Hovenweep National Monument - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

and southeastern Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, located between Cortez, Colorado

Cortez, Colorado

The city of Cortez is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 8,482 at the 2010 census...

and Blanding, Utah

Blanding, Utah

Blanding is a city in San Juan County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,162 at the 2000 census, making it the most populated city in San Juan County. It was settled in the late 19th century by Mormon settlers, predominantly from the famed Hole-In-The-Rock expedition...

on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

run through the wide and deep canyons into the San Juan River.

Although the Hovenweep National Monument is largely known for the six village groups of the Ancient Pueblo

Ancient Pueblo Peoples

Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southern Colorado...

, or Anasazi, people, there is evidence of hunter-gatherer

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...

s from 8,000 to 6,000 B.C. until about AD 200. Then a succession of early puebloan cultures settled in the area and remained until the AD 1300s.

Hovenweep became a National Monument in 1923 and is administered by the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

Early people

Evidence from the area indicates that there were Paleo-Indians and people of the Archaic period. During the transitional period from a traditional hunter-gatherer

Hunter-gatherer

society to pueblo people

Ancient Pueblo Peoples

, there were several distinct cultural changes:

Early hunters

Hunter-gatherers from 10,000 years Before Present

Before Present

Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...

hunted and lived in a difficult terrain, traversed deep canyons and areas of few animals and limited vegetation, and managed limited access to water - which made life difficult and limited the size of their hunt groups. They were adaptive to find sufficient food, supplementing their diet with nuts, seeds and fruit from wild plants. Artifacts were found 1) of Paleo-Indians who camped and hunted along the Cajon Mesa of Hovenweep as early as 8,000 years ago and 2) from 20 sites with evidence of Archaic-Early Basketmaker people

Archaic–Early Basketmaker Era

The Archaic–Early Basketmaker Era, 7000 - 1500 BC was an Archaic cultural period of ancestors to the Ancient Pueblo People. They were distinguished from other Archaic people of the Southwest by their basketry which was used to gather and store food...

from about 6,000 BC.

Late Basketmaker II Era

The Late Basketmaker II Era was a cultural period of Ancient Pueblo People when people began living in pit-houses, raised maize and squash, and were proficient basket makers and weavers...

AD 50 to 500

The people living in the Four Corners region were introduced to maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

and basketry

Basket weaving

Basket weaving is the process of weaving unspun vegetable fibres into a basket or other similar form. People and artists who weave baskets are called basketmakers and basket weavers.Basketry is made from a variety of fibrous or pliable materials•anything that will bend and form a shape...

through Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

n trading about 2,000 years Before Present Able to have greater control of their diet through cultivation, the hunter-gatherers lifestyle became more sedentary as small disperse groups began cultivating maize and squash. They also continued to hunt and gather wild plants.

They were named "Basketmakers" for their skill in making baskets for storing food, covering with pitch to heat water, and using to toast seeds and nuts. They wove bags, sandals, belts out of yucca plants and leaves - and strung beads. They occasionally lived in dry caves where they dug pits and lined with stones to store food. These people were ancestors of the pueblo people of the Hovenweep pueblo settlement and Mesa Verde.

Basketmaker III Era

The Basketmaker III Era, AD 500 to 750, also called the "Modified Basketmaker" period, was the third period in which Ancient Pueblo People were cultivating food, began making pottery and living in more sophisticated clusters of pit-house dwellings...

AD 500 to 750

The next era, Modified Basketmakers, resulted in the introduction of pottery which reduced the number of baskets that they made and eliminated the creation of woven bags. The simple, gray pottery allowed them a better tool for cooking and storage. Beans were added to the cultivated diet. Bows and arrows made hunting easier and thus the acquisition of hides for clothing. Turkey feathers were woven into blankets and robes. On the rim of Mesa Verde, small groups built pit houses which were built several feet below the surface with elements suggestive of the introduction of celebration rituals.

Pueblo I Era

The Pueblo I Era, from AD 750 to 900, was the first period in which Ancient Pueblo People began living in pueblo structures and realized an evolution in architecture, artistic expression, and water conservation...

AD 750 to 900

From pueblos at Mesa Verde we learn of some advancements during this period which are reflected in the Hovenweep structures built in the next cultural period. Pueblo buildings were built with stone, windows facing south, and in U, E and L shapes. The buildings were located more closely together and reflected deepening religious celebration. Towers were built near kivas and likely used for look-outs. Pottery became more versatile, not just for cooking, but now included pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars and dishware for food and drink. White pottery with black designs emerged, the pigments coming from plants. Water management and conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt-retaining dams also emerged during this period.

