Chapter II: Part 2

It has already become obvious that as the size of the ruins diminishes the number increases. An estimate of the number of these tiny ruins would sound unreasonable. It probably is safe to say, however, that there may be as many of these very small ruins as there are of all the others together.

Below are typical examples of the small high ruins that contain from one to five rooms.

All of the canyons have these very small ruins—a count would run into the hundreds. In all probability many have not been entered in modern times for they are so small and high as to be scarcely worth the effort. Probably some have not even been seen by white men. Since they are located on cliff faces often they can be seen only from the opposite canyon wall. And when they are in deep recesses and crevices they can be seen only from certain points and only when light conditions are exactly right.

WHAT WERE THEY FOR?

One cannot view these small ruins without wondering about their intended use. In some cases, of course, they were dwellings. Often they contained from three to five well-built rooms which, even though high on the cliffs would have housed a few people. Life in such villages may have been a bit nerve-wracking but at least the people enjoyed a defensive advantage. Usually these tiny structures did not contain kivas. Often several of the small villages were close together and they may have shared a kiva that was somewhere along the base of the cliff.

Most of these very small ruins contained only one or two rooms and they were often incredibly high on sheer canyon walls. Usually the rooms were small; sometimes there was scarcely room enough for a man to crowd inside. Certainly these were not living rooms for families. And it is doubtful if they were storage rooms for they were often located some distance from other villages. Surely food would not have been stored where it could have been reached by anyone with monkey-like climbing ability and no fear of heights.

Many suggestions have been made about the small high cliff dwellings but each ends with a question mark. Were they homes? Did they serve as storage rooms? Did antisocial individuals live in them? Were they hideouts that resulted from excessive enemy activity? Did daring youngsters build them “just for fun?” Or were they simply the result of a fad—was it considered quite clever to build in breath-taking places?

FUTURE EXCAVATION OF CLIFF DWELLINGS

Spring House is an example of the large cliff dwellings in which further excavation may produce valuable archeological material and information. As has already been mentioned the early explorers worked extensively in the ruins and removed an amazing amount of material. Ruins like Spring House, however, contain such deep masses of debris that it is possible the cowboys did not do a thorough job of excavation. If the lower section of this cave were excavated valuable material might be found in the deeper levels.

EARLIER OCCUPANTS OF THE CAVES

Many centuries before the Pueblo Indians built the cliff dwellings their ancestors lived in the caves of the Mesa Verde region. At first they had no houses and the caves provided shelter. After a time pithouses developed and these structures were sometimes built in the caves. Finally the people deserted the cliffs and as the centuries passed the evidences of the early occupations were covered with earth and sand that accumulated. When the people returned to the cliffs centuries later they built their cliff dwellings on top of the earlier material, not knowing or not caring that it was there.

In order to recover the material left by the earlier people it is necessary to excavate under the cliff dwellings. One project of this type has been carried out and the results are an indication of what further excavation may reveal under some of the larger ruins. In 1926, three pithouses were found in the lower levels of Stephouse Cave, which is across the canyon from Spring House. In 1891, Nordenskiold realized that earlier people had lived in the cave although he did not dig deeply enough to find the pithouses. As he dug into the debris he found two pieces of crude early pottery and in his book Nordenskiold stated, “It is possible that both these vessels are older than the rest of the pottery from the cliff dwellings. Perhaps they are the work of a people who inhabited Stephouse Cave before the erection of the cliff village.”

Later, the Wetherills found more of the early pottery. They even dug through a portion of one of the pithouses and they, too, suggested that an earlier people had lived there. Finally in 1926, Park Superintendent Jesse L. Nusbaum excavated that section of the cave and found the three pithouses under several feet of debris left by the later people who had lived in the cliff dwelling.

If the evidences of the earlier occupations are found in the caves it will be in situations like that pictured on the opposite page where great depths of debris protected them from the early explorers. Little is known of the occupation of the Mesa Verde by the earliest agricultural people. Further knowledge will come only upon excavation of the lower levels of some of the caves.

SPECIAL CEREMONIAL BUILDINGS

Two ruins have been found in the Mesa Verde that seem quite different from the rest. All evidence indicates that these structures were not dwellings but were built for some special purpose. When they were excavated, they contained practically nothing that served to indicate their intended use, but because of certain construction features they are thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes.

SUN TEMPLE

This large structure stands on the point between Cliff and Fewkes Canyons. While it is not a cliff dwelling it was, without doubt, constructed by people who lived in cliff dwellings nearby. Within one-half mile of Sun Temple are twenty cliff dwellings and it is believed that people from some or all of these may have worked together to construct this large ceremonial building.

