Because of the absence of timbers or roof beams it is impossible to tell when Sun Temple was begun, how long it took for its construction, or when it was deserted. There are indications that its walls may never have been completed, and from the amount of fallen stones there can hardly be a doubt that when it was abandoned they had been carried up in some places at least 6 feet above their present level. The top of the wall had been worn down at any rate 6 feet in the interval between the time it was abandoned and the date of excavation of the mound. No one can tell the length of this interval in years.
We have, however, knowledge of the lapse of time, because the mound had accumulated enough soil on its surface to support growth of large trees. Near the summit of the highest wall in the annex there grew a juniper tree of great antiquity, alive and vigorous when excavation work was begun. This tree undoubtedly sprouted after the desertion of the building and grew after a mound had developed from fallen walls. Its roots penetrated into the adjacent rooms and derived nourishment from the soil filling them.
Necessarily, when these roots were cut off the tree was killed. It was then cut off about a foot above the ground, the stump remaining. A cross section of this stump was examined by Gordon Parker, supervisor of the Montezuma National Forest, who found that it had 360 annual rings without allowing for decayed heartwood which would add a few more years to its age.
It is not improbable that this tree began to grow on the top of the Sun Temple mound shortly after the year 1540, when Coronado first entered New Mexico. How long an interval elapsed for crumbling walls to form the mound in which it grew, and how much earlier the foundations of the ruined walls were laid, no one can tell. A conservative guess of 350 years for the interval between construction and the time the cedar began to sprout would carry the antiquity of Sun Temple back to about 1200 A.D.
UNITY OF CONSTRUCTION
The argument that appeals most strongly to many in supporting the theory that Sun Temple was a ceremonial building is the unity shown in its construction. A preconceived plan existed in the minds of the builders before they began work on the main building. Sun Temple was not constructed haphazardly, nor was its form due to addition of one clan after another, each adding rooms to a preexisting nucleus. There is no indication of patching one building to another, so evident at Cliff Palace and other large cliff dwellings. The construction of the recess in the south wall, situated exactly, to an inch, midway in its length, shows it was planned from the beginning.
We can hardly believe that one clan could have been numerous enough to construct a house so large and massive. Its walls are too extensive; the work of dressing the stones too great. The construction of Sun Temple presumably represents the cooperative efforts of many clans from adjacent cliff dwellings uniting in a common purpose. Such a united effort represents a higher state of sociological development than a loosely connected population of a cliff dwelling.
BUILDERS
On the theory that this building was erected by people from several neighboring cliff dwellings for ceremonies held in common, we may suppose that the builders came daily from their dwellings in Cliff Palace and other houses and returned at night, after they had finished work, to their homes. The trails down the sides of the cliffs which the workmen used are still to be seen. The place was frequented by many people, but there is no evidence that any one clan dwelt near this mysterious building during its construction.