American Archaeology Magazine | Winter 2002-03 | Vol. 6 No. 4 by American Archaeology Magazine

PUZZLING OVER PAA-KO • DISCOVERING A CAHOKIA OUTLIER • A RIVERBOAT ARCHAEOLOGIST

american archaeology WINTER 2002-03

a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy

Vol. 6 No. 4

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The Search for America’s Beginnings

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american archaeology a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy

Vol. 6 No. 4

winter 2002-03 COVER FEATURE

12 THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICA BY MICHAEL BAWAYA

The investigation of Jamestown is attempting to tell the story not only of the first permanent English settlement in America, but of the genesis of the nation itself.

2 0 PUZZLING OVER PA A - K O BY NANCY HARBERT

How did Spanish colonization affect this New Mexico pueblo? An excavation is providing some answers.

2 7 ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAPPING ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE BY REED KARAIM

Various technological advancements are resulting in dramatic changes.

3 4 REDISCOVERING THE EAST ST. L O U I S M O U N D S BY JOHN G.CARLTON

This Cahokia outlier was thought to have been destroyed. But an archaeologist with a keen eye discerned evidence of it in the neighborhoods of this city.

41 R I V E R B O AT ARCHAEOLOGIST BY TAMARA STEWART

Former businessman C. B. Moore plied the rivers of the Southeast to become an archaeological pioneer.

44 new acquisition C O N S E RVA N C Y MEMBER ASSISTS WITH PURCHASE OF PREHISTORIC PUEBLO Village site tells of early occupation in northern New Mexico.

46 new acquisition C O M M U N I T Y CENTER PRESERV E D IN EAST-CENTRAL ARIZONA Late prehistoric pueblo represents key periods of change in the area.

4 8 point acquisition THE MYSTERY OF PLATFORM HOUSES The Wilsford site reveals a new type of Mississippian architecture. COVER: Danny Schmidt, an archaeologist at Jamestown, holds a pewter vessel that resembles an English baluster wine measure. Schmidt is standing in the bottom of a well in which the vessel was discovered. Photograph by Lynda Richardson

american archaeology

2 Lay of the Land 3 Letters 5 Events 7 In the News Court Rules on Kennewick Man • Age of Ancient Remains Being Questioned • Maya Ruins Threatened by Dam

50 Field Notes 5 2 Reviews 54 Expeditions 1

Lay of the Land

s one of America’s most depressed cities, East St. Louis has become synonymous with urban decay. But for all the misery in that sad city, there is a silver lining, as our feature in this issue of American Archaeology explains. The city was built on top of a major Mississippian mound center long before archaeologists had the opportunity to explore it. That’s not uncommon in America. Many modern cites sit atop ancient ones—New York, Phoenix, Cincinnati, and St. Louis are among the most prominent. In East St. Louis, archaeologist John Kelly and his crew are rediscovering the ancient city that was

hidden under houses and businesses and in back yards and vacant lots. When I visited the digs in July, I was amazed at what was left. I was also impressed by the dedication of Kelly and his crew, who work in difficult circumstances. They are literally rediscovering the lost city of the Mississippians in the ruins of the 21st century. With the help of the Conservancy, they are also taking this opportunity to permanently preserve some of the most important prehistoric locales by buying up abandoned lots at auction. When East St. Louis is rebuilt, its early history will not be forgotten a second time.

DARREN POORE

Finding A City Under A City

MARK MICHEL, President

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winter • 2002-03

Letters Editor’s Corner Nutty Scholarship As I have a great interest in the ethnobotany of the Americas, I was pleased to see even a survey article on New World foods in your Fall issue. However, the opening photograph clearly shows pistachio nuts (not the peanuts or cashews mentioned in Brian Fagan’s text). Although pistachios are commercially grown in some of the most arid parts of the American Southwest, they are native to the very Old World Middle East. There are many fascinating stories in the field of ethnobotany that are confirmed by archaeologists. But a magazine such as yours should not let a bag labeled “New Mexico Pistachios” confuse the scholarship. Patricia L. Stone Atlanta, Georgia

Sending Letters to American Archaeology American Archaeology welcomes your letters. Write to us at 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or send us e-mail at archcons@nm.net. We reserve the right to edit and publish letters in the magazine’s Letters department as space permits. Please include your name, address, and telephone number with all correspondence, including e-mail messages. american archaeology

The Anasazis’ Best Friend The article “Dogs Throughout Time” by Dennis Johnson in the Fall issue reminded me of a trip into Utah’s Grand Gulch. At an obscure rock art site I found a small pictograph panel depicting a kind of group portrait. Three ochre-colored human handprints were pressed side-by-side on the cliff face, but there was a curious addendum. A dog’s paw print was added to the group, revealing what may have been a familial relationship with this particular canine. Similarly, petroglyph panels of dogs assisting in the hunt and even playful dog portrayals are not uncommon in the Southwest. In contrast to the more conventional evidence concerning the role of dogs in prehistoric America yielded by excavations, Anasazi rock art echoes the socio-religious beliefs of the people and apparently the friendly status of their dogs. Kenneth Sassen Fairbanks, Alaska

The Jamestown Rediscover y archaeological project has been going on for about eight years. The goal of this ambitious and fascinating project is to better understand what life was like at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. Histor y has said more about Jamestown than archaeology, but this investigation is proving that the latter science will have a major role in defining life at the settlement. The excavation has made a number of major discoveries, one of the most salient being that the settlement’s for t did not wash away into the James River, as many people had thought. The excavation has recovered some 400,000 ar tifacts that speak of 17-century life. The notion still exists that archaeology serves as little more than a footnote to history. The Jamestown investigation, along with other excavations, sharply refutes that idea.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication Title: American Archaeology. 2. Publication No.: 1093-8400. 3. Date of Filing: September 18, 2002. 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 4. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $25.00. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: same as No. 7. 9. Names and Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher-Mark Michel, address same as No. 7. Editor-Michael Bawaya, address same as No. 7. Managing Editor-N/A. 10. Owner: The Archaeological Conservancy, address same as No. 7. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months. 13. Publication Title: American Archaeology. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: Spring 2002. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average Number of Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: (A) Total No. Copies (net press run): 30,275; (B) Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (1) Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541 (Include advertiser’s proof copies and exchange copies): 20,218; (2) Paid InCounty Subscriptions (Include advertiser’s proof copies and exchange copies): 0; (3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS Paid Distribution: 4,688; (4) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 1,100. (C) Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15B (1), (2), (3), and (4)): 26,006; (D) Free Distribution by Mail (Samples, complimentary, and other free): (1) Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (2) In-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (3) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 75; (E) Free Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 500; (F) Total Free Distribution (Sum of 15D and 15E): 575; (G) Total Distribution (Sum of 15C and 15F): 26,581; (H) Copies not Distributed: 3,694; (I) Total (Sum of 15G and 15H): 30,275. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15C/15G x 100): 97.84%. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Number Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: (A) Total No. Copies (net press run): 31,100; (B) Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (1) Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541 (Include advertiser’s proof copies and exchange copies): 19,416; (2) Paid InCounty Subscriptions (Include advertiser’s proof copies and exchange copies): 0; (3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS Paid Distribution: 4,689; (4) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 1,600. (C) Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15B (1), (2), (3), and (4)): 25,705; (D) Free Distribution by Mail (Samples, complimentary, and other free): (1) Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (2) In-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (3) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 50; (E) Free Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 800; (F) Total Free Distribution (Sum of 15D and 15E): 850; (G) Total Distribution (Sum of 15C and 15F): 26,555; (H) Copies not Distributed: 4,545; (I) Total (Sum of 15G and 15H): 31,100. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15C/15G x 100): 96.80%. 16. This Statement of Ownership will be printed in the Winter 2002 issue of this publication. 17. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. Michael Bawaya, Editor.

WELCOME TO THE ARCHAEOLOGIC AL CONSERVANC Y!

he Archaeological Conservancy is the only national non-profit organization that identifies, acquires, and preserves the most significant archaeological sites in the United States. Since its beginning in 1980, the Conservancy has preserved more than 250 sites across the nation, ranging in age from the earliest habitation sites in North America to a 19thcentury frontier army post. We are building a national system of archaeological preserves to ensure the survival of our irreplaceable cultural heritage.

Why Save Archaeological Sites? The ancient people of North America left virtually no written records of their cultures. Clues that might someday solve the mysteries of prehistoric America are still missing, and when a ruin is destroyed by looters, or leveled for a shopping center, precious information is lost. By permanently preserving endangered ruins, we make sure they will be here for future generations to study and enjoy. How We Raise Funds: Funds for the Conservancy come from membership dues, individual contributions, corporations, and foundations. Gifts and bequests of money, land, and securities are fully tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Planned giving provides donors with substantial tax deductions and a variety of beneficiary possibilities. For more information, call Mark Michel at (505) 266-1540. The Role of the Magazine: American Archaeology is the only popular magazine devoted to presenting the rich diversity of archaeology in the Americas. The purpose of the magazine is to help readers appreciate and understand the archaeological wonders available to them, and to raise their awareness of the destruction of our cultural heritage. By sharing new discoveries, research, and activities in an enjoyable and informative way, we hope we can make learning about ancient America 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; by phone: (505) 266-1540; by e-mail: archcons@nm.net; or visit our Web site: www.americanarchaeology.org

5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 • (505) 266-1540 www.americanarchaeology.org Board of Directors Earl Gadbery, Pennsylvania, CHAIRMAN Cecil F. Antone, Arizona • David Bergholz, Ohio Janet Creighton, Washington • Christopher B. Donnan, California Janet EtsHokin, Illinois • Jerry EtsHokin, Illinois W. James Judge, Colorado • Jay T. Last, California • Dorinda Oliver, New York Rosamond Stanton, New Mexico • Vincas Steponaitis, North Carolina Dee Ann Story, Texas • Stewart L. Udall, New Mexico Conser vancy Staff Mark Michel, President • Tione Joseph, Business Manager Erika Olsson, Membership Director • Shelley Smith, Membership Assistant Lorna Thickett, Membership Associate • Kerry Elder, Special Projects Director Valerie Long, Administrative Assistant Regional Offices and Directors Jim Walker, Southwest Region (505) 266-1540 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 Tamara Stewart, Projects Coordinator • Steve Koczan, Site-Management Coordinator Amy Espinoza, Field Representative Paul Gardner, Midwest Region (614) 267-1100 295 Acton Road • Columbus, Ohio 43214 Alan Gruber, Southeast Region (770) 975-4344 5997 Cedar Crest Road • Acworth, Georgia 30101 Jessica Crawford, Projects Coordinator Gene Hurych, Western Region (916) 399-1193 1 Shoal Court #67 • Sacramento, California 95831 Donald Craib, Eastern Region (703) 780-4456 9104 Old Mt. Vernon Road • Alexandria, Virginia 22309

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PUBLISHER: Mark Michel EDITOR: Michael Bawaya (505) 266-9668, archcons@nm.net ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tamara Stewart ART DIRECTOR: Vicki Marie Singer, vickimarie@nmbiz.com Tina Larkin, Editorial Intern Editorial Advisor y Board Ernie Boszhardt, Mississippi Valley Archaeological Center Darrell Creel, University of Texas • Jonathan Damp, Zuni Cultural Resources Richard Daugherty, Washington State University • David Dye, University of Memphis Kristen Gremillion, Ohio State University • Megg Heath, Bureau of Land Management Susan Hector, San Diego • Richard Jenkins, California Dept. of Forestry John Kelly, Washington University • Robert Kuhn, New York Historic Preservation Mark Lynott, National Park Service • Linda Mayro, Pima County, Arizona Jeff Mitchem, Arkansas Archaeological Survey • Giovanna Peebles, Vermont State Archaeologist Janet Rafferty, Mississippi State University • Ann Rogers, Oregon State University Kenneth Sassaman, University of Florida • Donna Seifert, John Milner Associates Art Spiess, Maine Historic Preservation • Richard Woodbury, University of Massachusetts National Advertising Office Marcia Ulibarri, Advertising Representative 5401 6th Street NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107; (505) 344-6018; Fax (505) 345-3430; mulibarri@earthlink.net 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, © 2002 by TAC. Printed in the United States. Periodicals postage paid Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one-year membership to the Conservancy is $25 and includes receipt of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is designated for a one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new memberships, renewals, or change of address, write to The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or call (505) 266-1540. For changes of address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational purposes and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conservancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology. Article proposals and artwork should be addressed to the editor. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive expert review. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Archaeology, The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reserved.

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

winter • 2002-03

Museum exhibits

NEVADA STATE MUSEUM AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Meetings

•

Tours

Education

•

Conferences

■ NEW EXHIBITS Florida Museum of Natural History Gainesville, Fla.—The new 6,000square-foot permanent exhibition “South Florida People and Environments” examines the life and history of Florida’s native Calusa Indians and highlights the Seminole and Miccosukee cultures living in south Florida today.The Calusa engaged in long-distance commerce, engineered sophisticated canals, and built large mound complexes, controlling the southern half of Florida by the time of the European arrival in the 1500s.The exhibit features more than 700 Calusa objects, including such masterpieces as a thousand-year-old painting of an ivorybilled woodpecker. (352) 846-2000 (New permanent exhibit)

Lost City Museum Overton, Nev.—The new “Early Man Exhibit” covers the earliest Native American occupations of southern Nevada from the Paleo-Indian through the Archaic and Basketmaker periods. Prehistoric technologies such as flint knapping, basket weaving, atlatl throwing, and pottery making are demonstrated. (702) 397-2193 (New long-term exhibit)

BURKE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND CULTURE

Events

Festivals

Nevada State Museum and Historical Society Las Vegas, Nev.—“The Big Dig” commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Tule Springs Archaeological Expedition with an extravagant display of photographs and artifacts from the original expedition.The expedition to the Tule Springs site, then thought to be one of the most significant early man sites on the North American continent, was a collective effort of both the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles and the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. (702) 486-3700 (New longterm exhibit)

Abbe Museum Bar Harbor, Maine—An extensive collection of more than 400 Native American baskets from the Northeast is featured in the new exhibit “The Basket Room: Baskets from the Anne Molloy Howells Collection.” The exhibit represents nearly 200 years of basketry and includes a broad range of styles. (207) 288-3519 (Opens February 1)

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Seattle, Wash.—The landmark exhibit “Out of Silence: The Enduring Power of Totem Poles” pairs an extraordinary photographic collection of images of Northwest Coast native village sites with rarely seen sculptural treasures from the renowned Burke collection. The exhibition is based on the amazing photographic collection of Adlaide de Menil, who visited Northwest Coast villages from Vancouver Island to Southeast Alaska in the late 1960s and documented the monumental sculptural tradition thought to be on the brink of extinction. Carvings from six major cultures are represented: the Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, Coast Salish, Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida. The museum's winter lecture series will focus on various aspects of Northwest Coastal Native American art. (206) 543-9762 (New long-term exhibit) american archaeology

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Southwest Archaeology Lecture Series

Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. —Exhibited for the first time,“Charles Fletcher Lummis: Southwestern Portraits, 1888–1896” features a selection of Lummis’s favorite photographs. Charles Lummis was a journalist, historian, ethnographer, archaeologist, photographer, poet, Indian rights and historical preservation activist, and Harvard alumnus who devoted his life to educating Americans about the lives, history, traditions,and beliefs of peoples of the Southwest. Over his lifetime, he produced over 10,000 photographs, most between the years 1888 and 1900. His photography is an important resource for archaeologists, ethnologists, and contemporary Puebloan people of the American Southwest. (617) 495-3045 (Through March)

■ CONFERENCES, LECTURES & FESTIVALS Winter Storytelling Festival

Fowler Museum of Cultural History UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif.—”Katsina/ Kachina: Tradition, Appropriation, Innovation” explores and illustrates the pervasive presence of kachina dolls in Hopi culture and across the Southwestern landscape. Original tithu from the 19th century—dolls that play a major role in a Hopi girl's rite of passage and are believed to have been created from the appearance of spirit beings known as katsina symbols—are on display as well as paintings, sculpture, toys, and clothing. (310) 825-2585 (Through March 23)

