Moab, Utah

Tuesday, August 26, 2014
                          

 Zaxxyr's Water Arch: Curtis Llewellyn 
"Culture at its root is the exchange of ideas between persons.
If this water arch can bring people together, then in itself it is a harbinger of culture."

Mesa Verde National Park: Far View Sites & Wetherill Mesa

Sunday, August 24, 2014 

http://colorado.untraveledroad.com/Montezuma/MesaVerde/27ASign.htm

Coyote Village was excavated in 1968 and 1969. Thirty ground floor rooms, five kivas and a circular tower were uncovered. Perhaps 40 or 50 people lived at Coyote Village in A.D. 1000, but other people lived here as early as A.D. 800 or 900. Beneath the tower is a pithouse that belonged to earlier occupants. Several of the kivas are connected by tunnels.

     This is a row of mealing bins where women knelt and ground corn with manos and metates.

An Ancient Farming Community

From A.D. 900 to about 1300, Far View was one of the most densely populated areas of the mesa. Nearly 50 villages have been identified within a half square mile area, home to hundreds of people. The attraction to the area may have been the greater moisture received at the higher elevation of about 7,700 feet. The growing season was probably slightly shorter than at lower places, but the additional water supply may have supported crop yields. Corn, or maize, was the staple crop, as well as squash and beans. 

                                                     Mummy Lake: A.D. 900-1300

It is believed that this is an artificial reservoir to collect and store water for the Far View villagers.             It is a circular depression 90 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep, surrounded by a stone wall built in two phases, between A.D. 900-1100 and between A.D. 1100-1300.
There are artificial embankments on the south and east sides, and steps go up to a ramp that slopes down into the depression.  The catchment area is 25 acres. There is evidence of ditches and an intake channel that would have brought snowmelt and rain into the reservoir. The ramp and steps possibly indicate a "walk-in" well where people filled vessels with water. This reservoir served as a water source for three centuries until it became clogged with sediment, or a drought caused a shortage of water. 

                                                      Megalithic House: A.D. 1200's

Two large stones, or megaliths, were set on edge as part of the foundation of this small house. 

Other villages in the valley north of Mesa Verde have similar construction. 

Montezuma Valley is between Mesa Verde and Sleeping Ute Mountain.

"It is likely that more people lived in the Montezuma Valley in the 12th century than
live in the valley now".

Wetherill Mesa, on the west side of Mesa Verde National Park, is a long, narrow peninsula of land bounded by deep canyons with many natural alcoves in the sandstone cliffs. 

                                                                   Forest Fire 2000
5 minute drive from the Wetherill Mesa trailhead:  Pony Fire 2000 & Rock Springs Burn, June 1972.
10 minute drive from the trailhead: Will Mesa Burn, July 1934
20 minute drive from trailhead: Long Mesa Burn, July 1989

The next day, we spoke with a retired park ranger about his work at Mesa Verde National Park. In the 1980s, he was giving a tour when a pine tree suddenly burst into flames.

More towers have been found in the Mesa Verde Montezuma Valley area than in any other part of the Southwest. Most of these were located near kivas, and many were connected to kivas by tunnels.
A tunnel extended 41 feet between a hatchway in the floor of this tower and an opening in the wall of the kiva at the far end of Badger House. This is the longest kiva-tower tunnel yet discovered in the Southwest. The tunnel was built by digging a trench which was then roofed with poles, brush and earth. When the kiva burned, the entrances at both ends of the tunnel were open. Flames were drawn through the tunnel 20 feet towards the tower charring the roof.

                                                   The kiva that the tunnel connected to

                                                                  Two Raven House
 The sides and floor of this pit were fire-reddened, and archeologists believe it was used as an oven. Food probably was placed on a bed of hot stones, covered with earth, and allowed to bake for several hours.

Trail to Nordenskiold Ruin No. 16 overlook

                                                                Getting closer!

Nordenskiold Ruin No. 16

           

As close as we can get! No entry permitted! 

