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10. Mystery of the Anasazi As the tourists prepare to depart Spruce Tree House, one asks Qumawunu the question thats on everyones mind: Why, after having invested so much work in this place, did the ancestral Pueblo people leave it all behind? The park rangers answer sounds well-rehearsed: We can come up with so many thoughts about why they moved in and why they moved out. But no one really knows for sure. But its a mystery that is finally beginning to unravel. But while Crow Canyon has brought professional archaeology to the masses, it has yet to dismantle the biggest misconception about Mesa Verdes prehistory: that the ancestral Pueblo people simply vanished. I dont think we really ever thought that they just vanished into thin air, says Kuckelman. I think the real enigma of the ancestral Pueblo people in the Mesa Verde region is, Why did they leave? The ancestral Pueblo people didnt have a written language; no one left behind a detailed account of their last days in the Mesa Verde region. But Kuckelman believes that if she looks hard enough at places like Goodman Point Pueblo, she can find this story written on the walls -- and on the floors and in the trash heaps. Theres a partially excavated kiva, a subterranean dwelling near the northwest corner, that could hold part of the story. Standing over it, Kuckelman lifts the plywood covering that will protect the underground chamber over the winter and peers into the darkness. When this kiva was first excavated last summer, workers discovered prehistoric ash in the hearth and a rabbit skeleton nearby. Kuckelman thinks those findings may be the remains of one of the last meals ever eaten in the village. | 