December 26–30, 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, Wash. The Burke Museum’s annual festival brings together seasoned storytellers and rising young stars from a variety of cultures to educate and entertain. This year’s storytellers include festival favorites Nancy Calos-Nakano (AsianPacific stories) and Olga Sanchez (Latin-American tales) as well as a variety of new voices. (206) 543-7907, www.burkemuseum.org

January 27–March 31, Mondays at 6 p.m., Hotel Santa Fe, Santa Fe, N.M. Southwest Seminars will be hosting a 10-session lecture series to benefit The Archaeological Conservancy. Lectures are free and will cover a wide range of topics related to Southwestern archaeology. Conservancy members in the area will receive a list of speakers and topics. (505) 466-2775, archcons@nm.net

Society for Historical Archaeology and the Advisory Council for Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference January 14–19, Westin Hotel, Providence, R.I.This year’s theme is “Trade and Industrialization.” The conference includes presentations, symposia, and other events. (520) 886-8006, www.sha.org

Maya 101 February 8, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pa. Learn about the Maya’s origins, culture, religion, hieroglyphs.The day includes a special lunch with keynote speaker Jeremy Sabloff, director of the museum and author of The Maya and the New Archaeology. (215) 898-4000

45th Annual Indian Fair and Market March 1–2, Heard Museum, Phoenix,Ariz. This annual event, one of the most prestigious in the Southwest, draws more than 500 of the nation’s finest Native American artists. The fair also features traditional music, dance performances and Native foods. (620)252-8848

9th Annual Southwest Indian Art Fair February 22–23, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. Nearly 200 of the Southwest's most renowned native artists will be selling their work. The fair also features traditional foods, music, and dances. (520) 621-6302, www.statemuseum.arizona.edu

winter • 2002-03

FOWLER MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY

Events

in the Scientists Win Kennewick Man Case

NEWS

Landmark decision is being appealed.

ast August, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Bonnichsen et. al. v. U.S ruled that the human remains known as Kennewick Man are not Native American nor culturally affiliated with local Indian tribes under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Setting aside a decision by the federal government to classify the remains as Native American and repatriate them to a group of local tribal claimants, the court cleared the way for the plaintiff scientists to conduct studies on the remains. The decision could have wide reaching implications. The court ruled that “allowing study is fully consistent with applicable statutes and regulations, which are clearly intended to make archaeological information available to the public through scientific research.” Since its discovery in 1996 along the shoreline of the Columbia River in southeast Washington, Kennewick Man has drawn worldwide attention and pitted a group of scientists against the federal government. Kennewick Man was initially thought to be an early European

american archaeology

settler, but additional study determined that the remains are over 9,400 years old and have physical characteristics unlike any other remains found in the region. Despite this information, the federal government determined that the remains should be repatriated under NAGPRA to a coalition of local tribes that claim they have been living in the area since the beginning of time. The tribes also contended that allowing scientists to conduct scientific studies would violate their religious beliefs. Before the remains were repatriated the scientists sued for the right to study them. “The decision is an important win for science and archaeology,” said archaeologist Rob Bonnichsen, the lead plaintiff in the case and the director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans. “Hopefully, we will now be able to fully study the Kennewick skeleton which will further our knowledge about early New World biological populations and our understanding of the peopling of the Americas.” The Society for American Archaeology stated that it “welcomed

the clarity the court’s opinion will bring to how NAGPRA is interpreted. The decision sets important precedents that will balance the legitimate interests of tribes in reclaiming the remains of direct ancestors with the equally legitimate public interest in understanding the human past. Such balance was Congress’s intent when NAGPRA was passed.” The statement by the claimants declared: “The court’s decision today removes any barriers that would prevent the plaintiff scientists from demanding access to all Native American human remains, for the scientific needs, regardless of whether the remains were 20 or 20,000 years old.” Four Northwest tribes along with the federal government have filed appeals with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the court’s decision. The ruling sets precedent only in Oregon. But if these appeals are unsuccessful, they run the risk of having the precedential value of the decision extended to an additional eight western states, including California, Nevada, Washington, and Arizona. —Donald Craib

in the

NEWS

Remains Found in Texas Could Be Among Nation’s Oldest Some experts are skeptical of the remains’s age.

adiocarbon dating of fragmentary human remains discovered in south Brazoria County,Texas, south of Galveston, have indicated that the bones are approximately 12,500 years old. If the date is correct, the remains would be among the oldest ever discovered in North America. However, because the testing was done on a tiny bone sample with little protein, some experts are doubtful of the date. Most of the skull, clavicle fragments, a number of teeth, and the first and second vertebrae of a young female were discovered in the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge on the coast of Texas, in 1999 during construction of a levee.Archaeologist Robert d’Aigle of CRC International Archaeology & Ecology in Spring, Texas, was contracted to recover the portion of the remains that had been impacted by the project and to determine their approximate age. D. Gentry Steele of Texas A&M conducted the analysis of the remains.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that has jurisdiction over the remains, has conducted consultations with 14 federally recognized Native American tribes in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico. No claims of cultural affiliation have been made thus far. D’Aigle’s limited 2001 excavation at the site indicated that the female probably stepped into mud and became trapped. No artifacts were found with the remains. A very small piece of the fossilized remains were sent to the University of Arizona for radiocarbon dating, and two soil samples, one taken from within the skull and the other from the area immediately surrounding it, were radiocarbon dated by Tom Stafford of Stafford Research Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado. Both soil samples yielded the same approximate 5,000-year-old date. “While it is much more common for older sediments to yield a younger

date given their close proximity to younger plants and materials, it is very rare for bone to yield an older date than it actually is unless an obvious contaminant is present, which in this case one is not,” explained Stafford. Michael Collins, a prominent Paleo-Indian researcher with the University of Texas in Austin, expressed doubts about the age of the remains. “The site is inadequately investigated, the geological context is not adequately reported, and the radiocarbon date is not convincing,” Collins stated. “Bone is notoriously difficult to date,” said Ed Baker, an archaeologist with the Texas Historical Commission, who reviewed the investigation’s findings.“It seems unlikely a site that old would be buried that shallowly.” Until the deadline for filing a cultural affiliation claim has passed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cannot decide whether further research at the site should be undertaken. —Tamara Stewart

Court Upholds National Monument Clinton’s use of Antiquities Act stands.

he U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia has upheld former President Bill Clinton’s use of the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create the 164,000-acre Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado as well as five other Western sites. Clinton created Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in 2000 to protect thousands of Anasazi and other

ruins in the Mesa Verde area, including villages, cliff dwellings, shrines, and rock art. His action was challenged in court by the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation, which opposes preservation efforts in the West. The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to protect “scientific” and “historic” public lands by making them national monuments. In-

compatible uses can be prohibited, and the lands must be managed primarily for their protected use, in this case archaeology. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) the new national monument bars off-road vehicles, but allows for existing cattle grazing and natural gas development. BLM is preparing a management plan for the new monument.—Mark Michel winter • 2002-03

in the Study May Explain Abandonment and Relocation of Maya Centers Researchers examine bajos to understand settlement and organizational changes of lowland Maya.

NEWS

NICHOLAS DUNNING

esearchers working in the central and southern Maya lowlands have found evidence indicating that a combination of Maya-induced environmental modifications, natural climatic change, and population increase may explain the location, subsequent abandonment, and relocation of many early Maya centers from the Preclassic to the Classic periods. Data obtained from bajos, large limestone swamp-like depressions around which many early Maya centers were situated, indicate that between about 400 B.C. to A.D. 250, what were once perennial wetlands or shallow lakes were transformed into seasonal swamps.This was a result of deforestation from farming, quarrying, and resultant erosion. The information comes from a study that was conducted near La Milpa in northwestern Belize and between Yaxha and Tikal in northeastern Guatemala. The researchers examined the topography, hydrology, soil, vegetation, and cultural features, and analyzed sediment samples and preserved pollen taken from bajos and trenches. “So far, this phenomenon of bajo transformation looks like it was fairly widespread,” said Nicholas Dunning of University of Cincinnati, who directed the study. “In terms of Maya civilization, this environmental transformation is of considerable significance because it sheds light on the very large scale settlement changes that took place during the Preclassic to Classic transition.” Following the transformation, which in some cases ap-

It’s believed that as the bajos were drying up, some cities were abandoned, while others, like Tikal (above), adapted by establishing water storage systems.

pears to have occurred quite rapidly, many of the Maya abandoned early urban centers such as El Mirador and Nakbe and moved up to areas in higher elevations where they created elaborate water storage systems that allowed them to thrive for several more centuries.Another University of Cincinnati researcher, Vernon Scarborough, cautioned that the study’s conclusions should be considered a working model that requires more testing.The researchers plan to obtain more data next spring.—Tamara Stewart

Proposed Dam Threatens Maya Ruins Unstudied sites are in danger of being flooded.

t least 18 unstudied Maya ruins, as well as the well-known Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras sites, are threatened by the proposed damming of the Usumacinta River, which separates Mexico and Guatemala. Mexico is considering the construction of a hydroelectric dam to deal with the country’s power shortage. But archaeologists and officials of the World Monuments Fund (WMF), an organization that preserves endangered cultural

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heritage sites, argue that there is insufficient evidence regarding how the environment and cultural resources of the area will be affected. The numerous unstudied Maya sites endangered by the damming are known to possess royal tombs, art, sculptures,palace ruins,and hieroglyph inscriptions. Chinikiha, a rich archaeological site that was first documented at the turn of the 20th century but has never been mapped or excavated,is located directly in the path of the pro-

posed dam and faces the greatest threat of destruction.If dam construction proceeds,“it will destroy the irreplaceable ecological and cultural resources of that entire zone, either directly or indirectly,” stated David Stuart, an archaeologist at Harvard University. Attempting to assist the Mexican government, the WMF is working to create a hydrographic model that will evaluate the environmental and cultural impact of any dam scenario. —Kerry Elder

in the

NEWS

Canadian Paleo-Indian Site Discovered Saskatchewan site believed to be 9,000 years old.

hile conducting a heritage impact assessment prior to the construction of a bridge in St. Louis, Saskatchewan, archaeologists discovered the remains of late Paleo-Indian camping and butchery sites as well as thousands of well-preserved artifacts. Preliminary radiocarbon testing of some of the artifacts indicates they are 8,600 to 9,000 years old. The remains included four skulls tentatively identified as being from an extinct species of bison, as well as the bones of modern bison, wolves, coyotes, jackrabbits, ruffed grouse, and fish. Campfire stones, spear points, and scraping and engraving tools were also among the more than 4,000

artifacts recovered from the site that are being dated and analyzed. The site is among central Saskatchewan’s oldest and provides essential clues to the lifestyle and settlement patterns of the late PaleoIndians. “The discovery of the site pushes back the knowledge we have of the region by at least 2,000 years,” said Butch Amundson, an archaeologist with Stantec Consulting who codirected the excavation with David Meyer of the University of Saskatchewan. Among the most intriguing discoveries is a shell bead about the size of a sequin that could prove that these people decorated their clothes. In addition to being a rich archaeo-

logical site, it also reveals important paleo-environmental information. “The oldest layers of the site display that the area, now prairie land, was once a pine forest,” Amundson said. “The grasslands had not yet expanded that far north.” The excavation was completed this past October. Further study of the artifacts and bones is being conducted at Stantec’s archaeology laboratory and at the University of Saskatchewan. Construction of the bridge is scheduled to begin in the next one to two years. Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Highway and Transportation Department is pursuing plans to commemorate the site.—Kerry Elder

Submerged Town Exposed Evaporation of Lake Mead reveals 19th-century Mormon settlement.

he prolonged drought afflicting the Southwest is decreasing Lake Mead’s water level, thereby slowly exposing the remnants of the town of St. Thomas in southern Nevada. Once a key supply stop along the old Mormon Trail, a 1,000-mile-long trail of Mormon settlements extending from Idaho to California, St. Thomas has spent the past 64 years submerged under Lake Mead. Settled by a group of Mormons in 1865, the town grew into a mining and farm-

ing community in the early 20th century. In 1938, the construction of the Hoover Dam and the creation of the Lake Mead reservoir flooded the town. Although the majority of the town’s structures were removed prior to the creation of the lake, St. Thomas has never been archaeologically documented. The town’s full revelation is expected by 2004, and it will challenge the National Park Service (NPS) to develop a plan to protect the exposed ar-

chaeological resources before the water level rises. Steven Daron, an NPS archaeologist, said, “when the St. Thomas area of the lake dries up, the NPS plans to document and map what is left, including remaining foundations, fence lines, and standing trees in order to document the cultural resources of the town and to locate possible boating hazards.” The NPS intends to study how St.Thomas ties in with other historic Mormon settlements in the area. —Kerry Elder winter • 2002-03

Archaeologists Discover 10,500-Year-Old Intact Cody Site The site yields new information about the Cody Complex people.

in the

NEWS

Revolutionary War Fort Mystery Solved After years of speculation, the location of Georgia fort is identified.

YELLOWSTONE PARK FOUNDATION

A Archaeologists work at the Osprey Beach Locality. This site has yielded more sandstone abraders than any other Cody Complex site in North America.

rchaeologists working at the Osprey Beach Locality in Yellowstone National Park last summer excavated a 10,500-year-old campsite that is changing what is known about the Cody Complex people. Until recently, they were believed to be mainly plains dwellers and bison hunters. Although other Cody sites have been discovered in mountainous regions, the Osprey Beach Locality is the first to yield concrete evidence that the Cody Complex people migrated throughout the Northwest, into the mountains as well as the plains and foothills. The tools discovered at the site were made from obsidian found not only at the Obsidian Cliff Plateau in the northwestern portion of Yellowstone Park, but also at other sources to the West and Southwest. Accord-

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ing to Ann Johnson,Yellowstone National Park archaeologist, and Mack W. Shortt of the Museum of the Rockies, some Cody Complex bands spent the warmer months in the Rocky Mountains repairing and manufacturing tools used to hunt and clean hides, and then moved to lower elevations in the winter—an indication that they traveled seasonally to obtain food and materials for tools. Samples taken from the tools found at the site were tested using immunological analysis, a process often used to identify blood at modern crime scenes. The blood residue matched the blood protein of bear, bighorn sheep, deer, rabbit, and some form of canid, which could have been wolf, coyote, or fox.There was no evidence of bison, which was thought to be a staple of the Cody Complex people’s diet.—Tina Larkin

rchaeologists have determined the precise location of Fort Morris, a Revolutionary War fort in Georgia. It was believed that the fort was buried somewhere at Fort Morris State Historic Site, a 70acre park located 35 miles outside of Savannah. But the only previous evidence of a fort on the site was that of Fort Defiance, a War of 1812 fortification. Dan Elliott, a senior archaeologist for Southern Research, specializing in historical and archaeological consulting, is directing the excavation of the Fort Morris site. During a detailed mapping of Fort Defiance, the outline of Fort Morris was discovered. Revolutionary War artifacts including bullets, grapeshot, buttons, animal bones, nails, tobacco pipes, liquor bottles, and a large mortar shell fragment were also found. The exact location of the fort has been in question for years, and this uncertainty has hurt tourism. “One reason we decided to do the project was to determine what was there once and for all in hopes of drawing tourists.” Elliott said. Fort Morris was overrun by British forces in January 1779. Archaeologists are investigating two areas of the fort thought to be the barracks of American enlisted men and the living quarters of British officers.—Kerry Elder

The Beginnings

LYNDA RICHARDSON

OF AMERICA

Archaeologists Luke Pecoraro (left) and Danny Schmidt work on a recently discovered well surrounded by a protective wooden barrier.

