Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Dolores, Colorado

We went to the Canyon's Visitor Center to get my passport stamped and visit the museum. We did not go to the actual monument as it was quite a drive from where we were; and it encompasses more than 170,000 acres of high desert in the southwest corner of Colorado. So the pictures I have posted were taken at the Visitor Center and Museum.

Thousands of archaeological sites have been recorded in the monument, and thousands more await documentation and study. Some archaeological sites are clearly identified, while others are intended as exhibits in an "outdoor museum" experience. 

Humans have been part of this landscape for at least 12,000 years. Changes in cultural life over time ranged from hunting and gathering to farming. By about AD 750 farmers, now known as Ancestral Puebloans, occupied a widespread area that included Canyons of the Ancients and much of southwest Colorado. Their year-round villages began as clustered pit houses. Over time, these ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo Indians developed larger masonry homes connecting walls above ground. Some of these homes were built at canyon heads where there was a spring to supply water. Other homes were cliff dwellings. In time, factors such as population growth, soil exhaustion, and changing weather compromised the area's natural resources. By about AD 1300, these Pueblo ancestors migrated to New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley or farther west to where the Acoma, Laguna, Zuni and Hopi people live today.

Ute and Navajo people also used the Monument's mesas and canyons for hunting and gathering. Remains of hogans, brush shelters and wickiups tell their story.  In the 1700s, Europeans explored the area, often led by Ute guides. Today, many descendant peoples still live in or near their ancestor's homelands.

Castle Rock Pueblo

Saddlehorn Pueblo

Double Cliff House

Sunny Alcove

Wall curves with Bedrock House

Check out the Lizard and animal forms on this pottery. It is considered Painted White around AD 1050 - 1225, Pueblo II - III Periods.

This is considered Mancos Black-on-White, AD 975 - 1150, Pueblo II Period.

The earliest pottery came from the Late Basketmaker - Early Pueblo, AD 500-950. Chapin Gray (AD 575-950) is among the oldest pottery found here. Its coarse, crushed-rock temper (binder material) protrudes from the undecorated surface.

Lino Gray (AD 500-900) is similar to Chapin Gray, but was made in New Mexico and arrived by trade. 

Chapin Black-on-White (AD 575-800) is the earliest local, decorated pottery. Its unpolished surface carries simple "floating" designs such as dots, triangles, and Z-shapes.  

Piedra Black-on-White (AD 775-900) is usually polished, with a tapered rim, and often decorated with barbed lines.

Abajo Red-on-orange (AD 700-800) is gray inside with red designs on a polished surface. The surface colors are iron compounds oxidized during firing.

Olla

This Olla is from the Basketmaker III - Pueblo II era, AD 575-950, Chapin Gray.

One of the houses found on top of the mesa from the Visitor's Center. I took the dogs on a walk up to the mesa to find this ruin.