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At the Santa Clara
Indian Reservation near Los Alamos,
New Mexico
are the
Puye Cliff Dwellings. For more than three centuries, from
about 1250 to 1577 A.D., these cliff dwelling were called home to some 1500 pueblo
Indians. Until such time as drought forced the villagers to leave
for locations nearer the Rio Grande River, these ancient
Indians built villages, dwelled, farmed and hunted game here.
Through the years, it has been passed down
from generation to generation, that the inhabitants of the Pueblo of
Santa Clara, located some ten miles east of the cliff dwelling, are
the decedents of the Puye.
These decedents continue to speak the Tewa language, of which, the
name Puye translates to "pueblo ruin where the rabbits
assemble or meet."
Carved out of a 200 foot high cliff
ridge formed from the Jemez Caldera volcano that erupted more than a
million years ago, the cliff dwellings contain some 740 rooms, carved
out of the cliff. Foundations and archeological evidence suggest
that additional dwellings were constructed at the base of the cliff. The rooms dug into the cliff wall extend for over a mile along the
south face of the Puye mesa, sometimes at two separate levels.
Over a dozen stairways that are
more like ladders and handholds link the great Community House on the
mesa top to the rock debris at the base of a
cliff and the dwellings at its side. These "stairs"
leading downward in various directions, have been cut and worn into
the cliffs, often accompanied by finger grips to make the climbing
easier.
In addition to the many dwellings, at
least two subterranean ceremonial kivas have been found at the base of
the cliffs where large sockets were cut to hold the heavy roof beams
needed to span such a large room.
Many of the stairways lead up to the large
"Community House" which has been partly reconstructed on the top of
the cliff. Built of blocks of volcanic tuff (rock formed of
compressed volcanic ash and cinders,) the Community House may have
served a defensive purpose for the ancient
Indians. Portions of this structure were once up to two to
three stories high.
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