UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day 12 in Chaco

By Lauren Butero

Today may have been the crew’s last day in the field, but our work isn’t over. We spent today completing the end of our on-site recording both in the field and in our field laboratory, backfilling the last of our units, recording the last reference points for features, and packing up camp for the season. However, back in Albuquerque our work will continue. The in-depth analysis will begin and the group will have maps to make, records to formalize and finalize, and lots of information to process. While we won’t be surrounded by the beauty of the Canyon every day, the importance of what is to come shouldn’t be understated. What happens between now and the end of our semester (and beyond, in the case of the graduate teaching assistants) is essential. Our ability to record and interpret what we have seen, photographed, collected and measured determines whether or not the parts of the past that we collected and excavated and the knowledge and potential within those parts of the sites are preserved. If we fail to be diligent with our notations, reports, logs, and in caring for the artifacts we removed, much of the knowledge contained in the site we worked on could be lost. Excavation is a destructive practice, meaning that once it has been completed the site can never be returned to exactly how it was before. Some information such as relationships between objects and layers of soils is permanently lost if that information is not recorded in a way that people will be able to access it in the future. Even for things that are left untouched by our scientific endeavors, Mother Nature and other humans can take a toll and wash and erode away information with the ebb and flow of time. Archeology is the attempt to conserve the knowledge that is trapped in between the layers of time. Beyond recording, archeology is also about analyzing and theorizing --- essentially figuring out what all of our observations and measurements MEAN on a larger scale which will be part of our continuing work. 

Beyond the importance of our records and observations and theories, the field school also produced a crew that began as students and finished as a new group of archeologists. While our units are now invisible to passerby, the knowledge and skills gained by the group cannot be hidden under a layer of eroded sandstone dust. The field makes the best classroom, where students learn by doing and by experiencing. It also has strengthened the crew, and not only our backs and callouses on our palms. It was an unforgettable opportunity that none of us will likely forget, nor the bond that it forged between the crew and the canyon and between one another, living and working together. I think more than one of our group discovered they were made of tougher stuff than they thought, especially after our record cold nights and shortened schedule. Others uncovered talents they weren’t aware of and we will all walk away with wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime memories and stories and knowledge that we will carry with us as we accomplish more. Beyond that, hopefully, experiences and friendships forged in ice are as strong as those forged by fire.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Eleven in Chaco

By Leon Natker

Today is our last full day on site in Chaco Canyon.  Last night was the coldest it has been so far.  The park service says it was somewhere around zero.  When you’re sleeping in a tent in a sleeping bag that is really cold.  We were all up early because of the cold to have breakfast and warm up in the kitchen.  We loaded up the trucks at 7:00 AM and headed out to the field.  The sky was clear all day so the sun came out and warmed us all up quickly.  It still only got up to 48 degrees.

There are many important things that have to be done on an archaeological site before you can leave the site. We can’t just dig holes and walk away.  All the units have to be backfilled. Backfilling is putting the dirt you dug out back in.  We do this so no one can vandalize the site and also so that archaeologists in the future can come back to the same spot and do further research.  In fact another field school from UNM might come back in the future to continue working where we did this year.  In addition to backfilling we have to make sure that every feature we found is correctly mapped.  This is very important on this site because there are both historical features and prehistoric features.  We have encountered both of them and need to keep a good record for all future research done on the site.  Jennie Sturm leads the way with the total station, mapping coordinates of every feature we found. Each unit also has to draw a plan view map, that’s like a bird’s eye view and then a profile of each of the walls showing all the different layers of soil we dug through. We also have to map coordinates for all the artifacts we found on the surface and then collect them. One of the great things about working in the field is how much of a family everyone becomes.  We all help each other to accomplish all of these jobs. In one day you might do four or five different jobs on a site.  For example today I started out collecting artifacts we had found on survey Monday, then I worked with Jennie to map features found all around the site. Then I helped Josh back fill the two units we had excavated. Then I went back to help Jennie map some other sites that had been found.  You see there is never a dull moment on an archaeological site. We really do become a family.  We take turns cooking dinner for each other, we help keep our living space clean and when it’s cold we all gather together in the kitchen, warm up and share stories. It’s a lot of fun and I know everyone will miss it when it’s over.

Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo Alto from South Mesa

Tonight we are getting a special treat. G.B. Cornucopia is the Park Service interpreter who specializes in the night sky.  He has invited all of us to the observatory for a special talk on the stars and to give us each chance to have a look through the telescope. We’re all very excited about this opportunity. You have to spend the night in Chaco Canyon at least once to really appreciate how beautiful the sky is. We have been out here since the last full moon, now the moon is almost gone so you can see the Milky Way clearly.  Almost every night someone sees a shooting star.  It’s another part of what makes Chaco Canyon so special. Whether or not you want to be an archaeologist, visiting Chaco Canyon is an experience everyone should have.  I’ve included a picture from our hike yesterday that shows Pueblo Bonito and New Alto from South Mesa.  It’s just another of the many wonderful things to see here.  I know all of us will miss being here, it is a really extraordinary place. We will all value this experience in a special way.  Not just because it has been a remarkable learning experience with great teachers but because it is one of the most unique places to visit anywhere on this planet. 

