Before the drought hit, centuries of intensive farming had already exhausted Mesa Verde. Juniper woodland vanished within 20 km of villages. Springs that once flowed year-round dried up. People resorted to burning corn stalks and roof thatch for fuel — unprecedented in earlier periods. The seeds of abandonment were sown long before 1270. 🌾
600 years of resource depletion led to environmental collapse
United StatesTheory
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Four Corners region had been intensively farmed and logged for over 600 years by late 1200s
- Pollen records show juniper woodland disappeared within 20 km of large villages
- People were burning corn stalks and roof thatch for fuel due to firewood exhaustion
- Springs that once flowed year-round had dried to seasonal seeps or stopped entirely
- At Sand Canyon Pueblo, excavators found inhabitants burning corn cobs and stalks in hearths, unprecedented in earlier periods
Sources
Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the U.S.fs.usda.gov
Large, stand-level impacts of drought are already underway in the West, but all U.S. forests are vulnerable to drought. Drought-associated ...
hunter - gatherer adaptations and environmental change in ...digital.library.unt.edu
This paper reviews the evidence for fluctuations in past environments in the southern Great. Basin and examines how these changes may have affected the ...
Defensive architecture and the Depopulation of the Mesa ...academia.edu
On the basis of analysis presented in the dissertation it seems that increasing conflict and violence was one of the main factors (probably along with the ...
© 2008 by Mesa Verde Museum Association All ...npshistory.com
Because all of the volatile compounds in the fuel had already been exhausted, the smothering did not result in smudging. Because oxidation ...
The Ancient Ones: The Anasazi and Their Neighborsaos.wisc.edu
The most intensively studied abandonment was of the most spectacular and largest set of sites, the Anasazi sites in Chaco Canyon of northwestern New. Mexico.
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