Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest

Description

During the past 25,000 years the Southwest has been invaded many times. Now each year comes a fresh invasion – an invasion of those who have succumbed to its beauty and strange, inexplicable charm. There is something infectious about the magic of the Southwest. Some are immune to it, but there are others who have no resistance to the subtle virus and who must spend the rest of their lives dreaming of the incredible sweep of desert, of great golden mesas with purple shadows, and tremendous stars appearing at dusk from a turquoise sky. Once infected there is nothing one can do but strive to return again and again

For many, a good portion of this charm lies in the intangible presence of the “Ancient One”, the people who lived in these enchanted deserts and plateaus through many centuries. One can see the places where they lived and often one finds bits of pottery which show the immemorial striving for beauty of some long dead craftsman. It is natural to want to know more of these prehistoric people and how they lived and it is the aim of this book to tell that story; not in technical terms intelligible only to the professional scientist but in a way that will make it of interest to the layman and the undergraduate student. It is also an attempt to give at least a partial answer to the two questions, which arise when one considers the cultures of antiquity – “How do you know these things? ” and, “How old are they?”