Product Description

The Anasazi, ancestors of the Pueblo people, inhabited the Southwest for at least 5,000 years. David Roberts' extensive interviews and back country travels create a richly detailed portrait of an enigmatic people. of photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43464 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com Review
Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi--the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo--who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than a century, trying to determine the environmental and cultural stresses that caused their society to collapse 700 years ago. He guides us through controversies in the historical record, among them the haunting question of whether the Anasazi committed acts of cannibalism. Roberts's book is full of up-to-date thinking on the culture of the ancient people who lived in the harsh desert country of the Southwest.

From Publishers Weekly
Six hundred years ago, the Anasazi, said to be the ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo peoples, left their homes in the region known as the Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona converge, and disappeared. They had inhabited the area for perhaps 5000 or more years. They left behind pots, weavings, tools, monuments, human remains and, above all, their astounding cliff "palaces," containing apartments of as many as 20 rooms each. Many of these are still viable but so fragile that, in the national park lands where most are located, they are closed to the public. Roberts (Once They Moved Like the Wind) has spent 20 years exploring the region, and he recounts the history of the discoveries, the appalling thefts of artifacts, the cave paintings and his own transcendent experiences in stumbling upon some vestige of this lost civilization. His awe at the region's beauty, with its sheer cliffs, canyons and mesas, and at the testaments to an unknown culture will be contagious for readers.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA?Travel back 1000 years or more as Roberts weaves his way through the canyons of the Southwest, exploring sites once inhabited by the "ancient ones," now commonly referred to as the Anasazi. Perhaps no other group raises as much speculation, for they've left behind a legacy of basket-making, pottery, and well-constructed homes in the sandstone cliffs of the canyons, yet have left no substantive clues as to what caused their disappearance. Through the author's travels, readers learn of the problems of land management in the West; the dilemma of the National Park Service to preserve, restore, or maintain these sites as they stretch pinched budgets; the importance of the provenance of a found object; and the glory of the petroglyphs. Young people who hike or rock climb will be intrigued as they discover that the cut-out hand-and-toe trails that enabled the Anasazi to scramble up the cliffsides are still usable today. The anger felt by the author over the loss of thousands of sites to Lake Powell after building the Glen Canyon Dam is as obvious as his reverence for these unknown people and their culture. The book goes far beyond travel writing and will entice young people to continue their reading about these mysterious people, ponder the tantalizing clues left behind in their clifftop and mesa dwellings.?Pam Spencer, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Adventuring Back in Time!
David Roberts has done the almost impossible for the reader: actually taking you with him on an adventure into the past. Blending archaeology, scholarship and canyoneering, Roberts makes this anything but dry reading. In fact, I could literally feel the canyons under my feet and smell the air, while investigating nooks and crannies holding fascinating remnants of the various Anasazi cultures. These remaining treasures are fragile and in need of protection. This book explores in depth the philosophies and issues surrounding this often "hot topic". Highly recommended to anyone interested in the ancient past of the Americas. Nancy McDowell, Editor, "Canyon Spirits E-Journal",

Great Introduction to the Anasazi
This is the first book I've read specifically about the Anasazi, and I really enjoyed it. Roberts takes us along on his personal search for answers to the mysteries of the Anasazi through his interviews of leading experts, his camping and hiking expeditions throughout the region, conversations with living Native American Hopi and Navajos, and his research of the modern day archeological history which started with an amateur rancher in the 1880's.

I found this a fabulous read. It's told in an entertaining way, as though we're along for the ride with Roberts as he follows his own curiosity into the world of the Anasazi.

I was impressed with how he presented the mysteries surrounding the Anasazi. He raises many questions which baffle current archeologists, and leaves the final conclusions up to the reader.

Roberts also does a good job of bring up different sides of issues such as how much to allow the public into delicate significant sites - what is the proper role of government agencies to balance preservation with access to the public? Also through his informal interviews he exposes the balance between the archeological practice of digging up bones and pots from ancient sites versus leaving them in their natural state as more of a natural museum.

Roberts is a contributing writer for Outside Magazine, has an inherent interest in the Anasazi, and spent years hiking and camping throughout the Four Corners region where the Anasazi lived until about 700 years ago.

I had a good time taking this trip with the author through the past and am now encouraged to learn more about the Ancient Ones who inhabited our West for so long before we arrived.

Excellent adventure without leaving your couch
Not being from the Southwest this book acted like a walking guide to the mysterious disappearance and the researched history of the ancient civilization inhabiting the canyons. It was a good, easy read, with lots of references for more research. I would read more of his work without hesitation. I just wish he'd put in some maps to give an overview of the canyons he was hiking.