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Prologue: Continuing where yesterday’s diary left off this diary delves into the quintessence of everyday living among the Ancestral Puebloans. Namely, the communal aspects of their culture. Like all North American Archaic-Era tribal people, the historical presence of the Ancestral Puebloans in the Four Corners region is based on tangible clues marking various stages of their cultural development through the centuries. Cultural scientists help us navigate through a prehistoric cultural terrain, where the nomads-turned-farmers (eventually farmers) lived in groups scattered throughout the territory they settled. From the prehistoric to the historic we get a glimpse of these people and their culture in varying stages. It’s this archeological evidence of their dwellings and everyday life that adds shape and form, as images, to the, otherwise, obscurity of the distant past. But we can only see and know so much about these people from such evidence.Their successors tell us more. These twenty-one tribal settlements of modern Puebloans provides an oral tradition connection to their Ancestral Puebloans. Centuries old conventions, from everyday behavior to intricate religious ceremony, are preserved in the lineage, albeit with some modification that favor whatever the changing eras wrought to these people (the five stages of Pueblo classifications). It follows how we have scientific research and the sole benefit of Puebloan tradition to paint a fair depiction of the above mentioned cultural map.
An Array Of Dwellings And Fascinating Architecture: Their culture is perhaps best known for their unique dwellings built along high cliffs walls, particularly the Pueblo II and III Eras (respectively 900 to 1150 and 1150 to 1350). Among the most impressive and so-called cliff palace sites are found throughout Comb Ridge and Tsegi Canyon’s Betatakin and Kiet Siel (sometimes spelled "Keet Seel"), at present-day Navajo National Monument; also Canyon de Chelly. Other settlements, like Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep and Aztec, are equally impressive, only these villages were constructed at ground level. The stone structures where people lived are seemingly timeless given how long some of the dwellings and settlements have lasted through the centuries. A cooperative community effort collecting and assembling materials (usually sandstone blocks plastered together with mud and mortar) was carefully calculated, ensuring optimum conditions for maximum comfort (ample shade for warmer months and sunlight during the winter). The sun’s direction was especially important in cliff house dwellings, such as Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly and Walnut Canyon. Lofty settlements built in usually south-facing cliff facades were accessible by rope, ladders or Moki (sometimes spelled “Moqui”) steps which are alternating hand and toe holds carved into vertical or near-vertical sandstone surfaces, usually two to three inches deep and three to four inches in width and height. As advanced as these lofty or ground level dwellings were, such astonishing building achievements had more modest beginnings. Mainly, simple pit-house dwellings.
