It always seemed to me that Mesa Verde and the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi were awfully defensive for a tribe that didn’t know war ...
Anyone who’s spent time in the Southwest looking at cliff dwellings, as I have, should realize they were hidden and inaccessible for good reason. I knew years ago those people lived in daily fear for their lives!</i>
Turner’s field work and theory was a missing puzzle piece for me. I don’t know if he’s completely right about Toltec domination and genocide of other pueblo people but I’m satisfied that something along those general lines took place. Now it’s “respectable” to think such thoughts thanks to Turner, the details should eventually fall into place.
Mesa Verda is certainly a good stronghold for defense. It’s awfully beautiful. I’d like to live there myself.
No doubt sir, the ruins at Montezuma's Castle and even Montezuma's well present some formidable defenses for a tribe that "didn't expect" combat.
Those where my thoughts at age 12 when I first visited Mesa Verde with my parents in 1962.