Kenneth R. Wright

When Kenneth Wright gave a talk on the water systems of Machu Picchu, he didn't know that his next project was already waiting for him in the guise of someone in the audience. Invited out to visit the Mesa Verde ruins in Southwestern Colorado, he soon found a new puzzle. How did the Ancestral Pueblans (Anasazi) survive in such an arid, unforgiving area.

For the next several years, he used the resources of the Wright Paeleohydrological Institute to map out their water resources and presents the results in this small, sometimes highly technical, book. He has set to right the controversy over whether some areas were dance platforms or reservoirs, and at what ages the reservoirs were used.

This is a short book (132 pages) and filled with pictures and diagrams. It also reads as though it is a collection of reports on each of the areas, rather than a unified picture. The pieces do support each other and reference other material, so that it is easy to pull together a picture of what life was like when these reservoirs were in use.

I have a love of Mesa Verde, which I've visited a few times, along with other areas in the American Southwest. I found this book fascinating when the technical material wasn't over my head. I also read it for a second, personal reason. As someone who writes both fantasy and science fiction, I am always looking for ways in which to help believable worlds. This book has added another layer of realism to my backgrounds.

For anyone interested in either the area or in how non-modern water systems can work, this book is well worth reading.… (mer)