As an archaeologist working in the Southwest I have found evidence for warfare, five times it was sites where the people were killed and left unburied, and yes the buildings were burned down on top of them. One of these was just below Tonto National Monument. Two people lying face down on the floor of a room; site dates to the early to mid 1200s. One had the back of the skull fractured, probably by a club. The building was burned and the roof collapsed on them, but there was only burning on the bones where the skin is thin, so they never had time to decompose. The roof collapsed on the bodies, one was completely covered and intact, except one hand was intact, but 90 degrees from the wrist. The other body was only partially covered and dogs or coyotes had torn the upper part of the body to pieces, leaving a trail of body fragments, many with canine chew marks from the buried body to the door of the room. There was less than 2 foot of adobe left in the door jamb, even so we found multiple projectile points embedded approximately horizontally in the adobe, probably shot at the people inside. Definte evidence of warfare. I have excavated 4 other such sites in my career, with equally convincing evidence.
@johnbruce2868
3 ай бұрын
See suggestion @johnbruce2868. The evidential circumstances may suggest the hypothetical existence of an unidentified group of nomadic warriors on a razzia for plunder but without the intention to settle. The region suffered a fate comparable with that of Hittite Hattuša, Syrian Ugarit, whilst many settlements and landscapes through the entire area were either abandoned or destroyed. A sort of American South West version of the Bronze Age Collapse in the Near East circa 1,400 B.C.? Just a thought, as requested.
@feralbluee
3 ай бұрын
the idea of warfare in the area has been known for years with artifacts to prove it.
@bigsmiler5101
3 ай бұрын
@user-jo8vx2xx8j: but your evidence is of early to mid-1200s. We need 1400 evidence.
@MsMinnie45
3 ай бұрын
I enjoyed reading your reply.
@dorasmith7875
3 ай бұрын
Culturally and socially advanced people at atleast the city state level, Mexico was fully agricultural and feudal, and resources dry up - it makes sense to think there would have been war.
@timcisneros1351
5 ай бұрын
There was Volcanic activity near Flagstaff that deposited ash and cinder that was feet deep over vast areas of land. This would have contaminated not only the landscape and water sources in that area but also water sources downstream and south of Flagstaff. Your map showing the areas depopulated (6:37) looks suspiciously like a volcanic plume. I am building a home near Flagstaff and every time I dig for drain pipe or foundation work I run into a layer of cement-like material around 3 ft. down that is 6"-12" thick. Definitely volcanic in origin.
@billkipper3264
5 ай бұрын
Are there any known dormant or inactive volcanoes in northern Mexico? If it is basically a plume map it should lead you right to the source.
@vindiesel1469
5 ай бұрын
I agree and was about to post a comment supporting this idea it was worldwide and can be seen in the ice record in Antarctica. The levels of "dust" and silica in the ice supports this theory.
@TravelwithMark
5 ай бұрын
The global volcanic dust plume was in 1538, over a century later. Maybe there was a smaller local volcano?
@paulmryglod4802
4 ай бұрын
Yes there was local volcanic activity in the area. I noticed it driving on i40 and also when flying over. I dont know anything more than this, i just was suprised to see it. @TravelwithMark
@JosephTrombley
4 ай бұрын
The Cinders is a ohv area and adjacent to it is the sunset crater national Park all of it of volcanic
@joshl2454
4 ай бұрын
I love that 1.) you admit you don’t know 2.)you invite comments from people to narrow in on the truth 3.) the people with the comments are offering valueable insights. Good work setting a great example for the finding of truth and a great example of how the world should run.
@micmer2939
3 ай бұрын
Yes! NO one was there.
@Cajundaddydave
5 ай бұрын
Populations in Europe also declined 8% between 1250-1400AD. Ice core records suggest very large volcanic activity that may have continued for a long time causing widespread cold climatic conditions (LIA), crop failures, and disease. For a culture that was highly dependent on corn that could no longer be reliably grown the effect would have been devastating. This may have caused the breakdown of social order, tribal warfare, and abandonment of a way of life. 1250- when Atlantic pack ice began to grow, a cold period that was possibly triggered or enhanced by the massive eruption of the Samalas volcano in 1257[19] and the associated volcanic winter. 1275 to 1300- when the radiocarbon dating of plants shows that they were killed by glaciation 1300- when warm summers stopped being dependable in Northern Europe 1315- when rains and the Great Famine of 1315-1317 occurred This is the best explanation I have yet read for the global depopulation and complete abandonment of the great southwest civilizations.
@spincube5734
4 ай бұрын
@@patrickwhittington If you're thinking of the Barrington meteor crater in west Arizona, it hit approx. 50,000 yrs. ago.
@tbmike23
4 ай бұрын
Um... 50% of Europe's population declined in that period....................................
@MrTryAnotherOne
4 ай бұрын
That was the time period when the Black Death raged through Europe.
@michellezevenaar
4 ай бұрын
@MrTryAnotherOne that was between 1347 to 1351 in Europe. It could have also reached north American some how?
@parkerpubs5142
4 ай бұрын
The Spörer Minimum was from 1431-1440 CE. Extremely cold winters alternating with soggy wet summers were reported in Central Europe. This was to blame for the alternating droughts and floods that resulted. Imagine the challenges to worldwide food production and rescue efforts 😮
@francismarcelvos5831
4 ай бұрын
This may be seemingly unrelated, but what I write can have had a impact on the Northern hemissphere. I am a historian and vulcanologist. In 1308 till 1362 there was a long series of volcanic eruptions on Iceland that impacted Europe. In 1340 - 1345 a deadly pandemic of the black plague took away inhabitants in many villages in Europe. In 1362 the biggest eruption in the Northern hemisphere erupted. Oreifajokull caused an enormous tidalwave that flooded the low countries, areas of Great Brittain (erasing 79 villages of Dorset) and ended in a vulcanic winter that brought winterconditions in spring and autumn and brought wet conditions in summer. This lasted at least ten years. The population in Europe was reduced by a third as a consequence. On Greenland, somebody in this comment section reports that the population of Greenland disappeared. I believe that when people migrate, they take their culture with them. This seems not to have happened in the report in this video. Just like in Europe, many areas in the Americas were depopulated. In the past we have seen similar repeats of collapse. Around 10.000 BC climate change caused hunter gatherers to start adopting agriculture. 1500 BC we see the Bronze Age Collapse. The story about the biblical Jacob takes place in this time. Kanaan was mostly depopulated and the people of Israel migrated here. Then 1300 - 1400 CE brought astoroids impacts, vulcanic eruptions, tidal waves, volcanic winter, pandemics, warfare and abandonement of settled areas. These mentioned times are the only times when worldwide population decreased by a third. The only other time I know this happened is with the eruption of Toba supervolcano 74.000 ago. The human race was almost extinct. A new type of human emerged then: Homo Sapiens Sapiens, cultural man. Us! The story of Adam and Eve in the bible is from that time. Nature rebounded after 6 days in the area that now is called Aden (pronounced Eden). Preceding the Bronze Age Collapse was the eruption of the Akrotiri volcano 1650. Most collapses commenced with volcanic eruptions or impacts of meteors. Then occurs climatic upheaval. Then famine happens. Then pandemics spread. Than happen migrations and reduction of population. Then cultural changes and cultural renewal happen. Wars often occur in the process.
@PhilipVanOlphen
3 ай бұрын
Akrotiri eruption occurred in Spring of 1446 B.C. Time of Jacob, the patriarch was somewhat earlier, 2000 B.C. Glad to see you are concerned with ethnicity, culture and archeology. Vulcanism too. New evidence supports the conclusion that the Chaco Canyon culture, called Anazazi were one of numerous civilizations based on elitism and slavery, cannibalism being it's motivational drive. This parallels what we know of the Cretan Minoans and Babylonians. You must not look for the truth from modernist scholars whose philosophy denies the very existence of truth as commonly understood, communicable concepts relating to reality.
@kk-fc3yd
3 ай бұрын
I wrote a paper called little ice age, volcanism and extreme climate variability. You can find it on research gate. It was probably from the eruption on the island of Sumatra look up my paper. It is perfect timing for that event.
@jax-zm1bb
3 ай бұрын
Interesting
@Sunluvr1
3 ай бұрын
When you have a hammer in your hand , everything looks like a nail .
@kabuti2839
3 ай бұрын
Warring. I've heard there has been signs of cannibalism & fortresses built up on mesas for protection, though this isn't widely disseminated as it isn't 'palatable', (LOL), to the current 'snow-flake' mentality, which must be sheltered from reality at all costs.
@Siapanpeteellis
4 ай бұрын
During my time in the Marine Corps, I befriended a Sergeant of Diné descent who shared an intriguing version of the Skin-Walker legend, passed down from his elders. According to his account, the Skin-Walkers were remnants of a previous population, cursed for betraying their own families and tribes. My sergeant, a well-read and educated individual, interpreted this to suggest that the Skin-Walkers were survivors of a brutal conflict marked by acts akin to war crimes. He speculated that although the Skin-Walkers continued their old ways upon the arrival of the Diné, they were too few to overpower them. Nevertheless, the unconventional warfare waged by the Skin-Walkers left a profound impact on the Diné, giving rise to the enduring legend. This interpretation, while speculative, does not conflict with established facts.
@JBlask
4 ай бұрын
I have heard that the Algonquin tribes of the north and east American continent had problems with skin-walkers prior to the arrival of Europeans. It was detrimental to the tribes and made the takeover of lands by the Europeans much easier when they showed up.
@Siapanpeteellis
4 ай бұрын
@@JBlask There is speculation that the Skin Walkers are some sort of offshoot from the Moche Culture of South America. That same Sergeant of Diné descent of whom I wrote about before believed that to be the case. Supposedly, the Moche culture originated the human sacrifices that the entire new world is known for and they spread this practice far and wide. The Kachinas , along with the Dine, are the ones who put a stop to the Moche in north America according to my Sergeant friend.
@davefrapart
4 ай бұрын
About1311 the day the sun didnt rise from volcabic actuon,freaked pppl out,
@harrywalker968
4 ай бұрын
watch. the facts by how to hunt.. idians do not talk about skinwalker.. sabe / bigfoot, was made before man. viper tv sumerian tablets..
