CLIFF-DWELLERS. Once believed to be a mysterious vanished race, the inhabitants of the cliff-dwellings in the south western United States are now recognized as but Pueblo Indians of the prehistoric period characterized by black-on-white pottery; who, when under hostile pressure, lodged their homes and granaries on ledges under overhanging cliffs, where such were available; in other cases excavated horizontally into bluff faces, or built on steep-walled mesas. Their skeletal remains, artifacts, and masonry are identical with those of the same period found in ruins in canyon bottoms and valleys. The romantically inacces sible situation of the cliff ruins, however, is impressive. Among the best known are Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, and a series in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.
See Nordenskiold, Cliff Dwellings of the Mesa Verde (1893).