Anasazi

[ah-nuh-sah-zee]

noun

plural

Anasazis ,

plural

Anasazi .

1. a Basket Maker-Pueblo culture of the plateau region of northern Arizona and New Mexico and of southern Utah and Colorado, dating probably from a.d. 100 to 1300.

2. a member of the people producing this culture.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of this culture or its people.

   the Anasazi communities.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Anasazi¹

Term introduced in 1936 by U.S. archaeologist Alfred V. Kidder (1885-1963) < Navajo ʾanaasází ancient inhabitants of the Pueblo ruins, literally, aliens' ancestors (' anaa- enemy, alien + -sází ancestor(s), ancestral)

Example Sentences

Rock formations turn trippy in the 40,000-acre Valley of Fire State Park, a wonderland of red Aztec sandstone with petrified logs and Anasazi petroglyphs.

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The art features figures from the Anasazi period nearly 2,000 years ago.

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The jury is still out on the Anasazi beans.

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High up in the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali, West Africa, lies a host of abandoned cities that resemble the Anasazi cliff dwellings of New Mexico.

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Millenniums ago the Anasazi built a village here, and Pueblo tribes followed, and then the restless and roaming Navajo.

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