Mesa Verde: False Concentration Of Archeological Site

Throughout the humanities course, I have been intrigued by a vast amount of information on different cultures. However, there was a particular section that truly caught my attention, and has piqued an interest in me that has caused me to do my own research aside from this paper. The culture of the Mayas, and the Aztecs has been extremely fundamental in understanding my ancestry, being that I am Mexican American. I took an interest in their beautiful architecture, their ritualistic and sacrificial religious practices, as well as their history and how they began. Throughout this paper I will outline the similarities and differences of these two cultures, as well as articulate an understanding of the humanity disciplines outlined above.

Religion has played a huge role in the history of the world of architecture. We can get a deeper look in the minds and attitudes of people when we look at their beliefs – specifically their religion. But even though religion played a huge role in the approach to architecture, the pursuit of beauty and power can also explain to us the approaches and the outlooks of those who built or designed buildings from the ancient world.

speak with a certain eloquence. They tell of a people adept at building, artistic, in

Located in present day Collinsville, Illinois is Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, which was once home to the largest city north of Mexico from 700 to 1400 A.D. Settled by the Mississippian people, today their decline remains a mystery. First visited in 1811 by traveler Henry Brackenridge and considered the “discoverer of Cahokia” only in the sense that he wrote several papers and articles about the findings to the public’s attention. After walking around the mounds, Brackenridge described that the locations of the last inhabitants were clearly visible to him, as were fragments of their tools and utensils. Many extensive archeological excavations and several case study theories have come about through the years as to why this magnificent ancient metropolis faced such demise.

The first time I heard about the Mound Builders, which was in this class, these people seemed like a very primitive group. What was so exciting about having the skill of piling up a bunch of dirt. Then I was able to see some of these mounds and the scale was nothing I had imagined. These mounds were huge and also contained distinct structural shapes. Tombs, houses, and religious structures were constructed in or on top of the mounds. What made the edifices even more amazing was the time period they were built. Constructed all the way back to 3000 B.C., the mounds rivaled the most advanced engineering techniques in the world.

Mesa Verde National Park on the Colorado Plateau contains many geological aspects of interest, including its sedimentary rock layers, its canyons, its alcoves utilized by ancient people and how these alcoves were formed. Mesa Verde National Park is located in the southwest corner of Colorado, close to the Four Corners area, on top of a high mesa overlooking the Mancos River (Harris et al. 2004). The park, covering 81 square miles, consists of several main sedimentary formations that are characteristic to the park (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). Canyons are carved into the sedimentary rock, with the cave dwellings found high on their steep walls. These dwellings are an especially unique aspect to the Mesa Verde National Park, and are built out of large alcoves. The alcoves were produced by weathering and erosion of the sedimentary rock type. To better understand how these alcoves formed, we must understand the geology of Mesa Verde National Park and how it has developed over history.

In the book The Prehistory of Home Jerry Moore discusses the importance that home structures have had for humans over time in different places of the world. He says that “In addition to their basic and fundamental function of providing shelter from natural elements, dwellings are powerful and complex concentrates of human existence… our dwellings reflect and shape our lives” (Moore, 3). He believes that homes are representations of the existence of individual humans as well as their surroundings. Jerry Moore is successful in explaining the importance of home in archaeology throughout history with colorful examples as well as a comparison of the importance of the home in the past to the importance of the home in the future.

Around 650 A.D., the Mesa Verdean peoples initiated construction of apartment-style homes, termed by Spanish explorers as pueblos. The Puebloan architecture is original in that it utilized the local stone and mud deposits of the region to maintain the structural integrity of their burgeoning developments. As this community evolved into the twelfth century, Mesa Verdeans further integrated the geology of their environment into their lifestyles by building homes, known as cliff dwellings, within the naturally formed alcoves of Mesa Verde. By the thirteenth century, the Mesa Verdeans vacated this region due to severe droughts and subsequent social instability. Despite the later abandonment of their cliff dwellings, it is clear that the geology of Mesa Verde National Park impacted the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans significantly. The following sections provide detailed information regarding the rock formations that make up the geological

When Prof. Green wrote his conclusion in his March 1969 report, he proposed that there was evidence for Pueblo I-III periods and postulated that Basketmaker II & III materials should be found in the same area with more survey efforts. All the stone implements I catalogued and analyzed were given the provenience of “surface” (Green 1969, 1970).

The site is managed by both the city of Albuquerque and the National Park Service, and features a spectacular variety of natural and cultural elements. The latter are of great interest for their age and specificity: more than 20,000 carved images can be seen on the volcanic facades, all recorded to be the product of prehistoric and historic Native American and Hispanic peoples. While many of these images are very difficult to

Astronomy was extremely important to the people of Mayan culture and it was also a big part of their day to day lives. Priests of the Mayan culture would spend nights upon nights studying the stars for hundreds of years. According to Christopher Minster in the article “Ancient Mayan Astronomy”, “..They believed that the will and actions of the Gods could be read in the stars, moon and planets, they dedicated much time to doing so and many of their most important buildings were constructed with astronomy in mind.” What this quote is saying, is that the

Ancient Mayan cities are, as suggested by site maps, built with a spatial order within a grid layout. Avenues stretch from east to west, signifying the cosmological cycle of the sun traveling across the sky. Structures are purposefully built in specific locations to hold significant meanings during days of astronomic phenomenon. Michael Smith analyzes the works of Ashmore and Sabloff, Regarding their research methods on the role of cosmology in Mayan city planning. Although Smith agrees with them that cosmology did play a role in generating the layouts of Mesoamerican cities,

Richard Longstreth, the director of historic preservation at George Washington University, edited a compendium of case studies and presentations that addressed the ever-evolving state of cultural landscape preservation at the turn of the twenty-first century. Longstreth culled these articles from some of the best presentations at the 2004 National Forum on Historic Preservation Conference that dealt with the changing issues confronting those involved in the field of historic, cultural, and landscape preservation. Most of the practitioners agree that there is no one size fits all workflow, as the cultural resources, ecological considerations, and community involvement differ dramatically from place to place. However, Longstreth attempts to organize the individual essays into themes of landscape interpretation issues and cultural landscape management that have and will continue to change.

Have you ever wondered how ancient civilization built massive structures? Many ancient civilizations built things that served a multitude of purposes. Most of the purposes of these structures are already known but, there still may be unknown uses for the thing these ancient civilizations built. There also many different ancient civilizations like the Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Egyptian, Mayans, and Aztecs. Many of the things built in ancient times influenced the things that we build today. For example, the coliseum influenced the basic designs of modern football stadiums. Also the designs made by these ancient civilizations helped to change the way other civilizations made there monuments. For example, when the romans started to different types of columns and arches the style was adopted, modified, and used in the designs of cathedrals in Europe .There are many parts of these ancient buildings still undiscovered. For example there could still be sealed rooms in the pyramids of Giza. Usually when people start to research architecture made by ancient civilizations, they have to answer how were they built, and what were they built for.

Architectural structures are immobile constructed elements. The structures are buildings or non-building that is used for temporary or permanent. However religion is a set the belief defining the relations existing between the divinity and the human being. This paper therefore analyzes each of the different structures in respect to aspect of religion and the types of buildings that are associated with each structure.