Years of Activity

Around 1200 CE, people began moving to the alcoves, and by mid-century more than 30 cliff dwellings stood in the Cliff and Fewkes Canyon neighborhood. The canyons formed a bustling neighborhood of cook fires, children playing, men working in mesa-top fields, and people traveling well-worn paths through cliffs and forests from one village to another. Family ties, friendships, shared celebrations, and ceremonies connected neighbors in a vibrant community. For 600 years, people lived next to the areas they farmed and walked to water, but during the 13th century they began living by their water source and walking to their fields. The broader sequence of activity was semi-nomadic life by 550 CE, pithouses by 550 CE, single-story villages by 750 CE, multi-story villages by 1100 CE, cliff dwellings and late mesa-top villages by 1200 CE, and migration by 1300 CE.

Colorado · United States