2.24 America: a.d. 1001 to 1100  (Page 2/3)

Southeastern Indians knew much more about metallurgy than generally realized. They made decorative and utilitarian objects from lead and had acquired and used copper from local sources. They fashioned beads, bracelets, earrings, ceremonial knives and axes, gorgets, and breast plates, some elaborately decorated with an eagle or hawk. This metallurgy seemed to be associated with the so-called Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, a cultural association variously called the Eagle, Hawk, Buzzard or Southern Cult. It was associated with fire and sun worship and bird motifs. Sun circles, bi-lobed arrows, forked eyes, hand and eye and crosses can all be found engraved on copper and shell. Before Europeans arrived the south was not rural, as the aborigines lived in towns. Although no one is sure of the location, there were Cofitachiqui, Mabila and Apalachee Indian centers, each of whose populations numbered in the thousands. Some were fortified and palisaded. A pole 5O or more feet in height erected on a small mound in a ceremonial ball game area was important in the culture. Certain death practices were similar throughout the South, in that bones of the dead were cleaned and stored in boxes or baskets. Granaries were commonplace and any town of consequence had a sweat house, or sauna. (Ref. 267 )

Some writers have stated than in the southwest the Hohokam way of life began to disappear as the people pulled back to their original homeland in the desert. (Ref. 210 ) More recent material indicates, however, that they had not yet even reached their "Classical Period". (Ref. 269 ) The Anasazi and/or related pueblo people, survived at Bonito Pueblo (Chaco Canyon, New Mexico) with their new buildings showing a masonry of facing stones carefully applied to rubble cores, a Mexican technique suggesting contact with missionaries or traders from Mexico. This concept is disputed by some, however, when they point out that new road systems of this period appeared to radiate out of Chaco northward, rather than to the south and that many of the Chaco artifacts, particularly marine shells, were probably acquired by trade with other, native southwest tribes, such as the Hohokam. The inhabitants of Chaco Canyon cut down some 50,000 trees for pueblo construction and fuel, so that the once extensive forests were stripped, allowing erosion of the canyon. Some of the heavy logs for roofing beams may have been carried as far as 30 miles. To elaborate on the remarks above, Pueblo Bonito was reconstructed in this 11th century, with workmen tearing out old walls and building new ones of a core-and-veneer type involving outer walls of sandstone blocks with earth and ruble in the center. Lower walls were more than 3 feet thick, tapering as they rose, until the rear wall was 5 stories high. When finished this pueblo held 650 rooms and may have been occupied by 1200 persons. Seven other great pueblos were also constructed, some only a few hundred yards apart, each of similar design, in one complex. Overall there were about a dozen pueblo complexes in the Chaco Canyon with well over 2,000 rooms. At least 70 communities, similar in design but generally smaller, existed outside the canyon from a few to 100 miles away. Recent aerial studies have indicated that the great road system, mentioned above, connected these outliers to the center. The roads ran arrow straight, with cuts through some mounds and steps carved in cliff faces, all up to 30 feet wide. One of the larger outlying pueblos was on the San Juan River, 40 miles north of Chaco and known now as the Salmon ruins. Started in 1088 it was completed in 5 years and contained 300 rooms. Huge wooden beams were obtained in the La Plata mountains, more than 75 miles away. It had a great kiva and great tower with 6 feet thick walls rising from the second story of the town. The walls were supported by solid buttresses.