Каньон Древних: Памятник археологическим сокровищам предков-пуэбло

Monument protecting significant sites of ancient Native Americans

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a national monument protecting an archaeologically significant landscape located in the southwestern region of the U. S. state of Colorado. The monument's Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is part of the National Landscape Conservation System, better known as the National Conservation Lands. This system comprises managed by the Bureau of Land Management to conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes recognized for their outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values. Canyons of the Ancients encompasses and surrounds three of the four separate sections of Hovenweep National Monument, which is administered by the National Park Service. The monument was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States, primarily Ancestral Puebloan ruins. As of 2022, over 8,500 individual archeological sites had been documented within the monument.

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is located 9 mile (14 km) west of Pleasant View, Colorado in southwestern Colorado. efn|There are several references that Lowry Pueblo is 9 miles west of Mesa Verde National Park, which is partially true: it's 9 miles west of Mesa Verde's western edge, but it's Mesa Verde is at least as far further south. The more correct statement from Gregory is that Lowry Pueblo is 9 miles west of Pleasant View, Colorado.

Ancient Pueblo people lived in the Canyons of the Ancients in the 10th century; Lowry Pueblo, built during the Great Pueblo period, was built atop pit house built in the 10th century. For a fuller understanding of the architecture and life style during this period, pueblo buildings in the Mesa Verde region were built with stone, windows facing south, and in U, E and L shapes. The buildings were located more closely together and reflected deepening religious celebration. Towers were built near kivas and likely used for look outs. Pottery became more versatile, including pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars and tableware for food and drink. White pottery with black designs emerged, the pigments coming from plants. Water management and conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt retaining dams also emerged during this period.

As refinements in construction techniques increased, the Puebloans built larger pueblos, or villages, on top of the pit houses starting about AD 1090. Lowry Pueblo had just a few rooms and 2 kivas in 1090 and the village was expanded two times about 1103 and 1120 until it had 40 rooms, 8 kivas and one great kiva. built in case of flash floods. Stone towers which may have been lookout or sentry posts, are found scattered throughout the monument. PuebloPhotoComments Lowry Pueblo The Lowry Pueblo National Historic Landmark consists of 8 kivas, a great (community) kiva and 40 rooms built as high as three stories. The underground great kiva was built about 1090 AD and had murals painted over about 5 layers of plaster. About 1110 AD, another kiva was built on top of the original kiva. Based upon the size of the kiva it's thought that the Lowry Pueblo may have been a local center for religious gatherings and celebration. Painted Hand Pueblo The Painted Hand Pueblo is a backcountry site that consists of non excavated ruins built upon boulders along a cliff face and a standing tower. The pueblo received its name from a boulder with pictographs of hands.

Unlike other Ancient Pueblo site abandonment, it appears that the people of the Canyons of the Ancients left the sites much earlier than their neighbors, some time in the mid 12th century. Some of the artifacts found from the site show a connection to the Chacoan culture, while others are similar to those of the Mesa Verde dwellers.

After 1300, hunter gatherers, ancestors of the Ute and Navajo, moved into the southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah and came to inhabit the region. The ancestors to the Navajo were one of the tribes of the southern division of the Athabaskan language family that migrated south from Alaska and northwestern Canada, most likely traveling through the Great Basin. The Navajo ancestors were in the area after AD 1300, but at least by the early 16th century. The Ute's ancestors are hunter gatherers who, in the 12th century, began migrating east from the present southern California area into a large hunter gathering territory as far east as the Great Plains and in the canyons and mountains of eastern Utah and Colorado. During this period, the Spanish colonial reach extended to northern New Mexico, where they settled in the 16th century. They introduced items for trade, such as guns and horses, new and deadly diseases, and cultural influence in the forms of religion, language, and forms of government. In the 18th century, Spanish missionaries visited the area looking for a route to Spanish missions in California.

The first Anglo American people arrived in the early 19th century, starting with trappers. With the discovery of precious ores in the last decades of the 19th century, miners and other settlers moved into the region. By the mid 19th century, the United States government and Native American tribes were at war over land ownership. People were forced to leave their homelands. The Navajo had moved south and the Ute territory was significantly reduced.

Lowry Pueblo was excavated between 1930 and 1934 by Paul S. Martin of the Field Museum of Natural History and went through a restoration process in 1965. Two years later, it was named a National Historic Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic places.

The U. S. Bureau of Land Management administers the monument and enforces regulations balancing resource protection with land conservation. It was created by executive proclamation in 2000 with the intention of protecting the archaeological, natural and geological resources. Facilities at the Lowry Pueblo include parking, a picnic area, toilet and trail. Sand Canyon Pueblo also has a trail, which leads to McElmo Canyon.

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Visitor Center and Museum, formerly known as the Anasazi Heritage Center, includes artifacts from the monument, a museum with interactive exhibits, a library and a theatre. Information is available there regarding the Ancient Puebloan culture, Trail of the Ancients Byway and the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

The Monument is home to a wide variety of desert wildlife, some of which are the American kestrels, Gambel's quail, Golden eagles, Long Nosed Leopard lizard, Mesa Verde nightsnake, mourning dove, Peregrine falcons, Red tailed hawks the Twin spotted Spiny Lizard. Wildlife and plant habitat are threatened by increased road and building construction by oil and gas interests.