The Anasazi Culture: Basket Weavers

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usually consisted of corn and squash. They really depended on the water for irrigation to grow their food because they got less than 10 in of rain a year (Climatic Regions of the United States, Desert), and there was not an abundance of animals where they were. Pueblo history is divided into six categories the Basket weavers II (100 A.D-500), Basket weavers III (500-750), pueblo I (750-950), Pueblo II (950-1150), pueblo III (1150-1300), pueblo IV (1300-1600). Scientists had a Basket weavers I period but this period was eliminated when they found out that what they thought happened in Basket weavers I, actually happened in Basket weavers II. Basket weavers II was the first evidence of the Anasazi peoples. The Anasazi at this point lived in caves …show more content…
This is when the Anasazi decided to move entire communities on to the shear walls of the mesas and canyons. Some of these structures could house up to 1,000 rooms. A lot of the Anasazi’s population diminished in the smaller villages because they all lived in these giant cliff dwellings. The craftsmanship in weaving at pottery is at its prime during this period (Ancestral Pueblo culture). At the end on this period Pueblo bonito was abandoned. Pueblo bonito was essentially one of the biggest trading centers, and architecture built by the Anasazi. They started building pueblo bonito in 900 and finished it in 1100. It was built in the very center of their empire for trade. They chose Chaco valley a dry barren piece of land about 100 miles west of what is now known today as Albuquerque. The pueblo people built this with about 400 miles of routes coming from seven directions. They cut down around 50,000 trees throughout the pine studded mesas. Pueblo bonito was five stories with over 800 rooms. Pueblo bonito was abandoned by 1300 and most of the Anasazi moved to cliff palace, also known as Mesa Verde one of the biggest cliff dwellings built by the pueblo …show more content…
The buildings affected their culture because they made buildings called kivas that would hold tons of people to watch the sacred ceremonies of the pueblo tribe. The definition of kiva is world below and the kiva was always in the center of a mandala which is Sanskrit for circle. 37 kivas were inside pueblo bonito the massive trade center of the Anasazi. A lot of needed and wanted things went through that trading post. But the most valuable to and pueblo people was turquois. They would use turquois mostly for jewelry purposes. They broke shards of it into little circles and would string them through a wire or rope of some sort and would make beautiful jewelry out of it. The turquois eventually made the Anasazi peoples economy sores and they were doing very well for themselves. Usually when the Anasazi met in the kivas they went to worship their gods. The Anasazi believed that they came through a portal called Sipapa. This portal is connected to dimensions. The portal is in the sky and it goes from the lower of the third dimension to the fourth dimension known as earth. The Anasazi had only two gods. These gods were the sun god tawa, and spider women the earth goddess. They prayed to these gods in the kivas and when placed on earth thanked the gods and wished for peace on earth (weebly). These traditions really have a lasting impact on the way people in that part of the world do things