Pacal Wrote:
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>
> It also seems to have been a time of drought and
> the breakdown of the Chaco Canyon complex. I
> suspect the cliff dwelling were simply dwelling
> built to protect small groups of survivors from
> each other and not from any invaders.

Drought may have been an additional strain but, ttbomk, it hasn't been seen as having enough cause for them to go to such extremes. Cliff dwelling complexes were not isolated. Mesa Verde alone has 600 cliff dwellings contained within the canyons on it, several of which were quite close to other cliff dwellings, with whom they probably shared the same water sources. A few of the cliff dwellings that I saw were small--some looked like they could've been storehouses of some sort. Others have the well deserved names of palaces. They could be quite large, like this one:

[www.visitmesaverde.com]

Some reason that just doesn't seem to be the residence of a small group of survivors living there. Mind you, these cities were quite complex, complete with kivas and they were built all over the place. There are cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelley, and even some spotted at Montezuma Creek, Utah. The distance between the dwellings at Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelley is a little over 150 miles. Somehow, different pueblos from all over the area decided to start living in the cliffs at the same time. I don't think that they were fighting each other.

Stephanie



In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson