Why Did The Anasazi Leave Chaco Canyon

Chaco Canyon was the place where the Anasazi culture thrived. The origin of the meaning Anasazi comes from an ancient Navajo phrase referring to the people who occupied the four corners region. The Anasazi are some of the ancestors of the current Native American indians of the same area.
The Anasazi lived in the Chaco Canyon area in the second Pueblo Phase. This phase is separated into three phases: Early Bonito (850 to 1040 AD), Classic Bonito (1040 to 1100 AD), and Late Bonito (1100 to 1140 AD). The Anasazi culture reached its height during the Classic and Late Bonito phases. Just as the Anasazi Culture began to really thrive, they had to abandon and leave Chaco Canyon permanently. There are some of the theories of why the Anasazi left Chaco Canyon, but archaeologists are not completely sure which reason was true, or if multiple were true. One of the reasons the Anasazi were thought to leave Chaco Canyon was because of a long drought that lasted over several years somewhere between 1100 and 1200 AD. Other possible causes of the Anasazi leaving …show more content…
Some crops the Anasazi grew were corn, beans, and squash. The Anasazi had to use their water sparingly because of the lack of water in Chaco Canyon’s remote area and they dries the corn and squash so it would last longer and so they could store it away for times when there was not enough food. The beans were soaked, then they were cooked in jars. The Anasazi also hunted and gathered wild plants for food. Anasazi women would grind corn into flour to be made into bread. They considered mice and rabbits more valuable for food then deer and were butchered at their kill site, then taken “home” to be roasted, stewed, or made into jerky. The Anasazi also considered turkeys as pets, not food, and were raised as domesticated animals. The Anasazi also ate Pinon nuts and Sunflower seeds, which would be seeded before