First off though, here is Elvis looking over the 'green table' after a nice little hike to a view point.
Feast your eyes upon this! These two pictures are of Cliff Palace, literally an ancient civilisation dwelling built right into the cliff face (the second picture helps you appreciate the scale).
So what's it all about Alfie? Well around about 1,400 years ago the direct descendants of the native Indians used to live here. Originally named 'Anasazi' from the Indian Navajo word meaning 'ancient foreigners' they are now referred to as the ancestral Puebloans because they weren't really foreigners at all. It's amazing to think that these structures were 'lost' until 1880's when a couple of cowboys came across them. Since then there's been a lot of scientists brains burning the midnight oil trying to make sense of it all. There are no written historic records, so it's not known how the tribes organised themselves, but it is known that the 'pueblo' (Spanish for village/dwelling) marked a transformation in Indian history when they changed from being nomads to farmers and home builders.
The pueblos were built into natural cliff overhangs, which are created over millions of years by water turning to ice and cracking the porous rocks which then fall out of the cliff. The Indians then come along and check it out... "oooh it's got a lovely big kitchen, the patio can go over there, Little Bears nursery can go up there and the TV in the corner"..... that type of thing. The dividing walls were made of hand carved bricks from the sandstone and glued together with mud and straw.
The little hole in the ground (in front of Elvis) is probably not what you think!! It's actually an entrance to an underground chamber called a Kiva, where all the men gathered for meetings to discuss important issues like hunting, farming and who won the baseball game last night.
Despite all the boffs studying the artifacts and the weather at that time, there's still a big mystery that no one really knows the answer too. Around the late 1200's all the villages in Mesa Verde were abandoned! They en-mass travelled south into New Mexico and Arizona and settled amongst their kin who were already there. The Navajo Indians today explain that 'it was time' - in their beliefs it is not normal to live in a place too long or it encourages lazy behaviour and evil spirits. If the Navajo lived in England we would call them Gypsies. For a COT which other present day Indian tribe had ancestors living in Mesa Verde? And for a bonus, if you 'went for an Indian' in England, what would you expect to happen?
This is another view from the green table from a lovely little six mile hike.
At the end of the hike, much further than most people go, we discovered an ancient tribe that must have been missed, we sneaked up and took this picture of a day in the life of an Ancestral Puebloan. We left when the bloke in the middle of the picture (the one with the man-boobs looking out of the window) spotted us and threatened to set the dogs on to us.
Just a little historical fact that occurred to us when we were looking at these dwellings. Isn't it incredible how civilisations developed at such incredibly different rates. Here in 1200 Indians are making caves with stones and mud, about the same time, just up the road from where we live, Durham Cathedral was opening up for business. If you think how long the pyramids have been around then it does get bewildering. Anyway, we will leave you all to ponder that one! I think I'd have liked to have been an Indian.
COT - A gopher snake is the correct answer OS (no teasing this time). An Un Big One is correct with the steps taken - i.e. bloody big'uns!
4 comments:
Geeeeee! I think if the viewers were to zoom in on "the lad with chats", I think you'd have to agree that that ain't no lad, Tonto! Methinks it's a mama with babby latched on. Those gals gave birth, put their bairns on the chat and went right back to gathering berries and roots....all in about half an hour. There are a couple more lasses in the photo if you really squi.
I think the Pueblo Indians really did have a sense of things to come. They knew the white man was on the way so they evicted their dwellings before they were turned into condominiums!
Still amazing that the structure still stands today though. Fantastic!
Okay, I'm taking a stab at the CoT question, but I'm thinking it's rhyming slang for summit else. My guess would be that if you went for an Indian, you'd be going for toilet paper with built-in coolants the next morning.
Not so sure Sissy J that those in the picture aren't Tontos in need of man bras. They are almost too ugly for to be mamas.The Outsourcer.
Outsourcer, I dunno about you, but I've seen some ugly mamas in my time. C'mon, you've been to our local Walmart, so you know what I'm talking about!
Post a Comment