Ancient Americas: Anasazi History

CERAMIC PRODUCTION IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST
edited by Barbara J. Mills and Patricia L. Crown. B&W drawings, maps, & photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 2000 University of Arizona Press (Tucson) Trade Paperback, second printing. Content: This volume covers nearly 1,000 years of southwestern prehistory and history, focusing on ceramic production in a number of environmental and economic contexts. From the Anasazi, Mimbres, and Mogollon peoples to pueblo peoples, this is a discussion of pottery through the ages. Excellent! [2 copies available]
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CUCKOO FOR KOKOPELLI
by Dave Walker. Color photos and some beautiful color artwork illustrate. Condition: NEW 1999 Northland Publishing (Flagstaff) Trade Paperback, second printing. Content: Ok, this is not a great scholarly work on the ancient Southwest symbol so associated with the Anasazi, but it's interesting and it's fun. AND it presents some great artwork. Reviewer: "Dave Walker gives you a modern twist on the ancient myth turned recent Southwest icon. The author also offers you some illustrations of the modern marketing of the Kokopelli. Overall, the book is fun and easy reading. A good book for a day in the park, ride on an airplane or just a lazy day! However, he does provide a section which provides solid information on the history of and speculation on personage of Kokopelli." [1 copy available]
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GLIMPSES OF THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST
by David E. Stuart. B&W photos and maps plus original drawings by Scott Andrae. Condition: NEW 1985 Ancient City Press Trade Paperback, 4th printing. Content: This is an excellent overview of the architectural heritage of the prehistoric Native Americans, usually referred to as "Anasazi" in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. Why he left out the ruins in Utah, I have no idea. The essays are entertaining, yet still enlightening, and are beneficial for both the newcomer to Ancient Americas and the long-time fan. Excellent photos and maps! [1 copy available]
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HOW THE SHAMAN STOLE THE MOON:
In Search of Ancient Prophet-Scientists from Stonehenge to the Grand Canyon
by William H. Calvin. B&W photos by the author and detailed drawings of astronomical observation sites by Malcolm Wells. . Condition: NEW 1991 Bantam Books hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket). DJ has tiny edgewear. Content: Were shamans in prehistoric cultures able to predict solar and lunar eclipses? Calvin (neurobiology, Univ. of Washington), brings together data from astronomy and archaeology in an attempt to answer this question. Employing research at Stonehenge and Avebury in England, and numerous Anasazi Indian sites in the American Southwest, Calvin concludes that there were over a dozen possible methods of eclipse forecasting that prehistoric people may have used. He admits that his hypotheses on prehistoric astronomical techniques are speculative, and emphasizes that they may only provide a clue to what might have been. Nevertheless, his theories are well thought out and clearly explained. The narrative flows smoothly as the numerous possible methods of prediction are described within the context of the story of his research at the various archaeological sites. [1 copy available]
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KOKOPELLI: Flute Player Images in Rock Art
by Dennis Slifer & James Duffield. Color photo section. B&W reproductions of Southwestern rock art. Condition: NEW 1993 Ancient City Press (Santa Fe) Trade Paperback, first edition, fourth printing. Content: Kokopelli, the mysterious, humpbacked fluteplayer of the American Southwest, has been a sacred figure to Native Americans since prehistoric times. Fertility symbol, rain priest, roving minstrel and trader, hunting magician, and trickster, Kokopelli was painted and carved on rock walls and boulders from the time of the Anasazi (the Ancient Ones) to the 1700s. Today, Kokopelli is still portrayed by Pueblo Indians in ceremonies, dances, songs, and stories; and he is also becoming popular in the art and literature on non-Indians. In Kokopelli: Fluteplayer Images in Rock Art, geologists Dennis Slifer and Jim Duffield present the most extensive survey ever conducted on rock art depictions of the humpbacked fluteplayer. The authors, whose research took them into remote canyons, hillsides, and river courses of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, discovered more than 300 rock art portraits of Kokopelli, including many that had never been documented - or presented in book form. In this richly illustrated volume they give descriptions of several dozen sites in the Southwest where the most compelling of archaic figures may be found drawn or etched in stone. To round out their study, the authors provide a generous sampling of Native American myths and stories about Kokopelli and other, related figures from the mythic past, as well as vivid reports of how Kokopelli was pictured on prehistoric southwestern pottery and kiva murals. With more than 300 drawings, color and b/w photographs, maps, over 90 bibliographic citations, an appendix of images, and a helpful glossary of terms, Kokopelli is the perfect guide for lay readers and professionals alike. [Note: It is my understanding that Anasazi is a Navajo word translated to " the Ancient Ones Who Are Our Enemies."] [1 copy available]
