Wherein Moominmama learns more about archeoastronomy, spends time at Mesa Verde and enjoys the company of a dear friend...

The trail above is called Knife's Edge in Mesa Verde National Park. Believe it or not, this was the first route into the park for automobiles, a few of which apparently slid off the edge. There's a historic photo of a Model T at an undrivable tilt and two puzzled men standing at a safe distance. Now, even as a hiking trail, it reaches its end in a rockslide, and there's no way forward but back! The views, however, are glorious!

The drive to Mesa Verde took Moominmama and her friend Liz up at least a thousand feet, sometimes higher depending on where we were exploring. We were fortunate to be able to visit Step House, the only cliff dwelling we could enter without special arrangements. 

But it was spectacular even if it's difficult to show how the overhanging rock ceiling creates this protected niche high above the canyon floor. It makes one feel very small.

These caves within the cliffs sometimes have odd spots of greenery, which reveal the presence of a water seep. This made it possible to live high above the canyon floors and have some access to water.

It was also surprising to learn that the richest soil was at the top of the mesas, not at the bottom, because the winds and the mountains directed good dirt onto the surface of the mesas. The trick was to find ways to irrigate, and the Ancestral Pueblo created reservoirs and built stone gutters to direct water where they needed it. They planted deeper into the earth to help the seedlings survive.

They also left behind many "kivas," these round structures that appear over and over again in Pueblo ruins, used in some cases by families and in other, larger formats for ceremonial purposes. This is what's left of the kiva at Step House, seen from above after climbing that ladder!

On the way to Mesa Verde from Santa Fe, Liz and I had stopped at Aztec Ruins National Monument (it's in the town of Aztec; people now understand the ruins were not of Aztec origin).

It took archeologists a while to figure out that the layout of the structures connects to astronomical events, these and other discoveries birthing the specialty of archeoastronomy. In some cases, walls align with the sun at solstice or equinox; other alignments connect to lunar cycles. These buildings were not homes but likely observatories or ceremonial spaces. They also reveal the use of geometry and surveying skills.

The epicenter for this type of building appears to be Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, which has elaborate ruins of this nature -- but the measurements and connection to astronomy are echoed in other ruins throughout New Mexico and Colorado suggesting a shared culture.

The Great Kiva to the left has been rebuilt on the Aztec site. It is atypical in that it can be entered from the side not just from above. The stone square at the center is for a fire. The two larger rectangles are harder to parse, but with wood over the top, they may have been used for dancing as a form of communication with the underworld. Because these are people who believed they had come from under the ground. Ceremonial kivas commonly have a "sipapu," a small hole, which symbolizes the place from which they emerged onto this earth.

Mesa Verde has plenty of kivas and other buildings that clearly served as homes, both in the cliffs and around the mesas. And these homes and villages were occupied for about 700 years in one form or another. 

But there is only one example of a building at Mesa Verde, called the Sun Temple, which features some of the aspects of Chaco Canyon, with a wall aligning with the equinoxes. It was a late addition, and likely built not long before the Ancestral Pueblo started moving away. There is no evidence there was ever a roof, and few doors, nor was it part of a pueblo, which combined with the solar alignment suggests it may have been an observatory!

It is nonetheless fascinating to realize that these lands were actually crowded with people. Some areas have more than 100 sites per square mile with evidence of human habitation.

 
Sand Canyon, north of Mesa Verde, is a pile of stones now, but the U-shaped canyon walls once hosted 420 rooms, 100 kivas and 14 towers, with thousands of other, smaller communities nearby. And people clearly traveled, learned from one another and exchanged goods. This whole Four Corners area was a thriving center at one time, and researchers are still not clear on why people left, though strain on the natural resources was clearly one of the challenges. 

It creates an interesting dilemma as on the one hand, we've learned a lot and have new respect for the people of the past. They were not so "primitive" when it came to scientific and mathematical understandings. But respecting their descendants also means respecting the desire to leave these places for the spirits, undisturbed. 

But despite these weighty questions, this week included much fun, thanks to the visit of a friend from Connecticut. Here we are back in Santa Fe, where Liz's passion for biking led to my joining her on a dirt trail that extended south of the city. Skidding around the sandy hills appealed to the daredevil in me until a close call with a cactus! 

I leave you with this photo from Sand Canyon, Colorado. This was the view for the people who lived here in and around the year 1200. I told you they were no dummies!