Utah Statewide Archaeological Society Newsletter, Volume 4, Number 3, September 1958

~'''' ~~ ~~ { UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY UTAH ARCHEOLOGY . ,~. : ,\jT SOUTH TE IPLE A Newsletter ,LT LAK\: CITY" UTAH Vol. 4. No, 3

::;;eptember 1958 Contents

Editor's Notes .

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Preliminary Note on Excavations at the Coombs Site, Boulder. utah . . . Robert H. Lister

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Archeological Survey of the Kaiparowits PlateauA Preliminary Report . • . James H. Gunnerson

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UTAH ARCHEOLOGY is distributed quarterly to all members of the Utah ,Statewide Archeological Society. Membership dues are $1. 00 per year.

AlL correspondence should be directed to the Editor: James H. Gunnerson, Department of Anthropology, Univers*y of Utah, Salt Lake City 12, Utah.

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Editor's Notes

Cover: The cover pictograph was copied in about twice its actual size and in approximately actual color from a panel found near Ferron, Utah. The design was prepared by Judith Goodrich, an anthropology student at the University of Utah.

Field Activities ~ Archeological field work in Utah is essentially completed for the year. The University of Utah has had an especially active program, with six parties in the field and a staff busy in the laboratory on the Salt Lake City campus proces,sing the artifacts, photographs and records as they were sent in from the field.

A joint University of Utah - University of Colorado party excavated at the Coombs site in the north edge of Boulder, Utah. After limited work at the site by an advance party from the University of Utah, Dr. Robert Lister. professor of anthropology at the--Univ~_r,sjt.Y. of Colorado, held a month-long archeological field school at ~he site. _A preliminary report of work at this site is included in this issue of the newsletter.

Upon completion of the field school at Boulder. Dr. Lister, with a party of three men, completed a survey of that area west of the Colorado River which is to be flooded by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. Last year he carried the survey as far north as the Escalante River. He rE;!ports that in the area covered this year, sites are not numerous and few are large.

James :Nichols, a graduate anthropology student at the. University of California, with Oill! other man, conducted a roving survey just west of the area to be flooded by the' GIEm ' Canyon Dam. This survey concent~ated on the s~nd dune a,r eas and had as one of its major goals a better understanding of the territory between those western tributaries of the Colorado which Lister has surveye<:l during the past two years. Nichols reports that sites are numerous but are., for the most part, temporary camp sites or chippirig ~reas.

Thomas W. Matpews of the University oJ Utah staff with a party of two to five men has devoted nearly five months to a survey of the area notth of the San Juan and east of the Colorado Rivers. According to Mathews, the area to be flooded, along with higher ground, has yielded many Basket Maker and

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A,nq.sazi Pueblo sites plus some previously unreported lithic complexes which appear to be much older, 1 The University of Utah had s~ill another party in the field, this one working by boat along the Colorado River primarily below the mouth ' of the San Juan, For the first part of the season this group was under the supervision of Dr. Jesse D. Jennings. Head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah. Later the supervisor was William Lipe, a former yale graduate student employed by the University of Utah, The party conc~ntrated on the excavation of sites which will be flooded when the cofferdam is completed', .

Don Fowler was in charge of a small survey party locating previously unrecorded sites in the SliI-me area. A number of interesting sites. for the most part . rock shelters, were excavated and it is hoped that a preliminary report of thi& work will appear in the next Newsletter, (

Your editor was in charge of a s~rvey of the Kaiparowits Plateau, preliminary report of that work is included in th.is is~ue.

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Conferences: The ~taff and most of the crew merpbers of the University of "Ttah's Upper Colorado River Basin Archeological Project attended the Pecos Conference for Southwestern Archeology, held this summer in Albuquerque. New Mexico.

