The magnificent ruins shown here are only some of the thousands of Ancient Puebloan structures found in southwestern Colorado’s Canyon of the Ancients National Monument.
This particular site, found along the 6.5 mile Sand Canyon (loop) Trail, is similar to many of the region, with remarkable masonry that includes cliff dwellings, towers, public roofed plazas and community seated circle areas known as kivas.
Many of these ruins were only occupied for a generation: the permanence suggested by the intact stonework belies the fact that something horrifying happened to these peoples that led to a mass emigration in the late 13th century.
Probably drought was part of the cataclysm. Between 1276 and 1299, there was little to no rain, as tree-ring evidence shows. But archaeologists believe other factors were in play, including terrifying violence that included cannibalism and perhaps systematic mutilation. Scientists have found evidence of pulverized bones, scalping, decapitation, and “face removing” (perhaps in an attempt to make a deboned sort of trophy). In some of the excavated sites, a human protein called myoglobin has been found in coprolite (fecal remains) and inside cooking vessels. Myoglobin only occurs in human muscle tissue — these humans had been cannibalized.
One theory is that deliberate application of horrific violence created an atmosphere of terror that combined with the drought to make these people leave. The loneliness of these desert ruins still preserves the secrets of the generation of Pueblo who wholesale up and fled their monumental abodes.