UNM 2013 Archaeological Field School - Day Ten in Chaco

By Pablo Flores

It was Day Ten  at Chaco Canyon and we all awoke to a beautiful scene as it had snowed the night before. All of Chaco Canyon was covered in a thin layer of white that reflected the sunlight as it rose. Although it made for a gorgeous morning in the canyon, it as was a cold one with the wind blowing in from the south. As we made our way to the site where once the Wetherill Homestead and Trading Post had been to continue our work, we were given the chance to explore and photograph the snow covered Pueblo Bonito - this was an opportunity I had been hoping to get the entire time we have been in Chaco Canyon. With the snow it heightened the already mysterious and awe inspiring Pueblo Bonito and created a picture-perfect moment that any photographer would want to have. The snow also prevented sound from vibrating off the canyon walls as it typically does making it seem unnaturally quiet except for the laughter and talk from the students as they wondered about Pueblo Bonito.

After visiting Pueblo Bonito we returned to each of our units and began the last bit of work required in order to be finished before this coming Thursday – our last day in Chaco Canyon. For some of us this meant completing profiling, which requires mapping the changes in soil composition of your unit walls, using a Munsell soil chart to identify the color of each defined layer of soil and determining soil texture using a Feel Flow Chart. Others continued excavating their units due to continued interest in what was being found or had not been found, and some performed various tasks on the site as instructed. The morning progressively got colder as wind increased and clouds thickened causing many – including myself – to wish for a cup of hot chocolate, however we made due with a hot cup of coffee with some cookies.

We were all surprised to discover that the afternoon plans were to take a hike out to the unexcavated Great-House called Tsin Kletsin, which is located on the top of South Mesa. The hike is about three miles long with the first part being entirely uphill. Along the way one can get a great view of Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl and Casa Riconada (Downtown Chaco). Further up the trail Pueblo Alto and New Alto become visible on the top of the other side of the canyon with the La Plata Mountains in the backdrop. These are not the only great views to see as South Mesa provides a variety of spectacular views of the surrounding landscape in and around Chaco Canyon. Today was one of the best days I have had in Chaco Canyon, which is a challenge in itself since every day in Chaco Canyon is wonderful in that there is always something new to discover.       

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Nine in Chaco

By Holly Bennett

Today marks the first full day of the last week in Chaco Canyon and our 2013 Fall Field School in total. It is a silly mix of the bitter and sweet. Last night we found ourselves discussing when we prefer the cold onset of darkness. Six in the morning when we rise or six in the evening when we sit down for dinner? There was no unanimous decision, but the truth is either way you look at it dark brings cold. Plus, daylight savings forced its agenda on us this week. And something I learned very clearly this morning is that the theatrics of sunshine never really brings warmth here in the Fall. So the bitter aspects are rising early in the cold. Now for the sweet. This experience day in and day out provides those moments you know you’ll never forgive yourself for not relishing. Luckily the crew in this field school is really good at stopping and remembering what we are doing every day. Chaco Canyon’s ever-changing beauty really helps to conjure up this appreciation. We are on our third week of working beside Pueblo Bonito. We get to survey some of the most beautiful landscape a naked eye will see. We look up at unbridled star light every night. It’s kind of funny, because Chaco Canyon seems to slap us upside the head with almost too beautiful beauty to insist on our great fortune.

Today, our crew was split into two categories. You were either down in your test pits or on survey with one of our teaching assistants. Those that were in test pits had staggered duties. Some of the test pit crews were directed to continue excavation based on what was appearing in their units. Although continued excavation was exclusively permitted there was a bigger goal in mind. Since we are very near the end of our time here, recording our findings is the most important task at hand. What we have found needs multiple forms of documentation and mapping is one of the largest ways to communicate our findings. Today, the test pits that have reached an endorsed end started mapping. This includes both plan view maps, which are like a bird’s eye view, and stratigraphic maps which are detailed wall maps. So many of us started on this very detailed venture.

The second group went on survey between the Wetherill Cemetery and Pueblo Bonito. They were searching for historic artifacts. They were looking for diagnostic artifacts and features. Diagnostic Artifacts are artifacts that can provide detailed information. Today they mainly came in the form of full bottles or cans. There was even an old wash tub found in the field! As for the features, they were comparing aerial photos from the forties to features that appeared in the field. They are seeking a comparison between remaining structures with these older photos. Overall, today kicked off a campaign to start tying up our field school work in Chaco Canyon. Turns out no matter how cold and how tired we all our, the end is starting to feel a lot more bitter than sweet. At least we have three more days to relish the last of our time here!

And here is a photograph of what greated the crew the next morning in Chaco: first snowfall!

