These early civilized Indians lived chiefly in well-built houses. Many of them traveled good roads. They possessed a keen sense of right and wrong, and in ethics they may have averaged higher than the European. Among the tribes that were civilized were the Mayas, the Aztecs, and the Incas.
The cliff dwellers were an agricultural people, and they cultivated corn, beans, cotton, and squash. They appear to have grown crops by means of irrigation. They wove cloth of cotton and of the century-plant fibers. Probably they domesticated the turkey.
The finger-prints in their adobe mortar indicate that women built the stone walls. Among the Indian tribes of the Southwest, it was common for the men to quarry, dress, and carry the stones, while the women built them into walls. Women, too, appear to have made the pottery. The men probably were the weavers. The women ground the corn and most likely carried the water in jars from the springs. Were there more springs in the days of these people than now? Perhaps. Apparently they had numerous reservoirs.
These people did not possess a written language, and their ways of recording their thoughts or preserving their experiences were poor. They made pictographs on stone walls and placed symbols on their pottery and in their weaving. Much of their pottery is attractive in form and of ornamental pattern. There are food-bowls, water-jars, cooking-utensils, and numerous jugs and mugs.
They appreciated the beautiful. Their art, though mostly primitive, was art. It was generally symbolical. Although many of their pottery decorations were of geometric design, others represented objects of beauty in which flowing lines were required. Their basketry showed good taste. Their architecture was good. Although their buildings followed varied types, a number of them displayed lines of beauty and constructive skill.
Well-preserved mural paintings on many of the walls of their structures indicate that they had a good knowledge of dye-stuffs as well as a primitive skill in picturing. Remains of figures of men, animals, cacti, and rain-clouds form a kind of frieze visible on three sides of the so-called painted room in one of these houses. These paintings are believed to indicate that this room was used for a ceremony akin to the New Fire ceremony of the Hopi.
SPRUCE TREE HOUSE, MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK
Although nearly everything which they fashioned showed many elements of skill and beauty, they did not have many tools. Stone axes and hammers, scrapers, knives, and awls of bone were the common implements of use.
It may be that at one time the Mesa had a population of many thousands. It is possible that the Sun Temple was built jointly by the inhabitants of the Spruce Tree House, the Cliff Palace, and other houses of the region.