WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR THIS?

While in Sedona AZ last month celebrating our anniversary, we visited these "Palatki Ruins:" the remnant of a two-story cliffside 6-room dwelling built by people who inhabited the Verde Valley in what is now north-central Arizona from the 9th to the 12th century. Note that fallen rock in the lower left section was simply incorporated in the foundation-layer. Nothing was done to clear or level any part of the site, either. What struck me was that, in this era, the people of what is now western and central France were building Mont St Michel monastery and Chartres cathedral. I am still thinking about what might account for this vast, even stark, contrast in skills from tools to architecture. What do you imagine?