All of the st ~ff me!nbers presented reports at this meeting, which. was devoted primarily to salvage archeology. Next year the Pecos Cont:erence will be h.eld at the newly established field station (near Taos, New ;tVIexico) of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Mus eum of New Mexico. Any o~e interested is invited to atte~ci. but everyone will h.ave to provide his own tent. cooking equipment, etc, since there will not be enough living facilities at the field station to accommodate the conference. .~

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The next annual meeting of the Society for American Archeology will be held in_ Salt Lake City next spring, I should like to urge any members of the USAS not already members of the SAA to join the Society and attend the meeting. This is to be the first SAA meeting held west of the Rocky Mount ains, The University of Utah will be the host and your editor will serve as program chairman. I will include more details in future Newsletters.

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A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON EXCA-VATIQNS A T THE COOMBS SITE, BOULDER, UTAH Robert H. Lister

The Coombs site, so designated because of its location on property owned by Mr. Eph Coombs, has been known for a long time, but until this summer had not been excavated extensively. It is located in the community of Boulder. Garfield County, southeastern Utah.

In 1928 Mr. Noel Morss, working for the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, visited Boulder and dug a few test trenches in the site.

His excavations exposed three burials, each with associated pottery vessels. Morss's tests also revealed that there were masonry house structures at the site, but none were excavated. From his small scale excavations and from specimens he collected on the surface of the site, he classified the culture there as Pueblo and pointed out its affiliation with the better known Pueblo culture of northeastern Arizona. Morss then moved north to the Torrey- -Fruita area where he spent considerable time excavating sites, mainly in rock shelters, along the Fremont River and its tributarieE/. This latter work led to his defining a new culture -the Fremont culture. Mr. Morss's publication, "The Ancient Culture of the Fremont River, Utah," Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. voL. XII, no. 3, 1931, not only describes his work near Torrey and Fruita in detail, but also briefly refers to the work done at Boulder in the ruin we have called the Coombs site. As readers of this Newsletter are aware, the Fremont culture--first described in the above mentioned paper--has been the su1;lject of considerable investigation by your editor, James Gunnerson.

Morss was probably not the first person to dig into the Coombs site, for ever since the time of the settling of Boulder residents and visitors have known of the ru~n and have dug into portions of it in search of pottery vessels. Following Morss's visit additional pothunting was conducted, especially in the area near where he had encountered the burials. Fortunately for us, however, despite the digging in the site

by Morss and various other individuals only a small portion of the village remains was disturbed.

This long known and partially excavated site took on added importance to University of Utah archaeologists during the 1957 Upper Colorado River Basin Archaeological Salvage Project operations. The survey last summer of the areas to be inundated by waters of that portion of the

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Glen Canyon reserv;oir to be formed north of the Colorado River failed to find any sites of the size and ::tpparent ~ignificapce of the Coombs site.

However, potsherds and other artifacts. s~milar to those known to he present at the site in Boulder were found at numerous small camp sites and rock shelters in the reservoir area. Therefore it was decided that the excavation of this site, although it was situated some distance from the area that would be flooded, might yield information that would be most significant in the interpretation of the culture history of those sites threatened by destruction by water. Plans were developed for its excavation during the past winter and spring. The excavations were conducted between 1 June and 18 July of this past summer by two crews. The initial work was undertaken by Dr.J .. D. Jermingsand, Mr. James Gunnerson, of the UniverSity of l)tah, with a crew- of seven volunteer workers from St. Mark's. School for Boys in Salt Lake. City.. This crew dug at the site for two weeks, completing a large. am()untof exploratory trenching that is always necessary when beginning work at such an extensive site,.

The excavation program was th~p continued for .five weeks by a group of thirteen students frQm the Uniyersity of Colorado who, through a cooperative agreement with the University of l,Jtab., participated in the project as members of afield school in ar~haeological techniques.

The results of this past season's work at the Coombs site bear out, and even exceed. oU,r earlier; expectations of what might be encountered there through an excavation pI.'ograrn. Jnfprrnation already gained at this site should aid us greatly in reconstructing the story of prehistoric peoples and their cultures in the Glen Canyon reservoir area to the south, and it is hoped that a second ;;;eason can be spent there next summer.

