Ruins hint at the benefits of catastrophe

[Adsos Letter]

Source: The Payson Roundup

The earth trembled. The rock smoldered. The forest burned. And the holy man danced, his turquoise and coral beads bouncing on the chest of his finely woven tunic. The low wall of glowing lava rolled inexorably toward him at a slow walk, swallowing everything in its path with a gulp of flame and smoke.

The shaman danced up to the edge of the molten rock, feeling its heat on his face. Then he bent down before the molten rock, with the grace of a bow, and arranged three ears of corn in front of it — an offering, a frail prayer.

Then he danced backward, chanting — as the lava took the corn in a gulp, then rolled on toward the holy man’s doomed village — unappeased.

Countless such scenes no doubt attended the most recent volcanic outpouring in the 8-million-year process of building Mount Humphreys, the tallest mountain in Arizona. Archaeologists have unearthed the ash-smothered villages, the lava-created casts of the corn placed carefully in the lava’s path and even the richly decorated burial site of the headman or shaman they have dubbed the “Magician,” because of the elaborately carved, turquoise inlaid wands buried with him.

Reaching 12,633, Mount Humphreys gains less than half the altitude of the world’s highest peaks, but it offers a compelling story on the long, complex relationship between human beings and mountains — with its most recent outpouring in 1064-65, which had a dramatic effect on existing civilizations and left the raw, colorful landscape of Sunset Crater National Monument

http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2009/jan/23/ruins_hint_benefits_catastrophe/

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Long article, with photos, at the link. I had to set my page "zoom" at 75% to keep the photos from overlapping the text. I have been to Wupatki a couple of times...very cool place.

[hootinholler]

1. Thanks. Nice find. n/t