Life in Mesa Verde, as in all the Pueblo area, depended on agriculture. There was dry farming on the mesa tops, but irrigation was particularly well developed here.[7] A broad, shallow ditch, some four miles long, and with a very regular gradient has been found on the Mesa Verde. Apparently water was turned out on the cornfields from this ditch. There were also check dams which caught the run-off of heavy summer rains and made it available for the crops. They served a further purpose in conserving soil which might otherwise have been washed away. Reservoirs were present and must have also provided water for the fields, but they have not yet been studied sufficiently for us to have much information as to their construction or use.
Mesa Verde pottery is as distinctive as its architecture. Fine corrugated vessels were made, and a small percentage of imported red pottery was present, but the outstanding ware was black-on-white. This pottery has certain distinctive features which make it easy to recognize. The walls are fairly thick, and rims tend to be square and flat. The background is a pearly white with grayish undertones. Most vessels have been so carefully polished that they have a glossy surface which sometimes almost gives an impression of translucence. The decoration, applied with black paint, is usually in the form of geometric patterns, although a few bowls show life-forms in their designs. Band patterns were extremely common, and many large solid elements as well as hatchured patterns were used. The latter tend to be much coarser than those on Chaco pottery. The most distinctive forms were flat-bottomed mugs, which resemble beer steins, and “[kiva] jars.” The latter are vessels in the form of a somewhat flattened sphere, with fitted covers resting on an inner rim, as do those of modern sugar bowls. There were also many bowls, ollas (water jars), ladles, canteens, and seed jars.
Fig. 32—Mesa Verde black-on-white pottery of the Great-Pueblo period. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)
The minor arts of Mesa Verde seem to have been much like those of Chaco Canyon, but neither material nor craftsmanship appears to have been as good. Again, the scarcity of burials has reduced the chances of obtaining much valuable information. In open sites they have been found occasionally in refuse heaps, but more often they occur in pits under floors of houses which continued to be occupied, or in abandoned rooms. At Mesa Verde a few burials have been found in refuse heaps behind the houses, a few under the floors of abandoned rooms, and others in the cracks and crevices of the talus slope in front of the caves. There is also some evidence of occasional cremations.[24] On mesa tops, have been found a few stone rings overlying calcined human bones, and one room in Cliff Palace was found to contain ashes and human bones. There is no evidence, however, that cremation was widely practiced, and the few graves which have been found would account for only a small fraction of the deaths which must have occurred during the period of occupancy. It is believed probable that most burials may have been in the refuse heaps in front of the caves and that they have weathered away.
The last building date we have for Mesa Verde is 1273, but it is possible that the great houses may have been occupied for some time after this. The final date of departure probably falls within the period of the disastrous drought of 1276 to 1299, when the farmers of Mesa Verde must have been fighting a losing battle against overwhelming odds. The departure seems to have been an orderly one, for the people took most of their possessions with them. There does not seem to have been any one, great migration. Rather it appears that first one section, and then another, was abandoned as one or more small groups moved on. The abandonment of the cliff houses has given rise to many fantastic stories, and there has grown up a certain belief that the “Cliff Dwellers” more or less disappeared into thin air. Certainly there is enough mystery connected with this strange departure, but great numbers of people do not simply vanish. Actually, they moved farther and farther south, and perhaps to the southeast and southwest, looking for more favorable locations. As they mingled with other groups they lost their identity, but doubtless there is still a strain of Mesa Verde blood in the present Pueblo Indian population. Perhaps the Indian, whom we see selling jewelry in the lobby of some modern Southwestern hotel, had ancestors who helped build the ancient city which we know as Cliff Palace.
In addition to sites which were occupied by people with a Chacoan [culture] and those inhabited by people with Mesa Verde affiliations, there are others which show both influences at different periods. Lowry Ruin,[81] not far from Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado, contains a Pueblo and a Great [Kiva] with Chacoan Masonry. The early pottery was not entirely like that found in sites in the Chaco Canyon itself, but closely resembled it. It must be emphasized that Chacoan is simply a term which refers to a generalized culture, and not just to the sites of the type locality. In the top portion of the fill of some rooms at Lowry Ruin is found Mesa Verde black-on-white pottery. It is not known whether this indicates the presence of Mesa Verde people, or if only the pottery, or perhaps even the technique, was introduced. We do know, however, that Lowry Pueblo was occupied, abandoned, and then reoccupied a number of times from the time when it was first built, late in the eleventh century, until it was finally deserted, about the middle of the twelfth century. This is one of the sites which does much to upset certain theories as to the causes of the abandonment of the northern frontier. It was not prepared for defense, and had entrances on the ground level, and there is no indication of any violence. Final abandonment came long before the great drought of 1276 to 1299.
An even more famous site is that of Aztec,[94] now a National Monument, which lies one mile north of the town of Aztec, New Mexico. Here were built a big communal house and Great [Kiva] with Chacoan masonry. The ground plans were almost identical with those of Chettro Kettle, one of the important structures of Chaco Canyon. The main building was in the shape of a square “U”, with an arc-shaped row of rooms in front. More famous than the Pueblo itself is the “House of the Great Kiva.” This remarkable structure was essentially circular, and consisted of a large kiva surrounded by a concentric ring of arc-shaped surface-rooms. The kiva, which was encircled by two benches or shelves, was forty-one feet across at floor level and forty-eight feet in diameter at the level of the second bench. In the floor were two large, masonry-lined, sub-floor vaults and a masonry box, midway between the south ends of the vaults, which is believed to have been a fire altar. The twelve rooms surrounding the kiva are not stained and littered, as are the usual living quarters, so it seems certain that they were strictly ceremonial chambers. On the south side is an alcove, opening directly into the kiva, which is thought to have been a shrine room. A rectangle of masonry in the center of the alcove was presumably a permanent altar.
Fig. 33—Betatakin, Navajo National Monument, Arizona. (Courtesy National Park Service.)