We love going to abandoned human sites. Any type. Western, native, recent or ancient. Standing in a mining ghost town or an old pit house always brings to me the same reaction. How did the people that were here live? We’ve been in ancient native sites and western sites of settler towns, Civil and Revolutionary War locations and I always has that same reaction.
In museums that devote space to the native culture you see artifacts that have clear uses and others that produce nothing but speculation. Based solely on archaeology you can see dioramas that depict a somewhat idyllic and simple life. Most probably it was more survival than living. I realize that the climate here is drier now than 1500 yrs. ago, but it was still a desert then. Just not as dry as now.
At any rate, it is always fun to imagine the people and the life they had. We traverse this landscape in devices those people would have considered magic. We have no clue how they lived or what moved them. When I stand in the middle of a desert landscape that is removed from our civilization so that I cannot see or hear any evidence of it, the size and impact of that landscape reminds me how a small and simple mistake could reduce down to a handful, the choices I have to survive. For those people, that was a daily routine.
So they made their marks on the stones, boulders and walls of the desert. We were here and survived for a while! What those figures are and what they mean is lost. It is all speculation. All we do is stand there and observe their handiwork and are amazed that they managed to do what they did.
Yeah, special indeed.
Duane
