american archaeologyamerican archaeologySUMMER 2003

SUMMER TRAVEL SPECIAL • LEARNING OF SPANISH COLONIAL LIFE • SAVING OUR ANTIQUITIES

a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 7 No. 2

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ChacoCanyon

THE CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OFTHE CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF

ChacoCanyon

archaeological toursled by noted scholars

superb itineraries, unsurpassed service

For the past 28 years, Archaeological Tours has been arranging specialized tours for a discriminating clientele.Our tours feature distinguished scholars who stress the historical, anthropological and archaeological aspects of the areas visited. We offer a unique opportunity for tour participants to see and understand historically important and culturally significant areas of the world.

Professor Jo Anne Van Tilburg on Easter Island

ANCIENT PERUSpecially Designed for Grandparents and Their

GrandchildrenThis unique Inca tour for children and their grandparentsbegins in Lima and includes a three-day visit to Cuzcoand two days at legendary Machu Picchu. Additionalhighlights include a flight over the Nazca lines, thefascinating marine bird reserve on the Ballestas Islands,fossil hunting in Cerro Blanco, and visits to ancient stonefortresses, colonial churches and colorful markets. Wehave planned special events with English-speakingPeruvian children, including lunch on a ranch, a dancinghorse show, and a folkloric music program.AUGUST 7 – 18, 2003 12 DAYSLed by Prof. Daniel H. Sandweiss, University of Maine

NORTHERN CHILE & EASTER ISLANDThe enigmatic giant statues on Easter Island and themysterious geoglyphs of northern Chile will be thehighlights of this unusual tour. In northern Chile visitsinclude pre-Inca fortresses, the archaeological remainsof the Atacameno culture, enormous areas of perfectlypreserved geoglyphs, fine museums, lovely old colonialchurches and Santiago. Lastly, we study the fascinatingprehistoric Rapa Nui culture during our seven-day stayon remote Easter Island.NOVEMBER 1 – 16, 2003 16 DAYSLed by Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg, University of California

GUATEMALATraveling in a land of quetzal birds, jaguars, trackless rainforests, exceptional museums and wondrous Maya sites, ourtour of Guatemala encompasses all of these historic and naturaltreasures. Highlights include Quiriguá, two days at Tikal and twodays at the ongoing excavations at Copán...plus the rarelyvisited ruins along the lush jungle rivers of the Petén, Aguatecaand Uaxactún, the colorful market of Chichicastenango,colonial Antigua and the highland villages around Lake Atitlán.NOVEMBER 6 – 21, 2003 16 DAYSLed by Prof. Patrick Culbert, University of Arizona

OASES OF THE WESTERN DESERT(Siwa, Bahariya, Dakhla & Kharga)

Beginning in Alexandria, we explore the fabled oases ofEgypt’s Western Desert: Siwa, famed for its Temple of theOracle, consulted by Alexander the Great; Kharga andDakhla’s temples and painted tombs; and lastly, thewonderful temple dedicated to Isis and Osiris in Doush. Atour highlight will be the newly opened archaeologicalsites in Bahariya Oasis. The tour ends in Luxor, with visitsto newly opened tombs and Malqata. Desert landscapesand colorful villages add to the magic of this special tour.OCTOBER 3 – 20, 2003 18 DAYSLed by Prof. Lanny Bell, Brown University

SPAIN: THE PILGRIM’S ROAD TOSANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

The age of the pilgrimage coincided with a great floweringof Romanesque architecture. Our route is lined with aseries of Romanesque, Gothic, Mozarabic and Visigothicarchitecture. Starting from Zaragoza, we wend our way toSantiago de Compostela, visiting beautiful cathedrals,monasteries and shrines in and around Jaca, Pamplona,Burgos, León and Oviedo. We will also visit Celtic andRoman settlements, archaeological museums, and thefortress/palaces of the kings of Aragón and Navarra. A tourhighlight will be the vespers Gregorian chant at theMonastery of Santo Domingo de Silos.SEPTEMBER 5 – 21, 2003 17 DAYSLed by Dr. Robert S. Bianchi, Art Historian

MUSEUMS OF SPAINThis glorious new tour focuses on the art and artifactsfound in the museums of Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid.After visiting Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, we will beginour study of the fabulous art created by the ancientpeoples who have lived in Iberia, as well as the richinternational offerings that have poured into the peninsula’smuseums. We will also examine Gaudi’s unparalleledarchitectural style and study art from the earliestRomanesque to the Golden Age of Spanish painting, all thewhile sampling the culture and gastronomy of the Basques,Catalonians and the Spaniards.OCTOBER 2 – 12, 2003 11 DAYSLed by Prof. Ori Z. Soltes, Georgetown University

SICILY & SOUTHERN ITALYTouring includes the Byzantine and Norman monumentsof Palermo, the Roman Villa in Casale, unique for its 37rooms floored with exquisite mosaics, Phoenician Motyaand the classical sites of Segesta, Selinunte, Agrigentoand Siracusa...plus, on the mainland, Paestum, Pompeii,Herculaneum and the incredible "Bronzes of Riace."OCTOBER 11 – 27, 2003 17 DAYSLed by Prof. Barbara Barletta, University of Florida

ANCIENT CAPITALS OF CHINA with an Optional Yangtze River Cruise

This tour focuses on the major capitals of Imperial China,including Beijing, Xian, Luoyang and the garden city ofSuzhou. Some of the tour’s highlights are the LongmenBuddhist caves in Luoyang, the famous terra-cottawarriors and the recently excavated Famensi Templenear Xian, the newly installed museums in Beijing andShanghai — plus an optional four days on themagnificent Yangtze River, sailing from Chongqing toWuhan through the famous Three Gorges.OCTOBER 13 – 29, 2003 17 DAYSLed by Prof. Robert Thorp, Washington University

ANATOLIA (Crossroads of Europe and Asia)

Beginning in Ankara, this tour features the Hittite capitalof Hattusa, the rock-hewn churches in Cappadocia, theHellenistic cities on Turkey’s southern and western coasts,Pamukkale, the ongoing excavations at Aphrodisias,Sardis, Ephesus, Pergamon, legendary Troy and OttomanBursa. Our adventure ends with a three-day visit toIstanbul’s fabulous mosques and museums.OCTOBER 12 – NOVEMBER 1, 2003 21 DAYSLed by Dr. Mattanyah Zohar, Hebrew University

THE SPLENDORS OF ANCIENT EGYPTIN TWO WEEKS

A somewhat shorter version of our most popular Egypttour, we will spend five days in Cairo, ample time to visitthe Egyptian Museum, Cairo’s Islamic sites, Sakkaraand the Giza Plateau. We will travel into the FaiyumOasis to visit the collapsed pyramid at Meydum andRoman Karanis. During our five days in Luxor we willexplore Thebes, as well as the temples at Dendera andAbydos. After a five-day Nile Cruise aboard the deluxeSonesta Moon Goddess, the tour concludes with a flyingvisit to Abu Simbel.OCTOBER 19 – NOVEMBER 2, 2003 15 DAYSLed by Dr. Hratch Papazian, University of Chicago

ETHIOPIAThis exotic tour examines the historic sites associatedwith the ancient Kingdom of Axum. Beginning in AddisAbaba we visit museums and early man sites beforetraveling to the north to visit the uniquely designedchurches around Gondar and Mekele, the famous rock-cut churches of Lalibela and the fabulous ancientAxumite cities. We drive through the spectacularlybeautiful Simien Mountains to Bahir Dar and the originof the Blue Nile. During this adventure we willexperience Ethiopia’s extraordinary pageantry and itsdiversity of peoples and traditions.NOVEMBER 7 – 23, 2003 17 DAYSLed by Dr. Mattanyah Zohar, Hebrew University

ADDITIONAL TOURSGeorgia and Armenia; Khmer Kingdoms; Northern India;South India; Egypt; Sri Lanka; Chile and Easter Island;Mali...and more

NEW

american archaeology

american archaeology 1

a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 7 No. 2

COVER FEATURE

12 UNDERSTA N D I N G C H A C O C A N Y O NBY TAMARA STEWART

Archaeologists have arrived at new conclusions

about this amazing place.

2 0 AN ARCH AEOLOGICAL TOUR IN THE UPPER MIDWESTBY JACK EL-HAI

Our summer travel special introduces you to some of the most interesting archaeological sites in Minnesota and Iowa.

2 6 LEARNING OF SPANISH COLONIAL L IFEBY PAMELA SALMON

An excavation in New Mexico yields information about 18th-century life.

3 2 T H E N E I G H B O R H O O D B O N E B E DBY CATHERINE DOLD

Archaeologists are learning about prehistoric hunters at a 3,000-year-old bison-kill site in northern Colorado.

3 9 PRESERV I N G A M E R I C A’S ANTIQUIT IESBY ANDREA COOPER

The American Antiquities Act of 1906 is still relevant today.

4 4 new acquisitionONE OF THE LARGEST PREHISTORIC PUEBLOS IN THE GALISTEO BASIN PRESERV E DPueblo played an important role in New Mexico’s past.

4 6 new acquisitionO R G A N I Z AT I O N D O N ATES AT H O R O U G H LY RESEARCHED SITENew Mexico pueblo is considered the forerunner of large 15th-century northern Rio Grande communities.

4 7 new acquisitionP R O T E C T I N G A H O P E W E L L E A R T H W O R KOld Fort is one of the largest prehistoric earthworks in Kentucky.

4 8 point acquisitionC O N S E RVA N C Y O B TAINS PINE ISLAND CANAL A unique example of pre-Columbian engineering in Florida is protected.

summer 2003

COVER: An aerial view of Pueblo Bonito,

the largest of the great houses in Chaco

Canyon. Photograph by Adriel Heisey.

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2 Lay of the Land

3 Letters

5 Events

7 In the NewsThe Birth of the Oneota? • University Reveals1980 Archaeological Heist • PhoenixExcavation Uncovers Hohokam Farmstead

50 Field Notes

5 2 Reviews

54 Expeditions

MARK MICHEL, President

2 summer • 2003

Lay of the Land

Monument in Mesa Verde country.But then again, President Teddy Roo-sevelt was heavily criticized for usingthe act to protect the Grand Canyon,as was Franklin Roosevelt for preserv-ing what became Grand Teton Na-tional Park.

The law marked a commitmentby the federal government to preserveits archaeological legacy by protectingruins and controlling excavations onpublic lands. While this is a giantstep in the right direction, many othercountries have gone a step further byprotecting antiquities wherever theyare found, be it public or private land.That’s probably not going to happenhere anytime soon, but many statesare taking steps in that direction by

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Ninety-seven years ago, theCongress adopted perhapsthe most important preserva-

tion and conservation law in Ameri-can history. Though it’s only threeparagraphs long, the Antiquities Actof 1906 has protected more of thenation’s heritage, natural as well ascultural, than any other measure.

Our feature “Preserving Amer-ica’s Antiquities” tells the story of thislaw that originated in archaeologists’desire to protect priceless ruins. Presi-dent Carter made bold use of the lawto protect millions of acres of Alaskawilderness. Ever controversial, it onlyrecently withstood a legal challenge ofPresident Clinton’s proclamation ofthe Canyons of the Ancients National

Preserving Our Nation’s Heritage

protecting human burials and regulat-ing archaeology in subdivisions.

The Antiquities Act of 1906 wasa dramatic first step for the preserva-tion of our cultural and natural treas-ures. It remains an important tooltoday, but there is still much to bedone and those of us who want tosee our heritage preserved need tokeep working to pass wise laws toachieve that goal.

Letters

Editor’s CornerChaco Canyon inspires awe andwonder. The ruins of its greathouses are likely to make any visi-tor ask, What went on here?

That question is at the heartof our cover story, “UnderstandingChaco Canyon.” Though Chaco isone of the best known and mostthoroughly researched archaeologi-cal sites in the Southwestern UnitedStates, it is shrouded in mystery.

Why did its inhabitantschoose this stunning but severeplace in northwest New Mexico toconstruct these monumental build-ings? What was the purpose ofthese buildings? What was the na-ture of Chaco’s society? These are afew of the many questions thatChaco researchers grapple with.

And grapple they have. Backin 1969, a number of researchers,under the auspices of the NationalPark Service and the University ofNew Mexico, began a herculeanendeavor called the Chaco Project.That project, and the ensuinganalysis and interpretation, is nowcoming to a close.

As mentioned in the article,this extensive and comprehensiveresearch has changed some of thethinking about Chaco. But that’snot to say it’s changed everything.Chaco experts reviewing similardata can still arrive at very dissimi-lar conclusions about what it means.And Chaco remains a source ofawe, wonder, and mystery.

american archaeology 3

Sending Letters toAmerican Archaeology

American Archaeology welcomes your letters. Write to us at

5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902,Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, orsend us e-mail at tacmag@nm.net.

We reserve the right to edit andpublish letters in the magazine’s

Letters department as space permits.Please include your name, address,

and telephone number withall correspondence, including

e-mail messages.

Our thanks to Ellen SueTurner and Thomas R.Hester for allowing us touse the two illustrations ofpoints that serve as thelogo for The ArchaeologicalConservancy’s POINT-2acquisition program. Theseillustrations originallyappeared in their bookStone Artifacts of theTexas Indians.

Dating ConfusionUntil recently, most of us were accus-tomed to looking at North Americanarchaeological dates in uncalibratedradiocarbon years. We now know, ofcourse, that radiocarbon dates re-quire calibration, and the early datesare especially inaccurate. When youquote dates in your articles youshould define whether they are un-calibrated radiocarbon years, cali-brated radiocarbon years, or if theyhave been derived by anothermethod. A great example of thisproblem is the article on the 13,000-year-old Mexican skull described onpage eight of your Spring 2003 issue.I assume this is a calibrated date, butthat is not stated in the article.

John WhatleyThomson, Georgia

All radiocarbon dates in AmericanArchaeology are calibrated.—Ed.

American Archaeology (ISSN 1093-8400) is published quarterly by The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE,Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. Title registered U.S. Pat. and TM Office, © 2003 by TAC. Printed in the UnitedStates. Periodicals postage paid Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one-year mem-bership to the Conservancy is $25 and includes receipt of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is designated fora one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new memberships, renewals, or change of address, write to The Archaeo-logical Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or call (505) 266-1540. For changesof address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational purposes and do not necessarily reflect theviews of the Conservancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology. Article proposals and artwork should be addressed tothe editor. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive expert review. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to American Archaeology, The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reserved.

American Archaeology does not accept advertising from dealers in archaeological artifacts or antiquities.

5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 • (505) 266-1540www.americanarchaeology.org

Board of DirectorsCecil F. Antone, Arizona • David Bergholz, Ohio

Janet Creighton, Washington • Christopher B. Donnan, CaliforniaJanet EtsHokin, Illinois • Jerry EtsHokin, Illinois

W. James Judge, Colorado • Jay T. Last, California • Dorinda Oliver, New YorkRosamond Stanton, New Mexico • Vincas Steponaitis, North Carolina

Dee Ann Story, Texas • Stewart L. Udall, New Mexico

Regional Offices and DirectorsJim Walker, Southwest Region (505) 266-1540

5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108Tamara Stewart, Projects Coordinator • Steve Koczan, Site-Management Coordinator

Amy Espinoza-Ar, Field Representative

Paul Gardner, Midwest Region (614) 267-11003620 N. High St. #207 • Columbus, Ohio 43214

Joe Navari, Field Representative

Alan Gruber, Southeast Region (770) 975-43445997 Cedar Crest Road • Acworth, Georgia 30101

Jessica Crawford, Delta Field Representative

Gene Hurych, Western Region (916) 399-11931 Shoal Court #67 • Sacramento, California 95831

Donald Craib, Eastern Region (703) 780-44569104 Old Mt. Vernon Road • Alexandria, Virginia 22309

Conser vancy StaffMark Michel, President • Tione Joseph, Business Manager

Kerry Elder, Special Projects Director • Lorna Thickett, Membership DirectorShelley Smith, Membership Assistant • Valerie Long, Administrative Assistant

Yvonne Woolfolk, Administrative Assistant

american archaeology ®

PUBLISHER: Mark MichelEDITOR: Michael Bawaya (505) 266-9668, tacmag@nm.net

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tamara StewartART DIRECTOR: Vicki Marie Singer, vsinger3@comcast.net

Editorial Advisor y Board

Ernie Boszhardt, Mississippi Valley Archaeological CenterDarrell Creel, University of Texas • Jonathan Damp, Zuni Cultural Resources

Richard Daugherty, Washington State University • David Dye, University of MemphisKristen Gremillion, Ohio State University • Megg Heath, Bureau of Land Management

Susan Hector, San Diego • Richard Jenkins, California Dept. of ForestryJohn Kelly, Washington University • Robert Kuhn, New York Historic Preservation

Mark Lynott, National Park Service • Linda Mayro, Pima County, ArizonaJeff Mitchem, Arkansas Archaeological Survey • Giovanna Peebles, Vermont State Archaeologist

Janet Rafferty, Mississippi State University • Ann Rogers, Oregon State UniversityKenneth Sassaman, University of Florida • Donna Seifert, John Milner Associates

Art Spiess, Maine Historic Preservation • Richard Woodbury, University of Massachusetts

National Advertising OfficeMarcia Ulibarri, Advertising Representative

5401 6th Street NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107;(505) 344-6018; Fax (505) 345-3430; mulibarri@earthlink.net

he Archaeological Conservancy is the only national non-profit organization that identifies, ac-quires, and preserves the most sig-

nificant archaeological sites in theUnited States. Since its beginning in1980, the Conservancy has preservedmore than 260 sites across the nation,ranging in age from the earliest habita-tion sites in North America to a 19th-century frontier army post. We arebuilding a national system of archaeo-logical preserves to ensure the survivalof our irreplaceable cultural heritage.

Why Save Archaeological Sites? Theancient people of North Americaleft virtually no written records oftheir cultures. Clues that mightsomeday solve the mysteries of pre-historic America are still missing,and when a ruin is destroyed bylooters, or leveled for a shoppingcenter, precious information is lost.By permanently preserving endan-gered ruins, we make sure they willbe here for future generations tostudy and enjoy.

How We Raise Funds: Funds for the Conservancy come from mem-bership dues, individual contributions, corporations, andfoundations. Gifts and bequests ofmoney, land, and securities are fullytax deductible under section501(c)(3) of the Internal RevenueCode. Planned giving providesdonors with substantial tax deduc-tions and a variety of beneficiarypossibilities. For more information,call Mark Michel at (505) 266-1540.

The Role of the Magazine: AmericanArchaeology is the only popularmagazine devoted to presenting therich diversity of archaeology in theAmericas. The purpose of the magazine is to help readers appre-ciate and understand the archaeo-logical wonders available to them,and to raise their awareness of thedestruction of our cultural heritage.By sharing new discoveries, re-search, and activities in an enjoy-able and informative way, we hopewe can make learning about ancientAmerica as exciting as it is essential.

