The Besh Ba Gowah lived in the Globe area around 1225 to 1400. The Archaeological Park has the ruins and a museum with a movie and items found or collected from the site. We took the walking tour and here are some of the photos. Entrance to the Besh Ba Gowah was $5 a person, so it was an inexpensive, but informative side stop for our trip.
As you can see those that lived here did not create living and
storage structures of natives that were nomadic.
There were storage rooms, community rooms, and individual family quarters.
Much like a modern gated community.
The cooking pits were pretty neat
Most of the doorways were on the roof through thatched entrances with
a ladder they climbed, then pulled up when they were inside.
The doorways built like this one were added in the 20th century,
only the short doorways under two feet were original and
these were in storage rooms not living quarters.
Some of the area is reconstructed, but it is important to keep in mind
that in the southwest ruins survive a long time due to the arid climate.
I love seeing that perceptions most often do not fit reality.
The people that lived here were in no means unskilled. They lived a life
that showed they interacted with the Mogollon people in New Mexico.
What is amazing about this is that it took us 7 hours to get home in a vehicle.
Although we have many modern conveniences previous cultures were
not without.
The foods that grow in this region are the same that grow on the farm.
I was inspired by what the Besh Ba Gowah people accomplished and
on the farm 600 plus years later, I plan on implementing things I learned from our visit here.
The final stop on the Besh Ba Gowah tour was a garden.
At the end of the garden tour there was
an interactive
project to allow visitors to see how easy
it was to grind corn
using a mortar and pestle to grind corn...here is the corn
And here it is ground.
The amount of edible plants in the southwest takes my breath away! I am thinking of the theme of 2013 and what it will be the year of on the farm...and I have some pretty good ideas thanks to Besh Ba Gowah.
I need to mention that so much was at this site that perhaps another post is upcoming.
~I mean who knew that yucca fibers could be woven into sandals?
So more later on Besh Ba Gowah and stay tuned as we are closer to 2013 on what the theme will be. 2012 has been the year of the flower...
1 comment:
That is the kind of place we like to go! How interesting!
Thanks for sharing!
Deanna
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