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The investigation of Jamestown is attempting to tell the story not only of the first permanent English settlement in America, but of the genesis of the nation itself. By Michael Bawaya

field school, numbered 29. Over the years, the dig has gained momentum, and it now seems an archaeological endeavor commensurate with Jamestown’s exceptional place in American history. It’s known as the Jamestown Rediscovery™ project, and a press release by the APVA, who administers the project, boasts that it’s “considered by many experts to be the premiere archaeological dig in America.” Compared to many excavations, Jamestown is an impressive operation Kelso oversees a staff of 11 full-time workers.“We have 371,000 artifacts catalogued,” he stated. “We find 200 to 300 a day.” Its sundry amenities include an on-site curation facility, a golf cart that transports people around the site, and a public relations person who chronicles the excavation’s many discoveries and disseminates them to the curious media.As a result, the excavation has received a considerable amount of press coverage and Kelso, a highly experienced archaeologist, appears to be as comfortable in the limelight as he is in a trench.Affable and articulate, he is clearly immersed in his subject. He puts in long hours—50 to 60 a week—“because I want to.” Approximately 400,000 people visit the site annually and, with the idea of raising Jamestown’s high profile higher still, the APVA and the NPS recently branded the site “Historic Jamestowne.” Replete with a new icon—a 1607 English sixpence—the site is being marketed as “America’s birthplace.” The Jamestown settlement was a commercial venture sponsored by the Virginia Company, a group of London businessmen, and supported by King James I.Three ships thought to be carrying 108 men and boys landed at Jamestown in May of 1607. Their mission was to gain a foothold in the New World, as well as to find gold, a route to the Indies, and the survivors of the Lost Colony, a failed set-

APVA

hey’ve just discovered a feature, and the crew of seven is huddling over it, trying to identify it.“I don’t know what it is,” Bill Kelso said with mock exasperation, his hands thrown up in the air. He surmises that it could be a gun emplacement, a legacy of the Civil War; or it could be a well, a possible legacy of, and a critical piece of information about, the Jamestown settlement. Jamestown is a famous, though often vaguely remembered place, a staple of history, but not archaeology, texts. But Kelso and his crew are changing that. He called Jamestown “America’s first gated community.” James Fort, its gate, as it were, was thought by most people to have washed away into the adjacent James River. It was the fort that lured archaeologist and historian Kelso to Jamestown. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), which owns 221/2 acres of the original site, conducted excavations at Jamestown around 1893. The National Park Service (NPS), which owns most of the island the site is on, excavated in the 1930s and 1950s.The NPS archaeologists uncovered features and artifacts that suggested evidence of the fort still existed.Thus, Kelso and a few other scholars were skeptical enough of the conventional wisdom of James Fort’s disappearance to put it to the test. In honor of Jamestown’s upcoming 400th anniversary in 2007, the APVA decided to conduct an archaeological investigation of the site. Kelso, who lobbied hard to get the job, was chosen to head it. He was a one-man crew when he began excavating in 1994.That year Kelso discovered a trench that appeared to have once held upright, side-by-side logs. Additional discoveries were made, more staff members were hired, and by 1996, Kelso and his team had enough evidence to announce that James Fort had been found. On a sultry day last July, Kelso’s crew, which was bolstered by a summer

Some 400,000 artifacts have been found at Jamestown. (Far left) This brass thimble was discovered in the bulwark trench of James Fort. (Left) A group of brass doublet buttons and an iron ring thimble were found joined together in one of the site’s excavation pits. (Right) This ornate silver ear picker is fashioned in the form of a sea creature. A versatile tool, it was also used to scrape teeth clean and remove dirt from fingernails. (Far right) Here are three of the more than 300 17th-century brass straight pins that have been found.

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Conservator Michael Lavin holds a bill (a military weapon attached to a shaft) and a gridiron that are concreted together. A piece of pottery is also attached. These items were found in the well and are kept wet to preserve them.

evidently causing it to collapse,” Kelso said. Upon abandoning their wells, the colonists often used them as trash pits and eventually filled them in. In October, a large pewter vessel was found in the well. Kelso said it is extremely uncommon to find pewter objects on Colonial sites because the metal usually disinte-

LYNDA RICHARDSON

tlement led by Sir Walter Raleigh that landed on North Carolina in 1587. Many of the settlers perished due to starvation, disease, and battles with the Indians; still, Jamestown persisted, becoming Virginia’s first colonial capital. Shortly after arriving, having engaged in altercations with the Powhatan Indians, the colonists erected James Fort, and, within the fort, a church and several other buildings. In the 1890s, historian Alexander Brown published a sketch map of James Fort that he found in the archives of Spain that shows the only known plan of the fort. Historical documents describe the shape of the fort as triangular, stating that two of the walls were 300 feet long, and the third wall 420 feet. But the exact size and shape of the fort were unknown, as the size of its bulwarks were not described in detail. Historical documents also refer to a well within the fort, and last summer students participating in a field school sponsored by Anheuser-Busch Corp., discovered it. Given the information in the historical record, Kelso originally estimated James Fort encompassed about two acres. But as it’s believed that the well would have been dug near the center of the fort, and it was discovered where he thought the west palisade wall might be, Kelso now thinks the size of James Fort may be twice his earlier estimate. The well, which the archaeologists think may date between 1609 and 1620, was found inside a circular builder’s trench that is approximately 12 feet in diameter. The shaft of the well is about 2 1/2 feet across.“You can see where the well bucket wore into the bricks on one side,

Lavin holds the lateral and medial quarters of a man’s bovine leather shoe. The leather heel and insole are also shown. Though nearly 400 years old, the leather survived because it was in a waterlogged context in the well.

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the colonists lived in, their diet, and even the diseases they may have been exposed to. Around the time the well was discovered, the archaeologists discovered the remains of an approximately 36foot-by-16-foot building near the east palisade wall. This building resembles two others found in the southeast corner of the fort. Kelso called the find “very significant” because it reconfirms that they have identified the eastern triangular section of the fort. He added that “we’re beginning to see a pattern in the design and architecture of the interior of the fort.” The Jamestown Rediscovery project has grand ambitions. It endeavors to gain insight into some of the processes by which American society began. It seeks to accomplish this by answering two questions: What defined the Old and New World material culture at the beginning of colonization? What does Jamestown’s archaeological record say about how these material cultures evolved into a distinctly American culture? To answer the first question, research must be conducted in Old World documents and the artifacts and buildings of post-medieval Western Europe, early American documentary sources, the archaeological record of the late

LYNDA RICHARDSON

grates quickly in the earth. In this case, however, the moisture in the well apparently preserved it.“It was almost as if it was dropped (in the well) the day before,” he observed. The shape and design of the vessel strongly resembles that of an English baluster wine measure in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that dates to the second half of the 16th century. Such measures were used to provide standardized quantities of beer or wine. Various other artifacts have been uncovered in the well, including an intact iron breastplate and at least two other breastplates concreted together by rust, as well as other pieces of armor including a sword, two gorgets, and tasset lames (thigh protectors).Two other objects—one heavy and oblong, the other long and cylindrical— proved to be a wheelwright’s auger and a gun barrel. Scrap copper, lead shot, and a crucible with copper residue suggest attempts at industry, while deer and fish bones and other food debris are indicative of the colonists’ diet. The trench surrounding the well has yielded slag from blacksmithing, glass trade beads, lead shot, Indian pottery, case bottle glass, and English and locally made tobacco pipe pieces. The well’s soil is being wet screened to isolate organic materials such as seeds and pollen.Analysis of these materials can provide information about the environment

Bill Kelso confers with archaeologist Tonia Deetz Rock (middle), and a field school student as they uncover evidence of a large fort period interior building parallel to James Fort’s east palisade wall. A similar building was found parallel to the south palisade wall. The two buildings suggest a pattern in the architecture of the fort.

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This map shows the Jamestown Rediscovery site. The broken yellow line shows the projected outline of James Fort. Excavated areas and features include: 1. Site of early 17th-century well and Confederate magazine 2. Projected north bulwark area 3. Rectangular building parallel to the east palisade 4. Jamestown Memorial Church 5. Demilune trench outside the southeast bulwark 6. South palisade wall, pit one, the first pit excavated at the fort, and an interior building 7. Outbuilding Structure 165 with cellar room 8. John Smith statue

APVA

9. Confederate earthworks

Woodland Native American period, and the archaeology and history of Jamestown.The second question demands a complete archaeological picture of Jamestown, including its evolution throughout the 17th century, and an examination of the related archaeological and historical records in light of the archaeological discoveries at Jamestown. Consequently, in addition to archaeologists, Kelso calls upon a variety of experts knowledgeable in the social, military, architectural, and economic activities of England, Spain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. During the oppressive heat of summer Bly Straube, Jamestown’s curator, has the good fortune of working in an air-conditioned building that houses the site’s artifacts—the various and sundry objects that rank as one of the largest early American Colonial collections in the world.While most of the crew wears jeans or shorts and tshirts, she is neatly turned out in a colorful sundress. Straube has more than 25 years of experience in historical archaeology; her knowledge of the Jamestown period is such that a crew member can bring her a just-discovered artifact and odds are she can identify it in a glance. If not, she can consult a number of people in Western Europe and the U.S. who are experts in the ceramics, coins, glassware, metals, even the buttons of that time. There was a time, earlier in her career, when such comparative studies were much more difficult. “There

weren’t many people to share the information with,” according to Straube, because the English yawned at the thought of post-medieval archaeology. But times have indeed changed. She now travels once a year to Europe to conduct research, and she is in frequent contact with various curators, particularly those at the Museum of London. In assembly line-like fashion, artifacts are dug up, screened, cleaned, bagged, and delivered to Straube, who then catalogues them. “I’m in the fortunate position of having seen every artifact from this site,” she stated.That day she was supervising four field school students who were washing artifacts—at the rate of 300 to 400 a day— to prepare them for analysis. The site’s myriad artifacts are stored in this building, which the crew calls the Vault.The Vault was built on high ground to avoid flooding, and its bulletproof glass windows come courtesy of best-selling crime novelist and Jamestown benefactress Patricia Cornwell. Metal artifacts, such as armor, are kept in a climate-controlled room in which the humidity is maintained at 20 percent to prevent rusting. Prior to becoming the curator for Jamestown Rediscovery, Straube was hired by the NPS in 1990 to catalogue the artifacts that were recovered during their earlier excavations. She, concluded, due to characteristics she discerned, that a large number of artifacts excavated by the NPS in the 1950s were from the early 17th century and military in nature. Her analysis and a reassessment of the winter • 2002-03

APVA

field notes was one of the reasons that the APVA and Kelso were convinced that the fort might still exist.“I was able to identify pieces that were put down as miscellaneous or unidentifiable,” Straube said, referring to the earlier analysis of the artifacts. Numerous 17th-century sites have been excavated since the NPS investigations, and as a result experts are more knowledgeable about the types of artifacts that are often found at these sites.“We’re not looking at Jamestown in a vacuum,” she noted. “We’re looking at other 17th-century sites in the area.” In fact, the archaeological data from Jamestown will eventually be compared with that from 23 other 17th-century sites in the Chesapeake Bay region in a comprehensive Geographical Identification System (GIS) under development by the APVA. It’s expected that this nascent program will be fully operational by 2006. Come that time, any and all Jamestown artifacts and features can be analyzed within the broader context of these related sites and historical documents through “Virtual Jamestown,” a joint Web venture of the APVA, the Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia Tech, and the University of Virginia’s Center for Digital History. Dave Givens wears two hats: APVA archaeologist and digital archivist.“Everything about Jamestown is recorded and brought into this GIS program,” he explained. Givens was working at one of the site’s several excavation areas, but he was operating a laptop, not a shovel.“As Bill (Kelso) always says, we want to compare apples to apples. We want to compare wells to wells and ditches to ditches,” he remarked. Before too long, Givens and his colleagues will be able to do that very thing instantaneously. Givens, who picked up his computer skills over the years, spends about 80 percent of his time maintaining the digital archives.“I could probably go to work for a computer firm and make $80,000 a year,” he said, “but that wouldn’t get me out of bed in he morning.” Suffering and death marked the Jamestown experience. This was especially the case during the winter of 1609-1610, now referred to as the Starving Time. It’s believed that of the 215 people who resided at James Fort that winter, only 60 survived. During their 1950s’ excavation, the NPS archaeologists discovered a graveyard, under the foundation of the remains of the last statehouse at Jamestown. Kelso’s crew excavated 75 interments. The graves had no headstones, and they could have been dug anytime between 1607, when the colonists arrived, and 1662, when historical documents say the building was erected on the site. Few artifacts have been found in association with the graves, but those that have indicate the graveyard was in use between roughly 1610 and 1630. In addition to starvation brought on by a severe drought, it’s suspected that disease, saltwater poisoning, civil unrest, and Indian warfare contributed to the death toll, which was considerable even after the Starving Time. “I don’t think, in any case, we’re dealing with a simple famine,” said

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archaeologist Jamie May, who supervised the excavation. Before too long the speculation could give way to scientific conclusions. Ashley McKeown, a forensic anthropologist hired by the APVA, is analyzing the skeletal remains from the excavated interments. She is working under the direction of Douglas Owsley, a well-known forensic osteologist with the Smithsonian Institution. If all goes well, the results of this and other forms of testing could recall, in amazing detail, life at Jamestown. “We have a good representation of all age groups,”

(Top) Archaeologist Eric Deetz carefully excavates a complete 16th-century breastplate from a dry moat. The recovered breastplate is shown above.

This German stoneware jug was made in the early 17th century. It was found in the first pit excavated in the fort.

McKeown stated, ranging from infants to adults. Some of the burials were interred with care, others were not. “There are times of stress represented, and times that weren’t so stressful,” she said. In some cases heads and legs were bent because the grave shafts weren’t long enough. Some graves had several remains that were buried simultaneously. There were also instances in which the colonists dug graves through existing graves. The skeletal analysis is revealing information such as sex, age, ancestry, and size as well as any trauma and pathology that afflicted the individual. This research, which has been taking place for almost a year, will be supplemented by DNA testing and stable isotope analysis. Carbon 13 is the stable isotope that will be analyzed. “Carbon 13 can help us identify diet and what kind of plants were consumed by the individual,” said McKeown. If the individual showed evidence of Old World plants like oats, rye, and barley, the assumption is that he/she was not long at Jamestown before dying. Evidence of New World foods such as maize suggests the opposite.“The (results) we get from the skeleton reflect the last 10 or 15 years of their lives,” McKeown added.That’s because bones are constantly being regenerated as old cells are replaced by new ones. The DNA testing is something of a gamble. If successful, it could reveal bubonic plague, tuberculosis, and malaria—all possible causes of death at that time and place—and thereby explain why Jamestown’s mortality rates were so high. If unsuccessful, it will yield little, if any, information. Reasonably well-preserved bone samples are crucial to obtaining valid results, and the deteriorated condition of the remains could present a problem. winter • 2002-03

LYNDA RICHARDSON

Researchers work near Jamestown’s 17th-century church tower.

LYNDA RICHARDSON

This exhibit, called Puzzling The Pieces, features a resin casting of the skeleton of a man who was murdered or accidentally shot at the fort. Through an interactive video exhibit, visitors can find out who he was, where he came from, his age, and how he died. Other hands-on exhibits about the archaeological discoveries and historical research are planned for the future.

“We’re coming up with a story of great hardship. We’re coming up with a story of hard work,” said Kelso. He sat at an oval conference table in his large, handsome office in the Rediscovery Center, a renovated 1907 building. A picture of Captain John Smith, the leader of the colonists, rests on the mantle of the fireplace. A rifle from the Jamestown era, called a matchlock, hangs over the fireplace.“Pretty scary to shoot,” he remarked. “Most historians say the colony failed because the Virginia Company failed and the Crown had to take it over,” Kelso explained.“It’s not a fair account.” History has it that the British “sent the worst people over here and they didn’t try.” Consequently, the colony failed and America was born in 1620 when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. But the archaeological evidence has shown that some of the colonists were anything but indolent. “Metallurgy, glass making, trade,” Kelso ticked off a few of their enterprises.They also felled trees to ship timber back to England, where it was desperately needed, and they grew tobacco, thereby making some, though not enough, money for the Virginia Company.“The magnitude of the artifact collection, some 400,000 objects, tells you the magnitude of the effort of the colonists,” said Kelso. “It was successful in that the institutions that were begun here live on today,” he said, referring to free enterprise and representative government. Jamestown also endured to

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become the first permanent English settlement in America.” The Jamestown Rediscovery Project may continue for years to come.There is still plenty of work to be done.The archaeologists are searching for evidence of the west wall of the fort as well as Jamestown’s original church. (There’s a 17-century church tower on the site, but it’s not part of the original church.) There is also the issue of getting the site ready for Jamestown’s 400th anniversary in 2007, which will be commemorated with various festivities. Though several years off, the anniversary is clearly on the minds of Kelso and his crew. “There’s pressure to make sure we don’t have too much opened and unexplored,” Kelso admitted. Raising money to fund the project is another challenge, and he pitches in by making speeches and giving tours to donors. Kelso recalled that, as he was about to begin the excavations back in 1994, one of his heroes, the NPS archaeologist John Cotter, gave a lecture on Jamestown. Cotter, who conducted the 1950s’ dig, informed Kelso that he was wasting his time looking for the fort.There are other skeptics who believe that the archaeology of this period is an exercise in dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of history. Kelso adamantly disagreed. “I don’t think it’s presumptuous or grandiose to say we’re trying to understand what it means to become American.”

