The story of the Mesa Verde really had its beginning many thousands of years ago in a distant land. It began when the first ancient Asiatic stepped across from Siberia and became the First American. Who he was and exactly when it happened we shall never know, but it was the important first step in a long chain of events which led to the occupation of the Mesa Verde by Pueblo Indians.
There seems to be little doubt that the early inhabitants of North and South America came from Asia by that northern route. It is the only route by which men, traveling without artificial means of transportation, could have reached these western continents. Not a single insurmountable barrier, not a single impossibility lay in the path of those ancient men as they drifted with the line of least resistance. From the northwest, America was discovered and populated.
Men first came into being somewhere in the Old World. From this point of beginning they spread slowly over the face of the earth. In all directions the ancient men traveled, always on foot, always without a goal. After a time Europe, Africa and Asia were populated, but the Americas remained without men. Surrounded by vast areas of water, except at one point, the Americas were the last great land bodies to be discovered.
Finally, the day of discovery arrived. For countless centuries groups of men had been drifting over the great continent of Asia. Farther and farther they traveled until at last a group, perhaps forced on by stronger groups behind, stood on the utmost tip of northeastern Asia, the tip of Siberia now known as the East Cape.
Standing on the ocean shore those men shaded their eyes and looked out across the water. There, only fifty-six miles away, lay another land. Curiosity, or perhaps the force of “enemy pressure”, urged them on. A means of crossing those fifty-six tantalizing miles was found. At last the first human foot touched American soil.
At first glance it may seem that the crossing would be impossible for men who were without boats. Such was not the case. In winter the Bering Sea often freezes over completely. Present-day Eskimos cross on the ice and only a few years ago a white man made the crossing with a dog team. Thus, primitive man needed only the winter ice in order to satisfy his curiosity about the land across the water. The journey was made even less hazardous by two islands, the Diomedes, that raised their heads in the center of the Bering Sea, cutting the crossing into two shorter jumps.
It is even possible that when those men reached that tip of Asia no water separated them from America. A strip of land may have connected the two continents. It is known very definitely that at some not far distant date the two continents were connected by land, for some of our well-known animals have crossed from one to the other. The horse and the camel developed in America and walked off to Asia. The mammoth and the bison reversed the direction and crossed from Asia to America. In order for those beasts to make the crossing, a land bridge was necessary.
When the land bridge disappeared is not known. When the first men came is not known. Certain it is, however, that if the land bridge was in existence when the first men came to America, it afforded them an easy approach. If, on the other hand, it had disappeared beneath the waves of the Bering Sea, the men must have crossed on the ice. No one can as yet be positive as to the exact manner of the crossing. The important point is that the crossing was made and America was discovered and populated. Primitive man, after hundreds of thousands of years of wandering over the Old World, had at last found the one point at which he could enter a new land.
That this new land was superior to the old soon became apparent to the newcomers. Summers were longer: winters were less severe. Hunting and fishing were excellent and in the summer edible plants were common. Truly, here was a better land.
The first crossing from Asia to America was made many thousands of years ago. From the evidence now at hand, fifteen or twenty thousand years seems to be not too great an antiquity for those first Americans. Even at that early date, however, man was well-developed mentally and physically and had all the capabilities of modern man. The first American was no primitive brute. He was Homo sapiens, little different from the fifteenth century foreigners who rediscovered America thousands of years later and gradually edged it away from its first settlers.
Primitive human remains, such as those which have been found in the Old World, have never been found in America. Man went through his developmental stages in the Old World and came to America at a late date, a fully developed human being. Pithecanthropus erectus, Sinanthropus, Homo neanderthalensis—America has never known those tongue-twisting lowbrows!
After the first discovery of the new land there were innumerable rediscoveries. One group of men after another came to America and those migrations continued for thousands of years. The latest migrants came to America very recently. Thus, America was populated by many successive waves of migration over a long period of time.
It seems, almost, that after the first group came, word may have spread from one small tribe to another that off to the east lay a better land. People were disappearing over the eastern horizon. What lay in that direction? Curiosity urged them on!
It is altogether possible that actual word of the new land in the east went back to the Asiatic continent. Perhaps there were small counter migrations or perhaps some small traveling group, feeling a bond with some other group in the old country, sent runners back to beckon them on.
