In this provocative little volume the editors present a collection of essays on the ancient surroundings of the Southwestern pueblos that demonstrates their use of landscape design and horticulture as well as the relevance of those efforts for contemporary American desert dwellers. Thirteen essays by archaeologists, architects, botanists and others probe the last 900 years of Puebloan use of the land and the built environment with a view that is more of the future than the past.
Ancient Puebloan builders constructed large cities as well as complex road systems, astronomical centers, irrigation systems, and elaborate horticultural and agricultural micro-environments that provided for their people over hundreds of years. Landscape features include plazas, small patios, farming terraces, check dams, shade structures and numerous water control edifices, including canals and cisterns. A wide variety of methods to protect and enhance agricultural fields were also extensively employed, including stone mulches that both collected water and moderated the erratic desert temperature.
While sometimes a bit romantic, the authors find the chief lesson from the ancient Puebloan builders is that it is possible to “design with nature” to meet human needs. But the ancient Puebloans were not always successful, as the chapter on Chaco Canyon dramatically illustrates. There, in another lesson for the modern world, size and sprawl got out of control, leading to collapse.
The editors, V.B. Price, a distinguished poet and critic, and Baker Morrow, a landscape architect, have produced a volume that breaks new ground and complements their landmark Anasazi Architecture and American Design. It is both a valuable study of the past and a prologue for the future.