MICHAEL BAWAYA is the editor of American Archaeology. 19

Puzzling Over

BRANSON REYNOLDS

PAA-KO

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How did contact with the Spanish affect a New Mexico pueblo? By Nancy Harbert

ark Lycett is showing 18 grade-schoolers from Piñon Elementary in Santa Fe around Paa-ko, a 1,500-room pueblo in the eastern foothills of the Sandia Mountains in central New Mexico where he is investigating the coming together of two cultures.Walking along a path worn by seven years of summer field schools for undergraduate and graduate students, Lycett, now a lecturer at the University of Chicago, patiently answers questions and summarizes his work for a decidedly uninitiated crowd. As he tells the school group about the community that was initially settled in the 1300s, abandoned for more than 100 years, then resettled in the late 1500s, a woman approaches. Driving by, she stopped to see what the fuss was about. Noah Thomas, one of Lycett’s teaching assistants, greets her and takes her on a tour of the site. This sizzling July day was typical for Lycett and his crew of 15 students and assistants. In addition to the school groups, at least 100 uninvited visitors drop by each summer, and the crew welcomes them. Like most of the pueblo communities scattered throughout the Galisteo Basin to the north, and the Rio Grande across the mountains to the west, Paa-ko did not escape the long arm of the Spanish mission system, which changed the lives of its native residents. Beginning in 1598 with an expedition led by Don Juan de Oñate, Spanish colonizers made their way to New Mexico, where they established self-contained mission communities governed by resident priests. After completing his dissertation in 1995 on the Galisteo Basin, Lycett returned to Paa-ko to explore how life changed in a community that, while being very much under Spain’s control, was removed from that country’s main colonization efforts. A typical missionary community would be fashioned around an imposing church, built by the native residents under Spanish direction.There would also be weaving and blacksmithing shops. The natives would tend crops and cook for their Spanish colonizers. “We live in a world that couldn’t exist without colo-

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construction material and Latsch transfers these measurements to a

BRANSON REYNOLDS

Virginia Emery (above) and Michael Latsch map the side wall of an excavated section of the chapel foundation. Emery measures the layers of

nial expansion,” Lycett says.“I’m interested in understanding the processes of its original development and change through time.” Paa-ko is an example of an indigenous site that was incorporated in the mission system, but it was not a typical mission community. He expected the excavation of Paa-ko would take about three years. But after completing his seventh field season in late July, there’s no end in sight.The more he and his students uncover, the more they are discovering how sophisticated and complex life was here. It’s believed that the area was first occupied from around 1300 until 1425 due to the early Rio Grande glazeware ceramics that have been found here. Like many of the New Mexico pueblos, Paa-ko thrived in the 14th century. As many as 1,000 people grew corn, beans, and squash, crafted pottery, and hunted wild game in the nearby mountains. They had a few neighbors at the smaller Tijeras and San Antonio pueblos, but they were generally isolated. By the mid-15th century, Paa-ko was abandoned by its inhabitants, who may have moved to the nearby Galisteo Basin or perhaps the Rio Grande valley. In the late 1500s, after the Spanish had begun their explorations into New Mexico, the site was re-occupied.The residents, who then numbered no more than 250 at one time, built new roomblocks atop the old ones. These informal population estimates are based on the number of rooms excavated, an estimation of the unexcavated portions of the site, and on historical documents.

MARK LYCETT

scale graph in order to produce a finished profile drawing.

This mid-17th-century plaza surface was excavated in 1997 and 1998. It is one of several superimposed plaza surfaces excavated at the site. This surface had more than 40 features, including temporary sunshades (ramadas), hearths, and storage pits. Underlying this surface was an early-17th-century surface with more than 20 features.

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BRANSON REYNOLDS

EVIDENCE OF A CHAPEL Paa-ko has attracted archaeologists since 1914. That year, Nels Nelson, an archaeologist with the American Museum of Natural History, excavated 178 rooms and portions of two kivas, in addition to digging a number of exploratory trenches, in less than eight weeks. He determined Paa-ko was an adobe and masonry pueblo with more than 20 roomblocks arranged around at least eight plazas. In 1938, the 30-acre site became a state monument and additional excavations were conducted to expose more rooms in order to display them to visitors.The idea, according to Lycett, was to create a series of tourist attractions comparable to the California Mission Trail of the same period. Paa-ko would be a stop.The idea never materialized, and the site was decommissioned as a state monument in 1959. More excavations were conducted in 1949-1950 by archaeologists with the University of New Mexico. Lycett built upon this research, concentrating on the years after Spanish contact. He also was interested in investigating areas where no structures had been built to see what they might reveal. When he arrived at Paa-ko in 1996, he mapped the site and then began to excavate. Though the earlier excavations yielded no evidence of a church, Lycett, like the other researchers who had worked at the site, wondered if the Spaniards had built one there. In 1999, Lycett found a draft of a map of the site Nelson had begun at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. On a section of the draft, Lycett noticed a three-walled feature built atop a plaza surface. Nelson had described the feature as an “old buried house ruin in a hollow supposed to be a kiva.” Lycett was intrigued. During the 2000 field season he found the walls and he realized they were part of a visita, a chapel used by a visiting priest. Lycett estimates it to be 669 feet by 354 feet.“The shape, orientation, size, and placement were consistent with other colonial New Mexico chapels,” he says. The wall was found atop a kiva, a center for religious ceremonies among pueblo Indians. Excavations this past summer revealed the chapel’s cobble foundation. It was determined that a portion of the chapel was built on a raised platform mound, probably to increase its monumental effect and to compensate for the slope in the land.The mound underlies the southern and eastern walls of the chapel, making them level with the northern and western walls. Though the mound could be seen on the surface, its form and function weren’t evident. Nelson, in fact, interpreted it as re-deposited debris from an unspecified source. Having excavated a section of the mound, Lycett realized that it was composed of recycled adobe, cobbles, and midden—the very materials used to construct plaza surfaces. He was able to determine its depth, extent, and relationship to other plaza surfaces.This information made the function of the platform mound clear.

american archaeology

Mark Lycett directs the investigation at Paa-ko.

Hammered sheets of copper were the end product of the metalworking process here. Many show perforations, cuttings, incisions, or other kinds of modification. The finished copper artifacts include ornaments, crosses, and bells.

In 1996, Lycett’s crew recovered metal slag that was associated with a large terrace bounded on three sides by well-constructed masonry walls.They began excavations in 1997 hoping to find facilities associated with metalworking on the terrace, which had been previously bisected by an excavation trench.The crew excavated the disturbed soil in the trench and documented the exposed layers of sediment. At that time, they had no specific knowledge of the facilities used for metal production in colonial New Mexico, and consequently they assumed these features would resemble the relatively small, round furnaces used to smelt copper in other Spanish colonies. Instead, they found a series of facilities, including large earthen mounds with multiple chambers and associated ventilator shafts, as well as smaller, trough-like features with adobe and masonry sidewalls and sophisticated ventilation

This is one of three trough-like metal working features excavated at Paako. This feature was excavated in 1998. It dates to the first half of the 17th century and it’s one of the earliest metal working features found at the site. Its contents included indications of copper smelting as well as the reworking of finished iron artifacts. The feature was later filled with a variety of materials in order create a level surface for subsequent construction of larger metal-working facilities.

systems.All of the features contained metal slag and other evidence of metal production.“It’s unlike anything found anywhere in the world,” Lycett says. “This has been our biggest challenge, because it’s hard to excavate a feature when you have no idea what it’s going to look like.” Some features were inside the terrace walls, others were outside, indicating to Lycett that the facility was used for a broad variety of metalworking processes.“Some of the features we have excavated may have been used for ancillary aspects of the production process, such as charcoal making or ore roasting, but they were certainly part of the smelting process,” he says. Lycett and his crew have developed a basic understanding of the metalworking that took place here, but they remain uncertain as to exactly how this unique facility functioned. Its structure, as well as its incorporation of indigenous and Spanish technologies, suggest that the 17th century was a period of great technological experimentation in New Mexico. It could be that different kinds of features, including more kiln-like furnaces, are buried in the unexcavated areas of the terrace.“We expect our research to document the full range and variety of such facilities in future seasons,” Lycett says. Noah Thomas, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, is writing his dissertation on Paa-ko’s metallurgy. Because of the feature’s unusual nature, he suspects it was an effort at experimentation by the native residents. Due to its ornamental value, copper would have been the most desired byproduct of malachite reduction.“Copper was typically used as a trade good,” he says.“Historical documents show that the Oñate expedition had copper goods such as thimbles, bells, and knives, and excavations at other 17thcentury pueblos have found similar types of artifacts.” But much of the smelted metal that has been found at Paa-ko contains plenty of iron as well, indicating the conditions in the furnace were more reductive than was desirable for copper production.This may suggest that the metal workers didn’t know what they were doing. “It seems like they are applying iron smelting technology to copper production, but copper melts at a lower temperature than iron,” says Thomas. “It could be part of their learning curve.” An iron/copper combination would be too brittle for making implements.“This doesn’t make sense according to our understanding of the European technology of the time. It could be that we have found a metal product that would have been refined further. But so far we haven’t found any evidence for this,” he says.“Alternatively, it might be that they found new uses for an iron-copper alloy.” Thomas has microscopically inspected the pieces of slag and metal. By passing polarized light through the slag samples, the different minerals within them can be identified, often indicating the temperature and atmospheric conditions (such as the presence or absence of oxygen) reached during smelting. Based on the metallic grains in winter • 2002-03

MARK LYCETT

METALWORKING MYSTERY

the sample, he could determine that both the iron and copper were in a liquid state when they formed, which indicates a temperature of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. He also has found numerous pieces of copper sheets, but has yet to get them under the microscope. “I want to find out what they were made of and how, whether they were cast or hammered,” he says.“The ultimate goal is to see how the metal worked here played a part in the mission and pueblo economies of the time.”

GEORGIUS AGRIOCOLA / DOVER PUBLICATIONS

THE STORIES OF SEEDS AND BONES Down the slope from the metalworking terrace, Kathleen Morrison has been compiling a chronology of the plants that grew at Paa-ko. Morrison, who is married to Lycett, is the director of the Paleoecology Laboratory at the University of Chicago. She has extracted pollen samples from a six-foot column of soil taken from the flood plain of an arroyo that divides the pueblo. To get a representative idea of the vegetation, Morrison analyzes 500 This 16th-century illustration of copper ore roasting portrays what was the standard European technolgrains from a pollen sample, each of ogy until the 18th century. In the left trough, the ore is heated to burn off the sulfur. The ore is then which contains millions of grains.To ex- washed with water in the center trough in preparation for smelting. Features similar to these troughs tract the grains from the sample, she have been found at Paa-ko (see photo opposite page), but thus far no evidence of ore roasting has goes through a 20-step process that in- been discovered. cludes boiling the sample in potassium the riparian zone, revealed a large proportion of herbahydroxide, sieving the remains through a screen, rinsing ceous vegetation and grasses and few trees and shrubs.The them in distilled water, and using a variety of acids to further disappearance of the trees was almost certainly caused by break down the samples. She ends up with pollen, which the early occupation of Paa-ko, when a great many people she inspects through a microscope, and charcoal. She plans moved in to the area, cutting down trees for buildings and to send charcoal samples from the column to a lab for rafirewood and to clear fields for agriculture. diocarbon dating. The sediment of the third phase contains high concenThe pollen of specific types of plants can usually be trations of piñon and juniper pollen, indicating a regeneraidentified by comparing it with pollen of living plants. tion of the forest.The fourth phase represents the historicPollen analysis can provide a record of vegetation history period occupation of the site, when people returned to the since, in the right contexts, the pollen grains produced area and again cut down trees and established fields that ineach year by plants in a particular region will build up in cluded plants brought by the Spanish.The fifth phase indithe soil, creating stratified layers of sediment full of the cates a regeneration of piñon and juniper trees, suggesting pollen grains of the plants that once grew there.Through that the pueblo and its fields were abandoned. analysis of these samples, Morrison has identified five To her surprise, Morrison didn’t find the typical Europhases of vegetation change that generally correlate with pean-introduced crops such as wheat, barley, and peaches. the archaeological findings. “People were still doing traditional things,” she says.“They The bottom layers of the soil column represent the were using wild plants and eating corn.” first phase, which predates the initial occupation of the Wild rice, in the form of charred seeds, was also found site. In these layers pollen grains indicated plants typical of here.“Lord knows where it came from,” says Morrison.“As riparian zones—cattails, sedges, willows, and cottonwoods. far as I know, this is the only wild rice found in the SouthThe second phase, consisting of layers immediately above

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west.” Because wild rice (which, contrary to its name, is actually an edible grass) was grown in the Great Lakes region during the colonial era, Lycett suspects its presence indicates long-distance exchanges were taking place during the 17th century. In a lab at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez’s students pore over the more than 13,000 animal bone fragments that have been uncovered at the site. After Gifford-Gonzalez, an anthropology professor who specializes in faunal research, visited the site in 1998, Lycett invited her to document the animal bones found at Paa-ko. Using a jeweler’s binocular loop, her students inspect each piece, and Gifford-Gonzalez double-checks their work. From years of experience, she can usually identify the animal, but whenever she is unsure, she refers to publications that focus on subtle, Phil Leckman looks through an optical transit. Leckman directs the mapping operations at the site, and he is responsible for relocating and mapping features first documented by Nels Nelson in 1914. By comparing their maps of the site with Nelson’s, the researchers can see changes

Kathleen Morrison screens for artifacts. Her analysis of pollen taken from

distinctive features.These publications also help GiffordGonzalez determine how a bone has been marred— whether by teeth, or by a metal or stone tool. The majority of bones came from rabbits, but sheep, goats, and antelope are also well represented.The dearth of deer bones baffled Gifford-Gonzalez, given that deer are attracted to the piñon-juniper landscape that now covers the site. But Morrison’s pollen analysis, which showed periodic removal of the trees, made sense of the situation. Antelope, for example, prefer open country. Gifford-Gonzalez also discovered that horses were eaten—a practice that veers from Hispanic tradition.“They were handling horse bones just like any other animal: cutting them, breaking them up to get the marrow out,” she says. “This leads me to say that these people aren’t Hispanic in their culture, because one of the features of Spanish colonial middens in Florida and the Caribbean is the absence of horses.” “Who were these people? What kind of community was this?” Gifford-Gonzalez wonders.“Was this a mixture of different groups living together or an indigenous community that stuck with their own practices even with the new colonial system?” The story is still unfolding, which is why Lycett keeps coming back. He expects to conduct one more summer field school, then re-evaluate how the Paa-ko research will continue. His work is revealing a more complex, nuanced picture of 17th-century New Mexico than can be found in either the historical or archaeological records, which focus on larger, central missions. He may have to keep at it till he retires.

the site has yielded information about how Paa-ko’s vegetation has changed over the years.

NANCY HARBERT is a freelance writer in Albuquerque, New Mexico. winter • 2002-03

BRANSON REYNOLDS

that have occurred since that time.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAPPING Isn’t What It Used To Be

Various technological advances are making the job faster, easier, and more accurate.

JIM HOLMLUND

By Reed Karaim

he cutting edge of archaeological mapping comes wrapped in an unimpressive silver box. With a diabolically winking green eye visible through a small glass window, it looks like something out of a bad 1950s’ science fiction movie. On a rare gray morning in Tucson, the box is perched on a tripod above a 2,000-yearold pithouse, blinking away quietly while Jim Holmlund, president of Geo-Map, an archaeological and geological mapping firm, monitors its progress on a laptop. “You should see it in the dark,” Holmlund says while we wait. “You see all these flashes of green laser light—thousands of them. It’s really quite beautiful.” This image of raw data, called a point cloud, was produced by a 3-D laser scan of a bell-shaped pit. The point cloud will undergo a complicated process in which it’s converted into data archaeologists can use.

