A review by sandyd
House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest by Craig Childs

4.0

A writer decides to visit a bunch of archaeologists and Anasazi (and related Mogollon, Salado & other) sites, and update the public on this "vanished civilization" of the American Southwest. It's pretty good, although he jumps back & forth from the archaeological theories to his experience walking around the sites a lot, and I was occasionally annoyed by his descriptions. He does a really good job of translating the scientific jargon, though, and making it interesting to the general reader, so I forgave all his rambles about the moonlight and swimming in flash floods.

I think tying the ideas to the sites themselves is brilliant, actually, and this would be a good book to read (or have in hand) if you're visiting Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Casas Grandes, Aztec (the site in CO, not actual Aztec sites in Mexico), or many, many other wonderful places in the SW.

Lots of cool stuff about cannibalism, ritual, migration, and corn.