@dannyboy6754
4 ай бұрын
Not sure if you've been keeping up on the Skinwalker Ranch program on the History Channel and they just found the body of a Dire Wolf. Extinct for 10,000 years. They say a candidate for the "Skinwalker" legend. It's been fascinating.
@christophertarr9005
5 ай бұрын
I’m an archaeologist- drought leads to a struggle for resources, which leads to warfare, which leads to disease and destruction of culture and abandonment of regional homelands.
@NelsonZAPTM
5 ай бұрын
This has happened before and will happen again.
@christophertarr9005
5 ай бұрын
@@NelsonZAPTM sooner than we think! As the tundra continues to rapidly melt-methane gasses increase at a faster rate than scientist had predicted -the earth will become much much warmer, until the earths crest heats up-volcanoes erupt and gases and cinder block out the sun- and then, we plummet rapidly in to an ice age to cool the earth from its fever. Most life dies but those who can eat the yuck will hang on and create again as the earth melts down for thousands of years. Cycles over and over…. Every 250k years… and thaw for 80k, I believe we are over 50k years over due! -living green or carbon conscience efforts will do nothing! Enjoy life and know that your descendants will go through an utter hell as our ancestors had…
@TravelwithMark
5 ай бұрын
@@NelsonZAPTMwhen did it happen before? This sort of depopulation?
@TravelwithMark
5 ай бұрын
@@NelsonZAPTM so you can't quote an instance?
@TravelwithMark
5 ай бұрын
@@NelsonZAPTM BTW, your totally "over the top" reaction points to some deep insecurities. When you suggest I get therapy for asking you for an example, you seem to be covering up a lack of understanding or knowledge of the subject matter.
@rpearson7823
5 ай бұрын
The Fremont and Moqui cultures further north in Utah also dimished or disappeared around the same time frame. So this mystery was more widespread than just Arizona. Also this was the same time frame the Aztec culture was begining to grow and rise so dramaticly, according to them and archeologists they came from the north. I've had the same questions as you for many years, and hoping someone can make a positive connection about this issue.
@pelicanus4154
4 ай бұрын
I'm an amateur Aztecologist ;) and that is exactly what I have come to believe.
@Rktect3902
5 ай бұрын
I'm an Architect by profession and i have travelled extensively in that region and have studied the Architecture and i believe the Architecture tells the tale. Everything was defensively built. They built lookouts on the high places, and food storage was hidden. As the population grew and drought more severe, it became survival of the fittest. Until even the last ones standing saw the place as haunted and cursed.
@mk-apache6161
5 ай бұрын
Ok, stick to architecture, Cheech.
@robertgeorge9909
4 ай бұрын
The invaders were the Ute, a hunter gatherer tribe who raided for food crops grown by the Pueblos. They were ruthless and didn't need a large army.
@Souundy
4 ай бұрын
Moving into the cliffs was not defensive. The last place you want to defend from is high up on a cliff where there is only one or two ways in. You're too vulnerable to a seige and then you're only able to last as long as you have food and water...
@MakerBoyOldBoy
4 ай бұрын
Good conclusions. The flat land dwellings were abandoned. The struggle to survive was brutal. Evidence has been found of cannibalism.
@robertgeorge9909
4 ай бұрын
@@Souundy Where they didn't have protective cliffs they built towers. Hovenweep. A siege only works if you have more food and water than your enemy. It true for both sides.
@PSC9634
5 ай бұрын
I read a very compelling book, "1421. The Year China Discovered America." It was subsequently supplemented by unusual things found in the Americas by other archeologists that support the theory. It's possible their interactions with coastal people, who then traded inland, brought disease. This interaction could cause the die-off of large numbers of people. Just a thought and worth the read regardless. Great episode. Love it.
@jandrews6254
5 ай бұрын
A good book! Foreigners from a far off country coming to a new one, bringing disease that wiped out the native population. Story as old as time. Europeans bringing measles to Polynesia is a case in point from a time not too far removed from present.
@megret1808
5 ай бұрын
I read it as well. Agreed
@billwilson-es5yn
5 ай бұрын
There's plenty of evidence that the advanced interior tribes of North America were influenced by Mayan coastal traders. I'm sure they introduced diseases on occasion that none had a resistance to so wiped out the tribal elites, craftsmen and resident farmers. Those that resided further away stayed away after learning about everybody falling ill then passing away. The coastal traders were also known for being hired by Mayan and Mesoamerican Elites to be taken away to somewhere safe during times of conflict. I had a couple HS History teachers (69-73) that believed the Mayans took them up to North America to organize the tribes to establish trading centers along rivers and inland, like the Chaco Canyon region. They think the Mayan Elites and best craftsmen left with the traders once it became obvious that the southwest had entered a period of droughts.
@staalburger6305
5 ай бұрын
Dang Chinese. I'm bettin' they was from Wuhaan.😂
@mstexasg6243
5 ай бұрын
Excellent book. I read it years ago.
@jlacy73
4 ай бұрын
Cahokia, near the Mississippi River, was depopulated around that same time also.
@robertgeorge9909
4 ай бұрын
It was depopulated because the Spanish visited on there way north with hundreds of pigs. By the time they returned South the population had been decimated by swine flu.
@TheRealFreznoBob
4 ай бұрын
and then the Indians came to inhabit it
@dilbertfirestorm4851
4 ай бұрын
this is the ohio area that has the pyramid
@TheRealFreznoBob
4 ай бұрын
@@dilbertfirestorm4851 yeah, it's where some of the Aryan sea peoples were from, maybe they used that mound building skill when they took over egypt
@dilbertfirestorm4851
4 ай бұрын
@@TheRealFreznoBob aryan? I think its said by the natives that the people who built it were giants, fair skin, green eyes and had red hair. this suggests that they were of scottish ancestry.
@j.sanders4017
5 ай бұрын
The Salado of the San Pedro river valley had definitely shifted to a defensive posture just prior to their disappearance - this is amply demonstrated in the strong fortification features found at their last few consolidated villages such as Leaverton Mesa, 111 Ranch and and High Mesa. "Migrants and Mounds - Classic Period Archeology of the Lower San Pedro" makes for an interesting read on this marked cultural shift just prior to their departure from the San Pedro.
@richardarmida8151
5 ай бұрын
Another channel in the four corners area has a hapless kid visiting Google Earth stone circles. Pretty amazing stuff with walls built into overhangs or on the top of rocky plateaus near water. Very defensible and inaccessible. They strike me as the last stand kinda places. No petroglyphs at these sites. Read somewhere that human coprolite found in the hearths of village ruins contained human remains. Besides the insult this perhaps suggests cannibal attackers. I’m Chiricahua Apache and these are/were my people.
@trinacogitating4532
5 ай бұрын
@@richardarmida8151 Just curious, why do you consider him hapless?
@bfrehksdhf
5 ай бұрын
What do the traditions from the Native tribes say about this catastrophe?
@vasil12361
4 ай бұрын
Diné and Ndee invasion.
@airstreamwanderings3683
5 ай бұрын
Thanks Andy, you obviously put a lot of work into this. Since Native Americans have such a strong oral history, I would be interested to hear what their stories are. Nice work.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Some of that has been recorded by anthropologists but also much of that remains unknown to outsiders. I think linguistics is a more telling and interesting study and there are a lot of interesting clues there.
@thevet2009
5 ай бұрын
For more than 450 years, Norse settlers from Scandinavia lived-sometimes even thrived-in southern Greenland. Then, they vanished. Their mysterious disappearance in the 14th century has been linked to everything from plummeting temperatures and poor land management to plague and pirate raids. Now, researchers have discovered an additional factor that might have helped seal the settlers’ fate: drought. Reason would say some world wide event happened during this time too.
@MichaelM-q2q
4 ай бұрын
Makes me want to head for Glaser national park.
@lahuber2
3 ай бұрын
A video I recently viewed theorized that Vikings in Iceland and Greenland survived as long as they got shipments from Norway. In 1394 a ship from England brought the black death and killed about half the population of Norway. The disarray it caused meant the shipments became a trickle and later an attack on the Norway port stopped the shipments all together. The difficulties of staying alive eventually became impossible. The video was “4. The Greenland Vikings - Land of the Midnight Sun” by Fall of Civilizations. I recommend it.
@thevet2009
3 ай бұрын
@@lahuber2 interesting...thanks for the info!
@t.c.2776
3 ай бұрын
Global disappearance and depopulation... Aliens coming back to gather up a new batch of slave labor?... I mean, they ALL disappeared and apparently didn't show up anywhere else...
@GLH-t3p
29 күн бұрын
The book 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond might interest you.
@morguemccoid7803
5 ай бұрын
I'm not an archeologist, but I am studying to be one, and I do agree that the sudden vacating of the region was too large to simply be coincidence. Personally, I think it may have been a combination of factors. A natural disaster in one area leading to refugees seeking shelter - the sudden increase in population being an excellent vector for disease, leading to more depopulation and seeking shelter elsewhere. Natural resources start to get depleted, and conflict becoming more likely, until eventually everyone had left the region and their cultures absorbed into the surrounding regions. It's possible we may never know exactly what happened. But it is food for thought. Especially when compared to similar instances in other parts of the world. The Bronze Age collapse of the fertile crescent being one instance that we're starting to understand more, and which might have some similarity to what happened here in the US. Great Video, Andy! Thank you!
@vapormissile
5 ай бұрын
Positive waves.🤠
@bookman7409
5 ай бұрын
Since you're studying the field, take a look at known depopulations in the Great Plains and into the East Coast, and their timing, in the late pre-Columbian period. Andy said to look at the big picture, and rightly so, but was his view wide enough, if it happened on a continental scale? I would argue that the events were historically close enough to mean that wars weren't capable of producing a similar result on a massive scale, all around the same time. It makes no sense. A virgin-field epidemic strikes me as more likely, given that the various cultures were part of a trade network that went through all the significant ones. Comparing this to the Black Death is a mistake, because that was a more technologically developed culture, and occurred in areas where small-scale subsistence farming can persist, but over here, a viral outbreak with a long incubation period would likely outrun the news of the plague. It's mainly a matter of logistics and types of pandemics, especially since a large, sophisticated but tech-poor society will also have a tipping point, where there aren't enough survivors left to organize the necessary population to resume what had always worked before, let alone rebuild it from nearly nothing. I tend to study history through a military history lens, because to do that seriously you have to take every military factor into account, especially logistics, since that's what determines what is possible. I'm purely self-taught, but I think I've said a few things worth considering.
