Name:___________________________

Date:___________________________

Ancient Civilizations - the Old Southwest

Read the attached article, Ancient Civilizations - the Old Southwest.
Answer the questions below.
A. What were three significant cultures of the American Southwest during ancient
times?
Mogollon, Hohokam, Anasazi
B. What kind of houses did Mogollons live in? Who used the kivas?
The Mogollons lived in pit houses that included ceremonial centers called
kivas.
Men used the kiva to pray and prepare for their roles in community ceremonies.
C. The Hohokam are best known for their use of irrigation. How did they bring water
to their fields? What were they able to grow?
They built a system of canals to bring water to their fields.
They grew corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton.
D. Where can you see a similar irrigation plan (like the Hohokam) in use today?
Phoenix, AZ uses a system that is virtually identical to the Hohokam system to
divert water from the Salt River.
E. Describe where the Anasazi lived.?
The Anasazi either built pueblos on the desert floor or cliff dwellings that were
built into the cliff sides of the deep canyons where they lived.
F. Would you like to live in Pueblo Bonito? Why or why not?
various answers
G. Look at the picture of Newspaper Rock. On a separate piece of paper, draw five of
the petroglyphs and make up a name or meaning for each one.
attached sheet with various answers

The Hohokam (meaning "Vanished Ones" in the Pima language) were

centered in the Gila and Salt River valleys of present-day Arizona. Their
culture thrived from about 300 to around 1500 C.E. The Hohokam are best
known for their use of irrigation. They built a system of canals to bring water
to their fields of corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton. They were such
expert engineers that the city of Phoenix, Arizona, use virtually the identical
Hohokam plan for diverting water from the Salt River. For unknown reasons,
the Hohokam abandoned their villages and scattered into small groups. It is
thought that these small groups became the ancestors of the Pima and Tohono
O'odham (Papago) peoples.

Imagine an apartment complex with 800 rooms

and home to 1,200 people. Where are you? New
York? Chicago? Boston? Try Chaco Canyon,
New Mexico, in the Four Corners region of the
American Southwest. You'd be at Pueblo Bonito,
the largest Anasazi village ever constructed, and
the biggest apartment complex in what is now the
United States, until a bigger one was built in
New York City in the late 1900's!
The Anasazi, or Ancient Puebloans, are a people
know for their elaborate villages; some, like
Pueblo Bonito, were built on the desert floor and
others, called cliff dwellings, like those found at
Mesa Verde in southern Colorado, were
constructed in the cliff sides above the deep
canyons.

The Anasazi are the most geographically extensive culture in the arid desert West.
Their culture evolved, beginning sometime about 100 B.C.E. and disappearing
after 1300 C.E. No early Southwestern culture is better known than the Anasazi.
They seemed to be particularly skilled in the use of precious desert water. They
managed to farm perhaps some of the most inhospitable land imaginable, using
subsurface irrigation, flooding, canal irrigation, and terracing.
Today, the descendants of the Anasazi live throughout Arizona and New Mexico
and include the Hopi, Zuni, and Rio Grande Pueblo peoples.

Newspaper Rock - Eastern Utah

Newspaper Rock is a petroglyph panel etched in sandstone that records perhaps 2,000
years of human activity in the area. Etched into the desert varnish are symbols
representing the Fremont, Anasazi, Navajo and Anglo cultures. The exact nature of these
symbols meaning is still not clearly understood. But they are typical of many sites
throughout the U.S. in their use of universal symbols, be it graffiti or a true "newspaper,"
recording events of the times and earlier.

Close-up view of the upper, center edge of petroglyph carvings.