic black-on-white mugs and grave goods pottery.

The Anasazi also buried their dead in trash heaps and under floors of unoccupied rooms.

They eventually moved mostly east and south, settling in larger communities in northern New Mexico.