Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.
Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.
Back in 1993, our friends Bill and Jeannie took a group of
people from the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society on a Rock
Art and Ruins field trip in northern New Mexico. One of the great sites we
visited was Nogales Cliff House, in Rio Arriba County. The basic ruin took a
little scrambling to reach, and we did not even try to climb to the upper
portion for fear of damaging walls by climbing on them, but the lower portion was
quite wonderful in its own right.
Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.
Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.
The Nogales Cliff house was built into and against an alcove
in a sandstone cliff. The well-preserved section is actually within the alcove,
and remains of some additional 30 – 50 rooms have been reported at the base in
front of it. This site is attributed to the Gallina Phase that dated between
A.D. 1000 and 1300 in this area. The Gallina Phase exhibited enough unique
traits that they are usually considered a separate culture and not part of the
general Ancestral Puebloan culture of the area. ( http://www.cubanm.org/ )
It is now assumed that access to the upper portions of the ruin was originally
from the roofs of upper levels of the missing room block below.
Flying birds and human.
Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.
Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.
My favorite feature was the painted panel of three birds
flying over a watching human. Perhaps a record of fall or spring migration of geese or sandhill cranes, or a hunter's illustrated record, or just naturalistic decoration for the parlor wall?
Black and white painted wall.
Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.
Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.
An additional painted feature is the wall with
white and black patterning showing traces of geometric patterning, but it is in such bad condition that we could not
tell what had been painted on it originally.
Good friends, a nice hike, a great ruin, and
fascinating art; what more could one ask for?
REFERENCES:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment