Ancestral Pueblo culture, as demonstrated at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado, and other sites, declined in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Although other factors contributed, the overriding cause was drought. As often has happened in human history, an era of abundant rainfall ended abruptly. Without enough water, the highly concentrated inhabitants abandoned the great centers, dispersing to form new, smaller communities, many of them on the Rio Grande.

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