Aztec Ruins

A witch, you say? At Aztec Ruins?

Let’s back up a minute. Archeological evidence says the inhabitants of Aztec Ruins were ancient Ancestral Puebloan people. (I know. I know. You called them Anasazi back in grade school, but like with the planet Pluto, you have to unlearn whatcha learned.)

Old timers back at the turn of the twentieth century named everything they stubbed their toe on after the Aztecs. Check out a map of the four-corners area (AZ, UT, CO & NM), and you’ll see towns, counties, a well, and ruins named after the ancient Mexican culture. In reality, the Aztecs and their king Montezuma never came this far north.

            Whoever the Puebloan Donald Trump was at the time plopped this three story condo complex on prime real estate beside the Animus River in NW New Mexico. It’s on the road between its more famous cousins, Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. My book’s fictitious main character, Alison Cabot, is a 1916 archeologist. In an early scene from House of the Earth, Alison is with Earl Morris when he discovers the skeleton of a “witch” at Aztec Ruins-a real event involving the real Earl and my not-real Alison.

Imagine Earl’s shock when he saw that the skeleton of a crone propped against a wall inside a room had a pointed stake driven through her pelvis clear into the ground. Reporting to his funders, he said the woman had probably been accused of witchcraft. The media today would be all over that. Stay tuned for News at 6:00. Lister & Lister’s biography, Earl Morris & Southwestern Archeology, says it made the papers then, as well. They state the woman, “ lying in her grisly torture chamber had her picture emblazoned in dozens of newspapers.”

Earl Morris eventually reconstructed the Grand Kiva at Aztec Ruins. As I stepped out of the blazing sun into the cool serenity of the magnificent building on my first trip, I was struck with the beauty of its colors and proportions. Surely this was a sacred space. Out of nowhere I heard drumming and chanting. I’ll let you discover for yourself where it came from when you visit the Aztec Ruins yourself. Be prepared for goosebumps. Check out my web link to their site.