How to Say Hello: By mail:The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; byphone: (505) 266-1540; by e-mail:tacmag@nm.net; or visit our Website: www.americanarchaeology.org

WELCOME TO THE ARCHAEOLOGIC AL

CONSERVANC Y!

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4 summer • 2003

Events

american archaeology 5

Museum exhibits • Tours • Festivals

Meetings • Education • Conferences

■ NEW EXHIBITSSan Diego Museum of ManSan Diego, Calif.—Turquoise has beenused by many cultures since ancienttimes. It has played a role in trade, fer-tility rituals, planting of crops, building,marriage, healing, and adornment. Thenew exhibit “The Turquoise Path/ElCamino Turquesa: The Story of Turquoisein the Native American Southwest”takes an in-depth look at the historical,social, cultural, and economic implica-tions of this age-old stone. (619) 239-2001,www.museumofman.org (Opens June 7)

Anchorage Museum of History and ArtAnchorage, Alaska—The remarkable,unique exhibition “Eskimo Drawings”features more than 200 rare illustra-tions offering a captivating and inti-mate view of Alaska life from the 1890sto the mid-20th century. Steeped inethnographic detail, the exhibit also in-cludes an exceptional group of artifactsfrom the museum’s extensive collection.(907) 343-4326, 343-6173,www.anchoragemuseum.org(Through September 14)

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■ CONFERENCES,LECTURES & FESTIVALS20th Annual Indian FairJune 14–15, The Museum of Man,San Diego, Calif. More than 150 na-tive performers and artists represent-ing dozens of tribes will participatein this year’s spectacular fair, a breath-taking tribute to Native Americanculture and heritage. (619) 239-2001,www.museumofman.org

Mid-South Archaeological ConferenceJune 14–15, Murray State Univer-sity, Wickliffe, Ky. Papers on suchtopics as the Wickliffe Mounds ar-chaeological site, the Lewis andClark expedition of 1803–06, andcurrent archaeological research inthe mid-South will be presented onSaturday. Sunday’s events include aguided tour of the university-owned Wickliffe Mounds and ex-cursions to other local mound sites.(270) 335-3681,http://campus.muraystate.edu/org/wmrc/wmrc.htm

Heard MuseumPhoenix, Ariz.—More than 60 pieces of the famousblack-on-black pottery createdby San Ildefonso potter MariaMartinez and decorated by her husband Julian and their descendants are featured inthe new exhibit “A Revolutionin the Making: The Pottery ofMaria and Julian Martinez.”Martinez began fashioning her innovative pottery in the early 1900s. Her work wasinspired by prehistoric pot-sherds found during an excavation near San Ildefonso. (602) 252-8848,www.heard.org (Through September 14)

Peabody Museum ofArchaeology and EthnologyHarvard University, Cambridge, Mass.—More than 100 exquisitely painted prehistoric bowls are displayed in the new exhibit “Painted by a Distant Hand:Mimbres Pottery of the American Southwest.” The Mimbres formed farming communities in what is now southern New Mexico from A.D. 200 until the1100s. The exhibit traces the history of the Mimbres people and features rare,never-before-exhibited examples of Mimbres painted pottery, as well as textiles,sandals, baskets, axes, and shell and stone trade items. (617) 496-0099,www.peabody.harvard.edu (New long-term exhibit)

Events

6 summer • 2003

Ohio Archaeology Week

June 15–21. A variety of statewideevents demonstrates Ohio’s rich pre-historic and historic past and the ar-chaeological techniques used to ex-plore them. Events include museumand park tours, visits to ongoing exca-vations, artifact identification sessions,and Native American storytelling.Contact Sandy Lee Yee at (937) 299-1536, malamasly@aol.com or for in-formation, www.ohioarchaeology.org

Native American Arts & Culture:Art, Archaeology & History

July 6–11, Idyllwild Arts Foundation,Idyllwild, Calif. Enjoy a week-longprogram of formal presentations, infor-mal discussions, and question/answersessions by renowned artists, archaeolo-gists and historians. (909) 659-2171,ext. 365, summer@idyllwildarts.org

Great Northern Arts Festival July 11–20, Inuvik, Northern Terri-tory, Canada. Join the annual celebra-tion of northern Canadian arts andculture, the largest of its kind inCanada. Up to 100 visual and per-forming artists from across the North-west and Yukon territories will partici-pate in this event, which includestraditional crafts, workshops, and en-tertainment. It’s held on the northern-most community on the continentthat is accessible by public road. (867)777-3536, www.gnaf.ca

Sun Mountain Gathering:A New Mexico Native Heritage Festival

July 12–13, Museum of Indian Arts& Culture, Santa Fe, N.M. The week-end features a wide range of activities,displays, and entertainment to educatethe public about native people andtheir culture and history. Artists’booths and archaeology exhibitsshare center stage with dancers, drum-mers, prehistoric craft and technologydemonstrations, and hands-on activi-ties for all ages. Members of the WorldAtlatl Association (WAA) will conducta regional spear-throwing contest, andwill offer lectures and training. Con-tact Chris Turnbow at (505) 476-1252,cturnbow@miaclab.org,www.miaclab.org

Native American Weekend August 9–10, Old Sturbridge Vil-lage, Sturbridge, Mass. Lectures,tours, performances, and craftdemonstrations tell of the lives ofNative Americans throughout NewEngland’s history. (508) 347-3362,www.osv.org

76th Annual Pecos ConferenceAugust 14–17, INAH Centro Cul-tural Paquime, Casas Grandes, Chi-huahua, Mexico. The conference willinclude presentations on the latest ar-chaeological research in the South-west, followed by tours of local sites.www.swanet.org/zarchives/pecos/2003

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Arizona StateMuseumThe University of Arizona, Tucson,Ariz.—Learn how archaeologistsread the clues found in prehis-toric pottery through the new interactive exhibit “The PotteryDetectives.” Visitors can walkinto and around an 8-foot-tall ceramic vessel, whichdemonstrates details of design,decoration, and manufacture ona very large scale. The exhibit answers the questions of howand why archaeologists examinethe past and why this is impor-tant today. (520) 621-6302,www.statemuseum.arizona.edu(New long-term exhibit)

Charleston MuseumCharleston, S.C.—“Redcoats, Hessians & Tories: TheBritish Siege and Occupation of Charleston, 1780–1782” explores one of the great sieges of the Revolu-tionary War and the ensuing occupation of one of theera’s most important cities. The exhibit features a richarray of artifacts and images from the museum andfrom archives in England, Scotland, Canada, Germany,and the United States. (843) 722-2996,www.charlestonmuseum.org (Opens June 14)

american archaeology 7

During routine land clearing fora new housing subdivision lastNovember, evidence of two

distinct cultural pottery types at thesame hearth were found at the Ivasite on the outskirts of Onalaska,Wisconsin. The discovery of the pot-tery fragments are thought by someto be evidence of a rare cultural ex-change and may shed light on Wis-consin’s prehistory.

Further exploration of the Ivasite, which has yielded pre-ContactOneota artifacts, revealed the rem-nants of both Late Woodland andMiddle Mississippian pottery, “indi-cating direct contact between thesecultures at this site,” said Robert“Ernie” Boszhardt, an archaeologistwith the University of Wisconsin–LaCrosse’s Mississippi Valley Archaeol-ogy Center.

Boszhardt suggested that the as-sociation of Middle Mississippianand Late Woodland materials at thesite is evidence that “this contact ap-parently led to the emergence of asubsequent Oneota culture by A.D.1200 in the Upper Mississippi Val-ley.” Late Woodland ware is grit-tempered, meaning rock is mixedwith the clay, and has impressed dec-orations and a globular shape. Mid-dle Mississippian ware has shellmixed in the clay and sharply angledshoulders. Oneota pottery sharesqualities of both: It’s shell-temperedlike Middle Mississippian ware andglobular in shape like Late Wood-land design.

The Late Woodland and MiddleMississippian cultures inhabited theUpper Mississippi Valley fromaround A.D. 1050 to 1150.

Boszhardt claims that the discoveryof two distinctly different potterytypes in association with burnedrock and dog bones suggests a possi-ble ritual feast shared between thetwo cultures.

Not all archaeologists are con-vinced that Late Woodland peoplesbecame Oneota as a result of inter-mingling with Middle Mississippi-ans. “There is no transformation.By A.D. 1200 or thereabouts, withthe collapse of the Mississippiancenter at Cahokia, Oneota popula-tions began to expand south andwest at the expense of whateverremnants of the Late Woodland/Middle Mississippian coalition pop-ulation remained in southern Wis-consin,” argued David Overstreet,an archaeologist at Marquette Uni-versity and director of the Center

for Archaeology Research in Mil-waukee.

Overstreet pointed to researchdone in northeast Wisconsin indi-cating that Late Woodland wasalmost immediately replaced byOneota. But James Stoltman, a re-tired professor of archaeology at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison,disagreed. To replace the LateWoodland, the Oneota must haveexisted in the area prior to A.D.1000, “yet there is no evidence any-where else in the world of Oneotato be in existence before A.D. 1050to 1100,” he said.

The Iva site is now buried undera new housing development. Arti-facts recovered from the site will un-dergo further research at the Missis-sippi Valley Archaeology Center.

—Kerry Elder

The Birthof the Oneota?A recently discovered site in Wisconsinmight contain evidence of the tribe’s origin.

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This Late Woodland pot is tempered with crushed rock and decorated with carefully incised lines.

It was found at the site in association with Middle Mississippian ceramics.

NEWSin the

W hat Unsolved Mysteries was to hunters of Amer-ica’s Most Wanted fugitives, the “Stolen Arti-facts” Web site may become to the University of

Alabama archaeologist determined to recover preciousMoundville artifacts stolen from the university’s reposi-tory 23 years ago.

In 1980, 264 high-quality pottery vessels were liftedfrom the Erskine Ramsay Archaeological Repository atthe Moundville Archaeological Park in what James Knighthas called “the largest recorded antiquities theft in thesouthern states.” Knight, the chair of the university’s an-thropology department, launched the Web site in April inhopes of tracing the antiquities, which represent one-fifthof the entire Moundville vessel collection curated by theAlabama Museum of Natural History. Appraised at $1million at the time of the theft, the artifacts are worthabout $2.3 million today.

Shortly after the theft occurred, UA scholars placed anotice in the international Journal of Field Archaeology.For reasons undisclosed, “what wasn’t done was to publi-cize it an any other level,” Knight explained. “Not only isthis a good time to remind people of [the theft] but to trysome other levels as well. The Internet is perfect for that”because it reaches millions.

It’s thought that the theft was an inside job becausethere was no sign of forced entry into the four-storyrepository, and the thief or thieves knew exactly what theywere after and where it was located.

Despite a thorough investigation by the FBI, none ofthe Moundville artifacts have been recovered and there areno suspects. The FBI is no longer investigating the case,said Craig Dahle, spokesman for the Birmingham office,but it is monitoring developments.

Despite the age of the case, Knight remains opti-mistic that the stolen objects may eventually be recovered.“None of the artifacts have turned up for sale on the mar-ket,” he noted. “That suggests to me that the collectionmay still be intact.”

8 summer • 2003

NEWSin the

University Reveals 1980 Archaeological Heist Cyberspace sleuthing may recover precious artifacts.

Within one week of its launch, the Web site drewseveral anonymous tips. “You see the same [concern] withwhat’s happened in Iraq,” Knight continued, referring tothe destruction of the Baghdad National Library andwidespread looting of antiquities during the war. TheWeb site has a complete photo gallery of the missing bot-tles, jars, and bowls. Many other objects stored in thesame boxes as the vessels were also stolen, but no recordsof them exist, Knight said.

Occupied between about A.D. 1000 and 1450,Moundville was a large Mississippian ceremonial center incentral Alabama. At its peak, approximately 800 yearsago, it boasted a population of about 1,000, making it thelargest city in North America.

For more information about the stolen antiquities,visit http://museums.ua.edu/oas/stolenartifacts/. To reportinformation about the case, call the Anonymous Tip Lineat (205) 371-8721. —Elizabeth Wolf

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This incised bowl is one of the Moundville vessels that was stolen

in 1980.

american archaeology 9

NEWSin the

F or decades, historians believedthat a brass plaque with an oldinscription claiming Califor-

nia for England and purportedlyleft by the English explorer SirFrancis Drake on a Greenbrae hill-side just north of San Francisco in1579 was authentic. Historicalrecords state that Drake left such aplaque about 30 miles north of SanFrancisco at Drake’s Cove, where heis thought to have landed. But met-allurgical tests conducted on theplate in the late 1970s showed thatit was a fake, made from machine-rolled brass and engraved in the1930s. This raised the questions ofwho was responsible for this hoaxand what was the motivation.

Eleven years of research byDrake enthusiasts have finally solvedthe perplexing puzzle. Ed Von derPorten, maritime historian and pres-ident of the Drake Navigators Guild,and fellow researchers recently pub-lished their findings in CaliforniaHistory magazine, revealing that thefake plaque was part of an elaborateprank that spun out of control.

As it turns out, a group offriends of the distinguished Univer-sity of California–Berkeley professorHerbert Bolton were the pranksters.The group of five, led by G. EzraDane, a San Francisco lawyer andleader of E Clampus Vitus, a societyof irreverent intellectuals, createdthe fake as a private joke on Bolton.

Sir Francis Drake Hoax SolvedYears of research reveals identities of forged plaque creators.

The findings of an archaeologi-cal survey north of Jamestown,Virginia, have confirmed the

location of Werowocomoco, thevillage of the Indian chieftainPowhatan. Powhatan controlledthe Virginia Tidewater when theEnglish established the Jamestowncolony in 1607.

Legend has it that this is thevillage where Powhatan’s daughter,Pocahontas, intervened with her fa-ther to spare the life of CaptainJohn Smith, Jamestown’s militaryleader. Though this deed may be a

Survey Confirms Location of WerowocomocoSeventeenth-century Indian chiefdom was powerful and complex.

But after planting the plaque, whichthey designed based on historic doc-umentation of the real plaque, itwas unexpectedly found by someonewho threw it into a meadow acrossthe mountains from Drake’s Cove,where it’s believed the explorerlanded. It was found again in 1936and brought to Bolton, whosesearch for the plaque was wellknown. Bolton immediately hailedthe plaque as genuine, publishinghis discovery and thereby perpetrat-ing the misconception of whereDrake landed.

Bolton died in 1953, believingthe plaque to be authentic. The realplaque has never been found.

—Tamara Stewart

product of myth, Smith was cap-tured and brought to Powhatan atWerowocomoco in the winter of1607. Powhatan, whether at the be-hest of Pocahontas or not, did re-lease him.

Archaeologists have long sus-pected that this was the location ofWerowocomoco. The survey wasprompted when the owners of theproperty reported their findings ofpottery and arrowheads to local ar-chaeologists. The investigation re-vealed Indian and European arti-facts that suggested a large village

from that period. An excavationwill begin in June.

“For us, the emphasis is onPowhatan, not Pocahontas,” said ar-chaeologist E. Randolph Turner III,the regional director of the VirginiaDepartment of Historic Resources.“For the early 17th century thePowhatan chiefdom was possibly themost complex Native American polit-ical entity in eastern North America.”

Though the Pocahontas tale isintriguing, Turner does not expectthe excavation to prove or disproveit. —Michael Bawaya

10 summer • 2003

NEWSin the

Phoenix Excavation Uncovers Hohokam FarmsteadSite may be one of the last to be discovered in this rapidly developing city.

T his past fall, archaeologistsworking for the City of Phoenixdiscovered a prehistoric Ho-

hokam farmstead and two pithouseclusters with ancient human remainsin a heavily populated area of southPhoenix. The discovery temporarilyhalted the development of a 760-unithousing project while archaeologistswith Northland Research Inc. under-took more intensive excavations atthe site, revealing 36 archaeologicalfeatures clustered in three locationson the property.

The city’s archaeologists knew oftwo prehistoric irrigation canals pre-viously recorded in the area, andthey recommended monitoring theinitial trenches that were dug acrossthe property for the housing devel-opment. When additional Hohokammaterials were revealed, a full-scaleexcavation of the site was required.

“The occupants of the Ho-hokam farmstead may have beenfarming the area and helping tomaintain the canals,” speculatedTodd Bostwick, City of Phoenix ar-chaeologist. “Three human burialswere also discovered in associationwith the pithouses, suggesting thatthe farmstead may have been occu-pied year round.” While researchersstill await the results of radiocarbonanalysis, the styles of artifacts andfeatures found at the site indicatethat the farmstead dates to the Clas-sic period, sometime between A.D.1100 and 1450.

Archaeologists are well aware ofthe more than 700 prehistoric sitesthat lie beneath the city, particularlyalong a five-mile stretch of land thatborders the Salt River. In prehistorictimes the Hohokam people denselysettled this rich agricultural area,building the large villages and exten-sive irrigation canals recorded by re-searchers in the 1920s and ’30s be-fore development made them moredifficult to find. The recently discov-ered site is located on one of several

undeveloped parcels of land in southPhoenix, and may represent one ofthe last undiscovered sites in thispart of Phoenix.

In accordance with state law, thehuman remains and their associatedgrave goods will be repatriated to theSalt River Pima-Maricopa IndianCommunity. A spiritual leader withthe Native American communityblessed the remains before their re-moval from the ground.

—Tamara Stewart

John Marshall of Northland Research Inc. takes notes on a Hohokam pithouse excavated at the First

People's Site in Phoenix. This ancient farmstead lay buried for more than 500 years before being

recently discovered during preparation for a housing development project.T

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Drought Reveals Early Occupation Sites in the Tonto BasinDecline in depth of central Arizona lake gives a glimpse of the Salado people.

NEWSin the

american archaeology 11

F or three centuries between A.D.1100 and 1400, the Saladopeople of central Arizona’s

Tonto Basin farmed the area, build-ing vast irrigation canal systems andproducing some of the most exqui-site polychrome pottery and intri-cately woven textiles in the South-west. With the construction of theTheodore Roosevelt Dam in 1903,the river valley and its rich culturalresources were inundated. The severedrought of the last two years loweredRoosevelt Lake levels to the pointwhere these remains once again be-came visible.

“Every summer, as the agricul-tural demand increases, the waterdrops at Roosevelt,” explained J.Scott Wood, archaeologist with theTonto National Forest Service. “Everysummer there are certain prehistoricsites that are exposed, time andagain, and are quite familiar to boththe Forest Service archaeologists andthe locals. But every now and then,when the water drops down nearly tothe original channel of the river,some marvelous things are exposedthat are rarely seen and even morerarely visited.”

When terrace surfaces along theformer course of the Salt River areexposed, researchers are able to viewthe Tonto Basin’s lowest and some ofits earliest levels of human habitation.During last year’s low lake levels, ar-

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chaeologists with the Forest Servicerecorded early Preclassic Hohokampithouse villages, 700-year-old Saladoplatform mounds, prehistoric agricul-tural fields and irrigation canals, aswell as numerous small field housesand other sites. An extensive studyconducted by Arizona State Univer-sity researchers in the late 1980sshowed that the platform moundsserved as important administrativecenters for the Salado people.