Snow on Wetherill Homestead excavations, November 5, 2013.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Eight In Chaco

Halloween at Chaco Canyon

By Katherine Shaum

Even in the apparent remoteness of Chaco Canyon, people find excellent ways to celebrate that spooky day at the end of October. Last night, we joined a number of Chaco Culture NHP staff in listening to a recording of the original broadcast of the extraterrestrial radio drama “War of the Worlds”. It originally aired as a Halloween episode on October 30, 1938. As we left the apartment, small flakes of snow filtered from the dark sky and showed themselves for a second each in one of the few lights that illuminated the residential area of the park.

            This morning, crystalline frost blanketed the ground, lending a picturesque effect to the wooden steps of the bathroom trailer, but also making it difficult for some people to exit their tents. At around 7:15am, our kitchen trailer was invaded by an interesting group of figures including a buccaneer, a pumpkin, and Ted the teddy bear. These were park staff members making the rounds before starting the day. Later that morning, we students donned Dr. Seuss-esque hats and reciprocated by trick-or-treating through the offices in the Visitor’s Center.

Teaching Assistants and Field School Students wearing Halloween headgear

Jennie Sturm holding prism for total station mapping confers with Ted

Stablization Crew visiting Wetherill Homestead and Trading Post project on Halloween

            Thursdays are short days so we can return to Albuquerque before 5pm. We only had about 3.5 hours to work, but everyone made good progress in bringing their units up to speed. Many of us were trying to complete the last levels in our units in order to prepare for profiling. Profiling is a process in which we will measure and draw the side walls of our units. Many of our units have interesting features visible in the side walls such as layers of ash or charcoal, signaling that there was, at some point, a fire. Excavation must be completed and the walls straightened before profiling can begin. We will profile by laying out a tape measure along the base of the wall and marking points of interest at given intervals on a sheet of graph paper. We will eventually be able to connect the dots and create a picture with more detail than a camera can sometimes deliver.

            My partner and I are working on a unit with an old sandstone wall in it. It is a small place for two people to work, so one person would fix the unit’s walls and excavate while the other would screen buckets of soil and organize the artifacts. We used several tools in this process: the blunt end of a pick-mattock for speedier (but still careful) excavation, a trowel for finer work and for leveling and straightening, a dustpan and brush for sweeping up soil and a bucket for holding it, and 1/4” and 1/8” screens to better examine the contents of the soil in the buckets.

            At noon, each team cleaned their unit and placed a tarp over it to protect it from the elements for the weekend. We then headed back to camp to clean up the trailers and pack up personal items. As we left the park, we spotted a number of elk on both the left and right sides of the road. A beautiful 2.5 hour drive back to campus concluded the day.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Seven in Chaco

A Day of Wisdom

By Caitlin Holland

I have never seen so many stars in the sky when I awake before the break of dawn. Billions of stars illuminating the dark sky surrounding a crescent moon over Chaco Canyon. The ruffling of sleeping bags, the unzipping of tent doors and the contemporaneous symphony of alarm clocks illustrate the departure time from the safe boundaries of our camping area to the extensive mesas and pueblos of Chaco Canyon.  A discussion of goals for the day arises while we carry and prepare necessary equipment to the site for excavation as well as site assessment surveys.  Some students continued exposing historic features and structures within the borders of where the Wetherill Homestead and Trading Post used to be located in the early 1900s. Other students were led to the Chetro Ketl agricultural fields, where they received direction on the utilization of remote sensing and GPR (Ground-penetrating radar). 

Remote sensing techniques, such as GPR, allow archaeologists to retrieve exciting data. Particularly for GPR, the radar sends a high frequency of radio waves through the ground that bounce off a buried object or boundary and that signal then goes back to the machine and results in a basic outlay of a map showing the object. This is used to understand what is located beneath the surface of the ground without disturbing the original context of the site(s). While students were becoming familiar with this process, another group of students, me included, were driven up to a site in the South Gap of Chaco to learn how to complete site assessment.

Site assessment is when the National Park Service wants to assess prehistoric and historic sites that were previously recorded by other researchers. The goal is to update the records of each site (maps and notes) based on changes that have occurred through geological, environmental and animal and human impacts. Today we relocated a Basketmaker Period site, where we additionally learned about the process of structure collapse and of ecological adaptations that took place within the area. Strong gusts of wind, rain and a “stampede” of tumbleweeds off in the distance marked the end of our work for the day!

The day was not over yet though, as everyone huddled together at the Wetherill Homestead site to begin a tour of everyone’s excavation units! Many of the units held exposed architecture such as a rock wall, concrete step or a well house. Other units showed remarkable stratigraphic layers of dirt, then ash and organic material, and then sand. Still other units, under closer inspection, showed remnants of other features such as post holes from previous buildings.  From the beginning to the end of the day, wise lessons were acknowledged by all of us; lessons that will provide guidance in the days ahead. These lessons, sometimes masked by everyday events such as trying to retrieve pickles from a jar, are what mean the most to us out here in Chaco and elsewhere: Slow and steady finds the unexpected, and value friendship and guidance when you need it the most.  