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CONNIE COLBERT

The 3-D laser scanner sits on tripod in preparation of scanning a pithouse at the Rio Nuevo site in Tucson, Arizona.

The three-dimensional laser scanner finishes its work. The computer screen starts to fill with dots, and what’s revealed is beautiful enough to any field archaeologist.A pointillist image of the pithouse takes shape. There is more processing of the data to be done back in Geo-Map’s offices, and the end result will be a three-dimensional map of the pithouse accurate to within roughly two-hundredths of an inch. On site, the entire process has taken no more than an hour. There are no string measurements, no laboriously calculated sketches on graph paper, no more hours kneeling in the dirt.“It’s quicker, and it’s incredibly more precise than the hand-drawn maps we would have had to do otherwise,” says Jonathan Mabry of Desert Archaeology, a contract archaeology firm in Tucson. Mabry is supervising the survey.“You’re going to see a lot more of this in the future. It’s going to revolutionize things.” The laser scanner may be more Buck Rogers than Star Wars in appearance, but it’s the latest of a new wave of technology that’s transforming mapping.This new equipment “is going to change the way we do archaeology,” says Steven Shackley, an archaeologist with the Phoebe Hearst Museum in Berkeley, California.The technology includes global positioning systems (GPS), the latest generation of hand-held computers, and sophisticated software pack-

ages known as geographic information systems (GIS). These advances allow for unprecedented accuracy and detail as well as other remarkable capabilities.

THE PITHOUSE MEASURED BY GEO-MAP’S THE PITHOUSE MEASURED BY GEO-MAP’S SCANNER scanner was part of the archaeological investigation undertaken by Desert Archaeology for Tucson’s ambitious Rio Nuevo redevelopment project. This site just west of the city’s downtown contains both historic and prehistoric occupations, including 4,000-year-old pithouses that show evidence of maize and pottery use. The data from the laser scanner provides “such a detailed record it allows us to rebuild the site in three dimensions back in the office,” says Mabry. The scanner works by rapidly bouncing laser beams off many thousands of—often more than a million— points on an object. By measuring the differences in the infinitesimally small time it takes each laser beam to bounce back, the system is able to fix each point in space. The scanner measures at a rate of a thousand points a second. Holmlund says a scan of a typical pithouse has about 1.5 million points defining it. At Rio Nuevo, the process starts with mapping specialist Joe Nicoli placing a handful of targets resembling Pingwinter • 2002-03

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Pong balls on the pithouse floor.A digital camera built into the scanner then takes a picture of the site.The scanner operator, who controls it from a laptop computer connected by a cable, uses this picture to aim the scanner.Then the laser goes to work. The machine then scans in columns, moving from left to right, with these targets serving as reference points as the various sections of the map scan are integrated.The first pointillist image that takes shape on the laptop’s screen is raw data called a point cloud. The point cloud data then undergoes a complicated process through which it is converted into information that archaeologists can understand and use. It includes registration of the scans, referencing them on a grid, and purging them of unwanted data.The scans are then used to create a model of the site that can be manipulated in various ways for various purposes through the use of different types of software, such as AutoCAD. We see the end result of all this at Geo-Map’s offices. Nicoli, sitting at a desktop computer, calls up a map from a different site. A model of a pithouse rapidly takes shape on the screen. With a few mouse clicks, he moves the image forward and sideways.“We can get surface area, elevations, volume measurements, and profiles,” he says.“Archaeologists can play with the models and get all the measurements they want out of them.” Shackley worked with Geo-Map last summer at McEuen Cave, a rock shelter in the Gila Mountains of southeastern Arizona that was inhabited between 2,200 and 4,000 years ago. Geo-Map is providing a three-dimensional re-creation of the rock shelter as well as all the features in the site, including two rocks covered with mortars.“They took millions of data points,” he says.“We’ll be able to reconstruct our excavations down to a centimeter (of accuracy) or less.” Such a 3-D model can also be programmed to show the types of artifacts and features found at a site, the context they were found in, as well as the site’s stratigraphic information. With the inclusion of artifact, feature, and stratigraphic information, these models can serve as virtual replicas of the site. If, as sometimes happens, a site was investigated and then backfilled because a road or building was built over it, archaeologists could continue to study the site’s virtual replica. The scanner has also been used to record features such as rock art. It’s able to measure the intensity of reflection of each laser pulse, which is shown by the intensity of the colors.“For rock art,” Holmlund says,“we can differentiate and accentuate small differences in patina values and paint color.” Geo-Map has been mapping with the scanner for almost two years, and Holmlund believes his company is one of the very few in the United States consistently using this kind of equipment for archaeology. Part of the reason is the cost of the system. Geo-Map’s scanner goes for $150,000. Support equipment, software development,

american archaeology

Jim Holmlund, President of Geo-Map, Inc.

A laser scanner was used to map this Cienega-phase pithouse at the Rio Nuevo site.

Archaeologist and mapping specialist Joe Nicoli of Geo-Map, Inc., places scanning targets, which resemble Ping-Pong balls, in the pithouse.

Joe Nicoli examines newly acquired scan data in field.

An overview of 3-D model of two pithouses. The colored objects in the

This is the underside of the pithouses shown in the photograph to the left.

center of the large pithouse are digital “caps” placed over three floor

Measurements are being taken on various attributes of the floor features

features. The tops of the features must be closed in order for their inner

seen at the bottom of the pit.

CONNIE COLBERT

dimensions to be measured.

This 3-D model of a pithouse was taken from the Rio Nuevo site.

Measurements such as length, width, and depth of the pithouse floor

The topography of the Cienega-phase pithouse is seen in this computer-

features are taken directly from model. Archaeologists use these

ized image. The trench that cuts through the pithouse is clearly visible

statistics to help analyze and categorize these structures.

in the upper portion.

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CONNIE COLBERT

An enlarged view of a portion of a 3-D model of McEuen Cave in southeast Arizona. The protrusion in the center of the image is a boulder inside the rock shelter. The top of the rock shelter is directly above the boulder. The uneven nature of the floor is the result of displaced dirt from holes dug by looters.

hardware and software testing, training, and maintenance can cost as much as an additional $125,000. “The learning curve is tremendous,” says Holmlund. The laser scanner was originally used to develop 3-D models of offshore oil rigs. Steve Ahlgren, Geo-Map’s software specialist, worked for several months to develop some of the software that enabled the scanner data to be adapted to archaeology. Despite the considerable expense of equipment and training, when the time and labor required for a handdrawn map is taken into account, Holmlund claims scanning is about two-thirds as expensive as the old-fashioned method. Mapping firms in Europe have reportedly started working with scanners, and Holmlund believes that a few other engineering companies have begun to test the use of scanners for archaeological applications in the U.S.

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AN1846 1846MAP MAP WESTERN AN OF OF THE THE WESTERN UNITED UNITED States hangs on Steve Baumann’s wall at the National Park Service, Western Archaeological and Conservation Center in Tucson. It’s a beautiful example of the old art of map making: rich in style, but short on detail and accuracy.The technological advances in mapping can be observed on Baumann’s computer screen.The topographic map of the area around Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona has none of the charm of the map above, but, with a few clicks of a mouse, it offers just about everything else an archaeologist could want. The map is part of the center’s Integrated Cultural Resources Databank (ICRD), a geographic information system that allows park service staff easy access to an unprecedented amount of data about the archaeological sites 31

JIM HOLMLUND

These are laser scans of a petroglyph found at a rock art site in Tucson. The uppermost small photograph shows the rock in which the petroglyph was pecked. The pecked image reflects the laser’s beam with greater intensity than the surrounding rock surface, and the laser measures this reflection. The result, as shown in the three other photographs, is that the petroglyph image can be separated from the rock. Researchers usually record petroglyphs by photographing and/or drawing them. Both of these methods, due to factors such as human interpretation and irregular rock formations, can be imprecise. A laser scan, however, allows for precise identification and measurement of rock art images.

they manage.The system is utilized by archaeologists at 12 National Parks in California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and Utah. It took three years to bring the first, Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas, on-line. Much of the effort went into fine-tuning software and scanning thousands of pages of field notes and photographs. In about nine months twice as much information was digitized for Glen Canyon, a park nearly three times larger.“It’s faster now because we know what we want to do,” Baumann says. Starting with an aerial view in which each inch equals 100,000 feet, Baumann clicks his mouse for a closer view. Polygons begin to appear on the map, each identifying an archaeological site. He chooses a site, slides over to a dropdown menu, and suddenly we’re looking at field notes. “You can drill down from the polygon to the database to the actual report, and from there to any specific page or drawing or photograph,” he explains. Earlier, we had visited the kind of file room where all

this information has traditionally been stored—a windowless space with gray cabinets full of boxes holding pages and pages of typed reports, hand-drawn maps, and old photographs. Besides eliminating the laborious processing of digging through those files, the ICRD devised by Baumann and others also makes it easier to spot patterns and relationships across large geographic areas. “It’s one thing to think about 10 sites in a specific area,” says Joe Labadie, an archaeologist and manager of the cultural resources program at the Amistad National Recreation Area.“But to try to do that with a great number of places across 50 miles—it’s beyond our analytical abilities.This system makes it easier to see the bigger picture, because you can move in and out and from one site to another so quickly.” The Amistad Recreation Area includes a reservoir with 540 miles of shoreline on which there are more than 2,000 archaeological sites.The reservoir’s water levels can winter • 2002-03

JIM HOLMLUND

rise or fall up to 60 feet in year, which makes Labadie’s job particularly challenging. But the Amistad ICRD, which integrates global positioning coordinates and contour maps of the lake beds, makes work along the constantly shifting shoreline much easier. For example, he says, if the water level falls 20 feet, he can use the GIS to quickly identify what sites will be exposed along the new shoreline that could be attractive to looters. “Park rangers can’t be everywhere,” Labadie says,“so GIS modeling allows us to target specific areas along the shoreline for ranger boat patrols so the most important sites can be protected.” The database can be accessed through a hand-held computer.“I can drive out anywhere into the lake, stand on the shoreline with the (global positioning system), and if there is an archaeological site in the immediate vicinity, it will show me,” Labadie says. Baumann notes that conditions in the field often force archaeologists to adjust the day’s plans.The portability of the GIS makes such moves easy.“You’re not lugging file cabinets out there,” he says, “We’ve just got a couple of CDs with all the information we need.” He experienced the wonders of the system firsthand when he was working in Amistad and got lost. “All those canyons started to look the same,” he says, laughing.“We pulled the boat up to a shore, took a GPS reading, pulled the map up on the laptop with the site we were looking for, and said, ‘Okay, we’re a couple of canyons down.’” Currently, the cultural databases for Amistad and the other parks are on hard drives and CDs. But the system should be on the Park Service intranet within a year, Baumann says. In the future, a move onto the Internet seems inevitable.

ARCHAEOLOGIGISTS EMPLOY HAND-HELD ARCHAEOLOGISTS EMPLOY GPSGPS HAND-HELD UNITS units in survey work to establish the boundaries of a site and fix its location on a map. GPS, which is also used in rental cars and for recreational purposes, utilizes a signal from a satellite above the earth to identify the location of the system’s operator.This technology is generally accurate to within a range of one to five yards, depending on the model.A few companies, such as Geo-Map, are using a much more sophisticated system called Real-time Kinematic GPS, which provides measurements accurate to within half an inch. Such systems are not common in archaeology, Holmlund says, because they’re expensive— “tens of thousands of dollars”—and because many state laws require the technical expertise of a licensed surveyor to supervise their operation. “GPS data generally has to be corrected and adjusted,” he observes.“These corrections involve understanding geodesy, cartography, and surveying principals.” Holmlund stresses that “it’s important to understand the theory behind the technology as well as the technology itself.”This is especially true for the more sophisticated GPS units, some of which can also incorporate data about artifacts american archaeology

A 3-D model of bell-shaped pit superimposed upon a stratagraphic unit.

Should an archaeologist want precise measurements of the various stratagraphic layers, this information can be obtained by manipulating the model to “explode” the unit.

found at a site. This information is then imported into a GIS program. Shackley, Holmlund, Baumann, and others believe the latest advances in mapping should make detailed information much more broadly available. Digital recreations of archaeological sites and artifacts could also result in a certain amount of fieldwork being conducted, of all places, in front of a computer screen. This, among other things, could reduce wear and tear on sites, helping to preserve them for future generations. By eventually placing this type of information on-line, where it’s widely accessible, it could spark additional interest in the science.“This may be one way that the public has greater access to archaeology,” Shackley says,“and that would be a good thing.”

REED KARAIM is a writer living in Tucson. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Fortune, and U.S. News and World Report. 33

PETE BOSTROM

REDISCOVERING THE EAST ST. LOUIS MOUNDS

Robin Machiran cleans a profile wall of a recently located mound in East St. Louis. winter • 2002-03

This Cahokia outlier was thought to have been destroyed by urban development. An archaeologist with a keen eye proved the conventional wisdom was wrong. By John G. Carlton

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POVERTY AND PRESERVATION Each year, nearly 400,000 visitors make their way to the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois, eight miles east of St. Louis. But there are no

This small Mississippian house located along Interstate 55/70 was excavated by archaeologists with Southern Illinois University.

A Washington University student sets up a transit to map an excavated area in a commercial district.

tourists in nearby East St. Louis—at least none with an interest in Mississippian culture. Here, in one of America’s poorest cities, streetwalkers strut down St. Clair Avenue, trying to make eye contact with the handful of motorists who slowly cruise past. Nearby, burned-out shells of houses mark what once was a thriving working-class neighborhood. Now, prairie weeds reclaim abandoned winter • 2002-03

JOHN KELLY

n 1811, Henry Brackenridge took a ferry across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. He’d heard stories about strange ruins in the Southern Illinois countryside—remains of a long-vanished civilization. Some fancied them the work of ancient Phoenicians, or one of the lost tribes of Israel. Others dismissed them as natural phenomena. Brackenridge was anxious to see for himself. He came upon a group of mounds. From atop the largest, which he estimated was about 50 feet tall, Brackenridge counted another 45 to 50 mounds nearby.This was the remains of a prehistoric suburb that would later be known as the East St. Louis Mounds Group. It had sprung up centuries before in the shadow of a place called Cahokia, whose ruins awaited him a few miles down the trail. At its height around A.D. 1100, up to 15,000 people resided at Cahokia. The Mississippian people who settled there reshaped the natural landscape to reflect their vision of the cosmos. They fashioned scores of earthen mounds.They filled and leveled a series of grand ceremonial plazas. And they crafted a monumental astronomical calendar that resembled a ring of bare, branchless trees. More than that, they gave birth to a culture—a way of explaining the world and their place in it, which spread throughout the American Southeast and lasted centuries longer than their city. By A.D. 1350, they disappeared, leaving behind an abundance of clues and myriad mysteries.Brackenridge was almost certainly the last interested observer to see Cahokia and the East St. Louis mound group in a virtually undisturbed condition. Every exploration since has been salvage archaeology. Decades after Brackenridge published an account of his visit, the first of what would be many waves of European immigrants began farming the fertile Mississippi River floodplain across from St. Louis. They broke open the prairie with their plows, flattening some smaller mounds and scattering artifacts on or near the surface. The mounds of East St. Louis, on the other hand, fell victim to urban development. The packed earth from which they had been built was used for fill when the railroad came through, or it was hauled away to build a levee that would protect the city from seasonal inundation by the Mississippi River. The East St. Louis mounds may have contained important answers to the most intriguing Mississippian mysteries. Why, after investing three centuries of labor in Cahokia, was this great settlement abandoned? What became of the people who built it? But if those answers had once been buried here, everyone knew they had long since been destroyed. Or so it seemed.

