The Ancestral Puebloans leave Mesa Verde

By about 1300 the Ancestral Puebloans had left their cliff dwellings and farms across the Four Corners region. Drought, conflict and social change are all proposed, and they moved to places like the Rio Grande.

They did not vanish. Their descendants live in Pueblo communities today.

Context

People lived on Mesa Verde for centuries before the cliff dwellings, farming corn, beans and squash on the mesa tops. Most of the alcove villages, including Cliff Palace, were built or expanded in the late 1100s and 1200s, and by about 1300 the region was largely emptied.

Tree-ring records show a severe long drought in the late 1200s, and researchers also point to crop failure, shortage of firewood and game, violence and shifting beliefs. No single cause is agreed, and a mix of pressures seems likely.

The people did not disappear. Pueblo communities such as the Hopi, Zuni and those along the Rio Grande trace their ancestry to these villagers, and their oral histories describe migrations. Many Pueblo people prefer the term Ancestral Pueblo over Anasazi, a word from the Navajo language often translated as ancient enemies.

Mesa Verde became a national park in 1906 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The cliff dwellings were reportedly noticed by ranchers in the late 1800s, and the sites are now protected and studied in partnership with Pueblo nations.