Tsankawi Pueblo Tsankawi Guided Tour Stop 11

Please do not collect and pile pottery sherds.

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Quick Facts

Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Scenic View/Photo Spot

You are standing in the central plaza of the village of Tsankawi.  Once these walls would have stood several stories high and protected this plaza.  Today the impact of modern visitors are obvious.  Social trails crisscross the once defensive but now fallen walls of the village.  Piles of pottery shards, collected by visitors with best intents, share their histories with less clarity.  Generations of visitors know it is important these puzzle pieces of the past stay on this dusty mesa, but the importance of context and placement of those pieces may be a vital but missing insight, not common knowledge in society.  Those little shards of clay lose some of their most important tales when moved even a short distance.  What is found next to something can be as important as the item itself.  So, if you pick something up to look at it closely, return it as close as possible to where you found it.  The saga of this site is still being revealed and it is our duty not to alter that history.