Field Notes

CONSER V ANC Y

FieldNotes

Celebration at Zuni Site

SOUTHWEST—Zuni tribal officials and staff and members of the Conservancy gathered to celebrate the transfer of the Box S site to the Pueblo of Zuni. Box S,which is known to the Zunis as Heshodan Imk’oskwi’a,or Emerging Village, is a large masonry pueblo that was occupied by Zuni ancestors between A.D. 1260 and 1285. The Zunis obtained the site from the Conservancy with the help of a grant from the Lannan Foundation. In recent years, the site had been looted, but the majority of the approximately 1,100 masonry rooms remain intact. The Conservancy acquired the pueblo in 1999, after almost 20 years of negotiations with the landowner.The Zunis worked with the Conservancy to stabilize the site,backfill the looted rooms,and plant native grasses.

The celebration included tours of the site’s archaeological features, a Zuni meal,and a traditional Zuni dance. Zuni Governor Malcolm Bowekaty spoke to the group, expressing his gratitude to all the people who helped to protect this sacred place. He spoke first to his tribal members in Zuni, and then, turning to the rest of the audience said,“For you, this place represents the past.But for us, it is still living.Many important people are buried here,and we still turn to them when we need them.”

The Zunis will maintain the site for tribal and spiritual purposes,as well as for educational and scientific ones.By allowing the public to visit, the Zunis hope to educate people about the importance of preserving ancestral Native American sites.

A Small Piece of a Big Puzzle

MIDWEST—One might be tempted to think that an archaeological site that is a state park,a National Historic Landmark, and a World Heritage Site would be safely preserved for future generations. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth if the site is Cahokia Mounds, the remains of the largest prehistoric town north of Mexico.Although the State of Illinois preserved the center of Cahokia by making it a state historic site,Cahokia’s outlying areas are endangered by the industrial, commercial,and residential development of nearby East St.Louis and the surrounding communities.

The Conservancy created its second Illinois preserve on the western edge of Cahokia. Surrounded by highways,a golf course, modest homes, and small businesses,this three-acre preserve had been used for agriculture until John Kelly, an archaeologist with Washington University of St.Louis and

These chert cores (top) and drills and blades (bottom) were found at the Fingerhut tract. The drills and blades were primarily used to make beads, which the people of Cahokia bartered. The chert came from quarries in Missouri roughly 30 miles away.

Conservancy friend extraordinaire purchased it last year.

Kelly bought the land as a part of a larger parcel that included a house.The house will now serve as the field headquarters for the Powell Archaeological Research Center,an organization established by Kelly and his associates to conduct archaeological research in the Cahokia area. The remaining land was sold at cost to the Conservancy for permanent preservation.

The preserve is located in the area of Cahokia referred to as the Fingerhut tract, which was named in honor of an earlier landowner. Immediately south is the former location of the Powell mound,the third highest mound at Cahokia.It was leveled in the 1930s by a landowner indifferent to the pleas of archaeologists. Another,smaller mound lies immediately southeast of the Conservancy’s parcel, preserved in a residential backyard.

Although no excavations have taken place within the confines of the Conservancy’s preserve, an archaeological survey of the surface produced artifacts dating to roughly the 12th century A.D.,when Cahokia was at its height. As well as the usual occupation debris, the survey produced a sizable quantity of small stone drills which may have been used to manufacture shell beads,and numerous flakes of basalt,a likely by-product of the manufacture of stone axes.

These items are intriguing,since some archaeologists have made a controversial argument that certain goods,beads in particular,may have been produced by specialists who worked exclusively on making the goods that were exchanged via Cahokia’s far-flung trade networks. Preservation of the Fingerhut tract may provide another piece of the puzzle that is Cahokia.

Happenings at Howiri

SOUTHWEST—The Conservancy is making progress on the Howiri Pueblo project in northern New Mexico. First described by archaeologist Adolph Bandelier in 1892,Howiri is a 1,700 room biscuit ware pueblo occupied from A.D. 1325 to 1600,situated on 17 vacant residential lots (22 acres) near Ojo Caliente,New Mexico.The term biscuit ware refers to a prominent pottery type manufactured by a group of 20 to 30 pueblos that occupied the lower Chama River valley during the 14th and 15th centuries. The pottery resembles unglazed vitreous china,which is also called biscuit ware. Anthropologists trace the living descendants of Howiri to the people who now reside in nearby San Juan Pueblo.

Last June in Santa Fe,New Mexico,the Conservancy sponsored a lecture by Kurt Anschuetz entitled “Beyond Biscuit Ware:New Perspectives on the Pueblo Archaeology of the Rio Chama.” Anschuetz is with the Rio Grande Foundation for Communities and Cultural Landscapes. Later that month,Conservancy staff members Jim Walker and Steve Koczan led tours of the site.

The Conservancy has just completed the construction of a perimeter fence protecting the preserve, and volunteer site stewards who live nearby have been recruited to guard the pueblo. The Conservancy still needs just over $100,000 to complete the project.