Mural 30, Painted Plaster, Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde NP, CO
**Mesa Verde National Park** - National Register of Historic Places Ref # 66000251, date listed 19661015
10 mi. E of Cortez on U.S. 160
Mesa Verde NP, CO (Montezuma County)
A World Heritage Site (whc.unesco.org/en/list/27).
The crown jewel of Mesa Verde National Park and an architectural masterpiece by any standard, Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. From the rim top overlooks, the collection of rooms, plazas, and towers fits perfectly into the sweeping sandstone overhang that has largely protected it, unpeopled and silent, since the thirteenth century. It’s impossible to be certain why Ancestral Pueblo people decided to move into the cliff-side alcoves about AD 1200 and build elaborate and expensive structures like Cliff Palace. However, the sciences of archeology, ethnography, dendrochronology and a host of other disciplines offer us insights into this era in our region’s history. (pg 2) (1)
The builders of these structures plastered and painted murals, although what remains today is fairly fragmentary. Some murals display geometric designs, while other murals represent animals and plants.
For example, Mural 30, on the third floor of a rectangular “tower” (more accurately a room block) at Cliff Palace, is painted red against a white wall. The mural includes geometric shapes that are thought to portray the landscape. It is similar to murals inside of other cliff dwellings including Spruce Tree House and Balcony House. Scholars have suggested that the red band at the bottom symbolizes the earth while the lighter portion of the wall symbolizes the sky. The top of the red band, then, forms a kind of horizon line that separates the two. We recognize what look like triangular peaks, perhaps mountains on the horizon line. The rectangular element in the sky might relate to clouds, rain or to the sun and moon. The dotted lines might represent cracks in the earth. (2)
References (1) Mesa Verde Cliff Palace Booklet www.mesaverde.org/files/uploaded-images/2012-CliffPalaceB...
(2) Khana Academy www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/indigenous-...
Mural 30, Painted Plaster, Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde NP, CO
**Mesa Verde National Park** - National Register of Historic Places Ref # 66000251, date listed 19661015
10 mi. E of Cortez on U.S. 160
Mesa Verde NP, CO (Montezuma County)
A World Heritage Site (whc.unesco.org/en/list/27).
The crown jewel of Mesa Verde National Park and an architectural masterpiece by any standard, Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. From the rim top overlooks, the collection of rooms, plazas, and towers fits perfectly into the sweeping sandstone overhang that has largely protected it, unpeopled and silent, since the thirteenth century. It’s impossible to be certain why Ancestral Pueblo people decided to move into the cliff-side alcoves about AD 1200 and build elaborate and expensive structures like Cliff Palace. However, the sciences of archeology, ethnography, dendrochronology and a host of other disciplines offer us insights into this era in our region’s history. (pg 2) (1)
The builders of these structures plastered and painted murals, although what remains today is fairly fragmentary. Some murals display geometric designs, while other murals represent animals and plants.
For example, Mural 30, on the third floor of a rectangular “tower” (more accurately a room block) at Cliff Palace, is painted red against a white wall. The mural includes geometric shapes that are thought to portray the landscape. It is similar to murals inside of other cliff dwellings including Spruce Tree House and Balcony House. Scholars have suggested that the red band at the bottom symbolizes the earth while the lighter portion of the wall symbolizes the sky. The top of the red band, then, forms a kind of horizon line that separates the two. We recognize what look like triangular peaks, perhaps mountains on the horizon line. The rectangular element in the sky might relate to clouds, rain or to the sun and moon. The dotted lines might represent cracks in the earth. (2)
References (1) Mesa Verde Cliff Palace Booklet www.mesaverde.org/files/uploaded-images/2012-CliffPalaceB...
(2) Khana Academy www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/indigenous-...