Utah Statewide Archaeological Society Newsletter, Volume 22, Number 2, July 1976

th:AJt A1{C1-IMO~ A

VOLUIYIE 22

l

.N£WSL1;1TEJt

NO. 2

Jlt. Y 1976

•

ut.h Arch •• ology is distributed quarterly to all of the Utah Stat •• ide Archa.ological Society.

All corr.epond.nc. ehould b. dir.ct.d to the Editor,' RuJe.n R. BruneDn, 1180 Elgin Avanu., Salt Lak. City, Utah 84106. ~ambar.

No. 2

VOLUME 22

UTA H

JUL Y 1976

ARC H A E 0 LOG Y

UTAH STATEWIDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1976-77

President

~

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Vice President • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ,

Troaaurer • • • • • • • • • • •

Dean Caldwell

William Lee Lloyd

• • • • • • • • Shannon Caldwell

Recording Secretary • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Publications Committee • • • • • ••

Guida

Herrick

Chairman RuJean R. Brunson Rod Chapman Guida Herrick

EDITOR'S NOTE I wish to gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Rod Chapman in soliciting material for tho "Newsletter."

It is gratifying to see that interest in Utah's prehistory is steadily growing. Knowledge of cultures in the Great Basin, particularly in Utah, has been expanding at a satisfying rate.

The USAS can help even more by filling out site survey sheets for the state Archaeologist's files which will help to add to the total picturo of Utah's prehistory.

CONTENTS Page I

ThEl Bull Creek Excavations by Alan R. Schroedl

Page 4

About the Author--Alan R. Schroedl

Page 5

T1mo Clocks--Measuring Time

Page 6

Summer Field School--Blue Springs

Page 7

USAS Annual Meeting

Page 8

Rock Art Recording Field School

Page 9

News Notes

THE BULL CREEK EXCAVATION5 Garfield County, Utah by Alan R. Schroedl Department of Anthropology University of Utah Between June 12th and July 27th, 1976, the University or Utah Archaeological field Techniques class excavated four archaeological sites in the Bull Creek area on the flanks of the Henry Mountains in southeastern Utah.

The

class consisted of ten students and was directed by Jesse D. Jennings assisted .y Alan Schroedl and William Lucius.

The Bull Creek area is located on the horth sloped of Mount Ellen, the northern-most peak of the Henry Mountains.

Bull Creek, an intermittent

stream, flows north off the mountains through this area into the Dirty Devil River at Hanksville about 20 kilometers downstream.

The geomorphological

history of the Bull Creek area was analyzed in some detail by Charles 8.

Hunt during the late 1960's.

As part of the study of bis region, Alice P.

Hunt undertook an archaeological survey of the area.

She was assisted on

the survey on several occasions by Nina Robison of the rairview Ranch. erous sitee wers encountered 1n the area,

Nom-

which ranged from single isolated

finds of an arrowhead to small fremont farmstead-rancheriss

eoota1n~

sev-

eral structures.

Charles Hunt believed that the Bull Creek stream channel had been wandering from east to west over time.

His analyais of the braided

stream channel

indicated that earliest channels of Bull Creek were the easternmost ones, while the latest chennel, the one in which Bull Creek flows today, is the westernmost channel.

The archaeological data was compared with this infor-

mat1on, and it seemed that the cultural data correlated with the geomorphologJULY 1976

USAS NEIAISLETTER

Page 1

•

1

-

, .1.

~.

, •

."

•

•

.~

,

•

.J

,, c

.•• ,

•

'.

•

.,.

BULL CREEK EXCAVATIONS (continued) ical evidence.

The correlation showed that the earliest Fremont sites tended

to be clustered downstream--only pit houses and plain gray pottery sherds were found there, while further upstream on the western-most channel later Anasazi sites were found with surface structures and painted and corrugated sherds.

Hunt hypothesized that this distribution of sites was a result of the progressive drying up of Bull Creek causing the prehistoric farmers in the area to keep moving further and further upstream to capture as much water as possible for farming.

It was the goal of the 1976 University of Utah archeological field school to test this hypothesis.

Four sites were excavated, three on the western-most

channel upstream where the creek comes out of the mountains, and one on an alluvial floodplain five kilometers ferther downstream.

