One of the greatest questions of the American Southwest is the fate of the ancestral Puebloans, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon in today's southwestern New Mexico and built a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide. The ancestral Puebloans' accomplishments - in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture, and in engineering - were astounding, rivaling those of the Mayans in distant Central America.
By the thirteenth century, however, the ancestral Puebloans were gone from Chaco. What was it that brought about this departure? Was it drought? pestilence? war? forced migration? mass murder or suicide? For many years, conflicting theories have abounded. Craig Childs draws on the latest scholarly research, as well as on a lifetime of adventure and exploration in some of the most severe, though vital, landscapes of the American Southwest, to shed new light on this compelling mystery.
- ISBN-13: 978-03-16067-54-6
- Genre: Nature, Native American History
- Format: Paperback
- Trim: 5.5" x 8.25"
- Page count: 512 pages
- Published by Back Bay Books in 2009
- Written by Craig Childs
- Audience: Adult