Certain it is that there was not just a single migration. Numerous groups of men filtered into America over a period of thousands of years. Slowly, aimlessly, they wandered. One group pushed another and was in turn pushed by an oncoming tribe. After a time, North and South America were covered with hundreds of small tribes of Indians.
The members of these various tribes were not all alike. They differed greatly in appearance, in language, in religion and in mode of living. The answer is apparent. The various groups came from different parts of Asia. They came at different times. They settled in different parts of the New World and developed in different ways according to the natural resources in each region. As a result there came into being the many tribes of American Indians which were in America when Columbus came on his journey of rediscovery from the east.
The early part of the story of the Americas is still hazy. In spite of many years of search by dozens of top-flight archeologists there are many unanswered questions. Each year expeditions sift through the dust of the ages on the trail of those early Americans. More often than not the trail leads to a blank wall. The ancient past of the Indian is clouded with uncertainty but the lure of the unknown still beckons to those who are endeavoring to trail him back to his Asiatic birthplace.
The great trouble is that for thousands of years the Indians lived a hunting life. They wandered from day to day, living on the natural foods they found in each day’s journey. There was no permanent home, no settled life. The hunter was ever on the trail of his next meal.
Consider the life of the primitive hunter. Each morning he is awakened by the pangs of hunger in his empty, flapping paunch and he views with dismay his breakfast which is disappearing over the horizon on four strong, swift legs. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he starts out in pursuit of his breakfast. Failing to catch up with it, he starts after his lunch. If it eludes him, he begins to work on the next meal—and the next and the next. Always he is one jump behind his food supply. When he makes a kill he gorges and smoothes the wrinkles out of his belly. When he fails, he goes hungry.
Being forced to follow the game he is ever on the move. He can have no permanent home, no pottery, nothing that cannot easily be transported on the trail. One night he sleeps under a tree and leaves behind a broken stone knife. The next night he sleeps in a cave ten miles away and discards a worn-out sandal. The third night he builds his campfire beside a lake across the mountain. On and on through the days he moves and finally, when the end comes, the animals of the wild clean and scatter his bones and they return to the dust from whence they came.
The archeologist may find the stone knife and the discarded sandal. He may even find the long-cold ashes of the campfire. But there is nothing to indicate that all three belonged to the same man. There is not a single bit of evidence that ties them together.
Thus it is with the hunter. His trail is cold: the clews are few. He is the will-o-the-wisp of the human race. He has put many gray hairs in the head of the archeologist.
All of the early inhabitants of North and South America lived a wandering, hunting life. For thousands of years they lived on the chance products, animal and plant, that nature offered. They seldom stayed long in one place: they never built a permanent thing. To date the story of the first ten or fifteen thousand years is far from complete. It can be summed up in a few words.
The men themselves have, for the most part, eluded us. The fact that they lived a wandering life and seldom, if ever, buried the dead, has made it difficult to find the bones of the men themselves. However, the tools and weapons made and used by those men have been found in great numbers. And best of all, they have been found in situations which clearly indicate the antiquity of man in America.
A few thousand years ago there were elephants in America. The mammoth was here as well as his terrifying near-relative, the mastodon. There were horses in various parts of the country and a strange, lumbering animal, the ground sloth, was common. Tremendous bison with long sweeping horns wallowed in the bogs and camels roamed the plains.
Modern man has never seen those animals in America. They were gone long before he came. They had been extinct thousands of years before the first Europeans poked their tardy noses into the New World.
In spite of this we know that the early Indians did see them. They hunted them and lived on their flesh. They may have been a contributing factor in the extinction of some of those ancient species. Changing weather conditions thinned out the great herds and man, not yet conservation conscious, may have helped to wipe out the survivors.
How do we know?
In a number of places the implements of those early men have been found in direct association with the bones of the extinct animals. The inference is unquestionable. Dart points, knives, scrapers and other implements have been found so definitely associated with the bones of animals that there can be no doubt that man and the animals existed at the same time. If those animals have been extinct for thousands of years it dates the earliest men fairly well.
One of the most important finds was made in northeastern New Mexico, near the little town of Folsom. This find was important because it was here for the first time that modern scientists were forced to admit that man had been in America a long, long time. It is also important because it has given a name to some of the ancient men. Folsom Man, the most elusive American we have yet been unable to find.
The discovery of the earliest evidences of Folsom Man is one of the strangest stories in American archeology. The events in the story covered a period of twenty-five years and it was only by chance that the important archeological evidence came to the attention of the scientific world.
