NORTH AMERICA’S FIRST FRENCH COLONY • LIFE ON THE FRONTIER • A MAJOR HISTORIC TRADE ROUTE american archaeologySPRING 2009 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 13 No. 1

COPING WITH FLOODS AND FIRES The making of an emergency- response team. $3.95 2877A_AmArch_Spring09_V2a 2/6/09 12:50 PM Page 1

Archaeological Tours led by noted scholars Invites You to Journey Back in Time

Southern Spain (14 days) Korea (16 days) Study Spain’s treasury of ancient remains Explore Korea’s 5,000 years of history with left by the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. Prof. Donald Baker, U. of British Columbia. Traveling south from Madrid to historic Beginning in Seoul, tour highlights include Toledo, Roman Mérida and into Andalusia, a day trip north of the Demilitarized Zone to we explore the historical monuments from visit ancient and modern Gaeseong, royal these civilizations with Prof. Ronald Messier, tombs, ancient temples, Buddhist grottoes Vanderbilt U. We will be introduced to and exceptional museums, plus colorful Moorish architecture at Córdoba’s great traditional music and dance performances. cathedral, the Alcazar in Seville and end Ancient Rome (12 days) our tour with Granada’s opulent Alhambra. Search out the hidden city of the ancient Romans with Prof. Myles Peru (18 days) McDonnell, Baruch College, Discover Lima’s museums, CUNY. As we look beneath the the tombs of Sipán, contemporary city we will Túcume, Chan Chan, the rediscover Republican Rome, largest adobe city in the Rome of the Caesars, the Early world, and Cuzco with Empire, High Empire and Christian Prof. John Rick, Stanford Rome, ending with the Imperial The Balkans (19 days) U. Tour highlights include Palaces of the Later Empire. Cerro Sechín, renowned Highlights will include a full day Join Dr. Robert Bianchi, Art Historian, as for its unique stone at Ostia Antica and another at we view the glorious Byzantine frescoes in carvings, the early Tivoli, visiting Hadrian’s Villa. Kosovo and Serbia’s monasteries. We then temple-fortress of Our touring will be chronological travel from Dubrovnik, along the spectacular Chankillo and amazing and will unravel the complicated Dalmatian coast, visiting Croatia’s medieval Caral plus two days stages of occupation and cities and on the Istrian peninsula Pula’s at Machu Picchu. buildings in this great city. fabulous Roman remains, ending our tour in Zagreb.

2009 tours include: Tunisia • Israel • Ethiopia • Greece • Malta, Sardinia & Corsica • Egypt for Families • Guatemala • India Cyprus, Crete & Santorini • Caves & Castles • Sicily & Southern Italy • Georgia & Armenia • China • Turkey...and more

Journey back in time with us – Archaeological Tours. We’ve been taking curious travelers on fascinating historical study tours for the past 34 years. Each tour is led by a noted scholar whose knowledge and enthusiasm brings history to life and adds a memorable perspective to your journey. Every one of our 37 tours features superb itineraries, unsurpassed service and our time-tested commitment to excellence. No wonder so many of our clients choose to travel with us again and again. For more information, please visit www.archaeologicaltrs.com, e-mail [email protected], call 212-986-3054, toll-free 866-740-5130. Or write to Archaeological Tours, 271 Madison Avenue, Suite 904, New York, NY 10016. And see history our way. archaeological tours LED BY NOTED SCHOLARS superb itineraries, unsurpassed service american archaeologyspring 2009 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 13 No. 1

COVER FEATURE

19 RESPONDING TO DISASTERS BY PAULA NEELY Having learned some hard lessons when Hurricane Isabel struck Jamestown in 2003, the National Park Service formed an emergency response team to protect its archaeological resources.

12 UNEARTHING NORTH AMERICA’S FIRST FRENCH COLONY BY HANNAH HOAG 19 nps Archaeologists are investigating Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, which was established in Canada in 1541 and abandoned two years later.

26 LIFE ON THE FRONTIER BY DENISE TESSIER The Mogollon and Anasazi cultures came together at Cañada Alamosa. Archaeologists are learning what resulted from the interaction.

33 INVESTIGATING FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR FORTS

BY DAVID MALAKOFF 12 liam maloney Colonial armies and settlers built a series of forts for protection during the French and Indian War. Archaeologists are examining 2 Lay of the Land the differences between the military and civilian structures. 3 Letters 39 A TALE OF TWO TRAILS 5 Events BY JULIAN SMITH 7 In the News In the 1820s El Camino Real and the Santa Fe Trail were EPA Accused of Destroying Sites • First Americans joined, an event that brought about economic, military Came in Two Migrations • Chocolate at Chaco Canyon and social changes. 50 Field Notes 46 new acquisition 52 Reviews PRESERVING THE POTOMAC’S PREHISTORY The Conservancy acquires two important sites in Virginia. 54 Expeditions

48 COVER: Over the last few years, floods and fires have posed new acquisition a serious threat to the National Park Service’s archaeological THE REMNANTS OF UTOPIA resources. The park service has formed an emergency The Aurora Colony was a 19th-century utopian response team to cope with these problems. community in Oregon. Photographs by the National Park Service american archaeology 1 Lay of the Land

The Emergence of Historical Archaeology

uch of this issue of American all inform these investigations. Archaeology is devoted to sto- Historical archaeology in the Mries about the relatively new United States evolved into a formal dis- discipline of historical archaeology. We cipline in the 1960s with the formation report on research in French Québec, of the Society for Historical Archaeol- the Santa Fe Trail and El Camino Real, ogy and the publication of its scholarly and the French and Indian War forts of journal. In the succeeding 50 years, it Mark Michel, President the English colonies. Unlike traditional has blossomed into a vibrant branch darren poore archaeology, historical archaeology of learning with innumerable projects acquiring French and Indian War forts is concerned with projects that date spread across North America. in the East. The old notion that archae- to the time of writing and have been Preserving historical sites is an ology is concerned only with ancient written about. Its practitioners com- important goal of The Archaeological times is fading as historical archaeolo- bine research in archives and libraries Conservancy. We are hard at work on gists expand our knowledge of North with standard excavation techniques at early French, Spanish, and English set- America’s recent past. archaeological sites to present a clearer tlements as well as later American ones. picture of what actually transpired. His- We are preserving sites on the Santa tory, archaeology, geology, and folklore Fe Trail and El Camino Real. We are

2 spring • 2009 Letters

R E T H I N K I N G T H E C L O V I S s H O P E W E L L M Y S T E R I E S s A N A S A Z I M I G R A T I O N D E B A T E Wc[h_YWdWhY^W[ebe]oE7

How to Say Hello: By mail: American Archaeology (issn 1093-8400) is published quarterly by The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, The Archaeological Conservancy, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. Title registered U.S. Pat. and TM Office, © 2009 by TAC. Printed in the United States. Periodicals postage paid 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one-year membership to the Conservancy is $25 and includes receipt Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is designated for a one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new memberships, renewals, by phone: (505) 266-1540; or change of address, write to The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or call (505) by e-mail: [email protected]; 266-1540. For changes of address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational purposes and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conservancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology. Article proposals and artwork should be addressed to the editor. or visit our Web site: No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive expert review. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Archae- www.americanarchaeology.org ology, The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reserved. American Archaeology does not accept advertising from dealers in archaeological artifacts or antiquities.

4 spring • 2009 Museum exhibits • Tours • Festivals Meetings • Education • Conferences Events

n NEW EXHIBITS lifeways of the Eastern Woodland tribes Pueblo Grande Museum that lived in the area between 800 b.c. and Archaeological Park and a.d. 800. A full-scale wigwam and Phoenix, Ariz.—The new exhibit campsite help bring earlier times to “Pieces of the Puzzle: New Perspectives life. (630) 892-6431, www.aurora.edu/ on the Hohokam” focuses on the latest museum (Newly expanded permanent archaeological techniques that offer exhibit) new perspectives on the Hohokam and how their culture changed in the Bureau of Land Management 15th century. The exhibit explores Anasazi Heritage Center methods for dating and analyzing exist- Dolores, Colo.—The new exhibit “The ing archaeological material, showcases Old Spanish Trail: A Conduit for Change” how geographical information systems traces the history of one of the South- help determine population growth and west’s earliest and most important decline, and presents new viewpoints historic trade routes, which ran from on just what happened to this ancient northern New Mexico to the Pacific culture prior to European settlement. Coast and was based on an ancient (602) 495-0901, www.pueblogrande. network of Native American paths. The com (New long-term exhibit) Old Spanish Trail was the first success- ful Euro-American effort to connect the Schingoethe Center for Mexican frontier provinces of New Mex-

frank H. mcclung museum Native American Cultures ico and California. In 2002 it became a Aurora University, Aurora, Ill.—The National Historic Trail. Through historic center’s award-winning display “Native Spanish and Mexican artifacts, maps, Frank H. McClung Museum Peoples of Illinois: There’s No Place and images, the exhibition illuminates Like Home” provides detailed historical the dramatic story of this 19th-century University of Tennessee, Knoxville, information on the early inhabitants trail that ran 1,200 miles through high Tenn.—“River of Gold: Precolumbian of what is now the state of Illinois. A mountains, arid desert, and deep can- Treasures from Sitio Conte: An recent expansion of the exhibit includes yons. (970) 882-5600, www.co.blm. Exhibition of Panamanian Gold, Circa a.d. 700 to 1100” features displays devoted to understanding the gov/ahc (Through October 31) pre-Columbian gold from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology’s University of Pennsylvania Museum excavations at an ancient cemetery in central Panama. The exhibit of Archaeology and Anthropology presents gold from the site of Sitio Conte in its unique archaeological Philadelphia, Pa.—The museum’s world- and cultural context, and features renowned collection of brilliantly painted ethnohistorical information, Chamá polychromes are on display in the excavation drawings, and videotaped new exhibit “Painted Metaphors: Pottery segments from original 1940 color and Politics of the Ancient Maya.” The film footage of the excavations. More exhibit opens a window into the lives of the than 150 stunning gold objects are ordinary Maya who lived along Guatemala’s on display, including hammered Chixoy River 1,300 years ago. More than repousse plaques, nose ornaments, 200 ancient objects, including figurines, gold-sheathed ear rods, pendants, jade carvings, musical instruments, ritual bells, bangles, and beads. (865) objects, weaving implements, cooking 974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum. pots, and projectile points provide a utk.edu (Through May 3) glimpse of how vibrant their lives were. (215) 898-4000, www.museum.upenn.edu (Opens April 5) aeology and an th ropology and arc h aeology museum of of pennsylvania universi t y american archaeology 5 Natchez Powwow Events March 28–29, Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, Natchez, Miss. The powwow features traditional Native American dancing, food, and crafts. It will be held at the Grand Village, which was the tribe’s main ceremonial center from 1682 to 1729. Now a National Historic Landmark , it features a museum, a reconstructed Natchez Indian house, and three ceremonial mounds. (601) 446-6502,

mdah.state.ms.us/hprop/gvni.html t c h ez powwow na

n CONFERENCES, LECTURES & FESTIVALS Arkansas Archeology Month Southwest Seminars “Ancient Sites and Throughout the month of March at Ancient Stories” 2009 Lecture Series locations across the state. Join the Mondays at 6 p.m., March 16–June 1, annual celebration commemorating Hotel Santa Fe, Santa Fe, N.M. Archae- Arkansas’s cultural heritage as revealed ologists, tribal members, historians, through the archaeology of both pre- and other researchers present lectures historic and historic eras. Exhibits, to benefit The Archaeological Conser-

lectures, demonstrations, tours, open vancy. Admission is $10/lecture. For a & e th nology arc h aeology museum of peabody houses, workshops, and other activities schedule of speakers, contact Connie Peabody Museum of will be organized around this year’s Eichstaedt at (505) 466-2775, south- theme “Planting the Seed.” (479) 575- [email protected], or visit the Web Archaeology & Ethnology 3556, www.arkarch.org site www.southwestseminars.org Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.—“Wiyohpiata: Lakota Images Society For California Archaeology 39th Annual Meeting of the Middle of the Contested West” explores the Annual Meeting Atlantic Archaeological Conference meanings of a unique 19th-century March 12–15, Doubletree Hotel, March 19–22, Clarion Resort Foun- “artist’s book” recently discovered Modesto, Calif. The conference features tainbleu Hotel, Ocean City, Md. The among the holdings of Harvard University’s Houghton Library. The papers, forums, workshops, and social three-day conference focuses on the book was created to preserve events. www.scahome.org latest finds and research from the mid- and interpret a ledger filled with dle Atlantic region. The conference Native American drawings that was Arizona Archaeology Expo features presentations, discussion recovered from the Little Big Horn March 14–15, Pueblo Grande Museum, groups, workshops, and other events. battlefield immediately following the defeat of General George Armstrong Phoenix, Ariz. The museum will host Doug Scott, who has pioneered bat- Custer’s cavalry by Cheyenne and the 2009 Arizona Archaeology Expo, tlefield archaeology research, is this Lakota forces in 1876. The ledger, part of the 26th annual Arizona Archae- year’s keynote speaker. Contact pro- believed to have originally belonged ology and Heritage Awareness Month gram chair Liz Crowell at elizabeth. to an Anglo-American gold miner, sponsored by Arizona State Parks and [email protected], or visit contains 77 colored drawings by a number of now-anonymous Plains Historic Preservation office. Learn why the Web site www.maacmidatlanti- Indian warriors, probably Lakotas. it’s important to preserve historic and carchaeology.org The cultural content of the images is archaeological sites. Discover what enriched by the presence of historic archaeologists, historians, tribal com- 74th Annual Meeting of the Lakota and Cheyenne artifacts munities, and cultural centers do to Society for American Archaeology from the museum’s ethnographic collections. The exhibition opens in preserve, understand, and interpret April 22–26, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, concert with the Peabody’s annual Arizona’s past. The event will feature Atlanta, Ga. A wide variety of papers, Weekend of the Americas (April 3-4), archaeological hands-on activities, craft posters, forums, symposia, workshops, which includes lectures, tours, and and ancient technology demonstra- and excursions are slated for this conversations organized around the tions, tours, and lectures. The weekend year’s meeting, as well as roundtable theme “Visualizing Power: Plains kicks off month-long archaeological fes- luncheons and evening events. (202) Pictographic Arts.” (617) 496-1027, www.peabody.harvard.edu tivities to be held throughout Arizona. 789-8200, www.saa.org (Opens April 3) (602) 542-4174, www.pr.state.az.us

6 spring • 2009 In the NEWS Chocolate at Chaco Researchers find the first evidence of chocolate consumption in the Southwest.

hemical analyses of organic residues in ceramic sherds from CChaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico suggest that the Anasazi drank cacao beverages. This is the first pre- historic evidence of the use of cacao, from which chocolate is made, north of Mesoamerica. The researchers found cacao on fragments from either pitchers or cylin- drical jars that were recovered primar- ily from caches at Pueblo Bonito, Cha- co’s largest site. The decorative styles of the sherds suggest that they date to a.d. 1000–1125. The samples were selected from hundreds of thousands arianne Tyndall M arianne of sherds that were recovered during recent excavations by the University of These reconstructed cylinder jars were recovered from Pueblo Bonito during earlier New Mexico (UNM). The UNM archae- excavations. They are curated at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. ologists reexcavated trenches originally dug in the 1920s during a National Geographic Society Expedition. beans?” she said. So Crown had five seeds into a beverage, and one of them, Cacao was consumed through- sherds tested for cacao, three of which roasting, probably would have been out Mesoamerica for centuries. It was contained residues of the plant. done in Mesoamerica so that the beans enjoyed primarily by elite members Crown surmises that, as was the were easy to transport. of society, and it played an important case in Mesoamerica, cacao beverages The acquisition of such exotic, role in rituals. Patricia Crown, a UNM were drunk by Chaco’s elite, and the desirable objects made Pueblo Bonito archaeologist who participated in the imbibing could have been done at “a very special place,” Crown said. That excavations, noticed that some of the ritualistic events such as feasts. If the could have enabled its leaders, who ceramic vessels recovered from Pueblo sherds are in fact fragments of cylin- might have had a command of Meso- Bonito resembled Mesoamerican ves- der jars, which, at Chaco, are far more american rituals, to “attract followers sels. Crown was also aware of the evi- unusual than pitchers, that could sug- and labor” sufficient to build its impres- dence of trade between Mesoamerica gest they were part of unusual ceremo- sive great houses. and Chaco. For example, the remains nies such as rituals. Crown cautioned that only five of 36 scarlet macaws, a bird native to She also suspects that the Meso- samples were tested and that further the American tropics, had been found americans provided the knowledge, as sampling could show that cacao con- at Pueblo Bonito during previous inves- well as the raw materials, for the Ana- sumption was common at other places tigations. “If they can transfer a squawk- sazi to make cacao beverages. Several in Chaco, as well as other settlements ing bird 1,200 miles, why not cacao steps are necessary to process cacao in the Southwest. —Michael Bawaya american archaeology 7 In the NEWS First Americans Came In Two Migrations Genetic evidence suggests groups took different routes15,000 to 17,000 years ago. t ion enealogy F ounda S orenson M olecular G enealogy Several Paleo-Indians make their way to the New World. The red arrows indicate the two migration routes.