The Salado are a much-debatedprehistoric group that are thought bymost researchers to have been trans-formed from a local indigenousgroup that had close cultural and bi-ological ties with the Hohokam. Re-

searchers are very interested in under-standing more about the initial con-tact between the local Salado peopleand the Hohokam of the Salt-GilaBasin, and think that sites lying be-neath Roosevelt Lake may hold thekey to understanding this crucialtime period in the Tonto Basin.

While lake levels are now backup and all of the lower terraces haveonce again disappeared, archaeolo-gists are hopeful that another deepdrawdown this summer will revealearly occupation sites that can shedmore light on the cultural originsand development of the TontoBasin’s prehistoric inhabitants.

—Tamara Stewart

This excavation took place at a platform mound at Roosevelt Lake in 1992. The water level was

higher at that time.

Pueblo Pintado was one of the first of the Chacoan great houses to be documented. Located at the eastern end of Chaco Canyon, it was built amidst a

community of smaller sites around A.D. 1060.

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Chetro Ketl is one of the largest pueblos in Chaco Canyon. Chetro Ketl and its western neighbor, Pueblo Bonito, represent the center ofwhat’s referred to as the Chaco Phenomenon.

american archaeology 13

By Tamara Stewart

A decades-long, remarkably comprehensive research project has

resulted in changing perceptions of this fascinating site.

UnderstandingChaco Canyon

roadways and brought hundreds of communities withinChaco Canyon’s sphere of influence, yet these massive un-dertakings were clearly orchestrated in some fashion.

Following nearly a century of fieldwork, analysis, andinterpretation, and an unprecedented three-year series ofconferences, researchers are finding that many previousexplanations of Chaco are not supported by the growingbody of data.

The Chaco Project—Sincethe late 19th century, explorers and researchers have inves-tigated Chaco, resulting in the recovery of thousands ofartifacts from the canyon’s great houses. The most compre-hensive research began in 1969 with the initiation of theChaco Project, a large-scale collaborative effort undertakenby the National Park Service (NPS) and the University of

haco Canyon is an enigma. Archaeologists whohave long studied Chaco are baffled by its manycontradictions. Located in a desolate, aridcanyon in the San Juan Basin, which covers

about 26,000 square miles of desert in northwestern NewMexico, the area would seem to have little to offer, yet itwitnessed monumental building for hundreds of years.The canyon is filled with nearly a dozen spectacularmulti-storied masonry pueblos known as great houses andmany smaller habitation sites, yet scant evidence has beenfound to support the idea of a large resident population.

Portions of what was once thought to be a vast net-work of roads connecting communities within the SanJuan Basin now appear to have little utilitarian value; it’sthought that their purpose may have been ceremonial. Lit-tle direct evidence exists for an elite or ruling group thatcoordinated the construction of these great houses and

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New Mexico (UNM) to document and appraise all archae-ological remains within Chaco Culture National HistoricalPark’s 43 square miles. Between 1970 and 1985,researchers excavated 25 archaeological sites and surveyedthe entire park and key adjacent lands, documenting morethan 3,300 sites and revealing an extensive system of out-lying communities with Chaco-like characteristics, someof which appear to be linked to each other and to Chacoby ancient roadways.

This multidisciplinary project applied new technolo-gies—climatic reconstructions based on tree rings, ar-chaeomagnetic dating, aerial photography, remote sensing,paleoenvironmental studies, and geochemical analysis—tosource materials and artifacts. The project refined Chaco’schronology and dramatically changed the view of Chacofrom that of a major isolated site to the center of a cul-tural system that incorporated a large network of commu-nities. Efforts of the Chaco Center, a branch of the NPSlocated at UNM in Albuquerque, led to the passage offederal legislation to preserve 33 Chacoan outlier commu-nities and to add more than 12,500 acres of land to thepark. Based on the work of Chaco Center staff, ChacoCanyon was added to the World Heritage list in 1987.

The SynthesisProject—Following 15 years of data gather-ing and almost 20 more of analysis and interpretation, thePark Service, with the imminent publication of two vol-umes summarizing this work, is bringing the project to aclose. “We still needed something to tie together and sumup all of the work that had gone on since the 1980s in a

contemporary way, both for professionals and for the gen-eral public,” says Bob Powers, supervisory archaeologistfor the Intermountain Support Office of the NPS. “SteveLekson had been involved with the Chaco Project forabout 10 years and, with his innovative and productivethinking, he was a natural choice to head up this effort.”Lekson’s recent book, The Chaco Meridian, describes hishighly controversial theories regarding ruling elites andpolitical history at Chaco and two later centers in theSouthwest.

After several meetings between Powers, Chaco Cul-ture park archaeologist Dabney Ford, and Lekson, now acurator for the Museum of Natural History at the Univer-sity of Colorado, the idea of the Chaco Synthesis Projectwas born. Lekson proposed small working conferences fo-cused on Chaco’s economy and ecology, the methods ofproduction, architecture, social and political organization,and the Chaco regional system. The conferences, whichbegan in 1999, matched “outsider” archaeologists—thosestudying cultures of a comparable level of complexity inregions outside of the Southwest—with Chaco experts. Afinal conference was held at UNM in 2002 to synthesizethe results of the earlier discussions. The inclusion of out-sider archaeologists was a key element of the project thatmost participants felt was very useful and stimulating.Lekson enlisted their services for two reasons: to offertheir interpretations of Chaco and to make them, andother researchers they work with, more aware of Chaco. “Ithink bringing fresh eyes in helped a lot,” Lekson says ofthe outsiders’ contribution.

“We need to know whether Chaco was an isolatedphenomenon, relatively rare in the rest of the world, orwas it common elsewhere, and what we see is simply a

Archaeologists excavated

this pithouse during the

Chaco Project. The pithouse

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Southwestern manifestation of a common occurrence,”explains W. James Judge, who for many years directed theChaco Project. “For example, take the debate overwhether downtown Chaco was a chiefdom, some otherkind of formal prehistoric social organization, or purelyritual? It helps immensely to hear [outsider] Tim Earle,who has worked with chiefdoms in Hawaii and in theOld World, say he thinks Chaco was a kind of chiefdom,and to hear Colin Renfrew and Norm Yoffee, both ofwhom have vast experience in Europe and the MiddleEast, emphasize their feelings of Chaco as a ritual entity.This enables us to compare and contrast Chaco with ar-chaeological manifestations elsewhere.”

Explaining Chaco—Asresearchers began to identify Chacoan communities locat-ed outside of the canyon that were characterized by a com-bination of features including a great house, great kiva, andoften what appeared to be a road, they realized that Chacowas part of something much larger and more complex thatthey began to refer to as the “Chaco Phenomenon,” a termcoined by the late Southwestern archaeologist CynthiaIrwin-Williams.

american archaeology 15

Great houses, the monumental buildings that are thequintessential feature of Chacoan communities, are biggerand more massive than nearby contemporaneous habita-tion sites. Most are multi-storied, display distinctive ma-sonry styles, and show a higher degree of planning in scale,layout, and design than other sites. Great kivas, which inthe Chaco region are circular, subterranean, or partly sub-terranean structures that are at least 30 feet in diameter,with some exceeding 60 feet, are usually located nearby.Based on the presence of some 150 communities, a num-ber of which are interconnected by a system of straight,24- to 36-foot-wide roads built with raised beds, berms,bridges, stairways, ramps, and other features, researchersbegan proposing various theories to explain the origin, ex-istence, and persistence of the “Chaco Regional System.”

Archaeologists of the 1970s and ’80s largely consideredprehistoric cultures to be the product of adaptation to theirenvironment—a framework known as cultural ecology. Inaccordance with this view, a popular explanation for Chacoin the early 1980s was the redistribution theory put forthby Judge. According to this model, the lack of rain limitedthe agricultural production of the San Juan Basin, whichnecessitated the import of surplus foods such as corn fromthose outlying communities. These goods, which were

The northeast corner of Aztec West at Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico. Built in the early A.D. 1100s, Aztec West is part of a larger

great house community located on a terrace of the Animas River. This structure is among the largest of the great houses. The Aztec community is

thought to have been a center for the Chacoan system around A.D. 1100 to 1140. Some researchers think it was the successor to Chaco Canyon.

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brought into Chaco in pottery vessels, were stored withinthe canyon great houses, from where they were redistrib-uted to participating communities according to their needs.The roads were thought to integrate these outlying com-munities into the larger system, which was considered re-ciprocal and voluntary, with an “administrative entity” co-ordinating the storage and redistribution of goods.

But an excavation within the canyon at Pueblo Alto

revealed far more pottery sherds than archaeologists ex-pected to find. The large number of sherds suggested thatthe pottery vessels, as well as the goods that they con-tained, were not redistributed to the outlying communi-ties. Consequently, the redistribution theory was revisedto one of ritual consumption of goods within the canyon,indicating that Chaco’s leaders wielded spiritual ratherthan economic power.

This map shows Central Chaco Canyon, the numerous outliers, and the road segments. Some of the road segments connected Chaco Canyon

to outliers, while many others did not. It's now thought that the road segments were ceremonial in purpose.

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In the mid-1980s Judge suggested that periodic festi-vals or ceremonies held at Chaco Canyon could haveserved to regulate the exchange of goods and link the out-lying communities with those in the canyon throughshared religious beliefs and practices. The canyon greathouses may have served to accommodate this periodic in-flux of people. Known as the Pilgrimage Fair model, thisnow popular model for Chaco posits that people living inthe outlying communities periodically pilgrimaged toChaco Canyon to receive ritual knowledge and participatein ceremonies that included fairs. In exchange, theybrought goods such as corn and other foods, ceramics, rawstone, and in some cases turquoise and other exotic items,and provided labor for the construction and upkeep of thegreat houses and roadways. Whether participation in thenetwork was voluntary or forced and the extent of ChacoCanyon’s influence over the participants are among thehottest topics in Chaco research today.

Gwinn Vivian, a veteran Chaco researcher with theArizona State Museum, points out that “essentially, thereare questions as to the degree of influence from ChacoCanyon—local emulation of a Chacoan style versus directinvolvement of canyon leaders in the establishment ofsome of the outliers.”

The various models of leadership currently in debatepropose that Chaco society was either egalitarian with vol-untary involvement, resembling today’s pueblos, hierar-chical to varying degrees, or a powerful state with central-ized authority. Differences in physical stature exhibited by

a few burials found at Pueblo Bonito, the canyon’s largestgreat house, reveal that some of these individuals werebetter nourished than those buried in small house sites inthe canyon. To many researchers, this suggests differentialaccess to resources and some form of status and hierarchy,but of what kind? And was leadership or elite statusachieved within a person’s lifetime through successfulcompetition with others, or was it ascribed politically orritually (i.e., at birth)? The obvious amount of labor in-volved in obtaining materials and building and maintain-ing the great houses and roadways indicates to some re-searchers that a centralized authority existed to coordinateand control all of these efforts.

“The key issue to Chaco, as I understand it, iswhether the great houses were run by chiefs who got theirpower through the accumulation of wealth, or whetherthey were primarily ceremonial, run by priests with ritualauthority,” says Judge.

A minority of researchers see Chaco as more complexpolitically than modern pueblos. Lekson believes thatChaco was the center or capital of regional polity, aweakly centralized hierarchy that mimicked chiefdomsand kingdoms that were common throughout much of11th-century North America. According to Lekson,Chaco might have been comparable to the smallest chief-doms of the contemporary Mississippian peoples of theeastern U.S., but far less complex than contemporaryMexican kingdoms and states to the south.

In contrast to the Pilgrimage Fair model, Lynne

This black-on-white olla was purposely placed in a pit in the floor of a late A.D. 700s-to-early-

800s pithouse at a small site in Chaco Canyon. The olla, which was discovered during the

Chaco Project, had been plastered into place using manos and ground stone as support. It

was probably used to store grain.

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This macaw skeleton was found at Salmon Ruin, a

great house constructed around A.D. 1090 and locat-

ed along the San Juan River to the north of Chaco

Canyon. Colorful macaws provided brilliant feathers

that could be used for several purposes, especially

ceremonies. They were imported from Mexico and

found in the northern Southwest after A.D. 1050.

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Sebastian of SRI Foundation in New Mexico proposesthat social and political complexity in Chaco was a resultof differences in people’s ability to produce and controlagricultural surpluses. She suggests that clans or othergroups farming the most productive lands were able todevelop relationships of obligation with their less fortu-nate neighbors by sponsoring feasts or assisting them intimes of need. Those neighbors then repaid the obliga-tion by supplying labor to build great houses. Ultimately,great house construction is seen by Sebastian as a com-petitive display of power and wealth designed to attractpeople to join a particular group. She further argues thatleadership roles became institutionalized through time,and the basis of social power shifted from the control oflabor to the control of religious knowledge, such as thatrelated to rainmaking.

Understanding Chaco Society—Many archaeol-ogists stress the need for a better understanding of the natureof relationships within the Chaco system—a subject of con-siderable debate among experts—in order to explain its soci-ety and political structure. What led to the construction of

The two pinnacles of Chimney Rock Pueblo probably functioned as astronomical markers for a local shrine until around A.D. 1076 when a Chacoan great

house was constructed on the mesa. From the great house it is possible to observe lunar anomalies near the evening of the full moon at winter solstice,

a time that marks important Puebloan ceremonial events.

massive monuments in Chaco and the surrounding regionbetween the 10th and 12th centuries? And what followed?Vivian, Joan Mathien of NPS, and others have proposed thatthe differences seen within the Chaco system, such as thegreat house/small house dichotomy, may reflect a variety ofethnic groups, and that these groups can be traced to the out-lying communities and later to the historic and modernpueblos of the Rio Grande Valley and those to the west.

Numerous Chacoan outliers were investigated in the1990s, with excavations still being conducted at sites inUtah, Colorado, and New Mexico. So far, this work isshowing great variability in relationships between thecanyon and outlying communities, suggesting the outliers’relative independence from the canyon and thus arguingagainst control by a centralized authority.

Research on the network of Chaco roads is also chang-ing ideas about relationships within the Chaco system.Rather than serving primarily to connect communities, theroads are now thought to be pilgrimage paths to greathouses and sacred geographic places on the landscape as wellas symbolic paths marking the cardinal directions, of greatimportance to native peoples of historic and modern times.

For most researchers contemplating these issues, thefunction of the roads, of the great houses, of Chaco itself, isno longer seen as a primarily utilitarian adaptation to the en-

american archaeology 19

vironment. Much more complex propositions involvingspiritual matters, which are harder to see in the archaeologi-cal record, are now being used to define Chaco. This is lessthe result of new research than of the different questionsthat are being asked and the evolution of archaeologicalthought since the early days of Chaco research. “Instead ofarguments about how complex Chaco was, there is a muchricher set of questions ranging from the sources of politicalleadership to the structure of economic relationships,” saysBarbara Mills of the University of Arizona.

It is difficult to address the complexity of Chacoanorganization when cer-tain key elements of theequation, such as howmany people lived inthe canyon and sur-rounding areas, are stillunanswered. As LindaCordell with the Uni-versity of Colorado inBoulder says, “It’s hardto get a kingdom ifyou’ve got only a fewhundred citizens.” Earlyestimates for canyonpopulation were highbased on the immensesize of the great housesand their assumed largeresident population.The few professionalexcavations of canyongreat houses haveshown, however, thatthe first-floor roomstend to have few do-mestic features. Little isknown about the upperfloors of the greathouses, adding to theconfusion.

Current estimatesfor peak populationwithin the canyon range from around 2,000 to 6,000 (forthose who believe the great houses were residential) com-pared with an estimate of 55,000 people living in the SanJuan Basin region. Population estimates are based on thenumber of various features considered to be residential,such as hearths, and the number of rooms identifiedwithin communities. According to Mills, the strong con-trast between population levels within the canyon andthe surrounding area lends support to the Pilgrimage Fairmodel, in which Chaco Canyon was a ceremonial centerthat, in between periodic rituals, was largely empty.

Environmental studies are also critical to understand-

ing the economic aspects of canyon and outlier relation-ships and the canyon’s agricultural potential. New researchconducted within the canyon is revealing agricultural fea-tures that may provide insight into why Chaco arose tosuch a position of eminence in such an unlikely place.Eric Force (University of Arizona Geosciences Depart-ment), Gwinn Vivian, Thomas Windes (NPS), and JeffreyDean (University of Arizona Lab of Tree Ring Research)recently conducted a study showing that Chacoans built amasonry dam in the Chaco Wash sometime around A.D.1025. This replaced a breached natural sand dune dam

that had created a “lake”within the canyon thatlikely increased agricul-tural productivity. Windeshas undertaken extensivedendrochrono log i ca lsampling of architecturalwood at numerous greathouses and a few smallhouses to determine whenthey were built, informa-tion that will inform thechronology of occupationwithin the canyon.

“Chaco is, in manyways, the prime fact ofpueblo history or, at least,pueblo archaeology,” saysLekson. “Other archaeol-ogists working in otherareas protest, with justice,that Chaco gets way toomuch ink and attention,and it does, but no ar-chaeologist would arguethat the history of the an-cient Southwest could bewritten without Chacofront and center.”

He notes that Chacoexperts, examining thesame data, can arrive at

dramatically different conclusions. The lengthy NPS proj-ect, with its massive amount of data and fresh perspec-tives, did not result in a consensus as to what Chaco was.Nor will the project’s end conclude the research of or thelively debate about this mysterious place. Chaco will in-deed remain in the consciousness of many researchersfront and center.

TAMARA STEWART is the assistant editor of American Archaeology and theConservancy’s Southwest projects coordinator.

For more information about the Chaco Synthesis Project, visit www.srifoundation.org

This aerial view shows Pueblo Alto (foreground) and prehistoric road segments that

lead to the north. An excavation at Pueblo Alto led a number of archaeologists to

conclude that Chaco’s leaders possessed spiritual rather than economic power.

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An Archaeological Tour in the Upper Midwest

SUMMER TRAVEL SPECIALBy Jack El-Hai

The Upper Midwest is not well known for its ar-chaeological treasures, and it’s easy to see why.The region has been utterly transformed in thepast 200 years by the loss of 99 percent of itstall grass prairie, the felling of most of its orig-

inal forests, and the harnessing of much of the land foragriculture. What civilization has accomplished at groundlevel often makes you ignore the surprises just inches orfeet beneath the surface.

This tour departs from Minneapolis straight into thefields of southwestern Minnesota on U.S. Highway 212.You quickly descend into the valley of the MinnesotaRiver, a tributary of the Mississippi, with its short trees andboggy ground. Once you cross the river and leave the val-ley, the land settles into a gentle roll. After about an hourand a half, you reach the town of Olivia and the junctionwith U.S. Highway 71. This area was once a huntingground disputed by the Dakota and Ojibwe Indians.