Sun Temple is a D-shaped structure, 121 feet long and 64 feet wide. At the time of excavation some of the walls were more than 11 feet in height and originally all of the outer walls probably were a little higher than that. The walls, which contain some of the best masonry in the Mesa Verde, have an average thickness of about three feet. There are no doors in the outer walls and there is no evidence of a roof. The building contains twenty-four rooms, of various shapes, three kivas and a large court. Nine of the rooms have no doors; they were simply deep cells entered from the top.

The most unusual feature of Sun Temple is its evidence of careful planning. It was not built haphazardly, as were the cliff dwellings, but according to a preconceived plan. The main, perhaps the original section, is D-shaped with the parts arranged in almost perfect symmetry. When the second section was added the building retained the D-shape.

Sun Temple is without doubt the most mysterious building that has been found in the Mesa Verde. Because of the evidence of careful planning, the unusual symmetry of its parts, and the complete lack of any evidence that it was a habitation, Sun Temple is considered to have been constructed for special ceremonial usage. The name Sun Temple is misleading, however, for the nature of the ceremonies will never be known.

FIRE TEMPLE

This unusual structure is located in a shallow cave in Fewkes Canyon, only a short distance from Sun Temple. Like Sun Temple it exhibits a symmetrical arrangement which indicates careful planning on the part of the builders.

In the center of the open court is a large firepit, on either side of which is a low rectangular crypt. At each end of the court stands a two story structure. Originally most of the walls were covered with a white plaster and on this a number of geometric and animal figures were painted in red.

Few artifacts were found in Fire Temple at the time of excavation and there was no indication that it had been used as a dwelling. Because of this and the symmetrical arrangement it is considered to have been used for ceremonies. The name, Fire Temple, is misleading for there is no possibility of determining the nature of the ceremonies.

CLIFF PALACE, THE GREATEST OF THE CLIFF DWELLINGS

Cliff Palace occupies a huge crescent-shaped cave on the east side of Cliff Canyon. The cave itself measures 325 feet across the front and its greatest depth is just over 100 feet. The ruin covers the entire floor of the cave and parts of it rise to the cave roof. The ancient builders made no effort to alter the cave to fit their needs. They simply made their structures conform to natural contours and when seen under certain conditions of light the houses seem almost to be part of the cliff itself.

Because of its location visitors are able to get better views of Cliff Palace than of any of the other cliff dwellings. Several points on the opposite rim of the canyon offer striking distant views and the high cliffs at each end of the cave are perfectly located for spectacular closeups.

Seen from any angle Cliff Palace is a magnificent structure and visitors sometimes have difficulty in believing that it is real. Here in the midst of a vast wilderness of canyons is this great ruin, sheltered for seven centuries by the enormous cave. It is a strange setting for the ancient city and it has an unreal quality for visitors who see it for the first time.

Baron Nordenskiold, who saw Cliff Palace in 1891, felt something of this when he told of his first view of the ruin in his book, “The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde.”

“In a long, but not very deep branch of Cliff Canyon, a wild and gloomy gorge named Cliff Palace Canyon, lies the largest of the ruins on the Mesa Verde, the Cliff Palace. Strange and indescribable is the impression on the traveler, when, after a long and tiring ride through the boundless monotonous pinon forest, he suddenly halts on the brink of the precipice, and in the opposite cliff beholds the ruins of the Cliff Palace, framed in the massive vault of rock above and in a bed of sunlit cedar and pinon trees below. This ruin well deserves its name, for with its round towers and high walls rising out of the heaps of stones deep in the mysterious twilight of the cavern, and defying in their sheltered site the ravages of time, it resembles at a distance an enchanted castle.”

THE PEOPLE OF CLIFF PALACE

As you look at Cliff Palace today, it is difficult to see it as it was when it was alive. Many of the walls have fallen and only small bits of masonry remain as indications of houses that once were there. Rebuild these walls in your imagination and then, most important of all, place flat adobe roofs on the houses. Now see how it has changed! It is no longer a ruin—it has become a terraced apartment house, fitted into the sheltering cave. The more than 200 rooms rise in at least eight levels from the front of the cave to the high structures in the rear.

As your imagination restores the village to its original condition the people begin to appear. Since it is evening all of them have returned to the security of their cave home. The men have come back from the fields and from the hunt. The women have returned from their search for roots and berries and the girls have made their last trip to the springs, returning with jars of water balanced on their heads. The children, urged by the calls of their mothers, have ended their play in the canyon and on the cliffs and returned to their homes. Only the dogs and turkeys are outside the village: they are searching for scraps of food on the great trash pile below the cave.

As the shadows lengthen the 300 or 400 inhabitants are safe within the shelter of their fortress-like village. Cooking fires have been kindled and columns of smoke drift lazily up the cliff and into the sky. The odors of corn bread and stewing or roasting meat rise on the evening air and soon the people separate into many small family groups for the evening meal. Now it is quiet: only the murmur of low voices rises from the cave. The day’s activities are over and the happy, contented people are ready for the night.

