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Hovenweep
National Monument
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 Visitor Center |
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The Square Tower Group is the primary contact facility with a visitor center, camp-ground, and interpretive trail.
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 Square Tower |
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Square Tower, for which the group is named, is a three-story tower built on a boulder at the head of Little Ruin Canyon. A nearby spring was an important resource for the people at Hovenweep. To increase water storage a check-dam was built above the spring. The distinctive setting and appearance of Square Tower feeds conjecture that it may have been a ceremonial structure. |
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 Little Canyon with Hovenweep House to the left, Square Tower Ruin in the bottom, and Hovenweep Castle to the right. |
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"Archeological analysis of the Hovenweep towers suggests these structures were used for multiple activities, although some activities were probably very specialized. The presence of grinding stones such as manos and metates indicates plant materials were being ground, probably for food production. Stone tools typically used for chopping, scraping, and cutting suggest a variety of activities associated with daily life were occurring within the towers. The presence of bone awls suggests activities associated with weaving might have also occurred. In addition, archeologists suggest these towers were usually paired with kivas (Puebloan religious structures), and the towers may relate to how the kiva connects with the outside world. The deliberate location of towers and kivas at the heads of canyons goes beyond architecture, and has everything to do with the hydrology of the canyon and the way Puebloan peoples envisioned their world. Some of the towers and kivas are placed virtually on top of the springs and seeps that emerge from these canyons." - from NPS Website |
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