Back about 1900, a negro cowboy known as Nigger George, was riding the range on the Crowfoot Ranch near the little town of Folsom, New Mexico, searching for cattle. As George rode along, he came to a deep arroyo so he turned his horse and rode along its bank. Suddenly, in the opposite wall of the arroyo, the cowboy noticed some huge bones. They were larger than any bones he had ever seen and the fact that they were washing out of the arroyo wall several feet below the surface was puzzling. Fortunately George, although an illiterate man, was curious about the bones and, instead of riding on and forgetting them, collected a number and took them to the ranch house.
The bones were obviously larger than those of modern bison or cattle but no one at the ranch was particularly interested in them. Many years passed and finally someone became mildly interested in the bones and gave them to Mr. Ed Price, of Raton, New Mexico. Again the years passed and it was not until 1925 that the bones once more attracted attention. In that year a number were sent to the Colorado Museum of Natural History and the paleontologists recognized them for what they were—the bones of an extinct bison. Thousands of years ago the bison had roamed the plains of North America. They were tremendous, long-horned animals, larger than our present-day bison.
Park visitors entering Balcony House on ranger-guided tour
In order to obtain some of the ancient skeletons the museum sent expeditions to Folsom, New Mexico, and during three summers the men dug the great bones out of the arroyo bank. When the digging was finished, the men had recovered thirty skeletons of the long-extinct bison. But in addition, they had found something far more important. Among the bison bones they had discovered nineteen beautiful dart, or spear points. The points were so closely associated with the bones that there could be no doubt as to their antiquity. And, with equal certainty, there could be no doubt that ancient hunters had killed the great bison.
All evidence indicated that a few thousand years ago this was a swampy, boggy place, a bison wallow. Primitive hunters crept up on the drowsing animals and sometimes made a kill. They skinned the bison, cut off what meat they wanted and left the carcasses to rot in the mud. Sometimes they failed to extract all of their dart points from the bodies of the bison. As the centuries passed the bones became deeply covered with earth and there they remained until that fateful day when Nigger George rode by.
Geologists who studied the Folsom Site felt that the bison bones had been there in the earth at least twelve or fifteen thousand years. The importance of the nineteen dart points was immediately evident. Since they had caused the death of the bison there could be no doubt that men were in the area twelve or fifteen thousand years ago. Before the Folsom discovery archeologists had felt that men had been in America only a short time. Now they were forced to revise their thinking concerning the antiquity of the American Indian.
When the Folsom discovery was announced many archeologists began searching for evidences of Folsom Man and a burning question was always in their minds. Who would have the honor of finding Folsom Man himself? After twenty-five years of searching, the question is still unanswered. Folsom Man still evades his trackers for no skeletons have been found which can be considered, without doubt, to have belonged to him.
Evidences are plentiful for in many parts of the United States the points have been found. But Folsom Man himself still eludes us. The name means little. It is a term that is rather loosely applied to the makers of the beautiful Folsom Points. They are entirely distinctive and are among the highest examples of the flint workers art that have been found in America. Beautifully shaped, delicately chipped points with grooved faces, they can not be confused with any other dart or spear points. They have been found in many places, often associated with the bones of extinct animals.
Up in northern Colorado, near the town of Fort Collins, is the Lindenmeier Site. In it were found the bones of the same bison as those of Folsom. With them were the same Folsom Points. With them, also, were stone knives, scrapers, chopping and rubbing stones, as well as the ashes and charcoal from ancient campfires. They were spread over a large area. It was a campsite where Folsom Man actually had lived. Was Folsom Man in camp? No, he had stepped out!
In Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and other states, similar finds have been made. Folsom Points, and other points equally ancient, have been found in association with the bones of many extinct animals such as the bison, horse, mammoth and camel. Everywhere are found the evidences; nowhere is found Folsom Man himself.
Bones of the extinct animals, being solid and massive, have lasted well. Tools made of stone last indefinitely. Human bones, being thin and delicate, disintegrate more rapidly. There were probably few burials in those days and the human bones were scattered to the four winds. Still the search goes on. Sooner or later the find will be made. In the back of a dry cave somewhere in the Southwest, probably, will be found some human bones. With them will be some Folsom Points. Then we will know that the points and the bones belonged to the same man—Folsom Man.