Artifacts from these

sites were sparse, no perishable objects and no whole pots were recovered.

Probably no more than 3000 pieces of pottery were recovered from these four sites all summer.

The southernmost of the sites excavated, Gnat Haven (42Wn229), was a single component site occupied for a short period of time.

The perimeter of

the structure was outlined by a double wall of coursed stream cobbles. core material between these two walls was a rubble and clay matrix. was a centrally located caly-rimmed firepit.

The

There

To the south of this structure

wes a storage complex of three rooms of coursed cobble masonry.

East of

these structures was a use area with' a firepit and a metate within a slablined bin.

Nines Hill ( 42Wn230), about 50 meters to the northwest of Gnat Haven, was a single deep circular pithouse about 4 meters in diameter.

The walls

of the pithouse were faced with cobbles and then plastered with clay. trally located was a vertical slab-lined firepit.

Page 2

USAS NEWSLETTER

Cen-

A quadrilateral roof supJULY 1976

BULL CREEK EXCAVATIONS (continued) port system is postulated on the basis of the four posts recovered ill

~.

North Point (42W23l). the third site excavated, is about 150 meters northwest of Ninas Hill.

The site consisted of two major structures,

first structure is a rectangular

sUrf~ce

supported by an adobe footing wall.

The

structure of ooursed stream cobbles

Numerous subfloor features were found in

this structure, including firepits, postholes and plastered subfloor cists.

The ~nd struoture was a deep circuiar pithouse about 6 meters in diameter.

It had a southeast facing ventilation shaft and a slab.fioored firepit centrally located.

Only two postho189 were uncovered.

been through the

Entrance 1s believed to have

roof~

All three of these sites had a very large percentage of Anasazi red ware, black on white and

co~rugated

pottery.

Plain gray ware only oonstituted

about fifty percent of the total.

The fourth site Site,

(42Wn337)~

exc~vated

was the site farthest downstream, the Playa

This site consisted of a single oval pithouse about six

meters in diameter with a ramp entrance.

The postholes indicate that the

structure was probably oonical in shape.

Plain gray pottery dominated at this

site, no Anasazi red wares were found here.

Thus, these four excavated sites

do seem to indicate that Hunt's hypothesis is accurate.

In the Bull Creek area will

rurther excavations

be undertaken in 1977 to continue testing Hunt's

hypothesis.

Although these sites were identified as rremont by Alice Hunt, the majority of the pottery sherds are Anasazi types rather than rremont.

Although

the painted wares may be trade items, the corrugated pottery Is not so easily explained away since it is a culinary ware in the Pueblo regions.

The various architectural features found at these sites are much more man in Pueblo sites rather than rremont sites.

JULY 1976

USAS NEWSLETTER

com~

The architecture at the Bull Page 3

·.

.,.

j ~•

"

..'

BULL CREEK EXCAVATIONS (continued) Creek sites is most similar to that at the Coombs site over thirty kilometers to the southwest.

The Coombs site is believed to have been a Kayenta Anasezi

outpost between 1100 and 1200 A.D.

It appears, then, that although the sites

in the Bull Creek area have been classified as fremont, they show a greater cultural affiliation with the Kayenta branch of the Anasazi.

Previously the

Colorado River was taken as a convenient dividing line between Anaaazi and Fremont cultures.

It now appears that the Kayenta Anasazi have pushed beyond

the Colorado and at least as far north as the Henry Mountains.

This area,

then, can no longer be considered as strictly falling within the San Rafael variant of the Fremont.

It is a transition zone between these two archaeolog-

ical cultures.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALAN R.

5CHROEDL

Alan R. Schroedl is a transplanted Minnesotan with a scientific bent and 8

burning curiosity to learn more about the prehistory of our country.

received his

8~S.

He

degree in anthropology in Minnesota, but the lure of the

Rockies brought him to Utah whoro'he received his Ph. D. in archaeology in the summer of 1976 from the University of Utah.

He is currently engaged in field

research at the U. of U. During spring quarter of 1976 he taught an evening class,"Indians Before Columbus," Servi~e

at the

U~

of U.