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IN SEARCH OF THE OLD ONES: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest
by David Roberts. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 1998 Touchstone Trade Paperback, second printing. Light tanning to page edges. Short remainder mark bottom edges. Content: Six hundred years ago, the Anasazi, said to be the ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo peoples, left their homes in the region known as the Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona converge, and disappeared. They had inhabited the area for perhaps 5000 or more years. They left behind pots, weavings, tools, monuments, human remains and, above all, their astounding cliff "palaces," containing apartments of as many as 20 rooms each. Many of these are still viable but so fragile that, in the national park lands where most are located, they are closed to the public. Roberts has spent 20 years exploring the region, and he recounts the history of the discoveries, the appalling thefts of artifacts, the cave paintings and his own transcendent experiences in stumbling upon some vestige of this lost civilization. His awe at the region's beauty, with its sheer cliffs, canyons and mesas, and at the testaments to an unknown culture will be contagious for readers. Questions welcome. [3 copies available]
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MESSAGES ON STONE; Selections of Native Western Rock Art
by William Michael Stokes & William Lee Stokes. B&W drawings illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read 1980 Sandstone Publishing (Utah) soft cover, no printing given. This was my book and there is some limited, pale highlighting on many pages. Content: From the thousands of objects and symbols the authors and others have observed, they have assembled a number of groups with meanings that are relatively clear. These groups are presented alphabetically (Apparal, Fun & Games, Hunting, etc.) with brief comments in the following pages. An excellent primer for petroglyphs, rock art, and/or pictographs. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
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MIMBRES MYTHOLOGY (Southwestern Studies Monograph # 56)
by Pat Carr. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1979 UTEP Trade Paperback, Southwestern Studies Monography # 56. Pale loss of color around edge of covers with a name loose end page. Interior clean & tight. Content: Mythology and religion of the Mimbres peoples of the Southwest deduced from their beautiful black on white pottery and Pubelo folklore comparisons. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
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PREHISTORIC ASTRONOMY IN THE SOUTHWEST
by J. McKim Nalville and Claudia Putnam. Detailed B&W drawings, photos, and star maps. Condition: Very Good 1989 Johnson Trade Paperback, no printing given. Although this book looks new, I did some light highlighting on the first 6 pages of the book. The rest is pristine. Content: Archaeoastronomy is a discipline pioneered at Stonehenge and other megalithic sites in Britain and France. Many sites in the southwestern United States have yielded evidence of the prehistoric Anasazi’s intense interest in astronomy, similar to that of the megalithic cultures of Europe. The authors describe the astronomical alignments at the well-known sites of Chaco Canyon and Hovenweep and present new evidence, based on recent field work of alignments at Yellow Jacket, Chimney Rock, and Mesa Verde. Drawing on the archaeological evidence, ethnographical parallels with historic pueblo peoples, and mythology from other cultures around the world, the authors present theories about the meaning and function of the mysterious stone alignments and architectural orientations of the prehistoric Southwest. Malville is a professor of astronomy at the University of Colorado. Elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his work in solar astrophysics, he has concentrated in recent years on studies of the ancient astronomy of India and the American Southwest. [2 copies available]
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RICHARD WETHERILL: ANASAZI: Pioneer Explorer of Southwestern Ruins (Revised Edition)
by Frank McNitt. B&W photo section and B&W detailed maps of the sites by the Author. Condition: Gently pre-read 1976 University of New Mexico Press Trade Paperback, revised edition, second printing. No major problems, just an older pre-read book. Content: Anasazi, the Navajos’ name for the "Ancient Ones" [actually, "the Ancient Ones Who Are Our Enemies"] who preceded them into the Southwest, is the nickname of Richard Wetherill, who devoted his life to a search for remains of these vanished peoples. Reviewer: "To the archaeologists Richard Wetherill is a villain -- an uneducated cowboy who plundered the ruins of the pre-historic civilization of the Southwestern Indians. Author McNitt takes the opposite tact, portraying Wetherill as an upright honest man whose accomplishments, the first scientific examinations of the great ruins at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, far outweigh his faults. Adding to the enigma of Wetherill is the matter of his death -- murdered in cold blood by a Navajo Indian debtor according to this author, the loser in a gunfight caused