• STOP #6
More towers have been found in the Mesa Verde-Montezuma Valley area than
in any other part of the Southwest. Most of these were located near
kivas, and many were connected to kivas by tunnels. This suggests that
towers were important in Anasazi ceremonial life, but archeologists are
not sure how. A tunnel extended 41 feet between a hatchway in the floor
of this tower and an opening in the wall of a kiva at the far end of
Badger House. This is the longest kiva-tower tunnel yet discovered in
the Southwest. The tunnel was built by digging a trench which was then
roofed with poles, brush and earth. When the kiva burned, the entrances
at both ends of the tunnel were open. Flames were drawn through the
tunnel some 20 feet towards the tower, charring the roof.
• STOP #7
This site was first occupied from about 900 through 1100. People
returned in the 1200’s, built the kiva and tower and a room-block, but
soon after abandoned the site for good.
The earliest houses here were so disturbed by later construction that
archeologists could not get a clear idea of their number or extent.
[Illustration: Badger House as it may have appeared in the 1200’s.]
The ruins exhibited here are the remains of two room blocks built at
different times, one partially over the rubble of the other. The lower
foundations date from about 1000-1100, the upper from the late 1250’s.
[Illustration: {Pitcher}]
Compare the changes in masonry that took place over this time span. The
walls of the earlier rooms are only one-stone wide. Except for the
chipping along the edges—a technique sometimes called “scabbling”—the
stones were left rough. The walls of the later rooms, however, were
built of two parallel rows of stone and the space between them packed
with earth and rocks. The stones themselves were finished by pecking,
similar to those you will see in the walls of the small kiva at the next
stop.
An earth-filled bench was built at one end of each of the later rooms.
These may have been sleeping platforms, raised to avoid drafts and the
cold air that settled near the floors overnight.
No roofing timbers were found in this room-block. Archeologists believe
that when the Anasazi abandoned this site they took much of Badger House
with them. Stones and beams from these rooms probably found a place in
the walls and roofs of Wetherill Mesa cliff dwellings.
• STOP #8
After about 900, Mesa Verde communities were dotted with kivas like this
one. Small kivas probably were used by several related families or by
secret religious societies whose members specialized in performing
certain types of ceremonies. The roof was at ground surface. Kiva roofs
were supported by an ingenious cribbed framework of logs. The ends of
the logs rested on the pilasters or columns along the kiva wall. Note
the large rectangular pit or vault in the floor. The ends of this vault
were stepped and supported a plank hewn from ponderosa pine.
Archeologists believe that this was used as a drum.
[Illustration: WETHERILL MESA ARCHEOLOGICAL PROJECT
Between 1958 and 1964, archeological crews excavated in several
sites on Wetherill Mesa. This work was funded by the National
Geographic Society and the National Park Service. At the time, the
Wetherill Mesa Project was among the largest “digs” ever undertaken
in the United States. A number of different fields participated,
including botanists, zoologists, and geologists. All applied their
special skills in this effort to better understand the world of the
prehistoric peoples of the Mesa Verde.]
Around 1200, most of the Mesa Verde Anasazi abandoned their homes on the
mesa tops and settled in the alcoves or overhangs along the canyon
walls. Some people continued to live—or at least to use ceremonial
sites—on the mesa tops, however. Archeologists are virtually certain
that the tower, kiva, and last block of rooms at Badger House were built
in 1258.
• STOP #9
Archeology can tell us much about how human activities alter the natural
environment. Consider this tale of two rabbits:
When the Anasazi settled on the Mesa Verde, it looked much as it does
today. Cottontails are now very common in the mesas while jackrabbits
are rare. Yet the animal bone recovered from sites like Badger House
included as much jackrabbit as cottontail.
Why?
[Illustration: Cottontail]
In clearing land for farming, the Anasazi converted areas of the mesa
tops into the sort of open habitat jackrabbits favor. The species moved
into these areas and multiplied quickly. After the Anasazi abandoned
Mesa Verde, the brush and forest grew over the former cornfields. As the
brush returned, so did the cottontails—and the jackrabbits retreated to
the open country of the Montezuma Valley, where they are common today.
[Illustration: Jackrabbit]