Head south from Olivia on Highway 71. This is quiet

and sparsely populated land dotted with rocky hills. Afterabout 60 miles, turn east on County Road 10 and southon County Road 2. A gravel drive leads you to the visitorcenter of Jeffers Petroglyphs, a property managed by theMinnesota Historical Society. For thousands of years, na-tive people from a wide area have been visiting this site onspiritual pilgrimages and to make carvings on portions ofa 23-mile-long outcropping of red quartzite, a bedrockdeposit more than 1.6 billion years old.

The visitors center is worth seeing first. An almostwordless multimedia presentation offers scenes of the pet-roglyphs site in centuries past, showing the activities ofnative visitors during night and day. Small exhibits coverprairie ecology, the cultural significance of the bison, andthe original uses of Indian artifacts.

To view the petroglyphs, you first follow a trailthrough a restoration of native prairie, converted fromfarmland 30 years ago. It includes the prairie bush cloverand many other examples of endangered grasses and

Thirty-one of the 195 mounds in Effigy Mounds National Monument are effigies. These mounds are called the Marching Bear Group. These and thousands

of other mounds in the region were built by the Woodland Indians between A.D. 600 and 1300.

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american archaeology 21

The pipestone at Pipestone National Monument can be quarried by anyone of Indian ancestry. Pipes fashioned from the malleable stone, like the one above,

have figured prominently in the lives of the Plains Indians over the centuries.

plants—a total of more than 200 species. A few minutesof walking brings you to the petroglyphs.

Here, with the big sky above, the smell of the prairiein your nose, and the sight of acres of sloping redquartzite at your feet, you really feel as though you are ina place of spiritual resonance. It’s how you would imaginea visit to Stonehenge feels—a site in the middle ofnowhere that conveys the sense that you’re at the center ofthings. A roped trail leads you across the rock, which isnoticeably scratched by the passage of glaciers. The degreeof cloudiness of the sky, angle of the sunlight, and wetnessof the rock determine which of the approximately 2,000carvings at Jeffers are most easily seen at a given time.

Between patches of lime-green and black lichen, therock carvings depict thunderbird tracks, buffalo, atlatls, tur-tles, deer, hands, human profiles, and narratives that mightrelate to hunting. Because of the extreme hardness of therock, the larger and deeper carvings must have required ex-tended or repeated visits by their makers. Nobody knowswhich Native American groups made the earliest carvings.In recent centuries, members of the Dakota tribes inhabitedthe area, and it’s possible that the Ioway, Otoe, andCheyenne did as well. The site and its carvings still carryspiritual significance for Native Americans in the region.

On the way back to the visitors center, you can followthe northern loop of the trail, which passes by buffalo rub-bing rocks, large quartzite boulders burnished to a glassysheen by the rubbings of countless buffalo over 10,000 years.

The tour continues by heading south from Jeffers andafter a few miles going west on Minnesota Highway 30.

The town of Pipestone, and Pipestone National Monu-ment, lie 70 miles ahead. Pipestone National Monument,another site sacred to Native Americans, covers a small area,but it is a place of great cultural significance. Here, aroundone thousand years ago, Native Americans discovered inPipestone Creek a narrow band of reddish, malleable pipe-stone between the much harder strata of quartzite.

The Indians began carving the pipestone to createpipes and other ceremonial objects, and eventually thesehighly valued pipestone pieces were traded throughoutmuch of North America. The pipestone carving continuestoday. Native people work the quarries during the summerand fall, and in recent years the National Park Service hasissued quarrying permits to people of about 40 differenttribal affiliations. Only Native Americans are eligible toquarry the pipestone.

After spending some time in the visitors center, whichincludes multimedia presentations, small exhibits on quar-rying methods and the spiritual significance of pipestone,and a gift shop where you can buy Indian-carved pipestoneobjects, you can tour the quarries and the surrounding areaby following a mile-long circular trail. A tall mound of rub-ble marks the site of the Spotted Pipestone Quarry, whichis still in use. Workers pump groundwater from the pits,use hand tools to painstakingly break the pipestone outfrom the surrounding layers of harder rock, and cart off thedebris. You will come across the pouches of tobacco or foodon the branches of nearby trees that quarriers have left inappreciation for the harvest of stone.

Before returning you to other currently and formerly

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Norse in Minnesota?

Did 14th-century Norse explorers sail their longboats across the North Atlantic, through Hudson Bay and

Lake Winnipeg, then up the Red River before trekking overland to create a tombstone-sized monument

in interior Minnesota? This notion is championed at the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota.

The centerpiece of the mu-

seum is the Kensington Rune-

stone, one of the most controver-

sial ar tifacts ever to bedevil

American archaeology. The 200-

pound slab of carved graywacke

bears a runic inscription usually

translated as “8 Swedes and 22

Norwegians on an exploration

journey from Vinland westward.

We had our camp by 2 rocky

islets one day’s journey north of

this stone. We were out fishing

one day. When we came home

we found 10 men red with blood

and dead. Ave Maria save us

from evil. We have 10 men by the

sea to look after our ships, 14

days journey from this island.

Year 1362.”

The stone was discovered in

1898 by a Swedish farmer who

was clearing land near Kensing-

ton, Minnesota. Its authenticity

was immediately suspect, and

most scholars consider it a hoax.

However, proponents of the

stone’s authenticity have worked assiduously to counter the arguments against it. The debate usually fo-

cuses on the minutiae of Scandinavian philology, medieval epigraphy, and the geophysical processes of

stone weathering. Avoiding such tedium and tendentiousness, the Runestone Museum endorses the stone’s

authenticity.

In addition to the Kensington Runestone, the museum houses a 38-foot replica of a Norse longboat, and

archaeological and historical exhibits relating to early life in Minnesota. The Runestone Museum is located

at 206 Broadway, Alexandria, Minnesota, and is easily reached from Exit 103 on I-94. Look for the giant

statue of Big Ole.—Paul Gardner

22 summer • 2003

used pipestone quarries near the visitors center, the trailswings by a waterfall and tall outcrops of the quartzitethat stands above the sloping layer of pipestone. Naturalerosion has made two of the stony towers resemble humanfaces. At the top of another outcrop are the carved initialsof the party of the Nicollet Expedition of 1838, a U.S.government-sponsored exploration of the Upper Missis-sippi region whose members included Joseph N. Nicolletand John C. Fremont.

As you drive off the grounds, you will see six largeboulders to the right, at the base of a hill. Made of granite,a rock not native to the region, the stones may be remnants

of the largest glacial boulder ever carried into Minnesota.According to a native legend, the boulders are the home ofspirits that guard the sanctity of the pipestone quarries.

From the quarries, turn south on U.S. Highway 75.Twenty minutes of driving will take you to Blue MoundsState Park, the home of a herd of about 50 bison. In ad-dition to an ambitious effort to restore the native prairie,the park includes—atop the Blue Mound outcrop ofquartzite—a mysterious 1,250-foot-long line of rocks. Onthe first days of spring and autumn, you can see that therocks are arranged to align with the rise and fall of thesun. Nobody knows who labored to create this seasonal

The 40-foot-long "Snorri" is a three-quarter-scale replica of a Viking merchant vessel.

This boat, which is said to be named for the first European child born in the New World,

is part of the museum's Norse collection.

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american archaeology 23

indicator, or why.Another few miles of travel south on Highway 75

brings you to Interstate 90, a main cross-continentalhighway. Turn east. In the next 165 miles, you’ll pass bythe small cities of Worthington, Fairmont, Albert Lea,and Austin. Should you be interested in an attractioncompletely unrelated to archaeology, take Exit 178B inAustin and follow the signs to the SPAM Museum southof the highway. A new attraction situated in the shadowof the Hormel meatpacking plant, the museum payshomage to every conceivable facet of the canned meat’sstatus as a cultural icon.

Minnesota Highway 56 curls southeast approximatelyseven miles east of Austin to U.S. Highway 63 just abovethe Iowa state line. Follow Highway 63 south to eastboundIowa Highway 9 and pass through the city of Decorah. Asyou approach the Mississippi River, the terrain becomeshilly. Continue south on Iowa Highway 76, and after about25 miles you will reach Effigy Mounds National Monu-ment, perched high on the bluffs above the great river.

Eagles glide the air currents above the bluffs, whichwere undoubtedly just as serene and spectacular 3,000 yearsago, when people of the Early Woodland period beganbuilding large mounds above the river. The first mounds inthe area were conical in shape. Later, about 1,500 years ago,people of the Late Woodland period constructed effigy (oranimal-shaped) mounds in the same area. They ceasedbuilding mounds by about A.D. 1250 when the ancestors oftoday’s Ioway and Otoe people were living here. Although

there were once more than 10,000 Indian mounds innortheastern Iowa, agriculture, development, and vandal-ism combined to eliminate traces of nearly all of them bythe middle of the 20th century.

An exhibit in the visitors center details the work ofEllison Orr, an amateur archaeologist who extensivelystudied and surveyed the mounds of this part of Iowa, andshows how the methods of examining the mounds havechanged over the decades. Other exhibits describe thelives of the Woodland people, display breastplates, spear-points, and other items excavated from mounds, and spec-ulate on the meaning of the mounds, which were used forboth burial and ceremonial purposes.

Divided into north and south units, the park coversthousands of acres of bluffs, hardwood forest, andmound sites. The mounds in the north unit are the mostaccessible. An easy two-mile path called the Fire PointTrail begins at the visitors center and goes by severalconical and linear mounds before reaching the LittleBear effigy mound. Excavations of this mound uncov-ered evidence of a prehistoric fire pit, but no human re-mains. From Little Bear, the trail leads you by spectacu-lar rows of conical mounds pointing toward Fire Point, abluff rising hundreds of feet above the Mississippi. Themound closest to the bluff edge contained the remains ofat least eight burials.

Although trails in the north unit offer views of severalother effigy mounds, the greatest concentration of thesemounds is in the south unit, accessible by trails that

24 summer • 2003

would take approximately half a day to hike.From Effigy Mounds, drive a few miles south on

Highway 76 to Marquette, Iowa, where you can cross theMississippi River to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Hereyou will begin a drive north at the river’s edge along Wis-consin Highway 35 that will take you through La Crosse.Although the area between the towns of Trempelau andFountain City is lovely, the scenery becomes more spec-tacular at the widening of the Mississippi called LakePepin. The town of Stockholm offers quaint cafes andshopping for crafts hunters. A few miles further north is ahigh bluff called Maiden Rock, famous for its connectionwith an Indian legend about a young Indian woman whojumped to her death from its peak.

When you reach U.S. Highway 63, cross the Missis-sippi and enter Red Wing, Minnesota. Travel north onU.S. Highway 61 into St. Paul, about 50 miles, and turnwest on Interstate 94, which will give you a memorableview of the skyline of Minnesota’s capital city. Take Exit243, turn right at Mounds Boulevard, and follow it intoIndian Mounds Park. This park, one of the oldest in theTwin Cities, encompasses an area above the MississippiRiver on which nearly 18 Indian mounds once stood.Members of the Hopewell culture, prolific moundbuilders of about 2,000 years ago, constructed the most

ancient, which held cremated remains along with toolsand pottery. The Dakota Indians of more recent timesused these mounds for their own burials, often wrappingthe bones of the deceased in buffalo hides.

After the Dakota ceded the land to the U.S. governmentin the 1850s, the mounds fell victim to grave robbers and thedestructive practices of 19th-century amateur archaeologists.In one mound, investigators found eight limestone-walledcompartments containing human remains, bear teeth, andmussel shells. In another was a body whose face had been ap-plied with red clay, producing a death mask.

Today only six mounds remain. As recently as 1987,visitors could climb the mounds, but fences now protectthem. Although most of the mounds have been destroyed,having any at all in an urban park is highly unusual, anda visit there is inspiring, showing how ancient structurescan survive in a large American city.

From Indian Mounds Park, it is an easy drive to theScience Museum of Minnesota, which features a10,000-square-foot Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery, arti-facts from the ancient Mississippian cultures of theUpper Midwest, and a strong ethnographic collection ofartifacts from the Indians of the Upper Plains. Nearbyare the Minnesota History Center and its collections ofnative and early European-American artifacts, and His-

Jeffers Petroglyphs features carvings of humans, deer, elk, buffalo, turtles, thunderbirds, atlatls, and arrows that date to 3000 B.C. The petroglyphs served

many functions, including recording important events, depicting sacred ceremonies, and emphasizing the importance of animals and hunting.

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toric Fort Snelling, where living-history displays and ar-chaeological work illuminate life in a military outpost ofthe 1820s. Across town in Minneapolis you’ll find theMinneapolis Institute of Arts, an encyclopedic art mu-seum with many African, Asian, and Mediterraneanitems of archaeological interest.

When You Go:JEFFERS PETROGLYPHSNear Comfrey and Windom, Minnesota(507) 628-5591 • www.mnhs.orgHours: May and September: Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, 12–5 p.m. Memorial Day to Labor Day: Monday throughFriday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sunday, 12–8 p.m.Fees: $4, discounts for seniors and children

PIPESTONE NATIONAL MONUMENTPipestone, Minnesota(507) 825-5464www.nps.gov/pipeHours: Mondaythrough Thursday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, 8 a.m.–8 p.m.; 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Labor Day through Memorial DayFees: $5 families, $3 individuals

BLUE MOUNDS STATE PARKLuverne, Minnesota • (507) 283-1307www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/blue_mounds/index.htmlHours: 9 a.m.–9 p.m.Fees: $4 vehicle permit

SPAM MUSEUM1937 Spam Blvd.,Austin, Minnesota(507) 437-5100www.spam.comHours: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, 12–4 p.m.(Closed Mondays, Labor Day through April 30)Fees: Free admission

EFFIGY MOUNDS NATIONAL MONUMENTNear Harpers Ferry, Iowa(563) 873-3491 • www.nps.gov/efmoHours: 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. (extended hours during summer)Fees: $5 vehicles, $3 individuals, children under 16 free

INDIAN MOUNDS PARKSt. Paul, Minnesota(651) 632-5111www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/depts/parks/userguide/indianmounds.htmHours: Sunrise to 11 p.m.Fees: Free admission

In this tour of parts of three states, you’ve covered about750 miles and visited sites that are among the most sacred tothe Upper Midwest’s native people. Now you know a bitabout what lies hidden beneath the fields of grain.

JACK EL-HAI is the author of Lost Minnesota: Stories of Vanished Places.

SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA120 W. Kellog Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota(651) 221-9444 • www.smm.orgHours: Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m.–9 p.m.;Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m.Fees: $8 adults, $6 seniors and children; additional fees forOmnitheater and 3D Laser Show

MINNESOTA HISTORY CENTER345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota(651) 296-6126 or 800-657-3773www.mnhs.orgHours: Tuesday, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Wednesdaythrough Saturday, 10a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, 12–5 p.m.Fees: Free admission

MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minnesota(612) 870-3131www.artsmia.orgHours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridaythrough Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.Fees: Free admission

HISTORIC FORT SNELLINGAt the junction of Minnesota Highways 5 and 55, St. Paul, Minnesota(612) 726-1171 www.mnhs.orgHours: Memorial Day through Labor Day: Wednesday through Saturday 10a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday 12–5 p.m. September and October: Saturdays 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sundays 12–5 p.m.Fees: $6 adults, $5 senior citizens, $4 children ages 6–12, under 6 free

RUNESTONE MUSEUM206 Broadway, Alexandria, Minnesota(320) 763-3160 www.runestonemuseum.orgHours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.–3 p.m (Summer hours 9 a.m.–4 p.m.); closed Sunday(Summer hours: 11 a.m.–4 p.m.)Fees: $5 adults, $4 seniors, $3 students, children under 7 free

26 summer • 2003

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Anna Boozer runs dirt through a screen under a blazing sun. The dirt is screened in order to find tiny artifacts.

american archaeology 27

Learningof Spanish Colonial LifeThe 18th century is glimpsed atan excavation in New Mexico.By Pamela Salmon

This historic pueblo potsherd was found during last season’s excavation.

It’s typical of the types of sherds found at the site.

This obsidian projectile point was also discovered during the excavation.

It is less than an inch long. Archaeologist Nan Rothschild first worked in theSouthwest from 1989 to 1991 at Zuni Pueblo inwestern New Mexico. There, she said, “I becameinterested in what it meant to be Hispanic in the18th century in New Mexico, and I wanted to ex-

cavate an historic site in the Rio Grande Valley.”This desire brought her to San José de las Huertas, a

Spanish Colonial site located within the northern reachesof the Sandia Mountains. The site is approximately onemile north of Placitas, New Mexico, a mixed communityof Hispanic descendants whose ancestors worked the landand rural-oriented suburbanites who commute to work innearby Albuquerque. San José de las Huertas is part of a25-acre parcel owned by The Archaeological Conservancy.

An archaeological survey in 1972 and an excavationof a two-room house in 1983 by archaeologists workingfor companies building liquid hydrocarbon and carbondioxide pipelines close to the area confirmed the site’s ar-chaeological significance. This led the Cortez PipelineCompany to donate 12 acres to the Conservancy in1986. The Conservancy later obtained an additional 13acres from several other landowners.

“Spanish Colonial sites are rare and endangered,” saidJim Walker, the Conservancy’s Southwest regional director.He identified them as one of the Conservancy’s top preser-vation priorities. The Conservancy owns five Spanish Colo-nial sites, four in New Mexico and one in Arizona. Most ofthe significant sites have been obliterated by modern devel-opment, according to Walker. In fact, of approximately

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Nan Rothschild and two crew members excavate a large house with

adobe walls. Rothschild was surprised to find the structure’s foundation

stones just a few inches below the surface.

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200,000 recorded archaeological sites in New Mexico, lessthan 100 are intact Spanish Colonial sites. He believes thatSan José de las Huertas is “the most intact Spanish Colonialvillage in New Mexico, if not the Southwest.”

Rothschild concurred. “I had collected informationfrom other excavations and I realized this would be theperfect site.” Las Huertas fit the bill for Rothschild becauseit’s protected by the Conservancy, in good condition, andapparently had few disturbances after it was abandoned.

Rothschild and Heather Atherton directed the dig.Rothschild is the chairwoman of Barnard College’s anthro-pology department, and Atherton is a graduate student atColumbia University. They had some expectations aboutwhat they would find at Las Huertas relative to the physicallayout of the village and the social hierarchy of its residents.They studied documentation from excavations at otherSpanish Colonial sites, particularly in the Caribbean andnorthern Mexico, and they researched historical archives re-garding Spanish Colonial activity in New Mexico. But Ather-

ton explained the limitations of this research: “Be-cause (written) history is told by the literate, theelite, and government, we get only one view. Ar-chaeology gives us other information.”

