A prehistoric Mesa Verde pueblo and its people / by Jesse Walter Fewkes.

  • Fewkes, Jesse Walter, 1850-1930.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A prehistoric Mesa Verde pueblo and its people / by Jesse Walter Fewkes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine A PREHISTORIC MESA VERDE PUEBLO AND ITS PEOPLE. By J. Walter Fewkes. [With 15 plates.] INTRODUCTION. The Mesa Verde, or Green Plateau, is situated in the soutliAvestern corner of Colorado and wTas set apart by Congress from the Ute Reservation for protection of its prehistoric remains. Its form is oATal, measuring about 42,000 acres, with an average elevation of over 7,000 feet abo\Te sea level, rising abruptly on the north side to 8,700 feet, over 1,500 feet above the plain. Its surface is cleft by deep, almost parallel canyons opening into the Mancos Valley on the south, between which are spurs of the mesa sloping gradually southward. In the canyons (pi. 2) are located the most remarkable cliff dAvellings of the Southwest. The top of the plateau is dotted with mounds of earth and stone. The present article deals with one of these mounds, which was excavated and the exposed ruins repaired by the Smithsonian Institution, during the months of July, August, and September, 1916, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, fol¬ lowing a recommendation of the writer in his report to the latter on field work at Sun Temple in the summer of 1915. C lusters of mounds composed of artificially worked stones and earth situated on the surface of the mesa have long been known, and from indications these piles of stones were belieATd to mark the sites of buildings. None of these mounds, however, had been opened, or their contents investigated. The plan of operations was to de¬ termine, by excavations, the character of the buildings concealed in them, and to interpret their cultural relations and significance. A cluster of mounds known as the Mummy Lake group was chosen as promising and advantageously situated for this purpose. The exca¬ vation of one mound of this cluster revealed a large building of a type new to the plateau. The importance of the results of the work and their bearing on soutliAvestern archeology may be better appreciated after reading what immediately follows. A portion of the area now knoAvn as 401