The so-called “Mesa Verde cliff dwellers” were not the first of the
prehistoric southwestern cultures, nor were they the first human
occupants of the natural caves that abound in the area of the park.
Centuries before the cliff-dweller culture with its complex social
organizations, agriculture, and highly developed arts of masonry,
textiles, and ceramics, it is thought that small groups of primitive
Mongoloid hunters crossed from the northeastern peninsula of Asia to the
western coast of Alaska. The Bering Strait, with but 60 miles of water
travel, offered the safest and easiest route.
Just when these migrations to the east had their origin and how long they
continued cannot definitely be said, but it is thought the earliest
Mongoloid hunters were in northwestern America about twelve to fifteen
thousand years ago. When Columbus “discovered” America the continent was
inhabited from Alaska to the Strait of Magellan and from the Pacific to
the Atlantic coasts.
For perhaps several thousand years following the first migrations little
of great significance developed. There undoubtedly was cultural progress,
but it was slow, and in the long perspective of time its evidences are
hardly discernible. With the knowledge and benefits of agriculture, which
was probably developed first in Mexico, hunting gave way to husbandry,
nomadism to sedentary life, and there followed a great period of change
and advancement. The introduction of corn or Indian maize into what is
now the southwestern United States may be called the antecedent condition
for all advanced cultures of the area.
Evidence has not yet been established that the first of the maize-growing
Indians of the Southwest were permanent occupants of the Mesa Verde.
Nevertheless, in the Cliff Palace cave, well below the horizon or floor
level of the cliff dwellers, archeologists have found a yucca fiber
sandal of a distinctive type which is associated only with the first
agricultural civilization. From this evidence it would be reasonable to
assume that the caves of Mesa Verde at least offered temporary shelter,
if not permanent homes, to the people of this period.
The earliest culture so far definitely identified as having permanent
habitation on the Mesa Verde is the Basket Maker III or the Second
Agricultural Basket Maker first found in Step House cave on the west side
of the park below the debris of the latter cliff-house occupation. Recent
excavations and archeological surveys furnish conclusive evidence that
the second agricultural people were most numerous in the area now
included in this national park, and they constructed their roughly
circular subterranean rooms not only in the sandy floor of the caves but
also in the red soil on the comparatively level mesas separating the
numerous canyons. Late Basket Maker House A, formerly known as Earth
Lodge A, is an excellent example of this early type of structure. Up to
this time excavations have failed to uncover a single house structure of
this type not destroyed by fire.
These early inhabitants made basketry, excelled in the art of weaving,
and it is believed were the first of the southwestern cultures to invent
fired pottery. The course of this invention can be traced from the crude
sun-dried vessel tempered with shredded cedar bark to the properly
tempered and durable fired vessel.
Then followed a long development in house structure, differing materially
from this earlier type. Horizontal masonry replaced the cruder attempts
of house-wall construction; rectangular or squarish forms replaced the
somewhat circular and earlier type; and gradually the single-room
structure was grouped in ever-enlarging units which assumed varying forms
of arrangement as the development progressed. The art of pottery making
improved concurrently with the more complex house structure. This later
period represents the intermediate era of development from the crude Late
Basket Maker dwellings to the remarkable structures of the “Cliff House
Culture.”
During this period of transition new people penetrated the area. The
Basket Makers throughout the course of their development were
consistently a long-headed group. The appearance of an alien group is
recorded through the finding of skeletons with broad or round skulls and
a deformed occiput. These new people, the Pueblos, took over, changed,
and adapted to their own needs the material culture of the earlier
inhabitants.
The cliff dwellers were not content with the crude buildings and earth
lodges that satisfied as homes during earlier periods of occupancy. For
their habitations they shaped stones into regular forms, sometimes
ornamenting them with designs, and laid them in mud mortar, one on
another. Their masonry has resisted the destructive forces of the
elements for centuries.
The arrangement of houses in a cliff dwelling the size of Cliff Palace is
characteristic and is intimately associated with the distribution of the
social divisions of its former inhabitants.
The population was composed of a number of units, possibly clans, each of
which had its more or less distinct social organization, as indicated in
the arrangement of the rooms. The rooms occupied by a clan were not
necessarily connected, although generally neighboring rooms were
distinguished from one another by their uses. Thus, each clan had its
men’s room, which is ceremonially called the “kiva.” Each clan had also
one or more rooms, which may be styled the living rooms, and other
enclosures for granaries. The corn was ground into meal in another room
containing the metate set in a stone bin or trough. Sometimes the rooms
had fireplaces, although these were generally in the plazas or on the
housetops. All these different rooms, taken together, constituted the
houses that belonged to one clan.
The conviction that each kiva denotes a distinct social unit, as a clan
or a family, is supported by a general similarity in the masonry of the
kiva walls and that of adjacent houses ascribed to the same clan. From
the number of these rooms it would appear that there were at least 23
social units or clans in Cliff Palace.
Apparently there is no uniformity or prearranged plan in the distribution
of the kivas. As religious belief and custom prescribed that these rooms
should be subterranean, the greatest number were placed in front of the
rectangular buildings where it was easiest to construct them. When
necessary, because of limited space or other conditions, kivas were also
built far back in the cave and inclosed by a double wall of masonry, with
the walls being spaced about two and a half to three feet apart. The
section between the walls was then backfilled with earth or rubble to the
level of the kiva roof. In that way the ceremonial structure was
artificially made subterranean, as their beliefs required.
In addition to their ability as architects and masons, the cliff dwellers
excelled in the art of pottery making and as agriculturists. Their
decorated pottery—a black design on pearly white background—will compare
favorably with pottery of the other cultures of the prehistoric
Southwest.
As their sense of beauty was keen, their art, though primitive, was true;
rarely realistic, generally symbolic. Their decoration of cotton fabrics
and ceramic work might be called beautiful, even when judged by our own
standards. They fashioned axes, spear points, and rude tools of stone;
they wove sandals, and made attractive basketry.
The staple product of the cliff dwellers was corn; they also planted
beans and gourds. This limited selection was perhaps augmented by piñon
nuts and yucca fruit—indigenous products found in abundance.
Nevertheless, successful agriculture on the semiarid plateau of the Mesa
Verde must have been dependent upon hard work and diligent efforts.
Without running streams irrigation was impossible and success depended
upon the ability of the farmer to save the crop through the dry period of
June and early July.
Rain at the right time was the all-important problem, and so confidently
did they believe that they were dependent upon the gods to make the rain
fall and the corn grow that they worshiped the sun as the father of all
life and the earth as the mother who brought them all their material
blessings.
From Dr. A. E. Douglass’s tree-ring chronology the earliest date so far
established for the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings is 1066 A. D. and the
latest date 1274 A. D. While it should not be imagined that these are the
all-inclusive dates representing the total time of the cliff-dweller
culture, it is interesting to note that this same tree-ring story tells
us that a great drought commenced in 1276 and extended for a 23-year
period to 1299. It may logically be presumed that the prehistoric
population was gradually forced to withdraw from the area as the drought
continued and to establish itself near more favorable sources of water
supply.
The so-called “Aztec ruin”, which is situated on the banks of the Animas
River in northwestern New Mexico, substantiates this hypothesis of the
voluntary desertion of the cliff dwellings. In this ruin is found
unmistakable evidence of a secondary occupation which has been definitely
identified as a Mesa Verde settlement.
It is thought that certain of the present-day Pueblo Indians are
descendants, in part at least, of the cliff dwellers. Many of these
Indian towns or pueblos still survive in the States of New Mexico and
Arizona, the least modified of which are the villages of the Hopi,
situated not far from the Grand Canyon National Park.