Bella P.

Essay #22 – “Mesa Verde”

The Mesa Verde was a very significant sight made in the dates of 450-1300 C.E.

It most prominently represents the cliff dwellings made out of sandstone in the area

known as the Ancestral Puebloan in Montezuma County, Colorado. This form was built

right inside of a cave, but there were dwellings built on top also along the mesas. There

were over 600 structures located in this site. The materials used to construct the dwellings

were stone, mortar, and plaster. Most specifically speaking, the stone and mud mortar

supported by wooden beans was used to apply to the clefts and the cliff faces. The

sandstone was used to shape the harder stones. The buildings were built out of a

particular technique that used adobe set aside from other buildings. Adobe was a type of

brick that helped in the support of the cliff dwellings. The function of this site was to hold

ceremonies, and for people to live in at one point as well. Roofs initially covered these

structures, but as time went on, today they do not have roofs. There was a room in the

unit that stood as facing plaza for family gatherings, and the much smaller rooms were

used for storage. The rooms were rectangular or circular, making it a very special and

unique type of residential and ceremonial space.

The Mesa Verde stands for “green table” that refers to the mountains that

surround it. The residents that lived in the area were known as the Ancestral Puebloans

that lived there for about 850 years. Ancestral Puebloans were originally farmers that

loved near their crops to keep them substantial at all times, but as the years went on, they

began to relocate to places near water. The main reason for the cliff dwellings for these

people was unknown, but it was possibly seen as a form of protection from invaders.
These structured lived a long set of years, but were abandoned around 1300 C.E. due to

drought to some other natural reoccurrences. The main themes presented in the Mesa

Verde were the prominent sacred spaced scattered across the many structures, and the

presumption of man vs. nature seen throughout the way they interacted with their

environment to live in space that was special to them.