Cavates of Crescent Mesa

rock_shelter, originally uploaded by grynstar.

A few weeks ago I was driving around in the mountains aimlessly looking for somewhere to hike. I was on one of the major forest roads when I pulled off at a turn-out to let a few cars pass by me. As I sat at the turn-out, letting my morning coffee jump-start my reticent brain, I starred up at a small mesa shaped like a crescent moon. It appeared to be only about 1/2 mile away, and I thought I'd hike to the top to view the surrounding landscape.

So I ditched the car, shouldered my pack, and let off toward the mesa on a boulder strewn slope covered with pinon and juniper. The soil was extremely soft... and with every step my feet sunk into the light airy pumice rubble that had settled on its angle of repose. This made going uphill very hard, and that was the only direction I wanted to go.

Forty minutes later I was at the foot of the mesa. As I skirted the mesa, I peered up at it's sheer tuff cliffs and erosion-mutilated rock forms looking for a way to climb up. I began noticing that some of these cliff faces had large holes or caves big enough for someone to sleep or even live in. Then I began seeing that some of these caves actually had smoke blackened cielings.

I began to explore the holes and caves until I came across a rock wall inside one particularly large cave. Nearby there was another cavate with charcoal and another time-ravaged but still standing wall.

I made note of the location in my own time ravaged brain, and then spent the rest of the day hiking and enjoying the winter sunshine. I knew this area had thousands of archeological sites (highest site concentration of anywhere in North America from what I'm told), and those with any significance had been already documented and recorded by local archeologists. It is a rare occurence when something other than a field house is found which hasn't been recorded.

Later when I was at work, I was discussing the cavates I discovered on Crescent Mesa with the district archeologist. He listened to me patiently with a gentle smile like a parent listents to an enraptured child about their backyard adventures. He said he'd look on their site maps to see if he could find the site I came across and tell me more about it. I was talking about an area right next to a major forest road, so it was a certainty that this area had been recorded before.

When we finally sat down to go over the site map, I could only tell of my location with a vague certainty. Sure I could probably get there again, but the area was rife with mesas, hills, and canyons and there were hundreds of site markings on the map. Tentatively, I pointed to an area on the map that was blank of the archeologist's markings. The archeologist looked at me with clear doubt in his eyes, raised an eyebrown for extra effect, and asked, "you sure?"

I wasn't, but I had seen no evidence of previous looting or archeological site markings. Besides, the day was all sunshine and blue skies and sometimes your just waiting for an excuse to get outside.

We headed out and I found the area again without any problems. On the way up to the mesa we came across several other sites that had been looted due to their close proximity to the road. Expectations were low, but we carried on.

Eventually we arrived at the cavates and my suspicions were confirmed. Though these sites had probably been found before by those that lived or grazed their cattle in the area, up till now they had remained undetected by archeologists and looters. The archy was thrilled and I was glad that my amatuerish musings were validated.

We recorded the sites for the next several hours. We found several chunks of charcoal and some corn cobs that appeared to be those grown and eaten by the puebloan people of the area. We also discovered several scraps of pottery nearby and an oddly placed stone corn grinding slick, which told us that children and women had also inhabitated the site at one time.

Once we had gathered all the data we could from these sites, it was time to head back. On the ride home I wondered if I had done the right thing... maybe it was better to leave these caves to the mesa and time. Maybe those corn cobs were better off with the spirits of those who grew and gained nutrition from them than an archeologist's storage cabinet.

I'm not sure. Yet, I have faith that the knowledge and understanding of the people and their culture gained from this area was worth its temporary disturbance.