Pit Houses Mesa Verde

Ancient Pueblo people came to settle in Mesa Verde around 550AD.  Over the next 800 years’ successive groups of Pueblos lived a top the mesa as well as in the famous cliff houses on the sides of the canyons.  The early dwellings were called Pit Houses.  They were made of mud walls in holes or “pits” in the ground.  Some of these homes have been dug up and we were told that there are many more that are yet to be dug.  The first homes known as Pit Houses evolved from the early mud walls, to well-crafted homes of stone which resembled bricks.  These were large stones which had been chiseled into shapes for the building using tools made from stone, wood and bone.  Large wood poles supported the ceiling which was made from tree limbs.  Later groups lived in Cliff Houses.  (see later post)  Around 1250-1270AD the Pueblo left this area never to return.  It is suspected that a severe drought during that period may have caused the departure.   They settled further to the south along the Rio Grande River were there are many bands of Pueblo living today.

Pit House around 500 AD

More Developed Several Hundred Years Later

This is the most developed that we saw where the stone walls were covered with a plaster like mud