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Social Studies 5: The Anasazi Mystery – Part I 32 Views


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Description:

About 700 years ago the Anasazi just disappeared. For real. This isn't just some ancient folk tale. Check out the video to learn more about it.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

History is filled with the mysterious cold cases that have never been solved [Folder with cold cases written on it]

00:18

what happened to Roanoke, what happened to Amelia Earhart, who uploaded the first

00:23

cat video to the internet one of these mysteries is the Anasazi people of the [Muscly boy]

00:27

American Southwest who were they where did they go and what could their

00:31

disappearance mean for our future lucky for you shmoop is on the case [Guy dressed up like a detective]

00:36

unfortunately the Anasazi had no written language so woo they're hard to come by

00:40

but here's what we do know the Anasazi were a native american tribe whose [Picture of an Anasazi structure]

00:44

origins may have extended as far back as the first millennium they were farmers

00:49

who got their crops by climbing up the mountainside talk about a rough commute [Anasazi man falls off the mountain][

00:53

and we know that sometime around seven hundred years ago the Anasazi

00:56

disappeared spooky, we might sleep with the lights on [Anasazi man disappears]

01:00

tonight just in case our dog gets scared or something [Guy in bed with the lights on]

01:04

so the Anasazi live in what is now the American Southwest one of their

01:07

settlements was in Mesa Verde that's Spanish for green table which is [Mesa Verde highlighted on a map]

01:11

ironic because Mesa Verde has a tendency to be hit by mega droughts

01:15

these long periods of dry weather and little rain can make this green table [Green land turns to brown dry land]

01:19

look more like a brown countertop and now tree ring evidence has some

01:23

scientists thinking that a mega drought might have actually been what spell doom [Magnifying glass showing tree rings]

01:26

for the Anasazi not the Anasazi could have spelt it since you know the whole no [Drawing of a rain cloud with a stop sign over it and a skull sign]

01:30

written language thing but a mega drought would have meant the crops

01:33

couldn't grow as trees died there would have been less wood for keeping warm and [Anasazi men shaking in the cold]

01:37

cooking without food people probably started getting hangry leading to social [Man screaming and running with a spear]

01:42

chaos starvation and finally lots of people decided to pack it up and move on [Anasazi man collapses]

01:47

the question is could it happen again some scientists think yeah

01:51

today the region where the Anasazi used to live is experiencing another drought

01:55

which some scientists fear could turn into a mega drought just like the one

01:59

that caused the disappearance of the Anasazi the Anasazi couldn't predict the [Thermometer rising]

02:02

weather they never saw what was coming so they never changed their behavior

02:06

and tried to conserve the natural resources but today we do things like cut back on

02:10

greenhouse gas emissions that cause temperatures to keep going up and [Lots of people in a car]

02:13

conserve our water supplies will we heed the warning of the Anasazi's disappearance

02:17

or could we soon up being another mystery in history's cold-case files

02:23

the choice is up to us now if you excuse us we have to cuddle up with our

02:28

security blanket not that we're scared or anything it's just warm... [Guy in a blanket shaking]

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