Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
In the last few posts I've been talking about the pueblo people in the American Southwest canyon lands who became cliff dwellers.
Canyon De Chelly in Arizona:
They've been known as the Anasazi for over a hundred years but that name is offensive to their descendants so they call them “Ancestral Pueblo” or “Ancestral Puebloan.” So when I say one of those terms, I'm talking about the Anasazi.
If you haven't been following my posts, the thing about them is that no one(except tribal elders who aren't telling) knows why they left their homes in the late 1280's.
It's been a riddle since these ruins were discovered in the late 1800's.
Most researchers thought it was either the severe drought which lasted for 23 years, or they were invaded and driven away.
The problem with the invader theory is that a force big enough to drive away 30,000 people would leave substantial archaeological evidence behind.
Instead there is no evidence besides that of the Ancestral Pueblo people.
So it must have been the drought...and that was the assumed cause of the exodus for over a century. But in the last 10 years several expert teams have turned up startling archaeological finds.
No one wanted to go there
The Zuni and Hopi are very peace-loving people so nobody thought they could have a violent past.
But the excavations which the teams have done recently prove that there was indeed very bloody warfare taking place in the last decades of the Ancestral Puebloans.
All late construction was defensive in design
The last generation built large villages with defensive features like big walls and the more sparsely populated communities built cliff dwellings high into the sides of the canyon walls.
Some of these hard to reach homes have stood untouched because they were so difficult to reach.
That's because most archaeologists aren't mountain climbers. lol. The next two photos show the extreme measures taken with security in mind.
Researchers(who are also mountain climbers) work their way up a 600 foot "path" which is, believe it or not, the only way to get to the structure. Look at all the loose rocks:
(hey, is that the great sir @nickyhavey? He's a world-class hiker but I don't know if he's a mountain climber!)
Those boulders are the size of small cars that can easily be dislodged. Once they got to the level of the dwelling they had to crawl on their hands and knees along a ledge with a drop off of hundreds of feet to the canyon floor.
In this photo you can make out one of the researchers inching his way along the path on the right. Yikes, can you believe that? Can anyone say Paranoia?:
You can see there is a security wall blocking that path before the house is reached. Actually there are two security walls!
Can you imagine hauling all those stones up there, or maybe they cut them up at the location but either way it looks dang near impossible!
And they had to go haul water and food up there. Any slip or misplaced footing and you're history.
When the researchers got to the dwelling they found it to be in remarkable condition with perfectly preserved, 700 year old ears of corn in the home's granary.
In the next post we'll talk about what drove them into the cliffs and fortified cities.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
the gentleman redneck(totally fried red neck at the moment!)
PS- Everyday I've been posting a photo which supposedly represents each state, this is from a fun article I found on www.livingmgz.com.
Today's state is Delaware and the state motto is "Liberty and Independence." Hey this is the great sir @wwwiebe's state!(he's actually from Canada but I won't hold that against him)
Anyway here's the photo representing the great state of Delaware!
Of all the beautiful sites in Delaware they could choose, the writers chose another sign. lol. It IS kind of interesting though because again...
of all the great things Delaware has to offer, the only thing they want to advertise is tax-free shopping?
Are people going to make Delaware a trip destination to go shopping? Maybe that's why they're a small wonder.
Have a great rest of your Sunday folks!
I can't believe they found 700 years old corn there!!! Well I everything about this place is mind blowing! How the hell thye were getting up? They must have help from extraterrestrials, there is no other way! Anyway, I can't wait to read the next chapter!
I have no idea how they made the structures that high up except to say that it was extremely dangerous and they had to have lost some people building them.
They have found ladders that were made of tall tree trunks with notches cut in them for foot holds, they found a few that were preserved but even still, some of the dwellings were too high up for those.
The only thing I can figure is that they put women in charge because they know how to get things done! lol.
I have been to a couple of the cliff dwellings and they are incredible to see. It is hard to imagine day to day life there.
Howdy tonight Melinda! ya know, when I was getting the post ready I thought I bet Melinda has been to these! lol. Were the ones you saw high up in the cliffs?
I've been to Montezuma's Castle in AZ and it is high up in the cliffs. Wupatki Pueblo ruins are not cliff dwellings but are pretty incredible. I'll dig up some old photos for you.
Yes I've read about Montezuma's Castle in my research. Don't bother with the photos unless you have extra time but it would be very interesting to see them!
That sign is so funny! Delaware is certainly a hot spot for inter-state shoppers due to having no sales tax. We also have.. umm... um.. beaches.. and... hrmmm...
lol! I know you have to have tons of stuff there sir wwwiebe but I don't know what they are. So you are saying that the sign is not a total disaster? lol.
Haha, no, it's pretty accurate. There's certainly a lot of history here, but not much in the way of fun.
They should change their state motto to The No Fun State! lol.
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Howdy eseemapp! thanks so much for the upvote!
