BGuthrie Photos: AZ -- Wupatki Natl Monument

AZ -- Wupatki Natl Monument:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. WUP_060523_004.JPG: A Legacy of the Past: Box Canyon and Lomaki ruins are a short 15-walk from here, along the edges of ancient earthcracks. The 1/4-mile trail will take you back in time over 800 years to the remnants of this once-thriving community. You will see the few native plants that grow in this high-desert environment; how the eruptions of Sunset Crater Volcano affected the ancient inhabitants; and the plaza where daily activities such as cooking and grinding corn took place. The whole picture of this prehistoric community can only be completed with your assistance. Please leave the pottery shards and other artifacts where they are found. These are invaluable to archeologists who continue to study the ruins. Stay on the marked trail to help preserve and protect this landscape and the ancient ruins for the enjoyment and education of future generations.
2. WUP_060523_012.JPG: Box Canyon Ruins: The Box Canyon ruins are typical of many pueblos found in this region. Early inhabitants constructed walls of nearby sandstone and limestone, and used local soils to cement the stones together. The flat roofs were built of timbers laid side by side, covered with smaller branches and finally plastered over with mud. Smoke was vented from the rooms through a square hole in the ceiling which frequently served as the only access to the room. Doorways were small and windows almost nonexistent. As the rooms were abandoned, the timbers were often scavenged and used in other pueblos or burned as firewood, a precious commodity in this environment. As you look at these ruins today, they appear just as they did when discovered in the late 1800s. The National Park Service has stabilized the walls to help preserve them. None are reconstructed. These 800-year-old walls are fragile and easily disturbed. Do not walk or climb on them.
3. WUP_060523_014.JPG: Dry Land Farming: Volcanic activity to the south produced giant fissures or earthcracks throughout the Wupatki area in the Kaibab Limestone. This formation covers most of the western half of Wupatki National Monument. The Sinagua and Anasazi Indians who inhabited these ancient pueblos probably found the earthcracks to be the most productive farming sites. There is no evidence of streams close by which could be used for water. All of the farming was dependent on the rainfall. Corn, squash, and other crops were planted along the canyon slopes and wash bottoms. Small check dams along the drainage courses provided level areas for farming. These flat areas retained more moisture and the accumulate silt enriched the soil. The bottom of Box Canyon, below the ruins, may have been an ideal area for farming. Juniper, amaranth, yucca, Indian rice grass and other native plants were used as food, along with antelope, rabbit, squirrels, packrats and reptiles to name a few.
4. WUP_060523_020.JPG: Box Canyon Ruins
5. WUP_060523_031.JPG: Lomaki Ruins
6. WUP_060523_039.JPG: Ancient Landscapes: Eight hundred years ago, a savannah-like grassland covered much of this high desert with abundant grasses. The residents would have collected and burned much of the nearby fuel, necessitating long walks to adjacent areas to gather wood. Sparse annual rainfall forced the inhabitants to catch and save as much water as they could, or walk miles to other sources. Since the use of the area by modern ranchers, the land has undergone other dramatic changes. Cattle grazing stripped much of the native vegetation away, allowing other plants, such as rabbitbrush, saltbrush and snakeweed to dominate the vegetation. Although Wupatki National Monument was established in 1924, grazing continued until 1989, ending with the completion of a fence around the monument boundary.
7. WUP_060523_050.JPG: Sunset Crater Volcano: The distance San Francisco Peaks would have looked much like they do today. To the east, however, Sunset Crater Volcano would still have been belching black smoke and cinders when the Sinagua and Anasazi lived here. The thick layer of cinders over the sandy soil helped hold moisture, which was beneficial to the growing of crops. Eventually, even Sunset Crater Volcano grew quiet, and the winds blew the cinders away and dried out the soil. Why the Lomaki residents departed is not certain. There are indications of disease affecting the population, or a lengthy drought creating a landscape barren of vegetation, animals and firewood. Or invading hostile tribes may have contributed to the abandonment of this area by the mid-1200s.
8. WUP_060523_055.JPG: The left mesa is called the East Mesa. The small mound to the right of it is the Sunset Volcano Crater. O'Leary Peak is jagged mountain to the right of it. The biggest mountain next to it is Mount Humphries. Box Canyon is just below it.
9. WUP_060523_069.JPG: Daily Life: Plaza: An open area in the pueblo near the rim of the earthcrack is known as the plaza. In pueblos, the plaza was the center for many daily activities including grinding corn, making pottery, working obsidian into arrowheads, processing other plants for food, and cooking. It would have also been used for meetings, conducting trade, and as a controlled play area for children. During the warmer months, the plaza received extensive use from dawn until after dusk; rooms inside the pueblo were used only for sleeping and some cooking. Water: At the bottom of the earthcrack is a prehistoric check dam that continued the frequent run-off. The inhabitants of the pueblo also placed numerous pottery jars at the base of overhangs to catch rainwater. When the rain did not come, they had to walk ten miles to the Little Colorado River drainage to fill their pottery jars.
10. WUP_060523_128.JPG: Nalakihu: Nalakihu -- A modern Hopi name, "House Outside the Village" Farmers lived here about 800 years old. (Roof beams gave tree ring dates in the late 1100s.) The way the walls join show this small pueblo was not built all at once, but was added onto. Roof remains indicated parts were two stories high. The pottery seems the same as that from the large ruin on the rock ahead, so these pueblos may have been lived in at the same time. You may enter the rooms, but remember, old walls are fragile, even when we have strengthened them. Don't hurt the ruins or yourself. This is a National Park area preserved for visitors and for scientific investigation. Please treat it carefully.
11. WUP_060523_131.JPG: Nalakihu with the Citadel above it
12. WUP_060523_133.JPG: Where Were The Fields? Farming then did not mean vast fields like we use today. Anasazi and Sinagua people modified these small terraces to grow hand-tended corn, cotton, beans, and squash. We know the climate was about what it is now, very dry for farming. The terraces caught vital run-off from rain. Behind you are rock circles that appear to be ruins of individual, separate rooms. These are common, but we do not know what they were used for.
13. WUP_060523_142.JPG: Community: This area seems quiet and lonely today -- but not 800 years ago. This valley was used for farming and hunting by the people living in Citadel, Nalakihu, and other nearby pueblos, all inhabited at about the same time. (You can see the ruins of at least eight pueblos from here.) We don't know what their language sounded like, nor exactly what their ceremonies were; but people built homes, tended crops, prayed to their gods, and raised their children here.
14. WUP_060523_149.JPG: The Citadel: It was a remarkable achievement, to use primitive mortar and local stone stones to build the walls above you straight up from the edge of the top of the rock. "The Citadel" is the modern name given to this ruin because of its location, but archeologists wonder why the Anasazi often built in high, hard-to-get-at places. Some theories say it was defensive. Others say it was to avoid building on croplands, or for sun and breeze. Or was it more simple? Today we often build on hilltops because it is dramatic and beautiful. Natural Features: The large circular "sink" behind you is a natural depression that occurs in limestone. Sinks are caused by a crack system that allows rainwater to dissolve limestone and collapse anything above it. They do not hold water. Beyond the sink rise the San Francisco Peaks. These volcanic mountains are the highest point in Arizona. Modern day Hopi and Navajo people consider these mountains sacred.
15. WUP_060523_152.JPG: A Village: You are entering the "Citadel," a ruin from the late 1100s. Research has not been completed so it is important that we leave things as they are. Will there be extra storage spaces found, possible evidence for the defense theory? We do know this is one of the larger pueblos in Wupatki National Monument and could have been the home for many families. You are welcome to speculate about what will be found here, as we do. Abandonment: What happened? Exact reasons are hard to prove, but we know the climate here was variable, with good and bad times. Extended droughts affected many abandonments in the Southwest, probably including this one. By 1250, this area was abandoned and quiet. The families moved on in patterns we still don't understand, but almost certainly descendants of the people who built these houses are among the Pueblo Indians living in the Southwest.
16. WUP_060523_189.JPG: Wupatki Pueblo
17. WUP_060523_293.JPG: Wukoki Pueblo
18. WUP_060523_296.JPG: Wukoki: Wukoki, a modern Hopi word for "Big House" was once home for two or three prehistoric Indian families. The inhabitants are believed to have been of the Kayenta Anasazi culture, judging from the types of artifacts found during excavation and stabilization. This site, occupied from approximately 1120-1210 A.D. afforded its occupants a commanding view of the surrounding terrain. The unusual three-story height, combined with its position atop this Moenkopi Sandstone outcrop, lends credence to the theory that this may have been one of several central or "focal" sites for the Anasazi and Sinaguan People. It is visible from a great distance and from many perspectives in this area. Three rooms are obvious today. Others were probably present during the period of occupation. A plaza area on the Southern side of the flat sandstone surface was likely used for daily activities such as food preparation, pottery-making, and may also have been an area for children to play. During mild weather it must have been a much more inviting place than the dark rooms of the pueblo. The whole picture of this prehistoric community can only be completed with your assistance. Please leave the pottery shards and other artifacts where they were found. Do not deface the sandstone boulders and walls in any way. These are invaluable to archeologists who continue to study the ruins. Stay on marked trails to help preserve and protect the landscape, and the ancient ruins, for the enjoyment and education of future generations.
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Wupatki National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wupatki National Monument is a National Monument located in north-central Arizona, near Flagstaff. Rich in American Indian ruins, the Monument is administered by the National Park Service in close conjunction with the nearby Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Wupatki was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

