Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Hello there, and thanks so much for joining us here! You are probably wondering what this podcast is all about? In this podcast, we will talk about all sorts of outdoor adventures, but primarily, for now, we will focus on hiking and backpacking. No other outdoor adventure is so accessible to so many people! So please join us as we talk about how to hike/backpack and learn how to hike any length trail from your local neighborhood parks to those long trails such as the Appalachian and others worldwide! Remember... "in every walk with nature; one receives far more than he seeks... - John Muir " See you on the trail!
Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Rock Art and Room Service: Apartment Living, Ancient Style
Note: Audio Only, See YouTube For Full Video
Step back in time with me as we explore the ancient wonders of Tsankawi at Bandelier National Monument. This remarkable archaeological site offers a rare window into the lives of ancestral Puebloan people who made these cliffside dwellings their home centuries ago.
Walking through what was once a bustling central plaza, I discovered pottery fragments scattered across rocks—tangible connections to those who lived here long before us. As tradition dictates, these artifacts remain undisturbed where they were found, preserving both archaeological integrity and respecting native beliefs that removing such items means taking ancestral spirits with you.
The cave dwellings themselves tell fascinating stories of ingenuity and adaptation. Natural cavities in the cliff face were skillfully enlarged and enhanced with smoke-blackened ceilings and plaster walls for insulation and strength. Imagine climbing ladders as your daily commute, moving between different levels of these vertical neighborhoods! From inside these ancient homes, perfect viewing portals frame distant landscapes, including snow-capped mountains—the same views enjoyed by residents hundreds of years ago.
Perhaps most moving are the petroglyphs etched into stone surfaces throughout the site. Spirals, directional markers, human figures, and handprints speak across time, though their exact meanings remain mysterious. When my hand perfectly matched an ancient handprint carved into rock, I felt an intimate connection spanning centuries—two humans touching across time.
Whether you're fascinated by archaeology, indigenous culture, or simply appreciate breathtaking landscapes with rich histories, Senkawi offers something truly special. Join me on this journey through time, and remember to respect and protect these precious sites so future generations can experience the same wonder. Have you visited any ancient dwellings? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below!
Hello everybody. This is Craig, natural Medic, and I am at Senkawi, which is part of Bandelier National Monument. I might not have been pronouncing that correctly, but that's what I was told local pronunciation is. If you know a different pronunciation, let me know. And checking out these first set of petroglyphs right here Very cool. They are kind of in a place where they can get a lot of weathering so they look a little rough and not as distinct as some of the other ones you may have seen in other videos, but pretty cool. So we're gonna go check out this loop trail here and see the rest of this site. Hope you'll join me.
Speaker 1:So this is the pueblo that was up here. This is the central plaza area. They have closed it off due to looting and things like that, even though it's still protected as a natural park. You can see right here on these rocks there's some fragments of pottery here. Those were already here when I got here. Pretty much, if you find stuff like this, leave it where it lies is kind of the general idea. It's okay to look at it and handle it, but don don't just pick it up and move it into this place or put it in your pocket. Traditionally, the native people say that if you do that, you're taking the spirits of their ancestors with you and you could be cursed. All right.
Speaker 1:So coming down the ladder here from the Pueblo area, you can see a number of caves. Eric was just telling me that there's little pock marks where they used to put poles up and have a shade structure, I imagine with animal skins or debris, to block the wind or the Sun, so they could take shelter. Pretty neat. Hey, if you're enjoying this video, give it a thumbs up. Remember that parks are here for you in the future, so protect them. Thanks, imagine this being your daily commute, going up the ladder here. That could have been your life several hundred years ago. You can see some footpaths that have since broken off at the bottom, but some go up where the ladder top is no escalator. Here we're going down because there's the ladder up here and there's shelters right here. These are similar cave shelters to what you would see in the main park If it would be quite a bit cooler in there.
Speaker 1:Did they carve these out or were they like that? I think they most of the time would find a good hole. There's a lot of bubbles in the top. Then they would carve it out to enlarge it, make shelves and things. So there was a basic kind of structure and then the native people would carve it open, as Eric was saying, to make it a little bit more homey.
Speaker 1:I'm inside one of these caves and this one's very echoey so hopefully you can hear me, okay. But this one has a little kind of alcove over here you can look into. It'd be hard to crawl into that. I don't know if that was maybe a storage area for food, a kid's bedroom, who knows? Pretty neat. And of course they smoked out all the ceilings we're discussing that to add maybe some structural soundness to the inside of the cave. And then they used kind of a plaster, kind of like they do Adobe houses, for strengthening and also insulation etc.
Speaker 1:It appears that there's some glyphs right here. It's hard to see if they're authentic glyphs, I'm not sure, but there are some handprints right here and luckily enough look at that, my hand fits right in. If you look out this little porthole you can see Santa Fe, baldy with a snow cap and the Santa Fe ski hill still through the snow. Pretty crazy. Kind of more of the same here, but a really cool little set of almost like apartments of caves, and there's probably I don't know half a dozen or more caves right here to check out. Pretty neat. Okay, we got some more glyphs, lots of spirals and different things up there, pretty cool. So, different angle here. You got lines there with an arrow, kind of showing directions, spirals, all kinds of cool things. Got some really cool petroglyphs right here. Alright, makes perfect sense. The ones that are older have lichen and moss and stuff growing on them. Some of these might be a little questionable, but there's interesting little human figures over here. Not being critical of the people that did this, but they look kind of like Five-year-old type comics. All of these kind of reminds me of those figures you put on the back of your car that you brag about, whatever. So that's kind of what I was thinking, but very cool.
Speaker 1:Hello, I'm Robin Leach. This is Lifestyles of the Rich and Maybe Not so Famous. We have a little cave dwelling right here. Look at this. They had a patio area. Beautiful, authentic.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go check out the other one. I'm going. We have a little cave building right here. Look at this. They had a patio area. Beautiful, authentic, rustic. These little caves are just everywhere on the side of this rock. You can see there's some footholds right there. We were just discussing whether they made those and then over time they just become more worn, or they were just by by using them, who knows? You've got lots of little caves all up and down this hillside here that were occupied at some time, I would imagine, by indigenous people. There's some more up here on top of this higher ridge, that kind of circles around here and there some probably were were used as housing, some maybe for storage, some maybe for nothing, who knows. But I find it very fascinating. Well, that pretty much sums up this video here. Hope you enjoyed seeing the sites and, if you did, make sure to give it a thumbs up and think about subscribing to the channel for future content. Until next time, I'll see you on the trail.