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Six in Chaco

By Curtis Randolph

It was another gorgeous day in Chaco Canyon. The warm rays of the sun shone down on our site as soon as they peaked over the walls of Pueblo Bonito. The ancient architecture we are surrounded by could not be more beautiful than it is first thing in the morning. We are truly working in an awe-inspiring place. The weather was perfect today. Every time we even began to feel warm, a breeze came by to cool us down. The wind did pick up a bit in the late afternoon, but like everything else that seems to fall into place here, we were ready to pack up anyway. We all kept very busy today.  Some people went on a hiking expedition to do site assessment along the south mesa, while the rest of us stayed and continued to excavate our assigned units. We are all uncovering very interesting things. The land is rich with historical artifacts left behind by people working at and around the Wetherill Trading Post. Every bucket of earth we screen seems to be full of treasures. Bits of metal are very common, but we also come across artifacts left behind by earlier occupants such as pre-hispanic ceramic sherds and chipped stone. LeeAnna was even fortunate enough to uncover a projectile point. It was a very finely crafted biface that appeared to be made of chert.

Jenny did some work with her GPR equipment today. She was looking at the agricultural fields just south of Chetro Ketl. This particular type of field that is laid out in a grid type pattern may not have been so common in the canyon, so the data she collects should tell a very interesting story having to do with irrigation systems and farming techniques. 

There is never a shortage of things to do around here.  Our days are spent doing fieldwork and our evenings consist of bagging and tagging the day’s uncovered artifacts. Any spare time in between can be filled by giving one of the other group members a helping hand.  No one person’s assigned task is expected to be their burden alone. We work as a team. In a group this large you wouldn’t expect us all to be able to work together efficiently, but every day we do just that. From loading the trucks to clearing fields, we all seem to move together like a well oiled machine. You wouldn’t believe the amount of vegetation we can all clear in just a matter of minutes.

All in all fieldschool can sometimes feel a little intense, but it is immensely rewarding.  Every minute seems to bring another once in a lifetime opportunity. We go places and do things that many of us may never have the opportunity to do again. I know there are fieldschools held all over the world, but I really couldn’t imagine a better place to be or a better group of people to be experiencing it with.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Five in Chaco

A Day in the Life of an Archaeologist in Chaco Canyon

By LeeAnna Reagan

Morning starts early here, before the sun is even up. The coffee makers are prepped the night before so with the flick of a button our fresh hot caffeine morning boost is ready to get us out into the field. Students with kitchen duty set out the rest of the breakfast free-for-all at 5:30 am and the rest of the crew usually starts coming around 6 am, and by 6:30 am everyone has their breakfast devoured and lunches made. Everyone walks down to the trucks and loads them with the equipment needed for the day and we are ready to go by 7:20 am. We arrive at Pueblo Bonito and begin to unload the trucks and pack the equipment to the Wetherill Homestead Site, while the group of surveyors head to South Mesa. We set up  a shade shelter and do our morning calisthenics, which consists of clearing brush from sites. By 8 am we are all warmed up and ready to start work in our units.

In my unit there is a feature in the Northwest quadrant that I excavated and it turned out to be a historic post hole from a Wetherill building. It measures 40 cm across and 40 cm down and is in the second level in my unit. Because I am done excavating the feature I have pedestalled the Northwest quadrant and continued to excavate the remaining three quarters. I have noticed a lot of changes in the different areas of my 2 meter x 2 meter unit. For example, the soil in the Southwest quadrant is very sandy and is easy to trowel through, but the Northeast quadrant is full of sandstone rubble. The Northeast quadrant also has a lot of lignite, which is commonly referred to as poor mans coal. It is important to note these changes and differences in a unit because it could mean that you are on to something.

By 10am cookie break has arrived and it usually the time of day to take off another layer of coats. Cookie break is enjoyed by all and usually has an assortment of yummy cookies. Today we had ginger snaps and chocolate chip! During cookie break it’s a good time to get rehydrated and catch up on notes, but after 15 minutes it is time to get back to work. It is very important to keep the walls of a unit straight and to check the elevations to know where you are and how many more centimeters you have to go.  By the time 12pm rolls around, I usually have talked to a couple of visitors of the park who are curious about what we are doing and excavate a couple of centimeters more. Lunch is usually a bonding time amongst the group. We talk about what is going on in our units, what is going on back home or really random light conversation, which is my favorite. 12:30 has come and our lunches have been eaten, the water cooler has been lightened and we go back to our units to uncover more historic goodies!

The afternoon progresses and more layers come off and more centimeters go down. By the time 2:45 rolls around it is time to wrap up our units for the day and pack the trucks back up. I like to clean my unit at the end of the day and use the “Elton” counter brush to do so. Because my unit has a feature I have to cover it up with a tarp, but it is kind of hard to do in the wind. I secure it with rocks and sandbags and go to load up the trucks to head back to the lab. We get back to the lab at 4 pm and get the equipment put away and start categorizing the artifacts we found during the day. We assign them FS numbers and head back to camp at 5 to take showers and have dinner at 6, tonight it is salmon! After the clean up crew gets the kitchen back in order we go back down the lab at 7 pm and finish assigning FS numbers and get the equipment ready for tomorrow for the survey crew and the dig boxes for the excavating crew. If we are lucky we get out of lab at 8pm and get to bed by 9pm, then start the process all over again tomorrow.  

