To the people it was the big town, the hub of their small world. In their eyes it was magnified by comparison with the hundreds of smaller cliff dwellings around it. To them it was a city, the greatest they ever knew. Certainly there could be no better place for us to see the life of those eventful days when thousands of people lived in the Mesa Verde.
Before we take up actual residence in Cliff Palace we should answer one question, a question that is asked very often. How can we know what was happening in a town that was abandoned almost seven hundred years ago? The former inhabitants have disappeared and they left no written records. How will we be able to see the intimate details in the lives of those people?
It is a good question. It is often in the minds of visitors as they walk through the silent city and listen to the stories that are told about the former inhabitants. Intimate details in the lives of the people are laid bare. Assertions are made for which there is no visible evidence. The visitor can scarcely be blamed for wearing a skeptical look in his eyes.
Our knowledge of the intimacies of the ancient life has come from a number of sources. Through intensive study, archeologists, ethnologists and historians have worked out the details that go toward making a complete story. From countless sources they have garnered the bits of information that fit together in jig-saw fashion to give us a picture of life in a cliff dwelling. Unfortunately, some pieces of the picture are still missing; here and there are rather large and distressing holes. In some lines of research, blank walls have been encountered and mystery still enshrouds some of the phases we would like most of all to see.
On the whole, though, the picture is rather complete. By fitting together all of the bits of knowledge that have been given to us by various scientists we can see very well the happenings in one of the ancient villages.
The archeologist has given us the general background of the people of Cliff Palace. Decades of research have revealed the development of the Pueblo Indians during their one thousand year occupation of the Mesa Verde. But the archeologist has gone even farther and, in a general way, has traced the people back through countless centuries to their original home in a far continent. We shall see this long story of development in later chapters.
Originally the people came from Asia, drifting into America across the Bering Sea. From Alaska they drifted south and, after endless generations, reached the Southwest. Up to this time they had lived as roving hunters but somewhere in the Southwest they met other Indians who were farmers. This new life appealed to them and, borrowing the precious seeds, they gradually became a farming people.
At about the time of Christ they moved into the Mesa Verde region and soon some of them were living on the Mesa Verde itself. At first their culture was simple but for a thousand years it developed. Finally it reached its peak in the thirteenth century when Cliff Palace and the other cliff dwellings were built.
In addition to giving us the background, the archeologists have given us the material details of the ancient city. Through their excavations the actual remains have been brought to light, studied and interpreted. When we walk through Cliff Palace we appreciate the tremendous overhanging cave roof that protected the entire city. We see the results of the physical labors of the people; the houses with their smooth walls and bright paintings, the storage rooms, kivas, open courts, narrow winding passageways, firepits, and in the back of the cave, the trash room where the turkeys roosted.
In the nearby museum we see the actual physical remains, the skeletons and mummies, of the people themselves. We see their clothing and their jewelry. There also are the utensils and tools; pottery, basketry, bows and arrows, stone knives, bone awls and needles, grinding stones, fire drills, planting sticks, stone axes and mauls; an endless array of things that were once in common use.