The Anasazi didn't just vanish, and it drives me nuts when people say that at sites

I was at Mesa Verde last spring and overheard a ranger telling tourists they 'disappeared' like it was a mystery. We have tree ring data from the 1200s showing a 23-year drought cycle, plus evidence of social collapse from analysis of their pottery and trash middens. The evidence is right there in the sediment cores from Chaco Canyon if people would just look instead of repeating lazy theories. Has anyone else had to correct a guide or sign at a major site like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_baker991mo ago

Heard a similar thing at Chaco Canyon where a volunteer told tourists the great houses were built by aliens. I just pulled out my phone and showed them the dendrochronology data on the NPS app.

hannahcoleman28d ago

I mean, that 2015 study out of UC Boulder basically proved Ancestral Puebloans moved those logs from the Chuska Mountains using just human labor and simple tools. Why does it matter what some random volunteer thinks? The park service has the real science right there in their own app anyway. If people want to believe in aliens building stuff, that's on them - the dendrochronology data isn't going anywhere.