An 800-year-old structure in Mesa Verde National Park was built using the same basic geometry found in ancient monuments around the world, a new study reports.
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Strange Scrapes Discovered in Colorado Are First Evidence of Dinosaur ‘Foreplay,’ Study Says
Paleontologists believe the marks are evidence of what they call “prehistoric foreplay” among the dinosaurs of Cretaceous Colorado.
Read MoreCocoa, Caffeinated ‘Black Drink’ Were Widespread in Pre-Contact Southwest, Study Finds
Stimulating drinks made from exotic plants, like the cocoa tree and a type of southern holly, were consumed much more widely across the prehistoric Southwest than was thought, according to…
Read MoreHundreds of 19th-Century Wickiups Recorded in Colorado Mountains
In the mountain forests of western Colorado, archaeologists and tribal members have recorded scores of sites that contain the remains of hundreds of wickiups, cone-shaped wooden structures built by the Ute, or Nuche, people more than…
Read MoreViolence in the Ancient Southwest Offers Insights Into Peace, Study Says
Despite some recent sensational claims that the prehistoric Southwest was the site of the worst violence in American history, the archaeologist often cited for that assertion says that, in fact,…
Read More1,300-Year-Old Pottery Found in Colorado Contains Ancient ‘Natural Aspirin’
Fragmented pottery unearthed in a rockshelter in east central Colorado has revealed traces of salicylic acid, a substance derived from willow bark that’s the natural precursor to modern-day aspirin. Dated…
Read More1,500-Year-Old Village, A Sign of ‘Revolution’ in the Southwest, Excavated in Colorado
CORTEZ, COLORADO — In a high-end housing development north of Cortez, Colorado — just 25 kilometers from the monumental cliffhouses of Mesa Verde National Park — archaeologists have uncovered a…
Read MoreEvidence of Hobbling, Torture Discovered at Ancient Massacre Site in Colorado
The site of a gruesome massacre some 1,200 years ago in southwestern Colorado is yielding new evidence of the severity, and the grisly intensity, of the violence that took place there….
Read MoreMesa Verde’s ‘Mummy Lake’ Was Built to Hold Rituals, Not Water, Study Says
A grand, sandstone-walled pit in Mesa Verde National Park has for decades been seen as an achievement of prehistoric hydrology, part of a system of cisterns and canals used by…
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