[Chelsea]
Weather: sunny, clear, temperature mid 70's (mid 40's in the morning)
Working times: 9:00am - 12:00 pm
12:30 pm - 3:45 pm

We arrived on Burro Point at 9:00 am. We started the work day by walking two transects just outside of the eastern edge of our survey area (5 m. spacing - 8 person transect) to see if we could find a possible Pueblo II - Pueblo III habitation site that had previously been recorded in another survey. We came across the Pueblo on the second transect, The rubble mounds consisted of large, angular sandstone blocks, some of which appeared to be pecked on one surface. In addition, there was a pile of rubble at least 1-2m high that appeared as though it may have supported a tower….At 9:30 am the crew hiked down into the canyon; Trevor, Kellam, and Becky went to 5MT 3724, 3725, and 1693 [5MT 1693] to continue recording these sites (including mapping, sketching the rock art panels and doing ceramic and lithic analysis), while Ruth, Tucker, Katie, and I went to 5MT 1691 to continue recording and analyzing ceramics and lithics (Katie and I) and mapping the site as well as describing features (Tucker and Seth).

Ruth finished recording and analyzing the field house [5MT 17276] in afternoon. This site is distinguishable by its sparse scatter of lithics and minimal ceramics in addition to a few pieces of fire-cracked sandstone. The site also seems to be distinguishable in that these pieces of sandstone and artifacts are situated along a hill that extends in a narrow line for about 20m. This topographical change may indicate the presence of some ephemeral structure beneath the surface of the hill. It seems like an ideal location for a field house as it is situated next to a drainage and there are several check dams associated with 5MT 1691 (located approximately 20m N of the field house). These features indicate the possible presence of some type of agriculture in the site vicinity. However it seems strange that a field house would be located so close to another habitation site as a field house is a structure that is typically utilized in association with tending agricultural fields that are away from a permanent residence. Therefore, why would a field house be located directly next to a habitation site? It seems unnecessary when one could live in the roomblocks at 5MT 1691 and tend agricultural fields near it. Maybe the site vicinity of 5MT 1691 experienced several phases of occupation. It seems possible that someone set up a temporary field house structure in order to adequately utilize the agriculture in the area and that eventually people learned about the area of the canyon floor and its possible agricultural advantages and then built more permanent structure in the area.

Seth and I completed the site descriptions, which I had to type up.

We finished LT Tower [5MT 1691] today, so tomorrow we are going to move onto recording the dam we found yesterday, then Cougar Cub alcove. Who knows, maybe we'll finish.

Kellam did some experimental archaeology today. He tried to incise into the sandstone [like at 1693] to see how it would be. It took him 10 secs. or so to do it a half an inch. So what was the reason for all the incisions over their petroglyph wall? Is it a counting system, religious, does it have something to do with farming?

[Trevor]
Today I recorded lithics that were diagnostic on the general site [5MT 1693]. We had a lot of groundstone, hammerstone/core and a lot of retouched/utilized flakes. One thing we didn't find a lot of were small debitage, most of it was large primary/secondary flakes. I think this is because of all the duff on the site. Becky continued mapping and Kellam was still flagging artifacts. I started the midden at the end of the day but didn't get far. I am really puzzled with this site because it has so many possible uses. First, it could be a water collection site because of the dam and pouroff/drainage. It could also be a ritual spot where rock art was done, if rock art was in fact ritual.

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