Mysterious Towers Of The West

[MrRING]

I came across this tantalizing story while reading an interview with sci-fi/fantasy great Andre Norton, (who BTW recently passed away). She went to this description in a question being asked why sci-fi over fantasy for her Arthurian work Witch World:

Civilizations can disappear with barely a trace. Out West, on the Gallina River, just before World War II, an authority on early American history decided to check out an Indian tradition about some towers in the area. He assumed they were cliff dwellings, but in a remote valley, now totally dry, he found signs of intensive agriculture and irrigation. Along the cliffs on both sides were four-story towers of stone, not cliff dwellings at all. They had no windows, and could only be entered through the roof, presumably with the aid of ladders. The inhabitants had been magnificent workers in stone: they had stonework bowls and stone bins with moving lids that still contained petrified grain. When he examined one of the towers, he found it had been burned out. Someone had shot fire arrows into it, setting fire to the wooden interior. We still don't know who these people were, though they were apparently wiped out, tower after tower, perhaps by the incoming Apaches. There is a whole civilization that nobody knows anything about.

Has anybody ever heard of these towers? Has any work been done on them? Or are they still unknown?

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the Anasazi.

 

[MrRING]

It may or not be associated with the Anasazi. The Gallina River is certainly near some Anasazi ruins:

Sometimes archaeological names, such as "Battle Cave," or "House of Tragedy," tell the entire story. Sometimes they reveal almost nothing. Largo-Gallina Bg20 or La Plata 23 provide few clues as to events. At Battle Cave, at Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona, the face of one of the victims had been crushed in and the skulls of two others had been smashed like egg shells. In all, 11 victims were identified on the cave floor, including three children and an old woman. There were at least five victims at the House of Tragedy, a four-room pueblo in the Big Hawk Valley in northeastern Arizona. At Largo-Gallina Bg20, near Lindrith, New Mexico, eleven skeletons were found on a pithouse floor and another two on a tower floor. Arrow points were found in four of the skulls. The attack took place sometime between 1100 and 1300 A.D.. At another site on the Gallina River it was reported that 16 burned bodies were found in a tower. A woman among this group had 16 arrows in her chest and abdomen. The attack had been dated to between 1100 and 1300. At LaPlata 23, skeletal remains filled a large corrugated jar and were scattered around a firepit, suggesting cannibalism. The site was dated to 1100 A.D. or after.

http://www.periclespress.com/theory_5.html

But pictures of the places mentioned here look more like the cliff dwellings of the usual Anasazi ruins, rather than the very peculiar ones decribed by Norton. But they could be one in the same...

 

[MrRING]

Apparently this settlement of people are now known as the Gallina:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallina
which has this tidbit:

Most Gallina sites discovered are found to have been left in perfect order and followed a ritualistic pattern. The fire pits were filled to the rim and then the floors were cleaned. The house was given a quick burning and then the roof timbers were removed. Archaeologists who follow the belief of abandonment tend to think that this was a process designed to minimize the abilities of someone to use personal artifacts left behind in witchcraft. There is evidence that perhaps an exodus occurred beginning around 1275 until the culture had shifted to the Northern portion of Jemez. However, there is evidence that perhaps the Gallina did not move voluntarily. Almost every Gallina skeleton ever found has been that of someone murdered. Broken necks are the most common and the skeletons rarely appear to have been buried. Also commonly found has been remains of Gallina who were murdered, thrown into their homes, and then had the homes burned. Some of the skeletons of the murder victims have been found in the towers. The debate is ongoing for the cause of these murders. Genocide has been considered, and so has internecine war. The drought could offer evidence for either. Although there is no hard evidence for either, research is ongoing.

An academic paper on the culture
https://thetinkuy.wordpress.com/the-gallina/