Was it war?

AmericaQuest is an interactive expedition developed by Classroom Connect. For four weeks a team of scientists and explorers will work to unravel the mysteries surrounding an ancient Pueblo indian tribe.

Visitors at Pueblo bonito peer into one of the kivas.

Throughout time, wars have helped bring down civilizations. Wars helped destroy the ancient Maya civilization, the Civil War almost tore America apart and the war in the Balkans has left Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia in ruins.

If you ask me, war helped do in the ancient Anasazi too — in a very brutal way.

One theory goes like this: Around the year 900, a group of elite rulers in Chaco Canyon began using terror to take control over Anasazi farming communities in the surrounding areas. Communities who agreed to pay tribute to Chaco Canyon were left alone and those that rebelled were punished. These elite rulers organized raids, killing dozens of people at a time and, in many cases, ate their victims as a way to really horrify the survivors into obedience. Their goal was to maintain absolute control over the surrounding population.

As proof, Christy Turner II, from the University of New Mexico, studied skeletal remains from 76 sites throughout the Anasazi realm (which was centered in Chaco Canyon) and found what he thinks is evidence of cannibalism in 286 individuals at 38 sites.

For example, some bones showed marks indicating that the meat was cut off in the same way you might cut meat off a deer. Leg and arm bones were broken to remove the rich marrow. And as Turner writes in a recent Discovering Archaeology article, "Decapitated heads were broiled face up on coals then smashed open, apparently to extract the cooked brain."

This "reign of terror" might help explain how rulers were able to find enough workers to build the awesome Great Houses in Chaco, which required a total of 200,000 logs to build.

Even more to the point, it might explain two dazzling burials found there. In each one, a 6-foot skeleton lay surrounded by treasure, including turquoise, shells from the California coast and macaw feathers. This treasure indicates that these men were probably rulers. The fact that each of them had their heads bashed in suggested they died a violent death. Was this the result of a revolt? An invasion? Or was it some other cause for war?

To find evidence for warfare we convinced archaeologist Tom Windes to spend a day with us in Chaco Canyon. Tom is a National Park Service archaeologist who wears floppy hats, wrap-around sunglasses and a government issue uniform. In nearly 30 years of studying Chaco he's developed a charming and offbeat sense of humor. He says things like, "For cripes sakes!"

Tom Windes, an archaeologist with the National Park Service, explains the significance of a ruin.

He led us on a winding path straight up a cliff to the top of the mesa overlooking Chaco Canyon to a site he excavated called Pueblo Alto. We squeezed between rock slabs, scrambled over sandstone slabs and eventually reached a grassy hilltop that felt like the center of the Anasazi world. In all directions, you could see sacred mountains, majestic buttes and prehistoric roads.

"There's nothing fat in the whole plateau," Tom remarked, panning his hand across the dry, thorny terrain. "The people here were hungry all the time."

"Is that why they left?" I asked.

"Come on ... these Anasazi were a lot smarter than we give them credit for," he replied. "They had 1,000 years to figure out how to survive here."

"Was it warfare?"

"Oh lordy, here we go," he replied out of the side of his mouth. He made it clear to me that he didn't think war played much of a factor in the abandonment of Chaco. "I'm a big believer in the environment."

"Okay," I continued. "If you were talking to 12-year-olds and they asked what clues you've gathered over the past 30 years that help explain why the Anasazi abandoned this place, what would you say?"

"First, I'd say it was drought. Between 1130 and 1170 they suffered the worst drought here in a thousand years."

"Second, I'd say it doesn't take many people to impact the environment. We found one prehistoric garbage dump with over 100,000 broken ceramic vessels in it. We know there were a lot of people who all needed wood for heat, cooking and firing pottery. It doesn't take long before the trees are all gone.

"Third, social organization. They were geared up here. We're dealing with widespread communities with tight communications. The leaders were responsible for feeding and caring for lots of people. It's a situation that is very susceptible to rough conditions."

He stopped there. But I wasn't satisfied. I wanted more information on warfare. I asked him about the two burials.

"Those two guys were obviously powerful. Maybe they had too much social control and when times got rough, the people took it as a sign from the gods that these guys had too much control and were abusing it. Maybe they knocked them off. Maybe an invading army knocked them off. I don't really know."

"Okay, might we at least say that this is the fourth clue for the abandonment?" I asked, hoping that he'd tacitly admit that warfare might have played into the mystery.

"We can say that."

Pedals up!