[Chelsea]
location: Lowry Pueblo, Pigg Site, and Great Kiva and North Ruin
working times: 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
weather: cloudy, rain, lighting

[Kellam]
Slept Well. Breakfast was french toast, sausage, and oatmeal. Got loaded up, and drove to the Anasazi Heritage Center--about 20 mins. from Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Doors not open yet, so hiked briskly up to Escalante Pueblo ruin with excellent views south towards Ute Mtn. Had a two-three hour presentation on ceramics, lithics, and geology of the area...AHC is well set up, good exhibits, reconstructed pithouse, etc.

[Chelsea]
The Lowry Pueblo Ruin is one of the largest Pueblo III towns in the Montezuma valley. Remodeled several times during this period (Pueblo III spans 1100-1300) [or some say AD 1150-1300--Kellam] it was occupied near to 1200 AD. The pueblo spread over a mile and its twenty-four habitation sites which have close to 1,200 rooms might have housed up to 1800 people.

There seems to be a contrast in the masonry of the portion of Lowry which has been excavated (this includes a roomblock and a Great Kiva that lies between Lowry Ruin and the Pigg site). There is a Mesa-Verde style with large unevenly distributed blocks that also has thick mortar and chinking in between the blocks. However, there is also a McElmo style masonry reminiscent of Chaco with large stones combined with tablet-like stones. This McElmo masonry is present in the large rooms of the site. Since Chacoan Great Houses are distinguishable by their large rooms, Lowry seems to be a Chacoan outlier. Also, the prescence of an enclosed kiva is a Chacoan feature as we see here at Lowry.

Ruth describes Lowry as being a smaller component of a larger ritual landcape. This statement made sense when we next went on to see the Great Kiva after walking around Lowry. This early building at Lowry, which occupies the northern plaza, was remodeled many times and used by succeeding generations. A northern antechamber is connected on the outside of the kiva, a common feature of a Chacoan Great Kiva. I had read previously that several roadways once connected parts of the Lowry town and led to outlying villages. Specifically, one roadway appears as a shallow ditch running southeast from the north plaza btw. Lowry and the Great Kiva. While this ditch was not observed it suggests that concerted efforts were made to connect Lowry to the people of the surrounding landscape.

The Great Kiva itself was observed to have some unusual features. The parallel masonry features on the inside of the kiva are different from one another. One feature has open parallel rows of masonry, whereas the other has solid masonry Hopi elders visiting the site recognized figures in the architecture of the kiva. Perahps these two features represent two distinct kinds of people. Male and female seems one possibility. As the Great Kiva is in the middle between Lowry and Pigg, making up a ritual landscape, what if one of the masonry features represented the people of Pigg and the unexcavated North Ruin, whereas the other represented Lowry? This is probably a big stretch I'm sure.

After looking at the great kiva we visited the neighboring Pigg site. At Pigg, archaeologists have piled up the stone rubble to calculate volume as well as how high the rest of the walls were. Community sites are all around this area, marked by roomblocks within overgrown brush and kivas marked by divots in the landscape.
A circular mound encompassed by stones was examined. Large, flat slabs appear to be part of the original foundation as they are embedded in the earth and are not loose on the ground surface. A pile of stones in the center of the mound seems to suggest the structure is not a kiva; perhaps it was a tower and the stones are wall fall.

Ceramic sherds observed throughout the site included several sherds of Dolores corrugate grayware (1050 AD - 1300 AD) and Mesa Verde black-on-white (c. 1200-1300 AD). Stone flakes were also observed including a green chert flake with modification and a depleted chert core found near the circular mound previously described. This chert core was determined to be depleted and not a secondary flake as it had no bulb of percussion. Also, a complete side-notched obsidian projectile point was observed. One side of the projectile point had an odd rectangle-shaped protrusion on it, perhaps a feature aiding in its attachment to an arrow shaft.

These artifacts seem to generally date from a Pueblo III (AD 1100-1300) time period as the projectile point discovered was less that ¾" long (reminiscent of a bird point and smaller projectile points in general), expedient lithic technology seems to be present with the discovery of chert flakes and cores, and the pottery has features of Pueblo III. With this information in mind, it seems to suggest that Lowry Pueblo, the North Ruin, and Pigg could have all potentially been occupied at the same time.

[Kellam]
The accoustics of the Great Kiva are mind-blowing. A speaker, if seated on the bench, can be heard at the same volume anywhere in the kiva, and at the same volume as someone seated next to you. Walked over to Pigg Pueblo ruin, which is huge and largely unexcavated. Tons of ceramics and lithics. Becky found a side-notched projectile point. I found a praying mantis. Meandered to North ruin, also unexcavated. Huge storm rolled in--just made it back to suburban before wind, lightning and rain commenced.

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