TEXT D Mesa Verde is the center
of the prehistoric Anasazi culture. It is located in the high plateau lands near
Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona come together. This
high ground is majestic but not forbidding. The climate is dry, but tiny streams
trickle at the bottom of deeply cut canyons, where seeps and springs provided
water for the Anasazi to irrigate their crops. Rich red soil provided fertile
ground for their crops of corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton. The Anasazi
domesticated the wild turkey and hunted deer, rabbits, and mountain
sheep. For a thousand years the Anasazi lived around Mesa Verde.
Although the Anasazi are not related to the Navajos, no one knows what these
Indians called themselves, and so they are commonly referred to by their Navajo
name, Anasazi, which means "ancient ones" in the Navajo language.
Around 550 A. D. , early Anasazi--then a nomadic people archaeologists
call the Basketmakers—began constructing permanent homes on mesa tops. In
the next 300 years, the Anasazi made rapid technological advancements, including
the refinement of not only basket-making but also pottery-making and weaving.
This phase of development is referred to as the Early Pueblo Culture.
By the Great Pueblo Period (1100 -1300 A. D. ), the Anasazi population
swelled to over 5,000 and the architecturally ambitious cliff dwellings came
into being. The Anasazi moved from the mesa tops onto ledges on the steep canyon
walls, creating two-and three-story dwellings. They used sandstone blocks and
mud mortar. There were no doors on the first floor and people used ladders to
reach the first roof. All the villages had underground chambers called kivas.
Men held tribal councils there and also used them for secret religious
ceremonies and clan meetings. Winding paths, ladders, and steps cut into the
stone led from the valleys below to the ledges on which the villages stood. The
largest settlement contained 217 rooms. One might surmise that these dwellings
were built for protection, but the Anasazi had no known enemies and there is no
sign of conflict. But a bigger mystery is why the Anasazi
occupied these structures such a short time. By 1500, Mesa Verde was deserted.
It is conjectured that the Anasazi abandoned their settlements because of
drought, overpopulation, crop failure, or some combination of these. They
probably moved southward and were incorporated into the pueblo villages that the
Spanish explorers encountered two hundred years later. Their descendants still
live in the Southwest. According to the passage, the LEAST likely reason that the Anasazi abandoned Mesa Verde was______.