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Four in Chaco

By Stephen Bennett

Today completes our first full field week in Chaco Canyon. We had half a day of learning and excavation because of our long ride home to Albuquerque. The day began with a hike to Pueblo Alto. This was a privilege earned after three hardworking days in the field. We took the trail from Pueblo Bonito passing the Wetherill Cemetery and scaled the walls to the mesa top. The trail upward was somewhat rigorous across and behind the rock walls. The payoff was well worth it, because the view on top was incredible. The hike along the mesa top kept providing amazing views the whole way. It was early in the morning, so the sunrise accompanied all the scenery perfectly. When we reached Pueblo Alto our guide and teaching assistant Leigh gave us a preliminary overview of site assessment. This is a process that accompanies surveying in the archaeological field. We relocate known sites to assess any damage, including from the elk. After our tutorial on this process we hiked back down the trail.

 Once we were back at our excavation site near Pueblo Bonito we returned to our test pits for continued work. My excavation partner Priscilla and I began by setting up another test pit close to our original one to see how far the wood planks that we found yesterday continued.  Since it was a short day of field work we will have to wait until next week before we can find this out.  This was a short excavation session, but provided many great discoveries. An elusive map that provided mention of some architectural features was successfully proven in two test pits today. Katherine, Catlyn, Holly and Curtis were the students that contributed to Professor Wills’ project in these pits. They dug down and proved his belief that there were architectural features to be found in these areas. It was a very exciting moment for our whole class to partake in. Another moment of excitement came when student Leon found a scorpion in his screen. This drew the attention not only of our class, but nearby park stabilization workers. Unfortunately, we had to close up shop by noon at such an exciting moment. We finished up by covering all of our test pits with tarps because there is a good chance that it will rain in Chaco Canyon tonight.  We are all very excited to return to our second week in Chaco starting again this Sunday.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day 3 at Chaco

By Priscilla Aguilera

We started our day early, as always, and warmed up for the day by clearing the vegetation that was growing on a historic Navajo Hogan site. The exercise was welcome, as the sun was still hiding in the horizon and the temperature in the 30s F. We went on to get ready for the day at our excavation sites when we were told that we would be visiting Pueblo Bonito (right next door to the Wetherill site that we are working at). We entered an area in the northwestern part of the site and were met by park workmen. They explained to us that they were working on installing a pipe (top left hand corner of the picture) in order to drain water that was pooling in certain areas and damaging the site. Much work is required to maintain archaeological sites like Pueblo Bonito safe from the elements and accessible to visitors. The workmen then told us about a room in that same area that was accessible. We were invited to look at the room, and we eagerly accepted the invitation. With flashlight in hand, I entered the 1000-year-old room. The floor was packed neatly, and the walls were covered in dark, soot-like stains that went up to a ceiling composed with long, wooden beams that were burnt. They were labeled with numbers that indicated that dendrochronological samples were taken from them. I imagined the things that may have taken place in that room and the people who might have built it. But more than that, I wanted to know what had happened, and that is why archaeology is so amazing. With archaeological methods and data, we can do more than imagine, we can discover.  

But our day only began there. We went back to our unit at the Wetherill site and resumed our excavations from the day before. The temperature had risen to a more comfortable level and my partner Steve Bennett and I worked quickly and methodically to level our unit. Before long, we began to find bits of wood in the area were working on. Steven exclaimed excitedly that we had found wood planks. I went over to look; the area he pointed to was reddish and obviously different from the rest of the unit surface material. Upon close inspection it was easy to see the wood grain and fiber emerging from the ground. We had come upon wood that had lain buried for over 100 years and had been amazingly preserved in the dry climate of Chaco Canyon. We spent the rest of our day leveling the rest of the unit in order to determine how far the wood extended without exposing too much of it (it dries and deteriorates quickly once exposed to the air). We found metal fragments, prehistoric ceramics, glass, and even some material that looked like it had been used to seal windows. Eventually we discovered that the wood extended throughout the unit and had to suspend the unit in order to consider our next steps. But whatever happens, now we know that the people who lived at the Wetherill site put in wood planks at some point; we don’t have to just imagine anymore.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Two in Chaco

By Joshua Smith

Today marked the second day of our field work at Chaco, and our eleventh day of field work overall.  As yesterday, the weather was frigid but clear, with temperatures in the 20’s but thankfully very little wind.  We initiated the day by clearing more brush in an area believed to have been inhabited by Navajos based on the presence of non-indigenous sandstone which must have been imported at some point, and then we went back to our test pits which we had spent the previous day mapping. Some of these tests pits yielded some interesting discoveries.  