The logs used to build this village were cut between A.D. 1180 and 1270. 

This dwelling has 50 rooms, 5 or 6 of these are kivas that were entered through rooftop openings.

Two or three families would have resided here, perhaps 20 to 30 people. 

                                                                     Canyon Views 

                                                               

                                                     View of Step House from our trail 

                                      The Ancestral Pueblo people constructed a stone stairway.

  People lived in this alcove for many generations. Around A.D. 625, this village was made up of about  6 circular, semi-subterranean structures. 25 to 30 people may have lived in them. Charred beams and charcoal indicate these pithouses burned. Enough intact wood remained to provide tree-ring dates, placing construction between A.D. 616 and A.D. 627.

          The Step House pueblo was built in A.D. 1226.  30 or 40 people lived here.

Some of the artifacts found include: 1, 600 corncobs, a bowl with browned cornmeal in the bottom, a corrugated jar containing seeds of 10 native plants, five pairs of scallop-toed sandals, willow baskets, leather and fur blankets, and a pouch of prairie dog skin filled with salt that came from some distance away.

                                                                      Petroglyphs 

                                                       View of our trail from the dwelling

Cortez Market Day

Saturday, August 23, 2014

                                                              Roasting of Green Chiles

                                                               with James Lamontagne
                                         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p60-i0XkMyA

                                                             Cortez Grocery Store

Mesa Verde National Park: Home of the Ancestral Puebloans

                                                        Friday, August 22, 2014

Our previous visit to Mesa Verde we saw mostly cliff dwellings, which were a later construction of the Ancestral Puebloans.  Today, we also visited pithouses and pueblos that the Ancestral Puebloans built on the mesa tops, near their fields.  Archaeologists have determined that the Puebloan people were travellers first, tracking game and gathering wild fruits, nuts and berries. In 550 A.D., they began to build permanent homes and become farmers. By settling and tilling one area year round, the Ancestral Puebloan people began to grow rapidly in size and cultural complexity. Their architectural experiments resulted in elaborate Pueblo villages.

They began building cliff dwellings about A.D. 1200. By A.D. 1300, most of the people who had made the Four Corners region the center of Ancestral Pueblon culture had moved on. Evidence suggests their descendants are the modern Pueblo peoples of the Hopi villages in northern Arizona, and the peoples of Zuni, Acona, Laguna, and the Rio Grande pueblos of New Mexico.

For many of today's Pueblo people, Cliff Palace and Mesa Verde are special places, the homes of their ancestors. 

   For closer images of Cliff Palace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IP07JdlXCk

                                    Balcony House is referred to as the "House of Many Windows".

                                                  View of Balcony House from overlook

                                           Closer view of Balcony House (look for the arch)
For an even closer view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QXy5PY4aGQ

View from Soda Canyon Overlook Trail 

For information about Hemenway House and the lady who inspired its' name: http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/mesa_verde/hemenway-house_l.html

http://colorado.untraveledroad.com/Montezuma/MesaVerde/66SSign.htm

 Surrounded by deep canyons, villages seem isolated, cut off from people on other mesas. Look closely at these cliffs and imagine hand and toe holds pecked into the sheer sandstone. These vertical trails were the people's highways. Steep climbs were part of their daily routine.  Throughout the Mesa Verde, there is strong evidence of cooperation and exchange: ceremonial structures like Sun Temple (photo below), check dams, and widespread advances in pottery and architecture. The Mesa Verde culture could not have developed so rapidly or accomplished so much, in isolation.

 I have typed the info. from many of these signs for easier reading. Some of the signs I've kept in my blog for the imagined images they portray of Ancestral Puebloan people. My photos are in order of our views of them from the drive through the park, not in order of dwelling construction ;-D

Scorched Pithouse A.D. 575 Fire-hardened bits of adobe and charcoal rubble on the floor are clues that the dwelling burned. Sifting the evidence, archaeologists precisely dated this pithouse by analyzing tree rings of the original timbers preserved as charcoal.

