Wednesday, August 26, 2020

MYSTERIES OF TIME

Wednesday Scribblings #34.  Magaly has
issued the challenge to base our poetics on
the wound "foundation".  My love for the
mysteries of time took me to the cliff
dwellings.
Submitted to Poets & Storytellers United
August 26, 2020
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Spruce Tree House on the mesa verde of Utah had solid rock foundation. 
The approximate size of a football field tucked under a cliff overhang, it was
thought to be home to 60 or 80 people.   They farmed the land above and made
their homes in the safety of the overhanging cliff for over 100 years, sheltered
from the desert sun, lightning strikes and driving rains.  What happened to these
peoples  remains for conjecture.   Perhaps drought drove them from the dwellings.
For whatever reason, they vanished, and the cliff dwellings are left to history,
a remarkable monument to the peoples who constructed them.   They left little
else  but for  broken shards and  mystic glyphs to mark their passage in the pages
of time, no scribes to record their journey, a mystery for armchair travelers.

13 comments:

  1. Luv reading of your historical mystery. So much we know of and yet so much is still unexplained

    Happy Wednesday. Stay safe. Halpy you dropped bh my blig today

    Much💝love

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  2. What a wondrous place. I think you've inspired me to do some armchair traveling of my own.

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    1. Google search cliff dwellings for a plethora of information!

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  3. I have only scratched the surface of Utah, your words have inspired me (when it is safe again) to return. My grandson loves Salt Lake City, after spending close to a year there he is moving back in October. I would rather he stay in Bend ..... oh well. Thank you, Bev, for your generous comments.

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  4. Thank you for introducing me to such a lovely place.

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  5. What they left behind, on those firm foundations, furnishes poets, storytellers and archaeologists with all kinds of material to meditate on.

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  6. Posts like this are quite entrancing as we wonder why did they leave, was it illness, a rival tribe or even shortage of food close by?

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    1. I think those who studied their civilization have determined that it was most likely drought. No crops, no food. What I wondered when I saw the cliff dwellings was how did the elders get up and down the ladders!

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  7. I have know of the cliff dwellers since grade school but I didn't understand the huge area inside the caves. Thank you, "Teach".
    ..

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  8. I’m an armchair traveller, Bev, and enjoyed reading about an intriguing place and a story I had never heard of.

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    Replies
    1. A Google search for "cliff dwellings" will offer a lot of fascinating information. I always wonder how their elders climbed the ladders!

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