216 FEWKESI RELATIONSHIP OF SUN TEMPLE 



In primitive society only one purpose could have united the several 

 clans who built such a structure, and this purpose must have been a 

 religious one. This building was constructed for worship, and its 

 size is such that we may practically call it a temple. 



The fine masonry, the decorated stones found in it, and the unity 

 of the plan stamp Sun Temple as the highest example of Mesa Verde 

 architecture. The walls were constructed of the sandstone of the 

 neighborhood. Many stone hammers and pecking stones were found 

 in the neighborhood. 



One of the most remarkable features of the structure is a fossil set 

 in the outer wall near the southwest corner. Mr. F. H. Knowlton of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey has identified this as the fossil leaf of a 

 palm tree of the Cretaceous epoch. The point is that the rayed leaf 

 resembles the sun, and that the ancient races were sun worshipers. 

 A natural object resembling the sun would powerfully affect a primitive 

 mind. At all events they partially inclosed their emblem with walls 

 in such a way that the figure is surrounded on three sides, leaving the 

 opening on the fourth, or west side. There can be no doubt that the 

 walled inclosure was a shrine, and the figure in it may be a key to the 

 purpose of the building. The shape of the fossil on the rock suggests 

 a symbol of the sun, and if this suggestion be correct, there can hardly 

 be a doubt that solar rites were performed about it. 



It is impossible to tell when Sun Temple was begun, how long it 

 was building, or when it was deserted. There are indications that its 

 walls were never completed; and from the amount of fallen stones 

 there can hardly be a doubt that when it was abandoned they had been 

 carried up in some places at least six feet above their present level. 

 The top of the wall has been worn down at any rate six feet in the inter- 

 val between the time it was abandoned and the date of my excavation 

 of the mound. No one can tell the length of this interval in years. 



We have, however, some knowledge of the lapse of time, because 

 the mound had accumulated enough soil on its surface to support the 

 growth of large trees. In the Annex, near the summit of the highest 

 wall, there grew a juniper or red cedar of great antiquity, alive and 

 vigorous when I began work. This tree undoubtedly sprouted after 

 the desertion of the building and grew after a mound had developed 

 from fallen walls. Its roots penetrated into the adjacent rooms and 

 derived nourishment from the soil filling them. It is not improbable 

 that this tree began to grow on the top of the Sun Temple mound shortly 

 after the year 1540, when Coronado first entered New Mexico, but how 

 great an interval elapsed during which the walls fell to form the mound 

 in which it grew and how much earlier the foundations of the ruined 

 walls were laid no one can tell. A conservative guess of 250 years is 

 allowable for the interval between construction and the time the cedar 

 began to sprout, thus carrying the antiquity of Sun Temple back to 

 about 1300 A.D. 



From absence of data the relative age of Sun Temple and Cliff 

 Palace is equally obscure, but it is my firm conviction that Sun Temple 



