Many centuries before the Pueblo Indians built the cliff dwellings their ancestors lived in the caves of the Mesa Verde region. At first they had no houses and the caves provided shelter. After a time pithouses developed and these structures were sometimes built in the caves. Finally the people deserted the cliffs and as the centuries passed the evidences of the early occupations were covered with earth and sand that accumulated. When the people returned to the cliffs centuries later they built their cliff dwellings on top of the earlier material, not knowing or not caring that it was there.

In order to recover the material left by the earlier people it is necessary to excavate under the cliff dwellings. One project of this type has been carried out and the results are an indication of what further excavation may reveal under some of the larger ruins. In 1926, three pithouses were found in the lower levels of Stephouse Cave, which is across the canyon from Spring House. In 1891, Nordenskiold realized that earlier people had lived in the cave although he did not dig deeply enough to find the pithouses. As he dug into the debris he found two pieces of crude early pottery and in his book Nordenskiold stated, “It is possible that both these vessels are older than the rest of the pottery from the cliff dwellings. Perhaps they are the work of a people who inhabited Stephouse Cave before the erection of the cliff village.”

Later, the Wetherills found more of the early pottery. They even dug through a portion of one of the pithouses and they, too, suggested that an earlier people had lived there. Finally in 1926, Park Superintendent Jesse L. Nusbaum excavated that section of the cave and found the three pithouses under several feet of debris left by the later people who had lived in the cliff dwelling.

If the evidences of the earlier occupations are found in the caves it will be in situations like that pictured on the opposite page where great depths of debris protected them from the early explorers. Little is known of the occupation of the Mesa Verde by the earliest agricultural people. Further knowledge will come only upon excavation of the lower levels of some of the caves.