MESA VERDE

Join Virtual New York City Urban Sketchers in another thrilling sketching voyage to one of the world's premiere archeological sites and a designated World Heritage Site: Mesa Verde.

• "Mesa Verde National Park (Spanish for green table) was established to preserve archaeological sites built by the Ancestral Puebloans who inhabited Mesa Verde for more than 700 years (550 A.D. to 1300 A.D.). Currently Mesa Verde has over 4,700 archaeological sites including 600 cliff dwellings and the mesa top sites of pithouses, pueblos, masonry towers, and farming structures, with many more yet to be revealed. These sites are some of the most notable and best-preserved dwellings in the United States. For the first six centuries, they primarily lived on the mesa tops. It was not until the final 75 to 100 years that they constructed and lived in the cliff dwellings for which Mesa Verde is best known."

background infomation above culled from VISITMESAVERDE.COM

comprehensive summary of Mesa Verde's
Ancestral Pueblo Culture can be downloaded here: 
HISTORY  is a .gov site so the .pdf download is safe.Video Introduction to Mesa Verde (5 min) *******
Video Tour of Mesa Verde- only visual; no audio

Note that Mesa Verde is just one of many cliff dwelling settlements in the American Southwest. An exhaustive list of these intrepid dwelling places can be found at Ancient Ruins of Southwest USA and 12 New Mexico and Four Corners Sites


WELCOME to MESA VERDE
Main .gov site for the Mesa Verde National Park.
If you scroll to the bottom, there are links to:
          Geology 
          Common Plants
          Artifact Gallery 
          Preserving Cliff Palace

Cecilia was inspired to suggest the Mesa Verde theme for today's sketching event after following avidly a facebook group, The American Southwest Group, which continues to post breathtaking photography on a regular basis. The group is open for public viewing. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/americansouthwest

[NOTE: Today's sketching focus is anything you find captivating in the galleries relating to the Puebloan dwellings inside Mesa Verde National State Park: architectue, landscape, flora, animals, etc.]

Photography of Mesa Verde
      *Getty Images
      *Bing Images
      *Archaeological Conservancy
      *National Park Service Gallery 
      *Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park
      *Balcony House

Map View 360*
GOOGLE EARTH VIEW 
BALCONY HOUSE
VIRTUAL REALITY

All Virtual New York Urban Sketchers events are one session (10 am -12 pm EST) held on Saturdays. For participants wanting to challenge themselves sketching more of a particular locality or theme, you are welcome to do the EXTENSION SKETCH PROJECT below:

Mesa Verde & Cliff Dwellings Extension Sketch Project:
Choose one or all of the following to sketch:
(a) plants and flowers of the American Southeast
(b) ancestral pueblo settlement outside Mesa Verde
      (Ancient Ruins of Southwest USA )
(c) slot canyons
(d) Petroglyphs Mesa Verde

*Please post your finished sketches
to the USK NYC Facebook Site:
Don't forget to add N.U.S.
to your sketch.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240134366188347

************************************
Facilitators of Virtual NYC Urban Sketchers

• Theresa Smith
• Lynda Greeley (Mama Bear)
• Cecilia Evasco
• Dina Schlesinger

with the assistance of Mark Liebowitz
founder of USK NYC 
*************************************
web site design by Cecilia Evasco
for Virtual NYC Urban Sketchers
under the auspices of USK NYC 
Scheduled for July 10, 2021

NEXT SKETCHING EVENT
 on JULY 17:  SEDONA