Bandelier National Monument (# 0900)

Tyuonyi, a Pueblo built about 700 years ago. The pueblo, built of carved volcanic tuff, was probably multi-story and thus the residence of a relatively large number of people (the tents and people in this picture are discussed in other pictures.)

Per the park literature, it is assumed that the Pueblo people were initially nomadic and began to settle in clusters in about 1150, that these clusters grew and developed more advanced agricultural techniques until about 1550. The demise of the pueblo is thought to be due to a combination of changing weather patterns (drought) and the beginning introduction of western diseases by early European explorers.

I realize that the National Park Service has to be very careful in how they hypothesize about the demise of populations, so it isn’t surprising that their literature doesn’t move further in a fairly logical direction. To me, the physical evidence seems to suggest a situation akin to what Jared Diamond argues in Collapse. From the ruins along the canyon walls and in the valley floor, it seems likely that this was a relatively densely populated area at its height (the park estimate is 700). It is thus reasonable to raise the question of whether the population had reached the point of being too numerous to respond to changes that might have been handled by a population with a smaller footprint. In other words, is there a question raised here about balancing development and environment that we, ourselves, should be attending to?

Reference on Diamond: grist.org/article/kavanagh-collapse