News From The Field

December 1, 2006
Crow Canyon’s 2006 field season officially ended on November 29 when the field crew, braving three inches of snow and a frigid north wind, finished backfilling the final completed excavation unit and covered the last of the ongoing pits; we thought fondly of the mild spring weather at the beginning of the field season back on April 3. It was another very productive season—a heartfelt thanks to each of the 347 middle school students, 91 high school students, 18 college students, and 195 adults who excavated at Goodman Point Pueblo during 2006. A great deal of important research was accomplished, one bucket of dirt at a time!

In these last weeks of the season, the field staff completed and backfilled several structures, midden units, and other extramural pits: Kivas 702, 914, 1103, and 1120; midden units in Blocks 100, 400, 800, 1100, 1200; and north-wall units in Blocks 400 and 1000. During this work, we discovered that three structures that had appeared (from indications on the modern ground surface) to be towers were actually kivas. That is, these structures contain architectural features consistent with our definition of a kiva—hearth, deflector, ventilation system, and masonry bench face. Two of these (Kivas 702 and 1103) are isolated, above-ground structures on either side of the main drainage at the site, and the third abuts the inside face of the eastern village-enclosing wall in Block 1000. We found yet another kiva unexpectedly in the southeast portion of the roomblock in Block 1100; we exposed a pilaster, bench surface, and upper lining wall in this kiva when we excavated an exploratory unit into a sloping area that did not contain a clear depression. As a result of these developments, we have revised our kiva count for the village from 107 to 111. We’ll carefully consider all available data when we interpret the uses of the isolated kivas that flank the drainage; their context and the apparent absence of associated surface rooms suggest that, unlike the other ordinary-size kivas in the village, these were not domestic structures.

Also worthy of note is the completion of Kiva 914, also known as the “clay” kiva because of the characteristics of the sediment that filled the structure after abandonment. The poor preservation of the architecture and the incredibly unyielding, cemented condition of the fill led to early speculation that the depression visible at the modern ground surface was not the remains of a kiva at all, but instead signaled the presence of some other type of structure or feature. Surprisingly, when at last exposed, the kiva floor and its associated artifacts and features proved to be remarkably well preserved. The deflector was a large sandstone slab set vertically into the floor. The hearth was large, vertical walled, nearly 50 cm deep, and filled to the rim with ash. Two partly reconstructible vessels (a Mesa Verde Black-on-white bowl and a corrugated jar) were on the floor just south of the hearth. Several artifacts were found on the floor behind the deflector (a single-bitted axe, a mano, a large core, and four large animal bones that await official identification by our faunal analyst). So all the perspiration and perseverance paid off handsomely and, in addition to several good tree-ring samples that will (we hope) indicate the time of construction, the floor assemblage and hearth contents should contribute valuable data on the conditions and circumstances of structure abandonment, and village and regional depopulation in the late A.D. 1200s.

Check again next spring for further news of our research at Goodman Point Pueblo. Or better yet, come participate in our investigation of this important and interesting thirteenth-century village!

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