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Mesa Verde's elevation and southward slope
created conditions more favourable to early human habitation than the lands
below the mesa. The first Puebloans settled about A.D. 550. Formerly
they were nomadic basket makers, but they settled as farmers, rather than
hunter gatherers. |
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Early pit house about 600 AD |
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About 1200 AD the people began to move back
into the cliff alcoves, which had sheltered their ancestors. It is not
known why the people made this move, perhaps it was for defence; or perhaps
better protection from the elements. It could have been for religious
or other practical reasons. |
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Square Tower House |
Cliff storage rooms |
Cliff dwelling. |
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Most of the cliff dwellings were built from
the late 1190's to the late 1270s. They range in size from one room
houses to villages of more than 200 rooms - Cliff Palace.
Architecturally, there is no standard ground plan. The builders fitted
their structures into the available space. Most walls were single
courses of stone, perhaps because alcove roofs limited heights and also
protected them from erosion by the weather. Many rooms were
plastered on the inside and decorated with painted designs. |
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Cliff dwelling |
Cliff dwelling |
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Spruce Tree house was built between 1200 and
1276 and has 114 rooms and 8 kivas, or ceremonial chambers. It was home to
about 100 people. |
Courtyard showing access to a kiva. |
Inside a kiva |
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Cliff Palace from across the canyon |
Closer views across Cliff Palace. |
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Left. Decorations inside a tower of Cliff Palace |
Right. A Kiva, which is Hopi word for ceremonial room. These were
underground chambers that may be compared to churches of later times.
Ancestral Pueblans may have used then to conduct healing rites or to pray for
rain, luck in hunting, or good crops. |
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Iron deposited round a natural water channel
in the rock to form a 'pipe'. |
Cliff canyon. |
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