The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-20
More About Cliff-Dwellers
New Explorations Add to knowledge About Early Dweers
of Southwestern REGIONS.

was not enough rainfall at the proper
seasons to insure good crops. So they
turned to irrigation and built their
reservoirs and bitches. By this means
they were able to grow corn-not in
abundance but still in sufficient quaint.
ties to exc out their thin supply of fish
and meat.
1t was not enough to grow the corn;
they had to store it for the winter. If
they could not store it safely, they
could not survive. Originally these
people had lived in half-sunken pit
dwellings on the top of the mesa.
Along the sides of canyons which
cut into the mesa were high, shall
soft strata of rock between harder
sorts. To these caverns, probably,
they first took their corn for storage
This would not be good storage, for
rains and SHOWS would beat into the
caVerns and dampen the corn. The
next step in their progress was to
build dry graneries for the storage OF
their crops. Anthropologists have
long observed that the only primitive
peoples who have ever amounted to
anything have been those who built OF
stone. The cliff-dwellers were the
only prehistoric tribe north of the Rio
Grande River that used stone as a
building material
Beginnings of
Communal Life.
Thus these people gradually became
skillful artisans in the use of stone.
Eventually they left their earth lod-
ges on the top of the mesas and went
to live in the safer and more COM
Portable caves. Here they built them
selves houses, and naturally built them
of stone. A communal life began. At
first, perhaps, only a single family oc-
cupled a cavern with a small house
built on the cave floor Family des-
cent was through mothers. Presently
branch would break off the original
family and become a clan. This clan
built its stone housing to adjoin the
original house. Thus the various cliff
dwellings, grew In size. Each clan pro.
vided itself ceremonial rooms and liv-
ing quarters, and the house grew until
IL became a village in itself The cliff
palace, the first of these ruins to be
discovered, is 900 feet long, nearly
100 feet wide, and it contained 200
rooms. Parts of it were three and
four stories high.
This sort of building developed for
the cliff-dwellers a distinct tvpe of
architecture. The typical building was
constructed in the form of a letter D.
rms coTTesponded to the shape of q
cliff cavern-the straight edge of the
preclpice in front and the curving wall
OF the cave behind. The cIiff-dwellers
became sun worshippers. and when
they build their sun temple on the
mesa top, each of the two sections of
the temple followed this form.
These people also became skiIlfuI
and artistic potters- This in itself
was tremendous advance over tn
most OF the prehistoric people in
America. The pottery of the cliff
dwellers not only served its use but
IN form and decoration it was beauti.
tul, judged even by our standards of
beauty today.
Thus necessity operated then as 1t
has IN historic times to advance civil
zatlon- The cliff-dwellers reached the
top of their greatness about the
twelfth century-the time of the Cru.
sades in Europe, when Robin Hood and
MS merry men held Sherwood Forest
IN England and the barons were fore
ing the Magma Charta from the tyran-
meal King John. At the same time
the Indian tribes that ranged more ia
yored sections Of what is now the
United States suffered their occasional
famlnes and advanced little in culture
What happened to the cliff-dwellers?
Nothing is known definitely, but there
Is reason to believe that the old story
OF Rome and barbarians was repeated
there on the Mesa Verde. The con
lecture is that the Ute Indians drove