His next assignment will be for the U. S. Parks

doing site surveys around Lake Powell during the summer of 1977.

Alan is presently compiling a bibliography of all pUblications and articles on archaeology in Utah.

This should be a very valuable piece of

work when it is completed.

Page 4

USAS NEWSLETTER

JUL Y 1976

T I ME' CLOCK5-MEASURI NG TI tv1E '"

'

Rewritten from an article in Scientific American, March 1976.

The first three-quarters of this cen~ era the years from 1500 to 700 B.C. In tury have witnessed a revolution in pre- Europe a tree-ring sequence has been based history. The relative measurement of on subfossil oaks from streambed gravel time backward has gradually been replaced deposits that may extend to about 7000 B.C. Shorter sequences have been established in by more exact methods of measuring time.

More new methods are being discovered all England and Ireland that may overlap with Roman, Viking and medieval periods. " the time.

When the first interest developed in arQhaeology at the beginning of this century, the only method of dating the finds ' in an archaeological site was by relative stratigraphic position~ Ie: What was found in a lower level was bound to be older.

Tree-ring chronologies in the United States now include sites in Alaska and the Mississippi Valley. The longest southwestern sequence now goes back to 332 B.C. Of major importance is the chronology based on living and dead bristlecone pines from the White Mo,untains of California. It provides an unbroken record going back to 6000 This worked fairly well at a particB.C. and may soon be extended by another ular wsll stratified site~ oepacially'1f 2000 years. It is the bristlecone chronol. t.Ke uppermost strata incluQad remains ogy that made it possible to recelibrate from historical periods~ Howevet, rela- the absolute dates derived from carbon-l4 tiv8 stratigraphy was almost useless when analysis. These proved to be as much as it came to comparing data from widely sep~l,OOO years in error for the period from arated places.

4,000 to 5,000 B. C. lÂŁ22 Bills Analysis Bone Collagen Soon after World War I a powerful new Carbon-14 dates based on wood and chardating technique--~ree-:ing analysis-coal samples begin to accumulate excessive enabled~archaeolog1sts 1n the southwestern probability errors when the samples are United ~tat8s to construct the first ex- more than 35,000 years old. A new carbontensive regional chronology, reaching 14 technique, based on samples of bone back from the present to the conturies collagen, retains tolerable margins of erjustdbefore European contact with the New ror up to 50,000 years. Sample enrichment Worl n may be able to extend the bone-collagen ~r~~ Dating range back to 75,000 years.

SQon ~F~ 9r World War II the introAmino ~ Racemization duct.-;',"!'-, by Li.bby of Carbon-l4 dating gavo archaeologists a tool for the estabAnother new absolute dating technique lishment of '~ ': )SG:tuto time chronologies is basad on the fad: that after an animal over a ran~,) d ' thousands of years around has died some of the amino acids in its the world.~ince then new absolute meth- bones gradually shift from their natural ods have appeared. not least among them "left-handed!! molecular structure into a the combining of tree-ring and carbon-14 "right-handed" structure that is unknown analyses to detect irregularities in the in living organisms. Age determinations carbon-14 clock and recEll!brate it. based on this 9mino ~ racemization have to corrulate well with carbon.l4 proved l.~~~~Bj..o.g Oatin,.g findings from samples of the same specimens. Future prospects for the technique Tree-ring time chronologies have now been calculated in the Old World. A tree seem promising on two grounds. Fir-st, the bone sample required is much smaller than ring sequence at Gordian in Turkey is based on samples of juniper wood and cov- that neoded for bone-collagen extraction.

JUL Y 1976

USAS NEWSLETTER

Page 5

TIME CLOCKS--MEASURING TIME (continued) Second, the probability errors remain with material was first formed or, in the case in acceptable limits until the specimens of certain artifacts, was last'exposed to ar~ more than 100,000 year~ old. high temperatures.

