Mesa Verde [Colorado] National ParkUnited States. Department of the Interior
History
Mesa Verde [Colorado] National Park
United States. Department of the Interior
Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.)
In the summer of 1929 Mr. and Mrs. Harold S. Gladwin and associates of
Gila Pueblo, Globe, Ariz., assisted by Deric Nusbaum, conducted an
archeological survey of small-house ruins on Chapin Mesa and in the
canyon heads along the North Rim. The survey covered 250 sites. One
hundred sherds were collected from each site and studied to identify
the pottery types, the sequence of their development, and their
relationship to pottery types of other southwestern archeological
areas.
The forest fire of 1934 revealed many hitherto unknown ruins. Two
splendid watchtowers were found on the west cliff of Rock Canyon. In a
small area at the head of Long Canyon 10 new Early Pueblo ruins were
located and no doubt scores of others will be found upon more careful
search. In the heads of the small canyons many dams and terraces were
noted.
In the stabilization program that was carried on in 1934-35 a number
of artifacts were found. A certain amount of debris had to be moved in
order that the weakened walls and slipping foundations might be
strengthened and varied finds resulted. Axes, bone awls, sandals,
pottery, planting sticks, and similar articles were most common, but a
few burials were also found.
In August 1934 the undisturbed skeleton of an old woman was found on
the bare floor of a small ruin just across the canyon from the public
campgrounds. This skeleton, of particular importance because of fusion
of the spinal column, had apparently remained exposed and undisturbed
through more than seven centuries.
Because of the fact that no detailed, comprehensive survey has ever
been made of the archeological resources of the park, the findings of
new ruins, artifacts, and human remains are more or less regularly
reported at the park museum.
PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS OF THE MESA VERDE
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 north-eastern 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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