Category Archives: exploration and educational site

Wupatki National Monument; A place of wonder!

Driving through Sunset crater and passing through the pine trees, you will be in amazement how the landscape switches from Pine to crossing into the painted desert! What an exciting transformation it is!

The visitors center
There are 13 different Native American tribes claiming blood or history to Wupatki

When Sunset crater erupted in 1064-1065 C.E it altered life out in the painted desert, spreading ash Over 800 miles and would definitely been a great spectacle in the sky for the Ancient hohokam indians to see!scientists and archaeologists both believe the fertile soil was created by the ashes from this volcanic eruption, making it easy to grow corn and cotton.

During excavations, archaeologist s found pottery and tools, as well as 41 skeletal remains of Scarlett Macaws, which showed political power and was bartered from other tribes near Mexico! They were used for religious ceremonies.
Gorgeous Scarlett Macaws were found in the painted desert, meaning these people did a lot of bartering.

When going through the visitor center, you will see great information and also receive the pamphlet labeling the different rooms, what these rooms functions were.

This pamphlet shows what number to each room is, when you take a tour with no guide.
Follow this staircase all the way through and check out this magnificent Pueblo that’s been occupied by Sinagua, Anasazi people and made with red Mownkopi Sandstone basalt and Kaibab limestone.
Look at how well and tight the stones are to each other, they must have been highly skilled to build these Pueblo’s that are still strong and standing after hundreds and hundreds of years!

There are other accessible Pueblo’s here as well, The Citadel, Lomanki, Nalakihu, Wukoki, and the box canyon.

Now as you follow down the trail, you will notice the large circles, ballcourts or used for ceremonies

These ballcourts were for social gathering, religious ceremonies and playing ball.

To the right of a ballcourts, you will notice this

This is called a blowhole, if you stand over it, you will feel a strong gust of cool air hit your body! As you see me below having fun!
It’s pretty strong air flow!
A crevice in the earth that appears to breathe! But to the Hopi Indians iris the wind spirit, Yaapontsa. They and a lot of the Zuni believe this land is sacred and should be treated with much respect and love.

Another fact is archaeologists do believe that pre-historic Clovis hunters hunted Mammoths and Bison out there at Wupatki.

Hope you liked this article, and maybe you will take your family out there to this historical landmark! Make sure to subscribe to receive more great informative articles, it’s you guys that keep me writing and Thank you so much followers!

Sunset Crater; The volcano in Arizona

Sunset Crater is located North of Flaggstaff. It is the baby of a string of volcanoes related to the nearby San Francisco peaks. It last erupted in 1085.

You may ask, how did they get that year? Well, it was derived through tree rings, and archaeologists and geologists have come up with the eruption around A.D. , when lava flow went out about 2.5 K.M. Northwest.

This landscape is so amazingly beautiful, you can see how black the ground is from the lava that crawled over this land in 1085! It created a blanket of ash..

You can see the partial revegetation of pines and in Spring, flowers will grow out!

This volcano is a cinder cone volcano . Sunset Crater is composed of lava fragments called fragments called Cinders created when molten rock is spewed from a crack in the ground.

Surrounded by the beautiful San Francisco Peaks! A definate place to go, this road trip will take you through with pines and switch over to the painted desert to Wupatki National monument!

Twenty five bucks per carload, free to disabled vets, show V.A card. Open 9-5 P.M. There are many trails to hike, you cannot climb the volcano and this volcano is still considered active but won’t erupt for another 1,000+ years so don’t worry, lol 😂

Yes, I highly recommend you going, it’s drop dead gorgeous and a great road trip into the painted desert!!!!

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Anasazi: The ancient ones , cannibalism, and the star people

Archaeologists are claiming that these ancient Southwest Indians were involved in cannibalism. They noticed bones in Chaco canyon that the bones and the skulls were cracked open and charred . In at least 50 cases, The archaeologist speak of the Anasazi as violent and that their theory on Cannabilism really was evident due to the charring of the skulls. Stating, the breaks of the bones were distinctive marks used by cutting with sharp and parallel cuts. Also stating the bones were cut the same way as you would cut wild game. This theory is very sensitive to hear about this, and Native Americans find it dehumanizing, which obviously this theory is! But, pre-historic people dates very far back to cannibalism due to starvation and warfares.

The Anasazi were referred as “The ancient ones” and are famous for their Cliff Pueblo’s , baskets and pottery that are highly sought after by high rolling collectors. This ancient civilization started as early as 700-1500 C.E and are descendants to the Pueblo Indians such as Hopi and Zuni. They lived in 20 communities along the Rio grande in New Mexico, and Northern Arizona as well as Colorado and Utah.The biggest question many archaeologist and scientists have is what happened and where did the Anasazi go? Was it due to drought, or wars with other tribes? No one truly knows this question , but scientists speculate poor sanitation, pests, and environmental degradation may have played a part, and are confused about this. The Anasazi were extremely interested in the stars.

Here are a couple of Anasazi petroglyphs

Many people believe that the “star people “ came from the sky and visited them.

More than 7,000 petroglyphs have been catalogued throughout the southwest.

Here are are the cliff Pueblo dwellings names. Cliff Palace-Mesa Verde National park, Canyon de Chelly ,Chaco Canyon, Hovenweed Wupatki National monument(by the way, I am going their soon!)

Also here are a few Anasazi pottery for you to see.

Anasazi
Gorgeous, no wonder these are highly sought after by collectors!

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