The pick and shovel have revealed the -village to have been much larger than surface indications suggested and, the state of preservation of house remains is b~tter than anticipated. Also. the yield of artifacts has been rewarding.

The Coombs site is located in Boulder on a rock strewn ridge upon which a fairly dense stand of sage grows. Many of the basalt boulders now scattered ov~r th~ surface of the ridge had heen hlcorporated into masonry walls of hou~ef:! during the p~riod , of village occupation. Prevailing winds from the south have drifted a large amount of sand and unconsolidated soil against the southern side of the ridge. Mixed with this natural deposit are quantities of ash, bits Of charcoal,. potsherds. and other refuse indicq.tive of the fact that along this side ,of the ridge the village trash was durnpe.d.

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The excavations were begun by digging a series of exploratory trenches across the top and along the sides of the ridge. Wherever the trenches exposed house remains, pits cut into the ridge, or deposits of cultural material, they were carefully expanded to expose the features completely .

After the 'preliminary trenching, it was decided to concentrate upon the excavation of an L-shaped unit of thirteen rooms and the clearing of two isolated single - room dwellings. The accompanying sketch shows the plan of these structures.

The nine rooms forming the longer line of the unit had outer walls of sandstone masonry built upon a foundation of basalt boulders. The remains of these walls stood over three feet high. Partitions between the rooms were built primarily of jacal ~ -rows of posts placed side by side and thickly plastered with mud . The small size of these structures-they averaged 6 feet by 7 feet- -as well as the fact that none contained fire pits indicates that they were used for storage purposes. Along the shorter axis of the right angle unit were four large rooms undoubtedly used as habitations . One of these rooms had masonry walls , but the other three exhibited combinations of masonry and jacal walls . Fire pits were found on the floors of all of these rooms, and one contained a metate set in a rectangular mealing bin. Entrance to the rooms uSed as habitations was gained by doorways, but the storage structures apparently were entered through hatchways in the roof. The two isolated dwellings were of jacal c onstruction and, although separated from the L - shaped unit , were occupied at the same time .

One of the test trenches cut through a deep deposit of refuse which at first was thought to be a kiva or large pit house which had been filled with trash after abandonment. However, expansion of the trench proved the pit simply to b~ a large borrow pit from which caliche had been obtained. Caliche is a minera~ized deposit, rich in calcium,which was used by the inhabitants of the village for plastering walls and floors and in making mortar . Subsequent to its digging the pit was filled with village refuse . Three burials also were placed in it.

Large quantities of potsherds- - ov~r 40,000 - - were recovered from the village refuse and from the fill in various structures . Also found were metates and manos, used in the milling of corn, and other stone artifacts such as projectile points, knives, axes, and mauls. Bones of animals that "had been used for food as well as artifacts made from the bones of animals were collected . Corn was probably the staple element in the diet of the village occupants. Carbonized kernels and cobs of it were recovered.

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Although the large qUflltityof material as well as the detailed in~ormation gathered at the Coombs site has not been studied as yet, it is possible to mak~ some tentative observations relative to the site.

These are based upon impressions gained during the excavations . The village was a fairly large one. We have excavated only a portion of it to date. The culture represented is Pueblo, bearing out Morss's assumption of s orne thirty years ago. ¡; Pottery Of. kno:wn Pueblo types occurred in large quantities. Many of the corrugated, black-on-white, black - on ~ redJ and polychrome sherds are tyPes that are cO:qlmonly found in northeastern Arizona. The subsistence pattern of the v~llagers was agricultural--corn being the principal crop--supplemented by hunting. Numerou~ deer bones were obtained from the deposit~ of trash. The village was occupied during late Pueblo II or early Pueblo III times, approximately 900 to 1, 000 years ago.

A detailed report upon this past season's work at the Coombs site will be prepared this winter J and published in the Anthropological Papers of the Department of Anthropology, University of Utah.

