News From The Field

June 30, 2005
Research at Goodman Point Pueblo is progressing rapidly. In April, the field crew shot points for a base map of the site. Now completed and accurate to within 2 cm, this map is invaluable for helping us select the structures and other areas we want to excavate. And because we mapped 106 kiva depressions at the site, we can already estimate that 500 to 800 people once lived in the village.

Participants in record numbers have turned out to kick off this interesting and important project. With the arrival of diggers in early May, we began excavations at the north end of the site in Architectural Blocks 100, 200, and 300, and as of late June, we've also moved into Blocks 400, 500, and 900. In each architectural block, we're digging five randomly selected midden units and one unit each in a selected kiva, a selected aboveground room, and along the exterior face of a well-preserved section of roomblock wall. In these units, diggers have already exposed numerous masonry walls and features.

The middens we've tested so far are quite shallow, suggesting that the north end of the village was occupied for only a short time. Mesa Verde Black-on-white is the dominant pottery type and has been found all the way down to bedrock at the bottom of refuse deposits. This indicates that the village—or at least the northern part of the village—was built and occupied in the A.D. 1200s, during the late Pueblo III period.

We've reached floors in one kiva and one aboveground room; both of these are in Block 100. We've also collected numerous burned tree-ring samples from the first two kivas in which we've uncovered collapsed roofing debris. We're hopeful that the dates from these samples will allow us to date the construction of the village with a good degree of precision.

Stay tuned for more developments as we reach the floors of more structures and move south toward the structures on the canyon rim!

Kristin Kuckelman, Senior Research Archaeologist, Project Director, Goodman Point Pueblo Excavation