n international team of researchers recently con- Ninety-five percent of Native Americans belong to six ducted an in-depth analysis of the complete genomes major haplogroups, and because people belonging to these A of two very rare Native American maternal DNA hap- haplogroups are found throughout the New World, it had logroups, or lineages, identifying two separate, nearly simulta- been virtually impossible for geneticists to identify migratory neous migrations from Beringia into the New World roughly routes. So Perego and his colleagues focused on two rare sub- 15,000 to 17,000 years ago. The researchers concluded that groups, D4h3 and X2a, of the major haplogroups. The 10,300- one of the Paleo-Indian groups, identified as haplogroup year old human remains found in the On Your Knees Cave on D4h3, followed the Pacific coastline to arrive at the southern Prince of Wales Island in Alaska belonged to the D4h3 hap- tip of South America, while the second group, known as X2a, logroup. “This finding, together with a D4h3 sample found followed an ice-free corridor east of the Rocky Mountains to in China, provide evidence of an ancient Asian origin for this settle in the Great Plains and Great Lakes regions. lineage, from Asia through Beringia and into the New World Researchers have long sought to understand how all the way to Tierra del Fuego in Chile,” said Perego. “Less Native Americans could develop such incredible linguistic clear is the background about the ancient origin of X2a.” and cultural diversity in the relatively short time between Drawing on the Sorenson database, the world’s largest the peopling of the New World and the arrival of Europeans collection of correlated genetic and genealogical informa- in 1492. “While linguists, archaeologists, and anthropologists tion, they discovered that members of the D4h3 haplogroup did agree that there could be more than one migration to are found exclusively on the Pacific Coast from Alaska to the Americas, geneticists were convinced that the similar Chile, while members of the X2a haplogroup are found ages all the haplogroups shared was an indication of a single mainly in the Great Lakes and Great Plains regions, indicat- arrival and expansion following the Pacific coastline,” said ing two groups of Paleo-Indians took separate routes into Ugo Perego, director of programs at Sorenson Molecular the New World. Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah, and co-author The researchers arrived at their entry date based on the of the study. “With our paper, we are saying that there were number of mutations in the DNA samples and how long it at least two, if not more, which is more in harmony with the takes for mutations to occur. The results of their study were other research fields.” published in the journal Current Biology. —Tamara Stewart 8 spring • 2009 In the NEWS Excavation Reveals Native Political Chiefdoms in Cuba Artifacts left by the Arawakans, the people who encountered Columbus, are shedding light on Cuba’s past.

rchaeologists investigating El Chorro de Maíta, an Arawakan A Indian village in northeast Cuba, are uncovering evidence of the island’s political structure and the effects of Spanish contact. The Arawakans were the first natives encountered by Colum- bus during his voyage to Cuba in 1492, although it has not been established if Columbus visited the village, which was occupied between a.d. 1300 and 1550. Archaeologists with the University of Alabama and the Central-Eastern Department of Archaeology in Holguín, Cuba, have determined that the site is much larger than previously thought, covering nearly 92 acres along a hill- side above the island’s eastern shore. “It is beginning to look like there were Excavators work at El Chorro de Malta. They’ve found household artifacts such as fragments regional political chiefdoms with capi- of cooking vessels as well as ornaments such as the olive shell pendant shown below. tal towns in parts of Cuba at the time of Columbus,” said University of Alabama manufacture of stone beads and orna- is analyzing the documents, which are archaeologist Jim Knight, who co- ments for the elite. written in a script barely recognizable directs the project with Cuban archae- Sixteenth-century documents writ- as Spanish. ologist Robert Valcárel Rojas. El Chorro ten by early Spanish colonizers of Cuba “The greatest source of docu- de Maíta appears to have been a capital are also providing insights into this ments relating to early Cuban history town, and Knight and his colleagues period. John Worth, an archaeologist is the General Archive of the Indies in are examining the emergence of native and expert in early Spanish paleogra- Seville, Spain,” said Knight. “The major- political chiefdoms in Cuba. phy at the University of West Florida, ity of the documents relating to Cuba Most of the recovered artifacts have never been studied, particularly consist of household debris such as pot- by those with an interest in the fate tery from cooking and serving vessels, of the Indians. It will take a long time stone and shell tools, and food remains. and great patience to make headway in But the archaeologists have also found transcribing all the new material. How- finely crafted native ornaments of stone ever, we have already made progress in and shell in various states of comple- placing the native chiefdoms named in tion. Human-shaped figurines known the documents much more accurately as idolillos (little idols) appear to have on modern maps, and in understanding been made at the site from imported the movements of Spaniards through stone, leading Knight to conclude that eastern Cuba at the time of conquest.” ional G eograp h ic t ional the village was likely a center for the —Tamara Stewart N a american archaeology 9 In the NEWS Study Shows Prehistoric Climate Change Led to Fires Study challenges recent theory that a comet explosion caused widespread fires 12,900 years ago.

group of researchers examined charcoal and pollen from 35 North A American lake cores, finding a direct relationship between abrupt cli- mate changes and fires, specifically that warmer temperatures in the past led to more biomass burning and more fre- quent fires. Their study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “This finding is important because global climate change is currently caus- ing widespread increases in tempera- ture, and we’re starting to see increases in fire activity associated with this,” said Jennifer Marlon, a doctoral student at the University of Oregon and co-author of the study. “Our results suggest that A l we can expect this trend to continue if temperatures continue to rise.” The study contradicts the recent theory that a comet exploded over North America around 12,900 years ago, leaving a telltale layer of impact debris Jennifer M arlon Et known as “black mat.” This theory’s This graph shows the incidence of fires increasing after the Younger Dryas period. proponents think the explosion caused continent-wide wildfires, mass faunal negates the comet impact hypothesis,” and can be transported by the wind, is extinctions, and the 1,000-year long said James Kennett, professor emeritus a more reliable indicator of widespread cold spell known as the Younger Dryas. at the University of California-Santa burning. Chemist and soot expert The researchers who participated Barbara and a member of the comet Wendy Wolbach of DePaul University in the new study examined possible research team. “I strongly question the has found peaks in soot occurrence at changes in fire regimes between 15,000 veracity of their dating and the meth- the Younger Dryas interval. and 10,000 years ago, a time of rapid odology they use to determine the rela- “The number Jim referred to was and dramatic climate changes. “Large tive abundance of charcoal in the lake not our estimate of the radiocarbon fires occurred throughout that interval cores.” He added that “they see a big error range,” Bartlein said. “The true and were not synchronous at the begin- peak in charcoal about 250 years prior uncertainty range is unknown, but in ning of the Younger Dryas cold interval to the Younger Dryas, but they state lake records like ours, it is probably as the comet hypothesis proposes,” says that the radiocarbon error range is plus closer to 100 years.” Pat Bartlein, co-author of the study and or minus 300 years, which brings the “Researchers in many disciplines geographer at the University of Oregon. onset of the Younger Dryas within the are actively working to test all the dif- “Instead, fire is widespread only when error range of that peak.” ferent aspects of the comet theory,” climate abruptly warms, like at the end Kennett also said that charcoal said Marlon. “The charcoal data, at least, of the Younger Dryas interval.” in lake deposit cores provides a lim- don’t support it, but I expect the debate “Despite this recent study, I see ited record of very localized events, will continue for some time.” nothing compelling at this point that whereas soot, which is much lighter —Tamara Stewart 10 spring • 2009 In the NEWS

EPA Accused of Destroying Archaeological Sites Complaint alleges the agency is violating federal preservation laws.

complaint filed with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General states that A the EPA has routinely ignored cultural preservation laws and destroyed significant archaeological sites at toxic clean-up sites across the country. The complaint, which was brought by the Public Employees for Environmental Respon- sibility (PEER), was prompted by the EPA’s alleged destruc- tion of cultural materials near the Sulphur Bank Mine site on the Elem Indian Colony Reservation in northern California in 2006. Archaeologist John Parker alleges that, in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act and the Comprehen- sive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, substantial portions of archaeological sites beneath the toxic mine waste were removed before any of the required archaeological investigations were conducted, disturbing more than 7,000 cubic yards of archaeological deposits and resulting in an estimated $50 million in damages. The PEER complaint points to similar EPA violations at many other sites. “They could have engineered their cleanup project to remove the mine waste without disturbing the intact sub- soils,” said Parker, who became involved with the project at the request of the Elem Tribe. arker Rick Sugarek, EPA site manager for the Elem Colony clean up, said that a full cultural resources survey had been Jo h n P conducted of the area 10 years prior to the clean up and that Cheyanne Parker, the wife of archaeologist John Parker, stands previous Bureau of Indian Affairs actions had heavily modi- in a deep hole dug by the EPA. The red flags mark locations fied the site in the 1970s, resulting in the mining waste and where artifacts were found. a low probability for intact cultural resources. “We weren’t sure what we’d find, so we agreed to bring in an archaeolo- issued a letter in September 2007 stating that the EPA failed gist if anything important turned up,” said Sugarek. to comply with regulations regarding cultural resources, and Parker was hired by the EPA two months into the project the California Archaeological Society has looked into Parker’s when bone was exposed by the excavators. “When Dr. Parker allegations as well. was brought on, he immediately measured the hole we had “We’re working with Mike Newland, Vice President excavated and made a statement that it was all cultural mate- of the Society for California Archaeology, to implement a rial that had been taken out, but in reality it was mine waste. number of their recommendations to improve EPA efforts He is creating a sense of outrage which is totally fictional.” to protect cultural and historical resources that might be Raymond Brown, Sr., chairman of the Elem Indian Colony affected during Superfund actions,” said Sugarek, who added at the time of the site cleanup, wrote a letter expressing his that the tribe is not part of the PEER complaint and had satisfaction with the EPA’s response to the tribe’s concerns no knowledge of it. The site has been cleaned of mercury about cultural heritage protection. mine waste and, according to Sugarek, is a highly successful The Board of the Society for American Archaeology project. —Tamara Stewart american archaeology 11 UnearthingUnearthing NorthNorth America’sAmerica’s FirstFirst FrenchFrench ColonyColony

InIn 1541,1541, FranceFrance establishedestablished FortFort Charlesbourg-RoyalCharlesbourg-Royal inin whatwhat isis nownow QuébecQuébec City.City. TwoTwo yearsyears later,later, itit waswas abandoned.abandoned. TheThe sitesite waswas discovereddiscovered inin 2005,2005, andand archaeologistsarchaeologists areare tryingtrying toto understandunderstand whatwhat tooktook placeplace atat thethe settlement.settlement.

ByBy HannahHannah HoagHoag PhotosPhotos byby LiamLiam MaloneyMaloney

n a forested outcrop at the western limit of 1543, along with several hundred colonists. Québec City, Gilles Samson makes his way An archaeologist with Québec’s National Capital Oacross an archaeological site quilted with Commission and the project’s co-director, Samson sheets of plywood and plastic. The coverings pro- reasons that the site ranks with Jamestown, the tect 16th-century stone walls from the sometimes first English colony in the New World. Cartier-Rober- harsh Canadian elements. He grips the edge of one val (as it is now called, after its founders) predates of the boards and lifts, revealing a strip of neatly Samuel de Champlain’s founding of Québec City and stacked grey stones. “We’re following the walls to New France and England’s establishment of Jame- get a clearer picture of the fort,” he says. stown by more than 60 years. Samson is in the midst of uncovering one of Somewhat surprisingly, Cartier-Roberval re- Canada’s most important archaeological discover- mained hidden until 2005. According to historical ies: the charred remains of the first French colony documents, Cartier built two forts—an upper and in North America. The walls and other artifacts the a lower—on Cap-Rouge, a peninsula bordered by archaeologists have unearthed are the remnants of the St. Lawrence River to the south and Cap-Rouge Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, a settlement established River to the west. Presumably, the site was picked by Jacques Cartier in 1541 and occupied by Jean- because it offered great lookouts, protection from François de la Rocque de Roberval from 1542 to attacks, and a harbor. The forts were later burned

Cap-Rouge promontory overlooks the Saint-Lawrence River. 12 According to historical documents, Jacques Cartier built two forts here. spring • 2009 to the ground, and the site remained unoccupied The find was kept secret until it could be con- until 1823, when brothers William and Henry Atkin- firmed. “I had some doubts about it when Ifirst son acquired the land and built an estate. The land came to the site,” says archaeologist Richard Fiset, changed hands during the late 1800s, until the the project’s other co-director, who is also employed Trans-Continental Railway purchased it in 1906 and by Québec’s capital commission. “There was some erected a long steel trestle bridge that is still in use evidence, but not enough to say, ‘This is it.’” But today. his doubts were put to rest in 2006, when Fiset and Archaeologists had been looking for the site for Samson were hired to confirm the site of the fort. more than 50 years. (In 1923 the Historic Sites and The archaeologists found strata of burned soil, more Monuments Board of Canada recognized Cap-Rouge charred wood, ceramics, pottery, glass beads, nails, as the site of Fort Charlesbourg-Royal although no and a colorful fragment of 16th-century pottery artifacts had been found.) Then in 2005, archaeolo- from Faenza, Italy. Radiocarbon testing of charcoal gist Yves Chrétien was asked to do a survey of the samples dated the site to the middle of the 16th promontory prior to the construction of a belvedere. century. “At that moment you are happy and you He dug 16 test pits near the southeastern edge of realize you are doing something real,” says Fiset. the promontory and exposed the burned wooden Another team of archaeologists is searching for the remains of the upper fort. lower fort and thus far they haven’t found it. american archaeology 13 celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Québec City were underway, the site was open to the public. It proved so popu- lar that tours were scheduled every 30 minutes on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays to groups of 20. “We are going so deep into our history that it is a story with lots of public interest,” says Fiset.

harged by Francois I to look for gold and diamonds and a passage to Asia, Cartier undertook voyages in C1534, 1535, and 1541 to Canada. On his third and final voyage, he set to sea with five ships in May, and he estab- lished a settlement on Cap-Rouge at the end of that summer to lay claim to part of the New World. However, in January of 1541, the King put Roberval, a friend and nobleman, in charge of the colony, and after several delays Roberval set off to join Cartier in 1542. They met in Newfoundland, and despite orders to the contrary, Cartier returned to France, slipping away one night in June, claiming to have found his precious gems. Roberval continued to Cap-Rouge with three ships, arriving in late July. According to his descriptions, the upper fort contained two main buildings, a well, and two towers, one of which was a great tower. Samson says the great tower may have been three stories high, with a ground floor, a middle level containing Roberval’s quarters, and an upper level for

defensive operations. “That is a classic function for a great archives canada and library A painting of Jacques Cartier done by Théophile Hamel in 1847. tower, but for now, it’s still speculation,” he says. The lower fort, according to historical documents, included another The Cartier-Roberval project is a remarkable under- dwelling, which made up part of a two-story tower, and two taking, with a budget of $7.7 million Canadian provided buildings where provisions and all the other goods they had by the provincial government. Samson and Fiset oversee a brought from Europe were stored. multidisciplinary team whose expertise covers such fields When Cartier left Canada, he took many of the supplies as geoarchaeology, archeobotany, and anthrocology—the with him. Roberval rationed the items he had, and most of study of carbonized wood. The researchers have unearthed the colonists—a collection of noblemen, tradesmen, prison- about 5,000 artifacts. During the summer of 2008, as the ers, and several women—survived the winter of 1542. But

