In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest

This is the first book I've read specifically about the Anasazi, and I really enjoyed it. Roberts takes us along on his personal search for answers to the mysteries of the Anasazi through his interviews of leading experts, his camping and hiking expeditions throughout the region, conversations with living Native American Hopi and Navajos, and his research of the modern day archeological history which started with an amateur rancher in the 1880's.
I found this a fabulous read. It's told in an entertaining way, as though we're along for the ride with Roberts as he follows his own curiosity into the world of the Anasazi.
I was impressed with how he presented the mysteries surrounding the Anasazi. He raises many questions which baffle current archeologists, and leaves the final conclusions up to the reader.
Roberts also does a good job of bring up different sides of issues such as how much to allow the public into delicate significant sites - what is the proper role of government agencies to balance preservation with access to the public? Also through his informal interviews he exposes the balance between the archeological practice of digging up bones and pots from ancient sites versus leaving them in their natural state as more of a natural museum.
Roberts is a contributing writer for Outside Magazine, has an inherent interest in the Anasazi, and spent years hiking and camping throughout the Four Corners region where the Anasazi lived until about 700 years ago.
I had a good time taking this trip with the author through the past and am now encouraged to learn more about the Ancient Ones who inhabited our West for so long before we arrived.

David Roberts has done the almost impossible for the reader: actually taking you with him on an adventure into the past. Blending archaeology, scholarship and canyoneering, Roberts makes this anything but dry reading. In fact, I could literally feel the canyons under my feet and smell the air, while investigating nooks and crannies holding fascinating remnants of the various Anasazi cultures. These remaining treasures are fragile and in need of protection. This book explores in depth the philosophies and issues surrounding this often "hot topic". Highly recommended to anyone interested in the ancient past of the Americas. Nancy McDowell, Editor, "Canyon Spirits E-Journal",

This book reads like a lengthy article in a men's outdoorsy magazine. The author goes on an endless series of camping trips(often with companions who range from greenhorns to backwoods experts) to find Anasazi ruins in the southwest that most of us will never see, nor according to the author should we ever see them, because too many people would destroy them, but this author gets his thrills going to see them anyway. Along the way he discusses this and other controversies surrounding the famed old ones of the Four Corners region, stories of other explorers who came before, and the occasional eerie thrill of discovery. A helpful appendix explains the different periods archaeologists use to discuss Anasazi history ("Basketmaker I", "Pueblo II," etc.) but there is precious little Anasazi history or achaeology per se in this book, which is a more personal take on the region. We are left with the same appreciation and fascination for the Anasazi which led us to pick up the book in the first place, and some understanding of the problems of this field of inquiry, but not much more understanding of the Anasazi themselves; who they were, where they came from, how they lived, what they believed, etc. Admittedly much of this information is murky and unknown, but, well, it still is after reading this.

You'd think that someone who cares enough about the ancient people of the southwest to write a book about them would respect their living descendants.

In this case, you'd be wrong. In fact, David Roberts seems to dislike just about everyone who currently lives in the Southwest. He has confesses to having "ambivalen[t] feelings about the living Pueblo[ans]," (p 82) and admits to deliberately trespassing on a sacred Acoma mountain. (p 88). He admits to having formed "prejudices against the Navajo," although he claims this prejudice was partly dissolved after talking with "an eloquent Anglo who is historical preservation officer of the Navajo nation." (p 110). I kept checking the front of the book to see when it was published, because the attitude towards living Native Americans in this book is highly regressive and anachronistic. (The author's decision to refer to all non-Native Americans as "Anglos" is also offensive and puzzling. Not all archaeologists or tourists visiting Puebloan ruins are of European descent).

The author's prejudice towards Native peoples is explained, at least in part, by a general dislike for all living people. He has unpleasant things to say about National Park Service rangers, BLM rangers, tourists who like to boat at Lake Powell, tourists who commit the crime of visiting Puebloan ruins on the same day as the author, just about everyone. I have never seen someone simultaneously complain that the federal government is too protective of native sites, while also decrying the overuse of these sites.

Most of the positive words in this book are saved for an Anglo family of amateur archaeologists who explored the Mesa Verde region in the 1880s.

It's a shame the author has such a bad attitude, because the book is otherwise an interesting read.

Not being from the Southwest this book acted like a walking guide to the mysterious disappearance and the researched history of the ancient civilization inhabiting the canyons. It was a good, easy read, with lots of references for more research. I would read more of his work without hesitation. I just wish he'd put in some maps to give an overview of the canyons he was hiking.

Roberts has several snarky remarks about the natives he encounters and he seemed delighted to know Bruce Bradley tricked a Hopi Elder into giving him “inside” information by pretending to befriend him. Not commendable behavior for either Roberts or Bradley. The book is more about Roberts and his name dropping than searching for the old ones.