Or perhaps, when the human bones are found, a Folsom Point will actually be sticking in one of them. Then we will be sure that we have Folsom Man or, at least, someone whom Folsom Man did not like.
Although the actual physical remains of Folsom Man have not been found, a human skeleton, seemingly equally ancient, has recently been discovered. In 1947, scientists began excavating in a dry lake bed near Mexico City because of reports that natives had been finding mammoth bones in the area. Near the point where the mammoth bones had been found was discovered the partial skeleton of a man. The men who made the discovery were very sure the skeleton was as old as the layer of earth in which it was found, and this age was estimated to be 15,000 years.
Some scientists have been skeptical about the age of this skeleton, known as Tepexpan Man, feeling that it may represent a more recent burial. Recently, however, another discovery has been made which adds strength to the belief that Tepexpan Man is ancient. Early in 1952, the skeleton of a mammoth was found only a mile from the place where the human skeleton had been discovered. With the mammoth bones were found six man-made stone implements. One of these, a spear or dart point, was between two ribs of the mammoth—in all probability the animal had been killed by man. Even more important, however, was the fact that the human skeleton and the mammoth skeleton were found in the same layer of earth.
The importance of these two discoveries is obvious. The mammoth skeleton and the accompanying man-made implements indicate that man and mammoth lived in the area at the same time. The fact that the human and mammoth skeletons were found in the same layer of earth indicates that they may be equally ancient, and geologists feel that layer of earth was deposited about 15,000 years ago.
Thus, Tepexpan Man, unless grave errors were made during excavation, may well be the oldest human skeleton yet found in America. And the important point is that there was nothing primitive about this ancient man. He was a fully developed human being—Homo sapiens. In appearance he was much like men of today and his brain was almost as large as that of the average modern man.
The search for America’s earliest inhabitants continues year after year. During the past twenty-five years many finds have been made but little has been learned about the people themselves. In each case, when an important find is made, it consists of spear points, dart points or other stone implements associated with the bones of extinct animals.
The Folsom Points, because of the importance of the original discovery, have received the greatest amount of publicity, but dart or spear points of many types have been found. Usually these projectile points are named because of the place where they are discovered and as a result there are Scottsbluff Points, Eden Points, Plainview Points, Sandia Points, and many more. The great need, at the present time, is for skeletal remains of the early men themselves. Some ancient human remains have been found but scientists are not in complete agreement as to their age. Even the Tepexpan skeleton, which may be the most important of all, has not been accepted by all of the men who are working on the problem of early man in America.
The story is being carried farther and farther into the past by stronger and stronger evidences. No one knows where it will end. Certain it is that America was discovered a great many thousands of years ago. Columbus was a late comer and he came the hard way. The real discoverers of America came the easy way: they just walked over.
All of the early inhabitants of America lived by hunting and fishing and by gathering the fruits, nuts, roots, berries and seeds which nature offered. Since they lived a roaming, drifting life, they built no permanent structures and as a result, their remains are not easily found. Because of this there are many question marks in the early part of the story and much is yet to be learned about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas.
As long as the early Indians lived a wandering, hunting life there was no real progress and we must come down to comparatively recent times in order to appreciate the greatest accomplishments of the American Indian. A short time ago, only a few thousand years at most, a very important thing happened. Somewhere in Mexico or Central America, perhaps in South America, the first farmers appeared. Some ancient Burbank produced corn, the plant which was responsible for all of the highest Indian cultures which the white man found when he blundered into America.
The origin of corn is still a mystery. For many years botanists have tried to trace it back to its wild plant ancestors but the entire story is still not known. Corn has moved so far and has changed so radically that there are gaps in the story and we may never know exactly how the Indians developed it. Certainly it was the most important food plant the Indians ever knew and because of it the lives of many Indians underwent a radical change.
Corn spread from one tribe to the next. One group after another found that farming was more dependable than hunting. Farther and farther it spread until large portions of North and South America were covered with farming Indians. With corn went other food plants which the Indians developed; beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and many more. Farming was in America to stay.
The result was amazing. Many Indians who formerly had followed the forest trails year after year now began to live settled lives. With dependable supplies of food coming from each harvest it was no longer necessary to move about. Permanent habitations soon appeared and villages and towns developed. The population increased and people began to concentrate in the best farming areas. With all this came new inventions which led the people always to higher stages of development.