Rothchild’s and Atherton’s goals comple-mented one another. While Rothschild is par-ticularly interested in social relationships amongthe settlers themselves and with their NativeAmerican neighbors along the Rio Grande,Atherton focused on how Spanish policy, in-cluding the crown’s imperialist and seculargoals, affected the behaviors of the residents ofremote villages. She said during this time periodSpain was changing from a policy of dominat-ing the natives through religious conversion toone of natural resource extraction.

Historical documents say San José de lasHuertas was permanently settled in 1765 by nineSpanish families who petitioned the Spanish gov-ernor of New Mexico for legal claim to the prop-erty in the form of a land grant. It appears to havebeen occupied until 1826, with as many as 300people living there at its peak during a compara-tively peaceful period in the early 1800s. SusanBlumenthal, who explored the property with herarchaeologist father in the 1950s, mentioned thevalley was a haven for hippies in the 1960s.

GETTING TO WORKHaving identified a site, the archaeologists hadto determine the activities and technologies, notto mention sources of funding, that would helpthem achieve their goals. They also had to applyfor permission from the Conservancy to workon the property. Walker believed Rothschildand Atherton could put together an account of

life at Las Huertas that would contribute not only to thebody of archaeological research, but also to the historicalcontinuity of descendants still living in the region. Theyalso embraced the practice of conservation archaeology, arequirement of the Conservancy.

“The old idea of archaeology was that you dig every-thing up because you don’t want to miss anything,” ex-plained Walker. “The knowledge of those old sites isfrozen at that time because there is no way to apply newideas or new technologies. We want to make sure impactsare minimal so that portions of a site are available for fu-ture research.”

Rothschild and Atherton developed a budget for theexcavation that took into account everything from thecost of field equipment to laboratory analysis to first aid.They estimated that their project would cost between$33,000 and $39,500. At approximately $6,000, curationwas one of the most expensive items in the budget. Find-ing and paying for the space to properly store the materi-

The working conditions at San José de las Huertas are challenging. In addition to dealing

with the heat, the crew has to work around the abundant cholla cacti.

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als that result from excavating, such as artifacts and fieldnotes, can be challenging. They arrived at this expensebased on the expectation of storing 24 to 26 boxes of ma-terials. If necessary, they were prepared to conclude theexcavation prematurely so as to avoid exceeding thatamount of material.

The archaeologists applied for a grant from theEarthwatch Institute, an organization that promotes con-servation of natural resources and cultural heritagethrough partnerships among scientists, educators, the gen-eral public, and businesses. Earthwatch provided bothmoney and volunteers who, at their own expense, wouldwork with the researchers for five weeks. The women alsoobtained a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation,which supports research in anthropology.

For parts of the last four years the researchers haveworked at Las Huertas, with the first year spent mapping,assessing surface artifacts, and surmising what an excava-tion would reveal. The second and third years were dedi-cated to refining surface and subsurface mapping usingmagnetometry and soil resistivity testing, which measuresurface and subsurface features through variations in themagnetic and electrical conductivity of the ground. Theycombined the results from these techniques with topo-graphic maps and 1980 aerial photographs from the Con-servancy to develop an overlay of features as seen from theair, ground, and below ground. In the fourth year, thesummer of 2002, the archaeologists, with help from theEarthwatch volunteers, conducted test excavations.

Their crew painstakingly dug, scraped, and swept thehardpan with small trowels, picks, and brushes. Theycaused as little disturbance as possible while searching forthe remnants of what once was an active subsistence-farm-ing village. Half of the crew of four men and 12 womenare volunteers who paid more than $800 each to toil for aweek under clear blue skies in 95-degree temperatures.

“You have to be in good physical shape to do this,” saida volunteer from San Diego as she took a break at a picnictable under a blue canopy. Other members of the crew

The three pots shown above (from left, A, B, and C) were recovered during

a 1980 excavation. The pots were found in a storage pit beneath the floor

of a two-room house. It's believed that they were used to store grain. The

illustration below shows where the pots were found in the storage pit. Pots

A and C were largely intact, while pot B was broken in several places.

30 summer • 2003

joined her. They chatted excitedly about the pieces of bone,pottery, and adobe they found, and then voted to haveKrispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast the next morning.

“We’ve got a hoof,” announced volunteer Bob Keeler,who is working at Area 7, one of nine excavation pitsplaced strategically throughout the 80-by-100-square-yardarea on which the crew is allowed to dig. Keeler is ateacher of anthropology and Latin American studies atClackamas Community College in Oregon City, Oregon,and a veteran of many Earthwatch expeditions, whichprovide him with information that he uses in the class-room. The white-bearded Keeler toiled in a 12-inch-deepmidden that is laced with ash. “This is a pit that someonedug,” he said. “It has a lot of charcoal and some slag,which suggests blacksmithing or copper smelting. That’swhat makes this exciting. It’s more than just a garbagepit.” Historical documents indicate that a copper mine,located slightly east of the excavation site, was probablyactive in the late 1800s.

Maribel Dana, a volunteer who teaches high schoolnear Riverside, California, worked along with Keeler. Sheput a piece of charcoal into a clear, plastic bag and datedit, gave it an identification number, and noted the excava-tion pit and the depth at which it was found. Then shefingered a small artifact that appeared to be copper ore.“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” she said. “Tome, it’s like finding little jewels.” Atherton told Keeler andDana that metal tools were scarce at Las Huertas and sur-mises that the copper was probably used to repair the fewtools that the inhabitants did have.

Denise Mullen, a teacher at Albuquerque’s JamesMonroe Middle School, worked in Area 2. Here, the vol-unteers focused on the shape and direction of a longadobe wall. Small pieces of debris were put in a plastic bag

and labeled. Later, researchers will determine whether thepieces are adobe, plaster, or charcoal. Like Keeler, Mullenis a frequent volunteer and uses information from her digsin her classroom. “I want my students to be aware that ar-chaeology is in their own backyard,” she said.

The aerial and magnetometry maps indicate that thevillage was laid out in a typical Spanish Colonial arrange-ment with four walls and a plaza in the center. However,the maps also show some structures outside the walls, avariation from the standard village design. The location ofthe village suggests that Las Huertas was isolated and vul-nerable to raiding by marauding bands of nomadic Indi-ans, principally Navajo, Apache, and Ute.

Because of the dangers in such settlements, Roth-schild and Atherton believe Las Huertas was inhabited bypeople who were willing to live with the risks in exchangefor land of their own. More than likely, they say, thesepeople were at the lower socioeconomic levels of Spanishsociety. They also hypothesize that a social hierarchy ex-isted within the community, since living spaces appear tovary in size and are found outside the walls.

Rothschild suggested that a group called genizaros wason the lower rung of the Las Huertas social hierarchy.“Genizaros were detribalized Indians who had a reputa-tion for being good fighters,” she said. “What we think isthat they were Indians who had been captured by the no-madic groups and then ransomed to work in the Spanishhomes. They didn’t have any land, and they couldn’t goback to their original communities.”

Because of the village’s distance from any imperialgoverning body, Atherton believes that the residents of LasHuertas exercised substantial social freedom. Both Roth-schild and Atherton think the location of Las Huertas lentitself to frequent cross-cultural interaction, and possiblyintermarriage, among the Spanish settlers and the nearbyIndians. Such encounters make relationships particularlyintriguing, said Rothschild. She observed that while tradi-tional Spanish imperialistic contacts with Pueblo Indiansin the Rio Grande Valley were based on religious conver-sion and domination, those between the Spanish at LasHuertas and the neighboring Pueblo Indians were basedon survival and congeniality. For example, historical doc-uments note that the apparent lack of a church at LasHuertas prompted its residents to attend weddings andfunerals at the church at neighboring San Felipe Pueblo.

DEVELOPING CONCLUSIONSOther signs of cross-cultural contact are expected to beconfirmed by further analysis of the several thousand ar-tifacts retrieved by the excavators. In addition to themetal fragments, numerous pottery sherds from variousPueblos have been found. The sherds are identified bytheir colors, patterns, surface textures, and tempers. Eu-ropean creamware, so named because of its ivory-coloredglaze, and majólica, earthenware covered with tin and

The ConservancyExpands Its PreserveLast December, the Conservancy acquired its fourth con-tiguous tract of land at San José de Las Huertas. The acqui-sition of a 1.4-acre lot marks the final stage of a 16-yearquest to obtain one of the best-preserved Spanish Colonialvillages in the Southwest. This acquisition was funded by agenerous contribution from the late Jane Sandoval, a long-time Conservancy member.

Containing housemounds and features, the lot waspart of a small subdivision that marks the beginning of anew era for the isolated Las Huertas valley. Originally hometo a succession of Anasazi, Spanish Colonial, and Mexicanfarmers, the small valley has seen hippies in the 1960s,land speculators and pipelines in the ’70s and ’80s, andrambling new suburban homes in the ’90s and ’00s.Though the valley will continue to evolve, San José de Las

Huertas is preserved.

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lead glazes from Spain or Mexico, are also present, all ofwhich lead Atherton to conclude that there probably wasno on-site production of pottery.

Atherton suspects that the crude grinding and cut-ting stone implements found at the site represent thetypes of tools most often used by the inhabitants. Manosand metates were used for grinding vegetables and seeds,and points and scrapers for hunting and cleaning animalcarcasses. The site has also yielded more sophisticated im-plements such as symmetrical, fluted, and other shapedcutting tools and more developed grinding tools; but it’sthought these were either obtained through local trade ordiscarded by nomads.

Atherton does not believe any major trade caravans,like those that visited Santa Fe or Albuquerque, camethrough Las Huertas. However, she noted that the mag-netometer data showed subsurface parallel depressionsrunning roughly on an east-west axis through the village.She suggested these depressions might have been a roadfor animal-drawn carts that possibly connected to a net-work of trails that led to other villages.

While Rothschild and Atherton pondered relation-ships, lifestyles, and daily activities at San José de lasHuertas, the volunteers washed artifacts that could pro-vide vital information about these matters at a smallempty rental house near the University of New Mexico.They sat at eight-foot tables covered with sheets of blueplastic. On top of each table were three blue plastic tubsfilled halfway with water. The volunteers sipped wine andtalked about everything from the Meyers Briggs personal-ity test to where to shop in Albuquerque to how to say“hot dog” in various languages.

Atherton brought bagged artifacts to the group. “You

can drybrush metal and bone and wash slag and pottery,”she explained, “but don’t do anything with wood.” Thevolunteers took the bags, double-checked their contentsto ensure that the artifacts are categorized correctly, andwashed those they could. They were careful not to washanything that appeared to be adobe, plaster, or charcoal.The cleaned artifacts were then rebagged

The remainder of the work is left primarily to Ather-ton. She has about 250 bags, each of which contains mul-tiple artifacts. She has selected a handful of researchers toperform the necessary analyses. The faunal fragments willgo to a University of Washington scientist and the slag toone at the University of Arizona. The analysis of thebotanical and soil samples have yet to be assigned. Ather-ton will analyze the ceramic, lithic, and metal materials.

When the analyses are complete, Atherton will pack theartifacts in one-cubic-foot archival boxes. She estimates thatshe will only need about 15 of them. The boxes will be storedat the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in Albuquerque ina humidity- and temperature-controlled environment andmade available for study by other researchers.

Atherton expects to complete her fieldwork this sum-mer. The Las Huertas project will flesh out research donein the early 1960s by archaeologists with the University ofNew Mexico and the subsequent work that was donethere. “As far as I’m concerned the whole valley is of ex-treme significance,” said neighbor Susan Blumenthal. Shebelieves the area was once teeming with activity. Withthe excavation and analysis of each artifact, Rothschildand Atherton endeavor to understand that activity.

PAMELA SALMON lives in New Mexico and is the author of Sandia Peak: AHistory of the Sandia Peak Tramway and Ski Area.

Kelly Britt

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32 summer • 2003

THENEIGHBORHOODBONEBED

THENEIGHBORHOODBONEBED

The concentration of bison bones at the Kaplan-Hoover site is so dense that there is no room for archaeologists to stand. Therefore Larry Todd and his

team have to lie on boards that are positioned over the bed in order to excavate.

american archaeology 33

By Catherine DoldPhotography by Willie Gibson

Not many archaeological excavations come com-plete with a brand new sidewalk, curbside mail-box, and a few swing sets nearby. But then, mostexcavations are not located smack in the middleof a large new housing development.

Some 60 miles north of Denver, out among the rapidlydisappearing farms and rangelands that surround the tinyprairie town of Windsor, Colorado, the Kaplan-HooverBison Bonebed site perches on a hillside. Just a few feet tothe east sits a new house. Directly west is another new house,along with piles of construction materials. Eventually, yetanother home may sit on the Kaplan-Hoover lot, but for themoment only a large white tent adorns the hillside.

Inside the tent, a small propane heater wards off thechill of an approaching snowstorm, and 10 students fromnearby Colorado State University (CSU) lie sprawledacross planks of wood, suspended above a hole in theground. Covered in dust and dirt, bamboo digging tools

at hand, each student carefully reaches into the hole andslowly extricates one bone at a time from what appears tobe a bottomless cauldron. They use bamboo tools ratherthan metal because the former do far less damage to thefragile bones. Plainly visible below them is a dense jumbleof body parts—several complete skulls, snaking spines,dozens of legs and ribs, and more. Most are bison re-mains; a few are from wolves or other carnivores.

The bones, explains Larry Todd, an archaeologist atCSU and director of the excavation, are the leftovers of asingle bloody event that took place late one summer some2,700 years ago: a bison kill, in which human hunterstrapped scores of animals in a small gulch or arroyo, killedthem, butchered them for food, and left the carcasses be-hind to rot. Scavengers, decay, and hundreds of years ofwater flowing to the Cache la Poudre River below re-assembled the bones into the tightly packed jumble seentoday, the bonebed.

Bison kill sites are fairly common on the plains, Toddsays. But most kills involved no more than 30 animals.When he first started exploring this site, he says, “I thought

Bison bones werediscovered duringconstruction of a housingdevelopment nearDenver. Little did theconstruction workersknow they had stumbledupon the single largestLate Archaic bonebed in North America.Working in the shadowof new homes, excavatorsare learning the story ofthe people and animalsthat lived here nearly3,000 years ago.

In order to protect the fragile bones from the elements, the small site is covered in Quonset hut-like fashion

by a durable plastic material.

34 summer • 2003

I’d go out on a limb and say there might be 50 animalshere. We soon found out how wildly wrong we were.”

Standing at the edge of the pit, watching his studentswork, Todd says, “At a bare minimum there are 250,maybe 300 animals here. That makes this the singlelargest bonebed in North America for the time period.”To date, thousands of bones have been extricated from the55-square-foot pit, including more than 120 completeskulls, and the bottom is nowhere in sight. The sheernumber of animals makes the site significant. But it is alsoexpected to reveal substantial information about the livesof the people and the animals who lived on the Coloradoprairie in the Late Archaic period.

The entire site was nearly lost forever. Thebonebed had settled to at least 18 feet belowthe surface when, in 1997, constructionworkers began grading the land for roads and

homes. Carving out a hillside with heavy equipment, theynicked the top of the bonebed. The workers saw the bones,but they continued to develop the site. Later, a volunteerwith the Denver Museum of Nature & Science happened tostumble upon the site. Word traveled, and soon Todd wentlooking for the bonebed along with a student. They didn’thave much luck at first. “We spent the day driving from onenew housing development to another, and we couldn’t findit,” laughs Todd, waving a hand at the sea of new homes thatcan be seen from the hillside.

During a second search they found the site and knewimmediately it was worth exploring. “We walked up thehill and saw bison bones. One of the first ones we pickedup had cut marks on it. That was pretty good evidencethat they’d been butchered by humans, rather than gettingtrapped in a blizzard or something.”

Todd tracked down the property owner, Lester Ka-plan, and got permission for an initial excavation. “Wewere lucky that the construction plans didn’t call for thegrade to go deeper, because I’m sure they would have justdug it all out,” says Todd. “We were also lucky that Ka-plan was willing to let us work here. He could have justsold the bones at a flea market.” Later, when it becameclear that the bonebed was larger and more importantthan originally suspected, Kaplan agreed to let the re-searchers use the site until 2004. It was named in recogni-tion of Kaplan and Gary Hoover, the owner of the con-struction company.

Since the excavation began an entire community,River West, has been built around it. Construction crewshave paved miles of roads, installing nearby MeanderRoad and Pioneer Place, houses ranging from modest du-plexes to “prairie palaces” have sprung up on the hillsides,and scores of new residents have arrived. And just a fewfeet from the edge of the new suburban landscaping, stu-dents in the tent have pulled more than 10,000 bones andartifacts from the ground.

Though this hammer stone (left) was not found at the site, it’s believed

to be the type of tool used by hunters to break the bones, from which

they occasionally extracted marrow. This is one of the few bones recov-

ered from the site that contained marrow.

This bison skull is one of more than 120 that have been recorded. The

archaeologists can see that there are many more skulls in the bonebed.

This replica stone knife is similar to knives found at the site. It’s believed

that the knives were used to cut meat from the bones.

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Late Archaic hunters may have used prehistoric spears called atlatls to kill bison, as depicted in this illustration. There is some uncertainty about the type

of weapon because, though the archaeologists have found stone points at the site, they have found no shafts. This, however, is not surprising, given that

the shafts would have been made of perishable material.

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36 summer • 2003

The work is slow going. Erin Baker, an un-dergraduate student, says she has removedand catalogued just two bones so far thismorning. Now working on a wolf scapula,

she hangs over the pit and uses a small brush and a pointedbamboo stick to carefully clear away dirt that is encasing thebone. Once she works it free, she’ll wrap it in tinfoil, label it,and send it to a laboratory at CSU. Already she has recorded29 different data points on the scapula—its location, posi-tion, length, width, whether or not it was articulated, andmore. Some of the bones are in good shape and are easily ex-

tricated in one piece. Some are broken into many pieces.Some, says Todd, are like “excavating oatmeal.”

Not all of the bones will be taken out of the ground.This year, the researchers plan to excavate a three-foot-wide cross section of the bonebed to get an idea of howdeep it is and how it is shaped below the surface. What-ever bones remain after this season will stay there. The sitemight then be preserved with a homeowner’s covenant.Or it might just disappear under more suburban land-scaping. “We thought about trying to buy the lot, but itwas too expensive,” says Todd. Kaplan is donating the ex-cavated bones to the university, but there are no funds tosecure the site for future research.

As with Baker’s bones, every single one of the thou-sands of items excavated to date has generated 29 pointsof data. Todd estimates that he and his students couldspend the next 10 years analyzing it all. He has alreadyspent considerable time analyzing the initial findings—thefirst 4,000 bison bones extracted—and has developedsome theories about just what happened here.

