Today I'm going to take you on a tour of Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos in New Mexico. According to the National Park Service, quote "Adolph Bandelier is one of the most important ethnographers, historians, and archeologists in the history of the southwest." When you enter Frijoles Canyon, near the visitor center, you are immediately struck by the strange rock formations, which look like sandstone, but are actually massive formations of volcanic tuff, created by multiple eruptions of the Jemez Volcano, as recently as a million years ago. Natural pockets and caves formed in the tuff, and people have lived in and around the caves for over 10,000 years. But the Ancestral Pueblo people put the biggest mark on the area in the last 1000 years. Let's climb a ladder to explore a caveate. The Ancestral Pueblo excavated a cave pocket to either sleep or store supplies. The roof is smoked, which keeps the crumbly volcanic tuff from eroding. Continuing up the Long House Trail, we come to Talus House, a Pueblo ruin reconstructed in 1920 to give visitors an idea of a typical home. Recent archaeological information suggests that the reconstruction isn't completely accurate. Specifically, the occupants probably gained entry to the structure through the roof, not the wall. From the Long House trail, you get amazing views of Frijoles Canyon, including the ruins of Tyuonyi village. This Park Service rendition shows that in the year 1400 CE, the village was a vibrant place, with ceremonial kivas and multi-story apartments. Continuing up the Long House trail, which was modernized in the 1930s by the CCC, we explored many caveates. Now it starts to get interesting. We are approaching the core of long house. Check out these foundation walls. Unfortunately the structures themselves have mostly collapsed, but you can still get an idea of how these people lived. The rooms were small, which makes sense when you're trying to heat it with a wood fire on a cold night. What are all these weird holes in the cliff wall? The ancestral Pueblo carved these holes to support wood roof beams. You see multiple rows of holes, meaning that these people were building multiple story homes here. Above the top row of roof beam holes, you will see many petroglyphs. It's funny to think that the residents would pass the time on their roofs, making rock art. The most densely populated part of Long House is amazing. Multiple rooms and at least two stories. Many of the homes had small storage pockets carves into the cliff wall. And what do we have here? It's a beautiful pictograph of a turkey! In another place, we have a cool looking humanoid form. This creature looks like a dog to me, and it probably is! The ancestral Pueblo didn't have horses but they did keep pet dogs. Panning along the wall, you get a good sense of the scale of Long House. It stretches on for hundreds of feet, so the name makes sense. Here, we followed a narrow ledge up the cliff wall and zoomed in. Amazingly we saw petroglyphs, 50 feet off the ground! For a 30 minute tour, we thought the Long House Loop at Bandelier National Monument was amazing. The most popular attraction, Alcove House, was closed due to heavy ice on the trail, but we left very satisfied. Let me know what you think in the comments. And please like and subscribe.
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Exploring Ancestral Pueblo Ruins - Long House and Tyuonyi at Bandelier National Monument
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