Aztec's 200-year history of inhabitation was influenced by two of the population centers of Anasazi culture. 65 miles south is Chaco Canyon, whose influence was felt throughout the 25,000 square mile San Juan Basin and Mesa Verde 40 miles to the north. By the late 1000's, Aztec had become one of the many Chacoan outliers. They built the same style of buildings, and ceramics, as those found in Chaco Canyon. The residents participated in what archeologists call the "Chaco Phenomenon", the social and economic development that thrived in Chaco Canyon and it's many outling communities. With the failure of this system in the mid 1100's, life changed at Aztec. It is then that some of Mesa Verde's population, moved to, and reconstructed Aztec Ruins to the 400 room ruin there today. They were farmers and hunters as were the earlier Chacoans, they prospered for a few hundred years, but by the 1300's they moved on, as did other inhabitants of the region.
Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook