The high desert of northwest New Mexico is a windswept and endless landscape of rolling red hills and dramatic rock formations. These are ancient lands, home to some of the oldest civilizations in North America. For millennia, the Puebloan people thrived in this desert environment. They constructed massive settlements, built from mud and stone and supported by wood gathered from the surrounding mountain forests.
In Chaco Canyon stands the ruins of one of these settlements. Pueblo Bonito was a sprawling building that stood five stories tall and contained more than 600 rooms. At its peak around 1080 CE, Pueblo Bonito may have housed up to 1,000 people in a kind of ancient apartment complex.
For hundreds of years, Pueblo Bonito marked the cultural epicenter of the Desert Southwest. Then, the Puebloans disappeared. By the 14th century, Pueblo Bonito was abandoned. To this day, nobody knows why.
But the Puebloans left clues behind. They are in the wooden beams of Pueblo Bonito. They're locked away in wooden ladders and old fire wood. The answers to why Puebloans left are hidden in tree rings.
The Art of Tree Rings
Cut a cross section of a tree and you'll see lines and lines circling each other. These patterns capture the history of the tree. Tree rings tell stories of life and death. They tell stories of wet years when there was plenty of food to eat. They tell stories of dry years when water was scarce. Tree rings tell the stories of when civilizations flourished and when they collapsed.
Dendrochronology is the science of dating things-events, climate, artifacts-by examining the annual growth patterns found in tree rings. Dendrochronologists study the tree rings of certain species of trees to piece together the history of the environment.
この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の April 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の April 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.