This is the route Cartier took on his third and last voyage to, and from, Canada. Roberval may have taken the same route. dennis leung / ottawa citizen dennis leung / ottawa 14 spring • 2009 The researchers have exposed the remnants of a stone structure (foreground) that may have been a passageway linking the northern and southern sections of the fort. the settlement was short-lived. Roberval returned to France in 1543, and some historians think that he burned the forts as he departed so that the Iroquois and the Spanish, who were spying on him, couldn’t use them. While there are maps and plans for other French settlements, there are none for Fort France-Roi (Roberval renamed the fort once he arrived), so details of its shape are unknown. That fire has made it easier for archaeologists to inter- pret the remains, because, strangely enough, it preserved a good deal of the contents. The fire carbonized the hulls of seeds and pits and other organic items, and metal objects that were buried in the ash were protected from severe oxidation. Julie-Anne Bouchard-Perron, a doctoral student at Laval University in Québec City, specializes in the analysis of botan- ical remains. Since 2006, Bouchard-Perron has sifted through huge amounts of excavated soil from Cartier-Roberval using an on-site flotation tank that isolates tiny bits of carbonized organic materials. “Whatever is organic will float, and what- ever is mineral will sink,” she says. By analyzing the charred remains, the archaeologists are learning about the settlers’ eating habits and how they lived. Bouchard-Perron has found thousands of carbonized These are a small sample of the artifacts recovered by the seeds of grapes, bread wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, and archaeologists. They’ve also found beads and rings that the mustard, as well as olive pits, all of which came from Europe. French may have used to trade with the Iroquois, as well as “Olives, grapes, dates, and barley can all be easily dried and lead balls that were shot from arquebuses. american archaeology 15 can be kept for long periods of time,” she says. But still, she components it incorporated, and the sources of the mate- finds the predominance of European species surprising. “It rials that were used in its construction. The archaeologists could indicate a reluctance to eat local foods,” Bouchard- have divided the site into a number of excavation areas. One, Perron says. at the edge of the southern cliff, contains a stone foundation, She has also found local species such as corn and sun- the remnants of a small, unidentified building. They suspect flower, albeit in small amounts. She found only eight corn that as much as 15 feet of the cliff has eroded and may have kernels, for example. “They clearly had contact with the taken some of the building with it. native people. There was some kind of exchange going on,” To the west is an area that is rich in wood, charcoal, and Bouchard-Perron says. She acknowledges that it is possible fired clay. The ground has a thick layer of debris that presum- that the local foods were stored somewhere else on the site ably accumulated after a great deal of wood, which might have that has yet to be found. “Maybe we’ll be surprised if we find been used to construct a building, was burned. It includes a the other fort.” circle of stones that would have once held a tall vertical post. This evidence, along with the area’s strategic position on the he evidence the archaeologists have uncovered sug- promontory, suggests a tower, probably the great tower, once gests that France-Roi was unlike other French New stood here. “It is still very early to say, but that is our feeling,” TWorld forts of that general time period, which were says Samson. “It’s in the most strategic place.” triangular or quadrangular. “Ours, for the moment, doesn’t Another area lies to the north of the tower site. There, fit any of these shapes,” Samson says. Much of the focus of Samson and Fiset have found a 30-foot-long wall composed this year’s work has been on the structure of the fort, includ- of sandstone and dirt that, at one end, angles off to the south- ing how it was planned, what architectural and military east. One section of the wall was buried about 27 inches wisconsin historical society / colorized by charlotte hill-cobb charlotte hill-cobb / colorized by society wisconsin historical Other French New World forts built during this time period were triangular or quadrangular, but thus far the evidence suggests that France- Roi had no clear geometric shape. Fort Caroline, depicted in this illustration, was a triangular fort built in northeast Florida in 1564-65. 16 spring • 2009 below the surface, which, based on knowledge of other forts from that period, suggests that it was an exterior, defensive wall approximately nine-feet high. Behind it is another wall that may have been part of a building. The angled section of the wall is less substantial. “We’ve been working on understanding the connection between these two parts for a long time,” he says. The archaeologists suspect the less substantial portion of the wall was built behind a stur- dier defensive wall that hasn’t been uncov- ered; or it may be that its proximity to the great tower, which would have allowed the colonists to spot invaders long before they reached this part of the wall, is the reason The archaeologists have recovered for its insubstantiality. numerous Iroquoian sherds (top) as well Isabelle Duval, the project’s geoar- as green-glazed French (middle) and chaeologist, has analyzed rock samples Italian majolica (bottom). The Iroquoian taken from the site’s walls and foun- sherds indicate the natives and the dations and compared them with colonists were exchanging goods. nearby sources. The archeologists want to know if the French used suggests that they were still humid when certain types of stone for they were burned. “I believe that most of the the construction of France- wood was green—it was newly harvested and Roi, or if they quarried rocks not dried out,” says Godbout. Though some historians believe Roberval burned the forts, there is no mention of that in his accounts. He did, however, write that he built two forts, which leads other historians to suspect that it was Cartier who destroyed the forts before he returned to France. Sam- son says that Roberval’s account could be hyperbole, and from the closest sources. that he merely improved, rather than built, the forts. It’s Duval’s geochemical and also possible that the Iroquois burned the forts shortly after petrological analysis Roberval abandoned them, or perhaps they were burned of the stone artifacts years later. shows that all the walls, The archaeologists are trying to solve this mystery. The foundations, and stone fact that the wood from the upper fort was vitrified, or glass- remains were con- like, indicates the time between the cutting of the trees and structed primarily with the destruction of the fort was insufficient for the wood to green sandstone, quarried dry. This leads them to surmise it was burned when Roberval from an outcrop near the site. “We and the colonists departed, or shortly thereafter, presumably know that there were different areas they could have taken by the Iroquois. They hope that further analysis by Godbout the sandstone from, but they chose one that was a bit further will answer the question whether or not Roberval set it away, perhaps because it was of a better quality,” says Sam- aflame. son. Shale, which made up some of the foundations, also had Another of the project’s objectives is to find out if the local origins. Duval has also found quartz and pyrite (fool’s settlers had specific uses for certain types of wood. In France, gold) nearby. The latter was probably one of the sources of castles were built primarily of oak, and the archaeologists the gold Cartier claimed to have found. wondered if the colonists would maintain this tradition. “We wanted to know if they had a preference for building the n her analysis of the charred wood, Barbara Godbout, the walls, roofs, or floors with a particular wood,” says Samson. project’s anthracologist, has identified 16 species of trees. “But it doesn’t look like they did.” Although they have found IShe uses a microscope to look at the structural details of an abundance of beech, the diversity of trees used in the the wood—the size and orientation of the fibers—to iden- fort’s construction is representative of the forest when Cart- tify the species, all of which still grow in the area with the ier arrived. When the settlers arrived at Cap-Rouge, they may exception of walnut. The vitrification of many of the samples have been forced to move quickly, using whatever wood was american archaeology 17 A researcher documents a piece of timber (center) that was exposed by the excavators. The timber was part of a tall building.

available. Samson points out that much of the wood they castles and cathedrals. “We figure that it belonged to some- have found consists of unworked logs. “That also indicates one with a high rank,” says Samson. that they were pressed for time,” he says, noting the impor- The archaeologists have also found Native American tance of having the fort built by winter. pottery decorated with lines and circles. The pottery, along Part of the difficulty in analyzing the wooden compo- with the corn kernels, offers evidence that Roberval main- nents of the fort is that some woods burn more completely tained a more amicable relationship with the Iroquois than than others. “We know that there is a lot of pine in the area Cartier had. (During his second voyage to Canada in 1536, and we have some in our samples,” says Godbout. “But pine Cartier had kidnapped several Iroquois, including Chief Don- burns very quickly and leaves only ashes, so even if pine nacona, and taken them to France, where most of them died. represents 25 percent of our sample, we’re pretty convinced When he returned in 1541, he was met with hostility by the that there was a lot more used in the construction—but natives.) “You don’t bring that into the fort if you don’t have we’ve lost track of it.” a good relationship with them,” says Samson. Thousands of artifacts from Cartier-Roberval are housed After three years of excavations, the Cartier-Roberval dig in the basement of the Québec Conservation Center, where concluded so that the archaeologists could focus on analyz- archaeologist Helène Côté, is studying the collections. There ing their discoveries. They have planned trips to France and are musket balls, locks, fishhooks, abacus tokens, keys and northern Italy to study the fort architecture and the socio- rings, thimbles, and a checker piece. The items offer a peek cultural order of the 16th century as well as the preceding at the colonists’ lives. Many of them were the goods of the medieval period, which could have influenced the design upper class, reinforcing the idea that the upper fort housed and social order of Fort France-Roi. By the early 16th century, Roberval and the noblemen. the feudal system was giving way to a new sociopolitical sys- Among the most interesting discoveries are a chip of tem in France, and a better understanding of that transition Italian pottery—brightly enameled with yellows, oranges, could help Samson and Fiset interpret the site’s evidence, and blues—several pieces of colored glass from windows, revealing the details of France’s initial attempt to colonize and a piece of green glass with a folded edge that was pos- the New World. sibly part of a tassa, a bowl often used for religious purposes. Colored glass was rare at the time, and it was used mostly in HANNAH HOAG is a science journalist based in Montreal, Canada. 18 spring • 2009 Gulf Islands National Seashore visitor center. Rusted cannon tubes at Jamestown. Responding To Disasters When Hurricane Isabel flooded Jamestown in 2003, threatening its precious artifacts, the National Park Service was unprepared to deal with the magnitude of the damage. The park service learned some hard lessons, one of which was that they needed an emergency-response team trained to preserve museum collections Rusted metal objects and archaeological resources. taken from Fort Pickens. By Paula Neely n September 18, 2003, when Hurricane Isabel roared through Virginia, archaeologist Bill Kelso Owatched as water began seeping under the door of the cottage on Jamestown Island, where he and his wife were staying. Established in 1607, Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement and is now one of the pre- miere archaeological sites in North America. As the water rose, Kelso decided to see if he could get to the office build- ing across the street where artifacts from the excavation of the James Fort site were housed in a hurricane-proof vault. He knew they would be safer there, but the water in the road NPS was up to his shoulders, so he turned back. Sara Wolf (center) and Bob Sonderman (in the dark shirt) are two Just then, a burst of wind flattened the crepe myrtle trees members of the original MERT formed to deal with the types of beside the cottage. “I thought, ‘Whoa!’ There were miniature disasters seen in the photographs above. american archaeology 19 tornadoes and trees crashing and booming all around. It was basement, where over a million 17th–and 18th–century arti- like a war zone,” he said. Back inside the cottage, he moved facts, including pottery, arms and armor, tools, and glass, as his valuables to the second floor loft and waited for the storm well as archival documents and photos, were stored. They to pass. The worst of it hit that night during high tide, creat- also sandbagged the doors and set up pumps, in accordance ing a nine-foot storm surge that covered the cottage floor with their emergency response plan. with five inches of water. By morning, the water had receded Almost everything was soaked by brackish seawa- enough that he could walk around the island. Hundreds of ter. Shocked by the damage, the park’s officials contacted trees were down and two bridges had been dislodged from the NPS’ regional office inB oston for assistance. Sara Wolf, their footings. Electrical power was out and would remain so director of the NPS Northeast Museum Services Center, for the next two weeks. began recruiting experts to deal with the flooding. Wolf The fort excavation site, which is owned by APVA Preser- also requested assistance from Pam West, director of the vation Virginia, a private, nonprofit organization, was covered NPS Museum Resource Center in Maryland, who dispatched by tarps and was largely unscathed. The Visitor Center, where archaeologists Karen Orrence and Robert Sonderman to the National Park Service’s (NPS) Jamestown artifact collec- Jamestown. Wolf and West also rushed to the site. Most of tion was housed, was a different story. (Jamestown is part of them had not been trained to respond to a hurricane or Colonial National Historical Park, and the NPS and APVA Pres- other natural disaster. ervation Virginia manage the island in partnership.) Doors They arrived a day and a half after the storm, accompa- and a window were broken, and the basement was flooded nied by other NPS archivists and curators. The park staff was with five feet of water. T“ he furniture was upside down and overwhelmed and asked the NPS professionals to take over. water was still up to the window level, trapped inside,” Kelso, “That’s the dynamic I see every time I go out,” Sonderman the director of archaeology for APVA Preservation Virginia, said, explaining that the local staff usually isn’t trained to said. “Booklets were drifting around…. I saw a notebook in handle emergencies of this nature. the debris around the building. It was J.C. Harrington’s field On Wolf’s recommendation, the park hired a professional notes from the 1930s. I knew then that the archives had been storm recovery team that started blowing hot air through hit.” He sighed, “We had offered to let (NPS) store things in the building to help dry it out and keep mold from forming. our vault, but the head Jamestown ranger said it has never NPS and APVA teams moved the artifacts out of the visitor flooded enough to damage our records.” center and washed and dried them. The storage cabinets Anticipating that the storm might blow out the win- were difficult to drain and water had been trapped inside dows on the main floor exhibit area, the park’s staff had the drawers for at least a day and a half. Rust was forming on moved some objects and a collection of paintings to the iron objects and mended ceramics were coming apart. NPS This reconstructed 17th–century Bellarmine jug came apart during the flooding at Jamestown. The glue that held the pieces together disintegrated when it was exposed to water. The jug was later restored and remended. 20 spring • 2009 NPS When cabinets were submerged by the Jamestown flood, the trays of artifacts they contained were mixed up and some provenience information was lost. The cabinets, which cost thousands of dollars, also had to be replaced.

