Archaeologist Tim Kohler and researcher Kyle Bocinsky of
Washington State University have used tree-ring data, the temperature
and water requirements of growing maize, and computer programs to
produce a map of the ideal growing regions of the American Southwest for
the past 2,000 years. How did the ancestral Pueblo people of southwest
Colorado react to climate change in the late 1200s? The data suggest
that some 40,000 people left Mesa Verde when drought made it difficult
to grow the staple crop, at the same time that there was a population
spike at the Pajarito Plateau of the northern Rio Grande, where
conditions had become ideal. “People are generally going to try and find
ways to keep on keeping on, to do what they’ve been doing before
changing their technological strategy,” Bocinsky explained to
Science Daily. To read about investigations into another ancient Southwestern culture, see "
On the Trail of the Mimbres."
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