by his own cattle rustling according to others. Wetherill inspired strong passions in both life and death. This is a fine biography. The first few chapters may be hard slogging as the book goes through Wetherill's early life, but the chapters of Wetherill's life and work at Chaco Canyon leading up to his death in 1910 are fascinating. The author follows up the shooting of Wetherill with a full description of the trial of his killer and the aftermath of his death. This is a Western tale worthy of an epic movie and one has to wonder why it has not attracted Hollywood's attention. McNitt makes a persuasive case that Wetherill's reputation was the victim of ambitious Eastern academics, jealous of his discoveries, and government Indian agents, jealous of his influence among the Navajo. I was impressed at how little dated were his descriptions of the ancient civilizations of the Anasazi, although the book was written in 1957. Was Wetherill a hero or a villain? The controversy about his character makes for a fascinating read." Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
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ROCK ART OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST
text by Scott Thvbonv. Color photos by Fred Hirschmann. Condition: NEW 1999 Graphic Arts Center Publishings over-sized softcover with tiny edgewear at one corner. Inside are some of the most detailed and beautiful petroglyph photos ever published. Content: Hirschmann, a former ranger in the Southwest, takes us on a rock-art journey from Texas to the caves of Santa Barbara, the wealth and diversity of Indian rock paintings and carvings astonish us with their beauty, mystery, and spirituality. This new softbound edition presents a broad range of intriguing work spanning more than 4,000 years. Spectacular! And the text is detailed and interesting. Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
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SIGNS OF LIFE: Rock Art of the Upper Rio Grande
by Dennis Slifer. Wonderful B&W drawings & photos with a color photo & map section. Condition: NEW 1998 Ancient City Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: Reviewer: "Relative to his work for the state of New Mexico as a water resource geologist, Slifer sees that "one of the principal ideas conveyed by rock art is a sense of place in the landscape...the creation of people who knew intimately their surroundings...they were keenly aware of territory since they walked everywhere; they knew which way the water ran because it was a life-sustaining element." The book includes descriptions of more than a hundred rock art sites in the region beginning near the headwaters of the Rio Grande in Colorado and progressing downstream through New Mexico to south of El Paso, Texas, with more than 300 illustrations, selected not only to represent the various styles, but to be visually interesting and when possible, not previously published. Some relatively unknown sites are presented from more than a decade of fieldwork in the region. Drawings are used when the rock art is so deteriorated that it doesn't photographs well. It begins with background information on the land and its people, progresses to a discussion of rock art styles, then goes to specific sites, first in the Ancestral Pueblo area, then the Mogollon. The last chapter is about public sites, for those who have no local informants to lead them to lesser known ones. As would be expected, throughout the book Slifer ties the rock art to the landscape, as well as the culture. This is a thoroughly researched, well-written, gracefully presented book, a must-have guide to the region for anyone interested in its rock art." Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
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TIME DETECTIVES: How Scientists Use Modern Technology to Unravel The Secrets of The Past
by Brian Fagan. Illustrated with B&W drawings, maps, and photographs. Condition: NEW 1996 Touchstone Trade Paperback, third printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: This exhilarating mix of high adventure and serious scholarship explores how modern archeologists are using techniques like computer imaging, infrared photography and pollen analysis to reconstruct ancient cultures. Fagan, an archaeologist, describes Tiwanaku, a vanished city on Lake Titicaca's Bolivian shore (A.D. 5th-11th centuries), where Andean farmers used crop cultivation methods that are now being copied by modern villagers to increase yields. He visits enigmatic Flag Fen in eastern England, where an enormous Bronze Age timber platform rose amid uninhabited wetlands, the site of sacrificial offerings. He combs Wadi Kubbaniya, an obscure Egyptian valley, home to hunter-gatherers 10,000 years before the pharaohs-possible ancestors of ancient Egyptian civilization. He explains how excavations of the mansions and gardens of 18th-century colonial Annapolis, Md., are revealing class divisions between a white elite and African Americans who comprised as much as one-third of the population. Fagan also explores multistory New Mexican pueblos of the Anasazi, a Sumerian temple complex, Blackfoot bison hunt sites on Canadian cliffs and remnants of the Natufian culture-some of the world's earliest farmers - discovered in the 1930s in what is now Israel. [Whether you agree or disagree with Fagan, he always makes you think.] [1 copy available]
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