SOUTHWESTERN USA
RS ROAD TRIP
RS ROAD TRIP
August 23, 2017 (Day 16)
Mesa Verde National Park, CO to Cortez, CO
Miles Today: 46 / Total Trip Miles: 2,552
Miles Today: 46 / Total Trip Miles: 2,552
Today's Route
(Click on map to enlarge)
Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table") protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Created in 1906, the park occupies 52,485 acres, including 600 cliff dwellings. Starting c. 7500 BC, Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians. Later, Archaic people established semi-permanent rockshelters in and around the mesa. By 1000 BC, the Basketmaker culture emerged from the local Archaic population, and by 750 AD the Ancestral Puebloans had developed from the Basketmaker culture. The Mesa Verdeans survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops such as corn, beans, and squash. They built the mesa's first pueblos sometime after 650, and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known. By 1285, following a period of social and environmental instability driven by a series of severe and prolonged droughts, they abandoned the area and moved south to locations in Arizona and New Mexico.
PHOTOS
(Click on Photo for a Larger Image
Tomorrow
Mary and I drive to Gallup, New Mexico via Four Corners Monument, USA.
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Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table") protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Created in 1906, the park occupies 52,485 acres, including 600 cliff dwellings. Starting c. 7500 BC, Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians. Later, Archaic people established semi-permanent rockshelters in and around the mesa. By 1000 BC, the Basketmaker culture emerged from the local Archaic population, and by 750 AD the Ancestral Puebloans had developed from the Basketmaker culture. The Mesa Verdeans survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops such as corn, beans, and squash. They built the mesa's first pueblos sometime after 650, and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known. By 1285, following a period of social and environmental instability driven by a series of severe and prolonged droughts, they abandoned the area and moved south to locations in Arizona and New Mexico.
PHOTOS
(Click on Photo for a Larger Image
Spruce Tree House
Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde — Cliff Palace and Long House are larger. Spruce Tree House was constructed between 1211 and 1278 by the ancestors of the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. The dwelling contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (ceremonial chambers) built into a natural alcove measuring 216 feet at greatest width and 89 feet at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people.
This cliff dwelling was first discovered in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. A large tree, which they identified as a Douglas Spruce (later called Douglas Fir), was found growing from the front of the dwelling to the mesa top. It is said that the men first entered the dwelling by climbing down this tree, which was later cut down by another early explorer.
Sun Temple
The Sun Temple is a D-shaped structure perched on the lip of a mesa. Based upon the amount of fallen stone removed during excavation, the walls probably were between 11 and 14 feet high.There are different theories about the purpose and function of this structure. The thick walls were double-coursed and filled with a rubble core.
A mathematician from Arizona State University, Sherry Towers, examined aerial imagery and concluded that the Sun Temple contains sophisticated geometric patterns, including Pythagorean triangles and other shapes used by other ancient civilizations. She also concluded the Sun Temple’s builders had used a common unit of measurement (roughly 30 centimeters) in designing the site.
Towers discovered that the interior of the Temple was laid out with some precise geometric shapes, including “golden rectangles.” Golden rectangles have a precise ratio between their longer and shorter sides and were incorporated into architecture by many ancient civilizations, including Greeks, who considered them to be visually pleasing. Towers wrote that these findings represent the first potential quantitative evidence of knowledge of advanced geometrical constructs in a prehistoric North American society. This knowledge is “particularly remarkable,” she added, “given that the ancestral Pueblo peoples had no written language or number system.”
Square Tower House
Square Tower House is a four-story ancient adobe tower nestled in the alcove of a steep cliff along the east side of Navajo Canyon. Constructed in the mid 1200s, Square Tower House was the tallest man-made structure in the United States until the mid-1800s.
Clouds over Mesa Verde
Marcos Valley and a butte viewed from trailer parking area near the park entrance.
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Tomorrow
Mary and I drive to Gallup, New Mexico via Four Corners Monument, USA.
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Copyright
These photographs are the property of Leon Jackson, and are protected by copyright laws. Photographs may not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Leon Jackson. © 2017 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved.
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These photographs are the property of Leon Jackson, and are protected by copyright laws. Photographs may not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Leon Jackson. © 2017 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved.
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1 comment:
Beautiful shots of Sun Temple and Square Tower House.
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