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| Remains of a Pit House |
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| Remains of a mesa top pueblo. |
If you've heard of Mesa Verde National Monument, you no doubt think of amazing Cliff Dwellings built into natural alcoves that dot the canyon walls in the park. These iconic cliff dwellings are indeed the main draw for Mesa Verde, however the people who actually lived here had much more humble beginnings. Occupation in the area predates the cliff dwellings by centuries. In fact, the cliff dwellings that Mesa Verde is so famous for represent only a brief sliver at the end of the pueblo culture's timeline in the area.
Along with representing only a brief time span, the cliff dwellings represent only a fraction of the archeological sites found within the park's borders. Of the close to 5,000 archeological sites, only about 600 are cliff dwellings and many of those are far less impressive than the park's best known dwelling, Cliff Palace.
Long before the Ancestral Puebloans moved into the cliff dwellings, they occupied mesa top adobe villages and before those pueblos, the people built and lived in pit houses. The top image here is a 4 or 5 image panorama showing the remains of one of these pit houses. They weren't much more than a shallow depression in the ground that would be covered by a roof of logs and wood. These early homes, while unassuming, would leave their mark on Puebloan culture and modern.
Small, one room adobe structures began to replace the pit house as a primary residence and would eventually grow into multi-room pueblos, or villages. The second image shows the remains of a small, 2 or 3 room pueblo. (Actually it shows the remains of 2 such villages, but the second village is far in the background, near the back wall of the modern, protecting structure and is barely visible.) The structure in the immediate foreground isn't a pit house, it's what the pit house grew into, a kiva. Kivas became an integral part of Ancestral Puebloan culture and are still used by the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans, namely the Hopi. Today, kivas are used mostly as ceremonial spaces, but in ancient times they were more utilitarian places, serving as living areas as well as ceremonial and sometimes just for storage.
The kiva, at least in my mind, is a trademark feature of the Ancestral Puebloans. While I'm not a scholar, I have read quite a bit about the culture and have never heard of an Ancestral Puebloan village without a kiva and most villages had quite a few kivas. And that's not counting Great Kivas such as those found in Chaco Canyon or Aztec Ruins, but that's a story for another day!
Along with representing only a brief time span, the cliff dwellings represent only a fraction of the archeological sites found within the park's borders. Of the close to 5,000 archeological sites, only about 600 are cliff dwellings and many of those are far less impressive than the park's best known dwelling, Cliff Palace.
Long before the Ancestral Puebloans moved into the cliff dwellings, they occupied mesa top adobe villages and before those pueblos, the people built and lived in pit houses. The top image here is a 4 or 5 image panorama showing the remains of one of these pit houses. They weren't much more than a shallow depression in the ground that would be covered by a roof of logs and wood. These early homes, while unassuming, would leave their mark on Puebloan culture and modern.
Small, one room adobe structures began to replace the pit house as a primary residence and would eventually grow into multi-room pueblos, or villages. The second image shows the remains of a small, 2 or 3 room pueblo. (Actually it shows the remains of 2 such villages, but the second village is far in the background, near the back wall of the modern, protecting structure and is barely visible.) The structure in the immediate foreground isn't a pit house, it's what the pit house grew into, a kiva. Kivas became an integral part of Ancestral Puebloan culture and are still used by the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans, namely the Hopi. Today, kivas are used mostly as ceremonial spaces, but in ancient times they were more utilitarian places, serving as living areas as well as ceremonial and sometimes just for storage.
The kiva, at least in my mind, is a trademark feature of the Ancestral Puebloans. While I'm not a scholar, I have read quite a bit about the culture and have never heard of an Ancestral Puebloan village without a kiva and most villages had quite a few kivas. And that's not counting Great Kivas such as those found in Chaco Canyon or Aztec Ruins, but that's a story for another day!