“It was so sad, and it seemed like an insurmountable three more days to move the collections to another location. task,” said Bly Straube, senior curator for APVA Preservation To make matters worse, they had to race against another Virginia. She and others tried to save the notes that were hurricane that was bearing down on Virginia. floating in the water inside the cabinet drawers. Original In order to save the collection, Wolf decided to move all documents and archaeological field notes were rinsed in 270 cabinets, with artifacts still inside them, out of the base- distilled water to clean them and then packed wet in bins ment. Holes were drilled in the sides of the cabinets to help to be frozen for later freeze-drying, the standard procedure drain the water, drawers were shimmed and each cabinet for stabilizing soaked paper. Sonderman remembered seeing was shrink-wrapped in plastic to keep the contents intact. John Cotter’s and Ed Jelk’s field notes from the 1950s afloat: The team tore down walls so as to move freely from room to “That got to me. They were my mentors.” room, and they jacked the cabinets onto pallets, and removed Three days after the storm the NPS emergency response them with a forklift. The collections were then taken to an unit, known as the Incident Management Team (IMT), arrived. empty, World War II-era warehouse about 40 miles away at (The park service established the IMT in the 1970s to deal Fort Lee in Petersburg just before the next storm hit. with wildfires onNP S lands.) They had been in the area for Wolf, who is a conservator, was conscripted to manage several days clearing fallen trees from another NPS property, the triage effort there for the next three months. She and and they were unaware of the efforts underway to save the West supervised five teams of 20NP S conservators, recruited collections. Preserving the cultural resources was not one of from parks around the country, who worked 12-hour shifts their priorities, Sonderman explained. for 14-day periods to stabilize the material. “It was an incred- The IMT commander took control of the recovery efforts, ibly emotional event because no one had ever seen a disaster assigning Wolf to handle the collections. The commander of this size,” said Wolf. Though the local press were very criti- also ordered engineers, architects, and a public health officer cal of the park’s response to the disaster, those same critics to examine the visitor center, which they condemned. “We were impressed by the NPS’ conservation work, she said. freaked out,” Sonderman said. “If they closed the building, When preliminary salvage of the collections was com- the iron objects would completely rust out and the ceram- pleted, they were moved again to a warehouse in Newport ics would exfoliate.” Luckily, the commander understood the News with better climate control, where long-term stabili- gravity of the situation and gave them resources, funding, and zation work began. Some artifacts, such as glass and wooden american archaeology 21 wanted to be better prepared for the next time. In collabora- tion with their colleagues, they organized a Museum Emer- gency Response Team (MERT) trained to deal with similar incidents involving NPS archaeological sites, artifact col- lections, historical buildings, cemeteries, and other cultural resources. They began by assembling a team of on-call NPS experts including curators, conservators, archaeologists, and collec- tion managers. They also recruited architects and used safety officers to advise the team about whether or not a building would be safe to enter and how to tear down doors and walls, if necessary. Maintenance people were added to help remove water, dry out buildings, clear debris, and move fur- niture. There are now two MERTs, each with about 20 mem- bers, directed by West and Wolf. Each member was issued a “ready bag” packed with tools, masks, earplugs, gloves, safety boots, and other emergency supplies. West said they conducted exercises involving mock incidents “to stretch people and see how they would react.” The MERTs were subsumed by the IMT, and in order to deploy they had to be called to a disaster by the IMT com- mander. There are now four IMTs—National, Eastern, Cen- tral, and Pacific—that espondr to all natural disasters. Their top priorities are maintaining health and safety and restoring the infrastructure. The IMT commander assumes authority A shrink-wrapped cabinet from the Jamestown visitor center is over local park officials for the duration of the disaster.T his hauled away by a forklift. Workers tore down a door and part enables the IMT to do whatever is necessary to get the park of a wall so the forklift could reach the cabinets. operating again. Initially, getting the IMT commanders to call MERT in a objects, were sent to various experts who specialize in timely manner was a challenge. “The first 24 to 48 hours are those media. critical because mold starts growing and chances are we’ll Most of the artifacts are now located in a new $4 mil- start losing things. Documents need to be frozen to halt the lion storage facility at Historic Jamestowne that was built damage or they can be gone within 12 hours or so,” Sonder- 10 1/2 feet above the flood plain.T he visitor center was man said. The commanders have since come to realize that demolished and replaced with a new building that is also the cultural resources require immediate attention. “They on higher ground. “Overall, the collection came through get it now,” Wolf said. beautifully,” Wolf said. “We retrieved 99.5 percent of it.” The Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in 2004, when biggest loss was the photo collection, but they were able Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Island National Seashore Park to freeze the photos (freezing stops the deterioration) and in Pensacola, Florida. Two weeks passed before the IMT save the images in digital format. Some ceramics have been re-mended; others will need to be mended over time. She estimated that the four-year effort cost the federal govern- ment about $6 million plus the initial recovery costs. “We still have a solid archival collection,” said Karen Rehm, NPS Chief Jamestown Historian, adding that they’ve “learned a lot about how to store things properly.” She noted, however, that the provenience organization is not as good as it was.

Creating the Museum Emergency-Response Team

Isabel was a wake-up call. Nothing like that had ever NPS happened before, but given the increasing frequency and Members of the original MERT are seen in this 2004 photograph. severity of hurricanes and the location of numerous NPS Some of these people have since quit the team because of the historical sites on the East Coast, West, Wolf, and Sonderman physical demands and stress of the work. 22 spring • 2009 commander asked West to send a team to Fort Pickens, a three weeks, they took cold showers while they salvaged the 19th-century fort built to defend Pensacola Bay. The storm museum’s exhibits, saving the majority of the collections. surge had moved the visitor center off its foundation and “The exhibit was ripped apart, slides were everywhere, split it in two, flooding the Civil War exhibit, the natural his- and there was flash rusting on the metals,” West said. Civil tory collection, and archival documents. Another facility that War uniforms were moldy and cabinets were filled with housed a modular building with more artifacts from various artifacts soaked in water. Everything lay in the muck until periods also flooded. they arrived. “It was déjà vu all over again,” Sonderman said, West gathered a team that included conservators, an referring to Jamestown. architect, and an archivist knowledgeable about conserving Using their Jamestown experience, they set up a triage paper documents. They flew in and took a boat across the with help from the local park staff. Documents and photos bay to the fort. “The road was washed out, so we had to do were stored in freezer chests and later freeze-dried and everything by boat,” she explained. That took too much time, scanned. Needing help, West called in a hotshot crew—an so the team decided to camp on the island. For the next elite firefighting team—that received on-site training in Coping with Wildfires nps julie bell, Firefighters battle the Long Mesa Fire at Mesa Verde in 2002. The firefighters protected the park’s curatorial facility and office buildings that were threatened by the flames.

ach year, Julie Bell, an archaeologist at Mesa Verde National reseed, and put down matting made from aspen shavings that Park, takes a refresher course in firefighting and hikes three are sometimes impregnated with native seeds to slow the ero- Emiles with a 45-pound backpack in less than 46 minutes to sion that can carry away soil and artifacts. renew her certification. Rock art can also be damaged by spalling. For example, Bell is one of the first firefighters on the scene when a large during the 1996 fire, the heat dried out the stone containing the fire breaks out, as is the case with many archaeologists in Western petroglyph panel known as the Battleship Rock Panel. During states. She helps to determine where to dig the fire line and directs the next freeze and thaw, the rock exfoliated and many of the crews during suppression activities so that, if possible, archaeo- petroglyphs popped off. “It’s like someone took a shotgun to it,” logical sites can be saved. Since 1996, five large wildfires have she said. burned over half of Mesa Verde’s 52,000 acres. Incident Com- Although they were catastrophic, the Mesa Verde fires mand Teams are only deployed in the event of large, dangerous revealed 676 previously unknown archaeological sites. After fires, and when they’ve been summoned to Mesa Verde, they’ve the 1996 fire, archaeologists discovered a string of about 100 utilized Bell as a cultural resource advisor. check dams and long walls used to capture water, indicating that “The biggest problem for archaeological sites is runoff,” agricultural techniques were more advanced than previously Bell said. She and her team treat the watershed above the sites, thought. —Paula Neely

american archaeology 23 NPS

When Hurricane Katrina struck West Ship Island, Fort Massachusetts, shown here, was inundated by a 30-foot storm surge. The aftermath of the flooding is seen is this photo.

collections stabilization. They couldn’t remove historical flooded by three feet of water and skeletal remains in the ordnance and cabinets of artifacts stored inside an 1880s cemetery were exposed. structure because the door was too small for their equip- Consequently, a MERT was dispatched to Lafayette, Loui- ment, so, having consulted an architect, they leveled a wall siana, where they were escorted by NPS law enforcement that was not part of the original structure. officers through six military checkpoints into New Orleans, They were nearly finished when another hurricane,M at- with its countless abandoned, flood-damaged homes.T here thew, forced them to secure everything inside the fort and were rumors of snipers and vandals, so the team members evacuate the island by helicopter. When they returned, they weren’t allowed out of their cars for protection. It took two finished stabilizing and packing the collections into contain- hours to reach Chalmette, which is next to the levee just ers wrapped in plastic, put them on pallets, and loaded them south of New Orleans. We saw it all,” Sonderman said. “It was with backhoes onto a World War II landing craft—the IMT can 100 degrees outside. I was almost knocked down by the get anything—that took them to the mainland. From there smell of rot and debris.” Along the way, he remembered see- they were sent to conservators to be restored and then to the ing NPS officers tear open large bags of dog food on street NPS Southeast Archeological Center for temporary storage. corners to feed abandoned pets. He went to Chalmette National Cemetery, where tomb- Hurricane Katrina stones mark the graves of over 15,000 American soldiers who died in the War of 1812 and subsequent conflicts. Several oak A year later Katrina, one of the most devastating hur- trees had toppled, exposing five burials from the 1800s that ricanes in the history of the United States, hit Louisiana were tangled in the trees’ roots. A group of Army Rangers and Mississippi. Almost immediately after the levees failed, was standing guard over them when Sonderman arrived. floodingN ew Orleans and the surrounding area, the incident He and Mary Troy, an NPS curator, mapped, documented, commander requested that Wolf go to New Orleans to assess and removed the burials. “It took a couple of days and was museum collections and other cultural resource recovery pretty straightforward,” Sonderman said, but the cemetery needs. The first priority was at Chalmette Battlefield, where had been submerged for several days, and the smell was the last battle of the War of 1812 between the United States “profound.” Once the trees were cut up, the remians were and Britain was fought. The visitor center’s exhibits had been reinterred in the same location. 24 spring • 2009 The remnants of a recreated 1800s lighthouse are seen in the background. When Katrina hit West Ship Island it demolished the recreated structure. Ironically, it also exposed bricks and other rubble in the foreground that are the remains of the original structure.

At the nearby Chalmette Visitor Center, MERT members salvaged a collection of guns and sabers that were rusting. They wrapped them in mattress pads and shipped them inside cardboard tubes that are normally used as molds for making building columns, to the Springfield Armory inM as- sachusetts for conservation. “You have to be creative and use whatever you can,” West said. They stabilized and moved the rest of the collections, including uniforms and military arti- facts, to a storage facility in Naches Trace, Mississippi. Sonderman then went to Mississippi’s East and West Ship Islands, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore Park. “There was a 30-foot surge and the park was wiped out,” he said. Using GPS coordinates, he located the park’s archaeo- logical sites from a helicopter. East Ship Island was almost submerged. All that was left on West Ship was the circular Fort Massachusetts, built during the Civil War to protect Mobile Bay. All the other structures, including four houses

NPS and an 1880s lighthouse, were gone. The flood also revealed the remains of an earlier lighthouse. Under pressure to evac- NPS curator Mary Troy recovers a fragment of human remains from uate the area before Hurricane Rita hit, Sanderman reached Chalmette National Cemetery. West Ship by boat, conducted an assessment, and mapped what was left. He recommended bringing in experts from their experiences. They met several times after Katrina. the nearby Southeast Archeological Center for further assess- Now, every year from July to November, MERT members ment after the water receded. keep an eye on hurricanes that might affect national parks. Throughout the Katrina disaster, the team stayed at a “It’s fascinating and exhilarating,” Sonderman said, “but as hotel in Lafayette for about two weeks with hundreds of much as you’d like to go, you hope it doesn’t happen again.” evacuees who were forced to leave their homes. “It was dif- ferent than other disasters as we had to deal with the trauma PAULA NEELY’s work has appeared in nationalgeographic.com and DIG of folks who were affected,” Sonderman said. After each inci- magazine. Her article “Redefining the Adena” appeared in the Summer 2008 dent, the team holds debriefings to help members cope with issue of American Archaeology. american archaeology 25 Life o n t h e Frontier Cañada Alamosa was once a frontier between the territories of two of the Southwest’s major prehistoric cultures, the Mogollon and the Anasazi. What happened when these two cultures interacted? By Denise Tessier Photos by Liz Lopez

To reach the archaeologically rich canyon known as Cañada Alamosa, visitors must ford the Alamosa River dozens of times. The river flows year-round, fed by a robust warm spring. The water is what lured prehistoric people to this southwestern New Mexico landscape that lies between the territories of two much- studied cultures—the Mogollon to the south and the Ana- sazi to the north. Over a 10-year period, archaeologists with two New Mexico-based organizations, the Cañada Alamosa Institute and Human Systems Research, Inc., have investigated four sites in this area, concluding that Cañada Alamosa is a classic frontier site, or “zone of interaction,” where people lived for hundreds of years. “Frontiers tend to be the termination point for migration streams,” says archae- ologist Karl Laumbach, the associate director of research and education for Human Systems, which is located in Las Cruces. On frontiers, cultures sometimes came together to “create something new.” At other times they remained at arm’s-length. Both scenarios seem to have played out at Cañada Alamosa. While doing research in the Cañada Alamosa in the 1980s and early 1990s, Laumbach and his colleagues dis- covered large ruins on private land that were in danger of being looted. In 1998, Dennis and Trudy O’Toole bought the Monticello Box Ranch, a 5,000-acre spread in the canyon that contains the four sites, known as Montoya, 26 spring • 2009 The Mesa Verde Anasazi migrated to Cañada Alamosa and built a village on these cliffs, known as Pinnacle Ruin, that they could easily defend. (opposite) Archaeologist Karl Laumbach stands by the remains of one of the village’s structures. american archaeology 27 drainage—more than 728 square miles of Chihuahuan des- ert, grasslands, and forested uplands. By the spring of 1999, Laumbach had devised a general research plan. Its central question was inspired by the mix of Anasazi and Mogollon ceramics on the surface of the sites: Did the Cañada Alamosa have a relatively stable and long- lived formative population that borrowed from and adapted to the material culture and economics of adjacent areas, or was there a series of occupations and abandonments by vari- ous groups of people? In June of that year, O’Toole and Laumbach held their first field school, excavating a room at Victorio with the help Dennis and Trudy O’Toole purchased the Monticello Box Ranch in 1998. of six graduate students from Eastern New Mexico Univer- sity. In addition to Laumbach and O’Toole, the project’s other Kelly Canyon, Victorio, and Pinnacle Ruin. Dennis, who over- principal investigators are University of Colorado archaeolo- saw archaeological programs during his career as a history gist Steve Lekson, who has been excavating Pinnacle Ruin; museum director, walked Victorio before they bought the Laumbach’s wife, Toni, curator at the New Mexico Farm and property, and “saw collapsed buildings and pottery just lit- Ranch Heritage Museum, who directs the project’s ceramic tering the ground.” Shortly thereafter, the O’Tooles founded analysis; and New Mexico Tech geologist Virginia T. McLem- the Cañada Alamosa Institute, and they established a part- ore, who identifies where the raw materials used to make nership with Human Systems to study the entire Alamosa the ceramics came from. “Here we have a tight little sequence, well-preserved,” Laumbach says of Cañada Ala- mosa. The sequence spans four major Puebloan occupations— Mimbres, Socorro, Tularosa, and Magdalena—that are rep- resented at the four sites. (The Mimbres culture was a subgroup of the Mogollon, while Socorro and Magdalena were subgroups of the Anasazi. Tularosa was related to both.) The archaeolo- gists investigated the Montoya site in 2001, the year Earthwatch Institute became the project’s chief sponsor, a relationship that continues to this day. In eight seasons, nearly 200 Earthwatch volunteers have participated in the investigation, and several of them have worked more than one season. The researchers discovered that Montoya was a periodically utilized Mimbres village made up of flimsy jacal structures. The age of the Mim- bres ceramics (a.d. 1000-1130) indicates that Montoya is the oldest of the four sites.

