The Americas- Part 4

 Mesa Verde

 

Mural 30, Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park (photo: National Park Service)

Mural 30, Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park (photo: National Park Service)

Mugs found at Mesa Verde (photo: by the author, Mesa Verde Museum)

https://ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bfca2e88d269c1e9405ed7ff7ae307f80b2985b0.jpg

     Mesa Verde was a region occupied by Ancestral Puebloans from 450 to 1300 C.E. The Ancestral Puebloans were remarkable because they built their homes into the sides of cliffs. To this day, scholars are still unsure as to why they built their houses within cliffs. However, many believe that these cliffs provided shade and protection from snow for the farmers of this society. In fact, the Ancestral Puebloans cultivated corn, squash, and beans. It is also a mystery as to why these cliffs were abandoned, but scholars think that a drought or some type of violence/war could have occurred. Within the four corners of the United States (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona), this civilization built more than 600 structures.

    Regarding art of the Ancestral Puebloans, they often painted murals within the walls of their homes and they produced ceramics. The mural depicted above consists of geometric shapes that form a landscape. It is believed that the red band at the bottom at the bottom is the earth, while the off-white portion represents the sky. The horizon that separates these two colors has triangular shapes that represent the mountains, and the rectangular shape in the sky could represent clouds, rain, the sun, or the moon. The second picture above depicts mugs that were created by the Ancestral Puebloans. Objects like these came in many different colors, for the Ancestral Puebloans used paint from organic materials and minerals. For example, the color red came from hematite, and black came from charcoal. The geometric shapes in each of these pictures of very similar, which shows the artisitc trends in society.

    Mesa Verde National park preserves the Ancestral Puebloan heritage, and can be visited today. Mesa Verde is a popular tourist destination where people from all over the world come to see the archeological remains within the cliffs. In fact, I visited one of these preservations for a field trip in middle school. There are also traces of the Ancestral Puebloans-- there are many fingerprints within the walls of the home. Just like it is described in the reading, these structures were accessed by long ladders. 

References

Kilroy-Ewbank, Dr. Lauren, and Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank. “Mesa Verde,” 2020. https://smarthistory.org/mesa-verde-cliff-dwellings/.