Sept 2 Mesa Verde on the Mesa Top

My objective on this trip was to immerse myself in the native american past of this region. The cliff dwellers get all the accolades but the lowly mesa top pueblos and cartoonish petroglyphs are way more prevalent here and left me astonished. Being from North Carolina, my experiences with native American ruins and relics are limited to their stone tools and points, the ryolite quarries of the Uwharries, a few fish weirs and some mounds from the Mississippian culture. Here, puebloan ruins are everywhere. Their pots and tools are so well preserved. In the cliff dwelling and some mesa top dwellings, the original wood used in construction is still intact. 

This low point on the mesa top has been encircled with a stone dam to impound water. There was a ramp and a staircase leading into the shallow reservoir. 

A kiva. What is a kiva? Every family, or extended family had a kiva which served as a kitchen, dining, living, work and worship room. Most are a round structure with an air shaft allowing outside air to circulate into the room. Note the air shaft opening in the photo above. Just in front of the opening is a rock which acts as a deflector to keep the air from going right into the fire ring. There are many holes in the floor. Some may have been for support structures. Normally, there was one which was a hole to the underworld which acted as a conduit for the spirits of the family ancestors to be present for ceremonial rituals. The kivas were all below ground level and would have had a roof like an upside down bird's nest supported by the buttresses along the circular wall. 

Entire villages often had a ceremonial kiva which would have been much larger and had other accouterments. Some had a secret passage in which some might have made a dramatic entrance. 

The mystery of the Sun Temple. One of the last structures built on the mesa tops of Mesa Verde, is this structure. Its 4 foot thick walls and beautifully crafted architecture leads some to believe this structure had some special meaning. It has a spectacular view of the canyon and overlooks Cliff Palace and other cliff dwellings. It contains about 30 rooms, has no roof beans, no household goods so it likely was never completed.