@vapormissile
5 ай бұрын
@@bookman7409 right on. Whatever happened seems to be the subject of institutional shenanigans. Good luck, positive waves.
@bendy6626
5 ай бұрын
As an archeologist, it might be interesting to compare what was going on in Europe at the same time. People sick, starving, dying across entire northern hemisphere. 🤔
@TerriAnnNiemeier-dy3no
5 ай бұрын
I keep thinking there are no human remains ?
@KAZVorpal
5 ай бұрын
Actually, this is an easy one: 1400 AD is almost exactly the start of the Little Ice Age. Cultures and civilizations all over the world failed or had crises because of this. These guys vanished almost exactly when the Norse colony in Greenland did, and probably for the same reason. That's also a likely cause for the Kmer empire's failure, and may have contributed to declines in Zimbabwe and the Mississippian culture.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Interesting
@bahaiwebsites
4 ай бұрын
Wow
@jeremiahsummers8054
4 ай бұрын
I don't think a decrease in temperature by 1.1°F would have caused a huge issue in the Desert Areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. Thought it might be related to the "Great Dying" of the 1600s. I think that's a stretch though as well.
@KAZVorpal
4 ай бұрын
@@jeremiahsummers8054 The area was not as desertified then as it is now. It, like northern Africa, grew progressively worse over the ages. The change was more than temperature, it was weather patterns.
@jeremiahsummers8054
4 ай бұрын
@@KAZVorpal Sites like Case Grande beg to differ, I live by the Gila, it would still be flowing if not for the San Carlos Dam. Arizona goes through wet and cold spells depending on multiple factors, sun spot activity etc, but they would have lived through all of that over a period of 1400 years. None of that explains them leaving.
@AncientAmericas
5 ай бұрын
So solado pottery just stops completely in 1400? That seems very strange because up until that point, when Pueblo groups move into a new area, their pottery shows up in the record.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Yes, it just stops. There were a few Salado pots found at Hawikuh which was inhabited up until the Pueblo Revolt (1680) but it is not know if they were made there or were just heirlooms.
@SchoolforHackers
3 ай бұрын
I wonder if new areas have such different materials available, they require a wholesale change of technique. Unrepeatable old-school designs would die out within a generation, leaving only heirloom pieces like this.
@crowstudios300
5 ай бұрын
🤣 that ending. We here in Ohio have a similar situation where historical tribes such as the Shawnee talk about coming into this land and I wonder how there were open places. I know there is always work on connecting paleo and archaic to woodland and on down but I always wonder about the accuracy of those assessments. I also, having spent decades staring at the dirt as I cross any field, strongly believe that the populations of America were much, much greater than what we were taught in the 80s and 90s. The book "1491" really shored up my beliefs in that. I wonder if, like your SW U.S. situation, if there was something similar that happened here from time to time...probably. Thanks for exercise in history, Sir!
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Yes actually another strange coincidence was that Mississippian culture crashed at about the same time that this was going on in the Southwest. I was worried that there might have been a rattlesnake back there in those rocks. They have little bitty rattlers that live in the mountains around here.
@JayCWhiteCloud
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery YES THEY DO...I love them...but they often sound more like an insect when rattling than a true Crotalid...Most common are the mottled and banded rock rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus ssp.) I will state that behaviorally they are very mild in disposition and seldom bite unless really provoked by stepping on or physically harassing them somehow. When I was working with this species in captivity, they had been some of my favorite of the Crotalids, but it is wise of you to be that aware...
@bendy6626
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPotteryCompare time period with northern Europe, as well. A lot of dying world wide. Blamed on bubonic, but perhaps more to it if global🤔
@themaskedhobo
5 ай бұрын
@@bendy6626 1400 coincides with a trough at the beginning of the "Little Ice Age" the actual cooling trend started much earlier at the end of the Medieval Warm period around 1300. Europe and North America were the 2 hardest hit continents. A change in atmospheric conditions may have changed rain patterns so civilizations may have had problems feeding their people, and from there best way to get food would be to attack their neighbor and take what they had.
@bendy6626
5 ай бұрын
@@themaskedhobo Great points! Now, consider central + so. American cultures ...
@manchitas3531
5 ай бұрын
WHAT A TRULY AWESOME VIDEO!!! Thank you.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it!
@nadineraynor2539
5 ай бұрын
Great information. My folks had property South of Stafford Arizona. It had remains of old culture. We found buckets of pottery sheds and axes on the place.
@anthonyfowler8634
4 ай бұрын
“Anasazi” is a Navajo word to describe these natives the famous area being Chaco Canyon. The Navajo’s knew they were into slavery and avoided them even saying terrible things were going on in that area.
@zimriel
4 ай бұрын
there's a Navajo channel here which said about what you did. Also he was careful to note that the Anasazi were a sect of Ancestral Pueblans who'd taken over, but were not the common Pueblan people
@LexipMedia
3 ай бұрын
As is apparent from other videos on YT, the Navaho REALLY don't like the Anasazi, which they pronounce as AHN SAH.
@StevenShelley-m6s
3 ай бұрын
@@LexipMedia The archaeological term Anasazi comes from a mispronouniation of Navajo term that you used.
@mike89128
3 ай бұрын
@@zimriel I too have listened to what he says about the Navajo Culture and verbal history. What intrigues me is his assertion that the Navaho came west from across the Mississippi (his Great River). Could it be his ancestors were remnants of the Mississippian Culture of Southern Illinois, who built the great city of Cahokia?
@MA_808
2 ай бұрын
and cannibalism
@oldwaysrisingfarm
5 ай бұрын
Just ask Hopi and the Navajo--the stories of this period are intact, very intact. If you give tobacco and ask humbly they will share them, none of this is actually mysterious.
@oldnick4707
3 ай бұрын
What did they tell you?
@oldwaysrisingfarm
3 ай бұрын
@@oldnick4707 It's their story to tell, not mine.
@oldnick4707
3 ай бұрын
@@oldwaysrisingfarm, I've heard a few of them and there's no actual chronology, so your premise is false.
@oldwaysrisingfarm
3 ай бұрын
@@oldnick4707 Spoken like a true coloniser. You are not getting the full story for the same reason I won't share it with you, you have a bad attitude. Humble down and you will learn things.
@bertellijustin6376
3 ай бұрын
Lmao he said “give them tobacco”. Maybe throw in some fire water and they’ll tell you about “two spirit” war heroes of the garou wars.
@LuisAldamiz
5 ай бұрын
The region overlaps almost exactly with the modern and historical Apache or Southern Athabascan area. We know that the Na-Denè were broadly intrusive in North America (they have somewhat different genetics than other Natives, notably East Asian Y-DNA C2, shared with Altaics and North Chinese) and their first settlement must have been in the northwest of the continent (Alaska and nearby areas) but that at some point they migrated southwards and mostly established themselves in that region you mention. We also know that the Apaches (incl. Navajo and others) were very warlike, while the Puebloans and other groups that accepted refugees (per your narrative) were much less belligerant, more "civilized" if you wish. So I do buy your warfare explanation but I'd say it was the violent intrusion of the Na-Denè (Apaches and such) which caused it. I'm not very acquainted with their history and culture but I understand that some of those groups were extremely cruel with their war captives, if so no wonder everybody run away to wherever they could find refuge. I disagree with the North vs South agricultural Amerinds conflict hypothesis you posit therefore: it makes no sense to me.
@PraetorHesperus
5 ай бұрын
There's a channel called Navajo Traditional Teachings here on youtube, the presenter is a Navajo historian/elder named Wally Brown. He has several videos where he speaks about the traditional stories of the Navajo about the Anasazi, which he sharply distinguishes from the Ancestral Puebloans and other groups of the region. As he relates it, the Anasazi were an outsider group who arrived fairly suddenly and remained for only a relatively short period, being centered in Chaco Canyon. Supposedly they went out raiding, conquering, and enslaving the other peoples, and even conducted human sacrifices, but were ultimately punished with a great wind that toppled their cities and dried up their water sources. During and after their reign of terror, the ancestors of the Navajo and the other groups fled the area to hide in cliff dwellings. I can't fully speak to how closely these stories align with the archaeological record, but they certainly seem to fit the main theories for the depopulation, especially if a period of prolonged violence coincided with a major drought. I could imagine a group attempting to impose something like mesoamerican style social and religious customs on the area, i.e. large stone cities, conquest of neighboring groups, blood and sacrifice focused religious rites, etc. could've caused such a depopulation.
@Philip-hv2kc
5 ай бұрын
That ties in with tribes moving into the region from far away southern Mexico where such practices did occur.
@blackrasputin3356
5 ай бұрын
His is a great channel. He provides very important context that's always left out by "archeologists" and historians.
@TT-ww8vv
5 ай бұрын
Migrants from Mexico & Guatamala perhaps?
@sonyaandreanoff6765
5 ай бұрын
Also look to the East at tribal mound builders that did similar to the Mayans… they disappeared too but it was before the southwestern ones disappeared… I’ve often wondered if they broke up from the East and moved west and tried again before being destroyed there? Maybe they moved up from far south Central America, towards Easter North America, and then back towards the south western area before finally dying out (maybe the way the Navajo stated?)
@victorioify
5 ай бұрын
Perfectly stated. That also the theory I had in mind.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
If you like this type of video about the history of the ancient Southwest, you will enjoy this playlist with all of the videos I have made on similar subjects. kzitem.info/door/PLxjk09ZJzrltbnW4SM3jurT_qJat_5mQQ
@PSC9634
5 ай бұрын
Wow, Andy. You peaked interest with this video! Love it.
@Justin_Ebright
5 ай бұрын
From the Southwest (New Mexico), not an archeologist, but from what I do know in other areas of the world I think we can find clues. The 1400s were the start of the little ice age. On one data point year (1452/3) there was massive spike of sulfates in ice cores that shows one volcanic eruption. 5 years later there was another. This was all coinciding with exiting a really warm and fruitful warm period to a sharply colder period in the 1400s. Native plants tend to stay dormant longer due to cold temps, and adding volcanic events that darkened the sky and poisoned the ground it'd be nearly impossible to keep a large population alive on what our area would have been able to support. Plant too early and the sprouts die. Too late and the harvest is small. This was following bad droughts from the 1300s as well which also would have impacted them. Sadly when the Europeans and European diseases hit the local Natives would have been on life support from centuries prior due to climate and volcanic activities.
