Nordenskiöld, Gustav:

$750 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

RUINER AF KLIPPBONINGAR I MESA VERDE'S CAÑONS. "An extraordinarily interesting and visually beautiful work on the cliff dwellers of Mesa Verde and environs, distinguished by twelve outstanding photogravure plates of the cliff dwellings, evidently by the author, including views of Mountain Sheep Canyon, the Cliff Palace, and the Balcony House. Nordenskiöld, a young Swedish nobleman, made several expeditions in the late-19th century to study the cliff dwellers of Mesa Verde, recently discovered by a local rancher. This book, published in both Swedish and English, was an important contribution to the beginnings of archaeological studies in the Southwest. Today, it is as notable for its superb photographic illustrations" – Reese.Nordenskiöld was invited to visit Mesa Verde in 1891 by Richard Wetherill, the rancher and amateur archaeologist who was the American settler to discover the Cliff Palace and who dubbed its dwellers "Anasazi." While Nordenskiöld sparked controversy by sending many of his findings back to Europe (directly leading to the Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities), his detailed and pioneering digs of Mesa Verde were instrumental in the early study of the site and of its eventual designation as a National Park. At the First World Conference on Cultural Parks, held in Mesa Verde in 1984, then-director of the park Robert Heyder acknowledged Nordenskiöld's troubled legacy but nonetheless dedicated the conference to him, stating: "I shudder to think what M

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