AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL TIME C APSULE • MYSTERIOUS, MAGNIFICENT C AHOKIA american archaeologyWINTER 2000–2001 american archaeologyVol. 4 No. 4 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy

FishingIN THE

When a came and went, the people had to adapt. Archaeologists are learning how they did it. $3.95

american archaeology a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 4 No. 4 winter 2000–2001

C O VER F EATURE

FISHING IN THE DESERT 20 BY RICK DOWER When a vast lake suddenly formed in their desert and then gradually evaporated, the Cahuilla people were forced to adapt.

12 DISCOVERING AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL TIME CAPSULE BY LANCE TAPLEY Archaeologist Jeffrey Brain is excavating Popham Colony, an undisturbed site as old as Jamestown and in some ways more important. 27 OF AND MYSTERIES BY JOHN G. CARLTON AND WILLIAM ALLEN Archaeologists have been working for years at Mounds State Historic Site to better understand the 2 Lay of the Land remarkable Mississippians. 3 Letters 34 A CULTURAL AFFILIATION CONTROVERSY 5 Events BY JOANNE SHEEHY HOOVER 7 In the News Chaco Culture National Historical Park has determined the The Slow Process of Navajo are culturally affiliated with the Anasazi. Some Repatriation • Native Americans and archaeologists strongly disagree. Archaeologists Rediscover Ancient 38 new acquisition: Maya Center • LEARNING ABOUT THE TATAVIAM Shipwreck Appears to Be Blackbeard’s The Conservancy’s acquisition of Lannan Ranch may Queen Anne’s Revenge provide important information about a little-known people. 40 new acquisition: 42 Field Notes HISTORY ON THE SHORES OF BIG LAKE 44 Expeditions Once the traditional homesite of Passamaquoddy Indian 46 Reviews chiefs, Governor’s Point in Maine is the Conservancy’s northeastern-most preserve. 48 Past Portrait 41 new acquisition: PRESERVING A RECORD OF COVER: Archaeologist Jay von Werlhof has spent years studying the cultures of the southern . PREHISTORIC VILLAGE LIFE photograph by Bob Grieser The Archaeological Conservancy partners with a local land trust to preserve the Cambria site.

american archaeology 1 Lay of the Land

Preserving Archaeology and Ecology

Some people look at a desert and see centuries ago, was located in the endless emptiness. Archaeologist Jay middle of the desert. Others are von Werlhof sees endless beauty and working to save its successor, the the fascinating story of some of pre- , one of America’s historic America’s most inventive biggest ecological disasters. people. A desert rat if ever there was The two are linked in a one, von Werlhof has been cam- convoluted way. If a method is paigning to preserve the archaeology found to save the Salton Sea, POORE of southern California’s Colorado real estate development will

Desert for half a century. Finally, he’s explode around it, threatening D A R R E N getting some help. the remaining archaeological The Conservancy is joining sites. We have to move quickly wait too long and have to pay dearly forces with California State Parks and before a speculative balloon goes up, for their inaction. Let’s not allow the Bureau of Land Management to and we are priced out of the market. that to happen at the Salton Sea. develop a plan to save what remains Saving sites before there is a crisis is of the fascinating cultures that sur- our goal at the Conservancy. This rounded ancient Lake Cahuilla, that approach saves resources and money. improbable fresh water lake that, Too often, land protection agencies MARK MICHEL, President MORE THAN JUST

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2 winter • 2000–2001 Letters

