Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-10-20

Americans looking at the ruins OF
the Cliff Palace, the Sun Temple'
the Spruce Tree House, and other
remains must have wondered what
sort of people they were who c1u!d
build structures of such durability
ana imposing size while all about
them stretched continent peo-
tIood but who nevertheless had
never been able to rise much above
the plane of naked savagery.
Indian Corn a Civilizing influence
The spade of the a~rcheologist is
rapidly revealing the cliff people TO
us. Year after year the ~eXcaVat-
Jig goes on, more structures are
uncovered, and the museums at
Washington and elsewhere are fur
ther enriched by implements, uten-
sis. ornaments, and other artifacts
taken from the sites of these build
irgs. Along with these discoveries
come new deductions about the
ciiff-dwellers themselves.
According to DR.. Fewkes, the
maize plant-Indian corn-explains
tie superior civilization of the cliff
jewellers. A small-statured, unwar
like people, in the first place they
found in this unpromising region of
Wind-swept canyon and ~tableland
a refuge from the stronger and
more warlike tribes who preempted
the regions of plenty. The game
in the Mese Verde district was
sLarce. The streams were very lit
| tie more than the channels for perl
cdical freshlets. A few fish could
be caught, but not enough to sup
pert a population as large as ore
which dwelt there. Their was no
natural food supply such as all
other Indian tribes enjoyed, and SO
the cliff people were forced to
| create a food supply by their own
ingenuity. Tht grew corn on the
mesas.
And this was no easy thing.
There 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 alum
dance but still in sufficient qudnti-
tics to exc out their thin supply of
fish and meat.
It was not enough to grow the
corn; they had to store 1t for the
winter. If they could not store it
safely, they could not survive. Origi-
nally these people had lived in
| IlC1l-SulhC4 P4L oWSL44Ll5o OA kLIC
top of the Mesa. Along the sides
of the canyons which cut into the
mesa were high, shallow caverLs,
caused by the erosion of soft strata
of rock between harder sorts. 10
these caverns, probably, they hrst
took their corn for storage.
This would not be good storage,
for rains and SHOWS would beat in
to the caverns and dampen the
1 corn. The next step in their prog
ress was to build dry granaries fOr
the storage of their crops. Anthro-
poligists have long observed that
the only primitive peoples who have
ever amounted to anything have
been those who built of stone. The
u cliff-dwellers were the only prehis-
toric tribe north of the Rio Grande
River that used stone as a building
material.
Beginnings of Communal Life
Thus these people gradually be-
came skillful artisans in the use o.
stone. Eventually they left thrii
earth lodges on the top of the
mesas and went to live in the safer
and more comfortable caves. Here
they built themselves houses, and
naturally built them of stone. A
communal life began. At first, pei
BdES, OHly d SlHSlS ldllIy OCCuDtSN
a cavern with a small house Bail
on the cave floor. Family descen'
was through mothers. Presently {
branch would break off in the origi,
nal family and become a clan. Thi!
clan built its slime housing to ad.
Join the original house. Thus thu
various cliff dwellings grew in size
Each clan provided for itself cere,
morial rooms and living quarter S
and the house grew until it became
a village in itself. The Cliff Palace
the first of these ruins to be dis
covered, is 900 feet long, nearly l0l
feet wide, and it contained 90
rooms. Parts of it were three ant
four stories high.
This sort of building develops,
for the cliff-dwellers a distinct typ
OF architecture. The typical build
ing was constructed in the form o
a letter d. This correspondent T.
the shape Of a cliff cavern-th
straight edge of the precipice 4
front and the curving wall of tn
cave behind. The cliff-dwellers be
came sun worshippers, and whs
they built their Sun Temple on tn
mesa top. each of the two section
OF the temple followed this form.
These people also became skillfu