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Looking at old photos of the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings from the 1920s compared to now
The pictures from a hundred years ago show a lot more loose rock and dirt around the base of the structures. After the park service started managing the site, they cleared that debris to make it safer for visitors and to help with preservation. Do you think that kind of cleanup changes how we understand the original look of the place?
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verar211mo agoTop Commenter
Wait, I get what you're saying, but I actually like the cleanup. Seeing all that old rubble made it look like a pile of rocks to me. Now you can really see the shape of the rooms and how they fit together. It helps me picture the village as a whole living place, not just a ruin. The clean base lets you focus on the amazing building work up in the cliff.
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elizabeth9001mo ago
Clearing my own attic helped me see the space, not just the junk.
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the_ruby1mo ago
Oh man, that's a really good point. Actually, a lot of that "debris" was probably part of the original structure, like fallen walls or collapsed roofs. Clearing it away definitely makes the site look more tidy and empty than it really was when people lived there. It's like we're seeing a cleaned-up museum version instead of a real home. Kinda changes the whole feeling, doesn't it?
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