Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace. Jesse Walter Fewkes
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| BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY | BULLETIN 51 PLATE 1 |
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| PHOTOGRAPHED BY F. K. VREELAND | |
| CLIFF PALACE, FROM THE SPEAKER-CHIEF'S HOUSE TO THE SOUTHERN END | |
ANTIQUITIES OF THE MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK
CLIFF PALACE
By Jesse Walter Fewkes
INTRODUCTION
In the summer of 1909 the writer was detailed by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, to continue the excavation and repair of ruins in the Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. This work was placed under his sole charge and continued through the months May to August, inclusive. In that time the writer was able to repair completely this great ruin and to leave it in such condition that tourists and students visiting it may learn much more about cliff-dwellings than was possible before the work was undertaken.
The force of laborers, numbering on an average 15 workmen, was from Mancos, Colorado. Many of them had worked on Spruce-tree House during the previous year and had become expert in repairing ruins. By their aid it was possible to accomplish more and at less expense than was expected. It has fallen to the writer to prepare the report on the work which he had the honor to direct, and he is conscious how difficult it is to put it into a form that will adequately express the devotion with which those under him have accomplished their respective tasks.
A report on the general results accomplished at Cliff Palace was published by the Secretary of the Interior in 1909; the following account considers in a more detailed way the various scientific phases. The purpose of the present paper is to present a more accurate account of Cliff Palace than was possible before the excavation and repair work was done, and to increase existing knowledge by directing attention to the scientific data revealed by excavations of this largest, most picturesque, and most typical cliff-dwelling in the Southwest. In order to give this account a monographic form there have been introduced the most important descriptions of Cliff Palace previously published. There is also included a description of the few minor antiquities brought to light in the progress of the work. These specimens are now in the United States National Museum, where they form the nucleus of a collection from Cliff Palace. The increasing interest, local and national, in the prehistoric culture of the Southwest and the influence of these antiquities in attracting visitors to localities where they exist, furnish a reason for considering in some detail various other questions of general interest connected with cliff-dwellings that naturally suggest themselves to those interested in the history of man in America.
The method of work in this undertaking has been outlined in the report on Spruce-tree House published by the Secretary of the Interior.[1] The primary thought has been to increase the educational value of Cliff Palace by attracting tourists and students of archeology.
The reader is reminded that from the nature of the work at Cliff Palace very few specimens can be expected from it in the future, and that so far as the minor antiquities are concerned the objective material from this ruin is now all deposited in public museums or in private collections. Additional specimens can be obtained, however, from other ruins near it which will throw light on the culture of Cliff Palace. It is appropriate, therefore, to point out, at the very threshold of our consideration, that a continuation of archeological work in the Mesa Verde National Park is desirable, as it will add to our knowledge of the character of prehistoric life in these canyons. The next work to be undertaken should be the excavation and repair of a Mesa Verde pueblo. The extensive mounds of stone and earth on the promontory west of Cliff Palace have not yet been excavated, and offer attractive possibilities for study and a promise of many specimens. Buried in these mounds there are undoubtedly many rooms, secular and ceremonial, which a season's work could uncover, thus enlarging indirectly our knowledge of the cliff-dwellers and their descendants.[2]
The writer considers it an honor to have been placed in charge of the excavation and repair of Cliff Palace, and takes this occasion to express high appreciation of his indebtedness to both the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the Secretary of the Interior for their confidence in his judgment in this difficult undertaking.
Maj. Hans M. Randolph, superintendent of the Mesa Verde National Park, gave assistance in purchasing the equipment, making out accounts, and in other ways. During the sojourn at Cliff Palace the writer was accompanied by Mr. R. G. Fuller, of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, a volunteer assistant, who contributed some of the photographs used in the preparation of the plates that accompany this report. The writer is indebted also to Mr. F. K. Vreeland, of Montclair, New Jersey, for several fine photographs of Cliff Palace taken before the repairing was done.
| BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY | BULLETIN 51 PLATE 2 |
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| CLIFF PALACE, FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CANYON | |
CLIFF PALACE A TYPE OF PREHISTORIC CULTURE
In the following pages the walls and other remains of buildings and the objects found in the rooms have been treated from their cultural point of view. Considering ethnology, or culture history, as the comparative study of mental productions of groups of men in different epochs, and cultural archeology as a study of those objects belonging to a time antedating recorded history, there has been sought in Cliff Palace one type of prehistoric American culture, or rather a type of the mental production of a group of men in an environment where, so far as external influences are concerned, caves, mesas, and cliffs are predominant and aridity is a dominant climatic factor. Primarily archeology is a study of the expression of human intelligence, and it must be continually borne in mind that Cliff Palace was once the home of men and women