“The arroyo ran north-south and made a steep-sidednatural corral 12 to 15 feet deep,” he explains. The bisonwere likely grazing near the river, to the north, and werequietly herded into the trap. “You put a couple of peopleat the edge of the herd and the animals will slowly grazeaway from them, into the arroyo. You don’t want to starta stampede.” Once the animals were contained, perhapsby a wooden gate at the end of the arroyo, he says, thehunters probably stood above them and killed them withspears topped with stone projectile points. “It was likeshooting fish in a barrel.”

Radiocarbon datingof bone and charcoalfound in the bonebed—likely from hearths builtalong the top of the ar-royo—shows that thekill happened about2,700 years ago. Analy-sis of teeth found thereindicate it took place inlate summer-early fall,and that it was a singleevent. Most bison calvesare born during a two-week period in latespring, Todd explains.Looking at the teeth ofthe youngest animalsfound—which molarshave erupted, how wornthe teeth are—revealsthe age of the calveswhich in turn tells himthat the kill occurred

five months after the calving period, or late summer. Thefact that all the young animals were the same age tells himthat they were slaughtered at the same time.

“It looks like this was a fairly large kill to get meat forwinter storage,” says Todd. “There might have been 150people working on this site. They would have had toprocess the animals quickly because the meat would startto go bad. Plus, it would attract grizzlies and wolves, mak-ing it a dangerous place.”

Looking at cut marks on the bones—nicks left be-hind by butchering tools—gives him a good idea of howthe hunters processed the animals. “They probably startedby stripping off the big meat masses to dry and store,”Todd says. “They probably went for the hump first, be-cause there are 40 to 50 pounds of meat there.” Indeed,40 percent of the higher vertebrae examined have cutmarks, while few lower vertebrae show signs of butcher-ing. A high number of cut marks on jaw bones indicatesthe hunters also removed many tongues.

Not all parts of the animals were processed, however.

Having slaughtered the bison, the Yonkee then performed the difficult work of removing the meat from the bones and

preparing it for storage.

american archaeology 37

The hunters apparently paid little attention to the brains orbone marrow. And in contrast to what has been seen at otherkill sites, they left behind large amounts of usable meat.

Not surprisingly, the site was very popular with carni-vores. Nearly 99 percent of the bison front leg bones ex-amined show damage by other animals. According to theresearchers, this degree of carnivore modification is farhigher than at any other plains kill site.

More definitive answers to what the peo-ple did at the Kaplan-Hoover site, and howthat reflects their social and environmentalinteractions, will come only after process-

ing all of the more than 10,000 bones and artifacts ex-tracted and several years of studying the data.

“The real excitement of archaeological discovery thesedays usually takes place late at night in front of the com-

puter screen, when the data starts coalescing in a way thatthe patterns start to make sense, when the cut marks andskull frequencies and animal ages and the tools used allstart to bring out some coherent picture,” says Todd. “Thefieldwork is only the beginning.”

At the CSU laboratory, graduate student Paul Burnettdemonstrates how the bones are processed. Each one iscleaned with a toothbrush and water, then left to dry. Bro-ken bones are painstakingly glued back together. All arelabeled with a felt tip marker, sorted by type, and filedaway in clear plastic boxes. Already, some 80 boxes arestacked floor to ceiling in the lab, full of femurs, verte-brae, and other bones. Intact skulls line the shelves.Dozens more foil-wrapped bones are piled in a corner,fresh from the field and awaiting their turn at the sink.The most fractured bones, the ones that the researchershaven’t been able to reassemble, lie on the counter.

Larry Todd addresses students who are reconstructing bison bones in a laboratory. The lab work is painstaking, and Todd estimates it could take another

five years to process all of the recovered bones. A replica of a six-month-old bison skeleton commands the students' attention. Todd has noted a resem-

blance between part of the bison’s thoracic vertebrae and the ears of a mouse. This prompted a student to crown the skeleton with Mickey Mouse ears.

38 summer • 2003

Each bison bone is eventually scrutinized under mag-nification, says Burnett. “We look for cut marks fromtools, breakage, tooth marks from carnivores, pathologiessuch as arthritis. We need to sort out the human and non-human patterns of modification.” They will also carefullyexamine all of the non-bison bones found on the site, thestone projectile points, and the thousands of sharpeningflakes they have found—the tiny shards of stone thatbreak off from points when they are sharpened.

One of the most intriguing issues thatTodd would like to explore, once all thedata is assembled, is why two distincttypes of projectile points were found at the

site. Some of the points appear to be linked to the Yonkeeculture, which is more commonly found further north, inWyoming and Montana. They show a characteristic Yon-kee style and are made of a type of stone found inWyoming. Their presence at the site seems to indicate thatthe Yonkee people were traveling further south than waspreviously known. Other points show a different style andwere quarried from a stone source much closer by.

Finding both styles at one kill site raises some in-teresting questions, says Todd. First, if two separate cul-tural groups were at the site, how did they interact? “Itcould be that the Yonkees came down and made the killand were butchering the animals in another group’s ter-ritory and the other people came over and chased themaway,” he says. “Or, we could be seeing communalhunting between the Yonkees and the other group. So itcould have been regional conflict or regional coopera-tion.” Analyzing the thousands of flakes of each stylefound at the site, seeing how many there are of each,will give them a rough measure of how many people ofeach group were at the site and may help them to figureout what was going on.

Second, what might have prompted the Yonkees totravel to a new area? Data on climatic conditions, garneredfrom tooth analysis, might help answer that question. Asteeth grow they lock in clues about temperature and rainfall,in the form of specific ratios of oxygen and carbon isotopes.Todd plans to chemically analyze the teeth of animals fromseveral age groups, which will allow him to reconstruct theconditions for several years before the kill. “We can figureout the monthly temperatures for about 15 years before thekill,” he says. That will help him to evaluate two possibleenvironmental triggers for their travel. Were the Yonkee peo-ple coming further south because environmental conditionswere bad and bison were getting harder to hunt? Or was itfor the opposite reason: a period of increased rainfallresulted in more grass and bison, and the Yonkee traveledthere in pursuit of the expanded herds?

The researchers also hope to learn more about thehunting and butchering strategies of the people and whatthat says about the animal populations. These hunters

were not known to store large amounts of food. So whydid they kill so many bison—clearly more than they coulduse—at this site? If it was a small, local population of an-imals it would not have made sense to kill them all atonce. Could it be that the bison were part of a large mi-gratory herd that presented a one-time bountiful huntingopportunity, and the extra meat left behind in the arroyowas seen as a bit of winter insurance? On the other hand,bison are smart. “Maybe the hunters knew that if any sur-vivors got away they wouldn’t be able to pull the sametrick on them next year, so they got as many as possiblethis year,” speculates Todd. DNA analysis might help toanswer those questions, by showing whether the animalswere from a small, genetically homogenous population, orfrom a larger, more diverse group.

A Native American visitor to the site has suggestedanother scenario for the seeming wastefulness: Perhaps thehumans killed extra bison to help out their other “rela-tives,” the coyotes, wolves, and bears. Some of the otheranimals found at the site, in fact, might not have beenscavengers; the wolf bones found could be from wolf-doghybrids that were used as pack animals. Those bones willbe examined for signs of arthritis that could indicate theywere carrying heavy loads.

All of these possible relationships between the humansand the animals intrigue Todd. “I try to get people to think ofhumans as part of the ecosystem, rather than separate fromit,” he says. Clearly, the scavengers that fed at the site had dietsthat were closely related to human behavior. “Prehistoricwolves probably relied on these leftovers. There would havebeen hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat left here.

“The implications of that are if you want to talkabout modern wolf or bear management, somewhere youneed to take into account that these animals adapted inlarge part to interacting with humans. The notion that awolf is a wild animal out there not interacting with peo-ple, and that is how we have to preserve it today, is notthe truth. They’ve been interacting with people for years.”

Human interaction played a role in the evolution ofbison, too. “For the last 10,000 years, bison have been get-ting smaller and more agile,” says Todd. “The evolutionaryforce that could create that is predator avoidance. We tendto think of bison as this romantic image of wild NorthAmerica, but those living today are the way they are in partbecause of interactions with humans.” DNA analysis of theKaplan-Hoover bison may help to further clarify this rela-tionship by yielding information about herd sizes and theirmovements, two consequences of being hunted.

The Kaplan-Hoover excavation concluded in April. Thebones that were extracted will remain at the university. Toddhopes the bones left in the ground will remain undisturbed,right in the middle of River West, near the swing sets.

CATHERINE DOLD lives in Boulder, Colorado. Her work has appeared inDiscover, Smithsonian, and the New York Times.

american archaeology 39

For nearly a hundred years, a surprising tool hasbeen essential to our nation. This tool de-fended the sheer-walled canyons and ancientPueblo dwellings at Bandelier National Monu-ment. It revealed our prehistoric ancestors at

Russell Cave. It embraced towering redwoods at MuirWoods. And it protected the unique American wondercalled the Grand Canyon. Without this tool, places of ex-traordinary beauty and archaeological significance mighthave been lost.

By Andrea Cooper

A law enacted at the turn of the 20th century has had a tremendous impact. It continues to be relevant today.

The American Antiquities Act of 1906 doesn’t have asexy name. But in its 97th year, the act is still powerful andcontroversial. Widely recognized as the first general statuteon archaeological and historic preservation in the U.S., itlaid down the principles and philosophy of American ar-chaeological law for generations to come, and gave birth tomore than 75 national monuments. “It was a landmarkpiece of legislation, and the effect on the nation has beenfar greater than its creators ever imagined,” said MarkMichel, president of The Archaeological Conservancy.

PreservingAmerica’s Antiquities

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Using the powers granted him by the Antiquities Act, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon a national monument in 1909.

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Though it might be hard to imagine anyone arguingagainst protection of the Grand Canyon, the act and itsuses have been disputed since President Theodore Roo-sevelt signed it into law.The act faced serious courtchallenges in the 1970s,rallying archaeology advo-cates to lobby Congress fora strong supplementarylaw, the Archaeological Re-sources Protection Act of1979. Last year, the act sur-vived a new court chal-lenge following PresidentClinton’s designation ofseveral new national monu-ments, including Canyonsof the Ancients, in the MesaVerde region of southwestColorado.

In three paragraphs, theact defined our national standards for archaeological andhistoric preservation. Each paragraph imparted a separateand lasting benefit. The first section created basic public pol-icy concerning archaeological resources. It declared that onany land owned or controlled by the federal government, in-dividuals could not “appropriate, excavate, injure, or de-stroy” any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or anyobject of antiquity, without permission. The net effect?

“It established a national interest in American archaeo-logical sites. The places and objects within them were ofpublic interest, and any single individual couldn’t go ontofederal land and take away an object,” said Frank Mc-Manamon, chief archaeologist for the National Park Service.

Until the act, people removed archaeological objects

without much fear of recrimination. Some simply looted,hoping to sell their finds for a handsome price. Others,notably amateur archaeologists and explorers, believed

they were saving objectsby recovering them, evenif they eventually soldtheir finds. The new lawmade it clear that our ar-chaeological past belongsto the people as a whole,not to individuals.

In its nuances, theact defined a new way ofthinking. “It suggestedthe objects’ primary valueis in what they can tell usabout the past,” Mc-Manamon said. It wasnow the responsibility ofthe federal government toprotect and interpret the

nation’s archaeological and historical resources so our peo-ple might learn about the past.

Section two put presidential muscle to work. It gavethe President of the United States power to declare “his-toric landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, andother objects of historic or scientific interest” as nationalmonuments. The law applied only to land the federal gov-ernment owned or controlled. Even so, it restricted mon-uments from most commercial activity. To some people inthe U.S., then and still, those are fighting words.

“It was very astute politically that this was numbertwo in the act,” said Raymond H. Thompson, a retiredprofessor of anthropology at the University of Arizonaand former director of the Arizona State Museum. “Politi-cians knew there were plenty of people in the West whowanted to preserve land for their own private use.” Hadthis provision been highlighted in the act, “it would havekilled it immediately,” Thompson said.

Section three offered an assurance: The federal govern-ment would grant permission to examine ruins, excavate ar-chaeological sites, or gather objects of antiquity to those“properly qualified to conduct such examination...for thebenefit of reputable museums, universities, colleges, orother recognized scientific or educational institutions...”

In 1906, archaeology was a young discipline in thiscountry. Many Americans were unfamiliar with what itcould achieve. “The act really gave a shot in the arm toprofessional archaeology as an appropriate way of re-searching artifacts,” McManamon said.

Considering the impact of the law, it’s probably notsurprising the debate to enact it lasted 25 years. In 1882,many groups became alarmed about the growing vandal-ism at American Indian ruins. Collectors, some fromother countries, were taking objects from such spectacular

Theodore Roosevelt established 18 national monuments during his presidency. Six

were created primarily to preserve historic and prehistoric structures and objects.

Byron May proudly brandishes human remains looted from an archaeologi-

cal site in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. This photo helped con-

vict May and his partner, William Smyer, of looting under the Antiquities

Act in the late 1970s.

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sites as Chaco Canyon and bringing them home. OneSwedish explorer, Gustav Nordenskiold, excavated atMesa Verde; his collection ended up in the Finland Na-tional Museum, much to the chagrin of many Americans.

At the same time, major public exhibitions, includingthe World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and theLouisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, exposed morepeople to American antiquities. This young nation lackedthe grand monuments of the Old World. But it could takepride in its natural glories, from Niagara Falls to Yellow-stone. Why, then, did it take so long to get a law passed toprotect our archaeological history?

Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, in acommentary on the act, identified several reasons that soundfamiliar today. “As has been heard regularly since, detractorsof the effort to provide protection and preservation first ar-gued that the government couldn’t possibly protect all ofthese resources,” Babbitt wrote. “Others, already alarmed bythe creation of forest reserves, objected to creation of an-other means by which the President could set aside largeareas of the public domain for conservation or preservation.”Those who favored commercial uses of public land believedtoo much land would be set aside for the “public good.”

Even proponents of antiquities legislation disagreedabout what should be included. The Smithsonian Institu-tion wanted to control archaeological research in the West.A variety of Eastern universities were opposed to the Smith-

sonian’s intentions. Meanwhile, the Department of the In-terior wanted to set up archaeological sites as nationalparks. “The groups were working towards the same goalbut presenting entirely different bills to Congress to accom-plish it,” said Thompson. “Congress responds when com-peting players get together and present a unified front.”

The act resulted from a most unlikely trip. Archaeol-ogist Edgar Lee Hewett of Santa Fe invited Iowa Con-gressman John Lacey, the powerful chairman of the HouseCommittee on Public Lands, to see cliff dwellings andother archaeological marvels for himself. Lacey, an ardentconservationist, accepted the invitation, traveling by railto the Southwest. The pair embarked on a two-week trip.Think about that for a minute—a congressman givingyou two weeks of his time, traveling by horse and buck-board through treacherous desert and ravines, haulingprovisions and camping every night. “In 1904, going toChaco Canyon must have been a fantastic adventure,”said Michel with a laugh. That trip to the edge ofnowhere left a deep impression. Lacey sponsored the ver-sion of the Antiquities Act that passed in 1906.

President Theodore Roosevelt promptly took advan-tage of his newfound power, declaring such varied sites asGila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico, Devils Tower inWyoming, the Petrified Forest in Arizona, and the GrandCanyon national scientific or historic monuments. TheNational Park Service, established just 10 years later in

These ruins are found at Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, Arizona. President Calvin Coolidge made Wupatki a national monument in 1924.

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1916, gave the federal government an efficient way to ad-minister the new national parks and monuments. Untilthen, a hodge-podge of agencies, including the Army, hadmanaged these resources.

The act even protected archaeological sites from thegovernment itself. When the Tennessee Valley Authorityconstructed dams on the Tennessee River during the De-pression, officials made an effort to rescue archaeologicalinformation before sites were destroyed. Later, the FederalPower Commission, which grants authority to build in-terstate and intrastate power lines, required that all ar-chaeological work be done in advance of construction.“It’s since been established that any use of the power offederal government—including indirect action such as theissuing of permits—can open the door for protection ofarchaeological remains,” said Thompson.

Presidents throughout the 20th century, includingWilson, Hoover, Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Eisen-hower, Kennedy, and Carter, declared national monu-ments and provoked some fights. One memorable uproarcame during wartime, according to historian Ronald Lee.In 1943, use of the act for establishing new monuments“came to an abrupt halt following the proclamation ofJackson Hole National Monument in Wyoming by Presi-dent Franklin D. Roosevelt,” wrote Lee in a history of theact. “President Roosevelt’s action aroused tremendous andbitter opposition in Wyoming and in Congress.” No morenational monuments were proclaimed for 18 years. Sev-eral presidents after Roosevelt created national monu-ments during their very last days in office.

Even with the controversy, two laws later strengthenedthe basic principles of the Antiquities Act. The HistoricSites Act of 1935 says the government has a responsibility

to provide technical assistance to historic American sites,buildings, objects, and antiquities of national significance,even those on private land. The National Historic Preser-vation Act of 1966 broadened the government’s responsi-bility to provide recognition and technical assistance tohistoric properties of local or state significance.

Of course, simply recognizing archaeological informa-tion is valuable doesn’t mean it will be protected. The An-tiquities Act didn’t stop theft, because few federal agents orarchaeologists were at sites to prevent it. “There was almostno enforcement of the anti-looting provisions until the1970s. No one was pushing for it,” said Michel. Besides,the penalties weren’t all that strict: a fine of not more than$500, imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both.

Then a court case threatened the very foundation of theact. In 1974, Ben Diaz of Phoenix was arrested for removingApache religious objects from the San Carlos Reservation.Diaz appealed because the objects were only a few years old.The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor andfound the criminal provisions of the Antiquities Act uncon-stitutional because they did not clearly define such terms as“object of antiquity,” “ruin,” and “monument.”

The decision made a bad situation worse. In the early1970s, prices soared for prehistoric Indian pottery fromthe Southwest. “Professional looters armed with backhoesand front-end loaders were taking apart entire puebloruins in search of treasure. They left nothing behind,”Michel wrote in one account of the time.

A year after the Diaz case, two men were appre-hended while looting a Mimbres ruin in the Gila Forest.The Diaz ruling didn’t apply because they were in a dif-ferent jurisdiction; eventually they were found guiltyunder the Antiquities Act. But the trend was clear: the na-

The Gila Cliff Dwellings in southwestern New Mexico were proclaimed a national monument in 1907. These dwellings were built in the late 13th century.

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tion needed a tougher law with harsher penalties thatwent after organizers and dealers in stolen antiquities.

That feeling was reinforced in 1977 when Scott Ca-mazine, a Harvard medical student, was arrested whilelooting a prehistoric ruin on the Zuni Reservation in NewMexico. At trial, the U.S. magistrate ruled the AntiquitiesAct was unconstitutionally vague. The government could-n’t appeal because of a legal technicality. Now the Antiq-uities Act was void in New Mexico and all of the westernstates of the Ninth Circuit.

