The disappearance of the ancestral Pueblo people is one of the biggest mysteries in archaeology, despite the extensive work which has been done studying the ancient North American civilisation. A new study, published in the journal Science Advances, provides a new explanation for the fate of the Puebloans, one which has parallels in the boom and bust social and economic cycles of today.
Also referred to as the Anasazi, the pre-historic Native American Puebloans were centred around what is now known as the Four Corners area of the United States, a region including parts of modern day Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The current consensus among archaeologists is that the Pre-Colombian civilisation originated sometime around 1200 BCE.
According to the authors of the new study, the Puebloans’ disappearance was a cultural transition, and not a particularly unusual one. They claim that the changes which wiped the civilisation out had precedent in three similar, albeit less severe transitions over the preceding five centuries.
The team’s argument essentially states that major climate change events which resulted in serious droughts caused collapses in the canons of ritual, behaviour and belief practiced in the Puebloan societies. Each time the droughts decimated crops, social turmoil and violence quickly followed.
“The process of releasing one’s self from those canons, the process of breaking that down, can occur very quickly and occurred very quickly four times in the Pueblo past,” said Kyle Bocinsky, a WSU adjunct faculty member in anthropology and director of sponsored projects for the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado; in a press release.
WSU Regents Professor Tim Kohler, the project leader, and his colleagues went to exhaustive lengths to collect a massive data set for their study. Taking information from over a 1,000 archaeological sites in the South-Western USA, as well as 30,000 tree ring dates, they were able to form an image of the climate through the region’s history. Through these climate reconstructions they were able to glean a remarkably clear picture of year to year changes in rain fall and temperature in the region.
Maize was the main crop of the Puebloans, a plant whose yields can be utterly decimated in just a few years of drought. The earliest Puebloans grew crops in niches, tied together with ceremonies and rituals dependent on a belief in the supernatural. As droughts caused the key crop to fail, the belief system itself would have been called into question, along with the very fabric of the Puebloan society. “Then there’s a point where people say, ‘This isn’t working. We’re leaving,'” said Kohler, in the press release.
The authors claim that a similar cycle was repeated each time the civilisation was hit by drought. A period of exploration when people searched for a new region to settle, followed by a period of exploitation and wealth creation, where a new value system was created alongside cultural change.
A first period of exploitation took place between 600 and 700 CE, and is known as the Basketmaker III phase. Mild drought brought the period to an end, leading to the Pueblo I period in which the Puebloans developed the practice of storing maize above rather than below ground. The researchers claim it also witnessed a major cultural transition, free sharing of food replaced with exchanges restricted by certain powerful households.
The Pueblo II phase lasted from 1035 to 1145, and witnessed the creation of large, shared houses and plazas. “We’re talking some of the largest–actually, the largest–prehistoric masonry structures in North America north of Mexico,” explained Kohler. Interestingly, the presence of greater disparity in the size and quality of housing suggests the society’s social hierarchy had become even more firmly cemented. As with the previous periods, Pueblo II was brought to a close by a drought.
Inequality seems to have peaked with Pueblo III, which was at its height in 1250 CE and was brought to an end by the worst of the droughts recorded by Kohler’s team. Fascinatingly, the Pueblo IV period seems to have bucked the trend towards inequality. the architecture suggesting a much more civic minded society with equal access to urban facilities.
“It’s as if everybody has equal access to where all the important stuff happens,” said Bocinsky. “That’s been interpreted as being far more egalitarian in how people were organizing themselves as a society than what we see during any of the previous periods.”
Bocinsky and Kohler hope their model can be applied to other ancient societies to gain a better understanding of their rise and fall. However, they also suggest that echoes of the system can be seen in sections of modern US society still struggling to recover from the recession which began in 2008.
“A lot of the nation has not recovered since 2008, and what you’re seeing is a populist movement to radically reorganize the way that politics is done in this country,” said Bocinsky. “We’re seeing that need to reorganize four times in the Pueblo record.” Put simply, as well as explaining the impacts of environmental disasters on ancient societies, Bocinsky and Kohler’s model offers a new insight into the consequences of an economic calamity.
