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- Title: Square Tower House
- Description: Square Tower House was used as a resting and storage site very early in the human history of the Mesa Verde area. A storage pit was found here from the era when farming on the mesa tops was just beginning. Centuries later, after life on the mesa top was well established, the alcove was re-established as a residence site. At 26 feet tall, the Square Tower is the tallest structure in Mesa Verde. It contains one of the latest construction projects at Mesa Verde, the Crow’s Nest, which was built high in a crevice in the cliff face. Square Tower House was occupied between 1205-1281. The Square Tower site is thought to have been built and used during the years from 1200 to 1300 AD. About 60 of the original 80 rooms are still standing. There is a seep spring below the alcove that provided water. Square Tower House was built at the height of the region's population, when their numbers were beginning to negatively impact the area's resources. It is believed that many factors, including a 23-year drought, resource depletion, and social pressures led the people to gradually migrate south to the Rio Grande area, leaving the Mesa Verde region largely depopulated and abandoned. Square Tower House existed as a community for little more than two generations. After Square Tower House's discovery in 1888, it suffered from the same looting that was experienced at other sites in Mesa Verde. This era of rampant looting was ended officially in 1906 with the Federal Antiquities Act, and that same year with the establishment of Mesa Verde National Park. In 1919, Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution began to systematically excavate and stabilize many of Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings. He worked at the Park over the span of a decade and excavated and stabilized 15 sites that were then opened for public visitation, including Square Tower House. Though some of Fewkes's restoration practices might be considered questionable by today's standards, his legacy in preserving Square Tower House is nevertheless commendable. As one of Mesa Verde's most photographed sites with thousands of visitors a year, Square Tower House is the focus of constant preservation and maintenance efforts by National Park Service staff. In December, 2006 a large boulder detached from the alcove face in Square Tower House and damaged a two story structure and a kiva. This natural process is ongoing and helped to form the alcoves over thousands of years. The Mesa Verde Preservation Crew is currently working to stabilize the damaged structures in their current state. The mission of the National Park Service is to protect these structures, not rebuild them. Thus, these structures will be stabilized to prevent further collapse, but the walls will not be rebuilt to their previous state.
- Views: 875
- Added: Dec 3, 2017
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