While working at Kelly Can- Evolution Graphics Cañada Alamosa was a frontier between the Anasazi and Mogollon regions. Archaeologists yon in 2002 and 2003, the research- have found ceramics from surrounding areas at Cañada Alamosa’s four sites, indicating ers discovered Socorro Black-on- that its occupants interacted with people from those areas. white ceramics, which provided the 28 spring • 2009 first clue that a 12th-century Anasazi community, originating indicating that the two cultures were interacting on the from the Rio Salado west of Socorro, migrated to the area. Cañada Alamosa frontier at this time. The ceramics suggest that Kelly Canyon was occupied from The youngest site, Pinnacle Ruin, has carbon painted about 1100 to 1175. The researchers also found linear room- ceramics dating from 1240 to 1300 that strongly resemble blocks with a kiva in front, an architectural style employed those found in the Mesa Verde area. The archaeologists have by the Anasazi in the Chaco Canyon region. also uncovered glaze-painted ceramics dating from 1300 to The evidence of the migrant community at Kelly Can- 1400 that may represent a later occupation. yon led Laumbach to return to the Montoya site to investi- gate a masonry structure found among the jacales in 2001. The researchers returned to Victorio The structure contained what Laumbach calls a “wonderful in 2005 to conduct a surface collection of artifacts, and stratigraphic sequence” of three 12th-century occupations— they’ve been working there for the last three years. Archae- Mimbres, Socorro, and Tularosa. The archaeologists found ologist Delton Estes carefully extracts pieces of a pot from Mimbres Black-on-white sherds on the bottom floor, a mix- the site that, he says, “was their sink.” The bowl-shaped vessel ture of Mimbres and Socorro Black-on-white on the second has no bottom and was set into the floor of the structure so floor, and Socorro and Tularosa Black-on-white on the upper it could be used as a container. After collecting all the pieces, floor. This stratigraphic sequence supports the concept of a Estes examines the rock-hard impression left by the bowl, continuous, but changing, occupation of the canyon during which he refers to as a “collar.” He then collects samples of the 12th century. this collar for pollen analysis, which can reveal what the envi- It’s thought that Victorio’s occupation starts when Kelly ronment was like at that time. Joshua Pfarr, an Eastern New Canyon’s ends, because most of the former’s ceramics are Mexico University graduate student, recently found corn and Tularosa Phase (1175-1300). Victorio, which has over 450 squash pollen near the flood plain of the Rio Alamosa. rooms and is the largest of the four sites, has also offered evi- Researchers carefully break up hard soil with a metal dence of pre-pueblo pithouse occupations. A pithouse at the pry bar and then sift it through a screen in search of tiny site has been dated to approximately a.d. 740. Most of the artifacts. They’ve found a few lithic tools, a piece of a small ceramics associated with this early occupation are Mogollon, bone, and corrugated and painted ceramics, including a but there are also numerous sherds of Anasazi whitewares, sherd with painted spots on the rim. “It’s been very hard-

Karl Laumbach lifts the top of a structure that was built to cover an excavation area at the Victorio site. Rather than backfill the area, the researchers left it exposed so that it serves as an educational exhibit. The corrugated tin and plastic structure protects it. american archaeology 29 fired,” Laumbach says as he turns it over. “It’s not anything the pithouse, which features what archaeologists refer to as a I recognize off hand.” The artifacts are sorted, cleaned, and “ventilator shaft” that was remodeled from a Mogollon ramp catalogued in a laboratory at the ranch in preparation for entrance, is Anasazi. This appears to be another example of their analysis by volunteers at the Human Systems Research early interaction between the two cultures. laboratory in Las Cruces. The archaeologists initially assumed that Victorio’s size reflected a long, continuous occupation. But the evidence Laumbach says the years of research has shown that, while there are a few rooms from the early indicate that Cañada Alamosa was occupied on and off by pueblo period, most of them were in use during the 13th- different puebloan groups from a.d. 600 to 1400. The pit- century Tularosa Phase occupation. Finding the older rooms house occupations appear to have ended around 900, and has been challenging, and Laumbach surmises that many the area remained unoccupied for about 100 years. “There were covered by later construction. He and his colleagues did could have been some really severe flooding” during that find an early pithouse during the 2008 season when they dis- time, says Laumbach. He also adds that the Anasazi may have covered a floor and a fire pit more than six feet underground. been drawn to Chaco Canyon, which was taking shape then, Describing it as “the most important discovery we made this just as the Mogollon could have migrated to emerging settle- season,” Laumbach notes that the ceramics associated with ments in the nearby Mimbres Valley. the pithouse are predominantly Mogollon, but the style of During the 11th century Mimbres settlers sporadically Prehistory Revealed Through Pottery he archaeologists’ conclusions about the vari- ous occupations at Cañada Alamosa are based, Tto a large extent, on their interpretation of the ceramic evidence. For example, they believe that a number of Anasazi migrated from the Mesa Verde region to Pinnacle Ruin because of the distinctive carbon-paint ceramics they’ve found there. Plants like Rocky Mountain bee weed and tansy mustard were boiled to a goo and then added to water to make car- bon paint, a method that started around a.d. 1200 or earlier. Carbon paint makes blurred lines on clay, which is one of the signatures of Mesa Verde ceramics. Soccoro Magdalena Most of the ceramics they’ve recovered are deco- Black-on-white Black-on-white rated with mineral paint, which is made by grinding iron oxide or manganese for pigment. When applied to pottery, mineral paint produces the sharp lines charac- teristic of Mimbres Black-on-white pottery. Though they’ve identified many of the ceramic styles, the archaeologists also want to know where they were made. This information would reveal the region’s production centers and suggest the extent Tularosa of the trade networks through which goods traveled. Black-on-white To obtain that information, the researchers are iden- tifying local and regional clay sources and comparing them with the clays used to fashion the pottery. The pottery clays are identified by instrumental neutron activation analysis, a process that entails bombarding the samples with neutrons to reveal their elements. The researchers have submitted 420 ceramic samples and 30 local clay samples to the University of Missouri for testing. The analysis is in the early stages, but so Mimbres Black-on-white St. Johns Polychrome far the results show that many of the ceramics were produced outside of Cañada Alamosa in the Zuni and These sherds represent the various ceramic styles Socorro areas. —Denise Tessier found at Cañada Alamosa.

30 spring • 2009 Archaeologist Delton Estes holds pieces of a bowl-like vessel that was discovered at the Victorio site. The vessel was intentionally embedded in the ground. american archaeology 31 ceramic types, Mimbres and Socorro, were no longer mak- ing pottery, according to Laumbach. The preponderance of Tularosa Black-on-white as well as St. Johns Polychrome pottery indicates that Victorio’s occupants turned to a differ- ent production center, the Zuni area, to acquire their paint- decorated ceramics. In the mid-1200s, another group, the Mesa Verde Anasazi, migrated to Pinnacle Ruin and built a terraced village on a defensible, rocky promontory one-half mile upstream from Victorio. Many people were abandoning the Mesa Verde region at that time due to factors such as climate change and conflict, and the location of the migrants’ village could have been an expression of fear. In any case, the archaeolo- gists suspect that the occupants of the two sites were never friendly, and both ultimately abandoned the valley. Laumbach, O’Toole and their colleagues have found that Earthwatch volunteers gather to review maps before beginning new socioeconomic systems were created as old ones were a day of excavating. maintained at Cañada Alamosa. They continue to examine the unpredictable details of life on the prehistoric frontier. inhabited Cañada Alamosa. They traded with, and probably intermarried, the Anasazi living west of Socorro on the Rio DENISE TESSIER is a New Mexico-based journalist and historian who has Salado. Due to a drought in the early 12th century, the Anasazi written for the New Mexico Independent, the Albuquerque Journal, and the came to Cañada Alamosa in search of water and, establishing New York Times. the Kelly Canyon site, joined their Mimbres neighbors. By the time they moved to Victorio in the early 1200s, the two For more information about the Cañada Alamosa Project, people became virtually indistinguishable. visit the Web sites www.humansystemsresearch.org By then, the production centers of their respective and www.earthwatch.org

Looters dug up this masonry wall at Pinnacle Ruin. It’s the only exposed wall at the site. The archaeologists have found other standing walls, some as high as six feet, that remain buried. 32 spring • 2009 InvestigatingInvestigating FrenchFrench andand IndianIndian WarWar FortsForts

In the mid 1700s, England and France were fighting for control of a vast section of North America. Colonial armies, who were allied with England, and settlers determined to protect themselves, built a series of forts that extended from Maine to North Carolina. Having excavated several of these forts, archaeologists are learning about the differences between the military and civilian structures. Stephen McBride consults a map of the Fort Ashby By David Malakoff

david malakoff david site while his wife, Kim, excavates a bastion. american archaeology 33 he war was going badly. Enemy insurgents allied small town in the hills of northern West Virginia named after with foreign fighters were sowing terror, killing its historic fortification. The McBrides had already conducted civilians, and driving families from their homes in a major dig at Fort Ashby in 2007 funded by a West Virginia brutal, unpredictable attacks. Anxious, the generals changed Humanities Council grant, and they had returned to try to tactics. Thousands of fresh troops surged into the war zone, answer some puzzling questions raised by the earlier excava- Twith orders to build small forward-operating bases, launch tion. “We’re hoping to get a better look at some features that aggressive patrols, and restore security. could tell us more about the construction sequence—what The surge in Iraq, circa 2007? No, the French and Indian came first, what came later—and how the fort evolved,” Stephen War in Virginia, 1755. Colonial governments, alarmed by explained as a backhoe clawed away fill from the previous dig. escalating attacks on frontier settlers by Native American The one-acre site sits along Patterson Creek on the edge insurgents allied with the French, rushed to build a string of town, just behind a two-story, 18th-century log build- of forts. Now, archaeologists are gaining deeper insights into ing that may have once been part of the fort. The building this Colonial-era military surge by excavating some of those houses a museum owned by the Daughters of the American forts, including two that were built under the supervision of Revolution (DAR). a young officer from Virginia named George Washington. The site, which is mostly lawn and meadow, stretches “This is a bit of history we are still learning about,” said into the backyards of several adjoining homeowners. It W. Stephen McBride, who owns the archaeological firm was one of those neighbors, Elliot “Butch” Ridenour, who McBride Preservation Services in Lexington, Kentucky. Over prompted archaeologist Bill Gardner of Catholic University the last seven years, McBride and his wife Kim, an archae- in Washington D.C. to excavate Fort Ashby in the late 1990s. ologist with the Kentuky Archaeological Survey, have exca- An avid gardener, Ridenour dug an unusually deep backyard vated eight Colonial-era forts. Three—Forts Ashby, Edwards, trench one spring. Greg Adamson, a geologist and amateur and Vause—are associated with the French and Indian War, archaeologist who lives in Dayton, Virginia, noticed the which lasted from 1754 to 1763. trench and soon learned that “Butch had harvested musket “We’ve kind of become the fort people,” he said. “There balls, uniform buttons, coins, and a whole bunch of other aren’t a lot of records that tell us how these fortifications artifacts that appeared to pertain to the 18th-century forti- were designed, built, or used. So digs can reveal some pretty fication.” Adamson’s discovery ultimately led to intermittent interesting information.” The researchers are seeing telling digs from 1998 to 2002 that uncovered postmolds left by differences, for instance, between forts that were built by the one of the fort’s wooden walls. “We also found some artifacts, military and those built by settlers to defend their homes. like ceramic pipe stems, gunflints, and such. But we couldn’t Last fall, the McBrides’ work took them to Fort Ashby, a really see the whole picture, just a piece of it,” said Adamson.

This illustration of Fort Ashby is based on archaeological and historical information.

The fort was built in 1755 and abandoned two years later. CH A R LO TTE H ILL -C O BB 34 spring • 2009 That glimpse helped rekindle interest in Fort Ashby’s story. It beganThe in the18th-Century 1730s, when European settlers beganSurge working their way up the nearby Potomac River Valley. By 1750, some 5,000 people lived in the region. Initially, their relations with neighboring Native American groups—including the Iroquois, Cherokee, Shawnee, and Mingo—were good. Those relations began to sour, however, as the settlers pushed west to the Ohio River Valley, which the French claimed. In early 1754, the conflict flared when Virginia’s gov- ernor sent a small force led by a 21-year-old officer named George Washington to occupy a contested chunk of land at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Riv- ers (now the site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Washington’s troops ambushed a French scouting party, killing an officer. The French retaliated, overwhelming and capturing Wash- ington’s men. The future first president was allowed to slink home, tail between his legs. It was just one of a string of French victories that marked the early years of the war. BY CH A R LO TTE H ILL -C O BB / C OLO R I ZE D BY Y O R K PUB LI C BR A RY NEW “The situation got pretty bad for the settlers along the Potomac and Patterson Creek,” said Stephen. “Indian groups George Washington, shown standing in this illustration, were launching these hit-and-run raids all over the place. ordered the construction of Fort Ashby. Some were led by French officers. They wanted to force the settlers out. A lot of people were getting killed.” Some settlers By the autumn of 1757—just two years after ground- responded by building their own forts. Many fled east. “It was breaking—it appears Fort Ashby was largely abandoned, a big mess,” he said. serving as a little more than a supply stop. Settlers wouldn’t Washington, now in command of Virginia’s military return to the valley in large numbers until the war ended in forces, struggled to calm the chaos. He boosted the size of 1763, with the British victorious. Fort Ashby mostly mold- Virginia’s provincial army, made up of citizen soldiers, and ered during the following decades, with the site used for unleashed his own surge, flooding the western frontier with everything from a trading post to a school. In 1927, the DAR fresh troops. In October 1755, he ordered the construction paid $200 for the fort’s last building; it was restored and of two forts along Patterson Creek. They were part of a much opened to the public in the 1930s. larger plan to build a wall of numerous forts, stretching The McBrides are now trying to understand how Fort south at 15- or 20-mile intervals. “The troops were supposed Ashby was used, and how its architecture evolved. “From his to patrol between the forts and keep an eye out for raiding letters,” Stephen said, “it appears Washington had a pretty parties,” Stephen said. clear vision of what he wanted the fort to look like.” In one, Fort Ashby was finished in just a month or two, records for instance, Washington instructed a junior officer to “make suggest. It was named after its commander, Captain John choice of the most convenient Ground… in building a Quad- Ashby of the Virginia 2nd Company of Rangers, which rangular Fort of Ninety feet, with Bastions.” (The bastions boasted 32 fighters. Ashby’s Rangers were soon engaged in protruded from the fort’s corners, allowing soldiers to bet- occasional skirmishes, and it’s said that Ashby himself barely ter defend the walls). Other documents suggest Washington escaped death after encountering the enemy while collect- envisioned four stockade walls built with vertical timbers, ing firewood. and four diamond-shaped bastions made of squared-off logs Strategically, however, Fort Ashby was failing. Almost no stacked horizontally. settlers remained in the valley for it to protect, and Ashby’s Evidence uncovered during the digs at Fort Ashby sug- Rangers had gained a reputation for laziness, drunkenness, gest it largely matched Washington’s vision, except it was and desertion. In a letter, Washington blamed some of the smaller than he wished. Postmolds in trenches, for instance, problems on the influence of Ashby’s spirited wife. Finan- provided clear evidence of three of the four stockade walls. cial hardship and political ideology, however, may have also There were also signs of two of the corner bastions, including played a role in the low morale. “The war wasn’t popular discolored earth where the horizontal logs may have been with many of the soldiers,” said Stephen. “They weren’t paid banked with dirt. And the archaeologists have found artifacts very well, service took them away from their farms, and they that reflect Fort Ashby’s military origins, including uniform complained that they were fighting for a bunch of rich spec- buttons, gunflints, and lead musket balls. ulators worried about losing their land. So they sometimes But there were postholes from a pair of stockades that just stayed in the forts.” didn’t fit Washington’s plan, and it wasn’t clear if those walls american archaeology 35 Colonial armies and settlers built dozens of forts over a large section of the Eastern United States. This map shows some of them. E VOL UT IO N GR A PH I CS were built before or after the 1755 fort. Similarly, it was hard or two years later.” And the log barracks probably was built to determine the relative age of the big log building, which even later, or was moved to its present location after Fort according to local lore was a barracks for the original fort. Ashby was well established. “There do seem to be very sepa- To sort out the sequence, the McBrides carefully removed rate periods of construction,” said Stephen. backfill and peered intently at key features, stooping now and then to get a better view of faint soil discolorations. Ste- phen even crawled under the log barracks to study several features. “It was really tight under there, I kept scraping my These details are helping scholars develop a much more shoulder blades,” he said. nuancedSettler picture and of military Military life on the Colonial Fortsfrontier. The After much contemplation, the researchers reached McBrides’ work at several other fortifications that date to a consensus: The irregular stockades were built after the the French and Indian War suggests there were significant original 1755 construction. “But we don’t know how long differences between forts built and used by professional after,” said Stephen. They “could have come two hours later, soldiers and those mostly constructed and used by civilians. 36 spring • 2009 This musket sideplate was found in a bastion at Fort Ashby. The sideplate was part of a heavy-caliber military musket. The archaeologists also found large gunflints from other heavy-caliber arms.