Cultural Confusion historically hostile people to While I enjoyed the article his were to dig up, find, “Prehistory at Maryland’s keep, and study his ances- Crossroads,” I could not help tors’ remains for their own but observe that the “Late purposes? Woodland spear point found Common human de- during the 1999 excavations” cency and respect for other bore unmistakable traits of an peoples’ desire to rebury Eastern Clovis-type fluted projectile their dead are not “political answers.” point. Many sites in the East and I strongly feel an apology is due Midwest are stratified and contain to Native Americans everywhere. several cultural components. Perhaps Madelene S. Nowell future excavations will explain the Cape Neddick, Maine presence of an apparent Paleo-Indian American Archaeology artifact at this site. Finding Other Methods of Research Joseph D. Bartlett Regarding the Lay of the Land col- Wins Another Award Lafayette, Indiana umn, I am all in favor of finding American Archaeology recently took second place in the Folio: Editorial You’re right. It is a . Our the truth concerning the cultural Excellence Awards. The Winter apologies for mistakenly identifying it collapse of the Anasazi. But to say 1999/2000 issue was a finalist in as Late Woodland. —Ed. that Chaco Canyon and other sites the Science and Technology category. are deliberately withholding skele- The Editorial Excellence Awards are A Dismaying Commentary tons or “rushing to bury them” for part of a national competition sponsored I was dismayed and shocked to read political reasons is being a little in- by Folio:, a publication devoted to the Mr. Mark Michel’s remarks about sensitive. We need to find a way to magazine industry. putting a moratorium on the reburial do research without tampering with The Winter 1999/2000 issue also won of Native Americans in his column the remains of people’s loved ones. the Silver award in another national Lay of the Land in the Fall 2000 issue. Monette Bebow-Reinhard competition, Magazine and Bookseller’s How would Mr. Michel feel if some Abrams, Wisconsin Annual Magazine Cover Contest.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP,MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication Title: American Archaeology. 2. Publication No.: 1093-8400. 3. Date of Filing: September 25, 2000. 4. Issue Frequency: Quarterly. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: 4. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $25.00. 7. Complete Sending Letters to Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 402, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: same as No. 7. 9. Names and Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, American Archaeology and Managing Editor: Publisher—Mark Michel, address same as No. 7. Editor—Michael Bawaya, address same as No. 7. Managing Editor—N/A. 10. Owner: The Archaeological Conservancy, address same as No. 7. 11. 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(C) Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15B (1), (2), (3), and (4)): 21,419; (D) Free Distribution by Mail (Samples, complimentary, and other free): (1) Outside-County as Stated on Form 3541: 0; (2) In-County as Stated address, and telephone number with all corre- on Form 3541: 0; (3) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 75; (E) Free Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 400; (F) Total Free Distribution (Sum of 15D and 15E): 475; (G) Total Distribution (Sum of 15C and 15F): 21,894; (H) Copies not Distributed: 7,106; (I) Total (Sum of 15G and spondence, including e-mail messages. 15H): 29,000. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15C/15G x 100): 97.83%. 16. This Statement of Ownership will be printed in the Winter 2000 issue of this publication. 17. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. Michael Bawaya, Editor. american archaeology 3 WELCOME TO ® THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 402 CONSERVANCY! Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 • (505) 266-1540 www.americanarchaeology.com he Archaeological Conservancy is the only national non-profit Board of Directors organization that identifies, Earl Gadbery, Pennsylvania, CHAIRMAN acquires, and preserves the most Olds Anderson, Michigan • Cecil F. Antone, Arizona • Janet Creighton, Washington significant archaeological sites in the Christopher B. Donnan, California • Janet EtsHokin, Illinois • Jerry EtsHokin, Illinois t W. James Judge, Colorado • Jay T. Last, California . Since its beginning in James B. Richardson, Pennsylvania • Peter O. A. Solbert, New York 1980, the Conservancy has acquired Rosamond Stanton, • Dee Ann Story, Texas • Stewart L. Udall, New Mexico more than 195 sites across the nation, ranging in age from the earliest habita- Conservancy Staff