Leon Natker and LeeAnna Reagan found a horseshoe and an artifact carved out of gypsum in their test pit. They also found a feature, which has been labeled as feature number 10, and is theorized to either be a fire pit or a post.  This feature extended over to Lauren Butero and Pablo Flores’ test pit.  If it turns out to be a fire pit, that would be particularly interesting because Professor Wills says that he has not seen one of those on a UNM Chaco dig in several years. Curtis Randolph found some copper and the remains of what might be the grip of a pistol.  There is a precedent for this, as a previous auger test yielded a Colt handle that was almost fully intact.

 Priscilla Aguilera found a shark tooth loose within the debris of her and Stephen Bennett’s test pit.  Contrary to what a layperson might think, such a discovery is not unheard of within Chaco.  Millions of years ago, the Chaco region was immersed by ocean, and remnants of this era are continually being found. Katherine Shaum and Caitlin Holland found an interesting obsidian-like ball that may be a naturally-occurring object or perhaps a prehistoric artifact, but remains a mystery to (hopefully) be solved in the lab.

I did not have any field specimens myself, as I was assigned to reopen an excavation unit initially dug by the UNM Field School in June of 2012.  It had previously been dug to level four (80 centimeters), so I spent the majority of the day trying to locate the black fiber cloths that had been laid out and relocate the wall edges as I was scouring with the trowel.  Once that was located, the task became much easier, as I was able to shift to shovel work and remove larger loads.  I did not dig beyond the initial excavation today, but that is the plan for tomorrow.  Given these notes, and the interesting finds unearthed by my classmates, our Wednesday dig is shaping up to be very promising.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School in Chaco - Day One in Chaco

By Lauren Butero

Today was the UNM fieldschool’s first day in Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Sunday evening, we arrived and set up camp within the park. We were greeted this morning with a huge, waning moon above the cliffs that surround the canyon and a beautiful sunrise, complete with pink NM skies.  The Fieldschool Director, Dr. Wills, met with representatives from the park around 7 am, including one of the park archeologists, Dabney Ford, and interpretive staff member G.B. Cornucopia. After loading up, our train of black Chevy trucks pulled into the site. After much anticipation (weeks of it, in fact—three weeks to be exact) we are finally here! For many of us, working in the shadow of the massive ruins of Pueblo Bonito could only be described as surreal and dreamlike. Few archeologists are able to work in the Park at all, let alone so near to Chaco’s most famous ruin, and fewer students still. This is an amazing opportunity for all of us, professorial staff included.

No cattle to battle here, the park has had no grazing for over 30 years. Thankfully, that means our pin flags, which we use to mark artifacts and boundaries, are safe from munching. Our strings that serve as unit boundaries also won’t be tripped over and ripped out of the ground by wanton hooves. The crew began by clearing ground. New Mexico, including the San Juan Basin and Chaco Canyon, received late downpours in both Summer and early Fall, and we had a crop of weeds in areas of sparse groundcover. We spent nearly two hours clearing two track ways perpendicular to Pueblo Bonito’s south wall in the open space immediately to the west of the ruin where the Wetherill Homestead was located.

The field school is working to define the extent of the Wetherill Homestead and Trading Post, which was in operation prior to the land becoming a national monument. Richard Wetherill, of the Mesa Verde Wetherills, came to the canyon and was part of the first excavations at Pueblo Bonito and stayed on to ranch and operate a trading post where he traded with local Navajo families. In prior years, the field school had excavated a well that dangerously reopened near Pueblo Bonito. This season we are back to work at uncovering more of the original foundations and features of his homestead with one of the graduate students, Leigh Cominiello, as part of her dissertation work.

The Teaching Assistants, Leigh Cominello and Jenny Sturm, and Dr. Wills relocated points that had previously been used to set up the site grid; they used several maps, historic photographs, and Ground Penetration radar data to determine the best places to work this season. Josh Smith, one of our students, began working to uncover walls just below the surface. 

Using the total station, we laid in 4 units of varying sizes. In groups of two, we were able to finish excavating the first level in most of our units. The artifacts showing up in our screens stood in strong contrast to what appeared near Cabezon. Instead of solely Archaic material, we were running into historic ceramics, glass, and metal. However, because the Wetherill Homestead actually sits adjacent to Pueblo Bonito, there was still prehistoric material that might have washed in from surrounding areas over time. 

Some of our most comic moments came while interacting with visitors and staff in the National Park. Excavations in parks like Chaco are not all that common, and especially not in such public places. We were practically excavating on the visitors’ trail! Another trail rises along the mesa top cliffs to the north of us, and several times we caught Park staff watching us from an eagle’s vantage point. We had a fellow archeologist and visitor drop by, and also a gentleman who mistook us for maintenance staff and none-too-meekly suggested that we should be maintaining the road instead.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Four

By Pablo Flores 

           Today was Day Four and our last day at San Luis de Cabezon. It was a beautiful day for archaeology - the sun was bright and the wind was gentle. As usual we were greeted in the morning by the roaming cattle that graze the fields of the Rio Puerco Valley. The priority of the day was finishing up our test units, which were 1 x 1meter squares, in order to reach a closing point in our excavations at San Luis de Cabezon.  Using a trowel to excavate is not as straight forward as one would imagine – there is a specific angle (obtuse angle) in which to peel back the layers of dirt within a test unit and it takes practice to perfect this skill. This skill when mastered allows the archaeologist to reveal layers one at a time, which is very important in trying to identify surfaces that show human occupation. It requires patience and a keen eye to excavate so as not to overlook an artifact, feature or change in soil composition.

