Mesa Verde

All of the American south-west was part of the Spanish empire for centuries, and then became Mexican when that country gained independence from Spain in 1821. In 1845 the USA and Mexico fought a war over the sovereignty of Texas that Mexico lost. The peace treaty of 1848 gave the USA the disputed territory of Texas,  and also the bargain purchase of what are now the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, part of Colorado, and New Mexico. Not a bad haul.

However, the USA inherited the Spanish speaking inhabitants and place names. Both survive to this day, somewhat watered down by the English speaking occupation of the last 150 years.

Mesa Verde is one such original Spanish name. It means green table, that is, a fertile, high plateau. It’s a picturesque climb to the tabletop level especially in autumn when the leaves are just starting to turn.

But Mesa Verde is much more than a pretty upland: it hold the remains of an area once occupied by the Puebloans, a sophisticated civilisation that disappeared by 1300 AD.

Archaeologists determine that the Peubloans first appeared around 550 AD on the Mesa Verde plateau, farming, weaving baskets and living in pit houses like the one excavated below. The walls were made of wattle and mud daub.

The mainstay crop was maize, which keeps for years. These ears are at least 1500 years old. Anyone for prehistoric popcorn?

Between 550 and 1100 the civilisation progressed to living in villages of multi story large dwellings built from stone with mud mortar.

The circular design of the old pit houses is still retained as living and communal quarters. The archaeologists call these kivas. The kiva layout is quite complicated with shelves, fresh-air ducts and tunnels leading to other parts of the complex.

Bows and arrows were, used for hunting and stone and bone tools refined for manual work like felling trees, trimming building stone and scraping hides. By 1100 pottery had developed into a vast range of items, many with highly artistic decoration. 

Dogs and turkeys were domesticated, and turkey feathers were even used in weaving. This is a woven turkey-feather boot. Take note, Clarks, this could be the next big fashion trend.

In about the year 1200, an amazing thing happened; the Puebloans moved from their elaborate and convenient villages built on land to equally elaborate cliff dwellings. Not so convenient, though.

 To give a better idea of where this is perched, I’ll step back with the camera, but not too far as it’s 700 feet to the bottom.

They still worked the fields and hunted, so access to and from the cliff dwellings was frequent, and was by a combination of wooden ladder, stone staircase  or precipitous hand-holds cut into the rock. But this next dwelling is something else- how did they manage to build and then safely use it?

The above picture doesn’t tell the full story. The houses are at the tip of the arrow in the next photo. Imagine- you’re stood on the clifftop, it’s dark, maybe icy, you’re tired from hunting all day, and you have to scramble down a sheer rockface.  Perhaps the turkey-feather boots had flying properties.

Even the visitor’s paths can be difficult, especially with the high altitude. Some sections of Mesa Verde reach 8,500 feet, so it’s not that flat.

The big question is why was all this abandonned around 1300 AD, and where did they go? Modern archaeologicals can give some indications. Tree ring data reveals a 25 year drought from 1274 onwards, and this coupled with soil depletion perhaps caused the Puebloans to move away. Their descendants can be traced to 24 tribes living in New Mexico and Arizona. Also, why did they previously move from their land villages to the cliffs? We can only guess that it was for defensive purposes.

One thing is clear, that they progressed far ahead of equivalent tribes of the time in the quality and range of their lifestyle. We might be even more surprised at their achievements had they been able to leave a written record.

Mesa Verde is a World Heritage Site, and the National Park Service has a fine line to tread in showing visitors this remarkable area and at the same time preventing them from wrecking it. Environmental events don’t help either as the region is prone to forest fires caused by lightning strike, the aftermath of which is much in evidence.

Although known to the Native American Indians, the white settlers only set eyes on Mesa Verde in 1888 when two ranchers went searching for stray cows. America actually does have a bit more history that is generally realised. We were most impressed by the well presented archaeology and by the fascinating story that it told.