Ancestral
Puebloan
Refers
to the prehistoric peoples of the southwest Colorado Plateau. This group
has also been known as the Anasazi, a Navajo term meaning "the ancient
ones" or "the ancient enemies." We do not know what these people
called themselves. Each community or language group probably had its own
name, as among the Pueblo peoples of today. These people are believed
to be among the ancestors of the present-day Pueblo Indians of New Mexico
and Arizona (i.e., Hopi, Zuni, and the Rio Grande Pueblos).
Anthropology
The
comparative study of human cultural and biological variety worldwide and
through time, since the emergence of humanlike species 4 to 6 million
years ago. Anthropology includes the study of present-day and recent human
cultures (cultural anthropology); cultures of the past (archaeology);
human evolution and biological variation (physical anthropology); and
language (linguistics).
Archaeology
The
study of past cultures, using material remains such as artifacts and structures
as the primary evidence. Although history is also the study of past cultures,
history relies on written records as the primary evidence.
Artifact
Anything
made and/or used by humans, including tools, containers, manufacturing
debris, and food remains. Technically, architectural structures are also
artifacts, but archaeologists usually apply this term only to portable
items.
Atlatl
This
is an ancient hunting tool which was used for spear-throwing and is the
forerunner to the bow and arrow. The atlatl extends your throwing arm
and adds thrusting leverage to the spear. Atlatls were used by ancestral
Puebloans, as well as a variety of cultural groups all over the world.
Chaco
Canyon
Chaco
Canyon, which is located in northeastern New Mexico, was a major center
of ancestral Puebloan activity between A.D. 1050 and 1130–1150. Chaco
is characterized by unique architecture and has roads which lead out to
Chacoan outlier sites. A wide range of exchanges and interactions between
different groups of people took place in Chaco Canyon. Trade, religion,
and political activities played an important role in Chaco Canyon. For
more information about Chaco Canyon click here: http://www.nps.gov/chcu.
Chacoan
Outlier
Chacoan
outliers are sites that are located outside of Chaco Canyon. These sites
exhibit Chacoan-style architectural features, which often include roads
that lead to Chaco, core-and-veneer wall construction, and enclosed, aboveground
kivas. It is thought that the inhabitants of Chacoan outliers either migrated
from Chaco or had close contact with the people of Chaco Canyon through
trade and other social and political activities. Archaeologists believe
that the Albert Porter Preserve site may be a Chacoan Outlier.
Cliff
dwelling
Cliff dwellings are
houses which were built inside cliff alcoves and were inhabited during
the Pueblo III time period. There is much debate about why people lived
in cliff dwellings. Privacy and protection from weather or enemies are
some speculations. Mesa Verde National Park has the largest number of
cliff dwellings in the Southwest.
Colorado
Plateau
This
is a very large upland area which is underlain by layers of sedimentary
rocks. Bounded by the Uinta and Wasatch mountains on the north and northwest,
the southern Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Basin and Range province
on the west and south, the Colorado Plateau covers a large portion of
western Colorado, eastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, and northwestern
New Mexico. The Anasazi culture developed and flourished in the southern
part of the Colorado Plateau.
Context
The
location in which something occurs. In archaeology, the location of an
artifact, feature, or structure (along with the other remains that occur
near it) provides information that goes beyond the characteristics of
the item itself. For example, artifacts found on the floor of a structure
may provide evidence of how the structure was used; artifacts found in
the fill just above the floor may indicate that refuse was thrown into
the structure after it was abandoned. Some artifacts have artistic value
of their own (for example, a beautiful Mesa Verde black-on-white mug),
but they may be of little information value to archaeologists unless their
context was recorded.
Culture
The
artifacts, language, ideas, customs, etc., created by a group of people.
The environment is not a part of culture, but cultures help people use
and adapt to their environment.
Curation
Long-term
care of collections of artifacts, specimens, notes, photographs, and maps
in a museum or repository. Well-curated collections provide opportunities
for research and serve as a source of specimens for educational use or
interpretive displays.