The many settlement sites scattered throughout the monument were built by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, more specifically the Sinagua, Cohonina, and Kayenta Anasazi. A major population influx began soon after the eruption of Sunset Crater in the 11th century, which blanketed the area with volcanic ash; this improved agricultural productivity and the soil's ability to retain water. Based on a careful survey of archaeological sites conducted in the 1980s, an estimated 2000 immigrants moved into the area during the century following the eruption. Agriculture was based mainly on corn and squash raised from the arid land without irrigation.

The dwellings, the walls of many of which still stand, were constructed from flat red stones held together with mortar. Each settlement was constructed as a single building, sometimes with scores of rooms. The largest settlement on monument territory is the Wupatki Ruin, "Big House" in the Hopi language, built around a natural rock outcropping. This ruin is believed to be the area's tallest and largest structure for its time period. The monument also contain ruins identified as a ball court, similar to the courts found in Meso-America and in the Hohokam ruins of southern Arizona. This is the northernmost example of this kind of structure. This site also contains a geological blowhole. Other major sites are Wukoki and The Citadel.

Wupatki is called Anaas�z� Bikin in Navajo) which translates as Houses of the Enemies.
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Indians] [Park (National Park Service)]
2006 photos: Trips this year: Florida (two separate trips including Lotusphere and taking care of mom), three weeks out west (including Yellowstone), Williamsburg, San Diego (comic book convention), and Georgia. Equipment this year: I was using all six Fuji cameras at various times -- an S602Zoom, two S7000s,a S5200, an S9000, and an S9100. The majority of pictures this year were taken with the S9000. I have to say, the S7000s was the best camera I've used up to this point.. Number of photos taken this year: 183,000.
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