News From The Field

May 30, 2009

Middle school students from Old Orchard School in California hold the effigy sherd they found at Thunder Knoll. The piece is shaped like a bird's head.

Crow Canyon field intern Katie Copeland finishing up a midden unit at Thunder Knoll.

May was a very productive month at the Goodman Point Unit of Hovenweep National Monument as we continued our work at Thunder Knoll and Lightning Terrace, two pueblos in the western part of the unit. With the assistance of middle and high school students from five different schools from around the country, we started excavations in two new architectural blocks (Block 100 and Block 200) at Thunder Knoll and worked toward completing the test excavations at Lightning Terrace.

Testing in the middens associated with Blocks 100 and 200 at Thunder Knoll yielded several interesting artifacts unlike any recovered at the Goodman Point Unit so far. In the Block 200 midden, a small sherd from an effigy vessel (likely modeled after a bird) was found, as was a sherd of Tin Cup Polychrome, a relatively rare pottery type produced in the late A.D. 1100s in southeastern Utah. Two partial obsidian projectile points were also recovered from the Block 200 midden, and one beautiful jet pendant or "button" was found in the Block 100 midden. These middens are some of the deepest and most artifact-rich we have encountered at the Goodman Point Unit so far, suggesting either prolonged occupation of the site area or a substantial late A.D. 1100s or early A.D. 1200s occupation of the site.

Work at Lightning Terrace this past month also yielded intriguing clues to the ancestral Pueblo occupation of the Goodman Point Unit. While the middens aren’t as deep or as rich as those at Thunder Knoll, the large number of McElmo Black-on-white sherds recovered suggests an early to middle Pueblo III occupation of the site (approximately A.D. 1200–1250). One test unit that we excavated along the north wall of one of the roomblocks was particularly interesting: this unit actually intersected the southern part of an earlier subterranean room, on top of which the later roomblock had been built and then apparently dismantled. We might excavate additional units in the area to better define the construction sequence, but, at present, it seems that both the earlier subterranean structure and the later construction on top of it were built during the Pueblo III period. This assessment is based on the presence of Pueblo III pottery sherds on the floors of both structures.

The weeks ahead promise to be equally interesting. We will begin testing a new site, "Rain Ridge," near Thunder Knoll and Lightning Terrace, and we’ll continue working at the great kiva at the Harlan Great Kiva site (see News From the Field, January 21, 2009). Several new excavation units in the great kiva should help us understand how it was constructed, and work at the new site should help us better define an ancient community that likely included parts of nearby Shields Pueblo. So come join us for the exciting new discoveries that lie ahead!

Grant Coffey, Supervisory Archaeologist, Director of Goodman Point Archaeological Project Phase II