Working for the Society for American Archaeology,Michel led the charge for a new law to supplement, not re-place, the Antiquities Act. He was racing against time—in1978, the Antiquities Act was declared invalid in Arizona.

Michel worked closely with Congressman MorrisUdall of Arizona and Senator Pete Domenici of NewMexico to introduce the Archaeological Resources Protec-tion Act (ARPA) in February 1979. President Cartersigned it into law later that year. ARPA prohibits looting,trafficking in, transporting, or receiving looted artifactsfrom federal lands. Depending on the value of the stolenartifacts, penalties include up to $20,000 and two years ofjail. Anyone cavalier enough to loot a second time faces apossible five years imprisonment and $100,000 fine.ARPA also imposes civil penalties to cover damages andrestoration costs for ravaged sites.

The latest brouhaha over the Antiquities Act arose in

2000, when former President Clinton created the164,000-acre Canyons of the Ancients National Monu-ment to protect thousands of Anasazi and other ruins inthe Mesa Verde area, including villages, cliff dwellings,shrines, and rock art. Though the executive order allowedfor existing cattle grazing and natural gas development tocontinue, his action was challenged in court by the Moun-tain States Legal Foundation, which opposes preservationefforts in the West. The U.S. Court of Appeals in the Dis-trict of Columbia recently upheld Clinton’s use of the act.

Some leaders in archaeology, such as the Park Ser-vice’s Frank McManamon, believe our laws aren’t toughenough because they don’t cover what occurs on privateland. That may be the next frontier for archaeological law.Until then, we can credit progressive legislators 100 yearsago for protecting American archaeological treasures.

As Ronald Lee wrote, “This generation, through itsexplorations, publications, exhibits, and other activities,awakened the American public to a lasting consciousnessof the value of American antiquities, prehistoric and his-toric. This public understanding, achieved only after per-sistent effort in the face of much ignorance, vandalism,and indifference, was a necessary foundation for manysubsequent conservation achievements.”

ANDREA COOPER has written most recently for Reader’s Digest, Saveur,and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

In a controversial use of the Antiquities Act, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Jackson Hole, Wyoming a national monument in 1943. It is now part

of Grand Teton National Park.

W hile thousands of people were leaving ChacoCanyon, the San Juan Basin, and Mesa Verde inthe greater Four Corners area during the late 12th

and 13th centuries, the Galisteo Basin in central New Mex-ico witnessed the establishment of farming communities. Bythe beginning of the 14th century, the scattered GalisteoBasin communities coalesced to form eight extremely largepueblos. Galisteo Pueblo is one of these that survived intothe Spanish Colonial period, occupied by people the Span-ish referred to as Tanos and who are now known as theSouthern Tewa.

The pueblo’s landowners, prompted by their concernfor the site’s long-term preservation and their desire to haveresearch conducted there, recently donated a preservation

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One of the Largest Prehistoric Pueblos in the Galisteo Basin PreservedPueblo played an important role in New Mexico’s history.

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easement containing the 62-acre site to the Conservancy.“We are thrilled that we have been able to work with thelandowners to permanently protect this site, which is oneof the most important in the Southwest,” said MarkMichel, the president of the Conservancy. GalisteoPueblo, located on the bank of Galisteo Creek, containsan estimated 1,580 ground-floor rooms in 25 adoberoomblocks, and an undetermined number of kivas andplaza areas. Six prominent roomblocks containing about570 rooms are thought to be the remnants of the site’s his-toric period dwellings.

Early Spanish documents frequently mention Galis-teo Pueblo, sometimes referring to it as the Pueblo Xi-mena visited by Coronado in 1540. Don Juan de Oñate,

These standing sandstone masonry walls are found at Las Madres Pueblo. Las Madres, a 14th-century pueblo, is part of the Galisteo Pueblo preserve.

american archaeology 45

a Spanish general, visited the puebloin 1598 while establishing missiondistricts in the area. By 1626, a largeSpanish mission with a church and aconvento for priests had been built atthe pueblo. From the Galisteo mis-sion, priests regularly journeyed toserve nearby San Cristóbal Puebloand other branches of the Galisteoparish, known as visitas. Over time,Spanish pressures to convert the NewMexico tribes to Catholicism in-creased, as did demands for grain,produce, and crafts. These circum-stances, combined with drought andperiodic raiding by the Plains Indi-ans, prompted native peoples to or-ganize the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, asuccessful uprising that drove theSpanish from New Mexico.

During the revolt, the natives ofGalisteo Pueblo killed the residentpriests. Some Galisteo Pueblo resi-

american archaeology 45

dents occupied Santa Fe, wheremany of them were later killed orsold into slavery by Spanish Gover-nor don Diego de Vargas during thereconquest. After 1700, some of thesurviving Southern Tewa peoples ofthe Galisteo Basin migrated to FirstMesa, now on the Hopi Reservationin northeastern Arizona. Their vil-lage, named Hano, is still there.

The Spanish re-established Gal-isteo Pueblo in 1706 under the nameNuestra Señora de los Remedios andforced 90 Indians to resettle there.Smallpox and Comanche raids tooktheir toll however, and toward theend of the century the pueblo’sdwindling inhabitants moved tonearby Santo Domingo Pueblo, aKeresan-speaking village. After 1782,Galisteo was no longer considered tobe a living pueblo. In 1912, NelsNelson, an archaeologist with theAmerican Museum of Natural His-tory in New York who visited and in-vestigated many of the larger Galis-teo Basin sites, conducted testexcavations at the pueblo and made asite map. This is the only profes-sional excavation undertaken at Gal-isteo Pueblo, which has tremendousarchaeological potential.

“Galisteo Pueblo is one of themost enigmatic of the Galisteo BasinPueblos,” said Eric Blinman of theMuseum of New Mexico’s Office ofArchaeological Studies. “Despite theprominent place of the mission atGalisteo Pueblo in the pre-revoltSpanish Colonial occupation in NewMexico, the church has not been lo-cated with confidence. There is anexcellent potential for investigatingthe site with remote-sensing ap-proaches, especially working out the

details of the historic component.”Las Madres, an isolated 14th-centuryroomblock containing about 60rooms located on a prominent sand-stone spur just across the creek fromGalisteo Pueblo, is also included inthe preservation easement. Nelsonconducted limited test excavations atthe site in 1914 and created a sitemap. In the early 1960s, archaeolo-gist Bertha Dutton excavated about85 percent of the site with the intentof documenting the migration ofMesa Verde peoples into the GalisteoBasin. Dutton concluded that migra-tion from Mesa Verde could not ac-count for the founding population ofLas Madres.

This past spring a meeting washeld to create a long-term manage-ment plan for the preserve. TheConservancy, together with the Mu-seum of New Mexico and commu-nity volunteers, and in consultationwith Santo Domingo Pueblo andother native peoples, plans to createa site map, analyze and reburyhuman remains, and stabilize ex-posed and eroding areas of the site.

—Tamara Stewart

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GalisteoPueblo

FEDERALLEGISLATIONto create an archaeologicalprotection district in theGalisteo Basin passed theSenate in March. Thelegislation was sponsoredby New Mexico SenatorsJeff Bingaman and PeteDomenici. A bill has alsobeen introduced into theHouse of Representativesby New MexicoRepresentatives Tom Udalland Heather Wilson.

Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, located fivemiles southeast of Santa Fe, NewMexico, is among the best-researched

and best-documented sites in theSouthwest. That is due to the Schoolof American Research’s (SAR) efforts,which include five excavation seasons,nearly 20 years of analysis, and ninepublished volumes. Studies conductedat this massive pueblo have given re-searchers a fundamental understand-ing of late prehistoric pueblos in thenorthern Rio Grande Valley.

Perched on the edge of the deepArroyo Hondo gorge, the pueblo wasestablished in the early A.D. 1300s,growing to about 1,000 rooms andperhaps as many inhabitants by1330. Researchers consider this largecommunity, which was temporarilyabandoned around A.D. 1345, reoc-cupied in the 1370s, and finallyabandoned by 1425, to be represen-tative of both the precursors and theprototype of the big puebloan settle-ments that arose in the area prior toSpanish contact in the 16th century.

“The School of American Re-search’s multidisciplinary study ofArroyo Hondo provided a unique,comprehensive understanding of14th-century ancestral puebloanlife,” said Douglas Schwartz, presi-dent emeritus of SAR, principal in-vestigator of the research project, andeditor of the Arroyo Hondo publica-tions. “Our research has clearlyshown that this pueblo and perhapsother large late prehistoric communi-ties in the area were the result of themerging of local populations, not theresult of inhabitants migrating fromthe Mesa Verde region, as has beenproposed by some.”

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Systematic excavations con-ducted at the site focused on architec-ture, site organization and growth, di-etary and ecological reconstructionthrough plant and animal remainsanalysis, as well as ceramic, artifact,and skeletal analysis. Many large pre-historic pueblos in the region lie be-neath historic components, makingthem difficult to excavate. But ArroyoHondo’s relatively short occupationand the absence of subsequent occu-

pations have facilitated interpretation.Despite years of research, Schwartzestimated that 75 percent of the site’sdeposits remain preserved.

SAR, which is based in SantaFe, acquired Arroyo Hondo in the1930s. Richard M. Leventhal, theorganization’s current president, ex-plained how the school’s focus haschanged over the last 30 years: “Asan anthropological research centerand think tank, the school now fo-cuses not on specific research butrather on broad global issues. It hasbecome clear that it will be mostbeneficial for the Arroyo Hondo siteto be cared for by a professionalstewardship organization.”

This spring, the SAR’s board ofmanagers donated the 20-acre site tothe Conservancy, which will workclosely with SAR’s staff to design along-term management plan for thesite and to backfill several of the ex-posed rooms. Schwartz will continueto participate in research at the site.

—Tamara Stewart

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Organization Donates a Thoroughly Researched SiteNEW MEXICO PUEBLO IS CONSIDERED THE FORERUNNER OF LARGE 15TH-CENTURY NORTHERN RIO GRANDE COMMUNITIES.

ArroyoHondoPueblo

In the 1970s excavators from the School of American Research exposed an unusual above-ground

"D" shaped kiva at Arroyo Honda Pueblo.

In their book Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,Squier and Davis, in the mid-19th century, referred tothe Portsmouth Works as a “singular and interesting se-

ries of works” situated on the “beautiful plain at the con-fluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers.”

Today, two of the three mound complexes making up thismonumental Hopewellian earthwork have disappeared beneaththe sprawl of Portsmouth, Ohio. However, south of the OhioRiver, one important complex remains remarkably intact. Ken-tucky’s Old Fort Earthwork is a 15-acre square enclosure withwalls 820 feet long and up to 10 feet high. The southern andwestern walls are in pasture and remain nearly pristine, as aretwo parallel walls that stretch to the west. The northern andeastern walls of the square remain intact even though modesthomes were built upon them beginning about 50 years ago.

In 1999, the Conservancy, having purchased twohouses that were in disrepair, demolished them and re-stored a 150-foot section of the eastern wall. This year,through a bargain-sale-to-charity from Karen Kissinger andBarry Esham, the Conservancy purchased an additionalproperty that includes a three-bedroom house along with afive-acre tract of land. This is the second-largest tract ofland within the enclosure and spans the length of the earth-work from its north wall to its south. Since it contains a sam-ple of all parts of the earthwork, the property’s research po-tential is especially valuable. The Conservancy’s goal is topreserve the entire earthwork, and this acquisition gives itownership of about one-third of the earthwork’s interior.

As one of the largest prehistoric earthworks in Kentucky,the Old Fort has received much attention from archaeologists.It was first mentioned in a 1791 letter, and explored andmapped by Squier and Davis during their investigations ofthe mound-builder phenomenon. In the beginning years ofthe 20th century, Gerald Fowke of the Smithsonian Institu-tion excavated there, and later it was the site of a Works Pro-jects Administration excavation during the Great Depression.

The excavations indicate that the Old Fort is likely aconstruction of the early Hopewell period, circa A.D. 1 to200. In addition, the work has documented a rather elabo-rate construction sequence. Rather than fitting the earth-work into the existing landscape, considerable effort was ex-pended to fill ravines and level slopes prior to construction.Apparently the dimensions of the earthwork and its orienta-tion—820 square feet and 45 degrees offset from the cardi-nal directions—were established beforehand and the land-scape modified to accommodate it. —Paul Gardner

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Protecting aHopewell EarthworkOld Fort is one of the largest prehistoric earthworks in Kentucky.

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SITE: Old Fort Earthwork, Esham tractCULTURE & TIME PERIOD: Hopewell, A.D. 1–200STATUS: Threatened by residential development.ACQUISITION: The Conservancy is purchasing the house and five-acreproperty for $130,000 as a bargain-sale-to-charity.HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy,Attn: Kentucky Project, 5301 Central Ave. NE Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517

OldFort

Squier and Davis produced this map of the Portsmouth Works.

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Over the last decade, there has beena growing interest among archae-ologists in the study of ancient

technology and engineering. Whilethe habitation areas, middens, anditems of material culture remain im-portant subjects for study, many re-searchers have determined that a sitecannot be fully understood withoutexamining the infrastructure thatsupported it.

The Pine Island Canal is a casein point. The canal is one of themost remarkable extant examples ofPre-Columbian ingenuity. Con-

structed by the Calusa Indians ofFlorida perhaps as early as 2,000years ago, the 2.5-mile canal crossedthe north end of Pine Island in LeeCounty, facilitating travel betweenthe Calusa’s Gulf Coast towns andthose to the east in Florida’s interior.The waterway, ranging from 18 to23 feet wide, was large enough to ac-commodate most Calusa canoes.

“The Pine Island Canal was nota simple or casually-dug ditch,” saidGeorge Luer of the University ofFlorida. “Careful planning went intoits placement on the landscape and

intensive effort went into its con-struction and maintenance.”

The Calusa had to deal withmatters of topography, tides, groundwater, and varying types of soils. Forexample, if the canal had been filledby tides, the effects of erosion andsiltation would have made it ex-tremely difficult to maintain. Thecanal was engineered to keep thewater level stable and at a depth ofabout 3.5 feet throughout its length.This was challenging, given thatPine Island’s peak elevation is 13 feetabove sea level. Tides, evaporation,

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Conservancy Obtains Pine Island CanalA UNIQUE EXAMPLE OF PRE-COLUMBIAN ENGINEERING IN FLORIDA IS PROTECTED.

Canals served as highways for the Calusa and their neighbors, connecting communities and providing protected pathways for trade, tribute, and information.

POINT Acquisitions

Cambria

Indian Villageon Pawnee Fork

White Potato Lake

Hunting Creek

GravelineMound

A. C.Saunders

Parchman Place

McClellan

Sumnerville

O’Dell Mounds

IngomarMounds

Martin

Lorenzen

Waters Pond

Squaw PointPueblo

FortFoster

MoundSpring

MottMound

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bles would drop and the canal wouldgo dry for a period, which allowedfor maintenance and repair.

This past spring, the Conser-vancy acquired its first portion of thePine Island Canal. A booming realestate market in south Florida threat-ens the remains of the canal with de-struction by development. Researchon the canal coupled with ongoinginvestigations at a number of the sur-rounding Calusa sites, such asPineland and Useppa Island, willhelp us to better understand the enig-matic seafaring Calusa people. ThePine Island Canal project is a part-nership of the Conservancy and theCalusa Land Trust and Nature Pre-serve of Pine Island. —Alan Gruber

The Protect Our Irreplaceable National Treasures (POINT) Program was designedto save significant sites that are in immediate danger of destruction.

Wilsford

Jaketown

LeonardRockshelter

PruittRanch

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elevation, and the flow from the un-derground water table affected thewater level. The canal was dug downto hardpan clay, which didn’t absorbmuch water. This clay is found atvarying depths. In some places, theCalusa dug through the hardpan toreach the water table, and thereby

filled the canal with fresh water.To control water flow, Luer be-

lieves that the Calusa likely used a se-ries of eight stepped impoundments,which presumably functioned likelocks, and a series of auxiliary chan-nels to divert excess flow. During thedry months of winter, the water ta-

The Calusa made the canal deep enough and wide enough to accommodate most of their canoes.

★PineIsland

Field NotesC O N S E R V A N C Y

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The Cambria Preserve ExpandsWEST—Another parcel has beenadded to the Cambria Archaeologi-cal Preserve on California’s PacificCoast. The Conservancy, along withits local partner, Greenspace, TheCambria Land Trust, purchased thenew parcel last December. The firstparcel was purchased in 2000 usingPOINT funds. An acute watershortage in Cambria is making

coastal property extremely difficultto develop, and thus affordable forconservation groups.

The Cambria site dates to about6000 B.C. and was inhabited byChumash and Southern Salinan peo-ple who engaged in an annual cycleof fishing, hunting, and harvestingwild plants. Because the site wasused for 8,000 years, it contains avery long record of climate change,

technological development, andshifts in cultural development.

The site was first tested by ar-chaeologists in 1978. It containsstone and bone tools, projectilepoints, stone and shell pendants,and other ornaments. It is one of theoldest and best preserved prehistoricvillages remaining on California’scoast. Most of the others have beendestroyed by development andcoastal erosion.

Donation Doubles Size of Reservoir RuinSOUTHWEST—The donation offour acres by Don and Linda O’Brienlast December doubled the size of theConservancy’s preserve at ReservoirRuin in southwestern Colorado.

Originally established in 2000,Reservoir Ruin is a masonry pueblothat was occupied around A.D. 1050.It is likely that the pueblo residentsmigrated north from Chaco Canyonin northwestern New Mexico andbuilt Reservoir Ruin, as the masonryconstruction and structures are simi-lar in style and form to those foundin Chaco. Reservoir Ruin is one of anumber of large Chaco-style pueblosthat can be found in the centralMesa Verde region.

Two important structures are lo-cated on the preserve, as well as exten-sive refuse associated with the originaloccupations. Other features locatedon U.S. Forest Service land that is ad-jacent to the preserve include a greathouse and a great kiva, as well as nu-

american archaeology 51

merous other small structures. TheConservancy and the Forest Servicejointly manage the preserve.

Research Continues at Albert Porter PuebloSOUTHWEST—Researchers withCrow Canyon Archaeological Centerare continuing an excavation at Al-bert Porter Pueblo, a large village sitein the Mesa Verde region of south-western Colorado. The project in-cludes test excavations of pit struc-tures, trash middens, and theexterior of roomblock faces. AlbertPorter Pueblo was established as apreserve in 1988 when the Porterfamily donated the 12-acre site tothe Conservancy.

The pueblo may have been occu-pied as early as the Basketmaker IIIperiod (A.D. 500–750). The most in-tensive occupation of the site datesfrom the Pueblo II (A.D. 900–1150)and Pueblo III (A.D. 1150–1300) pe-riods, during which time the site ap-pears to have served as a center forthe Woods Canyon community, alarge village site located about a mileaway and excavated by Crow Canyonin the mid-1990s. Community cen-ters in the Mesa Verde region are rec-ognized by the presence of a distinc-tive, multi-storied public buildingknown as a great house, which wassurrounded by smaller residentialbuildings. Great houses are oftenviewed as local expressions of ChacoCanyon’s influence during the late11th and early 12th centuries.

