Mesa Verde Lake Not a Lake After All
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Mesa Verde Mummy Lake: Reservoir or Ritual Space? Composite photo by Jeff Posey
An interesting study about the Anasazi in Mesa Verde National Park (link to National Park Service site), Colorado, was recently released. See it here on LiveScience.com: ‘Mummy Lake’ Used for Ancient Rituals, Not Water Storage
In Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, a large 1,000-year-old structure long thought to be an Ancestral Puebloan water reservoir may not have been built to store water after all, a new study suggests.
In the new study, researchers analyzed the hydrologic, topographic, climatic and sedimentary features of Mummy Lake and the surrounding cliff area. They concluded that, contrary to what previous research had determined, the pit wouldn’t have effectively collected or distributed water.
There’s a similar, though much smaller, open-air round house (kiva seems the wrong word when it’s ground level and there’s no top) at Chimney Rock National Monument (link to official national monument site) near Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
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Chimney Rock National National Monument Open-Topped “Kiva”? Composite photo by Jeff Posey
Ceremonial Roads
The most interesting part to me is this section near the bottom of the article:
Two decades ago, researchers studying the Manuelito Canyon Community of New Mexico discovered the Ancestral Puebloan population had an evolving ritual landscape. Over the centuries, the Manuelito people relocated the ritual focus of their community several times. Each time they moved, they built ceremonial roads to connect their retired great houses and great kivas to the new complexes.
Benson and his colleagues suspect the same thing happened at Mesa Verde. Mummy Lake was built as early as A.D. 900, around the same time as the rest of the Far View group of structures; Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House, on the other hand, date to the early 1200s. The researchers think the community relocated to the latter structures between A.D. 1225 and 1250, and connected their past with their present using the ceremonial roads.
We know, of course, about the road system in Chaco Canyon (link to the Solstice Project site). On the surface, therefore, this sounds highly plausible.
Image may be NSFW.
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Was it Really Religious?
But we always must imagine this kind of thing with caution. Since the beginning of archaeology, there has been a tendency to classify anything we don’t understand as “ritual,” which has a religious connotation. It very well could be this is simply a place where they held dances and plays or wrestling matches, and it was more entertainment than religious.
This is background research for…
Image may be NSFW.
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The Next Skywatcher: Prequel to The Last Skywatcher Triple Trilogy Series
Warning! This story contains graphic violence including cannibalism.
“I really enjoyed it. It was well-written.” —Thomas Windes, thirty-seven-year veteran Anasazi archaeologist with the National Park Service.
Raised by his beloved Sky Chief grandfather and a mysterious albino woman, Tuwa expects to become the next skywatcher.
When a strange star appears in the sky, so bright it shines during the day, the High Priest, backed by ultraviolent warriors from the South, demands blood sacrifice.
Tuwa’s grandfather, a vocal opponent of the foreigners, is murdered in a public ceremony, cooked, and served to the stunned crowd. Next in line are Tuwa’s adopted mother and the girl he loves, Chumana.
Unable to watch, Tuwa flees in a blind panic into dark wilderness where he’s rescued by a long-distance trader who collects orphans to protect him and carry his goods.
Three years later, Tuwa returns with his hardened band of orphans intent upon revenge—only to discover that the stakes are much higher than he had imagined.
Mere revenge may not be enough.
Jeff Posey writes novels inspired by the Anasazi culture of the American Southwest a thousand years ago.
“Cultures that have dramatically collapsed,” he says, “should at least compel us to dream up stories about how such things can happen.”
He does not, under any circumstances, advocate cannibalism.
Jeff’s Books on Hot Water Press
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