MESA VERDE

Today we saw some spectacular reminders of people who lived on this mesa for at least 700 years. They used to be called Anasasi but are now known by the politically correct term of Ancestral Puebloans. They were experts at surviving in a dry climate with conditions that would dismay any 21st survivalist and yet they produced some amazing art in their basketwork and pottery.

They started by living in pit dwellings and moved through stages to building durable stone multistory houses under cliff ledges before leaving the area in ad 1300. Tree rings show that the previous 24 years had been very dry ones so that might have been the reason but no one knows for sure.




We visited the Spruce Tree House, one of the largest villages on the mesa with 129 rooms and 8 ceremonial circular rooms called kivas. Closing my eyes transported me back in time and I could smell the fires and hear the chatter of the kids playing with their dogs while their mothers ground corn for the evening meal.







On the way back I noticed this
contradictory bit of signposting.





The small one says
NO FOOD OR DRINK







We are off to Durango tomorrow for a silver fix.