CLIMATE AND EVIDENCE OF CLIMATIC CHANGES 



By Junius Henderson and Wilfred William Robbins 

 iNTRODUf'TION 



THE important bearing of climate on the culture of any region 

 is evident. In the course of the investigation which has 

 led to this paper there has been discovered no adequate, con- 

 nected discussion of the subject, accompanied by an attempt 

 to correlate the various lines of evidence of climatic changes for 

 the region under consideration to ascertain whether they point in 

 the same direction. It is found also that, though there is some 

 direct and more inferential evidence of recent change of climate, it is 

 meager, and there seem great possibilities of important discoveries 

 by systematic investigation along several lines that have been pursued 

 to only a slight extent. Therefore this discussion has been made 

 more extensive than the subject at first might seem to warrant, 

 in order to bring together the evidence, arguments, and literature, 

 so far as they have come to the writers' attention, which may suggest 

 lines of future work and aid field parties in the search for facts tending 

 toward the solution of the problem. One of the greatest questions 

 that has impressed those who have engaged in archeologic work in 

 the Southwest is that of climate and climatic changes in relation to 

 their influence on the cultures and population of the region. Tliis 

 problem is of a nature which does not permit of adequate discussion 

 or investigation with reference to a small area, but involves the 

 whole Southwest, and, in a sense, is world-mde. In the brief time at 

 the disposal of the writers it is not hoped that the present treatment 

 is final or exhaustive, or even that all the most important literature 

 on the subject has been found. 



It is not the purpose of this paper to attempt to prove that a 

 progressive climatic change has occurred during the last several 

 thousand years. The idea is rather to set forth and discuss fairly 

 and frankly the evidence found w^hich may bear on the question and 

 to suggest lines of research that may throw further light thereon 



Present Climate 



No climatologic records are available for the immediate vicinity in 

 which the%\Titers'owh work was chiefly done — El Rito de los Frijoles. 

 The nearest United States Weather Service stations are at Espanola 

 and Santa Fe, the former up the Rio Grande valley, about IS miles 



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