Ancient Puebloan people

Pueblo II Era

The Pueblo II Era, AD 900 to 1150, was the second pueblo period of the Ancient Pueblo People of the Four Corners region of the American southwest. During this period people lived in dwellings made of stone and mortar, enjoyed communal activities in kivas, built towers and water conversing dams,...

- AD 900 - 1150

About AD 900, the number of Hovenweep residential sites increased. Like the people at Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established on April 1, 1931 as a unit of the National Park Service. It is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation...

, about AD 1100 the Hovenweep village communities moved from mesa tops to the heads of canyons.

People, generally considered part of the Mesa Verde branch of the northern San Juan Pueblo (Anasazi)

Ancient Pueblo Peoples

culture, transitioned from disperse housing and built pueblos in the late 1100s alongside springs or other water sources near or at the canyon heads. Most of the pueblo building was conducted, about the same time as the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, between 1230 and 1275 when there were about 2,500 residents. The Hovenweep architecture and pottery was like that of Mesa Verde.

Pueblo III Era

The Pueblo III Era, AD 1150 to 1350, was the third period, also called the "Great Pueblo period" when Ancient Pueblo People lived in large cliff-dwelling, multi-storied pueblo, or cliff-side talus house communities...

- AD 1150 - 1350

The Hovenweep inhabitants completed construction over a period of time. Buildings with one story towers were built about AD 1000. About AD 1160 they began building larger pueblo residential complexes, up to 3 story towers, dams, and reservoirs. They moved their fields into areas where water could be controlled. They also built large stone towers, living quarters and other shelters to safeguard springs and seeps. The stone course pueblos and towers of the Hovenweep people exhibit expert masonry skills and engineering. The builders did not level foundations for their structures, but adapted construction designs to the uneven surfaces of rock slabs. These stone pueblos were understandably referred to as castles by nineteenth-century explorers. Prominent structures are Hovenweep Castle, Hovenweep House, Square Tower, Rim Rock House, Twin Towers, Stronghold House and Unit-type house. These structures are part of larger community pueblos that surround the heads of canyons where springs are located.

Two murals from Hovenweep were excavated and conserved prior to area construction. The kiva murals, which provide great insight into the life of the Ancient people, are now located at the Anasazi Heritage Center

Anasazi Heritage Center

Anasazi Heritage Center, located in Dolores, Colorado, is an archaeological museum of Native American pueblo and hunter-gatherer cultures. Two 12th-century archaeological sites, the Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos, at the center were once home to Ancient Pueblo Peoples...

. Warren Hurley describes them as "some of the best preserved examples of Pueblo III wall paintings in the Northern San Juan Region."

Six clusters of pueblo buildings

Cajon Group, constructed like the Holly, Hackberry and Horseshoe configuration, is located at the head of Allen Canyon. It consists of a cluster of room blocks and the remains of a tower, estimated to house 80-100 people, that was constructed on a boulder that sits below the rim of the canyon. Up to seven kiva depressions are located around the spring. Remnants of wall alignments below the rim on the talus represent possible terrace farming.

Cutthroat Castle group is in an offshoot of Hovenweep Canyon. Cutthroat Castle, the largest of the remains, is located on the north side of the stream. Cutthroat is unique among the units due to the lack of a spring, the numerous kivas and the fact that much of the architecture sits below the rim.

Goodman Point group, the largest and eastern most village, contains small and large clusters of pueblo buildings built partially underground. It was most heavily populated in between AD 1150-1300, the Pueblo III

Pueblo III Era

period. Earlier residents include Basketmakers from AD 200-450 and during the second Pueblo period AD 900-1150.

The Holly group is located at the head of Keeley Canyon. Holly is the site known for a rock art panel that has been interpreted as a summer solstice marker. The five named buildings at the site are Curved Wall House, Great House, Holly Tower, Isolated Boulder House and Tilted Tower.

Hackberry and Horseshoe group Hackberry was a medium sized Pueblo III

Pueblo III Era

village in the east fork of Bridge Canyon. About 250 to 350 inhabitants are thought to have resided in the Hackberry Group. Located about 500 yards away, the Horseshoe group consists of four pueblo buildings that for a U-shape. Horseshoe Ruin had a dam at the rim to create a reservoir. Horseshoe House is a D-shaped structure containing three rooms surrounding a possible central kiva. The architectural style suggests ceremonial or public use. About 800 years ago the buildings were constructed with "precisely fit" stones and set with mortar of sand, ash, clay and water.