Dendrochronology
Otherwise
known as tree-ring dating. Through dendrochronology, scientists study
tree-ring growth patterns in order to develop chronological sequences
of weather patterns in order to determine the dates when a tree was cut
down and when specific sites were occupied.
Environmental
Archaeology
The
study of present and past environments of an area in order to reconstruct
the setting in which peoples lived. Environmental archaeologists also
study what happens to artifacts and sites through time as a result of
processes such as weathering, erosion, and burrowing animals. These studies
help us understand site formation processes.
Ethnobotany
The
study of the interrelations of traditional cultures and plants.
Feature
Features
include hearths, storage pits, ashpits, bins, and doorways. Features differ
from artifacts in that they are not portable; they must be recorded and
studied in the field. They are usually smaller than structures and often
occur within structures as floor features or wall features.
FS
Number
Field
Specimen number. Despite its name, this number is assigned in the lab
to each artifact or group of artifacts of the same type from a given PD
(provenience designation) unit.
Fill
The
sediment and rocks deposited either during the occupation of a site or
after abandonment. Artifacts, charcoal, and other evidence of human activity
are frequently found in fill.
Four
Corners Area
The
area around the point where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico,
and Utah meet.
Great
House and Great Kiva
These
are both examples of Chacoan architecture. They are found in Chaco Canyon
as well as at Chacoan outlier sites. Great houses are massive, usually
multi-storied buildings. Great kivas can often fit up to 100 people inside.
At great houses, smaller kivas are often enclosed within the walls of
the structure. There is much speculation about the types of activities
that took place in these structures. Some possibilities include: feasting,
religious activities, trade, and political activities.
Kiva
A
Hopi word for a special type of room or structure used primarily for religious
and social ceremonies in present-day pueblos. In the Mesa Verde area,
archaeologists apply this term to prehistoric structures that are usually
round in floor plan; have special features such as benches, pilasters,
and ventilators; and are either subterranean or enclosed in an architectural
roomblock. These prehistoric structures were probably used for ceremonies
as well as domestic activities such as cooking, eating, and sleeping.
Mano
and Metate
These
are tools that are used for grinding. Mano means hand in Spanish.
The mano is used to grind and the metate is the surface
on which the grinding takes place. Ancestral Puebloans ground up corn
and and other food items. Manos and metates are still used
in households today all over the world.
Mesa
Verde
A
term that refers to (1) a large escarpment in southwestern Colorado, i.e.,
the Mesa Verde; (2) the park located on this landform, i.e., the Mesa
Verde National Park; and (3) the group of Indians who lived in southwestern
Colorado and southeastern Utah from about A.D. 500 to 1300, i.e., the
Mesa Verde Anasazi. For more information on Mesa Verde National Park,
please click here: http://www.nps.gov/meve/,
or for travel information in the Mesa Verde region, click here: http://www.swcolo.org/tourism/archaeology/mesaverde.html.
Midden
Refuse
deposit resulting from human activities, generally consisting of soil,
food remains such as animal bone and shell, and discarded artifacts.
Montezuma
County
A
county in the southwestern corner of Colorado, with Cortez as its county
seat. It has twice the area of Rhode Island with less than 25,000 people.
Navajo
The
Navajo are the largest Indian tribe in the United States. The Navajo Reservation
in the Four Corners area covers over 25,000 square miles, an area about
the size of the state of West Virginia. The Navajo people are closely
related to other people who speak Athapaskan languages, including the
Apache Indians and a large group of tribes in interior Canada and Alaska.
Archaeological and historical evidence indicates the ancestors of the
Navajo entered the Four Corners area in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries,
after the Pueblo peoples (Anasazi) had moved further south.
Nomadic
This
refers to a way of living in which people move from place to place, usually
to exploit seasonally differing sources of food for themselves or (in
the Old World) for their herds of domestic animals. Hunter-gatherers and
herders are more likely to be nomadic than are farmers.
Pithouse
Wood
and earthen structure lived in by early Puebloan people.
