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
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
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.
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 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.
Oak Tree 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.
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!
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