For instance, “the civilian forts appear to have much more pottery and glassware, than the military forts. In part, that may irregular designs,” Stephen said. be because some military forts had relatively brief periods of Some of those differences are on display at Fort heavy occupation and, said Stephen, “not much of a residen- Edwards, which sits near Capon Bridge, West Virginia, just 30 tial component.” But it also may reflect the fact that soldiers miles southeast of Fort Ashby. Unlike Ashby, Edwards started had to keep the fort clean and “probably didn’t cart around a as a private fort built on land owned by an affluent settler, lot of heavy ceramics and glass; they traveled pretty light.” Joseph Edwards. As the war intensified, Washington incorpo- That artifact pattern is also reflected at Fort Vause, a rated it into his Virginia defenses and sent troops to defend third French and Indian War fort that the McBrides stud- it. In April 1756, nearly 20 of those soldiers were ambushed ied. Located near Shawsville, Virginia, Fort Vause was also and killed after they left the fort to pursue Indian raiders. originally built by a settler, Ephraim Vause. In 1756, however, Like Ashby, Fort Edwards was ultimately abandoned and it was attacked and burned by French and Indian raiders. largely forgotten. That changed in the 1990s, when a devel- Washington moved quickly to rebuild the outpost, but labor oper proposed building townhomes on the site. A prelimi- problems delayed the reconstruction. “The troops wanted nary archaeological survey turned up 18th-century artifacts to be paid the same as carpenters,” said Stephen, who has and postmolds, and local preservationists soon purchased the participated in two brief excavations of the site. site. In 2001 and 2004, Stephen led digs that uncovered more The digs have confirmed that the rebuilt Fort Vause fol- than 50 features associated with the fort, including several lowed a formal military design. “We found evidence of sev- stockade walls, a bastion, and what appears to be the founda- eral of the walls and you can still see three of the bastions,” tion of Joseph Edwards’ home. Just outside the fort’s walls, he said. But Vause differs from some other French and Indian the researchers discovered two small features that appeared War forts in one important respect: The bastions were made to be huts or tent sites. “Each one had room for just a couple of piled-up dirt instead of stacked logs. It’s not clear why the of soldiers,” he said. “Maybe it was too crowded inside the design shifted, but Stephen said “it suggests that, over time, fort, with the house and everything, so they camped outside. the fort builders were adapting and improvising.” We haven’t seen anything like that at Fort Ashby.” The McBrides and other scholars are still analyzing the The design of Fort Edwards is also unlike anything seen growing body of archaeological information from French and at the forts designed by military professionals, Stephen said. Indian War forts. For instance, both Forts Ashby and Edwards The walls have unusual nooks and crannies, for instance, per- produced lots of bones from wild and domestic animals that haps to accommodate buildings that existed before Edwards were likely consumed. Those bones are being identified by built the fort. And all the walls appear to have been vertical specialists, as are some pollen grains and chunks of wood stockades, with no use of horizontal logs. found at Fort Ashby. Preliminary results “strongly indicate the Another difference is that Edwards and other settler stockade (at Ashby) was built out of white oak almost exclu- forts appear to hold more domestic artifacts, such as glazed sively,” said Stephen. This suggests that they wanted certain

A large key recovered from Fort Ashby. The key was found in a postmold, which leads the McBrides to surmise that it was discarded after the fort was torn down. STE V E M CBR ID american archaeology 37 Pr e s e r v i n g V e s t i g e s o f t h e Co n f l i c t

This plaque commemorates Fort Littleton, one of the o ut st Conservancy’s French and Indian War preserves. a n d y Fort Edwards, West Virginia is one of several French and disastrous defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela on Indian War sites The Archaeological Conservancy has July 19, 1755. played a role in preserving. The Conservancy purchased The Feingold site, north of Albany in upstate New the site in 1995 to protect it from a planned townhouse York, was once part of a large British military complex development. Residents of nearby Capon Bridge that included Fort Edward. Rogers Island, and the Royal subsequently formed their own nonprofit organization, Blockhouse. The Conservancy obtained the Feingold and by 1999 they had raised the money to buy the site. site in 2001. In 2001 they opened the Fort Edwards visitor center Fort Littleton, in south-central Pennsylvania, was one (see www.fortedwards.org). of four forts that formed a line of defense against French In 1997, the Conservancy obtained a conservation and Indian forces in what was then the colony’s western easement for Dunbar’s Camp in southwest Pennsylvania. frontier. Fort Littleton consisted of two or three houses This is where British forces abandoned their supply surrounded by a stockade featuring four bastions. The train and made a hasty retreat following Gen. Braddock’s Conservancy acquired the site in 2005.

qualities in the wood. He is also musing over a possible pat- figure out which ones they are talking about,” said Stephen. tern in the distribution of pottery made from red clay—a They were surprised to discover that some of the Native common material at the time for inexpensive housewares. Americans involved came from tribes that lived near the This pottery is common at settler forts like Edwards, but Great Lakes, far from the war zone. “It just reminds you how nearly absent from Fort Ashby. One theory, he said, is that far-ranging this conflict was,” he said. the settler forts were used by members of relatively infor- Ironically, he noted, the British victory ultimately helped mal county militias, “who had to bring their own dishes and sow the seeds of the American Revolution. The cost of the housewares with them.” In contrast, the soldiers stationed at war forced the Crown to raise taxes on its American colonists, Ashby were probably supplied with metal dishes. helping foment the anger that eventually erupted into the Stephen and another archaeologist, James Fenton, fight for independence. That history has made Forts Ashby, have also been in Canada, poring over records that might Edwards, and Vause important to today’s historic preserva- tell them more about the war from the French perspective. tionists and intriguing to archaeologists interested in follow- “We’ve found reports from officers that talk about which ing the footprints left by some of America’s earliest soldiers. Indian tribes were involved in raids, how many settlers they captured, killed, or forced out. But they don’t name any of DAVID MALAKOFF is a writer in Alexandria, Virginia. His article “Rethinking the forts involved, so it takes a bit of work to see if you can the Clovis” appeared in the winter 2008-09 issue of American Archaeology. 38 spring • 2009 AA TaleTale ofof TwoTrailsTwoTrails When El Camino Real and the Santa Fe Trail were joined in the early 19th century, commerce, war, and a mingling of cultures followed. Julian Smith

An artist’s depiction of Native Americans watching as wagons move along the Santa Fe Trail. The map shows the major stops on both the trail (shown in green) and El Camino Real (shown in orange). evolution graphics doug holdread american archaeology 39 n the afternoon of November 13, 1821, a company of Spanish soldiers came upon a party of Osix bedraggled American traders south of present- day Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Americans were led by Wil- liam Becknell, a bankrupt Virginia freighter, who was making a last-ditch gamble to reach Santa Fe, the capital of the Span- ish province of New Mexico. Becknell knew that the Spanish prohibited trade with foreigners and that previous expeditions had landed in jail, their goods confiscated. Spain’s vast empire stretched across Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas, but its grip on its north- ern-most holdings was shaky. There were very few Spanish troops in New Mexico and Texas, and Spain feared it could dward S taski E dward lose these provinces. Consequently, it punished foreigners, Archaeologist Edward Staski excavated this campsite, known as regardless of their intentions, for entering these provinces. Paraje de San Diego, located on the northern end of El Camino But Becknell also may have known that Mexico’s fight Real. It was the last campsite before Jornada del Muerto. for independence from Spain had ended in success three months earlier, and seen a golden opportunity. Whatever his l Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, motives, his plan worked: the Americans eventually reached “The Royal Road of the Interior,” ran from the heart Santa Fe as businessmen, not prisoners, and Becknell went Eof New Spain to the Spanish settlements along the down in history as the founder of the Santa Fe Trail, a 900- Rio Grande in what would become northern New Mexico. mile trade and travel route from Missouri. The trail saw heavy It was in regular use by missionaries, colonists, and traders use during the 19th century as control of the region passed from the early 17th century through the end of the 19th. from Spain to Mexico to the United States. Santa Fe was also “The Camino Real was the umbilical cord for Spanish New the northern end of El Camino Real, an even older and lon- Mexico,” says Donald Blakeslee of Wichita State University. “It ger trail that stretched 1,600 miles from Mexico City. was the route by which that colony was supplied with all The stories behind these iconic routes are complex, and manufactured goods and down which it sent the hides and recent research is showing how they were more than a way other products of the frontier.” for traders to move items from one endpoint to the other. From Mexico City, the trail ran northwest As they connected the Southwest to through Zacatecas, Durango, and Chihua- the rest of the continent, each trail hua, crossing the Rio Grande at El Paso served as a pathway for people and and following the river north to Albu- culture as well as goods. They had querque and Santa Fe. The journey an impact that outlasted their widely was long and difficult, especially accepted expiration date of Febru- over the dreaded Jornada del ary 16, 1880, when the Atchison, Muerto, the “route of the dead Topeka & Santa Fe Railway man,” a 100-mile waterless reached Santa Fe. shortcut away from the

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an expedition on a portion of the Santa Fe Trail in the mid 16th century. A horseshoe nail, two crossbow boltheads (left) and two aglets (above) were among the artifacts recovered from

one of his campsites near the trail. museum historical of floyd county donald blakeslee / property 40 spring • 2009 Most sites along the Camino are “ephemeral,” says Staski, meaning they saw ongoing but temporary use. The result- ing scatters of artifacts, spanning acres and centuries, can be difficult to interpret archaeologically, he adds, but on the plus side, they’re seldom looted or disturbed. Despite hun- dreds of years of use, the Camino itself remained, in a sense, temporary. The Spanish never paved it or built bridges or embankments, and for most of its length it was little more than a well-traveled dirt path, or a braid of multiple paths. “I’m interested in why they never thought it was worth their while to make the Camino into a real road,” Staski says. One reason may be the absence of traditional treasures like gold and silver in the Southwest deserts. From Mexico City, the region seemed like a far-off backwater; diaries and let- ters from travelers reveal that people didn’t enjoy coming A rrow R ock, I nc. up here. “It was an arduous, dangerous trip,” says Staski “one they thought wouldn’t be financially rewarding.”

F riends of That attitude has had a lasting effect. Even as the Camino Researchers excavate the powder room of the John Sites gunsmith set the stage for the Southwest’s great cultural diversity, it shop in Arrow Rock, Missouri, in 1967. The gun shop was restored also may have kept New Mexico—currently ranked 46th and turned into a museum. in state per capita income—from developing more than it has. “New Mexico has always been poor,” he says “largely Rio Grande between El Paso and Albuquerque. Temporary because most commodities and money passed through the campsites called parajes were established about every 10 region [on the Camino] to larger markets in Chihuahua, Dur- miles for parties to rest, gather water and repair equipment. ango, and Missouri.” In 2004, Edward Staski, an archaeologist at New Mexico The archaeological record also suggests more State University, led excavations along a seven-mile section of economic interdependence and cooperation the Camino north of Las Cruces that turned up evidence of along the Camino than many conflict-focused modern use. A dense scatter of ceramic pieces, broken bottles, histories record. The and metal cans at one site may have been the remains of a Paraje de San Diego, cattle roundup spot from the early to mid-20th century. “On for example, a well- frontiers, despite people’s best efforts, they tend to do things established stopover the same way over and over,” says Staski. For example, hearths just south of the Jornada at sites along the Camino tended to look alike whether they del Muerto, has yielded were from prehistoric times or the 17th century. Tire tracks ceramics made locally as and car parts show the trail was used as a transportation route well as in northern New through the construction of Interstate 25 in the 1960s. Mexican pueblos and

These U.S. dimes were recovered on the Santa Fe Trail in northeast Kansas. One was minted in 1823, the other in 1854. A metal step from a stagecoach or buggy was found at the Havanna Stage

S ociety H istorical K ansas S tate Station in northeast Kansas. american archaeology 41 A ssociation rail T rail anta F e S anta Independence, Missouri became one of the major stops on the Santa Fe Trail in the 1830s. This 1850s’ illustration shows a town grown prosperous from commerce.

central Mexico. “These groups had to be in contract with corresponded to Becknell’s later path. In 1792, French-born one another, in more than just a hostile way,” Staski says. explorer Pedro Vial became the first European to travel the entire length of the trail to St. Louis under orders from the fter Becknell’s famous journey New Mexico governor. In 1806, when Lewis and Clark were and Mexican independence, the Santa Fe Trail finishing up their more famous expedition, the explorer A joined with El Camino Real into a major overland Zebulon Pike led a group of 70 on what would become the trade route between the Eastern United States, the South- Santa Fe Trail in Kansas and Colorado. west, and Mexico. “Becknell’s arrival and welcome changed Long before that, Blakeslee says, one of the first Euro- the function of El Camino Real,” says Blakeslee. No longer peans ever to see the Southwest ended up on the Santa Fe supplied by Spain, Mexico embraced trade with the United Trail. From 1540 to 1542, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led States, which, in the midst of its industrial revolution, was 2,000 men on a futile quest to find the legendary Seven Cit- producing abundant and inexpensive goods. “It was a very ies of Cibola. The expedition traveled from western Mexico big deal in Missouri,” he says, referring to the trail’s Eastern- into Arizona and New Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande north most point. of Albuquerque and continuing across northern Texas. This Clothing and other manufactured goods made their way part of the route was unclear until the 1990s, when Blakeslee south as Spanish mules and silver coins moved north. The led a series of excavations in Blanco Canyon, about 60 miles U.S. had very little hard currency at that time, so its people northeast of Lubbock. The discovery of about 30 crossbow prized the silver. Mexican merchants were as instrumental to bolt heads established the Jimmy Owens site (named after a this commerce as their American counterparts. “Anything to local history enthusiast who helped find it) as a major Coro- make a buck was welcome,” Blakeslee says, including selling nado campsite. “His was the only land expedition to Texas whiskey to the Indians. “Some people became quite wealthy.” that carried crossbows,” says Blakeslee. “It’s a slam dunk— Becknell wasn’t one of those people; however, he did man- the first material evidence to confirm the location of any of age to extricate himself from bankruptcy. the camps on Coronado’s Texas route.” Though he’s credited with founding the trail, Becknell Other Spanish artifacts included distinctive horseshoe wasn’t the first to travel the route, according to Blakeslee. nails, fragments of bridle chains and bits, lead harquebus bul- Eighty years earlier, the French traders and brothers Paul lets, and the brass tip of a sword belt with a three-pointed and Pierre-Antoine Mallet had made it from present-day tulip motif. A pair of copper aglets (cord tips) likely belonged Illinois to Santa Fe. Part of their route through the Rockies to a captain. Blakeslee estimates that five percent or less of 42 spring • 2009 the metal items they found came from Coronado’s party. The rest—mostly fence staples, bullets, buckshot, wire, and tin cans—was left by Indians, sheepherders, ranchers, and the U.S. Army. After crossing Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle, Coronado continued north to Kansas with 30 hand-picked Spaniards, a few servants, and an unknown number of Mexi- can-Indian allies. “He crossed the Arkansas River at its south- ernmost point in the region, and from there to Great Bend he was on the Santa Fe Trail,” says Blakeslee. After reaching Quivira and realizing the native buildings were not made of gold, he backtracked along the same section of the trail.

he Santa Fe Trail had many incarnations. In the decades after Becknell’s journey, it was mostly Tused by traders, but it also served the military. The U.S. government surveyed and documented the New Mexico portion of the trail with the consent of the Mexican govern- ment, which had taken control of the territory from Spain. T im B aumann Ironically, during the Mexican-American War (1846-48), it Jack Davis, an expert in early frontier guns, demonstrates the method then became a highway for American troops marching to of loading and firing a flintlock rifle at the John Sites gunsmith shop. New Mexico. When the end of the war left much of the West in American hands, more and more settlers took the Santa Fe agent and factor at Fort Osage, in Missouri, met with tribal Trail west. chiefs along the trail to dissuade them from attacking trav- The journey from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe elers. He succeeded to some extent, but there were many took about eight weeks. Midway through, travelers could accounts of wagons being raided and people killed. choose between the Mountain Route through the Rockies in “A gun was one of the primary tools you needed on southeastern Colorado and the Cimarron Cutoff across the the Santa Fe Trail, not only for protection, but also for food,” grasslands of the Oklahoma panhandle. Travelers had a long says Tim Baumann, an archaeologist with Indiana University. list of things to worry about, from deserts and mountains Baumann has studied the history of a 19th-century gun shop to horrific weather on the open plains. The trail also passed in Arrow Rock, Missouri, one of many towns where travelers through Native American lands. George Sibley, the Indian geared up at the start of the Santa Fe Trail. Missouri gunsmith

An artist’s depiction of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (on horseback), who led 2,000 men into Arizona and New Mexico in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola. These cities were reputed to be bursting with treasure, but Coronado found no gold. charlotte hill-cobb american archaeology 43 istorical S ociety H istorical K ansas S tate The Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas Anthropological Association teamed up to excavate the McGee-Harris Stage Station in 1995. The station, located in northeast Kansas, was one of the stagecoach stops on the Santa Fe Trail.