When the white man finally arrived in 1492, there were fifteen or twenty million Indians in North and South America. Some still lived by hunting, some by fishing, others by gathering the seeds, roots and other plant products offered by nature. But millions of the Indians were highly developed agricultural people. The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, the Indians of the New England states whom our first colonists met, the Mayas and Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas of South America, and many others had made surprising progress in a comparatively short time.
Credit for this progress goes to the amazing plant, corn, the American Indian’s greatest single contribution to modern man.
A little while ago we spent a year with the people of Cliff Palace and we saw them at the peak of their development as far as the Mesa Verde was concerned. They were successful farmers, their arts and crafts were highly developed and their religious and social customs were rigid and complex. Obviously the people could not have achieved such a high cultural level in a short time: surely there must have been a long period of development in order for them to reach the stage we saw at Cliff Palace.
Actually this development extended over many centuries and we shall now take a little time to consider the events of that long period. This is the dry part of the story. When we saw the people in Cliff Palace they were warm, living beings, experiencing all the emotions any people may have. But now there will be no flesh on the bones and we shall deal only with the dead, rather dry facts archeologists dig out of the earth. So we shall not tarry too long.
About 2000 years ago farming Indians moved into the Mesa Verde region. The exact date is still unknown but it appears they were well established in some parts of the area by the beginning of the Christian Era. Even at that early date they were farmers and their progress is easy to follow. In the preceding chapter, covering the early history of the American Indian, we were dealing with elusive hunters. We saw not a single Indian; only dim, mysterious shapes sifting through a forest of question marks. But now we are dealing with farmers and we shall have solid substance on which to build our story.
The trail of farmers is easier to follow. They have a dependable food supply and live in one spot for generations. They build villages and cities, and best of all, excellent garbage piles. Nothing delights the archeologist as much as a big pile of trash for every piece is a paragraph in the story of a people. If he can find the things people have used, worn out and discarded the archeologist can reconstruct their lives to an amazing degree. Hunters seldom pile up their trash but farmers are more obliging. Living for generations in a village they carry it outside and dump it in one nice big pile. And in those successive layers of trash is the story of the people. The archeologist revels in it. Except for the professional garbage collector he is probably the only person in the world who is thankful for trash.
Excavation of ruins and trash piles has revealed that the Mesa Verde region was occupied by farming Indians from about the beginning of the Christian Era, possibly somewhat earlier, until almost 1300 A.D. For convenience this long occupation has been divided into four archeological periods. Actually there were no abrupt breaks between these periods. Once the farming Indians settled in the area they developed steadily and there was constant progress until the climax was reached.
Dividing the occupation into periods makes it much easier, however, to follow the progress of the people. Various archeologists have used different names for the periods but we shall use a system that was developed by Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, of the Smithsonian Institution. Dates for the various periods vary somewhat in different parts of the Pueblo area but those used here serve well for the Mesa Verde itself.
The fact that the first two periods are called “Basket Maker” and the last two “Pueblo” should not be considered as an indication that there was a difference in the people themselves. Many years ago it was felt that during the eighth century there was a change in the physical type but this idea has been discarded. The people as well as their culture seem to have progressed in an unbroken line. It should be noted, also, that the dates are not rigid and they do not indicate abrupt, easily discerned cultural changes.
The Basket Makers were the earliest farmers in the Mesa Verde area. Their culture was comparatively simple and was featured by excellent weaving, especially of baskets and bags. Because of this trait they were called Basket Makers by the early explorers and the name has stuck. Credit for recognizing and naming these early people goes to Richard Wetherill, whom we have already met. In 1893, the Wetherills were digging in a great cave in Butler Wash, in southeastern Utah. While digging in the natural sand floor of the cave Richard found a burial pit, then another and another. When the excavation of the cave was completed the Wetherills had found ninety burials and in many cases the bodies were well mummified because of the drying effect of the cave sand.
The men were immediately impressed by the fact that the ninety graves had yielded no pottery. Previously they had excavated extensively in the Mesa Verde where the graves always contained pottery. But not a single piece was found with the burials in Butler Wash. Instead, the burials yielded a profusion of baskets. For this reason Richard began referring to the people as the “Basket Makers” and the name is still in use.
