Time, space, and transition in Anasazi prehistory is not just another book on the prehistoric American Southwest. It is a general synthesis of the Basketmaker-Puebloan sequence that calls into quetion the conceptual underpinning of traditional interpretations. This book challenges the sacrosanct assumption of gradual, in situ Anasazi evolution and offers instead an empirically based model of abrupt, episodic stage transitions analogous to the theory...

In 1874, as pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson clambered down the boulder-strewn canyon, he knew he was descending into the past. Defiantly, the stone walls had withstood the onslaught of time... of untold summer storms and winter snows. He called this place Hovenweep: 'deserted valley' in Paiute. But at one time, these canyons were alive with the sounds of village life. Most intriguing were the towers: sentinels of a culture that, in the...

The canyon country of Cedar Mesa holds national treasures. This high sandstone plateau in southeast Utah shelters some of the best-preserved remains of ancient dwellings known in the United States. Most of these masonry structures were built eight centuries ago, but remarkable examples of rock art document people's presence many centuries earlier. This rich archaeological legacy records the lives of Ancestral Puebloan farmers who were adept at living...