@pmazie
4 ай бұрын
I love all your videos, Andy, and I don't do pottery.
@TheBcambron
5 ай бұрын
Interesting that the Hopi talk of Ant People from underground that helped them. Look at the underground cities in Turkey and rumors of remains of "large people in carved caves in the Grand Canyon with huge weapons displayed" .. And I think Kokopelli and Pan were the same "guy".
@Allen-yv3ue
5 ай бұрын
Right now I'm thinking when the Anasazi ( Ancestral Puebloans) collapsed ( from cannibalism/etc. internal strife ) ... it sent people everywhere, that sent fear everywhere. - Fear ruled the day, hence the hill top Forts all over the southwest in the 1300's
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Good point, and we already know because of what happened there that there were some bad people around then. Maybe some of them moved south and did the same thing here. For those of you who don't know the Anasazi system collapsed around 1300, just around the time that the Salado and Classic Hohokam systems were getting started.
@Allen-yv3ue
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery I believe it started around 1250-on ... some parts maybe even earlier 😊
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
@@Allen-yv3ue true just trying to give a general idea for those who don't know
@CraigMcDonald1234
5 ай бұрын
in the 'magazine' "Science News" they reported studies of cannibilism....
@richardarmida8151
5 ай бұрын
Another KZitem channel in the four corners area has a hapless kid visiting Google Earth stone circles. Pretty amazing structures and ruins with walls built into overhangs or on the top of rocky plateaus near water. Very defensible and inaccessible. They strike me as the last stand kinda places. No petroglyphs at these sites. Read somewhere that human coprolite found in the hearths of village ruins contained human remains. Besides the obvious insult this perhaps suggests a Mad Max world with cannibal attackers. I’m Chiricahua Apache and these are/were my people.
@catman8965
5 ай бұрын
I remember hearing Krakatoa exploded around 1500AD. It affected everyone worldwide.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Yes, true.
@trinacogitating4532
5 ай бұрын
Also around 1300. And there's the mystery eruption (location uncertain) of 1458.
@1pixman
4 ай бұрын
@@trinacogitating4532New Zealand? There was one massive eruption at some point in history of Taupo the crater is a lake...that may? Have caused the Dark ages? The volcanic Dust in upper atmosphere blocking Sunlight or reduced sunlight and lots of Ash..falling...so crop failures therefore a lack of food in store.
@harrywalker968
4 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery you are repeating mainstream crap. same as the bible bs.. watch . viper tv sumerian tablets.. might educate you.. farming, is thousands of yrs old. . the pyramids are over 100,000 yrs old. we were genetically engineered.. as workers, miners..
@harrywalker968
4 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery all, our real history is hiden, covered up, destroyed, by the church, gov,s smithsonian.. when the church ruled, you said 1 thing wrong, you died as a heratic.. darwin knew this, so he said there must be a missing link, we hav,nt found.. alien intervention.. hinduism, is very interesting.. history. vishnu, is depicted, exiting a lingum, rocket, carved in black granite,. how, who, carved all these temples, columns, ect.. praveen mohan, does vids on it. he says temples are 1000 yrs old, because he has to, or get banned, by the '' algorithm''.... i was banned for 2 wks, just for tru comments they didnt like..
@angeladazlich7145
5 ай бұрын
Very informative Andy thanks. I've read some papers suggesting conflict was common in the area based on skeletal injuries
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Wouldn't surprise me. Thanks
@mirandagoldstine8548
5 ай бұрын
Whatever caused the conflicts must be tied with the reason why entire regions in that part of America were suddenly depopulated. Like Andy said the people had experience dealing with droughts and floods. I wonder what the surviving nations’ tales have to tell us about this time period. I think they might be the key to understanding what was going on in that period. Only thing I can think of is the Little Ice Age but I am not a scholar on Native American civilizations during that period so I don’t know how it would affect the people.
@lapsedluddite3381
5 ай бұрын
@mirandagoldstein8548 - Exactly! Love your comment! It is frustrating when experts from the dominant culture formulate theories about the original cultures based on their own preconcieved "realities" without actually asking the descendants of those original cultures what stories have been passed down through the generations. If you want to study ancient indigenous cultures - ask their descendants, not descendants of the invading Europeans, who are products of completely different "realities" -
@TrebizondMusic-cm6fp
5 ай бұрын
@@lapsedluddite3381 And if you want to know about the Ancestral Puebloans, ask Puebloans, not Navajos.
@anthonyfowler8634
4 ай бұрын
The consumption of human flesh has been scientifically established as was common in Aztec cultures in the south.
@richardarmida8151
5 ай бұрын
Cool video, thanks Andy. So the Basket weavers were the hunter gatherer cultures, the pottery/agriculture followed and built sustainable cities of casas grandes so to speak, and, they all ran away abandoned centuries of infrastructure at culturally significant locations. Hmmmm. It’s an amazing story. I’m Chiricahua Apache with an Opata greatgrand dad and this puts things together for me.
@BaryNusz
5 ай бұрын
I'm the Texas Panhandle, in the Canadian River valley. The panhandle culture disappeared around 1400.
@cedarhatt-vx8kf
5 ай бұрын
Like he said, himself, “there are no coincidences” lol. Maybe for a few brief years it was colder than anyone imagines.
@CaptainSeamus
4 ай бұрын
Did they move north and east? Etzanoa (the city of 20,000 people where modern day Ark City, Kansas is located) was started around 1450 AD, and lasted until about 1700 when the Spaniards finally broke them up. But where did that large culture and all the people to fill it come from?
@MrAustrokiwi
5 ай бұрын
Plague in Europe was much more devastating than you appear to believe. Whole villages and regions were depopulated. The natural reforestation of previously farmed land is believed by some to have been a factor in the creation of the little Ice age. That you report that the identifying pottery stopped in 1400 suggests to me plague or genocide(the latter if your war theory is correct). By way of comparison, the Philistines when they moved from Greek Island region, started producing pottery in Palestine that matched the types and patterns from where they came from. The only difference (initially) was the clay they used. Drought creates a population that is stressed(immunologically) making a plague more likely to take hold.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for the info.
@LuisAldamiz
5 ай бұрын
Even the Black Death is overrated. You'll read and hear people saying that 1/3 of all Europeans died and that's false; it is based on the records of a single French town which was particularly badly affected, elsewhere a credible figure is rather in the 10% ballpark and there were areas like Poland or the Western Pyrenees that were not affected at all. However there was a second wave some time later that affected mostly yount people who did not have developed immunity, so the cummulative impact was significant (but not as extreme as portrayed by some sensationalist authors anyhow). The main long term consequence was improving the status of peasants, who (often illegally) could then seek for better conditions, leaving the most exploitative lords without manpower. I concur that warfare seems a more likely cause, although it could be perfectly associated to droughts, epidemics, etc. I just think it was not any local war but rather the intrusion of the Apaches (Na-Denè peoples) which caused the devastation. It reminds me of the main Indoeuropean conquest of Central and Northern Europe (Corded Ware) both of which caused large population replacement and the abandonment of many consolidated agricultural communities, and that was also associated to the first known episode of the bubonic plague. If the invaders were in fact the Apaches (with a Na-Denè more recent origin in Asia than other American Natives, Inuit excepted) maybe, much like the later European colonists, they could have carried with them epidemics for which the locals had no immunity but the Apaches did, hard to say for sure.
@MrAustrokiwi
5 ай бұрын
@@LuisAldamiz Your That is one POV and I believe were villages in The British Isles that were completely decimated and never "resurrected". Likewise in Mainland Europe( it was not just one twon in France. POland did escape the ravages but that was because Casimir III the Great closed the borders. Also it is believed the Polish population were genetically resistant to the black death(Most Europeans today have the same genetic markers indicating plague resistance)
@LuisAldamiz
5 ай бұрын
@@MrAustrokiwi - Check the data because I'm quite confident on what I said, based on the work of various medievalist historians.
@MrAustrokiwi
5 ай бұрын
@@LuisAldamiz You selective in which Historical view points you want to put forward. You have ignored the believed links to the little Ice age. You have completely ignored my example of the Philistines( and their continuation of their home land pottery styles). the fact that the pottery styles in this video just disappears from the record does not suggest people left to other regions but rather they were killed off some how. Plague( of some type) or genocide are the best explanations that i can think of.
@veronicakalma5138
4 ай бұрын
I watched a video, almost a year ago, in which they talked about, what was then considered novel, hantavirus. But, in the video, a Native American elder talked about a time when the same disease had ravaged people in Northeast New Mexico, and was probably pre-Columbian Era. That could have also contributed to a large decimation of a population. combine that with drought, possible volcanic activity, and you have a perfect breeding ground for mass exodus.
@iGame3D
3 ай бұрын
I was looking for the hantavirus link. Large amounts of food = large amounts of rodents add overpopulated communities with poor ventilation in dusty homes and you have yourself an epidemic.
@tonysoaresnativeclays1434
5 ай бұрын
Hantavirus maybe, I think it struck just before or about the time of Spanish arrival in Mexico City .
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Interesting.
@fisch69
5 ай бұрын
This has been a topic of fierce debate for years.. and it will continue until we get acknowledgment that the current hypothesis is not the only case to be made..the resistance to hearing any other theory is very weak on behalf of the powers that be.. which leads us to believe that there MUST be other explanations!!
@pheonixshaman
5 ай бұрын
Interestingly enough, there were entire towns/cities/etc that were wiped out and lost to time at various periods in Eurasian history, such as the time period leading up to and somewhat after the plague of Justinian. In cases like that and the black death, what often occurs is a period of political and social decline, along with decades of war, and at least a solid couple of decades of unusual weather patterns that cause 10+ years of bad crops. This occurred with various collapses in China, as well as prior to the Bronze Age Collapse, Plague of Justinian, as well as the Black Death.
@Erika-bu1nl
5 ай бұрын
When I was in collage I had the pleasure of talking to a archeologist that specializes in south western native culture. There is evidence to support a major depopulating event across the northern America's causes by some form of plague that might have been brought over to the northeastern shores by Nordic explores.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Oh that's interesting. Because it is often said that this happens too early to be from European contact but from that perspective not necessarily.