unable to pay an outstanding court judgment, it lost title to its own City Hall. The city’s poverty, and the availability of cheap land on bluffs to the east, meant the original housing stock was rarely replaced. Fragile remains lying a few feet underground were sealed in place by the 19th-century buildings over them, or the debris left behind when those homes burned down. Assisted by students from his school and from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Kelly spent last summer digging in two empty lots on 7th Street, just around the corner from a 24-hour “health spa” and a stone’s throw from an interstate highway.The objects of their attention were a pair of diminutive mounds so slight as to be invisible to the untrained eye.Yet they contained a trove of artifacts as ancient as shards of exquisite Mississippian pottery and as modern as a discarded derringer. “This dark soil here is the profile of the mound,” Kelly explained, pointing to a sloping line that was clearly visible along the edge of a deep trench. “That dirt was brought in from elsewhere.You can see how much darker it is than this soil, which is what would naturally be found here.The color appears to have been symbolically impor-

ANDY CUTRARO

lots. Hulks of old cars—some perched on blocks, others on flat tires—rust beside the curbs where they gave up the ghost. If the tranquil field at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site may look an unlikely spot for an archaeological dig, these empty East St. Louis lots seem even more so. But here, archaeologist John Kelly discovered something that, until a few years ago, every expert was certain no longer existed: remnants of the East St. Louis mound group. Most of the evidence lies a few feet underground. But almost unbelievably, a few modest mounds have survived—most no more than a few feet high. Some were probably once crowned by Mississippian structures. That these mounds, and the artifacts they contain, remain largely undisturbed is a byproduct of the city’s notorious poverty. East St. Louis was never exactly prosperous. But after a brief boom during World War II, hard times came to stay. The population peaked at about 82,000 in 1945, and it’s now a little over 31,000. Fewer than half earn annual incomes as high as the $25,000 in annual tuition paid by students at Washington University in St. Louis, where Kelly teaches. East St. Louis’s national reputation for poor government was cemented in 1985 when,

Collinsville Avenue in the gritty East St. Louis business district. A proposed historic trail leading from Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site to the East St. Louis Mounds Group would run parallel to Collinsville.

american archaeology

This illustration about the Cahokians appeared in a 1917 St. Louis newspaper. It’s not known whether the Cahokians used fires to communicate with other settlements.

tant to them. On a number of mounds, they alternated layers of light and dark soil.” Every few minutes a Metro train rumbled past and Kelly had to yell to be heard over it. The dig is adjacent to a Bistate Transit Authority track, part of the light rail system that links St. Louis with its Illinois suburbs. The passing trains are among the inconveniences that await diggers. More than once, the archaeology was interrupted by people asking for money because, they claimed, their cars had broken down along the interstate.“It’s a scam,” Kelly dryly noted. Fortunately, by East St. Louis’s standards,

FINDING, AND SAVING, THE MOUNDS John Kelly’s epiphany took place behind a discount furniture store during the summer of 1988.Three more years would pass before he could be certain it wasn’t a fluke. Kelly was doing an archaeological survey along the path of a highway expansion in East St. Louis. Working with a backhoe, his team scraped away the roadside surface to reveal dark, tightly compacted soil. It appeared to be the base of a mound.The discovery was, to say the least, unexpected. “In an urban environment like this, the automatic assumption is that there’s nothing left,” he said. In 1991, he had another opportunity to work alongside the highway. Buried beneath the surface—below hiswinter • 2002-03

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this neighborhood is relatively safe. Kelly’s single-minded focus is legendary.Three years ago, he gave a pair of reporters a tour of Mississippian sites in East St. Louis. It included a drive down a bumpy dirt road along a railroad right-of-way. His car emerged into the parking lot of a bar, where a group of men were engaged in what appeared to be a drug deal. As his passengers exchanged apprehensive glances, Kelly continued his lecture without pause. It’s no surprise, then, that he continues work in a city many outsiders have long since given up on. Others saw only burned out homes and junked cars; Kelly saw priceless clues to Mississippian culture lying just beneath the surface. These days, he sees another opportunity. Kelly envisions a tourist trail that would retrace the route the Mississippians were believed to have traversed between Cahokia and its western suburbs. Given how many people visit Cahokia, Kelly believes the prehistoric sites of East St. Louis could also attract tourists. It’s a dream Kelly has nourished for years. Recently, it has begun attracting support from some unlikely allies. The tourist trail remains what can charitably be described as an extreme long shot; but so, it once seemed, was the likelihood of discovering these mounds.

THOMAS EASTERLY/MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY PETE BOSTROM

This 1869 daguerreotype is titled "Destruction of the Big Mound." The Big Mound was destroyed for railroad fill. It was part of a series of mound groups that connected Cahokia and its satellites.

toric fill that included cinders spewed by 19th-century locomotives—he found postholes, wall trenches from a curvilinear building, and borrow pits. Now, he was sure. The mounds that Henry Brackenridge first encountered 190 years before had disappeared from the East St. Louis landscape. But their telltale footprints and other valuable evidence of Mississippian life were lying underfoot. During the intervening decade, other archaeologists have built on Kelly’s discoveries. Working under contract with the Illinois Department of Transportation, they documented mounds and structures alongside the spot where Interstates 55, 64, and 70 join to cross the Mississippi River. Meanwhile, Kelly combed the city’s neighborhoods looking for small mounds that may have survived unscathed. It is difficult, often uncertain work.“You look for little high spots that don’t seem to be part of the natural terrain,” he explained one afternoon, rolling slowly through a working-class neighborhood in his well-worn Jeep.“You can’t really tell for sure until you dig.” But digging isn’t always an option. Given that the suggestion of a mound might be found most anywhere—on city property, on a vacant lot, on someone’s front yard— Kelly has to consult with the respective landowners before conducting an investigation.“One of our things is the public relations part of it: getting people to understand what we’re trying to do,” he said. To date, most of the landowners he’s dealt with have been accommodating, though some more so than others. If Kelly sees an indication of a mound he’ll map it, ask permission from the owner to take a core sample and, if he thinks it’s warranted, to excavate. Some landowners, for various reasons,

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consent to some of these procedures, while others agree to all of them. “It’s a very complex situation,” Kelly observed,“because you have to balance various interests.” Last year, he was able to purchase the vacant lots on 7th Street. Indirectly, at least, he has The Archaeological Conservancy to thank for it. In 2001, the Conservancy purchased part of a cornfield that lies a short distance outside Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, adjacent to the old Powell property. It looks exactly like countless other corn fields in southern Illinois. But beginning in 1998, this field has yielded a most unusual crop. Students led by Kelly have found the remains of ancient micro-drills used by Mississippian craftsmen to turn seashells from the Gulf of Mexico into elaborate jewelry.

John Kelly (right) is practiced at dealing with the challenges of urban archaeology.

JOHN KELLY

This ceramic jar was recovered from the Joshway Mound. The mound, part of which is underneath an abandoned building, is named after the owner of the property it was found on.

These shell beads were recovered from the Cemetery Mound in 1870. The mound, which was destroyed for fill, is so named because Native American and European burials were found there.

Worried that the field might be developed, the Powell Archaeological Research Center—a nonprofit group Kelly helped found—purchased it. With proceeds of its sale to the Conservancy, Kelly’s group was able to buy the lots in East St. Louis. Standing near a trench on one of those lots late last summer, Kelly could see a pall of smoke in the distance. An unwelcome reminder of the city’s enduring problems, it rose from a stolen car burning furiously a few blocks away. Not far from the burning car were signs of East St. Louis’s stubborn optimism—the hopes for revival that spring up like prairie weeds in its vacant lots. On one corner, there is a modern elementary school named for jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who grew up here. Nearby is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church built by an earlier generation of immigrants but still in use.Around another corner, in a neighborhood of neatly restored Victorian homes, is the office of Kathy Andria, president of the American Bottom Conservancy. East St. Louis seems an unlikely place to find an environmentalist, but Andria has been working here for years. Like Kelly, she believes that a historical trail could play a big role in revitalizing the city. “It would also highlight

Washington University researchers excavated this borrow pit that extends beneath the basement of a razed building.

other historic points in East St. Louis,”Andria said,“such as the Eads Bridge,” the first major railroad bridge over the Mississippi River, and a museum established by renowned dancer Katharine Dunham. Although the city is financially strapped, it could contribute to the construction of the trail with funds from economic development programs such as Community Development Block Grants. Earlier this year, the East St. Louis City Council passed a resolution endorsing the preservation effort, which could make the trail eligible for federal grants. “We’ve been able to develop partnerships with local neighborhood organizations, several of which are working on neighborhood revitalization plans that include new housing development, so the idea is winning support for both economic and educational reasons,”Andria said. As she spoke, Kelly sat nearby listening intently.This idea of his is facing pretty steep odds. But as an archaeologist, he takes a long view. If there’s one thing he’s learned with time, it’s that every once in a while the long shot wins.

JOHN G. CARLTON is an editorial writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He cowrote “Of Mounds and Mysteries,” an article about Cahokia that appeared in the Winter 2000-01 issue of American Archaeology. winter • 2002-03

L E G E N D S

O F

A R C H A E O L O G Y

The stern-wheeler Gopher of Philadelphia

The Alligator

U.S. FOREST SERVICE

RIVERBOAT

Archaeologist

Former businessman C. B. Moore plied the rivers of the Southeast to pioneer archaeology in the region.

By Tamara Stewart rom 1891 until 1920, Clarence Bloomfield Moore of Philadelphia excavated and wrote about most of the major mound sites in southeast North America, from Archaic sites dating to about 1000 B.C., to Mississippian sites dating between approximately A.D. 1000 and 1540, and everything in between.The first to systematically investigate and document prehistoric ceramic sites in the American Southeast, Moore excavated hundreds of mounds within the coastal estuaries and major river drainages of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, bringing Southeastern archaeology into the public and academic arena in a way no other researcher had ever done. Moore was born in 1852 to Bloomfield and Clara (Jessup) Moore, a wealthy Philadelphia family. He graduated

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from Harvard University in 1873, and became president of the Jessup and Moore Paper Company following his father’s death in 1879—a position he held for the next 20 years. Before settling into this position, however, he used some of his sizable inheritance to embark on a six-year world tour, traveling to Europe, Central America, and Asia. In South America he crossed the Andes on foot and by horseback, and made his way down the Amazon on a raft. A lack of biographical information about Moore makes one wonder what motivated him, at the age of 39, to pursue archaeology. Perhaps it was the many winters spent in Florida making observations on the St. Johns shell middens that inspired him to embark on what would become his life’s work and make him one of the leading prehistoric Southeastern specialists of his day.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY

In 1891, Moore organized the first of his archaeological pouring out volumes of pitchpine smoke and her wheel expeditions to the shell middens of the St. Johns River in kicking up a foamy wake that stretched out behind her Florida. Jeffries Wyman, the first curator of Harvard’s like a string of white shell beads! Is it necessary to add Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, had initially that her name was Gopher?” investigated the shell middens, and there is speculation that The Gopher’s captain, J. S. Raybon of Tampa, Florida, Moore may have come into contact with Wyman while a stuserved as Moore’s advance scout, exploring the rivers in a dent at Harvard, and possibly even worked with him on sevsmall boat in the off season, asking locals about nearby eral of Wyman’s expeditions.Although there is no direct eviruins, and researching names and addresses of landowners dence for this connection, Moore was certainly influenced so that Moore could obtain permission to excavate sites by Frederic Putnam, who succeeded Wyman as curator of the following season. Milo Miller, a physician and Moore’s the Peabody Museum (see Legends of Archaeology, Amerifriend, served as the crew’s secretary and, when human can Archaeology, Spring 2001). Putnam also served as editor burials were encountered, as an osteological consultant. of the journal American Naturalist in which Moore pubOther crew members lived on the Gopher for the duration lished the first results of his shell midden investigations in of the field season. They were supplemented by local Georgia, and South Carolina, and Northern Florida. African American laborers hired to do some of the heavy For the next 27 years, Moore organized work and to backfill completed excavations, crews to undertake annual archaeological exabout which Moore was very conscientious. plorations, gradually expanding his reAccording to local legend, Moore fresearch to include mounds along the quently paid the laborers with whiskey. Moore personally supervised the major rivers of Arkansas, Louisiana, excavations, taking rough notes in Mississippi, and Alabama. A lack of small field notebooks, which he decent roads and the mound sites’ later transposed to narrative form proximity to rivers made travel by for his published reports. At the boat the most logical solution for end of each field season, Moore reMoore. Moore first used the Osceturned to Philadelphia by train ola and the Alligator, both Ockwith his field notes and artifacts to lawaha River steamers, during his write up the results of the season’s early investigations in the St. Johns excavations. He managed to publish River drainage, where he excavated these results within a year of coma total of 83 mounds. pleting the fieldwork, a remarkable feat Moore’s most famous vessel, the unmatched by his contemporaries or Gopher, was built to his specifications in even by archaeologists today. Moore’s artiJacksonville, Florida, in 1895. Researchers C. B. Moore cles, with their wealth of data, rich illustraspeculate that Moore likely named the boat tions, and photographs, were published in the Jourfor the gopher tortoise that is prolific in east nal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Florida and that could be found digging into the sand He also published numerous papers on special topics in mounds in the area where Moore worked.The steamboat the American Anthropologist regarding the prehistoric was customized for use as an expedition vessel, with artiearthworks, burial customs, and artifacts he found at sites fact analysis and storage space, and a photography laboratory on the lower deck (Moore was an award-winning on every southern waterway accessible to the Gopher. photographer).The Florida Times-Union reported the GoMoore’s thoroughness is described in the preface to his pher’s launching into the St. Johns River in 1895 under the 1894 report on the St. Johns River: headline: “To Hunt for Skulls and Other Relics of the “The river has now been many times carefully covered Mound Builders, Such is the Gopher’s Mission.” by us from Lake Washington to the sea—practically from Working out of the Gopher, Moore and his crew of its source to its outlet—with a boat so light of draft that altrained excavators and supervisors traveled up the rivers most no contiguous lagoon or tributary creek has been left of the Southeast in late fall, stopping periodically to excaunvisited, and the employment of native guides and vate mound sites until early spring before the fields were printed promises of reward widely distributed have, we beplowed for cultivation. lieve, brought to our notice every mound of any imporAn eyewitness, Charles Earle of Bradenton, Florida tance bordering the river. Where these mounds have not (then known as Bradentown), reported seeing Moore’s been leveled to the base, the fault has not been ours.” Gopher in 1920: “As I stepped out upon the beach and Despite Moore’s claim to have leveled all the mound looked seaward, what did my wondering eyes behold but sites he encountered, archaeologists working in the Southa stern-wheel steamboat steaming up the Bay! There she east today contend that many of the surviving sites that was, big as life and twice as natural, with her smokestack Moore investigated still contain a great deal of information.

