Aztec
Period of Occupation 1111-1300 A.D.

The Aztec pueblo was built between AD 1111 and 1115 and occupied by a people of Chacoan affinities. It was remodeled in the 1200's and inhabited by a people akin to the Mesa Verdeans.

Aztec stood midway between two centers of Anasazi culture. Sixty five miles south lay Chaco Canyon, a sprawling community of large pueblos that flourished between AD 1050 and 1150, the first settlers at Aztec, if not actually Chacoans, were strongly influenced by Chacoan ideas in such matters as architecture, ceramics, and ceremonies. They built the oringinal pueblo and lived in it for half a century or so before moving away.

A few decades later another people settled here. Also Anasazi, they were culturally akin to the cliff dwellers of Mesa Verde which flourished 1200 to 1275 forty miles to the northwest. This second group of settlers remodeled the old pueblo and built others nearby, using techniques characteristic of  Mesa Verde. Like their predecessors, they too prospered on a few generations. Half a century or so after their coming, these Anasazi also moved away, leaving behind this spectacular evidence of their life and times.
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Discovery