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Kaiparowits Plateau Archeological Survey A Preliminary Report James H. Gunnerson

During the period from July 1 to September 12. 1958, the University of Utah conducted an archeological survey on the Kaiparowits Plateau, Kane County, Utah. This. survey was carried out in conjunction with the Upper Colorado River Basin Archeological Project, which is salvaging the archeological material to be destroyed by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and by the resulting lake . Salvage work is being done by the Department of Anthropology of the University of Utah under a contract from the U. S .

National Park Service.

The firs t year's work in the area (Lister , 1958; Gunnerson ms.) showed that most of the sites to be flooded west of the Colorado presented a very incomplete picture of the way of life of the people who occupied them. The impression gained was that most of the sites were occupied seasonally, perhaps only during certain phases of farming, or on hunting trips or as way stations during travel. It seemed probable, however, that more permanent settlements could be found in the general area, and a few such. sites were located and partially excavated in the viCinity of Escalante, Utah (Gunnerson ms.). Also, two very limited investigations by the University of Utah in 1953 and 1957 (Lister 1957) and a check by the Rainbow Bridge Monument Valley archeological survey in 1937 (Beals, Brainard and Smith; 1945: p. 6) had disclosed that sites were numerous on the Kaiparowits Plateau. This information suggested that the Kaiparowits might constitute a cultural center for the sites encountered during salvage activities in the surrounding area.

Since this archeological project is not merely one of salvage, but is designed also to study the cultures represented at the sites to be flooded, it was considered desirable to learn m.cre abou~ the Kaiparowits, even though sites on this plateau will not be damaged.

Accordingly, in 1958 , a surv~y of the Kaiparowits WaS begun by a party under James H. Gunnerson and including H. L. Alexander, Peter Ho¡ Cousins, Melvin Aikens and Norman Ritchie. Loyd Gates provided horses and wranglers, The town of Escalante. utah was the base of operations and outfitting point.

Transportation from Escalante, 35 miles away, to the trail leading to the top of the plateau was by a conventional carry- all; however, the subsequent

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climb of about 2,500 feet was steep and in places difficult for both men and pack animals. From the top of the trail the way was essentially level with only minor canyons to cross as long as one stayed near the north rim, but sand dunes in some areas made walking difficult. Springs, although not numerous, provided an adequate amount of good-water.

The archeological survey was carried out as follows: The first camp was established near the head of the trail at a spring known to th.e wrangler. The first day's work in the immediate vicinity revealed numerous sites near by. so work was continued from this base. Once th.e survey was going smoothly, the party chief and the wrangler made a r apid reconnaissance of the Kaiparowits to determine which areas contained concentrations of sites and to select satisfactory camping places. The information thus obtained provided the basis for planning the rest of the summer's work.

For greatest efficiency, the survey crew. was usually divided into two teams.

One team of two men concentrated on the locating, describing, photographing, and recording of archeological sites. The second team of two was engaged in making a topographic map of areas containing sites at a scale of 1000 feet per inch. They indicated the locations of sites on the topographic map, and also made detailed maps of large sites with extensive architectural remains. 1 If the mappers found sites which had been missed by the other team, they recorded them. The party chief worked with both teams, He also spent time working ahead of the survey team to determine which specific areas were to . receive detailed attention and to gain an over-all knowledge of the archeology and area. Miscellaneous- j6bs suth as moving camp, taking caI"e of numerous camp details and accompanying one of the teams _or the party chief whenever desirable fell to the wrangler.

