The Book of the National ParksYard, Robert Sterling
History
The Book of the National Parks
Yard, Robert Sterling
National parks and reserves -- United States
While their masonry did not apparently improve in proportion, Far View
House shows increase in the number and variety of the decorative figures
incised on hewn stones. The spiral, representing the coiled serpent,
appears a number of times, as do many combinations of squares, curves,
and angles arranged in fanciful design, which may or may not have had
symbolic meanings.
A careful examination of the neighborhood discloses few details of the
irrigation system, but it shows a cemetery near the southeast corner of
the building in which the dead were systematically buried.
Large numbers of minor antiquities were found in this interesting
structure. Besides the usual stone implements of the mason and the
housekeeper, many instruments of bone, such as needles, dirks, and
bodkins, were found. Figurines of several kinds were unearthed, carved
from soft stone, including several intended to symbolize Indian corn;
all these may have been idols. Fragments of pottery were abundant, in
full variety of form, decoration, and color, but always the most ancient
types. Among the bones of animals, the frequency of those of rabbits,
deer, antelope, elk, and mountain-sheep indicate that meat formed no
inconsiderable part of the diet. Fabrics and embroideries were not
discovered, as in the cliff-dwellings, but they may have disappeared in
the centuries through exposure to the elements.
Far View House may not show the highest development of the Mummy Lake
cluster of pueblos, and further exhumations here and in neighboring
groups may throw further light upon this interesting people in their
gropings from darkness to light. Meantime, however, returning to the
neighborhood of the cliff-dwellings, let us examine a structure so late
in the history of these people that they left it unfinished.
Sun Temple stands on a point of Chapin Mesa, somewhat back from the
edge of Cliff Canyon, commanding an extraordinary range of country. It
is within full view of Cliff Palace and other cliff-dwellings of
importance and easy of access. From it, one can look southward to the
Mancos River. On every side a wide range of mesa and canyon lies in full
view. The site is unrivalled for a temple in which all could worship
with devotion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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