PREHISTORIC VILLAGES, CASTLES, AND TOWERS OF 

 SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO 



By J. Walter Fewkes 



INTRODUCTION 



The science of archeology has contributed to our knowledge some 

 of the most fascinating chapters in culture history, for it has brought 

 to light, from the night of the past, periods of human development 

 hitherto unrecorded. As the paleontologist through his method has 

 revealed faunas whose like were formerly unknown to the naturalist, 

 the archeologist by the use of the same method of research has 

 resurrected extinct phases of culture that have attained a high 

 development and declined before recorded history began. No 

 achievements in American anthropology are more striking than those 

 that, from a study of human buildings and artifacts antedating the 

 historic period, reveal the existence of an advanced prehistoric 

 culture of man in America. 



The evidences of a phase of culture that had developed and was 

 on the decline before the interior of North America was explored by 

 Europeans are nowhere better shown than in southwestern Colorado, 

 New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, the domain of the Cliff-dwellers, 

 or the cradle of the Pueblos. There flourished on what is now called 

 the Mesa Verde National Park, in prehistoric times, a characteristic 

 culture unlike that of any region in the United States. This culture 

 reached its apogee and declined before the historic epoch, but did not 

 perish before it had left an influence extending over a wide territory, 

 which persisted into modern times. Through the researches of 

 archeologists the nature of this culture is now emerging into full view; 

 but much material yet remains awaiting investigation before it can 

 be adequately understood. The purpose of this article is to call 

 attention to new observations bearing upon its interpretation made 

 by the author, under the auspices of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology, on brief trips to Colorado and Utah in 1917 and 1918. 



The peculiar cliff-dwellings and open-air villages of the Mesa Verde 

 are here shown to be typical of those found over a region many miles 

 in extent. They indicate a distinct culture area, which is easily 

 distinguished from others where similar buildings do not exist, but 