Most of the actual work was done on foot with a pack mule to carry the mappi ng equipment. Once the areas near a camp were surveyed, horses were used to provide t r ansportation to -areas further away. They were also u s ed for r apid or long range reconnaissan<;e, for moving c amp , p acking in supplies and packing out specimens. The recording team attempted to thoroughly cover each selected area in search of sites. Once the type of terrain where sites usually occurred was determined, more time was spent in checking the likely ¡areas than the unlikely. Recording consisted of filling out standard survey record sheets, making sketch maps showing site locations, and making sketches of architectural remains, artifacts too large to remove, pictographs, etc. In addition. both black-and~white and color photographs were taken of items such as were sketched and of the sites in general to show their setting. Whenever possible, a small chalk

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Fig. 1. Map of the ~aiparowits Plateau showing the area of the 1958 Archeological Survey â&#x20AC;˘ . Hatching indicat es the area of the entire survey and crosshatching~ the area of intensive survey.

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board bearing the site number and photograph number WaS included in one corner of the photograph. The surface collection from each site was sacked separately, with durable labels identifying the specimens as to their site of origin. Blue and white plastic streamers were tied to trees or bushes at each site, and the site number was written on the white streamer with waterproo~ ink so that the mapping crew could locate and identify the sites recorded.

The plateau was mapped with a plane table and tEllescopic alidade. Mapping was greatly facilitated by a skeleton Government Land Office survey being made at tlle same time by the Bureau of Land Management. The archeological survey was planned so that our teams would be working behind the Bureau of Land Management survey. This enabled us to use their section corner monuments, which are of fixed and known locations, as control points. Their township lines served as base lines for our maps. To facilitate mapping, however, we had to erect triangulation points on prominent points which could be seen from many sites.

A few sites were found which had Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley archeological survey site numbers carved into or painted on convenient rocks or rock - shelter walls. When such numbers were found. they were recorded to provide cross reference between the two archeological surveys.

The specimens collected were sent to the archeological laboratory of the .

University of Utah for washing, cataloging and processing.

The Kaiparowits Plateau extends northwest from near where the San Juan River enters the Colorado. The northeast edge of the plateau is formed by the Straight C,l iffs, which extend in a straight line for about 30 miles.

The plateau has an average elevation of about 7, 300 feet, rising 2,500 feet above the nearly level desert between the foot of the Straight Cliffs and the Escalante River. The area on the southwest side of the Plateau is deeply dissected by canyons and drainages which head on top. All drainage is to the south, primarily to Last Chance and Rock Creeks which, in turn, drain into the Colorado River.

The top of the upper (northeast) two-fifths of the Plateau, which is very rough and is said to be inaccessible except by helicopter was not visited.

The top of the lower three-fifths of the plateau is nearly level and is up to 4 1/2 miles wide. At a few places, the south-draining canyons head at the north rim but at the rim these canyons are not difficult to cross on foot or horseback.

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Sketch map (plan above. profile below) of structure at site 42Ka368.

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The Plateau is composed mainly of sandstone, the' uppermost strata being of the Mesa Verde group .â&#x20AC;˘ Sandstone outcrops and small rounded buttes are common. The soil is very sandy and dune areas, usually partially stabilized, are numerous. Vegetation is predom~nantly sage, juniper. pinyon, serviceberry, and scrub oak. Also to be 'found are ponderosa pirie, larb. cactus and a little yucca. Around springs and seeps are small groves of quaking aspen and a variety of grasses and small plants. June grass is the predominant grass in the dry areas. Animals most commonly seen are deer. jack rabbits, cottontails, small rodents, porcupines, lizards. rattlesnakes, bull snakes and blue racers. Only 9- few cattle are pastured on the plateau during the summer now, but a few years ago it supported much larger herds of cattle and. sheep.

The archeological survey party concentrated its activities in areas which, after a brief over-all reconnaissance, showed the greatest concentration of sites. Thus work was carried out within a five-mile radius of each of three base camps: Mud Hole. Gates, and Lake Draw Springs.