Crow Canyon hopes to refineAlbert Porter Pueblo’s chronologyand reconstruct the site’s occupa-tional history in hopes of determin-ing what role it played. The re-searchers are also trying to measurethe extent of Chaco’s influence andascertain if a change in communityorganization occurred between the

Chaco (A.D. 1050–1150) and post-Chaco (A.D. 1150–1300) periods.This transition was marked by the

area’s most severe drought and is theleast-understood time period inPueblo prehistory.

Join us on our archaeological study tourspecially designed for grandparents

and grandchildren. While travelling to Peru’s major monuments and museumswith our special scholar, grandparents will be sharing the

irreplaceable experience of discovery with their grandchildren.

August 7–18, 2003led by Professor Daniel H. Sandweiss, University of Maine

This unique tour begins in Lima and includes a three-day visit toCuzco, two days at legendary Machu Picchu, a flight over the Nazcalines, and a fascinating marine bird reserve on the Ballestas Islands.Additional highlights include fossil hunting in Cerro Blanco, visits to

ancient stone fortresses, colonial churches and colorful markets.

We have also planned special events with English-speaking Peruvianchildren, a dancing horse show, and a folkloric music program.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOURS INVITESYOU TO TAKE YOUR

GRANDCHILDREN TO PERU

271 Madison Avenue, Suite 904AMC New York, NY 10016Tel: 212-986-3054 E-mail: archtours@aol.com www.archaeologicaltrs.com

Talking Birds, Plumed Serpents, and Painted Women: The Ceramics of Casas GrandesEdited by Joanne Stuhr(University of Arizona Press, 2002; 90 pgs., illus., $35 paper;www.uapress.arizona.edu)

Casas Grandes (or Paquimé) is a stunning adobe site inthe Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico that flour-ished from about A.D. 1200 to1450, reaching its zenithafter the fall of Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Becauseof its remote location, only the most dedicated of touristsmake it to this magnificent ruin. In this volume, the Tuc-son Museum of Art has assembled a stunning collectionof Casas Grandes’s exquisite and unusual pottery.

The pottery is perhaps the most dramatic of the an-cient Southwest, with its abstract naturalistic designs ofmacaws, snakes, and birds. Humans are portrayed in a va-riety of poses that challenge modern art historians to pro-duce a viable interpretation. All of this is imbeddedwithin complex geometric designs that tickle the fancyand seem more modern than ancient.

Joanne Stuhr, curator of theTucson Museum of Art, Chris-tine and Todd Van Pool of theUniversity of New Mexico,Eduardo Gamboa Carrera ofthe Instituto National deArte y Historia, and JohnWare of the Amerind Foun-dation provide interpretiveessays on the art, archaeol-ogy, and culture of CasasGrandes.

Charles Di Peso pio-neered the study of Casas

Grandes with extensive excavations between1958 and 1961 that produced a great deal of informationand some grand theories. In recent years, Mexican andAmerican archaeologists have rediscovered the lure of theChihuahuan borderland, producing much needed infor-mation about this region.

This volume is an important contribution as well as afeast for the eyes. Luckily, the tradition did not die withthe demise of Casas Grandes. Some 550 years later, localvillagers have resurrected the pottery tradition of ancienttimes and now produce exquisite pieces for sale through-out the United States and Mexico. More than 300 pottersnow shape ceramics that frequently surpass those of theancients and bring income to the impoverished region.

AztecsEdited by EduardoMatos Moctezuma andFelipe Solis Olguin(Royal Academy ofArts/Abrams, 2003; 520 pgs., illus., $85cloth; http://abramsbooks.com)

Prepared to accompany one of the greatestexhibitions of Aztec culture ever assembled at the RoyalAcademy of Arts in London, Aztecs documents in glorious colorone of the world’s most impressive civilizations. But it’s muchmore than a beautiful catalog. Leading experts on the Azteccivilization contribute nine articles that cover everything from theorigins of this once nomadic people to their literature andphilosophy. They explore their religious beliefs, rulers, war culture,and everyday life. The catalog was produced by scholars from66 institutions in Mexico, the United States, and Europe.

The heart of the book, however, is the more than 500superb color photographs of 359 statues, ceramics, codices,and other items that make up the exhibit. Aztec architecture thatsurvived the conquest is buried under modern Mexico City, sothis is the core of the surviving material culture. While thisvolume draws heavily from the two great museums in MexicoCity, seldom-seen masterpieces from around the world are alsoincluded. Take, for example, the splendid shield depicting amonster made of feathers and sheet-gold on agave paper,leather, and reeds. It is one of the treasures of Aztec art: a gift from Cortés that now resides in Vienna.

Several Aztec illustrated manuscripts are included in thisvolume, like the Codex Mendoza, which was prepared shortlyafter the conquest by an Aztec scribe who did the pictorial textthat was annotated with Spanish explanations. It is anencyclopedia of Aztec history and culture that is permanentlyhoused at Oxford University.

Aztecs is a magnificent book that historians, archaeologybuffs, and students of Mesoamerican art should not miss.

52 summer • 2003

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Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest InhabitantsBy Brian Fagan(AltaMira Press, 2003; 399 pgs., illus., $25 cloth;www.altamirapress.com)

Famed archaeologist Brian Fagan has pro-duced a captivating and readable account ofthe first 12,000 years of California history. Aprofessor of anthropology at the Universityof California at Santa Barbara, Fagan isn’t a

California scholar, but when the Society forCalifornia Archaeology drafted him to put the hundreds of sci-

entific source materials into a readable narrative, he rose to the occasion.With its long coastline and varied topography, you would expect a

lot of variety in the early cultures of the Golden State. Northwest salmonfishers, Bay Area shell mound communities, Central Valley wetland vil-lagers, desert foragers, and the sophisticated coastal societies of theChannel Islands were a few of the diverse groups that made the statetheir home. Dramatic rock art is a critical part of California prehistory,and Fagan gives it the full treatment it deserves. From Chumash cavepaintings to Coso Mountains petroglyphs, rock art is essential to thespiritual world of California natives.

Before California is a book for the general reader as well as the en-thusiast. Fagan shows how archaeologists work to pry information frombone, shell, and stone fragments. Oral histories from historic CaliforniaIndians also play an integral role. Using boxes set in the text, Fagan ex-plains techniques and details without interrupting the narrative. Amplemaps and illustrations make the story more understandable. Students ofCalifornia history will find Before California a welcome addition to thestory of the Golden State.

Etowah: The Political History of a Chiefdom CapitalBy Adam King(University of Alabama Press, 2003; 216 pgs., illus.,$30 paper, $55 cloth; www.uapress.ua.edu)

A hundred years of excavations have pro-duced a wealth of artifacts from Etowah,one of the largest and most importantmound centers in the Southeast. Marblestatues, copper embossed plates, andother exotic items testify to the impor-tance of Etowah to the trade network. Thesize of the mounds reflects its political power. ArchaeologistAdam King pulls all this information together in this well-illustratedvolume. Preserved as a Georgia State Park northwest of Atlanta, it isa fascinating place to visit.—Mark Michel

Reviews

Archaeology the ComicBy Johannes H. N. Loubser(AltaMira Press, 2003; 184 pgs., $25 paper,$69 cloth; www.altamirapress.com)

Follow young Squizee as she discovers theinner workings of archaeology after her family’sfarm is looted. She learns from professionalarchaeologists how to survey, excavate, analyze,interpret, and preserve archaeological sites.This book-length comic presents thecomplexities of modern archaeology and issure to get the attention of the beginningstudent. It should become a powerful teachingtool for budding young archaeologists.

54 summer • 2003

T H E A R C H A E O L O G I C A L C O N S E R V A N C Y

Celebrating CeramicsMASTER POTTERS OF THE SOUTHERN DESERTSWhen: October 3–13, 2003Where: Southern Arizona, southern New Mexico,and northern MexicoHow much: $1,995 ($350 single supplement)

Join us for a magical journey through timestudying some of the world’s most beautiful pot-tery crafted by people from the Hohokam, Mim-bres, and Casas Grandes regions, and replicatedby modern masters. The trip includes Hohokamruins and pottery from the Phoenix and Tucsonareas, Spanish missions and presidios, and a be-hind-the-scenes look at the Arizona State Mu-seum. You’ll also see New Mexico’s Gila CliffDwellings, extensive collections of Mimbres pot-tery, northern Mexico’s Casas Grandes, and thepotters of Mata Ortiz. Archaeological experts willjoin us throughout the trip.

Jamestown features one of the country’s premier archaeological digs.

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This stunning example of Casas Grandes–style pottery came from the village of

Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico.

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COLONIAL CHESAPEAKE TOURWhen: October 12–19, 2003Where: Washington, D.C., Virginia, and MarylandHow much: $1,895 ($350 single supplement)

From early European settlements tolater colonial capitals, the ChesapeakeBay region has played an important rolein the founding and development of ournation. Join the Conservancy for a weekexploring the area’s rich and diverse his-toric culture. Our exciting journey willtake us from the historic shipping cityof Alexandria, Virginia, where tobaccomerchants once dominated the shores ofthe Potomac River, to the home of the

Tracing the Footprints of a Nation

american archaeology 55

Father of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jef-ferson. Along the way we’ll visit the first capital of Mary-land, St. Mary’s City, explore the bay-front town of An-napolis, stop in at Mount Vernon, explore Jamestown,and experience the colonial flavor of Williamsburg. Localscholars will share their expertise and explain how archae-ology assisted them in interpreting the region’s past.

The Wonders of OaxacaOAXACAWhen: October 30–November 8, 2003Where: Oaxaca, MexicoHow much: $1,995 ($250 single supplement)

Join us in Oaxaca, Mexico, during one of the most un-usual festivals anywhere—the Day of the Dead. On thisday, people prepare home altars and cemeteries to wel-come the dead, who are believed to return to enjoy thefood and drink they indulged in while alive. The Day ofthe Dead is one of celebration.

You’ll have opportunities to explore Oaxaca’s muse-ums and markets. Our tour also explores the Mixtecanand Zapotecan archaeological sites in the region, includ-ing Mitla, Monte Albán, San José Mogote, and Dainzú.You’ll also visit several villages featuring weaving, pottery,carved animals, and other local art. An expert in the re-gion’s archaeology will accompany us.

Art Set in StoneCALIFORNIA DESERT ROCK ARTWhen: November 2–9, 2003Where: Southern Nevada and Southern CaliforniaHow much: $1,695 ($295 single supplement)

The Conservancy’s week-long tour focuses on the extraor-dinary rock art found throughout the Mojave Desert.Created hundreds of years ago during sacred ceremonies,initiations, and shaman rituals, these rock art sites presentan array of unforgettable images from diverse cultures.

Beginning in Las Vegas, Nevada, you’ll visit the AtlatlRock Petroglyphs. Continuing to Southern California wewill explore the Blythe itaglios, found along the banks ofthe Colorado River, and the petroglyphs at Corn Spring,a sacred site in the Chuckwalla Mountains. In the north-ern Mojave Desert, you’ll see rock art ranging from 200to 4,000 years old. David Whitely, one of the foremostexperts on prehistoric rock art and the author of A Guideto Rock Art Sites of Southern California and SouthernNevada, will accompany the tour.

Visitors explore the extensive ruins at Monte Alban, a city built by the

Zapotec and Mixtec.

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The California Desert Rock Art tour showcases some of the

country’s most remarkable rock art.

56 summer • 2003

Patrons of Preservation

The Archaeological Conservancy5301 Central Avenue NE • Suite 902

Albuquerque, NM 87108(505) 266-1540 www.americanarchaeology.org

TO MAKE A DONATION

OR BECOME A MEMBER CONTACT:

Coyote PressP.O. Box 3377

Salinas, CA 93912

Specializing in Archaeology, Rock Art,Prehistory, Ethnography, Linguistics,Native American Studies and anythingclosely related.

We stock thousands of new books andreprints, used and rare books, and theback issues of many journals.

Browse or shop online at our newlyredesigned e-commerce website:

WWW.COYOTEPRESS.COM

E-mail: coyote@coyotepress.com

BOOKS

Proud sponsors of: www.californiaprehistory.com

Making a Lasting LegacyEstablished in 2002, the Living Spirit Circle has become an essential component of theConservancy’s continued success in identifying and preserving America’s most endangeredarchaeological resources.

Formed to recognize those members who have provided for the Conservancy in theirestate plans or through charitable gift annuities, the Living Spirit Circle is made up of morethan 50 dedicated and generous individuals.

Membership in the Living Spirit Circle is an easy and very meaningful way to supportthe Conservancy’s work now and in the future. Planned giving allows you to specify how yourassets will be distributed after your lifetime.

According to Veronica Frost of Ohio, “The better we can understand the past, the morewe can understand of ourselves and possibly make a difference in the now.”

Veronica, who has been a member of the Conservancy since 1990, joined the LivingSpirit Circle in 2003. Providing for the Conservancy in her estate plans was importantbecause “archaeological sites give me an appreciation for the strength of human spirit andrespect for the human being’s adaptability to nature.”

The continued support of members like Veronica will ensure the preservation of the pastfor the benefit of the future. By joining the Conservancy’s Living Spirit Circle today, you canensure our nation’s cultural heritage for years to come. —Kerry Elder

THE ART OF EARLIEST TIMESJean ClottesStunning photographs of rock art fromthe oldest-known cave site in the world— one of the most important archaeo-logical finds of the twentieth century.This large format book is the first publi-cation to do justice to the extraordinaryart of Chauvet Cave.176 color photographs, 30 mapsCloth $45.00

The University of Utah Press(800) 773-6672 www.upress.utah.edu

CHAUVET CAVE

Life Member Gifts of $1,000 or more

AnonymousBetty Banks, WashingtonRobin Marion, New Jersey

Mr. & Mrs. Melvin V. Simpson, New YorkMichael R. Waller, Oklahoma

Anasazi Circle Gifts of $2,000 or moreCarol M. Baker, Texas

Mrs. W. O. Darby, CaliforniaRobert A. Robinson, California

Mr. & Mrs. Ian Silversides, North CarolinaMr. & Mrs. Hervey S. Stockman, New Mexico

Foundation/Corporate Gifts of $1,000–$4,999

Greenlee Family Foundation, ColoradoThe Phase Foundation, Maryland

The Archaeological Conservancy would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and corporations for their generous support during the period of February 2003 through April 2003.

Their generosity, along with the generosity of the Conservancy’s other members, makes our work possible.Foundation/Corporate Gifts

of $5,000–$29,999The Roy A. Hunt Foundation,

Pennsylvania(in memory of Earl Gadbery)

BequestsBertha I. Stamper, Arizona

New Living Spirit CircleMembers

Olive L. Bavins, CaliforniaRichard Dexter, Wisconsin

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Faul, ArizonaVeronica Frost, Ohio

Deborah Leitner Jones, MarylandJames A. Neely, Texas

Jan and Judith Novak, New MexicoMargaret P. Partee, TennesseeCaryl Richardson, New Mexico

Dee Ann Story, TexasAnn M. Swartwout, Michigan

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald L. Taylor, VirginiaRobert Zimmerman, Nevada

The Phoenicians and the WestPolitics, Colonies, and TradeSecond EditionMaria Eugenia Aubet0-521-79161-8, Hardback, $70.000-521-79543-5, Paperback, $25.00

Figured Landscapes of Rock-ArtLooking at Pictures in PlaceEdited by ChristopherChippindale and George Nash0-521-81879-6, Hardback, $95.00*0-521-52424-5, Paperback, $36.00*

Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid SardisElspeth Dusinberre0-521-81071-X, Hardback, $90.00

Family and Social Policyin JapanAnthropological ApproachesEdited by Roger GoodmanContemporary Japanese Society0-521-81571-1, Hardback, $60.000-521-01635-5, Paperback, $22.00

The Early Settlement of North AmericaThe Clovis EraGary Haynes0-521-81900-8, Hardback, $80.000-521-52463-6, Paperback, $29.00

The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan AfricaTimothy InsollCambridge World Archaeology0-521-65171-9, Hardback, $80.00*0-521-65702-4, Paperback, $29.00*

Arabic Administrationin Norman SicilyThe Royal DiwanJeremy JohnsCambridge Studies in IslamicCivilization0-521-81692-0, Hardback, $70.00

The Archaeology of Southern AfricaPeter MitchellCambridge World Archaeology0-521-63307-9, Hardback, $110.000-521-63389-3, Paperback, $40.00

Forager-Traders in Southand Southeast AsiaLong Term HistoriesEdited by Kathleen D. Morrison and Laura L. Junker0-521-81572-X, Hardback, $75.000-521-01636-3, Paperback, $27.00

Hindu Kingship andPolity in Pre-ColonialIndiaNorbert PeabodyCambridge Studies in Indian Historyand Society 90-521-46548-6, Hardback, $55.00

The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South AsiaHimanshu Prabha RayCambridge World Archaeology0-521-80455-8, Hardback, $95.00*0-521-01109-4, Paperback, $35.00*

Images of Myths in Classical AntiquitySusan Woodford0-521-78267-8, Hardback, $70.000-521-78809-9, Paperback, $25.00

800-872-7423us.cambridge.org/archaeology

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY TITLES FROM CAMBRIDGE

*Prices subject to change.

Make your mark in time.Some Conservancy membersthink the only way to help savearchaeological sites is throughmembership dues. While dues area constant lifeline, there are manyways you can support theConservancy’s work, both todayand well into the future. And bysupporting the Conservancy, younot only safeguard our past foryour children and grandchildren,you also may save some money.

Place stock in theConservancy.Evaluate your investments. Somemembers choose to make a differ-ence by donating stock. Such giftsoffer a charitable deduction forthe full value instead of payingcapital gains tax.

Give a charitable gift annuity.Depending on your circumstances,you may be able to make a gift ofcash and securities today that letsyou receive extensive tax benefitsas well as an income for as long as you live.

leave a lasting legacy.Many people consider protectingour cultural heritage by remem-bering the Conservancy in theirwill. While providing us with adependable source of income,bequests may qualify you for an estate tax deduction.

Whatever kind of gift you give,you can be sure we’ll use it to preserve places like ParkinArcheological State Park and our other 225 sites across the United States.

Yes, I’m interested in making a planned-giving donation to The Archaeological Conservancy and saving money on my taxes. Please send more information on:

❏ Gifts of stock ❏ Bequests ❏ Charitable gift annuities

Name:

Street Address:

City: State: Zip:

Phone: ( ) -

Parkin ArcheologicalState Park

parkin, arkansasBegan as a Conservancy Preserve in 1985

Mail information requests to:The Archaeological ConservancyAttn: Planned Giving5301 Central Avenue NESuite 402Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517Or call:

(505) 266-1540

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