5MT 1693
 

5MT 1693 is possibly the most interesting site in the survey area. It consists of a 4 rubble mounds, 4 alcove rooms, 1 midden, 1 check dam, and 7 rock art panels spanning over 50 m of cliff face. Most of the rubble mounds are too covered in duff to actually ascertain what the room arrangements were, but one has some standing masonry backed up against the cliff face. The alcove rooms were probably for storage. The midden is also fairly obscured by the duff, but samples units were placed in four places to get a picture of what could be found in the midden under close scrutiny.

The check dam is found some 10-12 m above the site in a steep sided gully running from the mesa top over a pouroff in the middle of the site. The pouroff is some 6-8 m high. The check dam itself is very ephemeral most of it having been washed over the pouroff and down the gully. It appears that the purpose of the dam was to slow down water coming down the gully so that it could be collected from the resulting reservoir above, or so that the force of the water pouring out the pouroff would be lessened so as not to blow out any water catchment features below.

Alternately, it could have been a dam constructed to help recharge the small seep spring below the pouroff; the water that was caught by the dam could have percolated through the sandstone until it hit the shale layer that creates the seep spring. At any rate, it appears that the water control feature at 5MT 1693 may have provided water for a large portion of the canyon in Pueblo III.

The large amount of rock art is assumed to be associated with the presence of water at the site. Motifs dating from Basketmaker II to Pueblo III were observed, marking a long period of visitation to the site. In addition, a couple hundred incised linear grooves are present along a segment of the rock wall. These incisions are one of the last petroglyph elements added, due to the superimposition over all other motifs; however, their creators and reason for creation is unknown.

Click here to see rock art from 5MT 1693.

Click here for a map of the site.

Click here for a data table from the site.

Photos:
The view looking off the pouroff onto the gully below. The check dam is up the gully from the pouroff, and the seep spring is below the gully near the top of the picture. Looking up the midden. The pouroff is behind Tucker (who's getting a GPS reading) and the rock art is to the right. Trevor is carving something. One of about four chipped and ground triangular pendant found on 5MT 1693.