            My goal for the day was to reach the bottom of arbitrary Level 2, which meant removing soil until I had gone down a full 10 cm. I mostly encountered scattered charcoal within my unit and a small concentration of calcium carbonate, which is very important as it can suggest that a stable surface had been formed by human occupation. Calcium carbonate is found when water collects on a stable surface and evaporates. I did not recover any artifacts within Level 2, but I did reach an interesting feature within my unit that was a depression shaped like a basin. Dr. Wills instructed me in how best to remove the soil in order to reveal this feature. However there was no certainty that this feature was created by humans since further excavation of an adjacent unit was required. I was also given the chance to do some profile mapping of my unit on the North and West walls. This was a very enjoyable task because I worked with one of the Graduate Assistants and was able to get a second opinion about what I thought I was observing within the strata. The profile of the North and West walls were mapped because of the defined stratigraphy and the amount of charcoal within each wall.

At the end of the day we finished by laying a plastic lining within each of our excavated units and backfilling using the dirt we removed while excavating so that the OCA archaeologists would be able to reopen them for further excavation. It was while collecting this plastic lining that I found myself taking a mud bath.  Since the night before it had rained causing the surface to become very soft the plastic lining had become submerged and while trying to recover it I also became submerged. Luckily I only fell in once, but I sure was dirty! All in all it was a wonderful time and great place to learn excavation methods at San Luis de Cabezon. With the government now open we will be able to continue our field school as planned at Chaco Canyon and although I will miss the presence of Cabezon in the background I relish in the thought of going to Chaco Canyon next week.   

UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day 3

 

 By Leon Natker

Today was our third day working at San Luis de Cabezon.  The peak is a volcanic plug and very pretty in the morning light.  Last night an early winter storm passed through northern New Mexico bringing rain to some areas and snow to higher elevations. When we arrived at the site we discovered it had rained during the night and left the site very muddy.  Because of the combination of clay and sand in the soil the mud clung to our boots as we were unloading the trucks making them very heavy. One of our classmates commented that walking with these muddy boots felt like we were playing the monster in Frankenstein. The mud slowed us down a little but we got the equipment unloaded and prepared to return to the units we started excavating yesterday. Everyone was a bit worried that the rain might have caused damage to their units.  The rain had soaked the top soil but in some cases that made it easier to work with.

My dig partner and I had excavated to the bottom of our first level yesterday, so we began our second level. Charcoal and ash were concentrated in a particular area of the unit. Dr. Wills said he thought it might represent a hearth or other feature, so he instructed us to expand our 1 x 1 m unit to a 2 x 2 m unit in order to capture the entire possible feature. My partner and I repeated the process of laying out a unit. In archaeology it is very important to do all of the preparatory work accurately so that if you do find a feature or artifact you can record it in a way that any future archaeologist will know what it looked like in the ground when you found it.  We finished our preparation just before lunch.  Lunch is a good time for all of us.  We sit in a circle together and talk about what we did during the morning and enjoy the scenery—the picture only shows a third of the group of 15.

 

After lunch my partner and I started excavating our new units.  One of Graduate Assistants came by to instruct us on maintaining vertical control of the unit as we excavate and how important that is.. That sounds mysterious but it really isn’t. Think of a unit as a cake still in the baking pan.  Instead of cutting small pieces out of it one at a time you want to slice thin layers evenly as you go down to the bottom in order to remove it. That is maintaining vertical control. It’s another important thing to do so that future archaeologists know where you found things.

 

A little after two o’clock we got a special treat.  The University of New Mexico Office of Contract Archaeology on another site on the pipeline.  One of the archaeologists visited us and said they had found something very interesting and we could come and take a look. At the site, the OCA archaeologists were excavating a pithouse. Within the pithouse, they had found a number of pieces of groundstone, including several manos and a large metate. After we all had a good look we went back to our site.  By now it was time to clean up for the day.  We didn’t finish excavating to the second level of our unit but that leaves something exciting for tomorrow.    

UNM 2013 Fall Field School Day 2

By Holly Bennett

Today was Day Two at the San Luis de Cabezon Site for UNM’s field school. As our caravan of three black Chevy trucks arrived on site we were greeted by two cows. Both were at a makeshift watering hole created by the nearby pipeline construction. Little do they know that one day prior Professor Crown found a baby cow leg during the morning survey. Though she amused the crew with it all day long, the bone should serve as a cautionary tale for the nearby loud and proud cow community. Needless to say we parked, unpacked and the cows split…for a little while.