The method has now been used to data materials ranging from glass only a cenAn established technique that detertury old to 2,OOO-year-01d pottery from mines the age of mineral specimens on the Japan. It was used to date zircon inclubasis of their proportional content of sions in volcanic ash from Valsequilla 1n Mexico where certain ambiguous human a~~~ and argon has bean greatly raartifacts have been unearthed. The zircon finad in recent years! The method is proved to be 500,000 yoars old. based on the fact that a natural isotope of potassium decays radioactively into It was also used to date pumice from ,argon. Thus over a period of time the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania as being as much proportion of argon to potassium-,increas- as 2.3 million yeats old. A potassiumes. Absolute dates can be determined in argon finding on samples from the same a range from less than 50,000 to more pumice formation, indicating that its than 50 million years~ age was 1.75 (plus oi minus .05) million years old, 1s in good agreement with the fission-Track A~a lysis fission-track finding.

Fission-track analysis has come to be recognized as perhaps the most versStile of the new methods for absolute dating.

In crystals and even in amorphous materials such as glass, obsidian and amber microscopic tracks aro produced by the spontaneous fission of trace amounts of uranium. The abundance of the tracks, which ara revealed by etching, is proportional to the time elapsed since the E ~t ass ium-Araon

Dating

--------------~------------------------~-.--- .- ,-- --------------

oU("'MER FIELD

SC(~OOL

--BLUE SPRI NGS

The Museum of Natural History is s~onsoring a Field School for Associates of the museum, and other ~ntGrseted persons who waish to increase their knowledge of field techniques~ The Field School will be held under the auspices of the Unlversity of Utah, with Dr~ Jesse D. Jennings occasionally dropping in to supervise the dig.

The area which will be dug is an open site at Blue Sp~ings on the Utah-Nevada border (south and west of Wendover, Utah). Couples are wanted to work for three or four days at a time or a week. If one desires he may earn college credit for the work ft

The Field School will be oonduqted between June 15th and July 30th, 1977.

There will be an archaeologist in charge and some preliminary training will be given. There are only a limited number of openings available. If you are interested, you should immediately contact Fran Minton at the Museum of Natural History, University of Utah.

Page 6

USAS NEWSLETTER

JULY 1976

UTA~I STATEWIDE

ARC)-IAEOLDGICAl 50C ETV TO HOLD ANNUAL MEET! J\IG ~EBRUARY ~UTAH

20, 1977

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING 603 East South Temple street Salt Lake City, Utah

BUSINESS MEETING:

9:00 A.M.

All members of the Statewide Society apo urged to attend. Discussions will be held on the direction the Society will take during the coming year. Ideas and opinions are solicited.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS: The nominating committee consisting of Jeff Herrick, chairman, and Reed Bowthorpe present the following slate of Officers for your consideration: Vice-President (President Elect) Lee Lloyd Vice President: Harris Salisbury Recording Secretary: Linda Eastman Treasurer: 8ill Thompson Editor: RuJean Brunson Further nominations may be mado from the floor. However, the person nominated must have expressed a willingness to hold the job.

P ROGRAiYl:

1.

DR. JESSE D. JENNINGS, head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, will be first guest speaker.

2.

CRAIG 8. HARMON, graduate assistant in the Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University, will tell about the continuing activity in the Montoz~ma Canyon area in the last few years.

He will show slides of the work in Montezuma Canyon.

3.

LAMAR LINDSAY, Assistant State Archaeologist, will give the final report and show slides on the excavations at Richfield in 1976.

GUESTS ARE INVITED.

JUL Y 1976

BRING A FRIEND OR THREE.

USAS NEWSLETTER

Page 7

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW MEXICO EXTE~DS AN INVITATION TO USAS TO ASSIST WITH

ROCk ART

R~CORO/NG

The Sixth Annual Rock Art Recording Field School of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico will be held at Chaco Cenyon Nationel Monument, Now Mexico from June 26 to July 2, 1977.

Chaco Canyon National Monument is located in the northwest region of New Mexico at an elevation of approximately 6,000 feet above sea level. The Cenyon contains some of the largest and finest p~8historic pueblo ruins in tho United statos. During tho past four years the Chaco Center (Headquertered at the Universit.y of New Mexico) has conducted surveys and excavations in the rnonument which h8ve disclosed features not previously recognized. These include, among others, evidence of older cultures, irrigation systems end a startlingly extensive and complex road network. The program is planned for completion in 1981. The ASNM, for the pest two years, has assisted Checo Center in working on tho recording of the hundreds of rock art sitos in the Monument.

