WUPATKI PUEBLO: A STUDY IN CULTURAL FUSION AND ...

tion being questionable) in the fifty| years after the erup­
tion, and reached nearly 8,500 by 11610. This is a figure
of about 8-if- people per square mile, and, among the Hopi,
a group of this size would need nearly 25,000 acres of farm­
land to support itself*
It cfan be seen that bitter competition for land must
have resulted, and when the ecological conditions changed in
the latter half of the 12th century, life again became pre­
carious in this arid region. Over 1000 square miles were in­
habited in 1160, and many large compact settlements were
scattered over this land, several of them defensive in nature.
By 1200, however, the population was dropping rapidly, for
the continual farming of the ash areas had loosened the
material and the continuous desert winds of the area had
duned the cinder mulch, or had blown It against the mesa rims
and Into the canyon bottoms* The land again became too arid,
to farm. Diseased epidemics may also have struck the tightly
packed pueblo populations. At any rate, by 1225 the area
was virtually deserted. Hany of the peoplefwent to the
Anderson Mesa region 30 miles southeast of flagstaff, where .
several large pueblos remained until 14-00 (Farmer 1955? 44),
northeast to the Hopi Mesas, or south to the Chavez Pass and
Verde Valley areas. However, these people eventually also
immigrated to the Hopi Mesa area, or south into the central
Hohokam region. Only three or four pueblos remained in the