MESA VERDE PART 4 - SURVIVING ON THE MESA SUMMIT

Archaeologists spent months sifting through the caves and excavating sites on the mesa summit. The conclusion was that the Anasazi had improved their building skills and made their life more secure by 1150 AD. The remnants of large water storage ponds on the summits with irrigation ditches leading down to areas where crops were grown meant that food production was more secure. The Anasazi had become farmers as well as hunters and gatherers. The sifting of food materials and items from outside Mesa Verde signalled trade with other Indian groups of the plains. Stone huts on the summit were more substantial but they still showed connection to the earlier pits houses of the caves by maintaining a lower cellar-like room (kiva). With a more secure life population levels increased and most likely life expectancy increased. Life had become more sustainable.