Marvels from Long Ago

Fifteen hundred years ago some people living in the Four Corners region moved onto the Mesa Verde, where they lived and flourished for 700 years. I had the privilege of touring Mesa Verde National Park that preserves artifacts and architecture from these Ancestral Pueblo people.  The cliff dwellings show the skill these people had to live in a difficult land. The structures showed a vigorous civilization and accomplishments in the arts. They built dwellings beneath overhanging cliffs. Shaping sandstone into rectangular blocks, they created rooms for living and storage. A village could have had 130 rooms, and about 80 people lived there. Listening to the history of the region, I wondered about their community living. Did everyone have a specific task? Did they live in families or large clans or persons having no relationship? Did they wake and retire at the same time? Was there a socio-political structure? What could I learn from these cave-dwellers about living in community today?