Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-12-20
CLIFF DWELLINGS
OF COLORADO.
More Marvellous Discoveries Than
Those of Ancient Rome Are j
Taking Place.

Soulu western pOrt1On OF COLORADO are
Just now attracting the absorbing at
tention Of archaeologists and ethnolo-
gists the world over. United tates
Government experts have become in
terested, and it is probable an official
examination will soon be made of the
remains of the ruins in this State, New
Mexico and Arizona, with a view to
inaugurating a system of thorough ex-
cavations.
Revival Of interest at this time is due
chiefly to a recent visit to the Colora-
do ruins by the Rev. DR.. Camden M.
Cobern, pastor of Trinity Methodist
Episcopal Church of this city, who has
made a deep study of this subject, and
is filed with enthusiasm fer it. His
most recent discovery consists of the
ruins of ar ancient temple, and many re
markable architectures, including pieces
of pottery bearing the swastika, or i'm
ttatiOn of the cross, as outlined by the
prophet, Ezekiel, 500 years before
Christ. Prominent in DR.. Cobern's col
lection is a skull which he took from a
skeleton in the "cliff palace at the
head of Mancos canon, and it was near
this point that the temple was found.
Just when these cliff dwellings were
built and how long ago since the race
became extinct is the only point on
WHICH the ApoIlS W hOl dSIOS" l.
preponderance of authority is that they
dwelt there centuries before Columbus
discovered America, and that they were
probably white people who were far
advanced in civilization, as he archt-
lectures show conClusIvely They were
peaceable, cultivated he soil, ivins
chiefly by agriculture, having WeaI-eS-
tablished laws, with towns well locat-
ed, and wonderfully we'll built. But
they were surrounded by ava neigh
bors, who made war with them, and
forced them to build their homes in the
great caverns of the cliffs and upon the
tops of buttresses, thousands of feet il
height, accessible only by narrow
lodges, where a misstep was fatal. Here
In their lofty homes a few brave men
could hold a host of the enemy at bay.
They descended in the morning, wher
unattached, to their farms in the val
ley below, c~ulivating their fields as
best they could. Thel~ chief crops We're
maize and squash.
BUILDING CT THEIR HOMES.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature
or this curious race is the manner in
which their homes were erected. Many
Of the ruins are rectangular, often built
Of dressed stone, in many cases differ
ent from the surrounding rocks. They
are generally isolated. and into some
lava has run partly Submerging them;
others are filled with volcanic ash; some
bear the oUlIilG O. an iSOSCeleS TRAN
gle, the base line being about 400 feet
long, the side line 800 feet; anothe is
> Circular 51IGlCG, 10 feet in dame
ter, approached through an elliptical
court, 666 feet n equatorial diameter.
There are ruins of upright stones sur
rounded by petri1ed trees which, lying
npon the same horizon, indicate the
possibility that they constituted a
grove for the residence.
IheSe buildings were erected in nat
ural cavernS in the cliffs sometimes
thousands of feet above the mesas,
where perhaps their enemies dwelt in
part. The stone used was we'll cut and
teWn and the buildings erected in a
most skillful and substantial manner.
some o. LlGI1 ale l0uE stories at
least one is eleven stories, and nearly
all remain almost intact even to his
day. Some have imposing brown or
tight-stone fronts, sometimes with
balconies, sometimes with great round
towers, always in close proximity to
finely built stone meeting houses for
religious purposes. These buildings
are provided amply with doors and
windows and there are marks to indi-
cate that the solid stone doors were
swung on hinges.
The mesa verde, the Montezuma and
MancOs valleys, are, in innumerable
places, covered with pieces of broken
pottery, traced with an infinite variety
Of patterns. Close by are artificial
mounds, marking the sites of ancient
villages or cemeteries. Bowls that
look like p"e-Grecian art, and one on
each Size Of which an image of the sun
Is pictured, are some of the secret dis
cOVeries among the ruins, and many
experts are of the opinion that the in
habitants were sun and fire worship
pers. It is believed now that the
openings which hitherto have been re-
garded as chiInneys or ventiIators are
in reality spirit entrances" a custom
common among several ancient people.
MAY BE OLDER THAN ADAM.
The question as to the age OF these
cliff-dwellings is a very interesting
one. Many claim that they show that
the beginning of man dates further
back than the Asiatic origin; that
America, not the EAST, was his birth
place. A few enthusiastic scientists
go SO far as to say that the savants of
q East have DleI &EIa-I - search
Mexico for fear they would make dis
cOVerieS incompatible with the settled
theories of an Asiatic origin of man.
With these views DR.. Cobern does not
.sympathize. While holding that the
ruins are very old-older than Eric
the Red-and urging the Federal gov
to take steps to preserve them
and then examine fully into their Sc
crets, he does not believe that the
are older han those of Asia. He says
that scientists are not afraid to exca-
Vate here, that they always recognize
a fact when they see it. He gave the
following information:
1.-THE statement so often seen that
these ruins are older than the Coliseum
of Rome cannot be sustained, much
less the recent hypothesis that these
remains prove America, not Asia, to
be tho Old world. % these buildings
date back SO, 900 to loo, 200 years. Ex-
pert biologists have declared definitely
that the districts in which these re-
mains are found consist of mesozoic
or cenozoic rock, which means post
and recent formation. They
also report that the oldest eruptions of
lava do not go bach to the tertiary era,
while some of these eruptions have oc-
CURED within the last three or four
centuries. So even the fact tina build
ings nave been found underneath the
inhabited by a people resembling
the cliff jewellers would not necessarily
9~te tfase people back into Ve9y dim
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