A PEOPLE THAT SHOULD LOST: THE ANASAZI

The Anasazi, with names meaning elders, are a people who settled in pueblos and cliff cities in the rugged landscapes and canyons of Colorado and Mexico. They are among the first peoples of North America.

Considered as the most striking archaeological sites of today's USA, this residential area consists of multi-roomed and complex residential units. They are also installed on the rocky sides of cliffs.

The Anasazi were very attached to the difficult place they had chosen for life. In the first place they built simple pit houses dug in the ground. Later on, they moved to underground caves where religious rites and meetings were held. Later, they developed masonry techniques by making square stone pueblos.

The most striking change in the Anasazi settlements was their transition to multi-storey settlements, which they carved into the steep slopes of flat-topped mesas. Moreover, the reason for this change is unknown.

In 1300, the Anasazi left everything and left the area where they lived. It was a trip without even taking off your clothes. From this point of view, whether it is a departure or a disappearance still remains a mystery. New tribes such as the Navajos and the Utes came to the area where they had been vacant for more than a century.

Of course, archaeologists think that they migrated because of the difficult conditions for this people, who left all their belongings and disappeared as if they were going to return. However, when I consider that they do not even take their clothes with them for immigration, I do not think about it.

ANASAZICIAN CULTURE

The Anasazi, an agricultural people who lived between 800 and 1600 BC, lived in the Rio Grande region and the Colorad Plateau in the southwestern United States. They grew corn, beans and squash, and were interested in hunting wild animals.

Today, the Four Corners region, which is used as a national park, built multi-storey hillside stone houses in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah- Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Canyonlands and Bandelier regions, and became famous for their architecture and rock paintings.

They built a Hillside Palace in Mesa Verde. This palace has 220 rooms and 23 underground caves. The Mesa Yerde branch of the Anasazi lived in this palace between 1250 and 1280. Betatakin Ruin has 120 rooms and 3 underground caves. The Kayenta people of the Anasazi lived in this ruin.

Regional differences in climate and cultural preferences in ecological resources in geography have led to the emergence of separate Anasazi sub-traditions, each with their own pottery ornamentation traditions, masonry styles and architectural forms.

Among these sub-traditions of the Anasazi are the Virgin Kayenta Mesa Verde Chaco and Rio Grande tributaries. At their height at the end of the 11th century, they inhabited an area from Southern Nevada to Central New Mexico and from Northern Arizona to Southern Utah. The astonishing community centers of the Chacos were located in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico in the 12th Chaco. They were the first to leave their ancestral lands in the 19th century.

However, at the end of the 13th century, the peoples of the Virgin Kayente and Mesa Verde branches also left their homeland to go south and east. Only disjointed communities on the Rio Grande tributary and the southern foothills of the Colorado Plateau continued to live in their ancestral lands.