Square Tower group is the largest collection of pueblo buildings at Hovenweep and was populated with up to 500 people. It is located in Little Ruin Canyon which is made up of Square Tower, Tower Point, and Twin Towers ruin groups. Towers at Hovenweep were built in a variety of shapes; D-shapes, squares, ovals and circles and for several purposes, including tool and grinding work areas, kivas for ritual functions, residential rooms and storage. Towers have limited access, contain few windows and many have narrow slots or peepholes placed in the walls. The slots and doors of Hovenweep Castle, in Square Tower Group, have been shown to define an apparent solar calendar

Solar calendar

A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun .-Tropical solar calendars:...

. The building is aligned so that light is channeled through openings into the building at sunset of the summer solstice

Solstice

A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...

, the winter solstice and the spring and fall equinox

Equinox

An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator...

. The light falls in a predictable pattern on interior door lintels.

Agriculture

Domesticated crops such as maize

Maize

, amaranth

Amaranth

Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth, is a cosmopolitan genus of herbs. Approximately 60 species are recognized, with inflorescences and foliage ranging from purple and red to gold...

, beans, squash

Squash (fruit)

Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita, also called marrows depending on variety or the nationality of the speaker...

and cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

were grown in terraced fields,[ and vital water was dammed and flowed to edible wild plants such as beeweed

Beeweed

Cleome serrulata is a species of Cleome, native to western North America from southern British Columbia, east to Minnesota and Illinois, and south to New Mexico and northernmost California. It is also naturalized further east in North America...

, cattail, sedge

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

s, ground cherry, milkweed, and wolf berry. They also hunted.

Researchers studying prehistoric diets have found sagebrush flowers, seeds, and leaves in the Puebloans’ waste. As a minor part of their diet, sagebrush would have been a good source of iron and Vitamin C. In larger amounts, it kills intestinal parasites.

Natural resources

The area surrounding Hovenweep supplied a number of materials to support the Hovenweep people's lifestyle. Trees were used for building materials and fires. Baskets were sealed with piñon sap. Clothing and sandals were made from juniper bark. Tools, such as projectile points for hunting, scrapers and knives were made from quartz stones.

Migration from Hovenweep

These construction and water related activities lead archaeologists to speculate that climatic change

Climatic Change

Climatic Change is a scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It deals with the problems of climatic variability and change...

and increased population

Overpopulation

Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...

placed the communities under stress. The Hovenweep people left their pueblos in the late 13th century, possibly in response to a 23-year regional drought. People in the entire Four Corners region were also abandoning smaller communities at that time, and the area may have been nearly empty by AD 1350. Archaeological and cultural evidence leads scientists to believe people from this region migrated south to live with the Hopi of Arizona and the puebloan people of the Rio Grande

Rio Grande

The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...

in New Mexico.

Discovery

In 1854, William D. Huntington, on a missionary trip to the southwestern United States for Brigham Young

Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

, discovered the ruins of the present Hovenweep National Park. The ruins were already known to the Ute

Ute Tribe

The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...

and Navajo

Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...

guides who considered them haunted and urged Huntington to stay.

The name Hovenweep, which means "deserted valley" in the Ute language, was adopted by pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson

William Henry Jackson

William Henry Jackson was an American painter, Civil War, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West...

and William Henry Holmes

William Henry Holmes

William Henry Holmes was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, geologist and museum director.-Life:...

in 1878. The name is apt as a description of the area's desolate canyons and barren mesas as well as the ruins of ancient communities.

Concerned about the vandalism at the prehistoric ruins of the San Juan watershed in the Four Corner states, in 1903 T. Mitchell Pruden surveyed the ruins in those states and reported the following regarding the Hovenweep area:

"Few of the mounds have escaped the hands of the destroyer. Cattlemen, ranchmen, rural picnickers, and professional collectors have turned the ground well over and have taken out much pottery, breaking more, and strewing the ground with many crumbling bones."

In 1917–18, ethnologist J. Walter Fewkes

J. Walter Fewkes

Jesse Walter Fewkes was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer and naturalist. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and initially trained as a zoologist at Harvard University...

of the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

included descriptions of the ruins in published archaeological survey reports, and recommended the structures be protected. Little archaeological excavation was done on sites until the 1970s.

National monument

President Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

proclaimed Hovenweep a National Monument

U.S. National Monument

A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. National monuments receive less funding and...

on March 2, 1923, which is administered by the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

. On October 15, 1966 the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

In addition to the ruins, located in the Hovenweep National Monument are:

Visitor Center located at Square Tower Group
31 site campsite at Square Tower Group
Hiking trails
Parking, picnic and toilet facilities

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Early people

Ancient Puebloan people

Discovery

National monument

See also

External links