Provenience
The
location in which something is found. Keeping track of the provenience
of artifacts and samples is critically important to documenting archaeological
contexts.
Provenience
Designation (PD) Number
In
the Crow Canyon recording system, the PD number is a unique catalog number
applied to each specific space that is excavated or studied.
Provenience
Designation (PD) Unit
A
PD unit is defined horizontally and vertically as all, or a bounded part,
of a study unit. All materials, notes, maps, and photos from a single
PD unit have the same PD number.
Pueblo
A
Spanish term meaning "town." Currently, it is applied to a style
of building (pueblo, lowercase p), and to particular Indian groups (the
Pueblos, uppercase P). The Spanish were the first to apply this term to
the Indian people they found living in towns in New Mexico. These towns
were composed of apartment-house-style dwellings of adobe or masonry with
many adjoining rooms. There are 19 pueblos today in New Mexico and Arizona.
Roomblock
A
group (often a row) of contiguous rooms, i.e., rooms that are built side-by-side
with shared walls.
San
Juan Region
The
area defined by the drainage basin of the San Juan River. This river starts
in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, flows through the Four Corners
area, and eventually empties into the Colorado River. The San Juan region
is considered the ancestral Puebloan homeland and includes the regions
occupied by the Mesa Verde, Chacoan, and Kayenta branches of the ancestral
Pueblo culture.
Sedentary
This
refers to a way of living in which people stay in one location through
all or most of the year. Farmers are more likely to be sedentary than
are hunter-gatherers or herders.
Settlement
Pattern
The
way that archaeological sites of a particular period are arranged over
the landscape. The spatial association of sites with resources such as
farmlands or raw material sources may help archaeologists infer something
about the economy of a past culture. The arrangement of types of sites
or structures can also be informative about the size and elaboration of
dwellings or there may be centrally located political, ceremonial, or
defensive structures that suggest a more complicated social organization
than where such structures did not exist.
Site
Formation Processes
The
numerous ways in which the archaeological record of a past culture is
formed and altered. These include (1) preabandonment processes such as
building, tool manufacture, and refuse disposal; (2) abandonment processes
such as discarding broken or complete tools or transporting materials
to a new habitation site which affects what, if anything, is left on living
surfaces; and (3) postabandonment processes such as decay, deposition,
and erosion of sediments, and animal disturbance. Archaeologists need
to understand these processes in order to "read" the archaeological record
and infer such things as how people lived and when and how they abandoned
a site.
Site
Number
The
unique number assigned to each site, using the Smithsonian System. For
example, the number 5MT123 (Albert Porter Preserve) indicates that this
was the 123rd site recorded in Montezuma County (MT) in the state of Colorado
(5).
The
Southwest
This
term is usually used to refer to the American Southwest, a geographic
portion of the United States composed of Arizona, New Mexico, the southern
part of Utah, and the southwestern part of Colorado.
Sterile
Dirt
with no artifacts or other indications of human activity in it. Sterile
sediment can be interpreted as having been in place prior to human occupation
of a site and not having been disturbed during the occupation of the site.
Stratigraphy
The
study of natural and cultural sediment layers on an archaeological site,
the relationship of these layers, and the interpretation of the depositional
events.
Study
Unit
The
major subdivisions of the site that are defined for excavation and study.
A study unit may be defined by architectural characteristics (structures),
functional characteristics (courtyards or middens), or the need to archaeologically
sample particular spaces (arbitrary units).
Ute
Several
small Ute-speaking tribes today have reservations in eastern Utah and
southwestern Colorado. Until the late nineteenth century, these people
lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers over most of the Rocky Mountains and
the eastern Colorado Plateau. The Utes are linguistically related to Indians
living to the west and southwest in the Basin and Range area.
Back
to Crow Canyon's High School Field School page.
This page was written by Drew Coffin, Jason Epstein, and Rebecca Rehkop ~ HIGH SCHOOL FIELD SCHOOL 1998
Revised by High School Field School 2001 participants.
