CANYONS OF THE ANCIENTS

From one place with ancient ruins to another with "ancient" in the name, Canyons of the Ancients.
The visitors center has a lot of the same kind of ancient stuff as others.
Tools, bowls and such, a lot of it broken.
And some that is not.
Canyons of the Ancients is a large national monument. It is not a national park, but is on BLM land. There are a few sites that can be visited.
It was a twenty mile drive from the visitors center to...
Sand Canyon Pueblo.
The thing is this place was not much more than stones that seem to be all over the place but are the remains of structures.
If you didn't know it, you would not realize that these were ruins. This was a wall that surrounded a pueblo.
Another thirty mile drive to the next spot.
Most of the driving was not on park land as the site were just on the border. The park seems to be mostly wilderness.
The other site I visited was the Lowry Pueblo.
At least this one resembled something, unlike the Sand Canyon Pueblo site.
Low ceiling, although this entry was not how the ancient Puebloans entered this kiva. They entered through an opening in the ceiling, climbing down a ladder.
This is known as the Painted Kiva. When first excavated, it had a beautiful painted mural on the walls. Unfortunately, efforts to preserve the mural in place failed.
I've been through a lot of these entrances at ancient sites. They are always rather low. How short were those people?
Lowry Pueblo was constructed around 1060 CE and about forty people may have inhabited it for about 165 years. It began as a small village with a few rooms and a kiva, with several more rooms and a couple of kivas being added between 1085 and 1170.
This is the Great Kiva. There was once a roof supported by four large beams resting on masonry platforms. Tree ring dates from the wood beams in the roof indicate that the last construction was between 1160 and 1170. Of course the roof is not there, so I don't really know how they checked it.

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