Few evidences of the early Basket Makers have been found in the Mesa Verde. The remains of these people are found in caves and Mesa Verde caves contain cliff dwellings. In order to find the early remains it will be necessary to excavate under the cliff dwellings and this work is yet to be done. However, the Basket Makers seem to have occupied the entire Mesa Verde region and when it becomes possible to excavate under the cliff dwellings the material probably will be found. Even though few evidences of the Basket Makers have been discovered in the Mesa Verde the culture is well known from extensive excavation in nearby areas.
At the beginning of the Basket Maker period the people seem to have lived a seminomadic life. They had only recently taken up farming and at first they probably farmed incidentally, regarding it only as a novel side line. Its possibilities became more and more apparent with each harvest and conditions were soon reversed. Farming became the mainstay and hunting became the side line. After the people fully realized the advantages of agriculture they never returned to a hunting life. Their main dependence was on the harvests and hunting was secondary in importance.
Our first recognition of these people brings up an interesting problem. Were they living in the Mesa Verde region as hunters when corn and squash came to them from some other tribe or did they bring these plants from some other region where they had already learned to farm? The answer is not yet known so we can simply say that when we first recognize them in the Mesa Verde area they were turning from a hunting to a farming life.
Physically, the Basket Makers were an interesting group. A large number of their burials have been found so their physical appearance is not in doubt. They were rather short in stature, the women averaging about five feet and the men three or four inches taller. The skin color varied from light to dark brown and it is safe to say that their eyes were also brown. The hair was black, sometimes rusty black and occasionally was inclined toward a slight waviness. On the mummies that have been found the hair of the women usually is cropped short but the male mummies sometimes exhibit elaborate hair styling. On some a wide line was shaved down the center of the head and the remaining hair was done up in a number of large and small braids.
If we could have walked through a Basket Maker village we probably would have considered the people rather attractive even when viewed from our own standards. They would have seemed short to us but well proportioned. Their features would have been pleasing for there would have been none of the amazing skull deformities which we saw among the people of Cliff Palace. Everything indicates they were a peaceful, easygoing people and, in all probability, they would have been easy to like.
From a cultural viewpoint the Basket Makers are important because of their lack of certain very important traits. During their early farming stages they did not make pottery, did not use the bow and arrow, and did not have permanent houses except in one area which we shall mention in a moment.
The lack of houses and pottery was perfectly natural for they had only recently been a hunting people. While they lived as hunters they were forced to move about in search of game and a permanent house was an impossibility. Pottery was also out of the question for it was too heavy for them to transport as they moved about. The absence of the bow was simply due to the fact that it had not yet reached these people. The bow probably was invented only once. From its point of beginning somewhere in the Old World it spread slowly from tribe to tribe and we shall see it reach the Basket Makers at a later date.
All people need shelter, household utensils and weapons so, lacking houses, pottery and the bow, our Basket Makers used substitutes. As is always the case they were inferior.
Part of the time, probably during the cold seasons, the Basket Makers lived in caves. These offered shelter from the elements and provided safe, dry places for the storage of food. The women built their fires in level sheltered areas and around these fires centered most of the activities. In the rear of the cave they constructed storage cists for their corn. Small pits were dug in the cave floor and were lined with slabs of sandstone chinked with bark and mud. Over the pit was placed a roof of poles and packed earth, leaving only a small hatchway which was closed with a thin stone slab. Such cists were secure and dry and served as excellent storage bins for the year’s harvest of corn. When the people left the cave for any length of time they could conceal the storage pits by covering them over with earth and stones so they would not be detected by chance visitors.
Even though most of the Basket Maker remains have been found in caves it is probable that they lived in the open near their fields for at least part of the year. As farming became more important to them they were forced to protect their crops. Each farm needed to be watched carefully to prevent damage by birds and mammals or even by men of other groups. Because of this necessity of living near their fields it is probable that they erected temporary shelters for protection from the sun and rain. A mere framework of poles covered with brush and grass would have sufficed. No trace of these temporary shelters has been found but there is a strong feeling that they did exist.
Recent excavations have revealed that in one area the Basket Makers began experimenting with permanent houses at an earlier date than formerly had been realized. Near Durango, Colorado, Mr. Earl H. Morris, of the Carnegie Institution, excavated a number of house structures, both in caves and on open hillsides, which date from the first and second centuries A.D. While these houses were crude when compared with the standardized pithouses which later came into wide use, they do indicate that the Basket Makers, in that area at least, began to experiment with permanent structures soon after they became a farming people. Further excavation may reveal that crude, hogan-like structures were in general use at an earlier date than has been realized.