@CarisseH
5 ай бұрын
As you were talking about your theories, this same thought about the Nordic’s came to mind. More and more evidence is appearing about Nordics and Chinese. It’s been shown they have been traveling, trading, warring in the Americas. All of this is long before the Spanish set foot on North America.
@patrickbass3542
5 ай бұрын
But you didn't learn to spell?
@karenneill9109
5 ай бұрын
They’re finding large population centres that were also depopulated at the same time in Maine and Pennsylvania. The forests there grow quickly enough that they were covered up, but LIDAR is revealing them. The only thing that can go across an entire continent is a plague. It may have even been the bubonic plague, given the timeline. Contact in what is now Newfoundland with the nordics was definitely happening at the time.
@Philip-hv2kc
5 ай бұрын
@patrickbass3542 just one little vowel huh .
@robertswain4829
5 ай бұрын
Thanks uncle Andy .....very very interesting
@kimberlycorliss9616
5 ай бұрын
Absolutely fascinating topic with so may subtopics to explore. Great video. I learned a lot.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it!
@binderdundit228
4 ай бұрын
Read books written by Immanuel Velikovski. He collected information from ancient civilizations regarding a mass casualty even. Waters boiled, mountains melted, and something was passing by the earth and scorching the land. It caused darkness, famine and widespread death. That was my summing up of a book called "worlds in collision". The mainstream gatekeepers of his time hated him with a pasion for messing up their chronologies and world views. Velikovski was also a Jewish man who may have believed in God from what i understood. All that he did was compile historical accounts of ancient yet major civilizations and elaborate on the information.
@russward2612
4 ай бұрын
An uncle of mine lived in Globe AZ. He taught history at the local community college and found some ruins in his half acre backyard. He passed in the early 1990s. I miss you, uncle Don.
@ghostwalker152
5 ай бұрын
Great video Andy , three reasons I don't believe they disappeared because of warfare. 1)No tribe had the amount of people it would of took to March the length & breath of Arizona through rough, hot,desolate terrain and wipe out all the other tribes that they encountered 2) Consider logistics all the food ,water, weapons and equipment you would of had to carry by foot since there were no horses till the Spanish reintroduce d them in the 1500s. 3)What did an invading army have to gain? Most of these tribes were dirt poor and had nothing of value to warrant such destruction.4) Tribes were not dictated to by a Chief,look at plains tribes they went on war parties if they wanted to for horses and glory they never wiped out whole tribes . Perhaps a paleoclimatolgist who studies droughts in past history could shed some light on past climate changes at that time. M T Cassidy Professor Native American Studies. Keep up the Good work
@studiosinger
4 ай бұрын
The Google map exploration channels showed evidence in the southwest of watch towers high above as well as strategies of placing living areas high up impossible to invade.
@xenspace5764
3 ай бұрын
The one issue I have with the warfare explanation for the total depopulation of the area is that in most wars there is usually a 'winner' (being the one that lost the least in the conflict!), so you would expect to see the people of one culture expand where the others retreat (the winner displacing the losers). Disease therefore seems more likely to me, especially considering the arising of cities just prior to this time (many diseases we are familiar with are only possible with high population sedentary populations - hunter-gatherers generally do not have such diseases, and so are especially prone to them when suddenly introduced) as well as the open warfare, which would have spread the disease. So warfare contributed to the issue, but it was disease that 'sealed the deal' and made the whole area uninhabitable.
@mr.peanut344
3 ай бұрын
What about US Calvary? They definitely tried & failed , well not completely failed
@budbackeast
2 ай бұрын
Well stated professor. When topics ar in dispute, I always ask myself about motive. What possible motive could there be for one strong tribe to kill off everybody in such a huge area but then not follow up by resettlement of their own people or at least plunder of all resources? Nope. Not warfare. Carry on!
@adrianopa1440
5 ай бұрын
Sounds a lot to what happened during the Bronze Age Collapse.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Interesting idea, I'll have to read about that
@adrianopa1440
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery I first learned of the Bronze Age Collapse through Epimetheus's channel.
@geraldstone8396
5 ай бұрын
I agree. This sounds like the bronze age. This also sounds like Easter Island. From what I grasp of the of the subject it was a combination of things that coincided with depletion of resources. I don't think people realize the amount of resources it takes to start a civilization from scratch.
@RaymondSPuzio
25 күн бұрын
@@AncientPottery Maybe have a look at Eric Cline's book "1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed". I haven't yet had a chance to read through the whole work through carefully yet but, from what I have read so far, I understand that Cline takes a "systems oriented" point of view that the collapse was not simply the result of one particular factor, but rather resulted from the combined effect of several factors such as climate change, drought, invasion, revolt, disease, trade route collapse, etc. which reinforced each other. Likewise, it could be that many of the factors mentioned in this discussion, such as the Little Ice Age, drought, rise of the Aztec Empire, etc. contributed synergetically to produce the Southwest collapse. Such a combined effect could explain why this event uprooted peoples who had been living in a tough environment for centuries. Had it been just one or two factors such as drought or war, the inhabitants likely could have weathered through it just as they had survived hard times in the past. But a "double whammy" or "triple whammy" of mutually reinforcing calamities would overwhelm them leaving the survivors few options other than packing up what they could and leaving. As for pottery, the impression I get from watching this channel is that producing the more complex forms of pottery, such as Salado polychrome, were carried out by specialists in a few places and relied upon stable economic trade routes both to distribute the finished product and bring in materials such as colored slips. After a thoroughgoing collapse, any specialist potters who remained likely would not have the resources to continue practicing their craft or opportunity to pass on their skills to the next generation so the only pots which would be made by the descendants of the refugees would be simple utilitarian pots.
@millenials_best
5 ай бұрын
Thank you for doing this video. This topic drives me crazy.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
You're welcome.
@millenials_best
5 ай бұрын
The art made to depict these people is amazing
@mencken8
5 ай бұрын
“-They are mysteries. And I am both terrified and reassured that there are things in the universe beyond our explaining.” - G’Kar, on the phenomena associated with Sigma 957
@rebeccacarter1914
4 ай бұрын
Babylon 5 Forever!
@peopleofonefire9643
5 ай бұрын
The same thing happened in Georgia, Alabama, western North Carolina and Tennessee around 1375 AD. The Black Plague hit Trondheim, Norway in 1349 AD then quickly spread to the rest of Norway, Iceland and Greenland. The Scandinavians abandoned Greenland in 1350 AD.
@TravelwithMark
4 ай бұрын
There are also reports of European contact before Columbus, around the time of the 14th century plagues in Asia and Europe. Could it be that there WAS a pre-Columbus contact that brought plague? The pre-Columbus contacts include Welsh and Basque legends, and we know that Columbus had a map, we just don't know where he got it from.
@juhonieminen4219
5 ай бұрын
The myth of four horsemen might sum up the most common three causes: Pestilence, Famin and Sword. The fourth rider is Death, but maybe it should be named Collapsing Trade Networks?
@runningM00nbear
5 ай бұрын
As a trained archaeologist I would look into climatology records for the time concerned if there is no evidence for warfare. People who leave areas because of warfare leave their dead behind. In the bones we would then find traces of warfare as evidence. Evidence of refugees in other areas would be found in pottery that pick up forms and patterns. So, knowing so much about specific pottery, you are highly competent to judge if this was the case. 🙋🏻♀️
@johanneswerner1140
5 ай бұрын
yup. There's a bunch of reconstructions, like those by Smerdon, or Anchukaitis. I'd start there (long time since I looked at that, not my area of expertise)
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
To me it is interesting that there is little evidence from pottery as to where they went. Probably much more work needs to be done in certain areas, and as you know, there is very little archaeology being done these days.
@runningM00nbear
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPotterysorry to hear that, it's ages ago since my last contact with an environmental archaeologist from UCLA, who might know more about it. I am more a European Bronze- and Iron Age- Type 😉
@CraigMcDonald1234
5 ай бұрын
the magazine "Science News" reports studies in the 1990s about evidence in scraping of human bones of cannibilism in teh area.
@JewShady
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery if famine fully set in before they left, would fully explain the lack of pottery.
@clwest3538
5 ай бұрын
Having grown up in AZ, I've wondered about this. 1) There were large populations needed to create large settlements, who 'suddenly' vacated the area - where did such a large group migrate to? Any reports of large enough migrations to compensate those numbers, especially within traditions of the 'local' peoples?; And yet, there have not been found large areas of graves/grave goods - possibly due to their religious practices. 2) Perhaps instead of lack of water, there was too much water - with the volcanic activity causing a cooling effect or volcanic winter similar to what is reported to have happened in the 1300s in Europe. There seem to be larger trees 'branches' in some of the older dwellings in the desert cliffs that could point to this rapid tree growth. Where are those larger type trees now? 3) Now, we know the Black Death arrived in Europe in the mid-1350s and killed up to 50% of the population of Europe. Perhaps this 'greening' caused a boom in population of prairie dogs and other rodents who are known to carry sylvatic plague (It is the same bacterium that causes bubonic and pneumonic plague in humans.). This is a potentially fatal disease spread to wild rodents by infected parasites. It's possible for people catch this illness through contact with either prairie dogs or their fleas - or some other unknown as of yet plague. 4) We know (or it has been reported) children's first huntings are of rabbits and 'other small mammals' and there would be an abundance of prairie dogs with the cooler weather and increase in food supply .... therefore, the youngest NA would be the first to contract the disease and possibly spread it to the rest of the community. Looking at maps of prairie dog ranges it appears the Gunnison and Black Tail species cover the 'empty' area. Can chipmunks, coyotes or other mammals carry these fleas? 5) With this 'plague' attacking the resident population and weakening it, perhaps that is when the 'enemies' started attacking and cliff dwellings became more populated as a defensive move - hiding crop stores and actual living areas. By the 1400s warfare, disease, perhaps climate warming back up after volcanic winter, and crop failures had decimated the population, as it did in Europe. The remaining people decided the area was either cursed or occupied by too many enemies or spirits so they departed to be around bigger groups of people (North and South of them) for safety. As artisan are usually more sedentary, perhaps they, and their knowledge of making the pots, passed close to 'first' ... Oh well, that's how I think it could have happened. Guess my 'guess' or 'theory' is as good as some other's I read about.
