Steve Nash, curator of archaeology, obtained eight new tree-ring dates from 16 samples he collected at Sun Temple on Chapin Mesa at Mesa Verde National Park last fall. The dates range from AD 1569 to AD 1909, postdating the known occupation of the site by 300 to 650 years! How can this be? It is well known that archaeologist Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution “reconstructed” (some would say “constructed”) Sun Temple in 1921 to prepare it for public visitation. The tree-ring dates indicate that Fewkes used substantial amounts of deadwood in the process and suggest, but do not confirm, that much of the site we see today is a function of his imagination and may not be true to the site’s original layout. Steve and his team will collect additional tree-ring samples and architectural data from the site this summer to continue their analysis.
“I will be going back to Sun Temple to finish collecting tree-ring samples in an effort to determine if ANY of the structure that we see today is original, or if it is entirely the reconstruction by Jesse Walter Fewkes after his excavations in 1915,” Steve Nash, curator of archaeology said.
Check back this summer for updates on Sun Temple site and research being done by Dr. Nash in other areas of Mesa Verde National Park.
