News From The Field

August 31, 2009

Excavators expose the masonry wall that defines the room on the east side of the great kiva at the Harlan Great Kiva site. Note that the wall is only one-stone-wide, a style typical of the Pueblo II period. The excavator in the foreground is inside the room; the other person is outside the room, in the berm area.

August was a hot—but productive—month in the field. With the help of participants of all ages enrolled in several different programs, we continued work at the Harlan Great Kiva and Rain Ridge sites, and we started excavating at a new site called Trail Terrace. Family Week participants from around the country worked at Rain Ridge; two middle school groups from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, started the new excavations at Trail Terrace; and adults in two research programs continued excavations in test units at the Harlan Great Kiva site.

At Rain Ridge, we continued work in test pits located along the north walls of several roomblocks and in midden areas in the southern part of the site. Working mostly in Blocks 300 and 400, we uncovered yet more evidence of the partial dismantling of roomblock walls (see the July 31, 2009, update). The walls in question were of double-course masonry, which suggests that the rooms were constructed during the late Pueblo II period or the early-to-mid Pueblo III period. The types of pottery recovered from the associated midden areas point to a Pueblo III construction and occupation of this area of the site, which in turn suggests that it was part of a larger Pueblo III community centered on nearby Shields Pueblo.

The berm surrounding the great kiva at the Harlan Great kiva site has yielded a variety of artifacts. Here, an Adult Research Week participant holds a deer bone awl she discovered.

New excavations at the Trail Terrace site are also increasing our understanding of the Pueblo III occupation of the Goodman Point Unit. Excavations in the southern two roomblocks (Blocks 300 and 400) have revealed dismantled, double-course masonry walls, again indicating a late Pueblo II or early-to-mid Pueblo III occupation. In a test pit excavated along the north wall of the Block 300 roomblock, the masonry wall had been stripped down to the bottom two courses of stone, suggesting that the building was taken apart in ancient times and the stone used to construct later pueblos nearby (perhaps even parts of Goodman Point Pueblo, which is the largest and latest site documented in the Goodman Point Unit so far).

Adult Research Week participants excavating in the collapsed roof of the great kiva at the Harlan Great Kiva site.

Work in the Harlan Great Kiva site has also yielded new and intriguing evidence. Excavation in one test pit inside the great kiva has revealed that the large masonry column, or roof-support, discovered earlier this season measures about 1.5 m wide by 2.2 m long. The original height has not yet been determined, but the column’s impressive horizontal dimensions in a structure with a diameter of about 14 to 15 m is truly remarkable. Work also continued in two rooms built around the circumference of the great kiva, one to the north and one to the east. The rooms are of different sizes, and their walls are constructed of single-stone masonry, a style that is suggestive of Pueblo II construction. At least two floors are present in each room. We are hopeful that, once our excavations are complete, the evidence will help us understand not only how the rooms were used but also the function of the great kiva and the site as a whole.

September is our last full month with participants in the field in 2009, and the final month is usually a time when several of our ongoing test pits get completed. We look forward to digging with middle school and adult participants in the weeks ahead to gain a greater understanding of the ancient communities that once thrived in the Goodman Point Unit.

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