Sites : A total of 253 sites were recorded, most of which are assignable to a variant of the Anasazi Pueblo culture. A few of the sites may be' early Developmental. Pueblo, but the vast majority appear to be of Late; Developmental PueblQ.and early Classic Pueblo age. Some sites were found which yielded flint chips and a few stone artifacts but no pottery or structures; these c an not be given a cultural assignment with certainty. One open site yielded only pottery of a type thought to be rJpaiu~e. rr. At another site a few sherds of historic Hopi pottery were found along with a greater amount of prehistoric pottery. '"Ttre follo",?ing gll l:gl'!~rry appliestilf the: p r':ehisUwi6' Pu:eb10 sites: The sites on the Kaiparowits Plateau are all small, but are usually close together. Surface indications suggest that many ruins are single rooms; the largest probably had no more than a dozeIi. In the areas where sites were found , they averaged at least +0 per square mile, and it seems likely that as many more have been covered by sand or for other reasons were not found. The settlement pattern, then, was one of small scattered "rancheros" rather than large pueblos or villages.

Moreover, open sites were concentrated in and around broad shallow basins at the heads of canyons which had such conformations - =namely Gates. Mud Hole, Llewellyn and Lake Canyons. Generally speaking. ruins were almost always on ridges ,or knolls, often slight, which had at least a few pinyon and/ or juniper trees on them, were close to

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nearby level sage flats and were within a mile or so of easily accessible springs. In a few instances sites were in flat areas with no significant rises or had neither pinyon nor juniper trees on them. Sometimes sites commanded a view over the area immediately around them. but none were found that commanded a view off the Straight Cliffs or that were located in especially defensible positions.

The proximity of habitation areas to sage flats strongly supports the assumption that the inhabitants were horticulturalists', since it takes at least moderately rich soil to support sage. There is. however. no evidence to suggest that irrig~tion was practiced, and the land suitable for fields is so ~ituated as to preclude primitive irrigation except for very tiny garden plots near seeps or where there is a very sh.allow water table in the bottoms of draws. ,Structures:

Two'main styles of architecture appear to be represented at the open sites--tabular stone masonry and vertically-set stone slabs. The former predominated. The masonry structures vary in size from one to about a dozen rooms, with an average of two or three. Rooms are either round or rectangular, Sometimes rooms of both shapes are combined in single structures. Rooms range in width from about 10 to 30 feet. Walls are al ways a single layer thick~ and usually no more tban two courses remain in place. but ' in rare instances 8 to 10 courses are still standing .to a height of about three feet.

The sandstone blocks' from which the masonry walls were construCted are irregular in size and none show careful shaping. At a few sites. a wall or porUon of a wall has fallen as a. unit. but usually the fallen wall slabs are scattered or lie in a disarranged inanner. This evidence sugg~sts that slabs were laid in adobe mortar--and that type of construction was actually found in rockshelters. , . . . .

The structures represented by slabs set vertically in the ground are much less numerous and are found only as Single circular rooms about 10 to 15 feet across. Fallen slabs are not found around these structures. so presumably the upper portions of the walls were of a perishable material.

Small slab-lined cists have' not been found. . .

Until there has been excavation at some of these sites, it will be impossible to determine how many additional structures made of perishable materials, or structures covered by driftinK sand are present. At no sites were depressions suggestive of pit houses or kivas noted and at some of the sites such structures could be ruled out because bedrock was too close to the surface. Some structures" in fact. appear to have been constructed directly on bedrock.

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Fig, 4 (opposite) (a) The crew and pack train on the trail up the Kaiparowits Plateau, Here the trail is on a nearly level bench, but below and especially above this point, the trail is very steep and in places, difficult, (b)

This view is typical of areas where open sites are found, A site is situated on the juniper and pinyon covered ridge on the far side of sage flat just below the ridge from which the photograph is taken. Sites are commonly near the heads of canyons where springs are to be found .. It is presumed that the Indians farmed the flats now covered by sage, The sma,ll scattered villages are especially interesting in view of the faGt that_most()f the Pueblo Indians elsewhere were living in large villages the lillie w_hen most of these Kaiparowits sites were occupied. (Site42Ka753)