Storage Pit: Each floor cavity had a particular use. To store food, the occupants dug a circular hole several feet deep, lined it with slabs of rock, then covered the pit with logs and flat stones.

                                                             Square Tower House
                                       http://www.launchphotography.com/Mesa_Verde.html

 We visited a former courtyard of an early Pueblo village. We saw the remains of a row of rooms, and the deep pit room's roof was near ground level. Beyond the pit room are ruins of a second village built one hundred years later. By A.D. 850, most Mesa Verde people were living in surface dwellings instead of pit houses.

The walls of this village indicate masonry construction--rough stones loosely cemented with clay. It is uncertain why the Ancestral Puebloan people began building above ground masonry villages. Perhaps there was a shortage of house-timbers, or disastrous fires "soured the people on the earlier, wood-laced dwellings".

The foundations of these houses were built of upright stone slabs. The walls were constructed by setting poles upright and weaving small sticks between them, then plastering the walls with mud: a technique called "wattle and daub". 

Earlier kiva 

Constructed in A. D. 950

By this time, pit rooms had evolved into more formalized, religious structures--kivas.

In the kiva, vent, fire pit and sipapu (spirit entrance) form an axis pointing south. Though Mesa Verde's many ceremonial rooms vary in size and structural detail, most late or classic kivas share this southern orientation. Roofed, the kiva would appear part of the earth, the Pueblo spirit world. This Third Village kiva is larger and more carefully constructed than the two earlier kivas.                 

"There appears to be a trend in greater ceremony". 

From left: Cliff Palace, remnants of two villages, and Sunset House

From left: Fire Temple, New Fire House, Oak Tree House, Sun Temple on mesa,  Mummy House and Cliff Palace

There is a significant concentration of cliff dwellings in the Sun Temple-Cliff Palace area. Archaeologists have located twelve ruins in the vicinity. The Ancestral Pueblo people chose this location because of a reliable water supply-- a spring at the head of the canyon.

Todd, fellow blogger, took a ranger guided hike to Oak Tree House, New Fire House and the Fire Temple http://4cornershikers.blogspot.com/2011/06/oak-tree-house-on-fewkes-canyon-trail.html

At this time, this trail is not open to the public. Except for Spruce Tree House, the cliff dwellings that are available for visits require a ranger guided hike. We decided, for different reasons, to hike on our own and appreciate the views from afar.

Oak Tree House

                                                                   Mummy House

                                                                    New Fire House
It does not have the alcove expanse of Cliff Palace or Oak Tree House, but this spilt-level village makes efficient use of natural ledges. The upper level has 13 rooms. The lower level has seven rooms and three kivas.

 Fire Temple 

Though the large alcove is filled with Puebloan construction, there is no evidence of any habitation. The central pit--too large for domestic cook fires-- held layer upon layer of ashes. Fire Temple's size and carefully crafted, symmetry features suggest community-wide ceremonial gatherings.

From above, the D-shaped symmetry is striking, especially, the twin kivas. Sun Temple appears to follow a preconceived design. Such massive-construction must have involved a community wide effort. Perhaps people from all of the surrounding cliff dwellings helped with this project. The structure was never completed; there is no evidence of a roof or roof timbers. Apparently, construction stopped when the Ancestral Puebloan people began to leave the area. The structure appears ceremonial --there are no doors, no windows or fire pits. Sun Temple may have been a central gathering place for the communities, but its exact function remains a mystery.
http://www.nps.gov/meve/historyculture/mt_sun_temple.htm

As we approached our final hike for the day to view the mesa top farming community, the clouds were darkening. We put on our jackets and started our self-guided tour.  At the second stop of the tour, in the distance, we heard cracks of lightning getting closer to us. We abandoned the trail for our truck; the rain started minutes later. We sat for 20 minutes, waiting to see if the clouds would clear, watching a flow of traffic exit the park. We soon joined the convoy.  From our safe and dry Tacoma perch, it was fascinating to watch the progression of today's summer storm.   We plan to return for another visit!