From Drought to Drought: An Archaeological Record of Life Patterns As Developed by the Gallina Indians of North Central New Mexico : Canjilon Mountai [Paperback]

Florence Hawley Ellis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1988

How do Pueblo farmers survive when drought all but prevents agriculture? In 1971 archaeological research began on one of these commonly hypothesized but least actually known survival strategies. The area: Northern New Mexico; the people: one of the least studied, those of the Gallina culture; the time: the 1200s when extended drought drove people south out of Mesa Verde, Chaco and the Four Corners in general toward areas of rivers or mountains in the hope of more rain. The Gallina people established some of the highest camps known in the southwest, where they spent the summer hunting, gathering, and possibly growing some corn or beans, returning home in the fall hopefully heavily laden with dry 'jerky' meat, dried berries and medicinal plants. In the spring they had come bearing camping equipment including pottery for cooking, eating and carrying water. Now they carefully hid these items probably intending to reuse them next year, but on the return trip food must compose every ounce each camper could carry home for winter survival of their family. Finally they ceased to return. The pottery and camp sites waited quietly, unfound for 700 years to be discovered and excavated by Dr. Ellis's first Ghost Ranch Excavation Crew.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Florence Hawley Ellis is a distinguished anthropologist and historian, and is now Director of the Florence Hawley Ellis Museurn and the archeological Field School at Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, New Mexico. Over the past years she has directed excavation at hunting and gathering camp sites on Canjilon Mountain in Rio Arriba County, northern New Mexico, dating from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, A.D. These sites were inhabited seasonally by people from the greatest settlements to the north and west--aniong them Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon-to avoid the recurrent summer droughts. In hot summers the people brought camping equipment, and in the fall they packed up stores of dried meat, berries, and medicinal plants to take back to their cliff dwellings and stone houses. Later they moved to the Jemez Pueblo on the Rio Grand between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, where their descendants live today. This report has the usual archeological data (drawings of artifacts, floor plans of caves, measurements of structures, etc.), but Dr. Ellis never loses sight of the people who used these artifacts and lived in the caves on these lava flats. She tells us about the little capes made of turkey feathers from domesticated birds, the dog fur that was woven into garments, the little sipapus (holes in the floor to communicate with the underworld), and other evidence of Pueblo Indian life and work. Dr. Ellis' knowledge of history and her superior writing make this a most readable and unusual archeological report. -- From Independent Publisher

About the Author

Dr. Florence Hawley Ellis is one of the pioneer anthropologists of the Southwest where she has taught and published on her extensive excavations and related research in ethnology and such associated fields as tree-ring dating and pottery analysis. Her excavations include areas in Chaco Canyon, along the Chama, Rio Grande and Jemez river valleys and elsewhere in the Southwest. She has published over 200 articles and monographs, only about half of which are non-technical material. Dr. Ellis was trained at the University of Arizona and University of Chicago and is Emerita of the University of Arizona and of New Mexico where she taught. She is still active as Director of the Florence Hawley Ellis Museum and of the archaeological Field School at Ghost Ranch, out of Abiquiu, New Mexico.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Sunstone Press (September 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865341206
• ISBN-13: 978-0865341203
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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