Mesa Verde - Mesa Dwellings

Before the cliff dwellings, the Ancestral Puebloans lived on top of the Mesa. They are known as basketmakers for their amazing skills at weaving baskets for carrying and storing goods, including water, and even for cooking.

The people who first arrived here were nomadic, but gradually began to develop farming skills and to settle in villages, thus gaining the name "Pueblos," a Spanish word that means "village dwellers." Over time, their technology improved markedly. They learned to make pottery, and their basketmaking skills declined correspondingly. They also learned to make bows and arrows, which served them better than the traditional hunting atlatl (spear thrower).

At first the Mesa dwellers were prosperous people and their population grew rapidly. From around 750 AD they began to build houses above ground. The houses were built one against the other in long, curving rows.

There was often a pithouse (partially underground structure) or two in front of the dwellings. The early pithouses later developed into kivas.

By about 1000 AD the people of Mesa Verde were highly skilled masons who constructed thick, straight stone walls, often of two or three stories. Buildings were constructed in adjoined structures or 50 or more rooms with kivas often built inside the walls rather than out in the open.

Cliff dwellings didn't become common until about 1200 AD. Students of the Ancient Puebloans don't know why the population shifted into the sheltering alcoves. Perhaps it was for defence from attackers or the elements. Perhaps it was for religious or psychological reasons. Whatever their motive, the Ancestral Puebloans took their advanced construction skills with them into the alcoves and created the cliff dwellings for which Mesa Verde is most famous.