ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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History is filled with the mysterious cold cases that have never been solved [Folder with cold cases written on it]

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what happened to Roanoke, what happened to Amelia Earhart, who uploaded the first

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cat video to the internet one of these mysteries is the Anasazi people of the [Muscly boy]

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American Southwest who were they where did they go and what could their

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disappearance mean for our future lucky for you shmoop is on the case [Guy dressed up like a detective]

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unfortunately the Anasazi had no written language so woo they're hard to come by

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but here's what we do know the Anasazi were a native american tribe whose [Picture of an Anasazi structure]

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origins may have extended as far back as the first millennium they were farmers

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who got their crops by climbing up the mountainside talk about a rough commute [Anasazi man falls off the mountain][

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and we know that sometime around seven hundred years ago the Anasazi

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disappeared spooky, we might sleep with the lights on [Anasazi man disappears]

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tonight just in case our dog gets scared or something [Guy in bed with the lights on]

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so the Anasazi live in what is now the American Southwest one of their

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settlements was in Mesa Verde that's Spanish for green table which is [Mesa Verde highlighted on a map]

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ironic because Mesa Verde has a tendency to be hit by mega droughts

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these long periods of dry weather and little rain can make this green table [Green land turns to brown dry land]

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look more like a brown countertop and now tree ring evidence has some

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scientists thinking that a mega drought might have actually been what spell doom [Magnifying glass showing tree rings]

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for the Anasazi not the Anasazi could have spelt it since you know the whole no [Drawing of a rain cloud with a stop sign over it and a skull sign]

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written language thing but a mega drought would have meant the crops

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couldn't grow as trees died there would have been less wood for keeping warm and [Anasazi men shaking in the cold]

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cooking without food people probably started getting hangry leading to social [Man screaming and running with a spear]

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chaos starvation and finally lots of people decided to pack it up and move on [Anasazi man collapses]

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the question is could it happen again some scientists think yeah

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today the region where the Anasazi used to live is experiencing another drought

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which some scientists fear could turn into a mega drought just like the one

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that caused the disappearance of the Anasazi the Anasazi couldn't predict the [Thermometer rising]

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weather they never saw what was coming so they never changed their behavior

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and tried to conserve the natural resources but today we do things like cut back on

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greenhouse gas emissions that cause temperatures to keep going up and [Lots of people in a car]

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conserve our water supplies will we heed the warning of the Anasazi's disappearance

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or could we soon up being another mystery in history's cold-case files

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the choice is up to us now if you excuse us we have to cuddle up with our

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security blanket not that we're scared or anything it's just warm... [Guy in a blanket shaking]

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