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS

As for those sites that have been destroyed, Moore’s investigations serve as the only record of them. “Much has been written decrying Clarence B. Moore’s field methods, or lack thereof,” said Jeffrey M. Mitchem, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas and a researcher with the Arkansas Archeological Survey.“But his publication record remains unmatched by any North American archaeologist before or since.” After retiring as head of the paper company in 1899 at the age of 47, Moore focused all his energies on archaeology. In 1900, Moore began the first of his five expeditions to the northwest Florida region with the intent of using pottery to trace prehistoric cultural influences and connections across the south. Moore’s work at the northwest Florida mounds was practically the only archaeological information from this region for two generations.This work informed the first regional syntheses and the initial cultural chronologies of Florida that were developed by other pioneers of Florida archaeology such as Gordon Willey and John Goggin. Between 1905 and 1906, Moore worked at the now famous Moundville site in Alabama, bringing the site to the attention of the academic world through his excellent photography, incredibly detailed illustrations, and expert, though primarily descriptive, commentary, published in Certain Aboriginal Remains of the Black Warrior River and Moundville Revisited. Some scholars consider these two works, which were recently reprinted by the University of Alabama Press along with the other classic Moore volumes on Southeastern archaeology, to represent the pinnacle of his career.A popular companion article to Moore’s Academy publications appeared in Harper’s Monthly in 1906, entitled “The Treasures of Prehistoric Moundville,” bringing his Moundville research to a wide public audience. From 1907 to 1916, Moore investigated mound sites along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and by 1918, he had explored all navigable rivers in the Southeast that were not likely to freeze in winter. Moore’s predilection for seeking burial mounds that contained unusual and elaborate grave goods has led to comparisons with such flagrant looters as “Captain” C. W. Riggs, a contemporary of Moore’s who plied the rivers of the Mississippi Valley in a houseboat, plundering grave mounds and sites for museum-quality artifacts that he sold to the highest bidder. However, scholars then and now tend to agree that Moore was a very careful excavator and observer who took detailed notes, was very familiar with the relevant literature, placed an emphasis on provenience, context, and prompt publication of his research results, clearly setting him apart from the likes of Riggs. The artifacts recovered by Moore are a continuing source of research for scholars, and the scientific value of his many publications increases as more and more of the

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The carved head and neck of a duck embellish this distinctive stone vessel that was found by Moore near the Black Warrior River in Alabama. (Below) This beautifully carved vessel was discovered at a mound near Point Washington in northwest Florida.

sites he investigated are destroyed by development, vandalism, agricultural practices, and erosion. Moore’s largest artifact collection, originally given to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, was later purchased by George Heye for his Museum of the American Indian in New York, and is now in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. “Sure, we all wish he would have done a more careful job or told us more about some sites, but the reality is that modern archaeologists owe Clarence B. Moore a debt of gratitude for the information he recorded,” Mitchem said. Moore’s tendency to steer clear of broad-scale conclusions regarding Southeastern prehistory led to criticism of his work as merely descriptive. However, several of his suppositions that were considered highly controversial in the 1800s—the prehistoric use of copper, the recognition of historic as well as prehistoric burial mounds, the existence of prehistoric dogs in North America—are now accepted as a matter of course. In September of 1926, a major hurricane struck Tampa, sinking many of the boats docked there, including the Gopher, which had been purchased by two Tampa residents that same year.Ten years later, at the age of 84, Moore died. “If Clarence Moore had followed the lead of many of his contemporaries, and had summarized his findings in a major book on the archaeology of the southern states, he would have taken his place among the giants in the history of American archaeology,” said Vernon Knight, a professor of archaeology at the University of Alabama. “But this was not his manner, and so his quiet greatness will always lie in the breadth, thoroughness, and scientific mold of his field investigations, including his persistence in prompt publication over 28 years of field work.”

TAMARA STEWART is the assistant editor of American Archaeology and the Conservancy’s Southwest projects coordinator. 43

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Conservancy Member Assists with Purchase of Prehistoric Pueblo Village site dates to early occupation of lower Chama Valley in northern New Mexico.

Sandoval Pueblo ✪

MARK MICHEL

hile driving down US 285 in northern New Mexico about 10 years ago, Steve Glass of the Wilderness Studies Institute noticed a large patch of vegetation up on a ridge that differed from the surrounding landscape. The vegetation matched that of lands he had seen at archaeological sites in the vicinity. Subsequent examination of the site by researchers determined that it was one of the earlier prehistoric villages established in the Ojo Caliente Valley of Rio Arriba County. With the help of a generous contribution from Jane Sandoval, a 17year Conservancy member, this fortuitous find has become the Conservancy’s most recent New Mexico preserve. Sandoval Pueblo was named in honor of Jane’s late husband, A. David Sandoval, a New Mexico native who shared her lifelong commitment to preserving the state’s heritage. David, who passed away in 2001, met Jane in 1971 in Washing-

Sandoval Pueblo sits at the top of this ridge in northern New Mexico.

ton, D.C. In 1995, they moved to New Mexico, Jane having fallen in love with the state’s spectacular landscape and the incredibly rich cultural heritage. Sandoval Pueblo is the Conservancy’s fourth Biscuit Ware site.The name refers to a number of settlements in the lower Chama Valley that contain distinctive prehistoric pottery resembling the unglazed vitreous china called biscuit ware.The other three Biscuit Ware sites, Howiri,Tsama, and Leafwater Pueblos, are located in the general vicinity of Sandoval Pueblo. “This site is a great addition to

the Conservancy’s Chama Valley preserves,” said Paul Williams, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) archaeologist for the Taos region of New Mexico. “The pueblo, which was previously unknown and unrecorded until recently, is in very good shape and is especially interesting because it dates to an earlier period than most of the known sites in the area. It is also probably easier to understand than some of the area’s larger sites, which have later overlapping occupations that make them more confusing.” The BLM, which owns a portion of the pueblo, will manage the preserve in partnership with the Conservancy. winter • 2002-03

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pied by the prehistoric Tewa people before their migration to present day pueblos. “The site has the potential to help us understand who the people were that first settled the valley and where they came from,” Williams said. It was during the mid to late A.D. 1200s that people left the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado, possibly moving south to establish the pueblos in northern and central New Mexico. By A.D. 1600, the Chama Valley pueblos were abandoned, the inhabitants having moved south and east to join today’s Rio Grande pueblos in central New Mexico.—Tamara Stewart

MARK MICHEL

Conservancy Plan of Action Gordon Wilson, Jim Walker, and Steve Koczan kneel on one of the pueblo’s roomblocks. Wilson is a Conservancy volunteer, Walker is the Conservancy’s Southwest regional director, and Koczan is the site management coordinator.

Sandoval Pueblo, a five-acre site consisting of two adobe roomblocks containing an estimated 200 rooms, is located on top of a narrow terrace that overlooks the Rio Ojo Caliente, a major tributary of the Rio Chama just north of San Juan Pueblo. Based on the site’s surface ceramics, Sandoval Pueblo appears to have been occupied from about A.D. 1250 until 1400 by Tewa-speaking peoples ancestral to San Juan Pueblo. Other Tewa pueblos include Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Nambe, and Tesuque. Tewa traditions speak of a time when the Tewa were one people that divided into two groups, the Summer and the Winter People. The two groups traveled along the sides of the Rio Grande and the Rio Chama, making many stops along the way and

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building villages at each location. When the Summer and the Winter People reunited, they built villages together in the Ojo Caliente Valley. Archaeological evidence tells a similar story, indicating that around A.D. 1250 several small villages were established along the Rio Chama and its tributaries, possibly by people who had left the Four Corners region to the north and migrated south, settling in areas with plentiful water. By the late 14th century, due to relatively rapid population growth, people had abandoned most of these smaller pueblos and established seven very large villages in the Ojo Caliente Valley. It’s thought that the area’s population numbered in the thousands at this time. These large pueblos were the last villages occu-

SITE: Sandoval Pueblo CULTURE & TIME PERIOD: Ancestral Puebloan, A.D. 1250–1400 STATUS: Rural residential development and looters threaten the site. ACQUISITION: Jane Sandoval, a Conservancy member, has made a generous contribution toward the acquisition of the site. Additional funds are needed for fencing, the creation of a management plan, and site stewardship. HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send your contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Project Sandoval Pueblo; 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902; Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517.

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Community Center Preserved in East-Central Arizona Late prehistoric pueblo represents key periods of change in the area.

Sherwood Ranch ✪

JIM WALKER

herwood Ranch Pueblo, a masonry village with approximately 300 rooms, is the largest of about five contemporary village sites located along the upper Little Colorado River. It is thought to have served as a center for what was a large community during the 14th century.The site’s current landowners, Wendell and Ruth Sherwood, have agreed to donate the site, formerly known as Raven Ruin, to the Conservancy. “Sherwood Ranch Pueblo is centrally located within a cluster of 14th century sites and is by far the largestat least twice the size of its contemporaries,” said Keith Kintigh, a professor of anthropology at Arizona State University who has devoted most of his career to researching the late prehistory of this area.“Additionally, the village was evidently occupied much longer than its contemporaries, all of which suggest the site’s

These exposed masonry walls are still standing at Sherwood Ranch Pueblo. The Conservancy will stabilize them as part of this project.

premiere political and likely economic importance.” The pueblo saw two periods of occupation. The first occurred between A.D. 1250 and 1300, a time of a major change in the area’s settlement pattern. People shifted from dispersed settlements into nucleated, single structures situated around plazas or communal architecture.The second period of occupation took place from approximately A.D. 1300 to after 1370. The site contains several distinct styles of well-preserved masonry architecture, multiple kivas and trash deposits. According to Andrew Duff, assistant professor of anthropology at Washington State University, the

upper Little Colorado River area was characterized by numerous groups with distinct cultural and material traits from the 11th through the mid14th century. Populations living in this less densely settled region were actively recruited by residents of the Hopi and Zuni regions to join their settlements. Sherwood Ranch Pueblo was among the last settlements to be inhabited as the regional population migrated north and east to the lands occupied by the Hopi and Zuni.The village is located in an area that figures prominently in the oral traditions of these tribes as well as the traditional histories of western Keresan-speaking groups.

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ADRIEL HEISEY

ministered by the Arizona State Parks Board. Sherwood Ranch Pueblo is the Conservancy’s seventh Arizona project to be awarded a Heritage Fund Grant. The Conservancy is working with the Center for Desert Archaeology and Geo-Map, a Tucson-based company that provides mapping and digital cartographic services, to complete photo-documentation and mapping of the site, to stabilize and backfill exposed areas. Public educational and outreach programs are also being developed, including the creation of an interpretive trail and guided tour through the preserve. “When combined with the previously preserved Hooper Ranch and Danson Pueblos [two Conservancy pueblos located nearby whose acquisition was also funded in part by a grant from the Arizona Historic Preservation Heritage Fund], Casa Malpais, and Rattlesnake Point Pueblo, the permanent protection of Sherwood Ranch Pueblo will contribute to the preservation of the larger prehistoric community that once thrived within the Little Colorado River drainage area,” said Duff, who is assisting with the preservation and public educational aspects of the project.—Tamara Stewart

Conservancy Plan of Action The pueblo, seen from this aerial view, sits above the floodplain of the Little Colorado River.

“This site is of strong interest to the Hopi Tribe because it represents physical verification of Hopi clan migration histories and the Hopi people’s strong connection to the landscape of the Colorado Plateau,” says Wayne Taylor, Jr., Hopi tribal chairman. During the Sherwoods’ ownership of the property, the White Mountain Archaeological Center undertook excavations at the site from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. Consequently, about 100 rooms were left exposed and they are now threatened by erosion and vandalism. In 2001, the Center for Desert Archaeology, a nonprofit preservation organization based in Tucson, approached the Sherwoods with a proposal to preserve the site.This fall, the Arizona Historic Preservation Heritage Fund awarded a matching grant to the Conservancy for the project. The grant program is funded by the Arizona Lottery and ad-

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SITE: Sherwood Ranch Pueblo (formerly Raven Ruin) CULTURE & TIME PERIOD: Mogollon, A.D. 1250-1370 STATUS: The site is currently unprotected and faces threats from continued erosion and vandalism. ACQUISITION: Wendell and Ruth Sherwood have agreed to donate the 11-acre property containing the site to the Conservancy. Funds are needed for fencing, the photo-documentation and mapping project, stabilization, the creation of a management plan, and for the planned interpretive trail, educational displays, and programs. The Conservancy has received a $98,800 grant from the Arizona Heritage Fund and must raise $84,496 in matching funds by December 2003. HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send your contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Project Sherwood Ranch Pueblo; 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902; Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517.

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The Mystery of Platform Houses The Wilsford site reveals a new type of Mississippian architecture.

JESSICA CRAWFORD

he Wilsford site, one of the Conservancy’s recent acquisitions in Mississippi, was first recorded in 1940 by the archaeologist Philip Phillips. He described it as a house mound and noted that although it was small, the mound was remarkably well preserved. It was so well preserved, in fact, that the four corners of the flat top, as well as the ramp, could be delineated. Phillips also mentioned a small rise on the north side of the mound on which he found a large amount of daub. He speculated that this was probably a small house mound as well. Despite some erosion, the house mound was still largely intact 28 years later. It was then, in 1968, that archaeologists John Connaway and Sam McGahey of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History began excavations of the small rise north of the mound. Like most Mississippian sites, the Wilsford site is covered with daub, the clay that Mississippian Indians used to construct their houses. Connaway and McGahey were especially impressed by the heavy concentration of daub on the northern rise.What made this concentration so interesting was that it was practically a house pattern itself. It was clear that Wilsford would reveal much about house construction during the Mississippian period. According to Connaway, what Wilsford had in store for them was indeed “a unique surprise.”

Jessica Crawford, the Conservancy’s Southeast region projects coordinator, and archaeologist John Connaway, stand on a rise where the first house was excavated.

The Wilsford site yielded a new architectural design for Mississippian houses. Once excavations began, the archaeologists realized the trenches, post molds, and features they were observing suggested unusual houses. It appeared that the inhabitants of the site had built, and presumably lived in, at least six platform houses. These houses were built on platforms supported by numerous large posts. But as is often the case, new questions accompany new discoveries.Why build houses on platforms? The paucity of artifacts and presence of a platform mound at Wilsford suggests either a shortterm occupation or a mostly ceremonial one. The platform houses

could have been built for ceremonies or for upper-class people. However, the area’s only other platform house, which is located on a small Mississippian farmstead with no apparent ceremonial aspect, doesn’t support this conclusion. Radiocarbon dates suggest the occupation of Wilsford peaked shortly before Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto’s arrival in the region. Interestingly, in an account of the de Soto expedition, the village of Aminoya is described as having such structures to keep the inhabitants safe from floodwaters. The Wilsford site is located in the Yazoo Basin, and is bordered on the west by the Mississippi River and by hills on the winter • 2002-03

N E W P O I N T- 2

JOHN CONNAWAY

a cq u i s i t i o n

This Nodena-style pot was recovered from the Wilsford site during excavations in 1968.

east.This portion of the basin is drained by the Sunflower and Coldwater Rivers and is highly susceptible to flooding in many places; therefore, it is likely that flooding was in fact a problem at Wilsford.

There are still many questions to be answered about these unusual houses, as well as about the site’s relationship to surrounding mound sites. Wilsford is believed to be a Parchman Phase site, named for another nearby Conservancy acquisition, Parchman Place. More investigations will be required to ascertain if all the houses at Wilsford were on platforms, and it is not known if platform houses were present at Parchman Place. Investigations planned by the University of Mississippi will likely reveal more information about the two sites. Having been in farmer Coleman Allen’s family for years, the Wilsford site was well cared for, and its preservation was continued by Jimmy Wilson of Clarksdale, Mississippi, who agreed to sell it to the Conservancy. Since it is now a Conservancy preserve, the site may yet divulge more surprises to future archaeologists. Wilsford may be small in comparison to neighboring mound sites, but its potential to yield a wealth of significant information is great. —Alan Gruber

POINT Acquisitions Martin

White Potato Lake

Lorenzen

Cambria

american archaeology

Squaw Mound Point Spring Pueblo

Indian Village on Pawnee Fork

Fort Foster Sumnerville

McClellan Ingomar Parchman Place Mounds ★ A. C. Saunders Mott Mound Graveline Mound

O’Dell Mounds Hunting Creek Wilsford Waters Pond

C O N S E R V A N C Y

Field Notes SOUTHWEST—Last July, the nonprofit group Vecinos del Rio (Neighbors of the River) began painstakingly recording the extensive rock art panels and archaeological sites located along Black Mesa, a major geological formation that overlooks the Rio Grande near Velarde in northern New Mexico. Formed in 1993 to preserve the cultural heritage and quality of life in the small rural communities of the northern Rio Grande Valley, the organization worked together with archaeologists and Native American volunteers from the Intermountain Youth Center in Santa Fe and youths from San Juan Pueblo. Working primarily on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, rock art experts trained the volunteers in the use of digital photography and global positioning system units, and showed them how to draw, measure, map, and record archaeological sites. The group recorded at least 50 panels of rock art and a couple of prehistoric agricultural sites. Elders from San Juan Pueblo, considered descendants of those who created the majority of the prehistoric art, offered blessings for the project. “They were an incredible group and really fun to work with,” says Paul Williams, a BLM archaeologist who helped train and supervise the volunteers.The BLM manages about 6,000 acres of land along the 12-mile

KATHERINE WELLS

Volunteers Kickoff Rock Art Recording Project

Thousands of striking petroglyphs are found at Black Mesa.

long Black Mesa formation.The rest of the land is privately owned. Black Mesa contains an estimated 20,000 petroglyphs and other archaeological sites and features dat-

ing from Archaic (ca. 5500 B.C.) to early historic times. During the Classic or Pueblo IV period (A.D. 13251600) when most of the petroglyphs were created, the Black Mesa area is

winter • 2002-03

believed to have been a center of ceremonial activity for the Tewa peoples of what is now San Juan Pueblo, and other major settlements that date from that time. In 2000, landowner Katherine Wells donated a conservation easement on her property along Black Mesa to the Conservancy that contains about 6,000 petroglyphs famous for their shield images and remarkable number of fluteplaying animals. The Vecinos plan to continue recording sites along Black Mesa next summer, including portions of the Wells Petroglyphs Preserve, with the goal of creating a comprehensive database of site information. The group hopes that the incredible cultural wealth of the mesa will become widely recognized and that the area can ultimately be protected from future development, mining, and grazing.

