Anasazi

Anasazi is a term historically used to refer to the Ancestral Puebloans, a Native American culture that inhabited the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The term is of Navajo origin, and its use remains controversial; many archaeologists prefer “Ancestral Puebloans” or “Ancestral Pueblo People” to avoid ethnolinguistic assumptions. The people flourished from about 2000 BCE to the late 13th century CE, with the height of village life and monumental architecture occurring between roughly 900 and 1300 CE.

The core area includes present-day southern Utah, northern and central Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. Early settlements began as pit houses, with maize agriculture developing over time. In later centuries, communities built multi-story stone and adobe pueblos and ceremonial rooms known as kivas. Cliff dwellings, especially in Mesa Verde and canyon regions, are well known examples of Ancestral Puebloan architecture.

Their economy combined agriculture with gathering and specialized crafts. They cultivated maize, beans, and squash, used irrigation in some areas, and participated in long-distance exchange networks for valued goods such as turquoise, shells, and copper. Social organization varied by region; some centers, notably Chaco Canyon, show evidence of centralized planning and monumental public architecture, while other communities were more dispersed and locally organized.

Notable sites include Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Bandelier National Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. By the 13th century, large sites were abandoned or transformed, and people relocated to smaller communities in the Rio Grande valley and to pueblos that persist into the historic period.

Descendants are the modern Pueblo peoples, including Hopi, Zuni, and Rio Grande pueblos. The term Anasazi remains common in popular references, but scholarly usage favors Ancestral Puebloans to emphasize continuity with contemporary communities. Archaeological study continues to illuminate migration, adaptation, and regional development in the Southwest.