The Four Corners region of the United States was once home to a fascinating ancient culture known as the Ancestral Pueabloans. The Four Corners is made up of southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. The Ancestral Pueabloans emerged here in the 12th Century BCE.
In the American state of Colorado, there is a UNESCO World Heritage site called Messa Verde that has some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites. This includes over 600 cliff dwellings, which represent the final stage of the Ancestral Puebloan culture.
Initially, the Puebloans lived in pithouses, which were dug into the sandstone. Stone tools, such as hoes and sticks were used to dig the hole that formed the base of the pithouse. The average depth was four feet. After the pit was dug, it was covered with a roof made from wooden logs. To make the structure waterproof, the wooden roof was covered in clay. Pithouses were usually rebuilt every 20 years because the logs would rot.
Evidence of the stone tools used to build the pithouses can be seen in the first image above. The marks of the tool are visible on the wall. This structure would have been built around 700 CE.
As the Ancient Puebloans became better at brickwork, their structures began to change, becoming more complicated. in 900 CE a 90-foot in diameter water reservoir was built. Initially, this just involved cleaning the mud out of a low area, so that water would collect here. Later, bricks were used to build a wall around the water hole. It’s not quite the Hoover Dam, but the reservoir would have played an integral role in providing for the community.
Later the Ancestrial Pueabloans moved from building pithouses to cliff dwellings. The cliff dwelling provided greater protection from the changing climate. They provided shade during the summer months but allowed the sun to heat the dwellings during the winter months. The air inside the cliffs and canyons was usually 5°C warmer than atop the mesas.
The cliff dwelling also did not need to be rebuilt as often as the pithouses, since they relied a lot less on wood.
The largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde, and also in North America, is Cliff Palace. It has 150 rooms and 23 kivas (rooms dug into the ground). Construction on Cliff Palace started in 1190 CE and continued until 1260 CE. Cliff Palace could support a population of approximately 100 people. Some of the walls were covered in coloured plasters. Due to the arrangement of some of the colours, it is believed that Cliff Palace had ceremonial usage.
Around 1285 the Ancestral Puebloans left the Mesa Verde region. The reason for their emigration is not known, but it was possible due to a series of droughts. The cliff dwellings were left abandoned for centuries, eventually being rediscovered by European explorers in the late 1800s. Eventually, the site was turned into a National Park, and then later a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde cliff dwellings are a cultural legacy that displays the architectural ingenuity of the Ancient Puebloans. They give us a glimpse into the achievements and struggles of the past and display the creativity of ancient builders.
