Grand Canyon GigaView #9 Nankoweap

One of the most rewarding hikes in the Grand Canyon, Nankoweap offers a glimpse into the life of a people who carved a living from the bottom of the Canyon hundreds of years ago. According to the NPS website: Experimentation with horticultural subsistence began in the Southwest around 3500 B.P. with the appearance of maize agriculture. Horticultural subsistence strategies still relied heavily on hunting and gathering local resources, though maize, beans, and squash were planted in locations where seasonal flooding allowed for the germination and growth of cultivated plants. With the adoption of a more sedentary lifestyle, storage cists and granaries were used to store surplus supplies and pottery appeared by A.D. 500. The gradual shift to village life is referred to as the Formative Period, lasting from A.D. 500 to 1540 (Neal et al. 1999). During the Formative Period, the semi-sedentary occupants of Grand Canyon began producing baskets, sandals, and storage features such as slab-lined cists and granaries. This tradition first appears in the Southwest around A.D. 1. The period, often viewed as a transition to agriculture, marks the beginning of horticultural subsistence strategies. Initially, dwellings appeared as shelters in overhangs and caves. By A.D. 500, circular pithouses appear in small aggregates, suggesting the beginning of village life. Pottery appears at this time, often graywares with black painted designs. In eastern Grand Canyon, these occupations have been associated with Cohonina peoples (Schwartz 1969). Grand Canyon GigaView is a new school virtual tour of the Grand Canyon created with a collection of GigaPan images taken on a private rafting trip in April 2010 and geolocated in both Google Earth and Bing Maps. Explore the journey http://grandcanyongigaview.tumblr.com/ Search for it here on Photosynth.net or on GigaPan.org or dive into the day by day trip report at the link above. Enjoy & please share with your networks! Thanks for your interest in my work. Thomas Hayden