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LOST CIVILIZATION
Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi)
What Is Known
Built cliff dwellings of remarkable sophistication — Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde contains 150 rooms and 23 kivas. Chaco Canyon's great houses were aligned to solar and lunar events. A road network radiated hundreds of kilometers through the desert.
What Was Lost
Why they left. Around 1300, they abandoned their great houses and cliff dwellings within a generation. Drought, conflict, religious upheaval? Their descendants (modern Pueblo peoples) maintain oral traditions, but the specific triggers remain debated.
Evidence
Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Chaco Canyon great houses and road system. Tree-ring dating (dendrochronology pioneered here). Pottery styles tracing migration patterns. Pueblo Bonito's 650+ rooms.