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Most of the sites found on the Kaiparowits were similar to this one, The remaining wall of this circular structure is somewhat higher than those found at most sites although the size, 20 ft. diameter, is representative, A portion of a wall of a second room can be seen at the left, (Site 42Ka855)

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Near the heads of some of the canyons which drain south from the plateau are rockshelters which have been occupied. The fallen wall of a circular structure about 15 feet in diameter is viewed here from the rim a little way around the head of the canyon. . (Site 42Ka881)

(e)

Storage cists were frequently built in convenient niches in canyon walls or in the sides of rock outcrops. Here a wall had simply been constructed across the front of a niche, Note the use of a combination of poles .. rock . and adobe in the wall and the ~ell preserved doorway, complete with pole lintel. The wall is about 4 feet high and 8 feet long. (Site 42Ka855)

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Another common type of storage cist was free - standing in a rock shelter, This cist, about 3 feet in diameter, is built of stone slabs laidin a.dobe mortar. The cists found on the I).aiparo\vit,s had few if any artifacts in them, although they were sometimes associated with what appeared to have been habitation structures and had artifacts scattered around them. (Site 42Ka878)

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A few ruins found on the Kaiparowits are of special interest. The largest of these, site 42Ka331, is situated on the end of a ridge about 60 feet high overlooking a broad sage flat. The structure is oval and measures about 60 by 100 feet. About one-fourth of the perimeter is formed by a single curved wall. After a gap of about eight feet the curve is resumed by two curved walls about 10 feet apart with the space between apparently divided by partitions. The other half of the structure consists of a block of about six large rooms. The court or plaza enc losed by the single wall, double wall and room block is about 50 by 60 feet. Few artifacts were found near the structure and its function at present cannot even be guessed.

A somewhat simiLar but much smaller strudure was found at site 42Ka761.

This structure consisted of a courtyard or plaza about 36 by 50 feet bordered on one side by two contiguous rooms. each about 15 feet square, and on one "corner" by another room of about the same size. The remainder of the enclosure was a single wall. The over -all diameter of the structure was about 55 feet.

Still another ruin (42Ka368) was of quite different construction. The main portion consisted of a truncated conical mound about 4 feet high with a diameter of 6 feet on top and 36 feet at the bottom. On the. north side was a lower level rectangular area outlined by large blocks of stone symetrically attached to the mound, It was about 12 feet wide and extended out about 20 feet from the conical part. Two possible cross walls were present.

Artifacts were abundant around this structure but its function is unknown.

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In addition to open sites, several rockshelters were found which had structures built in them or had merely been occupied, The most common structures so found were small storage cists. but larger rooms. probably habitations. also occurred. The structures all made use of the -w::t-ll of the shelter often a~ one wall to which: other walls were built. SOllletimes a convenient niche in the shelter was simply walled off. The most common type of construction consisted of tabular rocks laid in a greater volume of adobe mortarÂť but occaSionally rock would exceed mortar in volume.

There were a few pole and adobe structures.

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Rooms in rockshelters were not large. They seldom exceeded about 10 feet in diameter and averaged 4 to 5 feet: high. Evidence of as many as five rooms, however. was found in shelters. Doorways, where traces of them remained, were apparently rectangular or oval with thresholds about a foot high and with pole lintels. Stone slabs were used as doors.

Through the wall of one room were two openings , possibly windows, each

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about 2 by 3 inches. The ceiling of a room was often the roof of the rockshelter. At one site. however. a portion of a roof was still in place.

It consisted of poles resting on the tops of the walls and supporting smaller transverse poles with a layer of adobe on top.

Artifacts: The artifacts most important for diagnostic purposes are the ceramics.

The utility pottery includes both plain gray ware and corrugated ware with strong Tusayan affinities. The latter shows numerous variations of plain and indented corrugation and sometimes the coils are emphasized by inc~sion.

