47. "In Search of the Old Ones" by David Roberts

David Roberts provides a comprehensive, cogent introduction to the Anasazi in In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest. Combining history and academic discourse with travelogue, the book discusses the development of our knowledge of the Anasazi, the puzzle of their disappearance, ethical issues surrounding excavations and archaeological work, and their connections to today's Pueblo tribes.

Roberts interviews professional archaeologists, descendants of the ranchers who first excavated Anasazi sites a century ago, park rangers, Pueblo tribe spokespeople and archaeologists, and self-taught Anasazi aficionados. He visits prominent sites such as Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon and also, both on his own and with others, explores the back-country canyons of the Four Corners area for unexploited dwellings, rock art, and other traces of Anasazi life. Roberts, clearly an accomplished mountaineer and climber, describes amazing scenery and incredible experiences but remains vague about where many of the sites he discusses are located. This stems in part from promises to guides who showed him certain sites and in part to his own scruples--with which I doubt most readers would disagree, particularly after reading about how weather, careless archaeologists, and fortune-seeking "pot-hunters" have devastated some important sites.

Roberts presents varying theories, such as why the Anasazi disappeared, clearly and fairly. While he sometimes makes his own perspective known, he nonetheless gives credence and voice to others who hold different views. I've come away from this work with much more knowledge about Anasazi history, development, and art, as well as a desire to see some of these sites for myself--and the resolution to take a road trip to Mesa Verde this spring.