The Duckfoot Site

The Duckfoot Site
Volume 1: Descriptive Archaeology
Edited by Ricky R. Lightfoot and Mary C. Etzkorn
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 1993
ISBN 0-9624640-2-3

Volume 2: Archaeology of the House and Household
By Ricky R. Lightfoot
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 1994
ISBN 0-9624640-5-8

To Order

Contact the University of Arizona Press (distributor).

Synopsis

The Duckfoot site was a small, 19-room pueblo occupied during the late ninth century A.D. When the inhabitants of the pueblo abruptly left about A.D. 880, many of the structures were deliberately destroyed with usable tools, pottery vessels, and other artifacts left inside. The excellent preservation of the site presented archaeologists with a rare opportunity to intensively study ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) life.

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center completely excavated the Duckfoot site between 1983 and 1987. Excavations and laboratory analyses were conducted by staff and more than 4,000 student and adult participants in the Center’s research and education programs. The first book in this two-volume set describes the results of that work. Detailed descriptions of stratigraphy, architecture, and chronology are complemented by several well-illustrated chapters that summarize the results of artifact analyses.

Volume 2 presents the results of Lightfoot’s study of Pueblo household organization, which is based on Crow Canyon’s work at Duckfoot. Analyses of architecture and artifacts, including pottery, are used to test a model of social organization in an attempt to better understand how Pueblo households were structured and to provide a basis for estimating population size.

Each volume is designed to stand on its own, but together the two provide a comprehensive look at the results of this important research project.