The absence of pottery during Basket Maker times resulted in a widespread use of baskets and, as the name implies, basketry was the major craft. Many of the baskets of this period are superb examples of workmanship and design. Skillfully woven, artistically decorated and gracefully shaped they are outstanding among the basketry of the early Indians. Shallow trays were the most common form but there were also bowls, water baskets, deep carrying baskets and small baskets which probably served for storing trinkets and ceremonial objects. Large, flexible bags were also woven and these were often split open and used as burial wrappings.
Since pottery was unknown baskets were used for all household purposes where containers were needed. Some were so tightly woven that water could be carried and stored in them and, surprisingly, food was cooked in them. Cooking in a basket was a tedious affair. Stones were placed in the fire and when they were very hot were dropped into the basket of food. When the stones cooled they were replaced with more hot stones until the cook’s fingers were thoroughly burned and her patience was exhausted. Half-cooked “stew-a-la-ashes” was the inevitable result. It was a crude, inefficient method and greatly limited the cooking possibilities.
Lack of the bow and arrow forced the Basket Makers to rely on an odd weapon, the atlatl, which was as difficult to use as it is to pronounce. It was used in many parts of the world before the bow took its place. The atlatl was a spear thrower which served as a mechanical lengthener for the arm. It was a slender, flattened stick about two feet in length. At one end was the grip, equipped with two loops for the fingers. At the opposite end, on the upper face, was a short spur or hook, against which the dart or spear rested.
The dart, either a reed or a slender shaft of wood, was four or five feet long. One end was tipped with a stone point: the other end was feathered and this basal end was cup-shaped to fit against the spur on the atlatl. In reality the dart was merely a long arrow.
When the hunter was ready to use the atlatl he held it in his hand with his first two fingers through the finger loops. The end of the dart was hooked against the spur at the rear end of the atlatl and the arm was drawn back with the atlatl extending out behind, horizontally. From this position the arm was thrown sharply forward in a long sweeping arc and the dart was projected from the end of the atlatl. In this way the length of the arm was doubled and great force was imparted to the missile.
Even though the atlatl was a powerful weapon it had certain bad points. Accuracy was difficult to achieve and it was not well adapted for use in stalking game. The hunter was forced to stand erect and be free of bushes and trees in order to throw the dart. Later we shall see the people discard the atlatl in favor of a superior weapon.
In addition to the atlatl another wooden implement was in common use. This was a short, curved stick about two feet long which was much like the throwing stick used by modern Hopis in killing rabbits. While the exact use of the curved stick is not known the fact that it is so often found with the atlatl must indicate that the two comprised the hunting or fighting equipment of the men.
The atlatl was a poor weapon for use in hunting small game so nets and snares were widely used. The nets, made of yucca fiber and human hair cord, were sometimes over two hundred feet long and three or four feet wide. Such nets probably were stretched across game trails or small canyons and the game was driven into them by groups of men who would then club the trapped animals. Dogs, which the people seem to have had from the very first, may have been used in the game drives. These were not just tamed wolves or coyotes, but true dogs which had been brought across from Asia.
Clothing of the Basket Makers can best be described as scanty. A great many well-preserved mummies have been found and since it was customary to place the personal possessions of the deceased in the grave we can assume that no articles of clothing have escaped us completely. The total wardrobe seems to have consisted of robes and sandals for people of all ages and, occasionally, small string aprons for the women.
The Basket Maker country was cold in winter, temperatures sometimes dropping as low as zero. Since there were few, if any, houses except in the one area mentioned above, some articles of clothing were needed during the winter months. In every case these seem to have been robes made of animal skins. Sometimes they were simply the tanned hides of deer, mountain sheep or elk. The finest robes, however, were woven from strips of fur. Rabbit skins were cut into long narrow strips which were wound around yucca cords to produce fur-covered strings. These were woven into robes which, when wrapped around the body, gave the wearer considerable protection against the winter’s cold. Beautiful sashes were woven from dog hair and these probably were used to hold the robes and blankets in place.
Sandals evidently were common for a great many have been found in Basket Maker caves. These were woven of yucca fibers or yucca fiber cords and consisted simply of a square-toed, flat sole which was held to the foot by tie strings.
