  More towers have been found in the Mesa Verde-Montezuma Valley area than in any other part of the Southwest. Most of these were located near kivas, and many were connected to kivas by tunnels. This suggests that towers were important in Anasazi ceremonial life, but archeologists are not sure how. A tunnel extended 41 feet between a hatchway in the floor of this tower and an opening in the wall of a kiva at the far end of Badger House. This is the longest kiva-tower tunnel yet discovered in the Southwest. The tunnel was built by digging a trench which was then roofed with poles, brush and earth. When the kiva burned, the entrances at both ends of the tunnel were open. Flames were drawn through the tunnel some 20 feet towards the tower, charring the roof. • STOP #7This site was first occupied from about 900 through 1100. People returned in the 1200’s, built the kiva and tower and a room-block, but soon after abandoned the site for good. The earliest houses here were so disturbed by later construction that archeologists could not get a clear idea of their number or extent. Badger House as it may have appeared in the 1200’s. The ruins exhibited here are the remains of two room blocks built at different times, one partially over the rubble of the other. The lower foundations date from about 1000-1100, the upper from the late 1250’s. {Pitcher} Compare the changes in masonry that took place over this time span. The walls of the earlier rooms are only one-stone wide. Except for the chipping along the edges—a technique sometimes called “scabbling”—the stones were left rough. The walls of the later rooms, however, were built of two parallel rows of stone and the space between them packed with earth and rocks. The stones themselves were finished by pecking, similar to those you will see in the walls of the small kiva at the next stop. An earth-filled bench was built at one end of each of the later rooms. These may have been sleeping platforms, raised to avoid drafts and the cold air that settled near the floors overnight. No roofing timbers were found in this room-block. Archeologists believe that when the Anasazi abandoned this site they took much of Badger House with them. Stones and beams from these rooms probably found a place in the walls and roofs of Wetherill Mesa cliff dwellings. • STOP #8After about 900, Mesa Verde communities were dotted with kivas like this one. Small kivas probably were used by several related families or by secret religious societies WETHERILL MESA ARCHEOLOGICAL PROJECT Between 1958 and 1964, archeological crews excavated in several sites on Wetherill Mesa. This work was funded by the National Geographic Society and the National Park Service. At the time, the Wetherill Mesa Project was among the largest “digs” ever undertaken in the United States. A number of different fields participated, including botanists, zoologists, and geologists. All applied their special skills in this effort to better understand the world of the prehistoric peoples of the Mesa Verde. Around 1200, most of the Mesa Verde Anasazi abandoned their homes on the mesa tops and settled in the alcoves or overhangs along the canyon walls. Some people continued to live—or at least to use ceremonial sites—on the mesa tops, however. Archeologists are virtually certain that the tower, kiva, and last block of rooms at Badger House were built in 1258. • STOP #9Archeology can tell us much about how human activities alter the natural environment. Consider this tale of two rabbits: When the Anasazi settled on the Mesa Verde, it looked much as it does today. Cottontails are now very common in the mesas while jackrabbits are rare. Yet the animal bone recovered from sites like Badger House included as much jackrabbit as cottontail. Why?Cottontail In clearing land for farming, the Anasazi converted areas of the mesa tops into the sort of open habitat jackrabbits favor. The species moved into these areas and multiplied quickly. After the Anasazi abandoned Mesa Verde, the brush and forest grew over the former cornfields. As the brush returned, so did the cottontails—and the jackrabbits retreated to the open country of the Montezuma Valley, where they are common today. Jackrabbit |
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