John Sites, Jr. made and sold arms in Arrow Rock throughout stock, have been found in California, Oregon, Montana, and the latter half of the 19th century. Baumann recently reex- New Mexico. “What we’re seeing is not just artifacts moving amined documents and artifacts from two excavations of the west, but also knowledge and technology,” says Baumann. By building in the late 1960s. the end of the 19th century, though, a flood of cheap mass- Sites started out making flintlock rifles, but as the tech- produced guns left over from the Civil War meant that gun- nology advanced he switched to guns that fired percussion smiths like Sites were spending most of their time repairing caps. “It was like upgrading your computer,” says Baumann. and selling weapons instead of building them. Sites’ handmade rifles, marked with “J Sites” on the barrel or Many items associated with the gun business were found Maintaining the Trails El Camino Real De Tierra Adentro and the Santa Fe Trail are National Historic Trails, and they are administered by the National Park Service in partnership with other federal, state, and local agencies. Private organizations such as Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association and the Santa Fe Trail Association also play a role in preserving and interpreting the trails. But most of the nearly 3,000 miles the trails stretch across is pri- vately owned and beyond the jurisdiction of the park service and its partners. “If a landowner wants to go out and bulldoze his (wagon) ruts, he can do it,” says Harry Myers, the manager of the Santa Fe Trail Association. These public and private organizations try to compensate for their lack of authority by educating landowners about the histori- cal significance of the trails and the threats they face from numerous development projects. The Archaeological Conservancy is also playing a role in preserv- ing the trails. In 1996, the Conservancy acquired the 80-acre Hole-in- the Rock site in southeast Colorado along the Santa Fe Trail. The site contains trail ruts and the remains of an 1886 stagecoach stop. The Conservancy also owns the Camino Real site, a 17th-century Spanish A marker on the Santa Fe Trail Colonial ranch that it obtained in 1990. The site is just south of Santa Fe in central Kansas. along El Camino Real. NPS 44 spring • 2009 inside the building, including shotgun shells, a rifle butt plate, files, lead shot, and brass cartridges. What’s interesting, Baumann says, is how excavations next to the building in what was probably a powder magazine-turned-trash dump, turned up four fishing hooks, a broken pair of scissors, and two locks. These items show how Sites expanded his busi- ness into “more of a general sporting goods store” as early as 1860. Responding to the needs of his customers, he started sharpening knives, repairing locks, and selling fishing tackle. By now settlers were flooding west along the Santa Fe Trail, and the Oregon and California Trails that branched off it near Gardner, Kansas. Gold had been discovered in Califor- nia, and new military forts made travel less dangerous. West- ern Missouri was “the eye of the needle” for all this traffic, says Baumann, and local merchants like Sites responded to the changing needs of travelers over the decades.

typical frontier has many more men than women,” Blakeslee says. “The Western “A frontier had a very unbalanced sex ratio.” He believes this was a factor in marriages between American men and Mexican women, unions that became common- place. “Having in-laws in the country you are trading in,” M inette C hurch Blakeslee adds, “opens doors for you.” The history of the Santa Fe Trail often focuses on the A woman’s hair comb and eyeliner pencil were recovered commercial side, says Minette Church of the University of from the Lopez family homestead. Colorado at Colorado Springs, but it’s also important to examine the relationships among the many people who gender roles in transition. In the 1870s, Domacio and Loretta lived along the way. “What we often frame as disinterested Lopez settled in the canyon of the Purgatory River along the Anglo-American commerce along the trail was really embed- Mountain Branch of the trail. The family flourished, as did ded in family and community ties,” she says. others that joined them, and by the late 19th century “they Together with archaeologists Richard Carrillo and Bon- were well aware of the increasing importance of U.S. trade nie Clark, Church has been delving into the importance of and settlement around them and to the north and east,” says women at two 19th-century settlements along the Moun- Church. The train had just come through the area, and with tain Branch of the trail in southeastern Colorado, near the it ever more Anglo, Victorian culture. “They saw which way boundary line between the United States and Spain and, the wind was blowing.” later, Mexico. Carrillo and Clark led the investigation at The Lopezes held onto some traditions: excavations Boggsville, which was settled in 1862, the heyday of trail have yielded Spanish style hair combs and a women’s eye- trade, by Thomas Boggs, son of the governor of Missouri. liner pencil. But family memoirs show they educated their Boggs’ access to the land came not through his father, but younger daughters in English, an unusual practice at the through his Hispanic wife, Rumalda Jaramillo Luna Boggs, time. They also decorated their home with “Victorian knick- claimant to a two-million-acre Mexican land grant through knacks,” says Church, like a ceramic figurine in an 18th-cen- her uncle. tury frock coat. Like their marriage, the Boggs’ house showed a blend- “Like many iconic western places, I think the Santa Fe ing of cultures that fit this border region. It was built of Trail has at least two lives,” says Church. “There is the mythic adobe blocks, but had a painted façade facing the trail that trail, the route for aspiring young Horatio Alger types like resembled a stone-built Missouri building. The family of John Becknell to take a gamble, ‘Go West Young Man,’ and make Powers, who arrived five years later, lived nearby in a house a tidy profit.” And then there is “the nitty gritty reality of the with a courtyard facing east, not toward the trail or the warm trail” as shown in its artifacts and settlements, “which also southern sun. This was puzzling until Clark suggested that attest to an admirable heritage, but one built more on nego- the style reflected the Cheyenne heritage of Powers’ wife tiating a landscape of cultural diversity and the way people Amache (Cheyenne constructions typically opened toward relied on the communities they created together.” the rising sun). Kit Carson and his Hispanic wife Josepha Jaramillo Carson later joined the settlement. JULIAN SMITH is a travel and science writer living in Portland, Oregon. His At the other settlement, Church and students at the field article “How North American Agriculture Began” appeared in the Spring school she directs have found more evidence of cultures and 2008 issue of American Archaeology. american archaeology 45 new acquisition

Preserving the Potomac’s Prehistory The Conservancy acquires two important sites in Virginia. Edward Johnson Edward Thunderbird Archaeology researchers investigate the Jeffrey Rockshelter. Their work has redefined the boundaries of the site.

ocated on the Potomac River in These excavations produced a large ologists with Thunderbird Archaeol- Loudoun County in northern Vir- amount of data, including hearths, post- ogy, a Virginia-based cultural resource Lginia, the Jeffrey Rockshelter con- molds, projectile points, bone, and frag- management firm, helped redefine the tains the remains of over 10,000 years ments of steatite and ceramic vessels. boundaries of the site to include the of human activity. A few hundred yards Radiocarbon testing of samples from area surrounding the rockshelter. This from the rockshelter sits Jeffrey Village, the site has produced a variety of dates, area, which has not been disturbed, an equally ancient site. Both of these some of which are problematic; how- has significant research potential. “The sites are part of the Conservancy’s ever, additional analysis of the artifact rockshelter and its open air component newest preserve in Virginia. assemblage indicates the site was used represent a much revisited way station The Jeffrey Rockshelter was first from the Early Archaic through the Late for prehistoric people traveling along investigated in the 1960s and ‘70s by Woodland period (a.d. 900-1400). the Potomac,” said archaeologist David the Archaeological Society of Virginia. Recent work at the site by archae- Carroll, who worked on the project. 46 spring • 2009 new acquisition e rs Johnson at B e th W These three quartz biface fragments were recovered from activity areas near the Jeffrey Rockshelter. Quartz cobbles found in and around the river were used to make these types of tools.

“The variety of point and pottery types found at the site is unusual, if not unique for the Potomac Piedmont.” The Jeffrey Village site was first identified in 1937 by Richard Slattery. Between 1964 and 1975, the Archaeological Society of Virginia conducted surface collections that recov- ered over 10,000 artifacts spanning 10,000 years. The main component of the site is a Mason Island-period village. Mason Island is a Late Woodland complex that was named after an island in the Potomac. Jeffrey Village has been farmed, but it hasn’t been excavated, and its research potential covers a variety of subjects, particularly the development of the Mason Island culture. The two sites are located along the main transportation corridor of the region, and people used them throughout

ndy S tout A ndy prehistory. Their inhabitants could exploit the resources of the Potomac, and they were also in a position to influence, The Jeffrey Village is located near this floodplain on the Potomac and possibly control, access to the river. They could also River. The river is visible to the left. quarry stone for tools from nearby lithic outcrops. Evidence suggests that, during the Late Woodland and into the early Contact period, the Jeffrey sites were probably part of a larger settlement extending to the Maryland side of the river. Realizing the significance of the Jeffrey Rockshelter and Village, the Ziai Family Limited Partnership has agreed to donate the property containing both sites to the Conser- vancy. Thanks to the generosity of the Ziai Family Limited Partnership, a significant piece of Virginia’s history, and the Potomac region’s archaeological record, will be permanently preserved. —Andy Stout american archaeology 47 new acquisition

The Remnants of Utopia The Aurora Colony was a 19th-century utopian community in Oregon. The Conservancy has obtained a site containing the remains of an 1867 hotel built by members of the community. urora Colony Mus e u m Colony A urora At the behest of William Keil, the Oregon and California Railroad Company built a stop next to the Aurora Colony Hotel.

he collaboration between a con- century utopian communities, such as on the Oregon Trail with instructions servation-minded California invest- the Shaker and the Oneida, in the East- to find a suitable home for a satellite Tment firm, an Oregon archaeolo- ern United States, but the Aurora Colony community in the Oregon Territory. In gist, and the Conservancy has resulted was the only utopian settlement on 1856, Keil settled his colony in the Wil- in the preservation of the Aurora the West Coast. William Keil founded lamette Valley in northwest Oregon. Colony Hotel site. The town of Aurora, the Aurora Colony on the same prin- Unlike other Utopian leaders of Oregon is one of the historical gems of ciples—the members of Keil’s colony the 19th century, Keil recognized the the Pacific Northwest. Situated within worked and lived together, and shared economic benefits of interacting with a veritable agricultural Eden midway all property—that made his first com- the outside world. For this reason he between Salem and Portland, Aurora munity in Bethel, Missouri a success. negotiated with the Oregon and Califor- boasts 20 sites listed on the National With the Bethel community flourishing, nia Railroad company to make Aurora a Register of Historic Places. Keil decided to start another. In 1853, stopping point on the line. The colony’s There were a number of 19th- Keil sent members of his Bethel Colony members began construction of the 48 spring • 2009 new acquisition

portion of the hotel that dated to the post-Colony period (1881-1920s), find- ing much in the way of intact deposits. “The Aurora Colony Hotel site retains significant archaeological poten- tial,” according to Rick Minor, the senior archaeologist for HRA. “Much of this potential relates to the earlier, histori- cally more important, Colony period. Further investigations have great poten- tial to yield significant new information about the original Aurora Colony Hotel and the unique position of the Aurora Colony in Oregon history.” In 2005, the Conservancy received a call from Mike Gilbert and Nancy Conger, the president and vice presi- dent of EMIC, a small California limited partnership that invests in commercial properties. They proposed to purchase rary of Congr e ss L i b rary historic sites and donate them to the The Aurora Colony was known for its band, which often performed from the Conservancy when economic condi- widows walk on the roof of the hotel. tions were favorable. “The premise is a desire to give back to conservation organizations and to preserve land that hotel in 1864 and completed it three foundations of a septic tank. HRA may in the future be inappropriately years later. The Aurora Colony Hotel recovered artifacts and exposed cul- developed,” Conger said. EMIC subse- was especially appealing to Portland- tural features in all of these locations. quently purchased the site, and donated bound passengers. Lifting the spirits of In 1995, HRA returned to the site to it to the Conservancy in December of weary travelers, the colony’s acclaimed perform more extensive excavations. 2008. The Conservancy is grateful for band welcomed them with lively music The excavations primarily sampled the this generous donation. —Julie Clark played from the widows’ walk atop the hotel, and the colony’s women pre- pared delicious, authentic German fare for the hotel’s guests. The Aurora Colony disbanded in 1881, and the hotel was purchased by a private owner, who made extensive improvements to it. After 1921 the building ceased to be a hotel, serving as a butcher shop, saloon, and pool hall. The building was demolished in 1934. In 1993, Heritage Research Associ- ates (HRA), a cultural resource manage- ment firm based in Eugene, began test excavations at the site in advance of a proposed construction project. Dur- ing the testing, HRA determined the original locations of the hotel, a brick- lined well, the privy, and the concrete american archaeology 49 CONSERVANCY Field Notes ott Van k e ur n Van Sc ott Student researcher Grace Cameron exposes a room floor during a University of Vermont field school at Fourmile Ruin. The excavations were the first at the site in a century.