If you would like really to see the people, scroll down.

A CLIFF DWELLING AND ITS PEOPLE

Sometimes visitors to the Mesa Verde find it difficult to see the Indians who once lived in the cliff dwellings. It is not always easy for the imagination to carry one back through the centuries to the time when there was life in the caves. Minds geared to the frantic pace of modern times are not always able to see the thousands of Indians who once lived in the cliff dwellings.

In order to make it easier for visitors to see the people, dioramas like the one pictured are displayed in the museum. The ancient villages have been reproduced in miniature. In them are not only the people, engaged in their many activities, but all the things they used in their daily lives. The diorama pictured below is a reproduction of Spruce Tree House, one of the largest of the cliff dwellings. One-half of the thirteenth century village has been reproduced as accurately as possible. In it 50 people are engaged in the various activities that occupied the inhabitants of the village seven centuries ago. The adult human figures are four inches high and all objects are on the same scale.

As one stands in front of this diorama it is no longer necessary to try to imagine the life of ancient times. Here in miniature is a cliff dwelling and its people. Houses and kivas are being built—some of the men work diligently while others sit on the walls and criticize. Some of the men are making tools and weapons—one is telling stories to a group of boys—another has just returned from the hunt with a fat rabbit. Several old men bask in the sun and talk of bygone times when things were better. Some of the women are cooking over flickering fires—others care for tiny babies. Some of the young women are grinding corn while others are returning from the spring with great jars of water on their heads. Children are playing in the courts and one youngster is helping a baby brother take his first toddling steps. Since it is harvest time the products of the farms are being brought to the village. Brightly colored ears of corn are being spread out on the roofs to dry and piles of yellow squashes may be seen in the courts.

Dioramas like this one provide for visitors the most important part of the Mesa Verde Story, the part that is so often missed. The excavated cliff dwellings that visitors enter are empty. Seven centuries ago the Indians themselves walked away, driven to the south by enemies and a great drouth. Most of their belongings were left behind but the early explorers and later archeologists removed them.

Because of this a cliff dwelling may seem, at first glance, to be an empty house. Too often visitors see only the stone walls and fail to see the people who built them. One must always remember that a cliff dwelling is the architectural expression of a settled, industrious agricultural people. For a thousand years they lived in the Mesa Verde region. From a simple beginning their culture developed steadily and the cultural peak was reached during the thirteenth century. This was the century of the cliff dwellings. Because of strong enemy pressure the people moved to the caves and built the cliff dwellings for which the Mesa Verde is famous.

THE END OF THE STORY

Just before the close of the thirteenth century the story ended. Menaced by their enemies and with their existence threatened by the great drouth of 1276-1299 A.D., they moved to the south and east. Gradually they mingled with other Pueblo Indians and soon were no longer recognizable as a Mesa Verde group. Their descendants are to be found in some of the present-day Indian Pueblos along the Rio Grande, in New Mexico.

REFERENCES CITED

Chapin, F. H.
1892. The Land of the Cliff-Dwellers. W. B. Clarke and Co., Boston.

Fewkes, J. W.
1909. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Spruce-tree
House. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 41.
1911. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace.
Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 51.
1916. Excavation and Repair of Sun Temple, Mesa Verde National
Park. Reports of the Department of the Interior for 1916.
1916. The cliff-ruins in Fewkes Canyon, Mesa Verde National Park,
Colorado. “Holmes Anniversary Volume,” pp. 96-117. Washington.

Holmes, W. H.
1878. Report on the ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado,
examined during the summers of 1875 and 1876. United States
Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories for
1876, 10th Annual Report, pp. 383-408.

Jackson, W. H.
1876. Ancient ruins in Southwestern Colorado. U. S. Geological and
Geographical Survey of the Territories for 1874, 8th Annual
Report, pp. 367-81.
1929. The Pioneer Photographer. World Book Co., Yonkers-on-Hudson,
New York.

Mason, C. C.
1917. Article on discovery and exploration of the cliff dwellings
of Mesa Verde National Park. The Denver Post, July 1, 1917.

Nordenskiold, G.
1893. The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde. Translated by D. Lloyd
Morgan. Stockholm.

LITHOPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
CUSHING-MALLOY, INC., ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, 1954

Transcriber’s Notes

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—Corrected a few palpable typographical errors.

—Placed illustration captions below the corresponding illustration.

—Modified references to illustration locations to correspond to the
reality of a flowing eText, e.g. “shown on the opposite page” might be
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End of Project Gutenberg's Cliff Dwellings of the Mesa Verde, by Don Watson