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A person standing across the canyon from Spruce Tree House in the middle 1200's might have seen something like the view above. This village was one of the largest in Mesa Verde. It had 114 rooms and 8 kivas. About 100 to 125 persons lived here.
Hundreds of years before this village was built, their ancestors probably lived in pithouses in this same shelter. These villagers are experienced builders, as we can see by a glance at the construction. The walls are tall and straight, laid up with stones carefully shaped.
The season in this scene is autumn, the busiest time of the year for the villagers. The harvest is underway. Some men are still gleaning the fields, while others spread crops on a roof top to dry. These are the stores that will see them through the long winter and even the next year or two if there is drought. Women are making pottery and grinding corn. Children scamper about and old men sit in the sun and tell stories. The scene is conjectural but entirely plausible. We probably will never know a great deal more about this people.