New Research in 1896— have begun to clarify the textiles, and other goods. construction sequence and layout of Excavations planned for 2009 at Fourmile Ruin domestic and ritual structures. The will further investigate the nature of SOUTHWEST—Recent excavations at extent of adobe brick construction is trash deposits in ritual structures and Fourmile Ruin revealed evidence of especially surprising. This technology, adjacent plaza areas. The research is migrants and long-distance exchange. which wasn’t used in this area, indicates supported in part by a grant from the Located in eastern uplands of Arizona, that a large group of migrants arrived in National Science Foundation. the 14th-century Anasazi village was, in the early 14th century and occupied a its heyday, the largest site in the area pre-planned set of room blocks. Tsama Pueblo and a possible production center for The excavations also recovered an the iconographic-style pottery that unexpected amount of obsidian, a vol- Expanded shares its name. Last summer, a field canic glass used in the manufacture of SOUTHWEST—The Conservancy’s school directed by archaeologist Scott projectile points in the Southwest. The Tsama Pueblo site was recently Van Keuren of the University of Ver- Fourmile obsidian was obtained from expanded as the result of the generous mont conducted the first professional sources located some 120 miles to the donation of a 12-acre tract of land that test excavations at this Conservancy northwest. This evidence reveals that includes well-preserved examples of preserve in more than a century. the village was tied into a far-reaching pre-Columbian agricultural features. Van Keuren’s excavations—the exchange network, one that may have Tsama, located near the Rio Chama in first since Jesse Walter Fewkes’ work also circulated painted pottery, cotton north-central New Mexico, is a large 50 spring • 2009 Middle Coalition and Rio Grande Clas- temporarily abandoned for more pro- the event that bad weather diminished sic Period pueblo that consists of three ductive ones. production in the river valley. large architectural units containing The lowlands along the Rio Chama, The Tsama preserve includes exam- more than 1,000 rooms. The pueblo which are still farmed today, served as ples of both gravel mulch garden plots was probably occupied at the time of Tsama Pueblo’s primary agricultural and surface water control and contain- Spanish Contact and its occupants are areas. During the Rio Grande Classic ment features. Research at agricultural considered to be the ancestors of the Period (1325-1600) however, an exten- sites in the Northern Rio Grande region modern residents of Ohkay Owingeh sive series of gravel mulch garden plots can contribute to an understanding of (formerly known as San Juan Pueblo) and water diversion and collection areas the Puebloan agricultural landscape as and Santa Clara pueblos. were also built along the edges of the it was developed in the 13th century During the Coalition period river terraces overlooking flood plains. and through its evolution into the mid (a.d.1200-1325), the Puebloan peoples These areas were likely developed in 16th century. in the northern Rio Grande began building gravel mulch garden plots. These plots, which were arranged in grids made of cobble, reduced water Fieldwork Opportunities erosion while allowing alluvial soils to Elden Pueblo Project, Arizona build up. They also provided for a more April 15–October 10, 2009. Elden is a 65 room pueblo with trash mounds, level surface for growing crops and, smaller pueblos, kiva, a large community room, and numerous pit houses. by retaining more moisture, increased Participants will collect and confirm data and stabilize the pueblo. Recent yields. excavations have uncovered information about the construction sequence of the site, late Sinagua social organization, subsistence, and its role as a major Intensive agricultural strategies trade center. Indications of long-term eruptions by Sunset Crater Volcano could were employed in pre-Columbian times contribute to new geological and archaeological interpretations for the region. using mulches, soil, and water reten- Contact Lisa Edmonson (928) 527-3452, [email protected] tion devices such as stone terraces and check dams. Fields were worked until Heckleman Archaeological Project, Ohio their fertility declined, then they were June 8–July 10, 2009, Ohio. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Department of Archaeology will investigate Heckleman, a multicomponent, prehistoric site. The Heckleman site was first investigated in the late 1960s and 1970s and archaeologists found evidence of a large ditched enclosure and numerous Early and Middle Woodland (ca. 500 b.c. to a.d. 400) features. The Middle Woodland artifact assemblage closely resembles Ohio Hopewell materials from southern Ohio and includes Flint Ridge bladelets and expanded stemmed points as well as finely cord-marked ceramics. Participants will investigate the possible village enclosure as well as systematically sample Woodland period features detected during a recent geophysical survey. Contact Brian G. Redmond (216) 231-4600, x3301, [email protected]

Historic Mount Vernon, Virginia January 1, 2009–January 1, 2010. Research has been conducted at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, since 1987. The project focuses on a number of themes, including African-American and plantation archaeology, landscape studies, material culture studies, museum education, and public outreach. An unpaid internship program offers high school, undergraduate, and graduate students an introduction to archaeological methods and techniques in the field and the laboratory. Volunteers are also welcome. No previous archaeological experience is required. Contact Curt Breckenridge (703) 799-6303, [email protected]

Community Archaeology Project, New York July 13–July 24, 2009. The Community Archaeology Program offers a professionally supervised opportunity for non-archaeologists to participate in research projects. Each summer, Binghamton University offers a session for people 13 years old and older and one for children 10 to 12 years old. During the 2009 summer sessions, Binghamton will continue its research within the Upper Susquehanna River Valley, focusing on a multi-component site dating from the late Archaic (4500-1500 b.c.) and Late Woodland periods (a.d. 900- 1650). Participants will assist in the collection of data on activities, subsistence, and settlement that will contribute to our understanding of life in the Upper Susquehanna Valley during the period when hunters and gatherers roamed the valley, and later as people transitioned to settled village life. Contact Nina Versaggi (607) 777-4786, [email protected]

To learn more about field schools and volunteer opportunities, visit the Web site www.archaeological.org and click on the “fieldwork” link. american archaeology 51 Reviews

War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America By David H. Dye (AltaMira Press, 2009; 216 pgs., illus., $70 cloth, $28 paper; www. altamirapress.com)

Archaeologist David Dye of the University of Memphis has produced the first comprehensive study of prehistoric war and peace in Eastern North America. It is long overdue and fills a huge gap in our understanding of ancient societies. Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Violence, according to Dye, pervades all aspects of social life. So does peace. Both can only be understood in the historical Jamestown and Colonial Maryland context of millennia. By Sally M. Walker (Carolrhoda Books, 2009; 144 pgs., illus., Archaeologists have discovered evidence of burned vil- $23 cloth; www.lernerbooks.com) lages, traumatic injuries, and fortifications, yet for some inex- plicable reason the myth of “peaceful savages,” free of the ills Taking advantage of young people’s interest in all things of Western culture including violent conflict, persisted into spooky and mysterious, Walker gives a compelling recent times. Excavation of a scalped Archaic man became account of the archaeological excavations of long-hidden graves that gradually revealed the lives of several national news. Disbelief accompanied the discovery of hun- Jamestown and Colonial Maryland colonists. dreds of massacred ancient men, women, and children in a With numerous color photographs to illustrate her South Dakota ditch in the 1970s. points, Walker shows how detailed clues can provide The corollary, of course, is that humans are by nature reliable information about the lives of the colonists. By violent, and that warfare is the natural state. In War Paths, understanding the “messages” found on the bones, the reader is introduced to the hardships of life during Peace Paths, Dye closely examines both cooperation and Colonial times. Tooth infections, badly mended broken conflict, taking us to a deeper understanding of how ancient bones, tuberculosis of the spine, and a hasty, suspicious cultures dealt with war and peace. Dye finds three trends in burial beneath a house reveal how socio-economic Eastern North America over the last 13,000 years. The first forces, medical knowledge of the day, and civic and trend is personal grudges that were typical of family-level religious customs all contributed to the fates of these hunter-gatherers. Second is kin-based feuding. A killing leads people. Readers are also exposed to the practice of field to vengeance, which is usually limited to one or two homi- archaeology, with its emphasis on finding clues and cides by kin groups. The third trend is warfare, impersonal solving mysteries. Written in clear, easy to understand aggression between communities accompanied by alliances terms, this well-produced and visually appealing book is and diplomacy. targeted for grades five to eight, but it will appeal to all War Paths, Peace Paths skillfully traces all three trends ages. Schools and libraries will find it particularly useful. This book complements the “Written in Bone” in Native culture as violence and peace evolved over the exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural millennia. Just as warfare became more organized and effec- History, which runs through February of 2011. tive over time, so too did peace making, as illustrated by the —Cynthia Martin sophisticated institutions of the Iroquois tribes.

52 spring • 2009 Reviews

HMS Fowey Lost and Found By Russell K. Skowronek and George R. Fischer (University Press of Florida, 2009; 272 pgs., illus. $45 cloth; www.upf.com)

In 1978, an underwater treasure hunter happened onto a ship- wreck in Biscayne National Monument (now a national park) near Archaeological Landscapes Miami, Florida. Mistakenly believing he had found a sunken Span- on the High Plains ish treasure ship, Gerald Klein began collecting artifacts and soon Edited by Laura L. Scheiber went to court to claim ownership of the wreck. The United States and Bonnie J. Clark intervened, arguing the shipwreck was public property protected (University Press of Colorado, 2008; 288 pgs., by the Antiquities Act of 1906, the Archaeological Resources Pro- illus., $55 cloth; www.upcolorado.com) tection Act of 1979, and other federal statutes. In 1983, ownership of the wreck was awarded to the people of the United States. The High Plains of this study is the short grass Sunken treasure may be the stuff of legends and movies, but prairie between the Rocky Mountains and the tall shipwrecks are also invaluable archaeological treasures, and the grass prairies to the east. Water and trees are two are seldom compatible. This intriguing archaeological history scarce, and the elevation rises gently from about tells the story of the ship and its crew, its loss and rediscovery, the 2,500 to 6,000 feet. Though it was occupied by scholarly investigations that led to its identification, and the years of the earliest Americans, this rather harsh environ- litigation and legislative initiatives that resulted in its preservation. ment never supported high concentrations of Authors Russell Skowronek and George Fischer were under- people or many permanent settlements. It was water archaeologists working for the National Park Service who instead dominated by bison and prairie dogs. in played key roles in the shipwreck’s modern saga. In this lively this book, 11 scholars use history, anthropology, volume they give a fisthand account that reads like an adventure archaeology, and geography, to examine the novel, complete with intrigue and murder. The relatively new sci- changing ways people interacted with this place ence of underwater archaeology, which combines sometimes dan- over a period of 13,000 years. Contemporary, gerous dives with historical research, is thoroughly explained as historical, and prehistorical studies make this part of the bigger story of the wreck. work particularly interesting. It’s a great adventure, but more importantly, it tells the history Compared to other areas of North America, of the efforts to curtail irresponsible treasure hunting and protect the High Plains has received little attention from historical shipwrecks in the United States and around the world. archaeologists. Archaeological Landscapes on In the last 30 years, Congress and the public have recognized the the High Plains is a noteworthy contribution importance of preserving and studying sunken vessels for the vast that focuses on an important place from many information they contain. In this story science and the public inter- perspectives. est triumph over the age-old quest for easy riches. —Mark Michel american archaeology 53 THE ArchAeological Conservancy

Master Potters of the Southern Deserts When: October 2 –12, 2009 Where: Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico How Much: $2,495 (single supplement $350)

Join us for a magical journey through time studying some of the world’s most beautiful pottery crafted by people from the Hohokam, Mimbres, and Casas Grandes regions, and replicated by modern masters today. The trip features Hohokam ruins and pottery from the Phoenix and Tucson areas, Spanish missions and presidios, and a behind the scenes look at the Arizona State Museum. You’ll also see e r j i m walk New Mexico’s Gila Cliff Dwellings, extensive collections of Mimbres pottery, northern This stunning example of Casas Grandes-style pottery Mexico’s Casas Grandes, and the potters of came from the village of Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico. Mata Ortiz. Archaeological experts will join us throughout the trip.

Oaxaca

When: October 24 –November 3, 2009 Where: Mexico How Much: $2,495 (single supplement $350)

Join us in Oaxaca, Mexico during one of the most unusual festivals anywhere—the Day of the Dead. On this day, people prepare home altars and cemeter- ies to welcome the dead, who are believed to return to enjoy the food and drink they indulged in while alive. The Day of the Dead is a time of celebrations. You’ll have the opportunities to explore Oax- e r j i m walk aca’s museums and markets. Our tour also explores Visitors explore the extensive ruins at Monte Albán, a the Mixtecan and Zapotecan archaeological sites in city built by the Zapotec and Mixtec. the region, including Mitla, Monte Albán, San José Mogote, and Dainzú. You’ll also visit several crafts villages featuring weaving, pottery, carved animals, and other local art. 54 spring • 2009 Cahokia and the Middle Mississippian Culture When: September 17-20, 2009 Where: Missouri and Illinois Join us on our exploration of the phenomenal earthworks of Cahokia and the central Mississippi and Illinois River Valleys. Inhabited around a.d. 700 to 1400, Cahokia was the premier Mississippian town and the center of the most sophisticated prehistoric Indian civilization north of Mexico. This ancient city, located across the Mississippi River from what is now St. Louis, covered nearly six square miles and was home to thou- sands of people. Monks Mound, the great platform mound in Cahokia’s central ceremonial area, is the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the New World. In addition to Cahokia, you’ll visit Mastodon State His- toric Site, which has provided evidence of humans hunting Ice Age elephants, and Dickson Mounds, a Mississippian m ark i c h e l mound and village center that flourished 800 years ago and Cahokia was occupied by the Mississippians from approximately today boasts a state-of-the-art interactive museum. Midwest a.d. 700 to 1400. Thousands of people lived there. archaeological experts will join you on this fascinating trip.

Chaco Canyon in Depth When: September, 2009 Where: New Mexico, Colorado

Explore the vast cultural system of Chaco Canyon and the extensive network of outlying communities that developed in northwestern New Mexico and south- western Colorado from A.D. 800 to 1140. We’ll visit Pueblo Bonito and other spec- tacular great houses in Chaco Canyon as well as the great kiva at Casa Rinconada. We’ll hike to some of the most spectacu- lar and remote sites in the canyon. We’ll also have the unique opportunity to visit many of the most important outlying

lorna wolf lorna communities that are integral parts of the entire Chacoan complex still being Pueblo Bonito is one of the amazing sites at Chaco Canyon. uncovered by researchers. Scholars are still struggling to collapsed around 1140. To complete the experience, we’ll tour the modern understand how this vast system devel- day Pueblo of Acoma and spend two memorable nights camping in Chaco oped and operated, and why it suddenly Canyon. Some of the leading Chaco experts will join us. american archaeology 55 Patrons of Preservation The Archaeological Conservancy would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and corporations for their generous support during the period of November 2008 through January 2009. Their generosity, along with the generosity of the Conservancy’s other members, makes our work possible.

Life Member Gifts of $1,000 or more David B. Jones, Minnesota Elizabeth W. Ayer, New Mexico Steven and Judy Kazan, California Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Boeckman, Texas Nelson Kempsky, California Arthur and Carolyne Cushman, Tennessee Sharon Leftwich and Greg Lewandowski, New Mexico Claire C. Davis, Virginia Roland and Martha Mace, New Mexico Elizabeth Dice, Mississippi Leslie Masson, New York Donald and Maureen Dillon, New Jersey Mark D. Menefee and Stephanie K. Wade, Maryland Mark B. Goering, Oklahoma Joseph C. Morris, Virginia Robert S. Hagge Jr., Wisconsin Jonathan F. Orser, Ohio Roger and Frances Kennedy, District of Columbia Gavine Pitner, North Carolina Susan Mayer Reaves, Florida Carla Thompson, New Mexico Lois J. Paradise, Florida Karl and Nancy Watler, Colorado Lanny M. Proffer, Colorado Richard and Jean Weick, Oregon Carol A. Robertson, California Burton D. Williams, Montana Mary G. Sprague, District of Columbia Carol Wilson-Tocher, Oregon Dee Ann Story, Texas Catherine Symchych, Wyoming Foundation/Corporate Gifts Tori and Tom Trauscht, Illinois Albuquerque Community Foundation, New Mexico James B. Walker and Michael R. Palmer, New Mexico Edwin Miller Trust, Pennsylvania Barbara Ann Watkins, Nevada Haskell Fund, Ohio John A. Zercher, Pennsylvania Hill Foundation, Colorado Jonsson Foundation, Texas Anasazi Circle Gifts of $2,000 or more Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, Connecticut Anonymous National Trust for Historic Preservation, Pete and Christine Adolph, New Mexico Washington, D.C. Helen Ann Bauer, Illinois Taishoff Family Foundation, Florida James and Audrey Benedict, Colorado Nina Bonnie, Kentucky Bequests Donna B. Cosulich, Arizona Dee Aiani, Illinois Barbara Creager, Texas David Arthur, Illinois Jerry and Janet EtsHokin, Arizona Carl Gregory, California Walter and Yvonne Grossenbacher, Arizona Daniel Hildebrand, Wisconsin Jim Heckenbach and Becky Baybrook, California Kathleen D. Wells, New Mexico

Living identifying and preserving America’s most endangered Making a archaeological resources. They have made an important Spirit investment in protecting America’s past. Legacy Gift Planned giving may provide significant tax benefits to you and your heirs, and it allows you to specify how Circle Several years ago the Conser- your assets will be distributed after your lifetime. This can The Archaeological Conservancy vancy established a leadership be done by simply amending your existing will to include society, the Living Spirit Circle, the Conservancy as a beneficiary. It can stand as a lasting to recognize the growing number of members who were memorial to you or a loved one. interested in making a legacy gift to support archaeological The preservation of America’s archaeological preservation. Contributors to the group have included the resources depends on the continued support and gener- Conservancy in their will or estate plans, or have made a life- osity of our members. By joining the Living Spirit Circle income gift such as a charitable annuity. today, you can ensure the preservation of our nation’s cul- This elite group has grown to over 100 members and tural heritage. For more information, contact Mark Michel is an essential component of the Conservancy’s success in at (505) 266-1540.

56 spring • 2009 POSTAGE CHART

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