Even a great rock climber makes mistakes and, living up there, a mistake was bound to happen at some point. I wonder if they had rope or something to make it safer for daily use or something.
Howdy today sir fotosdenada! I'm sure they had some safety measures like ropes until they thought danger was coming. Surely! lol. I just can't imagine it otherwise.
perhaps... Some kind of predator or enemy drove them to live up there. Baboons will sleep in caves or on cliffs to avoid predation. What other advantage can be gained from the exertion, the danger, etc. I would imagine the nursery / daycare is up there. The kids probably just stayed up there in those houses. And what about the elderly? The whole thing is a mystery. Very interesting. Right up my alley.
Howdy sir primal-buddhist! Long time no see, are you back and posting?
Thanks so much for the comment, very good points, the whole thing is a mystery and a real hassle to live everyday life!
Another great post sir!
Howdy sir optout! Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and for the kind words!
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Wow! These people must have been related to the pyramid builders to construct these homes and move rocks around to place as a security barrier. A dangerous path home. Where they barefoot?
It is a mystery why they left. I was chuckling thinking maybe they were getting older, just couldn’t make the climb and had to go to lower ground.
Howdy redheadpei! I agree, it's hard to imagine what it took to do what they did. And then after all that effort the abandoned the villages. But I'll talk about why they did that in the next post, hopefully.
One can't begin to imagine what things are like, what life is like back then and what happened to them. I guess it will always remain a mystery.
Well, to the white man maybe, but researchers have a pretty good idea that I'll talk about in the next post. They pretty much know what happened, they just don't know all the details. But the tribal elders know though but you ain't gettin it out of them. It's like trying to talk to a bunch of Singaporeans! lol.
Cheap dig.😒 😎
lol. thank you it sure is!
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Howdy steem-plus! thanks so much for the upvote!
Howdy Sir @janton, going to all that trouble to make their homes inaccessible surely means that they were fortifying themselves against an extremely dangerous enemy?
Storing food and maybe water too they could live up there for a long time and only sending out small gathering parties when stocks ran low?
Reminds me a lot about the rebel Jews (Massada) after the time of king Herod!
Blessings!
Howdy sir papilloncharity! Yes they did have serious enemies which I'll hopefully be able to talk about in my next post. The homes all had granaries for storing grain and they kept water in pottery jugs so they could store alot of water up.
At Massada did they have their own water supply up there?
Oh yes Sir @janton, King Herod built an entire self contained plumbing system up there at the fort with storage tanks and water cisterns.
It was of course all destroyed by the Romans after Herod's death and after the Romans conquered the Jews at Massada.
Howdy tonight sir papilloncharity! I thought the Romans built their fort up there after they finally defeated the Jews? I'm not sure at all about the timelines. Most of my knowledge about Massada is from a movie I saw about it. lol. In that movie the Romans built a huge ramp up to the top.
Howdy this morning Sir @janton, no. the Romans never built a fort there. They built the ramp and used jewish prisoners to roll a huge tower up the ramp so that they could breach the walls of the fort in order to get to the rebels.
By the time that they got into the fort, the rebels had burnt everything down and all had committed suicide. Some say 900 plus committed suicide, but archeologists only found the bones of about 43 people.
According to Josephus, the great historian, the jews selected 10 men to kill everyone and the families laid down to await the killer blows, then after all were killed, the 10 men drew straws and the winner had to kill the other nine and then himself.
Scholars have argued about this over the years, but I prefer to stick to the version of Josephus, as he was known to be accurate and he lived the closest to the time instead of our modern know all scholars that are trying to impress everyone with their "knowledge"
Blessings!
Howdy sir papilloncharity! someone on here did a post about their visit to Massada and it was amazing. So the temple or whatever is there now was what was there when the Romans captured it? I wonder how long it took to make that huge ramp? I need to research that and do a series on it. It's a remarkable achievement.
I would trust Josephus too. I was wondering how they knew that the last ten drew straws?
A lot of research has been done on it Air @janton and you will have a great time looking into this amazing true story.
Blessings!
Hi janton, it seems to me that doing a mountain climbing course is a prerequisite to studying archeology, lol. Such interesting digs indeed.
In that part of the country it is! lol. That's why some of them hadn't been investigated.
Here, I made it, will you stop your whining now Lord Janton? Haha!
I'm a strong hiker but no way I'm a rock climber! That looks like a really strong defensive fortress they built for themselves there. Maybe you should do the same to stop smearing your diatribe all over the place lol
Howdy again sir nickyhavey! Doesn't that look amazing? I think you could do it but if I were you I'd want a big, strong redneck guy attached to the rope above me in case you slipped. I'd love to build one of those things but I might need some funding from my steemit friends with good jobs!
Luckily you're not me because having a redneck around sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard lol. They'd be drunk all the time and mumbling incoherent nonsense!
Good luck with the funding, maybe HF21 can help with that
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lol! But what about the entertainment value? You'd constantly be entertained and have a blast, you'd be laughing so hard you'd develop rock-hard six packs!