Gregory McNamee guides you on a memorable tour through 50 national and state parks, monuments, and other cherished sites in the modern American Southwest. Simultaneously, he leads you far back in time, to the eras when the earliest human beings lived in what is now Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. These ancient people left intriguing clues: pueblos, tools, pottery, jewelry, baskets, petroglyphs, pictographs, clothing, kivas, and weavings. From such evidence, archaeologists can reconstruct sophisticated cultures with advanced knowledge of astronomy, architecture, agriculture, and art. In more than 130 spectacular photographs, Larry Lindahl captures the essence of these remarkable locations, including Mesa Verde National Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Navajo National Monument, Chaco Culture National Historic Park, Canyonlands National Park, and many more. WINNER OF AN IPPY AWARD BRONZE MEDAL FOR BEST REGIONAL NON-FICTION! With spectacular photos by Larry Lindahl, The Ancient Southwest... showcases some of the ruins these civilizations left…. The…photos tell much about the builders of the ruins: the care with which they laid their walls, how they sited their cities in the landscape, and how the buildings have fared since their inhabitants left. The geographic setting of each site is more spectacular than the last: kivas silhouetted against a mountain range, towers clinging to cliffs or perched on desert hills, mesa-top ruins. Some photos bring the viewer very close to a vanished people: At a few cliff dwellings, such as Betatakin and Keet Seel in Arizona, it seems as if the inhabitants left only a few hours ago to hunt or tend their crops. Photos of rock art, from geometric designs of the Mogollon people, to a possible painting of a supernova at Chaco Canyon, to the disquieting spirit figures of the Fremont culture, illustrate the variety of artistic traditions among ancient Southwesterners.… Lindhal's photos tell a great deal about ancient cultures. McNamee's text and the information about each archaeological site would serve as a great guidebook for touring the Southwest. --Pasatiempo, The New Mexican's Weekly Magazine of Arts, Entertainment & Culture It has been out for a while (2014), but so have its subjects (tens of thousands of years), and this stunning book deserves a mention. The Ancient Southwest covers art, artifacts, and structures from the core Southwest modern Arizona and New Mexico, eastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Writer Gregory McNamee and photographer Larry Lindahl take us through 50 sites--national and state parks, monuments, and significant locales--providing archaeological history and images of pottery, baskets, jewelry, weavings, and petroglyphs and pictographs organized by state. The striking colors (sunsets, reds, sky blues), the angles, and contrasts of Lindahl s photographs rival the spectacular rock art of Nine Mile Canyon Petroglyphs or the pueblos of Mesa Verde he s captured. -- Arizona Daily Star Gregory McNamee is a writer, journalist, editor, photographer, and publisher. He is the author or title-page editor of 45 books and more than 10,000 periodical publications, including articles, essays, reviews, interviews, editorials, poems, and short stories.