July 2, 2016
After breakfast we started our hike through the “Little Ruin
Canyon” at Hovenweep
National Monument. It is a relatively small canyon, but its
claim to fame are the remains of Pueblo (Spanish for Village) dwellings made
out of thick brown bricks, with walls two bricks wide. They date back 700 years.
One of the most interesting revelations to me was that these
structures have “openings that, during solstices and equinoxes, admit shafts
with sunlight”. The people could have
used these as a type of calendar to determine planting and harvest times.
Towers may have been used as signaling stations, a way to
communicate with other members of the community. There are living areas, work room, probably
ceremonial chambers and storage spaces.
Defense may also have been a consideration with some of the brick
towers. The construction certainly does
show how talented the masons were.
The name Hovenweep was actually chosen by a pioneer
photographer named William Henry Jackson in 1874, it is a Ute/Piute word that
means deserted valley.
On our way back we saw another new bird that we can’t
identify. It will go in our next e-mail
to Joe once we get internet access again.
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