Early Historic Smelter Documented at San Marcos Pueblo SOUTHWEST—Research conducted this past summer at the large prehistoric pueblo of San Marcos in the Galisteo Basin south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, revealed the presence of an early historic period adobe smelter and related materials.Two years ago the researchers, led by Ann Ramenofsky of the University of New Mexico, conducted a magnetic survey of portions of the site, which helped them to pinpoint areas of high intensity burning that they thought may have been related to smelting. Metallurgical slag found on the surface also indicated that the area might contain smelting features. This past summer, supported by

american archaeology

the McCune Foundation, Ramenofsky conducted further research of the one area of the site where the magnetic survey indicated buried, high intensity burning. She and her crew discovered one formal smelter base that was composed of two superimposed basins. The smelter base measured approximately three feet in diameter. In a second series of excavation units, she discovered another smaller smelter. The second smelter contained concentrations of metallurgical slag, charcoal, copper ore, and small pieces of scrap metal. Prior to the arrival of Europeans to the area, the inhabitants of San Marcos Pueblo used lead or copper as a flux to melt silica in the production of widely traded glaze-painted ceramics; however, there is no evidence for the production of metal at this time. Ongoing research at Paa-ko, another prehistoric Galisteo Basin pueblo, by Mark Lycett of the University of Chicago has revealed the presence of very different metallurgical facilities that are contemporaneous with those identified at San Marcos (see “Puzzling Over Paa-ko”, p. 20). Details regarding metal production at post-Contact San Marcos will not be known until Ramenofsky completes the analysis of materials recovered from this summer’s excavation. She suspects that the Spanish directed this production. “Because of gaps in the documentary record before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Spanish metallurgy is a largely unexplored arena of research,” says Ramenofsky. “We know that Spaniards came north looking for gold and silver, but that’s all we know. We hope to document the extent and nature of metallurgical production in pre-Revolt New Mexico, the mineral being mined, and the metallurgical

process.” Ramenofsky also hopes that further research into this area will provide insights into the nature of Native American and Spanish interactions and the colonization process.

Excavating the Internet REDISCOVERING JAMESTOWN www.apva.org This is the Web page of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antquities, the organization that administers the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project. Jamestown was America’s first permanent English settlement. This informative Web sites gives visitors an overview of the project that includes the types of artifacts and features that have been found, research resources, and the history of the settlement.

MESOMANIA www.mesoweb.com This handsome site offers a wide range of information about Mesoamerica. There’s everything from scholarly essays and newspaper articles to an overview of the region’s civilizations to a dictionary of Maya hieroglyphs. That’s not to mention the free on-line adventure game.

A VIRTUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIBRARY www.library.upenn.edu A variety of databases, references sources, and selected Web sites for Old and New World archaeology are found here. Learn about fieldwork opportunities, check out the tree-ring data bank, and visit underwater archaeology Web sites.

Reviews The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery By J. M. Adovasio with Jake Page (Random House, 2002; 328 pgs., illus.; $27 cloth; www.atrandom.com)

Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind River and Bighorn Country, Wyoming and Montana By Julie E. Francis and Lawrence L. Loendorf (University Press of Utah, 2002; 200 pgs., illus., $35 cloth; www.upress.utah.edu)

For more than 11,000 years, Native Americans have made their homes in the Wind River and Bighorn basins of Wyoming and Montana, and they have produced one of the most diverse assemblages of hunter-gatherer rock art in the world. Francis and Loendorf combine the ethnographic record with modern Native American interpretations to help explain the complex belief systems that are represented in the rock art. There is a startling array of images, the most notable being the surreal works of the Dinwoody tradition.

In the summer of 1973, University of Pittsburgh archaeologist James Adovasio began to excavate a nearby rock shelter. By the next summer, he had dug a hole 10 feet deep exposing at least 20 separate layers of human occupation that included identifiable artifacts. He later encountered layers with decidedly human artifacts that were unknown to scholars.At that very time, the radiocarbon dates from the first summer’s work arrived from the Smithsonian Institution’s laboratory. Two of the dates were about 13,000 years old, 1,500 years before the earliest accepted date for the peopling of the Americas. Eventually, Adovasio would get even older dates—16,000 years ago—from the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter. The First Americans tells the story of one of the most exciting and controversial research projects in the history of American archaeology.When Adovasio got his early dates in 1974, almost every American archaeologist was convinced that the first Americans were the Clovis people, who arrived in the New World from Siberia via the Bering land bridge some 11,500 years ago. Adovasio’s claims were the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism, even ridicule. The Meadowcroft controversy was one of the most personal and bitter in the history of the profession. But this is more than a book about Meadowcroft. Adovasio attacks most of the conventional wisdoms about the

peopling of America, including some of the most recent. The first Americans came long before the last Ice Age ended, probably by boat. Early hunters could not have played a significant role in the extinction of the wooly mammoth and other mega-fauna; in fact, Clovis people rarely had the ability to attack and kill elephants. Kennewick Man was not a Caucasian. He and all the early Americans were Asians. The role of women in early societies is grossly understated by archaeologists. Adovasio is a pioneer in the study of the early human occupation of the Americas. In the past few years his ideas have become generally accepted as more and more early sites have been dated to preClovis times.As the story of the peopling of the New World is being rewritten, Adovasio and Page provide us with a highly readable account of the controversies that swirl around one of archaeology’s most enduring mysteries. winter • 2002-03

Reviews

Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team By Daniel Lenihan (Newmarket Press, 2002; 286 pgs., illus.; $26 cloth; www.newmarketpress.com)

Submerged is more a tale of adventure than archaeology. Retired National Park Service underwater archaeologist Dan Lenihan relates the exciting and dangerous work of the nation’s first underwater archaeology team. Started by Lenihan in 1976, the Park Service team developed some of the first techniques for preserving and documenting underwater historic sites from Florida to Alaska to the South Pacific. In frigid Lake Superior, the team studied shipwrecks off Isle Royal National Park. In balmy Hawaii, they were the first expedition to explore and videotape the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor. At Bikini Atoll, the team surveyed the ships sunk by H-bomb tests in the 1950s. In the desert Southwest, they documented sites covered by reservoirs. Off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, they explored a World War II Japanese submarine. Some of these projects were very dangerous and the team has had its share of close calls. Lenihan depicts the team’s disciplined professionalism and its passion for extreme diving in order to recover data, the real treasure of underwater archaeology. Submerged combines archaeology, history, and diving in a fascinating tale spanning half the globe.

american archaeology

Archaeology of the Everglades By John W. Griffin (University Press of Florida, 2002; 464 pgs., illus.; $55 cloth; www.upf.com)

While much has been written about the natural history of Florida’s Everglades, this is the first comprehensive study of its human history. It was originally prepared as a report for the National Park Service in 1988 by John W. Griffin, a pioneer in Florida archaeology. James L. Miller, Florida’s state archaeologist, and Jerald T. Milanich, of the Florida Museum of Natural History, have transformed Griffin’s report into a comprehensive overview of Everglades archaeology for scholars and the general public. This is an important book about a natural World Heritage site that also has a rich human heritage. Native Americans occupied the Everglades relatively late, around 2,000 B.C. But they flourished for more than 3,700 years before succumbing to the effects of the European invasion.They include the builders of America’s most famous archaeological site, the Miami Circle, as well as mounds surrounded by water and grass. The Calusa on the west coast built miles of canals and resisted Spanish colonization for some 200 years.As Florida and the nation embark on a massive financial commitment to preserve the region, this volume will be a guide to its rich Native past.

Landscape of the Spirit: Hohokam Rock Art at South Mountain Park By Todd W. Bostwick (University of Arizona Press, 2002; 330 pgs., illus., $28 paper, $60 cloth; www.uapress.arizona.edu)

South Mountain Park is the jewel of the Phoenix park system, easily accessible to millions of people. It contains an amazing concentration of ancient rock art, largely associated with the Hohokam farmers who first colonized the Valley of the Sun. Phoenix city archaeologist Todd Bostwick interprets the Native history and art. From spirit figures to calendars, it is an amazing collection of ancient images featuring stunning photos by Peter Krocek.

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

A ferry ride will take you to the ruins of Xunantunich, once an important trading center. There you’ll tour El Castillo, a classic example of the Maya technique of constructing a pyramid within another pyramid. From Xunantunich you’ll travel to the recently discovered ceremonial site of Caracol, possibly the largest Maya site in Latin America. You’ll spend several days investigating the magnificent city of Copán, considered by many to be the crown jewel of the southern Maya. Copán’s famous monument, the Hieroglyphic Stairway, has 63 steps that contain more than 2,000 intricately carved glyphs. El Castillo at Xunantunich is Belize’s tallest structure

The Amazing Maya BELIZE AND COPÁN

Our tour begins on the coast of Belize, where you’ll visit Belize City and take a boat ride up the New River to Lamanai, a Maya trading center established before Christ and occupied until A.D. 1641. From the coast you’ll travel to the inner reaches of Belize and explore the magnificent mountaintop palace of Cahal Pech.

MARK MICHEL

When: January 10–19, 2003 Where: Belize and Honduras How much: $2,495 ($295 single supplement)

Copán makes for a fascinating destination.

winter • 2002-03

you’ll camp under the Southwestern sky. David Grant Noble, the noted author of Ancient Ruins of the Southwest, will be your guide.

Following the Fierce Ones FIERCE PEOPLES OF FLORIDA’S MANGROVE COAST When: May 17-23, 2003 Where: Western Florida How much: To Be Announced

Tour participants explore River House, an Anasazi cliff dwelling on the

Useppa Island is one of the destinations on the tour. The entire island

San Juan River.

is a site

Rafting Through Time

For over a thousand years the Calusa, Tocobaga, and the Seminole people dominated southern Florida. They developed complex civilizations, created breathtaking artwork, and constructed monumental earthworks. Time and again, they defeated those who attempted to subjugate them. This exciting journey will take you from the ancient mound center at Crystal River to the manmade island of Mound Key, the Calusa’s capital, to the Everglades’ river of grass. Along the way, you will visit the key sites of Florida’s original inhabitants, explore the unique estuarine environment these people inhabited, and encounter a variety of wildlife such as manatees, dolphins, and alligators. Scholars of Florida’s past will join the tour to offer what they know about the region’s history.

SAN JUAN RIVER TRIP When: June 14-21, 2003 Where: Southern Utah How much: $1,595 ($45 single supplement) Join our river adventure through the heartland of the Anasazi world. From the vantage point of Utah’s San Juan River, you will experience one of the most scenic regions of the Southwest. Traveling through the famous “goosenecks” stretch of the San Juan River, from Bluff to Lake Powell in southeastern Utah, you will spend your days floating downriver, stopping along the way to explore cliff dwellings, rock art, and other fascinating archaeological sites. At night

american archaeology

Living Spirit Circle The Archaeological Conservancy Dee Aiani, Illinois Carol M. Baker, Texas Earl C. Biffle, Missouri Denis Boon, Colorado Jean Carley, Oregon Deborah Chastain, Colorado Elva B. Cook, California Donna Cosulich, New York Patricia H. Douthitt, Ohio Professor and Mrs. Robert C. Dunnell, Mississippi Preston Forsythe, Kentucky Earl Gadbery, Pennsylvania Derald and Bridget Glidden, California Grace E. Hartzel, Ohio

To make sure that America’s past will always have a future, the Conservancy has established a new leadership society, the Living Spirit Circle, to recognize the growing number of members who are interested in making a legacy gift to support archaeological preservation. This new group is open to those who wish to make a lasting contribution by including the Conservancy in their will or estate plans, or by making a life-income gift such as a charitable gift annuity. The Conservancy would like to thank the following Living Spirit Circle founding members for their thoughtfulness and generosity.

Walter and Allene Kleweno, New Mexico Lavinia C. Knight, California Derwood Koenig, Indiana Jay Last, California Margaret A. Lussky, Minnesota Osceola W. Madden, Florida Laura Marianek, Ohio Robin Marion, New Jersey Neil E. Matthew, Arizona Mark Michel, New Mexico Janet E. Mitchell, Colorado David Noble and Ruth Meria, New Mexico Lee O’Brien, Indiana Michael R. Palmer, New Mexico Marguerite B. Peterson, Florida

Donald E. Pierce, New Mexico Barbara A. Reichardt, California Joy Robinson, California Susan J. Rudich, New York Lorraine Schramm, Missouri Walter Sheppe, Ohio Harriet N. Smith, New York Paula M. Strain, Maryland Steven Vastola, Connecticut James B. Walker, New Mexico Karl and Nancy Watler, Colorado Ron Whiddon, New Mexico Katheryne Willock, Arizona Kathrin W. Young, Alaska Wendell E. Zipse, Arizona

Patrons of Preservation The Archaeological Conservancy would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and corporations for their generous support during the period of August through October 2002. Their generosity, along with the generosity of the Conservancy’s other members, makes our work possible. Life Member Gifts of $1,000 or more

Anasazi Circle Gifts of $2,000 or more

David Arthur, Illinois Anderson Bailie III, Georgia Betty Banks, Washington Grace Hartzel, Ohio Clare Manis Hatler, Washington Derwood Koenig, Indiana Virginia Le Claire, Michigan Susan Mayer Reaves, Florida Suzanne Rice, Colorado Mary Sprague, Washington, D.C.

Rosemary Armbruster, Missouri Jane Sandoval, New Mexico June Stack, Pennsylvania Kathryn Wanlass, Utah

TO MAKE A DONATION

Foundation/Corporate Gifts of $5,000–$29,999 Banner Foundation, New Mexico George Gund Foundation, Ohio Honeywell Foundation, New Mexico Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, Maine John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Maryland

OR BECOME A MEMBER CONTACT :

Bequests

The Archaeological Conservancy

James Simon, Colorado

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

winter • 2002-03

Show Pride in America’s Archaeological Resources! Archaeological Conservancy T-shirt 100% Cotton $12.00, plus $1.75 S&H circle size: S M L XL XXL To order, send your check to: The Archaeological Conservancy 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 • Albuquerque, NM 87108 NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

STATE

ZIP

Make your mark in time. Some Conservancy members think the only way to help save archaeological sites is through membership dues. While dues are a constant lifeline, there are many ways you can support the Conservancy’s work, both today and well into the future. And by supporting the Conservancy, you not only safeguard our past for your children and grandchildren, you also may save some money.

Sugarloaf Pueblo, AZ Atop Sugarloaf Mountain A Conservancy preserve since 1991

Place stock in the Conservancy. Evaluate your investments. Some members choose to make a difference by donating stock. Such gifts offer a charitable deduction for the full value instead of paying capital gains tax.

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

leave a lasting legacy.

Rooms with a view 600 years ago.

Many people consider protecting our cultural heritage by remembering the Conservancy in their will. While providing us with a dependable source of income, bequests may qualify you for an estate tax deduction.

JERRY JACKA

Part of our cultural heritage today.

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

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Name: Street Address: State:

City: Phone: (

)

Zip:

Whatever kind of gift you give, you can be sure we’ll use it to preserve places like Sugarloaf Pueblo and our other 250 sites across the United States. Mail information requests to: The Archaeological Conser vancy Attn: Planned Giving 5301 Central Avenue NE Suite 902 Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 Or call: (505) 266-1540

American Archaeology Magazine | Winter 2002-03 | Vol. 6 No. 4

Articles inside

new acquisition COMMUNITY CENTER PRESERVED IN EAST-CENTRAL ARIZONA

RIVERBOAT ARCHAEOLOGIST

new acquisition CONSERVANCY MEMBER ASSISTS WITH PURCHASE OF PREHISTORIC PUEBLO

REDISCOVERING THE EAST ST. LOUIS MOUNDS

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAPPING ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE

PUZZLING OVER PAA-KO

THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICA