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Mesa Verde: False Concentration Of Archeological Site

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The geographic region of Mesa Verde captivates me because of its sheer concentration of archeological sites in an area, and the plethora of cliff dwellings found in this region of Colorado. Mesa Verde, a place ancestral Puebloan people called home for hundreds of years from 500 A.D. to the 13th century, is situated on Colorado’s diverse landscape, which consists of 4,400 archaeological sites and 600 cliff dwellings (Smith, 7). Mesa Verde National Park was officially established in the early 1900’s by Theodore Roosevelt in hopes of protecting history and preserving human culture. Since then it has been a site for thousands of archaeologists to dig in to. Before Mesa Verde was receiving the attention it gets today archeologists Bob Lister, …show more content…

According to researchers at the University of Texas, the dates of construction can be deciphered by counting tree rings from lumber used in building. There was also speculation around the arrangements of pueblos and other buildings in regards to the cosmos around us. As we can see in Cliff Palace and Sun Temple, they both have a clear line of vison with no other buildings interrupting its path. Because of their placement there is reason to believe that the Puebloan people incorporated astronomy into their architecture. We can learn about the personal beliefs of these people through the excavation of buildings erected on the site. As noted earlier, astronomy was a clear influence on architecture. Religion and community dynamics were brough fourth following the discovery that not all buildings were for residential use. Rather for spiritual and communal use (Munson, Bates and Nordby, 45). Although construction began towards the end of the time of the pueblo people in this region, the cliff dwellings seen at Mesa Verde are some of the best preserved in north America. Their miraculous preservation is bizarre because of their use of such organic materials in construction. The ancestral pueblo people would use a combination of wooden beams, sandstone, and mortar to construct these dwellings which lie right beneath the mesa top, where they would practice agriculture (Breternitz,

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