Lab News

A Busy Summer in Crow Canyon's Research Lab

by Jonathan Till, Laboratory Analysis Specialist
September 10, 2007

	Summer interns work with Albert Porter Pueblo artifact collection.

Crow Canyon’s research lab has been a hotbed of activity this summer. With the assistance of our interns (Andrew Barker, Jerome Bucceri, Elizabeth Hora, and Becky Laughner), dedicated volunteers, and program participants, we have kept apace with the field crew in processing the artifact assemblage from Goodman Point Pueblo. To date, we have analyzed more than 22,000 pottery sherds and nearly 4,000 pieces of chipped stone. The analysis results corroborate our earlier assessment that the village was occupied during the mid- to late-thirteenth century A.D. In addition, there appears to have been little trade between the inhabitants of Goodman Point Pueblo and populations outside the Mesa Verde region.

Also this summer, we started to wash and sort artifacts from the Hanson Pueblo assemblage so that the materials can be turned over to a curation facility. These materials are from a nearby site with evidence of multiple occupations during the A.D. 800s, 1000s, and 1200s. By working with the collections from both Goodman Point and Hanson pueblos, Crow Canyon students have the opportunity to consider remarkable variation in material culture over a span of more than 500 years!

In March, the Crow Canyon lab began a design-attribute analysis of white ware bowl-rim sherds from Albert Porter Pueblo, a multicomponent great house site that Crow Canyon excavated from 2001 through 2004. Director of Research Scott Ortman developed this analysis method, which will be used to assess the history of Albert Porter Pueblo as a community center through time. With more than 5,500 sherds examined, we are nearly finished with this study.

Collections Manager Jamie Merewether, with the assistance of volunteer Mary Shultz, has nearly completed the final datacheck of the entire Albert Porter Pueblo artifact assemblage. This enormous assemblage includes 700 cores, 220 projectile points, 452 mano specimens, 51 pendants, 508 peckingstones . . . and the list goes on! These objects will now be boxed for final storage at the Anasazi Heritage Center, a museum and curation facility in nearby Dolores, Colorado.

Jamie and volunteer/colleague Robin Lyle will soon embark on a pioneering study of turkey bones from sites excavated by Crow Canyon. In conjunction with information collected by analyst Shaw Badenhorst (Ph.D. candidate, Simon Fraser University), these data will be used to document the development of turkey domestication in the Mesa Verde region. Turkey husbandry came to play a vital role in the subsistence of past Pueblo societies. Jamie and Robin will begin the analysis this autumn by looking at the faunal bone assemblage from Sand Canyon Pueblo with our Fall Lab participants.

Summer lab intern and University of North Texas graduate student Andrew Barker and I are collaborating on a lipid analysis study of Mesa Verde Black-on-white mug sherds. A small sample of mug sherds from Albert Porter Pueblo will be used in this study, which addresses a basic, but fundamental, question for the quintessential pottery vessel form of the Mesa Verde region: how were the so-called “mugs” used?

Finally, a few words should be given to some recent staffing changes in our lab. Erin Baxter, lab programs coordinator, has flown the Crow Canyon nest to undertake the graduate program in museum studies at the University of Colorado. Before leaving, Erin coordinated the efforts of many on our staff to create a new exhibit in the Gates Archaeology Laboratory that describes the mission of Crow Canyon, its history of research, and its current pursuits in education, research, and public outreach. We miss Erin, wish her well in her studies, and look forward to possible collaborations with her in the months and years to come. However, our research staff is delighted that Lew Matis has come out of retirement to assist the lab in its education programs. Lew brings years of expertise to bear upon analysis and teaching, and we are grateful for his help.