The Basketmakers were highly intelligent, progressive people with great ability to develop new ideas and to borrow things from other people. Although they lived in a simple, rather primitive way, they laid the foundation for the great developments which were to follow.
Diorama No. 3
THE MODIFIED BASKETMAKER PERIOD—450 to 750 A. D.
When Step House Cave, three miles west of the park museum, was excavated in 1926, the ruins of three Modified Basketmaker pithouses were found. They were built about 600 A. D.
This diorama shows Step House Cave at the time of its occupation. Two of the pithouses are shown, one complete, the other being constructed. The men are doing the heavier construction work while a woman applies adobe to the roof. Another woman is cooking, two are making pottery and still another is threshing beans. A father is showing his two small sons how to use the bow and arrow and coming through the trees are two men carrying a mountain sheep.
The people of this period were direct descendants of the Basketmakers shown in [Diorama No. 2]. Several new developments such as pithouses, pottery and the bow and arrow had appeared, and the way of life had changed. This change is indicated by the new name, Modified Basketmaker Period.
Pithouses, the idea borrowed from other people, came into general use early in the period. Some were built in the caves but now that they had good houses the people began to move to the mesa tops. By 700 A. D., most, perhaps all, were living in small pithouse villages near their fields. The pithouses provided shelter and comfort during the colder seasons.
Pottery appeared early in the period and basketry became less important. The secret of pottery making was learned from people to the south and soon the women were making water jars, bowls, pitchers, ladles and cooking pots of good quality. Beans came into use, now that there were pots in which to cook them, and added an excellent protein food to the diet.
About 550 A. D., the bow and arrow, borrowed from other people, came into use. The bow was superior to the atlatl and made hunting and defense of the home easier. Stone axes and mauls and other tools of stone and bone appeared during this period. Turkeys were domesticated and they and the dogs were the only domesticated animals the Mesa Verde people ever had.
The Modified Basketmaker period saw development and progress. With houses, pottery and the bow and arrow, and the addition of beans to their diet, the people seemed to gain vigor and the population began to grow. By the end of the period, there were hundreds of pithouse villages in the Mesa Verde and a great area around it.