CLIFF DWELLINGS

Another group of Anasazi relocated to the steep, cool canyons of what is now southwest Colorado. Cliff Palace has about two hundred rooms and twenty-three kivas (Figures 16.31, 16.32a, 16.32b, 16.33, and 16.34). It was accessed by steep paths. Walls were built with evenly spaced, wellsized stones that have smoothed or pecked surfaces. But masonry varied

Figure 16.30: Kawaika'a kachina Hopi flgurine, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA. Source: FA2010 (Public Domain)

Figure 16.32a, b: Cliff Palace, USA: (a) plan, (b) section. Source: Timothy Cooke/William N. Morgan, Ancient Architecture of the Southwest (Austin: University of Texas, 1994), 107, 139

Figure 16.33: Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, USA. Source: Malcom Andrews (Http://cre-ativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

Figure 16.34: Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma County, Colorado, USA. Source: istockphoto. com

Greatly with rough and superior types side by side, indicating that the Anasazi had to share their location with other groups or make changes to their structures to accommodate perhaps the influx of new people. Apart from increased defensibility, it was discovered that the houses built against rock walls held the warmth better during the cold winters, while the huge overhangs shaded the village during the summer heat. The waterproof nature of the site would also have protected their food supply. All in all, life in a clifi' dwelling, despite the difficulty of water acquisition, would have been more comfortable than on the desert floor. To create level areas for the kivas, retaining walls had to be built. A tunnel connects the two southernmost kivas. A remarkable feature are the fourteen small storage rooms on a narrow ledge accessible only by ladder. Room sizes are typically 1.8 by 2.4 meters. The doors seem to be purposefully small, perhaps to minimize drafl:s during the cold winter months. Doors were made of sandstone slabs or mats. One four-story residence toward the south contains a wall mural. The lower parts are painted burnt sienna and the upper parts are painted ofi-white with a geometrical design featuring vertical zigzag lines within rectangular borders. Clifi Palace and many of the other clifi dwellings in the region were inexplicably abandoned around 1300.