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B: Kristin [Kuckelman] (head archaeologists
@ Goodman pt.) is a firm believer in the idea that kivas were also
main habitation places. 95% of hearths found in these late
PIII sites are in kivas. 1 kiva for 3 rooms. Chaco,
1 kiva for 15 rooms. A shift happened somewhere
sometime.
Hearths in kivas by PIII b/c wood resources are limited and
kivas being subterranean held heat better.
Drought made winter colder? Need to consolidate and have
better insulation?
C: Towers, an arbitrary term?
There are an abundance of tower placements and styles throughout
the SW. Several People have mentioned and I agree, that we need
to move past the "that is a tower" phase and type these
towers based on placement on the landscape. Because it seems that
towers served different functions based on where they were located.
If we could record and find the patterns of where they placed towers
we could break away from calling everything that is taller than
it is wide a tower and call it something more applicable to its
possible use which we may be able to extrapolate from its location.
[Chelsea]
At 12:30pm we went to Goodman Point Pueblo and got a site tour of
this late Pueblo II - late Pueblo III 143 acre pueblo. While the
site is labeled as a late PII - late PII pueblo it does have some
ground surface sites that are early than PII. The site is contemporary
with the Castle Rock and Sand Canyon sites. Goodman
Point is one of two communities that was present in the Sand Canyon
locality in ancient times, the other community being Sand Canyon.
Goodman Point Pueblo has the potential to reveal unique and significant
information regarding settlement patterning as the landscape is
unmolested (preserved through the federal government). The landscape
has the potential of exposing ancient paths and roads.
There are approximately 107 kivas
in addition to the great kiva. As it is estimated that 5-7 people
used each kiva, the population of the site has been estimated
at 580-700 people. The site is generally the same size and time
as Sand Canyon Pueblo (1250-1280 AD) with a very late and short
occupation of the site. While Sand Canyon has evidence of buildings
going out of use and being used as secondary refuse, Goodman Point
does not have such evidence, further indication of the sites short
life.
The location of Goodman Point is
ideal in terms of water resources as it was founded at the head
of a canyon, situated next to a large spring. This type of site
placement is reminiscent of the towers of Hovenweep, which
are generally from a contemporaneous time-period, and are situated
at canyon heads in the vicinity of a water source. This type of
position enables easier access to the water source in addition to
its control. Our tour guide Kristin pointed out that the people
living in Goodman Point Pueblo would have an intimate knowledge
of their spring as they would depend on it for their survival in
many forms (water crops, drink, mortar for construction, etc). Roomblock
700, which was originally three-stories, would have been the tallest
structure at the pueblo and is situated near the spring with the
drainage running into it. A structure along this canyon rim would
be prime real-estate as it is next to the water source. On the opposite
side of the drainage is a similar tower-like structure, although
our tour guide Kristin sees "tower" as being an extremely
loaded term as it implies a set of expectations but we do not know
what these two structures were used for or if they were used for
the same function. The structures are at the bottom of a drainage
instead of being up high so there is a semantic problem in suggesting
they were used primarily as line-of-sight devices with other
towers (according to Kristen). However, maybe the elevated nature
of the "tower" was meant to have symbolic impact,
an emphasis of the person's power or special political/social status-amplified
by the fact that the person(s) who inhabited the structures were
situated next to such a vital resource.
The burned timbers from kivas on
the site will
prove invaluable in telling us when the latest
and earliest kivas were built, and potentially the direction in
which the village was built through the implementation of tree-ring
dating. If small farmsteads were dismantled and the wood was
brought to Goodman Point Pueblo for its construction (the beams
would predate the late PII - late PIII occupation of Goodman Point
Pueblo).
[Becky]
Goodman Point:
-discussion about terminology
-we have one word for towers
-are they really all the same?
-did different locations/purposes define different structures
that just looked similar?
-same for kivas
-some seem more ceremonial, some more practical
-did they think of them in the same way?
-some are 1/5-6 ppl., some are 1/10-15 ppl
-are they different structures or just one structure
that changes over time?
-selection of digging sites
-how to hit the exciting things [for the paying Crow
Canyon visitors!]
-south ends of kivas, north walls
-sampling for burned soils, burned wood
-randomly choosing sites in the midden (more statistical
significance)
-looking where walls join (which came 1st)
-one room and one kiva in each roomblock, (helds age)
-layers in the midden
-topsoil
-rubble-from prehistoric times-helped support walls
-midden-since it is trapped under the rubble it has
been sealed since prehistoric times
-bedrock
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