By Daryl Worthington
With many thanks to The New Historian
Some related posts:
Rare Colour Photos Of Native Americans From The 19th And 20th Century
10 Quotes From a Lakota Indian Chief
Stonehenge: A Breakthrough In An Age-old Mystery?
Chauvet Cave Paintings: Cave Women Left Their Artistic Mark
Colossal Pharaoh Statues of Amenhotep III Found in Egypt’s Temple City Luxor
Lost City of Heracleion Gives Up Its Secrets
Shilling Discovery 'Could' Rewrite Canadian History
Fake Pharaoh: Tutankhamun Replica To Safeguard Original Tomb
10,000-year-old House Uncovered Outside Of Jerusalem
Great Zimbabwe
Rock-hewn Tombs From Ancient Egypt Discovered In Aswan
Europe's Oldest Human Footprints Found: 900,000 Year-old Norfolk Footprints 'Definitely Human”
First Pharaoh Ruled Ancient Egypt Earlier Than First Thought
The Antikythera Mechanism - The World's Oldest Known Computer
Archaeologists Digging Up Cecile B DeMille's Movie Treasures
The Lost Technology of Ancient Egyptians
The Elgin Marbles - A Continuing Controversy
Zeugma: 2,000-Year-Old Mosaics Uncovered In Turkey
Five Lost Cities
China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery Of Sanxingdui
Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh
Ancient Tomb in Amphipolis Revealed
Easter Island: Scientists Are Closer To Understanding What Wiped Out Its Society
The World’s Priceless Treasures
Relief of Queen Nefertiti
Gold Treasures Discovered in Ming Dynasty Tomb
Unique Mosaic Images Uncovered in Fifth-Century Synagogue
Philip of Macedonia, Greece’s Ancient King, Found
Queen Nefertiti: Was She Hidden In King Tutankhamun’s Tomb?
The Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain
The Antikythera Mechanism: Second Expedition Seeks More Mechanism Remains
Discovery Of Ancient Cave Paintings In Petra
Scientists Find ‘Superhenge’ That Could Be Five Times The Area Of Stonehenge
New Clues to Ancient Roman Art Discovered in Egyptian Mummy Portraits
Babylonians Tracked Jupiter with Fancy Math, Tablet Reveals
Rome Reborn – An Amazing Digital Model of Ancient Rome
A Day in Pompeii
The Holigost: 600 Year Old Pride of Henry V’s Fleet May Have Been Found
Ippolito Rosellini: The Monuments of Egypt And Nubia
Gem-Filled Warrior's Tomb Discovered in Ancient Greek City
Amenhotep’s Fragmented Book Of The Dead Found
Acra: Ancient Citadel Unearthed In Jerusalem
Glastonbury Legends, King Arthur’s ‘Grave’, Made Up For Cash By Monks
Is Queen Nefertiti Buried In King Tutankhaman’s Tomb? - Latest News
King Hezekiah's Seal Impression Found
Spanish Galleon San Jose Discovered Laden With Treasure Off Colombia
Has The Lost Island Of Kane Been Found?
Britain's Pompeii' Found at Bronze Age Settlement
New Clues to Ancient Roman Art Discovered in Egyptian Mummy Portraits
Hidden Rooms In King Tut’s Tomb May Contain Organic Material
Shipwreck Discovered From Explorer Vasco da Gama's Fleet
Bible Breakthrough Found In Israel
Nefertiti Still Missing: King Tut's Tomb Shows No Hidden Chambers
The World's 20 Most Impressive Ancient Builds
Dagger in King Tut's Tomb Was Made With Iron From A Meteorite
Rare Ancient Greek Gold Crown Discovered Under A Bed.
Has The Gateway to Ancient Greek God's Compound Been Uncovered?
Archaeologists Find 22 Ancient Greek Shipwrecks
Archaeologists Reveal Probable Sites Of Two Missions That Predate The Alamo
Palace Found At Tintagel, Fabled Birthplace Of King Arthur
Marble Statues of Aphrodite Unearthed At Petra
The Memory of Mankind Archive: The Greatest Time Capsule Ever
Egyptian Mummy And Temple 4200 Years Old With Well-Preserved Art Revealed