@jandrews6254
5 ай бұрын
All it takes is for one non expert to challenge the accepted/enforced history. Of course, that non expert will be laughed at and made to look foolish, until s/he is proved right. For instance, the Clovis culture people were absolutely the first peoples to enter the americas. Totally, completely upheld by experts. Until somebody thought to dig deeper and found an older culture. With the expected reaction from the experts. But it’s still there.
@jeffreykalb9752
4 ай бұрын
According to tree ring studies, at that time, there was a terrible drought in the area, of the same magnitude experienced over the last 30 years in Phoenix. But they did not have the means to supply themselves with water as we do today. So, basically, they had the choice of leaving... or dying. It may be that they assumed defensive postures in order to secure this vital resource.
@donrepcon7704
5 ай бұрын
I think to a large degree you're correct. The Anasazi, for instance, who developed as farmers moved from the desert floor to become cliff dwellers in highly defensible locations. So what drove them there? Why did they vanish around 1400 also? I enjoy the mystical lore in that they disappeared into certain Kivas which could gain entrance into a third or parallel dimension. Then simply vanished.
@redmoondesignbeth9119
4 ай бұрын
So that is a story you heard?? A couple of summers ago I volunteered/lived on site at the Aztec Nat Ruins. I spent many nights in the Kiva because the ENERGY was so unique. Sitting there I was "struck" with the impression that they "knew" the Spanish were coming so they Danced their little hearts out and shifted their vibration. I've experienced enough High Strangeness that the idea seems possible. What do you know? Thanks.
@Atanar89
5 ай бұрын
I am an archaeologist, and I have to say: Don't think your opinion is less valid than that of professionals, if you make a good argument it is just as valid. Personally, I have a big issue with claims about "evidence of warfare" or lack thereof. It's just something that can completly evade the archaeological record, especially if there is no siege warfare. And what many archaeologists often claim to be "desctruction layers" elsewhere is often of very dubious origin. Accidental house fires, ceremonies involving fire or even intentional leveling are virtually indistinguishable from signs of warfare. One noteworthy parallel might be the so-called "Helvetic deserted lands" in southwestern Germany, where the Helvetii were displaced out of their nothern area by raiding germanic people.
@dorotheadiallo5790
5 ай бұрын
🌵fantastic video, thank you so much for the research, the maps, the pictures...
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.
@RossOneEyed
4 ай бұрын
The middle Mississippian culture also declined around 1400....so not just a "local" thing. Perhaps the "Little Ice Age" had a larger impact on climate than we know?
@AncientPottery
4 ай бұрын
The plot thickens... Thanks, I need to do more reading about the Mississippian collapse.
@RossOneEyed
4 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery The Viking settlements in Greenland also disappeared around 1400 as well. I suspect that the advent of the Little Ice Age might be a culprit in many of these collapses. Take a civilization that is living on the margins, throw in one too many climate issues, resources dry up, war ensues....doesn't take much...
@dezertdrifter
5 ай бұрын
Great video Andy! We share a lot of the same theories for sure.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Thanks
@paulmacfarlaneslp9209
5 ай бұрын
There were catastrophic volcanic eruptions 1292 and again in the 1450's causing climatic changes similar to the "year without a summer" that caused displacements from crop failures in 1813 and 1814 due to the Tambora eruption. Crop failures were probably occurring in North America too causing social disruption. The end of the Medieval Warm Period which caused the abandonment of Nordic settlements in Greenland during the same period around 1200 to 1400 was replaced by the Little Ice Age. That really didn't end until the industrial revolution during the19th century.
@GA-Vic
5 ай бұрын
We will probably really know for sure, what happened to those tough people. I just like their pottery designs, emmensely!🤗
@donnadees1971
5 ай бұрын
Disappearing cultures was due to overrun by marching armies…wiped them out.
@davekinghorn9567
4 ай бұрын
There would be evidence of this marching army in the archeological record. There is none.
@nom_b
5 ай бұрын
❤ Loved this video. Thanks so much.😊
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Glad you liked it.
@kellydiver
5 ай бұрын
It might not have been just one cause. My background is in anthropology, and one constant about humans is that we tend to fight over resources - food, water, children, plenty vs. scarcity, etc. So, let’s say there was a drought, and people started fighting over access to water. Would the cause of the mass migration be drought, or would it be warfare? I think both. I think a societal change of that magnitude was likely multifactorial, and it probably started with drought. These were not tiny tribes, these were civilizations. A handful of good springs in an area aren’t going to sustain that many people. When their water supply dwindled to the point where they could no longer live there, they had to move on, and they would have had to fight for new land and resources along the way.
@rollsandfloats
5 ай бұрын
Hi Andy! I recently discovered your channel and have been enjoying it very much. Keep up the great work. It's very educational. One thing that may have led to warfare, migration, etc. may have been a large volcanic eruption, perhaps in the western states, perhaps farther away in the western Pacific. A large volcanic eruption would have discharged large amounts of dust and volcanic gas into the atmosphere, causing widespread crop failures for multiple years on end. That would have led to competition (i.e. warfare) for what few sources of food remained. I'm wondering, did these cultures move, or were they simply wiped out? Perhaps with a few stragglers able to survive somehow and restart lives somewhere else. I sure love the SW, but being that I live in eastern Canada I can't get there too often, though I have been to many of the places you mention. Again, I love the channel and your pottery and the information you provide.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Good questions but many of them seem unanswerable at this time. I would think that a volcanic eruption in 1400 would leave ample evidence
@hanelyp1
5 ай бұрын
A volcanic eruption would leave geological evidence that could be at least roughly dated. I'm not aware of any recent volcanic activity in that region or immediately west, upwind. The nearest volcanoes I know of would be in northern california.
@westho7314
4 ай бұрын
Aztec/Aztlan culture started their migration southward around the same time 1200-1400 and were firmly settled in Mexico city/ Lake Texcoco area by 1400. The late classic Maya and other southern Central Anmeican cultures experienced their final collapse within the same timeframe also. As well as the Dine/Apache being on the move south in their migration from the far north of Canada/ Yukon down to the Southwest & co existing on the same lands as the remaining puebloans. Long periods of drought over a couple centuries leading to resource depletion, conflict and mass migrations in search of reliable water sources.
@mihailvormittag6211
5 ай бұрын
I love your videos about the history of the ancient Southwest. 👍
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much!
@mihailvormittag6211
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery 👍
@57WillysCJ
4 ай бұрын
If you look at the disapearance of the Fremont Culture as well as to the east the Mississippian culture, they all seem to go away from 1300 CE to 1450 CE. If you go farther east the Greenland Viking died or left. The Samalas eruption might have started things and then the Kuwae might have made for a second blow that couldn't be recovered from. In the 1450s grain production was extremely low and in the Western US the Bristlecone pines show frost damage in 1453. The last eruption would have changed the color of th tail of Halley's Comet in 1456. For that matter I don't think anyone knows if the "Black" plague made it to American shores north or south.
@maggietaskila8606
5 ай бұрын
Most likely, it was more than just one thing , drought, created lack , lack created famine, famine, created d illness, illness created war . By this time, people would disperse and smaller groups come together to make another culture all together. Just think about what happened during the great depression. Imagine that in 1400, and how people would react, in that time . Or just ask rhe indigenous people that are still there. I am more then sure they have stories of those times, that are probanly more true then our suposions , theories, and guesses.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Yes so true, problems are often cause by multiple things ate compound, a "perfect storm" if you will. The Natives do have stories but those of us not in those communities are not often privy to those tales.
@flamingchillum
5 ай бұрын
Fire.... People cooking caused huge fires. Everything was gone afterwards.
@sarahjarden8306
5 ай бұрын
How very interesting. I had not realised that such a vast area was depopulated. War and vengeance certainly causes depopulation - the Harrying of the North AD 1070(ish) killed thousands, not so many by arms, but the by products, famine, disease, moving away. England's history records this, are there any oral traditions that support the idea of large-scale war in these areas? Thanks for the video, so interesting!
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
A few tales in the O'odham that I am aware of. A lot of the Native oral histories are not shared with outsiders.
@weekendmom
4 ай бұрын
How far north did the Aztec go in search of other tribes/nations to conquer and bring back captives for human sacrifice? If they were sacrificing thousands of people every year, they may have ventured further afield to find new sources, which could've emptied out parts of the American southwest.
@evelynlamoy8483
5 ай бұрын
The Hopi have a well kept history, if anyone knows what happened, it may be them. Also, archeology is only so trustworthy. They got so hooked on the idea of a "clovis culture" that they refused to accept that it was a technologic innovation dispersion, not a single culture rapidly expanding to people the continents, and the academic elite systematically denied pre-clovis culture finds, because they didn't want to challenge what had become the archeological paradigm because people have made their fame off those lies. There are indigenous archeologists challenging some of the outdated racist narratives, but those racist narratives are still a problem that has suppressed actual history and filled a lot of people with misinformation.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
True, I would not be surprised if the Hopi do know what happened, but they are not telling anyone their secrets and for good reason.
@JAllenKaiser
4 ай бұрын
When drought makes resources scarce, tribalism creates war, and both are antithetical to the idea of “accepting refugees.” When you can’t feed your own children and elders off of the diminished productivity of your land, you certainly are not going to allow the tribe next door to take dwindling food from your own starving tribe. Cycles of long, abnormally wet periods- followed by extended drought periods- is very well documented in the geologic record there in the Great Basin, and is known to be caused by alterations in the Jet Stream path across North America, and there are long 500-800 year cyclic patterns seen in the water table geology: With warmer periods, the Jet Stream is forced northward by high pressure in the Great Basin, which deposits above-average precipitation along the northern US and Canada, while leaving the southwest increasingly dry. This general pattern also explains the flooding you mentioned on the northern margins of the depopulated region you described. It all fits this long-cycle precipitation pattern precisely; of warm wet Pacific air being redirected northward by regional temperature swings. The extra wrinkle making these events long-cycle affairs is the evaporation of lakes in the Great Basin region (like Salt Lake) during the hot dry periods… Lakes normally act as heat sink buffers against extreme hot and extreme cold… but a long enough hot/dry period causes them to evaporate enough to lose much of their temperature/pressure buffering ability - which then drives the climate even hotter and drier in a feedback loop… creating these periods of extreme, civilization-destroying drought cycles.
