Pueblo Cliff Dwelling Culture

Name: Pueblo Cliff Dwelling Culture
Start: 1290
End: 1299

Type Event Region North America Time 1290–1299

In the 1290s, Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling settlements at Mesa Verde and elsewhere in the North American Southwest reached their construction pe…

Timeline

1290–1295Cliff Palace · ColoradoAncestral Puebloans built multi-story stone houses beneath the cliffs of Mesa Verde Canyon; sites like Cliff Palace could hold over a hundred living rooms. Buildings used natural rock overhangs for shade and rain protection, constructed with timber beams and sandstone masonry, demonstrating superb stoneworking skill.
1295–1299Mesa Verde plateau · ColoradoMesa-top fields grew corn, beans, and squash, forming a vertical subsistence system linking cliff dwellings with valley farmland below. Round subterranean ceremonial buildings (kivas) were found throughout the settlements, sustaining communal religious and social order; the 1290s marked this culture's heyday just before a turning point.

Sources

Mesa Verde National Park https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/ancestral_puebloans.htm
The Mesa Verde World: Explorations in Ancestral Puebloan Archaeology — David Grant Noble (2006)