The Cliff Dwellings Speak

For years we struggled to get to remote cliff dwellings -- from the Four Corners Region to the Sierra Madres in Mexico -- only to be disappointed when we arrived. To our non-professional eyes there appeared to be very little left. The cliff dwellings were mute for us. We were frustrated -- we sensed each one of them had a story to tell, but we could not decipher it. What could cliff dwellings possibly tell casual visitors like us? Then one day doing library research we stumbled across papers of the early archaeologists from the turn of the twentieth century -- before there was much science to apply to the study of archaeology. The observation techniques they developed were perfect for casual visitors like us -- now we could fathom at least some of the mysteries of the ancient ruins of the American Southwest. For example, what it means when we encounter rooms that are heavily smoke-blackened. Or how to train our eyes to see the wooden pegs imbedded in the walls and what that might mean. Suddenly the ancient cliff ruins did not seem so inscrutable anymore. We were spellbound! This book is intended as an introduction to Southwestern Archaeology, for casual visitors. The book will guide you around a site in Sherlock Holmes fashion, giving you very real tools for understanding cliff dwellings -- whether you are on on a Mesa Verde National Park tour bus or backpacking in Mexico. The Cliff Dwellings Speak also introduces readers to the descendants of the cliff dwellers -- the Pueblo people of the Southwest who still live there today. The book is highly illustrated with black and white photographs and engravings from rare antique books. Using copious illustrations, Field Guides in some chapters show the reader what to look for, and what it might mean. The Cliff Dwellings Speak is unique and is very different from any other book regarding understanding the Greater American Southwest.