The only other article of clothing was a small string apron worn by the women. This consisted of a cord or belt which was tied around the waist and from this hung scores or hundreds of strings. The fringe of strings was only a few inches wide so it evidently covered only the front of the wearer. Sometimes the strings were long enough to pass between the legs and be looped over the waist band at the back. The number of aprons found is not large and it may indicate that they were worn only at times of occasional necessity.
Present evidence indicates that except for sandals the Basket Makers wore little clothing during the warm season. When winter came the fur and skin robes, of which there seem to have been an abundance, provided protection from the cold.
What the people lacked in clothing they made up in jewelry. Beads, necklaces, pendants and earrings are found in profusion in the graves and there can be no doubt that the people had a strong desire for personal adornment. The materials used seem quite drab to us but from such ordinary materials as shell, bone, seeds and brightly-colored stones, jewelry of lasting beauty was fashioned.
An ancient style show
Left. These superb, 1500-year old sashes are made of dog hair
Right. Necklaces made of bone, stone and shells
The Basket Maker cradle was entirely different from the wooden cradle we saw used in Cliff Palace. It was a soft flexible affair made of reeds and withes. A long stick was bent into a loop and the ends were tied together to form an oval frame. To this was bound a layer of reeds or slender withes and the cradle was then padded with soft bark or fur. When the baby was bound to the cradle a soft pad was placed under its head and the skull developed normally without being flattened.
Many additional tools of wood, stone and bone are found when Basket Maker caves are excavated: wooden planting sticks and scoops; stone knives, scrapers, drills and pipes; bone awls, scrapers and whistles. An important item was the metate, or milling stone. This was a slab of stone with a shallow trough on the top surface. Corn was placed on the metate and ground with the mano, a small stone which was rubbed back and forth in the trough.
One of the interesting things about the Basket Makers was the manner in which they buried their dead and, surprisingly enough, it is because of this that we have our present knowledge of the early people. All burials which have been found up to the present time have been found in caves, although it is possible that bodies were sometimes buried in other places. A favorite place for burial seems to have been the cists which originally were built for the storage of food. When these were not available graves were dug in the cave floor or the bodies were placed in holes and crevices in the rocks. Often several bodies were buried together and as many as nineteen have been found in a single grave. The bodies were flexed, with the arms and legs drawn up against the chest. Blankets were wrapped around them and sometimes the burial bundle was placed in a large woven bag.
Fortunately for the archeologist it was customary to place offerings in the grave and these consisted of articles the deceased had used or articles his spirit would need in the afterworld. Even though burial took place almost 2000 years ago the dry caves have preserved the materials amazingly well and as a result we have not only the mummified remains of the people but all of the articles which were in daily use centuries ago.
We have seen briefly the outstanding traits of the Basket Maker culture. Summing them up, we see a tribe of Indians living in the Mesa Verde region at the beginning of the Christian Era. Formerly hunters, they turned more and more to farming, raising corn and squash on the mesa tops or in open canyon bottoms. Having no permanent houses they sought the shelter of caves and since pottery was unknown baskets were widely used. The atlatl, or spear thrower, was used instead of the bow. Minor arts and crafts enabled the people to live a comparatively well-rounded life.
The noteworthy point is that from this simple beginning developed the amazing Pueblo culture which reached its peak in the thirteenth century. Since the people were industrious and intelligent they progressed steadily, following the same trail which all people have taken in their climb toward civilization. In the early stages progress was slow but with the acquisition of each new idea the pace quickened.
The great step forward was the abandonment of the chase, the acceptance of a settled farming life. Within a short time they became firmly established agriculturists. Their main dependence for food was soon on their farms, and wild animals and plants became a secondary source.
The change to a farming life revolutionized the entire culture. As the source of food changed the religious, social and economic life also changed. The religion of hunters could never suffice for farmers. The men viewed rain, snow, the soil, the sun, frosts and the changing seasons through the eyes of farmers instead of through the eyes of hunters. All events of nature were interpreted according to their effect upon agriculture. New social regulations grew out of the settled existence and the entire outlook on life was different.
Even though progress was slow at first some startling changes came. About the middle of the fifth century some of the changes were so important that the culture was radically modified. A new descriptive term must now be used in order to indicate these new developments.
Even though the culture changed the people themselves did not. It is extremely important to keep in mind the fact that the Modified Basket Makers were merely the descendants of the true Basket Makers. They added new material things to their culture, thus modifying it, but they themselves changed not one particle.