26.8 America: a.d. 1101 to 1200

America

Back to America: A.D. 1001 to 1100

North america

The far north and canada

The Thule Arctic and the Northwest Indian cultures have been described in the preceding chapters. The west Greenland settlement of Norse was prospering in this 12th century and there were at least 16 stone churches and a fine cathedral at Gardar. Pope Paschal II appointed Erik Gnupsson as the first bishop of Greenland and Vinland in 1112. At this time the southern half of Canada undoubtedly had a great number of Indian tribes, but information about them is scanty. The Norse and the Indians were apparently hostile to each other. (Ref. 66 , 95 ) Additional Notes

The united states

In the central and southern parts of the United States the Mississippi and coalescent cultures continued as noted in the preceding chapters. In the southwest, some- time after 1150 the Mesa Verde Anasazi constructed the famous Cliff Palace, some 325 feet long, 100 feet deep, with many subterranean, sacred rooms and turret-like towers. In mid-century, however, the building stopped and the population of this and the Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, began to decline and the pueblos were soon abandoned, perhaps as a result of loss of arable fields as the water table lowered or incident to the severe deforestation mentioned in the last chapter. It has been estimated that Chaco Canyon's population dropped to less than 20% of its 11th century peak. (Ref. 252 ) Increasing cold may have been another factor. Only the Mesa Verde people hung on in a slightly better climate. (Ref. 277 ) Other sources believe, however, that these pueblo Indians were driven or fled as the result of invasion by barbarian Athapascans (Apache and Navaho). In the northwestern part of Arizona at Wupatki in the sunset crater area of the Sinague, there was a structure containing over 100 rooms, with 3 stories, as well as an open air amphitheater resembling a ceremonial Anasazi kiva and a ball court. But the volcanic soils were now drained of their nutrients and farming was getting less productive. (Ref. 210 )

McGuire and Schiffer (Ref. 269 ) state that the Classic period of the Hohokam began about A.D. 1150, to last for 300 years. This was characterized by adobe compounds enclosing rectangular rooms and plazas, platform mounds, extensive irrigation canals and polychrome and polished redware ceramics. The red-on-buff pottery was distinctive of all Hohokam sites. Hundreds of villages were scattered over the Gila and Lower Salt rivers of central Arizona. In the past other writers have claimed that the Hohokam had begun a sharp decline by this century and that any advancements seen were due to invasion of the area by another group, the Salado. This view has been discarded in the last 5 to 8 years. The most obvious change in the Classic period was in architecture. Multi-storied houses appeared and the canal system was further refined, with extensive networks and some canals carried water as far as 32 kilometers. Polished red vessels tended to replace the earlier red-on-buff pottery. Although some northern frontier villages were abandoned at this time, the population of the Gila-Salt Basin increased to perhaps 20,000. (Ref. 269 )