In addition to aSSisting Chaco Center, the Field School has as its objective the familiari7stion of participants with some of the techniques of recording and the procedure for reporting the information on a sot of standard site report forms.

After a brief orientation and demonstration session, participants ara divided into two or three-person teams and eech team is assigned an area to record.

The altitude, tempereture and rugged terrain require that participants be in reasonably good physical condition, elthough every effort will be made to assign individuals to areas which will not overtax their abilities. Normally, recording is done only until noon, but there is no objoction to individuals working in the aftornoon, if they so desire. One evening during th8 week a seminar on rock art is giVen, other evenings are free so that those who wish may attend the programs given by members of

FIELD 5CHOOL

the Monument staff and tho Chaco Centor Field Crew. Tho seminar and field work era applicable to the ASNM Certification Progrem.

Chaco Canyon is somewhat isolated and there is no lodging, food, ice Dr gasoline available in the Monument. Perticipants must be prepared to cemp for the week and provide their own food and gasoline. The field school is assigned space in tho National Park Service campground, which hes flush toilets and potable drinking water. Space is available for trailers and campers but no hookups are provided.

Requirements for attendance at the school ara membership in the Archaeological Society of New Mexico (Duesl $7.00 for one year) or one of its affiliated loce1 societies. In addition, e registration of $15.00 por parson is required to cover cost of film end recording supplies. $5.00 of this amount must accompany the application for attondanco at the school as an advance doposit.

The deposit will be refundod upon cancellation, providod notico of such cancellation is receivod prior to Juno 15, 1977. Tho only equipmont required, other than camping gear, food and gasolino, is e camera cepabls of being focused down to approximately threo feet.

Attendance at tho school will be limited to thirty porsons on a first-como, first-servod basis. For further information and registration forms please contact:

USAS NEWSLETTER

Colonel James G. Bain Jefferson Stroet, N.E. Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110

1111

JULY 1976

{\JEW5 NOTES ' .....

.-

BILL THOMPSON ASSISTS WITWPETROGLYPH PROJECT " ,; '" Weber College in Ogden, Utah, secured a special permit from the United States government to make some molds from Utah petroglyphs for casting plastar replicas. ' To make molds of petroglyphs one must have a special government permit and these are very rarely issued. Wsber College was very desirous of having several castings made to hang in the museum at the college.

A representative of the Bureau of Land IYJenagement, 8ill Thompson (Salt Lake -Davis Chapter of Utah Statewide Archaeological Society) as guide, and a ~opra8antative of Weber College who is an expert at making latex molds composed the group which braved the July heat and and entered Nine-Mile Canyon in search of rock art.

8!11 Thompson was chosen as guide because of his vast experience in lccetin~' and photographing the many petroglyphs in Utah.

Nine-Mile Canyon has numerous fine petroglyphs along the length of the canyon as well as in the tributary canyons.

They were able to make molds of a number of exceptional rock drawings in the two days they were in the canyon. The chief difficulty was in choosing just three or four from which to make molds.

The molds are currently being used to make several reproductions of the petroglyphs. Pouring the plaster caste and copying the original rock color is in itself a specialized and time-consuming job~ ¢ Bill has been promised one of the large reproductions fot his part in the project.

THE fRONT COVER The petroglyph on the front cover is found in the Ash1eyDry fork Valley in the Uintah 8asin. It is a typical Fremont shield figure of the style known as the classic Vernal variant.

The cover was drawn by RuJean Rogers Brunson. It was taken from a photograph in "The Rock Art of Utah, from the Donald Scott Collection" by Polly Schaafsma.

JULY 1976

USAS NEWSLETTER

Page 9

·~

--~" - - - - . - '-..-, .... -,.-r.....-

-"':;"

I), ,: ••• ':'

; .

~' ..

.. .

.'

t"JEW5L t 1 T ER UTAH STATEWIDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Editor-f

RuJooh R. Sl'un son l,HlO ',rlgi~ i\vonue Salt Lake CH,Y, Utah

84106

..

~

':

~ ~

;t ,t