The southwestern region of North America includes the current US states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and southern Utah. Between the third centuries B.C. and XV AD, three different agricultural cultures developed there:the Hohokam, the Mogollón and the Anasazi .
Although much of the southwestern region is desert, it produces enough rain to be able to grow crops in some areas; the Hohokam, Mogollón and Anasazi cultures were based on the cultivation of corn.
The three cultures prospered and spread between 700 and 1200 AD, coinciding with a period of good rains throughout the region. However, by the 14th century most of its towns and cities had been abandoned. The most likely explanation is that it was a combination of prolonged drought, poor harvests and fighting over scarce resources. Although those prehistoric cultures disappeared, their descendants - the Pueblo culture - continue to live in the region in number of 50,000.
Many cultures also developed in other parts of America such as the Chavín Culture or the Chibcha or Muisca Culture in present-day Colombia.
Hohokam Culture
The Hohokam culture first appeared in the Salí and Gila river valleys of southern Arizona around 300 B.C. The earliest Hohokam (300 BC-500 AD) lived in mud-lined reed houses set in shallow caves dug into the sand to keep them cool. Since the desert was very dry, they dug canals from the rivers to irrigate their fields. Hunting and gathering provided them with a nutritional supplement .
Between AD 500 and 1100, the Hohokam spread south and established ties with Mexico. Proof of this is the discovery of patios for the ball game (similar to those used by the Mayans) and unusual objects such as pyrite mirrors (a shiny yellowish mineral) and shells. They began to cultivate cotton and corn and dug a wide network of canals , which required extensive collaboration between villages. This allowed the Hohokam to harvest two crops a year—one in the spring and one in the summer—and support a growing population.
Between the 1100s and 1400s, the Hohokam began to incorporate aspects of the Anasazi style into their architecture . They built compact settlements surrounded by thick mud-brick walls made of stone, clay, and sand. Within those enclosures they built large, multi-story communal houses. Snaketown, the main Hohokam settlement, occupies more than 120 hectares and has more than 100 kivas (subterranean rooms used for religious meetings and ceremonies). When the valleys were finally abandoned, the Hohokam left behind a complex network of canals that testify to their engineering skills; In the Salt River Valley alone, there were more than 150 miles of canals.
Mogollón Culture
The Mogollon culture appeared in the Mogollon mountains of Arizona and New Mexico (east of the Hoho-Kam) around 200 BC . Like the Hohokam, the Mogollón lived in small villages of half-buried houses; but instead of irrigating the land with canals, they relied on rain and rising rivers to irrigate their land. They were the first to make ceramics in the region, probably after importing their knowledge from Mexico . The first objects were brown, but later simple decoration was added.
After 700 AD, the Mogollon began to build rectangular stone cave houses, with separate underground rooms. Around 1050 AD, the Anasazi spread throughout the region and began to live peacefully with the Mogollón . They abandoned their cave houses in favor of the new multi-story constructions of the newcomers.
Settled in the "Four Corners" region, where the modern borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet, the Anasazi - sometimes called "the ancients" - were the most advanced of the three southwestern cultures. Archaeologists divide the Anasazi culture into several periods ranging from 100 A.D. to the present .
Anasazi Culture
Its history begins with the basketmaker culture (100-500 AD) of the Rio Grande Valley . “They lived in caves and rough adobe shelters. They get their name from the delicate baskets they made from cassava leaves, so tightly woven that they could hold water. Pumpkins and corn were a supplement to food obtained by hunting (deer and rabbits) and gathering . Food was stored in underground caves.
Around 600 AD, the basketmakers became more sedentary and began to grow beans and raise turkeys. Underground storage caves were transformed into sunken houses with connecting rooms and ceremonial halls.
The change from the basketmaker culture to the Pueblo culture occurred around 700 AD Around this time, stone buildings began to replace adobe shelters, houses began to be built on the ground and became larger. Agriculture flourished and the growing population soon spread into Utah, Colorado and New Mexico . The Pueblo people lived in small villages of about a hundred people. They began to trade with Mexico, exchanging turquoise for shells, macaw feathers, and copper bells.
The Chaco Canyon
The Classic Pueblo period (1050-1300 AD) saw the zenith and decline of the Anasazi culture . Northern settlements were abandoned, resulting in the concentration of a population of up to 30,000 people in vast villages (hence their name) on terraces. Among them are Pueblo Bonito, in Chaco Canyon, which had a population of 1,200 people, and Cliff Palace, in Mesa Verde.
The Chaco Canyon peoples controlled more than 150 Anasazi villages, all of which formed a network that stretched nearly 400 kilometers from north to south . This network was important because only half of that population could grow food in Chaco Canyon, so a large amount of food had to be imported. Pueblo Bonito (900-1200 AD) was the largest of the Chaco towns and was probably an administrative and religious center . Designed in a distinctive D-shape, with the straight part abutting the canyon wall, it had three stories of terraces with nearly 800 interconnecting rooms and 40 kivas arranged in a semicircle around a large central plaza. The roof of each floor provided a terrace for cooking and handicrafts. There were no doors, so access to the rooms was via a ladder from the roof.
One of the most surprising features of the Chaco area is its network of “highways”. They are 9 meters wide, follow a rectilinear route, reach an area of more than 320 kilometers and connect the outlying towns with Pueblo Bonito. Without wheeled vehicles or draft animals, there seems to be no good reason to build them, as they required a great deal of work and organization.
When the Chaco Canyon culture collapsed in A.D. 1150, the Anasazi relocated, grouping into smaller towns . Some 1,250 ground-level villages were abandoned in favor of more heavily protected, cliff-top sites, as a poor harvest that affected large areas led to a clash over what resources remained. At the same time, many Anasazi moved east toward the Rocky Mountains. They may have been attracted to a new religion:the kachina religion, which is still practiced in today's villages and involves elaborate ritual dances. The large-scale ceremonies of this religion provided a focal point for community life and may have taught the descendants of the Anasazi to once again live together in large towns.
Wicker pottery
The most delicate pottery in the entire Southwest was made by the Mimbreños -a mogollón group that lived along the Mimbres and Gila rivers- between 1000 and 1130 AD . Its low bowls have characteristic geometric and figurative drawings, with people, animals and mythical beings, black and white or orange-red. They are beautifully painted and reveal a sense of design and movement unparalleled in any other pottery of the period. The meaning of many of the drawings is unknown, but some of them depict fish of species found in the Gulf of California, which is hundreds of miles away. Many of the bowls found in burials have holes. Archaeologists believe that before they were placed in the tombs, the bowls were ritually "killed" by piercing the bottom, an action that would free the soul of the bowl maker .