A Very Large Array: Early Federal Historic Preservation - The Antiquities Act, Mesa Verde, and the National Park Service Act
Sellars RW. 2008. A Very Large Array: Early Federal Historic Preservation - The Antiquities Act, Mesa Verde, and the National Park Service Act. Volume 25, Number 1
CENTURIES AGO, BEGINNING ABOUT THE LATTER HALF OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM AD, people living in what is now the southwestern United States developed techniques for constructing large, often multi-storied, communal dwellings made of stone or adobe. They located these pueblo structures, which included open plazas for work and socializing and kivas for religious and civic ceremonies, close to water sources and tillable lands. The village-like pueblos provided shelter from the elements and defense against enemies. There, over many generations, these different Indian tribes lived and worked, tended their young and old, buried their dead, and altered their buildings and villages according to need. Mainly during the first half of the second millennium AD, and under such pressures as drought, resource depletion, and warfare, many of the tribes left their pueblos, seeking more favorable locations in which to settle. They left behind buried remains of their forebears, as well as scattered objects — tools, household utensils, and other items of daily life. Yet they carried away a reverence for their past, their ancestors and their homelands, and the structures set in vast, unbounded landscapes.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Sellars, Richard
- Date of Issue
- 2008
- Units
- HIST , MEVE
- Keywords
- Antiquities Act, array, Civic Ceremonies, ehistory, Historic Resources, History, Kiva, Mesa Verde, National Park Service Act, Native Americans, Preservation, Religious Ceremonies