See the holes in this petroglyph? The guide, who is a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo and is descended from the people who lived here, says they think the petroglyph is a calendar and that the holes had sticks in them. When the shadows pointed the right way, they knew when to plant different crops.
Is this a wolf, dog, fox, or something else?
No one really knows if the pictorgraphs signify anything in particular. But I have seen similar pictographs in many places in New Mexico.
This reconstructed wall sticks out from the cliff and gives an idea of how the dwellings may have looked 700 years ago. Note the technique and compare it with some of the Chaco Canyon pictures. Many people think the pueblos along the Rio Grande were settled by people who left Mesa Verde then left Chaco.
This is an isolated area to our thinking, but the many kinds of pottery indicate the people who lived here traded widely. Some of the obsidian (used for arrow points) comes from more than 130 miles away.
Through one of the openings in the front wall. Entrance to the dwellings was from the top--for defensive purposes.
This one sort of looks like a duck with its two legs and beak.
Here's what the cliffs look like from in front of one of the dwellings.
Looking back as we climb down.
Sherds, scrapers, and points found near the dwellings on top of the cliffs.
When the first "archeologists" excavated the site in the early 1900s, they tore down lots of the walls and then had the Santa Clara Pueblo workers partially reconstruct them.
The building in the back used to be a meeting house--hundreds of years ago.
I was trying to get a sense of just how big this place once was by showing all the houses between the outer area and the meeting house.
We are looking north at what translates as "Flint Mountain" from about halfway across the large plaza. The plaza was surrounded by 2 or 3 story houses and had only two ways in and out.
A guardian?