Mesa Verde - restored ruins of Far View House

This view shows the restored ruins of Far View House. The dwelling is located on the mesa top and was surrounded by agricultural fields. Far View House was the first ruin excavated by the Smithsonian Institution under the direction of archeologist Jesse Walter Fewkes. Excavation took place during the summer of 1916 (Lim, 2009). Although excavation techniques used then were rudimentary by modern standards, the artifacts and information retrieved from the excavation provided fundamental information and understanding about the history of the Ancestral Puebloan cultures of the American Southwest.