News From The Field

July 29, 2007

	Making great progress in the bi-wall room.
	High School Field School students excavating in Kiva 706.
	An exciting discovery. Click the thumbnail above to see a larger image.
	A welcome break.

Lots of action at Goodman Point Pueblo in July! Thirty-one high school students from all over the U.S. excavated at the site as part of our three-week High School Field School. The final field interns of this season, Madelynn von Baeyer and Kristin Hoppa, arrived to fill the positions left by departing interns Annie Garcia-Roberts and Elisabeth Cutright-Smith, who have just completed their 11-week internships.

During High School Field School, one of our most popular and productive programs, students excavated in eight areas of the site: Blocks 100, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 1200, and 1300 (see May 2007 site map for block locations). Progress was made in six kivas, four rooms, the great kiva, and various midden (trash) deposits, as well as in test pits located along the exterior faces of two north and two west walls of roomblocks. A great deal of fill was removed from the oversize kiva (Kiva 706) in the D-shaped bi-wall building in Block 700. Marked progress was also made in the bi-wall room in the western portion of Block 1200 and in the multiple-story structure in Block 1300.

Although we didn't reach the floors of any structures in July, we're much nearer to these surfaces than we were in June. And collapsed roof debris ("roof fall") can also yield important materials, such as this partial corrugated vessel that was carefully unearthed by students last week. Corrugated jars have been found in roof fall in several structures at the site, suggesting that leaving these vessels on kiva roofs was a common practice among the villagers of Goodman Point Pueblo.

July was quite warm—the monsoons didn’t arrive until late in the month—but the high school students proved equal to the conditions, and our traditional afternoon break provided a welcome (and juicy) respite from the heat!

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