News From The Field

April 12, 2007
The final field season at Goodman Point Pueblo is under way!

On March 26, Crow Canyon’s field staff, consisting of Grant Coffey, Steve Copeland, and me, began removing winter coverings from excavation pits at Goodman Point Pueblo, thus beginning the final season of excavation at this large village site. In the spring of 2008, the second phase of the Goodman Point Project will begin, which will include three seasons of test-excavation at 15 smaller habitation sites clustered around the village.

	Grant Coffey uses the total station to set in excavation units.

To complete our field research at Goodman Point Pueblo, we’ll focus our remaining efforts primarily in Blocks 600, 700, 1200, and 1300 (see site map), and we’ve already set in 19 new excavation units to that end. In Block 600, we’ll excavate units south of the kivas to sample refuse concealed beneath wall rubble. A substantial amount of excavation remains to be completed in Block 700—the multistory D-shaped building. In this important complex, we’ll finish our excavations in one of the bi-wall rooms and in the oversize kiva, and we’ll also augment our midden sample.

A great deal of work remains in Block 1200, including testing of the circular bi-wall structure and the great kiva, as well as additional testing of the midden. We have yet to begin work in Block 1300, located at the southeast edge of the site; this season, we’ll sample a kiva that might have been burned, a small multistory structure, and the midden. We’ll also expose the juncture of the village-enclosing wall with the back wall of the roomblock.

The weather in the field thus far has been typical of springtime in the Rockies—near 70 degrees one day and snowing the next! Nevertheless, we’re happy that our winter confinement on campus has ended and that we’re back out at the site enriching our knowledge of ancient lifeways. We hope you can join us during this pivotal season of research at Goodman Point Pueblo!

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