Incision as a decorative technique. however. is exceedingly rare. In a very few cases there is a suggestion of fugitive red on the plain ware. Sites generally yield both pla~n and corrugated sherds, but at a small number of sites only plain utility sherds wer~ found.

Black~on-white sherds have been found at most sites. Also found but in smaller numbers are both black-on- red and black~on=orange sherds as well as black and red=on~orange polychrome. all of which show what are probably strong Tusayan influences. The material collected includes undecorated orange and red sherds which could be from the unpainted portions of vessels with painted designs. and bowl sherds corrugated on the outside with black~on~white designs on the inside. Laboratory analysis will be necessary before the ceramic material can be definitely assigned to existing types or to as yet undescribed new types.

The relationship of pottery types and other traits, especially architecture, also remains to be determined. There does appear to be less corrugated pottery associated with. the vertical ~ slab structures than with the masonry structures. This, of cOurse. is what would be expected s ince corrugated pottery was not made until relatively late and vertical-slab structures made their appearance before masonry structures.

It is harder to generalize with regard to the stone artifacts.

Projectile points show a great deal of variety even at single sites. At no site are they numerous and about as many are to be found away from sites as at sites. Points range from small. delicately chipped triangular .or stemmed ones to large. broad based points about 2 inches long. Other chipped stone artifacts are very rare except for fragments of large blades. A few drill fragments and scrapers were found. No deposits of chippable stone were noted on the plateau. Manos are quite plentiful and many different .shapes occur. Both one hand,,' nearly round, small manos and larger two~hand manos were made of rocks which do not seem to be native to the top of the plateau. Metates are rare. The most common type seen. usually represented by fragments. was the shallow pecked milling slab made of native sandstone. Also seen were a few basi.n metates which had a smaller depression or mano-rest at one end. One

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bedrock metate was found. Other ground stone artifacts, although rare, included stone balls and stone discs.

Pecked and ground depressions or pits were found in bedrock at some sites and were also found without other evidence of occupation. They were for the most part round and the depth approximated the diameter- -about 3 to 12 inches. Occasionally a shallow basin adjoined the depression on one side. At one site, 42Ka345. there were ten. such pits in a circle about 12 feet in diameter and several other pits which formed no particular pattern.

Some grooves noted in bedrock appear to have resulted from sharpening stone axes and still others from sharpening small tools, perhaps awls.

Summary The survey of the Kaiparowits has revealed that at one time the plateau supported a rather large population of Pueblo farmers living in small, scattered houses. The major occupation appears to have been from about 1, 000 to 1,200 A, D. with the population probably increasing until near the end of this period at which time the area was abandoned. The basic way of life appears to have remained much the same during the period of occupation with only minor changes in such things as pottery making and architecture.

The numerous sites on the Plateau probably constituted a major cultural center in this general area during Late Developmental and Early Classic Pueblo times. It seems very probable that sites along the near-by tributaries of the Colorado and Escalante Rivers were occupied seasonally or temporarily by people from the Plateau.

In addition to this major Pueblo occupation. the Plateau seems to have been occupied sporadically and less intensively by various groups during the last few hundred years.

Excavation of sites on the Kaiparowits Plateau will not only round out our understanding of the culture represented in the Glen Canyon area, but will contribute substantially to our understanding of Utah prehistory.

Literature Cited Beals, Ralph L .• G. '.lil. Brainard an.d Watson Smith 1945 Archaeological Studies in Northeast Arizona.

University ~ CalifOI;nia Publication£? in AmEtriSC!ll Arphaeol.o gy ~d Etl¥to~ogy. YO-L, 44, .No. 1.

Gunnerson, J ames H. ms.

Archeological Excavations in the Glen Canyon Reservoir Area in 1957. A Preliminary Report.

Lister, Robert H. 1958 The Glen Canyon Survey in 1957. Univers ity of ~ A,nthropological .Papers, No. 30. . . , - - --

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Utah .PH'c:heology Deparh'nent of Anthropology Univel'8ity of Utah Salt Lake City 12. Utah

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