The Mesa Verde World: Explorations in Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology

by David Grant Noble (Editor)

Mesa Verde, with its stunning landscapes and cliff dwellings, evokes all the romance of American archaeology. It has intrigued researchers and visitors for more than a century. But "Mesa Verde" represents more than cliff dwellings--its peoples created a culture that thrived for a thousand years in Southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. Archaeologists have discovered dozens of long-buried hamlets and villages spread for miles across the Great Sage Plain west and north of Mesa Verde. Only lately have these sites begun to reveal their secrets. In recent decades, archaeologists have been working intensively in the Mesa Verde region to build the story of its ancestral Pueblo inhabitants. The Mesa Verde World showcases new findings about the region's prehistory, environment, and archaeological history, from newly discovered reservoir systems on Mesa Verde to astronomical alignments at Yellow Jacket Pueblo. Key topics include farming, settlement, sacred landscapes, cosmology and astronomy, rock art, warfare, migration, and contemporary Pueblo perspectives.

Genres: Archaeology, Nonfiction

182 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

David Grant Noble was raised in rural Massachusetts, attended Yale University, and began photographing seriously in 1962 while serving in army counterintelligence in Vietnam. In the 1960s, while living in New York City, he wrote and photographed for the weekly newspaper, Manhattan East, covering anti-Vietnam war rallies in New York and Washington, D.C. among other assignments. He also documented Mohawk iron workers (Mohawk Steelworkers), a project which led to photographing the Ojibwe wild rice harvest. (The Ojibwe and wild rice)

After moving to New Mexico in 1971, he was the photographer on the School for Advanced Research's archaeological excavations at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, a 14th-century site near Santa Fe. He remained on the SAR staff until 1989. He has long studied the Southwest's deep history and archaeology and traveled widely to photograph ruins, rock art (Rock Art), and landscape. His first book was Ancient Ruins of the Southwest: an Archaeological Guide, a fourth edition of which is in process. A selection of his other books can be seen on this web site, as well as selected photographs from In the Places of the Spirits.

David has been represented by photography galleries in New York City, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Dallas, and other cities. His pictures have been widely exhibited, published in magazines and books, and won awards. They can be found in the collections of the Museum of New Mexico, Yale University's Beinecke Library, New York City Public Library, the City of Phoenix, Museum of Art, Dallas, as well as corporate and private collections.

In 2003, David received the Victor Stoner Award from the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society for his "outstanding efforts to bring historical and archaeological awareness of the Southwest to the general public." In 2011, he received the Emil Haury Award from the Western National Parks Association's for "outstanding contributions in scientific research or other activities that advance the understanding and interpretation of the natural and cultural resources of western national parks

Reviews

[Jessie]

I read this book before my NEH Summer Workshop at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. It was a solid way to prep and to help develop some background knowledge. It was very entertaining and focused largely on Pueblo people from the Archaic period to the present. The book was well organized by chapter, informative, and engaging. By the time I left for my program in Cortez, Colorado I felt reasonably prepared. I don't have much of a mind for dates, but I was able to clearly understand the distinctions of every era and how people progressed, persevered, and survived to the present through innovation and migration. Useful book, well worth my time.

[Laura]

I read this for a class/workshop/adventure I'm taking in CO this summer. It's a book you read with a highlighter....need I say more? But, I enjoyed it a lot. All the things archaeologists have been able to figure out baffles me.