Conflict and cliff-hangers.

Conflict and cliff-hangers

The prehistoric cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians were discovered in the southwestern United States around a century ago and have intrigued anthropologists ever since. Some have suggested that drought and other environmental pressures forced the Anasazi up the canyon walls, closer to dwindling water sources, in the late 13th century. But recent discoveries by anthropologist Jonathan Hass of the School of American Research in Santa Fe, N.M., and his co-workers support another scenario: Some mesa and cliff sites were defensive outposts meant to protect one group of Anasazi and their scarce resources from the warfare that once convulsed the region.

Last summer, Haas and his research team uncovered in northeastern Arizona two large pueblos constructed by a group of Anasazi known as the Kayenta. One site was accessible only through a crack in the sandstone wall of a 900-foot butte and contained a 200-room pueblo. Another 30-room dwelling was located in a rock shelter at the top of a 140-foot cliff. In the past four years, says Haas, 15 Kayenta cliff sites have been found. Recovered artifacts indicate that the dwellings were inhabited from around A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1300.

The settlements, notes Haas, are in "extraordinarily inaccessible locations' and grouped in visually connected clusters that would have allowed for communication between sites. The pueblos contain large storehouses with the remains of various foods. Some Anasazi groups, unprovoked by warfare, dwelt in cliff houses for centuries. But Haas says the Kayenta apparently abandoned villages on open sites to protect themselves. He proposes that conflict and raids by neighboring groups arose as a result of population expansion, soil erosion, drought and a lack of arable land.

"Conflict and war were the last resort of populations undergoing environmental stress,' says Haas. "The Kayenta seem to have been protecting their resources with defensive sites.' Around A.D. 1300, he adds, they abandoned the 500-square-mile region now under study, probably because of the combination of environmental deterioration and intense warfare.