@thevet2009
5 ай бұрын
Now I know where John Denver’s missing eye glasses are. Mystery solved.
@jefftrag1956
4 ай бұрын
The Mayan culture declined drastically at the same time no?
@petrapetrakoliou8979
5 ай бұрын
I would put it the other way around: warfare has never depopulated a region, and believe me, we have had a lot of that in Europe. Take just for example the One Hundred Years War between England and France which was at the same period that you consider here. The countryside was pillaged, burnt and destroyed regularly in France by English or Gascon warbands as well as idle merceneries for 120 years. The Black Death was at the same time, killing between a third and a half of the population. Nothing of this prevented France to flourish in the second half of the 15th century after the end of the war and it just became stronger and greater untill the Napoleonic wars (which didn't depopulate it either, it just never was the most populated country in Europe any more since). Another example: Hungary was a war zone for 150 years between the Turkish Empire and the Habsbourg Empire with fortresses plenty of fiersome warriors who pillaged everything if they weren't killing each other. OK, Hungary did depopulate somewhat, but we are still there today. From environmental changes on the other hand you cannot hide. If there is no water for your crops, you will not live. For environmental changes you don't have any more dinosaurs nor great salamanders living in the Antarctic's forests. This is why the region where the Sumerian cities created first civilization is now a complete desert: due to the slow but sure salination of the soils through irrigation. Take the Thirty Years War in Germany: it was extremely destructive, but is Germany depopulated today? I have little doubt that the environmental changes of the Little Ice Age are responsible for the depopulation of that sensitive region of the South-West which was on the limits of where agriculture was possible. It is great that there is a lot of timber preserved from those monuments and the dendrochronological study of the tree rings can show precisely how bad the drought may have been, as there is a complete dendrochronological record from that region till now.
@chompers11
5 ай бұрын
❤
@yellowdog762jb
4 ай бұрын
I've watched a number of KZitem videos, that makes me an expert. My opinion is that you are correct, it was conflict. Many of the ruins are located on cliffs and they feature walls with numerous peep holes. If you are being attacked, the enemy knows that you know they are there. You don't have to peek at them through holes in the wall in an effort to fool them into thinking that no one is home and leaving. In my opinion, the peep holes were so that a few defenders could monitor their attacker's progress of scaling the cliffs. And the attackers were large groups of individuals, some of whom may have been tasked with launching succesive waves of arrows or sling stones while their cohorts scaled the walls. The defenders had to keep their heads down from suppressive fire from numerous atrackers. If a small group of arrackers were launching some kind of airborne missiles, those missiles could be dodged. Some tribes in other parts of the world even practiced catching spears and throwing them back. Multiple arrows or sling stones would be hard to dodge, thus peep holes would be very handy. They'd allow a defender to pop up and attack select enemies as they came into range. The food storage areas are usually higher up. In my opinion, those areas could have even served as areas of last resort to retreat to. Like a tower in a castle. These retreats would probably have been defeated much like castles in Europe were. When the dwellings were defeated they would most likely be burned, which many were. And the food and water storage items, like clay pots would be destroyed. This would make its very hard for others to quickly move in and reestablish the area. Which would force the attackers to re-attack again in a few years. I imagine that even in the event a decided to abandon an area ahead of enemy incursions, they'd destroy every thing they could not carry, including heavy pottery. Thus explaining the huge amount of broken pottery that usually abounds in the ruins.
@billkipper3264
5 ай бұрын
I'm not very well versed in this subject but I was always under the impression that the abandoned area was much larger. From Mesa Verde in Colorado, into Utah and extending all across the southwest. As I watch other channels exploring the area I see that they find many instances of structures that to me can only be fortifications as they are built on prominent spots that have a commanding view of the area and are easily defended.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
You are thinking of the abandonment of the four-corners region around 1300. This video is specifically about what happened in 1400, so although they are similar and may be related, they are different phenomenons that are separated by over 100 years.
@cowtowndowntown
4 ай бұрын
Could it have been a disease, like plague?
@ChessIsJustAGame
4 ай бұрын
@2:22 I'm 64 and have witnessed people becoming weaker in my lifetime. Today, very few would survive conditions of those born even 100 years ago. Wealth has softened people, even myself. When i think of the conditions my parents and grandparents grew up in, no way most spoiled people today could survive, let alone thrive in. But, in some ways, we live in worse conditions. Our food is unhealthy and produced for maximum profits, not health. Instead of raw ingredients, grocery stores are now nearly all convenient stores with too much cans and boxes of snacks. Very liittle cooking compared to my childhood, where 99% of what I ate was the product of my mom working in the kitchen, but enjoying caring for her family.
@jseal21
5 ай бұрын
People always look for a single answer to complex problems, it was probably all three scenarios playing at the same time or in rapid succession to depopulate that large of an area. Drought, disease, and war probably all played a part in destroying those cultures.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Yes, great point.
@PSC9634
4 ай бұрын
Very good point.
@giordanobruno1333
5 ай бұрын
Yuma? Where the two rivers meet? Plenty of fertile soil. Still making Americas winter lettuce today. Talk to the Quechan, they have a long history of fighting over the land where the Gila and Colorado come together.
@karolinamayo3408
5 ай бұрын
Where are the bones? What did these ancient ones do with their dead?
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Some buried and some cremated but there are no mass graves from that era that I have ever heard of.
@jandrews6254
5 ай бұрын
Coyotes, wolves. Nom nom lunch is served
@ForbiddenHistoryLIVE
4 ай бұрын
THANK YOU Peace & Enlyghtenment Alwayz A Micah Hill Dezert-Owl Search Name
@JayCWhiteCloud
5 ай бұрын
If I may make some observations...I agree with the "hardy people" but I would not call that lifestyle "hard." That is a perspective that most...outsiders...make of traditional cultures. Traditional/wilderness living (something I was raised in) is not "hard" at all if you have those skill sets and your normative culture, perspectives, and behaviors are comprised of that assistance with a biome ecology and general makeup. Even after leaving that type of culture and setting, most "raised in it" go back to it or keep many aspects of it around them in their daily lives. For example, I have power tools but prefer hand tools... As to your question, and the one that "Eurocentric" archeologists often speculate over then suggest it is "warfare and drought." Both discount the oral histories of these cultures which speak of darkness, blight, or sadness…depending on the group and reachness of the oral history maintained. 1492 and the Spaniards invasion of North America…IS NOT…the first time that Europeans came to North America, or even others from the Pacific and East. What they bring with them always, is a plethora of diseases that an isolated culture has zero immunity for… I agree, that drought would have zero effect on these cultures. They have and will continue to deal with that climate issue as long as there are humans. We have for millennia. If something is destroyed, we rebuild and that behavior is eternal in our species…So no, drought had nothing to do with this exodus… War can drive one culture away only to be replaced by another. This is common across time and the history of humans. To even suggest that war caused this is simply obtuse and very narrow-minded in perspective for anyone to even consider as it makes no sense whatsoever for the simple fact, as you pointed out, this region sat fallow for centuries. This absence of humans speaks to regional indigenous wisdom of a presence there that was unsafe to be around. This is another reason some (not all) areas have evidence of burning or disparagement beyond looting. Unclean things are cleansed by fire. Humans have known this for millennia. When 50% or more of your family or society falls ill that can be interpreted in many ways by that given culture, however, the outcome is always the same, self-isolation, breakdown of the psyche, loss of skills, and abandonment of many things including a location. They (most not all) left these places. What or who brought the pandemic to the region is speculative, but with more advanced scientific capacity maybe one day the pathogen will be isolated and identified. I am confident that war and drought were not the primary catalysts in any way but could well have exacerbated the challenges this region felt but only after it was in duress… Thanks for another of your wonderful videos and sharing your viewpoints...
@johnscotland3124
5 ай бұрын
If "red" men had evolved enough to write, "white" acheologists would not have to guess what happened. As far as oral history goes, in the 5th grade we played the telephone game....not to reliable.
@JayCWhiteCloud
5 ай бұрын
@@johnscotland3124 I will edit out "white" then, thank you for your observation...and I will replace with "Eurocentric" bias which is still all too common in academia today and very wrong often and/or misguided on many topics... Oral histories are not meant to be 100% reliable at all. They are a guide and insight into an indigenous culture and what they, collectively have experienced...Your obtuse and snide comment about "red" is both argumentative and unnecessary. I used the term white to reflect a known bias, not as a slander in any way. As for "written language"... Aztecs, Maya, Zapotecs, et al of Mesoamerica had native writing systems and cosmological mathematics more advanced than many other cultures, including those in Europe, so your comment about writing is moot.
@JayCWhiteCloud
5 ай бұрын
@@johnscotland3124 I will edit out "white" then, thank you for your observation...and I will replace with "Eurocentric" bias which is still all too common in academia today and very wrong often and/or misguided on many topics... Oral histories are not meant to be 100% reliable at all. They are a guide and insight into an indigenous culture and what they, collectively have experienced...Your obtuse and snide comment about "red" is both argumentative and unnecessary. I used the term white to reflect a known bias, not as a slander in any way. As for "written language"... Aztecs, Maya, Zapotecs, et al of Mesoamerica had native writing systems and cosmological mathematics more advanced than many other cultures, including those in Europe, so your comment about writing is moot.
@JayCWhiteCloud
4 ай бұрын
@@johnscotland3124 It seems you're using the term "red man," as a pejorative...which is obtuse…Then you further demonstrate your incognizance by suggesting that First Nation’s cultures of North and South America lacked any complexity to their normative collective cultures and were not “evolved” as compared to the Europeans… Apparently, you know little to nothing about the history and the realities of indigenous cultures here in the Americas. Olmecs, Zapotecs, and Mayans, as well as, Aztec cultures all had not only writing but advanced mathematics as well. Further, First Nations Indigenous people influenced the Founding Fathers of America and the U.S. Constitution in multiple ways. This included but was not limited to: the Iroquois Confederacy, established in 1142…The Confederacy's Great Law of Peace, a doctrine of 117 codicils, allowed individual tribes to manage their affairs while also coming together to discuss issues of common concern…Both the Shawnee and Cherokee too influenced within the Constitution in regards to formations of separation between military and civil leadership, and protection of certain personal freedoms which included clear democratic policy structure, recalls, referendums, and vetoes. Unlike “Europeans” the native cultures gave women significant roles in government which took the “Europeans” a few decades to catch up on this. Both the Eagle and the Rattles snake, both significant symbols of America are Native in origin…NOT EUROPEAN…Perhaps next time you make a sarcastic comment you do a little reading first and GET A CLUE about what you're saying so you don’t look like such an ignoramus…P.S. There are several rather significant NATIVE archeologists now correctly the Eurocentric foolishness of the last century...
