News From The Field

April 30, 2010

The field crew has been working at the Goodman Point Unit for the past several weeks, preparing for the final field season of the Goodman Point Project. In-between snowstorms, we have been setting in new excavation units, preparing screening stations, and documenting excavation units that were started, but not finished, last year. This month we also had our first participant excavators, a group of middle school students from Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Hundreds of years ago, this sage-covered slope might have been a Pueblo agricultural field. Test excavations have revealed evidence of burning, which may indicate clearing in preparation for planting.

The students from Steamboat Springs worked at Trail Terrace, an ancestral Pueblo habitation site with multiple roomblocks; the site is located near an ancient trail that extends between the nearby Shields and Goodman Point pueblos. Excavation in the midden (refuse) area and along the north walls of two roomblocks revealed both artifact and architectural evidence that suggests primary occupation during the late Pueblo II or early Pueblo III periods, or from about A.D. 1100 to A.D. 1240. Both Pueblo II and Pueblo III pottery types have been recovered, and one double-course masonry wall (a wall that is two stones thick) has been exposed in the northern portion of the site. This building style is thought to indicate construction after A.D. 1150. Thus, the evidence collected so far suggests that much of Trail Terrace was built and occupied only a generation or two before Goodman Point Pueblo was constructed in the A.D. 1250s and 1260s.

A particularly exciting development in April was the expansion of our excavations into areas at the Goodman Point Unit that we think might have been ancient Pueblo agricultural fields. The areas are close to habitation sites but lack surface evidence of architectural remains. In two of the three units excavated so far, we have found evidence of burned vegetal material about 25 to 30 cm below the modern ground surface. We collected samples of the burned material for flotation analysis (see Chapter 11 in the online laboratory manual), which we hope will allow us to determine if the deposits reflect cultural activity—for example, the deliberate burning of natural vegetation in order to clear the field for farming. We also collected samples for carbon-dating analysis to help us determine when the burning occurred.

Half-excavated hearth in a kiva at Thunder Knoll.

Finally, we finished our last excavation unit at Thunder Knoll. This particular unit was located in a kiva, and when we got down to the floor, we uncovered a hearth and the remains of a deflector just south of the hearth. Roof beams were almost completely absent in the fill and near the floor surface, suggesting that the roof may have been salvaged and reused in ancient times. Mesa Verde Black-on-white pottery sherds on the floor allow us to date the last use of this kiva to the mid–A.D. 1200s, or the Pueblo III period. Thus, it seems very likely that some or all of the roof beams of the kiva were removed and used in the construction of Goodman Point Pueblo or other nearby structures.

Next month we will be assisted by more participants in our various programs as we begin to explore new sites in the Goodman Point Unit. Like Trail Terrace and Thunder Knoll, many of these sites appear to be smaller pueblos that predate the construction of Goodman Point Pueblo. But you never know until you investigate. So come join us during our final year of exploration in the Goodman Point Unit and help us finish reconstructing the history of this ancient Pueblo community in the Mesa Verde region.

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