News From The Field

June 29, 2009

Participants in Crow Canyon's adult research program excavating at the Harlan Great Kiva site.

Exposed southern portion of the upper-lining wall of the great kiva at the Harlan Great Kiva site.

Several rainstorms swept through southwestern Colorado in June, but between showers we were able to continue work on sites being excavated as part of Phase II of the Goodman Point Archaeological Project. This past month we worked at three sites in the Goodman Point Unit with the help of students from Plymouth-Canton High School in Michigan, young teens from across the country enrolled in Middle School Archaeology Camp, and adults participating in our adult research program.

We opened four new excavation units in the Harlan Great Kiva site in June, and from the beginning made exciting new finds. Excavators uncovered a segment of the upper-lining wall that defines the southern extent of the great kiva itself, and we exposed a segment of a dry-laid wall that was built inside the great kiva after the latter’s roof had collapsed. This is the second portion of this wall to be exposed, the first having been uncovered last summer. It is likely this dry-laid construction, which was built directly on the collapsed roof of the great kiva, served as a marker or shrine to people who lived nearby.

Another test pit being excavated inside the great kiva promises to help us better define and interpret a masonry feature that appears to be part of a floor vault or foot drum in the east half of the structure. Though work is still ongoing, several flat rocks uncovered in this pit look like they might be an extension of this rectangular feature continuing to the north. Interesting artifacts recovered from various parts of the Harlan Great Kiva site include a small piece of bent metal that might be part of a copper bell, a chunk of turquoise, and several stone beads, all of which suggest that important nondomestic or ritual activities took place in and around the great kiva.

Work also continued at two sites—Thunder Knoll and Rain Ridge—that were likely part of the larger Shields complex located to the north. Excavations at Rain Ridge began in June, and the types of pottery already collected from the dense midden deposits suggest a substantial Pueblo III occupation, and perhaps a less-substantial Pueblo II use, of the site. The midden areas at Thunder Knoll have proven to contain some of the deepest refuse deposits we have seen so far in the project (the midden deposits in some excavation units are 1 meter or more thick), and most of the artifacts recovered seem consistent with an early to middle Pueblo III occupation of the site. Several excavation units in architectural areas at both sites are in progress and should shed light on building styles and raw material use through time.

In July we look forward to working with High School Field School, High School Archaeology Camp, and Family Archaeology Week participants to continue exploring these and other sites. Our excavations will help us better define and interpret a long Pueblo occupation of the area—one that witnessed large-scale community organization and shifting settlement configurations.

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