Who were they? What were their lives like? Where did they go, and why? These are a few of the questions long pondered by scientists who study the ancestral Puebloans who thrived amid the mesa tops and canyon alcoves of what is now Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. They inhabited the area for 750 years, evolving from a simple hunting-gathering culture to an intricate society. They flourished long before any European exploration of the New World, but by around 1300, they were gone.
Nearly 5,000 known archaeology sites exist in the park, including about 600 cliff dwellings (the most found anywhere in the world) and pit houses dating back to 500. Viewed in the order that they were built, these sites reveal the architectural development at Mesa Verde and offer a fascinating snapshot of an earlier time in America.
The first inhabitants were an agricultural people, and the earliest evidence suggests that they began moving into the area around 550. Historians call them the "Basket-makers" for their craft. They hunted deer, rabbits, and squirrels and gathered wild plants. The women made pottery, and the men made tools and roofed houses. By 750, they used the bow and arrow but relied more on farming for food such as corn, beans, and squash. The culture was evolving, and archaeologists refer to the inhabitants of this time as the Modified Basket-makers.
Smoke-blackened walls and ceilings that have been discovered indicate that the villagers lit fires during the colder months. Many pit house villages have been found on the mesas, and two have been reconstructed within the park. They had a living room, sunk a few feet into the ground, and a fire pit. They became the ceremonial places now known as "kivas," where historians believe the people may have conducted healing rites, prayed for rain or food, performed chores, and gathered socially.
The years leading up to 1000 were marked by experimentation and progress. The inhabitants used an array of materials to build their homes under cliffs. A mix of water, ash, and mud became mortar for bricks, and wooden beams were used with adobe to construct floors and roofs. The inhabitants arranged the homes in close-knit villages, or "pueblos," with open courtyards in which the happenings of daily life occurred.
Between 1100 and 1300, the population grew to several thousand, but many abandoned the mesa tops and constructed their dwellings in the alcoves of canyon walls. Historians are not sure why-it may have been for refuge from Mother Nature or for religious or psychological reasons. Around 1276, drought devastated the area. Some years were drier than others, but a period of abnormally dry seasons continued for 25 years, drying up springs, threatening crops, and possibly forcing the inhabitants to leave the area in search of more dependable water sources.
Some historians believe that a larger, associated reason for their departure was the overpopulation of Mesa Verde and the overuse of its resources - which may have caused conflict among the inhabitants or with outsiders. Another theory is that the inhabitants simply saw the late 1200s as the time to move on, the next stop in a natural migration. Village by village, they deserted Mesa Verde, many to New Mexico and Arizona. (Scientists study ancestral Puebloans, in part, by comparing their dwellings to those of their indigenous descendants who live in the Southwest today.)
It would be nearly six centuries before the first known mention of Mesa Verde in 1859 by Professor J.S. Newberry, who explored territory in what is now the state of Utah. After decades of archaeological discoveries, Mesa Verde was established as a national park in 1906. Nearly 100 years later, however, the full story of the people of Mesa Verde is not known.
"Yet for all their silence, these sites speak with a certain eloquence," states Park Service literature. "They tell of a people adept at building, artistic in their crafts, and skillful at wresting a living from difficult land. These accomplishments rank among the finest expressions of human culture in ancient America."
