Recently, researchers have been at odds over a simple, central question in Southwestern archaeology: How did the people of Chaco Canyon manage to grow their food? According to new research: They didn’t.
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Cliff Dwelling in Utah Found to Have Unique Decoration: Dinosaur Tracks
In a Utah cliff dwelling, researchers have found a decoration that’s never been reported before: dinosaur tracks above the front door.
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900-Year-Old Village Recorded in Volcanic Badlands of New Mexico
A 900-year-old village hidden in New Mexico’s black-rock badlands reveals its unique ties to Chaco Canyon.
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Photos: Watch the ‘Shadow Dagger’ Solar Calendar Mark the Equinox
See for yourself how ancient petroglyphs found in Arizona mark the spring equinox with a “shadow dagger.”
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Thousands of Ancient Petroglyphs, ‘Dramatic’ Solar Calendar Reported in N. Arizona
Archaeologists have uncovered a trove of previously undocumented rock art in northern Arizona, including a prehistoric solar calendar that has been marking the seasons for more than 700 years.
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Cocoa, Caffeinated ‘Black Drink’ Were Widespread in Pre-Contact Southwest, Study Finds
Stimulating drinks made from exotic plants, like the cocoa tree and a type of southern holly, were consumed much more widely across the prehistoric Southwest than was thought, according to…
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1,200-Year-Old Pouches Found in Arizona Cave Contain Prehistoric ‘Chewing Tobacco,’ Study Finds
Dozens of small, fiber-wrapped bundles discovered in a cave in Arizona have been found to contain wild tobacco, the first scientific evidence suggesting that Ancestral Puebloans of the prehistoric Southwest…
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Bones of Exotic Macaws Reveal Early Rise of Trade, Hierarchy in Chaco Canyon
A new look at some unusual remains found at New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon may change our understanding of when, and how, the culture of the Ancestral Puebloans felt the first…
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Twin 1,300-Year-Old Villages Discovered in Arizona Sand Dunes
Archaeologists exploring the high desert of northern Arizona have found a pair of “matching” villages that date back some 1,300 years, revealing evidence of a crucial phase in Southwestern prehistory….
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Violence in the Ancient Southwest Offers Insights Into Peace, Study Says
Despite some recent sensational claims that the prehistoric Southwest was the site of the worst violence in American history, the archaeologist often cited for that assertion says that, in fact,…
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1,500-Year-Old Village, A Sign of ‘Revolution’ in the Southwest, Excavated in Colorado
CORTEZ, COLORADO — In a high-end housing development north of Cortez, Colorado — just 25 kilometers from the monumental cliffhouses of Mesa Verde National Park — archaeologists have uncovered a…
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Evidence of Hobbling, Torture Discovered at Ancient Massacre Site in Colorado
The site of a gruesome massacre some 1,200 years ago in southwestern Colorado is yielding new evidence of the severity, and the grisly intensity, of the violence that took place there….
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‘Hidden Architecture’ of 1,000-Year-Old Village Discovered in New Mexico
For more than 40 years, archaeologists have been coaxing what they could from the traces of an ancient Puebloan settlement in New Mexico they call Blue J. Buried under a thousand…
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Mesa Verde’s ‘Mummy Lake’ Was Built to Hold Rituals, Not Water, Study Says
A grand, sandstone-walled pit in Mesa Verde National Park has for decades been seen as an achievement of prehistoric hydrology, part of a system of cisterns and canals used by…
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Grisly Mass Grave in Utah Cave Is Evidence of ‘Prehistoric Warfare,’ Study Says
Nearly a hundred skeletons buried in a cave in southeast Utah offer grisly evidence that ancient Americans waged war on each other as much as 2,000 years ago, according to…
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‘Impressive’ Pueblo Great House, Dozens of Ruins Found in Petrified Forest National Park
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA — A fuller picture of Arizona’s past is starting to emerge from the desert north of Petrified Forest National Park, a year after officials revealed that the park’s…
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