I have been looking for some time for an easy to read book that gave a nice overview of the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans) and David Roberts book is close, but not quite there. Roberts is an excellent writer whose style is engaging and easy to read. His second book on the area, [[ASIN:0743255178 The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion that Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest]], is exactly the overview and easy to read text on the second chapter in this ancient story but this first book is not quite that.

"You cannot, of course, set out to find such a pot. It must burst upon you by accident, when you expect nothing but another corner in the sandstone. And yet you must prepare yourself to find it; you must read the driest archaeological monographs and hike through the starkest badlands to reach the ledge where the pot awaits." This is a prime example of the tone Roberts' book takes. It is enjoyable and makes a good read while roaming around in the Four Corners area but it is not the first book overview of the Anasazi. This is a book for readers who already have some familiarity with the subject. Roberts' story line follows his quest to understand the mystery, oral history, and complications of this story. If you understand the basics, the stages of the Anasazi and the general geography of the region, this is a great book. Be prepared to journey with Roberts and experience some of the touchy not-so-PC sides of the story around Southwest History.

I would highly recommend that you have a Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona atlas in front of you while reading this. I was traveling, so I had all of that in my trailer and they were invaluable.

One warning about this book: If you read it before going to Mesa Verde, be prepared to be a little cynical about the ranger-led talks (to be fair, though, the book is for sale in the National Park Gift shop and book store). It will be even worse if you visit Sky City (Acoma) and take the tour there given by the Puebloans.

Whatever you do, make sure you read [[ASIN:0743255178 The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion that Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest]], it's a story that is truly incredible and will make New Mexico come alive for you.

As a Craig Childs fan, I was hoping for and expecting a book written by someone who understands the deserts of the southwest where the Anasazi lived their lives from the perspective of a local/native/lover of said. Instead, I learned about the personal squabbles that took place within the archaeological community as to how the Anasazi ruins should be managed, the personal disappointments of the author's interactions with the park service, and very little about this fascinating culture. And lo and behold, the author, David Roberts, lives in .... Cambridge, MA (not the southwest)! He is more of a casual tourist than a true insider and this book lacks passion, reading more like a third hand account as told by someone who's done most of their research in a library.

I concur with most reviewers here. This is a great book for backpackers.

Roberts writes in an easy informal style that weaves together information on history of (Hopi, Acoma etc) pueblos and their relationship to the Anasazi, the archeology of the Southwest and its controversies and the thrill of chancing upon an artefact or building that has been constructed a thousand years ago and perhaps not seen by a living human for as many years. Roberts provides a great intro into Anasazi history, including rise of early villages with their subterranean kivas, watching towers and jacals, grand pueblos such as that of the Chaco system and discusses at length the theories trying to explain the sudden depopulation of the Southwest which occurred after ~AD 1250. He also shows quite clearly that, in some way, Anasazi are still here - his Hopi informants were able, just by looking at Pueblo Bonito ruins, to predict the location of nearby shrines... as well as to interpret rock paintings and petroglyphs within the context of Hopi myths and oral traditions. For me this was yet another (if subtle) proof of the amazing treasures (historical, spiritual) guarded for so many centuries on the Hopi mesas.

The book also captures the beauty of the remote canyonlands in the northern Arizona and southeastern Utah, including the Mesa Verde and the awesome Grand Primitive Gulch, the conversations with the rangers and native guides, hiking expeditions with lamas, and above all, the magic that envelops people who visit this beautiful corner of the planet - magic that never lets go. The magic that stimulated rangers, renegade archeologists and visitors to start with the idea of a "natural museum" where you leave the artefacts where you found them, rather than report them to the Park Service (which will repatriate them to some dusty museum) or take them home (an instinctual reaction which harms both the artefact and its environment, as well as all travelers who would have enjoyed it in its natural setting).

I recommend this book to anyone interested in traveling to the Southwest or learning more about the Mesas, pueblos and their original (and current) inhabitants. This is, in my opinion, the book to start the journey with.

I was looking for an easy-to-read book that would still provide solid recent science about the great civilizations of the American Southwest. This book is now almost 30 years old, but it was still one of the newer ones I could find for the general reader (as opposed to archaeology scholars). It was an engaging read, although I found the author's focus on himself and his own adventures a rather annoying distraction from the "meat" of the subject (who these people were, what they were like, why they appear to have vanished). He does a decent job setting out the various theories and perspectives on these topics, though, and I was surprised how much I'd actually absorbed by the end of the book. Could have done with less editorializing on his part, though, especially since he really isn't an authority in this area--just a dedicated hobbyist.