@johnscotland3124
4 ай бұрын
@@JayCWhiteCloud So a red man can call a white man "white", but a white man can't call a red man "red man"?! Was I wrong about a written history of the american indians? If you listen to the oral history, the red people talk of driving off a race of giant white people...therefore making the giant white people the first nations of the americas.
@craighamley3669
4 ай бұрын
Some peubloan ruins make sense just based on protection from the elements, but the architecture of much of it indicates war and conflict. If you build a dwelling hundreds of feet in the air that can only been seen from the opposite rim of a canyon or from the canyon floor, and can only be accessed from a dangerous climb, or a miles-long traverse around a narrow, off-camber and scree-covered canyon rim pathway, or via a long hike up out of a canyon to drop in from the rim above, common sense dictates only a few plausible reasons why any person or persons would go to such extremes: 1. you are hiding; 2. if found, you want it to be difficult to impossible to get to you safely or quickly so that you can leave and go to another hide-out; 3. you just really like the view and you're an extremely private person; 4. you believe it is essential for some spiritual necessity. I fail to see why researchers always assume Native American tribes were nearly always peaceful and living in harmony with nature. The rest of known human history suggests that would be extremely unlikely. Whether the archaeologic community wants to admit it or not, there does appear to be evidence of humans being murdered in relatively large numbers at Chaco Canyon and related sites, and possibly even of cannibalism. I believe Americans in general feel guilty concerning our past treatment of Native American tribes (which admittedly was genocidal or at least borderline genocidal IMO), but it need not color our scientific judgement. Also, I tend to see architectural analysis of ruins that suggest an assumption occupants lived in these extreme locations for long periods continuously, which again IMO doesn't follow common sense logic... meaning that because people of this period (approx. 700-1400 AD) had most likely evolved from hunter-gatherer tribes, it would make sense for them to have multiple dwellings in several places so they could follow the most favorable weather and game movement patterns to increase their adaptability. The argument they would be too vulnerable to siege if they were intended as defensive structures doesn't make sense to me either. If that was the case then it should follow there should be far fewer castles, especially castles built on hills and crazy rock outcroppings. Again, I have no scientific training in archaeology - I'm just forming an opinion based on my knowledge of history and applying logic to it. I could be wrong, and I think it is important to remain open-minded, since we are all products of our unique ethnocentric backgrounds. Lastly, I don't intend in any way to offend anyone else's beliefs or spiritual framework or how they see the world.
@markgibsons_SWpottery
5 ай бұрын
do you think the dark ages ending in 1500 would have played a part in the indigenous tribes of the southwest dispersal and or disappearance? And that the dark ages and lack of radiation during the dark ages could have thrown off radio carbon dating as well? They say then dark ages lasted a thousand years, so sometime during pueblo 1 period until pueblo 3 period. Were the dark ages influencing our southwest culture? I also suspect that there were pre-conquest missions that were never reported which could explain some of the calamity... interesting stuff here! Great pottery shots and great show, Mr. Ward! thank you!
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Good thoughts, we do not have a hard fast day when European diseases first appeared, perhaps there were earlier expeditions. Someone here suggested that the Scandinavians may have brought disease over much earlier. Thanks, I am anxiously waiting for your next video, what has it been, a month?
@Philip-hv2kc
5 ай бұрын
European diseases are known to have wiped out cultures in less than 20 years based on the Amazon River explorations reporting thriving communities which no longer existed and reclaimed by the jungle which was noted twenty years later by other explorers .
@markgibsons_SWpottery
5 ай бұрын
@@AncientPottery we are working on three videos, and just got done filming our Escelante El Malpais trail expidition,... Next heading toward Zuni Via ancient trails. We are not burned out, but we put too much time into the Cibola wear without the success we had hoped for. The next video will be Acoma Zuni trail Escelante Trail and a trip through El Malpais National monument. I love this stuff!
@lewis7315
4 ай бұрын
I can answer that question with certainly. The middle ages global warming period fron about 10th-14th centuries suddenly crashed into a mini ice age between 1340 and 1350. All of a sudden the Thames river London England froze over solid 2 feet thick during the suddenly bitter cold winters. This caused apocalyptic famines, years without summers. Its all in the surviving records todays climate zealots ignore. Their "hocky--puck mantra is complete nonsense. There have been several serious warming periods followed by climate crashes into very cold periods in the last 3000 years.
@deanmiller5931
5 ай бұрын
My theory is that when some people leave in one area, the change the dynamic of the surrounding area, which makes more people leave. Just a theory
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
No doubt that is true and can work either way, increasing or decreasing the surrounding area population.
@big_unclenicky3823
4 ай бұрын
Can you use wild clay in molds?? just asking I’m bout to fire some to see if it turn ceramic wish me luck
@sheilam4964
5 ай бұрын
A very interesting phenomenon.
@delphinazizumbo8674
4 ай бұрын
the question is WHY are so many ruins fortified and HIDDEN from easy viewing or access? why were they ALL hiding and keeping watch towers? roving bands of cannibals.
@cooperhardi4324
5 ай бұрын
Yay new vid
@afriend7370
4 ай бұрын
Towards the end of the book of Mormon. It talks about the.Lamanites destroying the Nephites . And that happened at 1000 A.D.. And they continued to hunt down the Nephites remnants for sometime there after. So it was two nations. Fighting each other. Eventually, the Lamanites victorious. we know them as Native Americans. Read the book of Mormon. It fits perfectly with what you were finding. Thank you.
@ImDumb69420
5 ай бұрын
Awesome video
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@ianbotha9912
5 ай бұрын
Warfare is not a valid conclusion. Somebody always survives. The incoming population and the resident population try to rebuild and evolve a new society. Pestilence is more likely. The Black Plague wiped out 30% of Europe's population in a century. War wiped out 3% (maybe) in two thousand years in the same area. My conclusion would be a pandemic rather than war. What that pandemics was is something worth considering.
@annalisette5897
5 ай бұрын
Native legends speak of The Gambler who took over. As I understand this saga, powerful traders came from the south and they had trading networks deep into Mexico. They brought copper bells, scarlet macaws and chocolate, among other fascinating goods. The native peoples fell under the spell of these traders and eventually became enslaved. At some point in time, the native peoples rebelled and said, "Enough"! After that there is a tradition of, "We are not going to do that anymore." Meaning, they walk away from the scene of tragedy and discord. I am Anglo, a journalist, not an archaeologist. When I leave an opinion like this, there tends to be some harsh replies. I want to learn and hopefully those who know more will correct and add knowledge without including strife between different groups existing today.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
That's a Navajo legend, they came along after this had happened.
@dustinmetz8283
4 ай бұрын
The Amazon was populated by millions when Spanish explorers first discovered it, also giving them small pox. When they came back a hundred years later or whenever it was all gone and the jungle had taken it back, calling the first explorers liars. Lidar tech is now finding huge cities with infrastructure consumed by the jungle.
@sharonh9239
5 ай бұрын
I read something about the Anasazi were really from the South I believe and had canabalist ideas. Also they took people for slave trade. They said this is why people left but I don't know if that would account for that many.
@AncientPottery
5 ай бұрын
Yes, I think that may be true. The hard thing to figure out though is how Pueblo culture could have gone from that to the egalitarian culture we know today.
@JayCWhiteCloud
5 ай бұрын
I think you may misunderstand "slave culture" in the Southwestern tribes or even North American tribes. It was not the same at all as we found in Europe or even the Middle Eastern cultures where it still takes place to this very day. Canabalism is speculative at best and extremely rare or taken out of context. Slavery culture would not have accounted for the mass exodus, even in the fashion it was practiced within Southwestern cultures...
@tibbymangrum
4 ай бұрын
Comparison with Europe and Asia 1400 a.d.
@watersrising8044
3 ай бұрын
Combine long term drought - over a number of generations - with large city-dwelling populations, and you have a recipe for famine, warfare, disease and political/cultural collapse. Small groups of hardy nomadic hunter gatherers survive by moving on; cities, on the other hand, fall apart. These cultures built large cities and cultural centers that couldn’t stand the strain of prolonged drought and its many attendant woes.
@OHexpat12
4 ай бұрын
As a student at Defiance College, I joined an archaeological team to the Hohokam area where pottery was everywhere to be found in Swidden piles very close to the surface. What happened between 1400 and 1880 was a series of serious migrations of tribes and the rise of slave trade with the Spanish, who were mining silver further south. The Puebla and Navajo and Comanche were, for example, decimated by constant slave raids. Buffalo culture and hunting grew as agriculture declined. For a period of time. This is discussed in books such as The Other Slavery.
@garywheeler7039
3 ай бұрын
I am just an old architect and drafter with interests in archeology. I suspect there was some kind of predatory group of individuals that advanced and plundered all. Maybe something worse than the Vikings in Europe, or the Sea Peoples that attacked the Mediterranean thousands of years ago. Perhaps outlaws of the Inca or Mayan that believed in pillage and human sacrifice. That would explain the later architecture of Chaco Canyon where almost impenetrable rock faces were used to deter invaders. Where archeologists found different dna in feces in fire pits of plundered villages. And maybe even sharpened teeth typical of tribes in central america. A race or group that plundered, perhaps cannibalistic, and destroyed peaceful civilizations. Who did not have the militaristic mindset to resist them.
@dienar3717
5 ай бұрын
Look at a huge flood/drought, in Southern Africa there was a flood estimated many times over the (5 fold) the maximum orange river level ever recorded, this extreme flood was during the same time period, 1400's. From all these videos it appears all infrastructure that remained are high on the cliffs, to me that does not make sense.
@decem_sagittae
5 ай бұрын
These history videos are great. You should make more.
Пікірлер: 1,3 М.