OpEdNews Op Eds 4/23/2018 at 02:12:22
Chaco Canyon, Chaco Earth
By Chris Hedges
CHACO CULTURE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, N.M. -- A bitter wind whipped down the 10-mile-long Chaco Canyon, kicking up swirls of dust among the thorny greasewood and sagebrush bushes. I ducked behind one of the towering sandstone walls in the three-acre ruin, or Great House, known as Pueblo Bonito, to escape the gusts. I was in the section of the 800-room complex where burials took place.
Treasure hunters and archaeologists have uncovered in these ruins and tombs delicate white-and-black painted ceramics, flutes, ceremonial sticks, tiny copper bells, inlaid bone, macaw and parrot skeletons, cylindrical jars with the residue of chocolate that would have been imported from Mexico, shells and intricate turquoise jewelry and sculptures. From this vast, bureaucratic and ceremonial complex, the Anasazi -- a Navajo word meaning ancient ones or possibly ancient enemies -- dominated the Southwest from about the year 850 until the society collapsed in about 1150.
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Chaco-Canyon-Chaco-Earth-by-Chris-Hedges-America_Collapse-Of-Civilizations_Crisis_Death-180423-393.html
