Utah Archaeological Expedition, Betatakin Photographs
[Salt Lake City: [1909]. 45 silver gelatin photographs. [10 cm x 15 cm] / [4" x 6"] Attached to lined index cards [13 cm x 20 cm] / [5" x 8"] that have typed identifications and notations. Views have strong contrasts. Item #8828
Nice views of Betatakin that is located in northern Arizona and is now part of Navajo National Monument. Betatakin is one of the three great pre-historic cliff dwellings that are now part of Navajo National Monument in northern Arizona; the other two are the nearby Keet Seel and Inscription House. The House Built on a Ledge occupies an enormous, south-facing alcove, 452 feet high and 370 feet across with its own freshwater spring. Betatakin was built about 1260-1270 A.D. with about 120 separate rooms. Spectacular cliff-dwelling that is, Betatakin was nevertheless short-lived and was abandoned ca. 1300 A.D., a time when many other occupation sites through much of the Southwest were also abandoned.
Dr. Byron Cummings (1860-1954) was a professor of Latin and English at the University of Utah. He would later become the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Utah and develop a course in American archeology. In 1915 he was invited by the University of Arizona to build an archaeology department there and develop a state museum. In expeditions into Northern Arizona, Cummings rediscovered the Inscription House ruin, excavated the Keet Seel ruin, discovered the Betatakin ruin, and located the largest natural rock span in the world, the Rainbow Bridge.
Price: $1,500.00