9.1.5 Spring pg 44-C4
2/15/05
10:12 PM
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CONSERVANCY
Field Notes SOUTHWEST—Last July, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, archaeologists Barbara Roth, Robert Hickson, Jodi Dalton, and their crew conducted a magnetometer survey and excavated a couple of pithouses and one extramural hearth at La Gila Encantada, a Three Circle-phase pithouse village near Silver City, New Mexico. The magnetometer study identified a cluster of structures at the north and south ends of the site and a large depression in the middle, a layout found at other sites along the nearby Mimbres River. The pithouses were large, deep, and well constructed, with plastered hearths and floors, and large central posts. This type of construction indicates a sedentary occupation. However, a large internal storage pit, the kind indicative of seasonal rather than year-round occupation of the site, was located inside one of the features. Artifacts recovered from the site also indicated that groups might have been living there during the winter, rather than year-round. Numerous plant-processing tools like choppers were recovered from the site, as were a few manos and metates. The remainder of the tools consisted of well-made projectile points of obsidian and chert and unifaces made from rhyolite. The ceramics include decorated and brown ware similar in style and form to those found at other Three Circle sites. 50
JAKE HICKERSON
La Gila Encantada Research Continues
Researchers work at La Gila Encantada. They excavated a few large, well-constructed pithouses with plastered hearths and floors. The recovered artifacts include projectile points and plant-processing tools.
The biggest difference between La Gila Encantada and the sites along the Mimbres River appears to be that groups at La Gila Encantada did not live at the site permanently, but instead moved around more than was previously thought. More research is planned for next summer to address more questions about habitation patterns and trade relationships between upland and riverside communities.
Conservancy Adds to Old Fort Earthworks Preserve MIDWEST—In November 2004 the Conservancy made an emergency
POINT acquisition of a small parcel of land on the eastern wall of the Old Fort Earthworks in South Shore, Kentucky, across the river from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Portsmouth area, at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio rivers, was a center of ceremonial activity during the Hopewell period, circa 100 B.C. to A.D. 400. A complicated and sprawling complex of earthworks and mounds, documented as early as the 1790s, was located here. Squier and Davis mapped the Portsmouth complex during their seminal study of prehistoric earthworks in the 1840s, and the University of Kentucky conducted a small excavation there in
spring • 2005
