 |
  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
On
Site... July 19: The expected and unexpected...
Sunrise at the Chaves-Hummingbird site. Archaeology is a perfect melding of the expected and unexpected, as long as you don't expect too much. Today's work continued as expected in most of the excavation areas. Our Earthwatch investigators found the remains of an early room underlying the burned remains of Room 5 in the Eastern roomblock, not uncommon in a village where architecture was always in the process of alteration. Likewise, excavations in Rooms 43 and 901 continued to work through the fill of their rooms, finding adobe wall fragments, pottery, and even a small turquoise pendant. Interesting, but you may wonder, how do these rooms get filled? Well, think of these one- and two-story adobe (clay-rich mud, if you will) buildings exposed to the elements after the site occupants left some time during the late 14th century. As the weather takes its toll on the mud walls, the buildings begin to degrade and collapse. The melting mud erodes into the now-roofless rooms, slowly filling the rooms as the walls fall apart. Snow falls and melts, summer storms wash down the weakening walls, and the site settles into itself. Soon the melting walls erode down to the level of the sediments filling the rooms, and there you have a filled room.
Working in Room 43. Commonly the materials filling the rooms are the same materials that comprise the buildings. Adobe, pieces of wood, stray fragments of pottery and stone tools. Excavations can be grueling as your Marshalltown trowel bounces off of the sturdy adobe fragments in the room fill. You want to take a pick axe to the stubborn soil, but the danger of damaging centuries-old materials slows your impulse. The information gained can be very worthwhile. Room 43 may have the remains of a fireplace in the fill of the room, and that means that the room either had a roof fireplace or possibly a second story of architecture. Room 901 on the main mound may also have been two or more stories in height, but was built with walls of stone rather than adobe. God bless the excavators of the rubble-filled Room 901, aptly named "Heartbreak Hill" given the large amount of stone that needs to be excavated in each 10-centimeter level.
Careful work reveals the contests for Room 901. The realm of the unexpected keeps excavation projects honest….and humble. We began excavating the area just south of Room 38 in the Northern roomblock, planning to uncover the layers of use, cleaning, and compaction that typify public space of all Puebloan plazas. The discovery of a beautifully prepared adobe floor and hearth in this area shows that we are excavating in a buried room, one whose walls were not found during the surface scraping in 1999. Next to the hearth is our next unknown, the outline of a pit filled in with adobe and silt. We will be investigating the pit over the next two days.
Work in the area surrounding Room 38. So that's the archaeology. Those of you reading this probably have some link to this exceptional group of people who have signed on to this dialogue between the known and the unknown. I'd like to end with a compliment for these individuals, all of whom revel in the teamwork that supports all of this sweat and effort. You are a joy. Mike Adler |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The contents of this Web site are copyright materials of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at Southern Methodist University. All rights are reserved. The contents of this Web site are the sole responsibility of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Southern Methodist University. The administrator of this site may be contacted at isem@mail.smu.edu. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
Learn
more about this watershed here