cliff palace and pendant depicting a ruler

So the anasazi built this place now called the cliff palace. It's such an amazing this to accomplish. Building a place like that on a cliffside could not have been easy at all. What i love about it the most is that it's protected from the top and bottom and was difficult for invaders to come. They did this so they could live in peace. To go so far for peace, the anasazi really worked for it. the book talks about the place being apartment style and that there are rooms for storage and religous practices. What shocks me the most is that it was thought of as being built by one architect. However, it is believed to have been built by more than one. But still, for a team of people to build something so well that and in harmony that it was thought to be made by one person, they had to have some major connection or chemistry with each other. In a way, a  team that close can be called one big architect :P

The next thing i wanna talk about is the pendant depicting a ruler. This pendant was made by a culture called the tairona. Gold smithing was first developed further south to where the Tairona lived but it made its way upward. The pendant is of a shaman. Shaman are usually rulers of the tribe or at least highly important and spiritual. The book says that the birds spreading out from the head is like a spiritual alter ego which allows the shaman to enter the other world. I also think that it could be a symbol of the conscience of the leader. The good or bad voices talking to him if you will. The leader looks powerful and as if he fears none. Rather, it looks like he strikes fear in the hearts of those opposed to him. Another thing i love about this sculpture is that the technique used to create it was very ingenius. The process of mixing in copper with the gold to lower the melting point was just very clever. It makes the gold easier to melt. It's like chemistry was studied there. They then used acids to clean off the copper and make it look as if it's just gold. This technique is very clever because it made a more efficient way of melting the gold and it still gave the final product a look of gold.