At the end of Day One the class had nearly completed all work to start excavation. We had been designated specific locations to prepare 1 meter by 1 meter squares. So, our excavation of this site is a scatter of test pits throughout the archaeological area. Six test pits were prepared by the close of the day. When we arrived this morning the whole class was prepped to begin work in these test pits. For some of us this our first time excavating in the field, while others have had some prior field training. Regardless of each student’s experience, we were all excited to get started and speaking for my group of three, also a little nervous. Before we scattered away to our designated spots, Professor Wills gave us our first official archaeological form to fill out as we worked. He also told us all the information that we needed to record in both our journal and the official paperwork. We learned very quickly that excavation is not just digging. It is a complicated process of muscle work and paperwork. It is important to make sure the work is not only useful for the archaeologist on site, but also for other archaeologists and the public.

After our morning briefing my group of three carried a finely prepared UNM archaeology tool kit, a screen, a shovel, hand trowels, a bucket, a dust pan and a dust pan brush out to our assigned squares. Please note these dust pan brushes were the best part of our tools because they all came with the name Elton for being so glam (They are bright green and work fabulously)! All of the groups had the same assignments and our Professors and Teaching Assistants were rotating around to help us. We had to collect any surface artifacts before excavation could begin. In our square we found fire cracked rock and a groundstone fragment. Not super exciting, but for archaeologists in training its like Christmas!  After taking care of surface artifacts by bagging them with all proper data we made our first trowel cuts into the soil. Mind you I learned very quickly archeological excavation is not about hulking out. I myself know this because my natural response was to hulk out with my trowel; however, Professor Wills very patiently corrected me by saying that the dirt should be pulled back like pages in a book. We spent the remainder of the day peeling back the layers of dirt and learning the basics along the way. For instance how to most effectively use a trowel. I related the posture to how an ice cream scoop is pulled towards you…but more importantly it is an almost flat motion towards your body. As the layers came up we poured buckets and buckets through a screen in order to find any remaining artifacts in the dirt. In Level One we found some flakes and in the ground features some charcoal. The day ended with a 10cm level completed. The process was all learning. The most important thing I learned today is the Hulk would make a terrible archaeologist. Excavation is a delicate and artful process that will take some time getting used to. 

As for the cows, they reluctantly greeted us in the morning. A baby was separated from its mother by our site and whined like any child too far from mom during the day (don’t worry coercing helped them to be reunited). A gutsy troop came for a quick sip and run in the afternoon. So it was only appropriate to see them all lounging across the road as we drove the three black Chevy’s out of the site and up the road headed home.

UNM 2013 Fall Field School- Day 1

Note: The 2013 UNM Field School was planned for Chaco Canyon, including testing at the Wetherill Homestead.  However, due to the government shutdown, we had to relocate and were delayed in going into the field.  

San Luis de Cabezon – Day 1 (10/14/2013)- blog entry by Katherine Shaum

            Today was the first day of our class’s time working at San Luis de Cabezon, a site about 1.5 hours from the University of New Mexico. The site is located in the Rio Puerco Valley northwest of the Rio Puerco on a flat plain dominated by Cabezon Peak. There are small cactui on the site and gold and green cottonwoods along the river. The only wildlife we saw today were lizards and a horned caterpillar. Weather-wise, we battled the wind – sometimes unsuccessfully – with copious amounts of rubber bands.

            Our archaeological site is close to a construction site where construction workers are installing a new pipeline. This site is an example of CRM (cultural resource management) archaeology in which archaeologists help construction companies follow the law by finding and researching archaeological sites before construction changes or damages the site.

            This site (and others along the river) date to what is called the Archaic period, about 3000 or 2000 years ago. This was a time when people were transitioning from the hunting of animals and the gathering of wild plants to farming, including growing corn. People likely only lived at the site seasonally. In modern times, the site was again used for farming and cattle grazing.

            Before excavating, we had to first get an idea of the layout of the site. The class started the day by flagging artifacts lying on the surface of the ground with orange pin-flags. The oldest things we found were fire-cracked rock and pieces of chipped stone. We also found glass, metal, and pottery sherds from historic times. We also found animal bones, such as a baby cow leg bone! We also found corncobs, evidence for the past farming on the site.

            After flagging the artifacts, we could see where artifacts were concentrated. This helped us decide where we wanted to place our test pits for excavation. Using a Total Station, tape measures, twine, wooden stakes, and a mallet, we measured distances and placed six 1 meter x 1 meter squares in promising locations across the site. We are ready to start excavation tomorrow morning.

            My partner Holly and I also went around logging, organizing, and bagging some of the surface artifacts. They were mostly pieces of chipped stone made of materials such as quartzite and petrified wood. We did this together with the help of the Total Station so we could record the exact location on the surface of each artifact. We then bagged each artifact and brought them back to UNM for further analysis.

            In sum, there is a lot of important mapping and paperwork to be done before excavation can start. But we have ensured that we will start on a good footing.