tion sites in to a 19th- Mark Michel, President • Tione Joseph, Office Manager century frontier army post. We are build- Erika Olsson, Membership Director • Shelley Smith, Membership Assistant ing a national system of archaeological Martha Mulvany, Special Projects Director • Yvonne Woolfolk, Administrative Assistant Heather Wooddell, Administrative Assistant preserves to ensure the survival of our irreplaceable cultural heritage. Regional Offices and Directors Jim Walker, Southwest Region (505) 266-1540 Why Save Archaeological Sites? The 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 402 • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108-1517 ancient people of North America left virtually no written records of their Lynn Dunbar, Western Region (916) 448-1892 cultures. Clues that might someday 1217 23rd Street • Sacramento, California 95816-4917 solve the mysteries of prehistoric Paul Gardner, Midwest Region (614) 267-1100 America are still missing, and when 295 Acton Road • Columbus, Ohio 43214-3305 a ruin is destroyed by looters, or leveled for a shopping center, Alan Gruber, Southeast Region (770) 975-4344 5997 Cedar Crest Road • Acworth, Georgia 30101 precious information is lost. By permanently preserving endangered Rob Crisell, Eastern Region (703) 979-4410 ruins, we make sure they will be 1307 S. Glebe Road • Arlington, Virginia 22204 here for future generations to study and enjoy. ® How We Raise Funds: Funds for american archaeology the Conservancy come from membership dues, individual PUBLISHER: Mark Michel contributions, corporations, and EDITOR: Michael Bawaya (505) 266-9668, [email protected] foundations. Gifts and bequests of SENIOR EDITOR: Rob Crisell money, land, and securities are fully ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tamara Stewart tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Kathleen Sparkes, White Hart Design of the Internal Revenue Code. Planned giving provides donors with Editorial Advisory Board substantial tax deductions and a James Bruseth, Texas Historical Commission • Allen Dart, Old Pueblo Archaeology Center variety of beneficiary possibilities. Hester Davis, Arkansas Archeological Survey • David Dye, University of Memphis For more information, call Mark John Foster, California State Parks • Lynne Goldstein, Michigan State University Michel at (505) 266-1540. Megg Heath, Bureau of Land Management • Susan Hector, County Parks Gwynn Henderson, Kentucky Archaeological Registry • John Henderson, Cornell University The Role of the Magazine: American Archaeology is the only popular John Kelly, Washington University • Robert Kuhn, New York Historic Preservation magazine devoted to presenting the William Lipe, Washington State University • Mark Lynott, rich diversity of archaeology in the Bonnie McEwan, San Luis Historic Site • Giovanna Peebles, Vermont State Archaeologist Americas. The purpose of the Peter Pilles, U.S. Forest Service • John Roney, Bureau of Land Management magazine is to help readers appreci- Kenneth Sassaman, University of • Dennis Stanford, Smithsonian Institution ate and understand the archaeologi- Kathryn Toepel, Heritage Research Associates • Richard Woodbury, University of Massachusetts cal wonders available to them, and to raise their awareness of the National Advertising Office destruction of our cultural heritage. Richard Bublitz, Advertising Representative; 22247 Burbank Boulevard, By sharing new discoveries, research, Woodland Hills, California 91367; (818) 992-0366; fax (818) 716-1030 and activities in an enjoyable and [email protected] informative way, we hope we can make learning about ancient America American Archaeology (ISSN 1093-8400) is published quarterly by The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 402, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. Title registered U.S. Pat. and TM Office, © 2000 by TAC. Printed in the as exciting as it is essential. United States. Periodicals postage paid Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one- year membership to the Conservancy is $25 and includes receipt of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is How to Say Hello: By mail: The designated for a one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new memberships, renewals, or change of address, write to Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 402, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or call (505) 266- Central Avenue NE, Suite 402, 1540. For changes of address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational purposes and do not Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; by necessarily reflect the views of the Conservancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology. Article proposals and artwork should be addressed to the editor. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive expert review. phone: (505) 266-1540; by e-mail: POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Archaeology, The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, [email protected]; or visit our Web Suite 402, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reserved. site: www.americanarchaeology.com American Archaeology does not accept advertising from dealers in archaeological artifacts or antiquities.

4 winter • 2000–2001 Museum exhibits • Tours • Festivals Events Meetings • Education • Conferences

■ NEW EXHIBITS BURD

E. Peabody Museum of Natural History

PAUL New Haven, Conn.—The recently com- pleted Hall of Native American Cultures showcases 360 objects from the Peabody’s substantial Native American collections. The latest Plains and Southwest installa- tions complement the recently renovated Northwest Pacific Coast and Arctic cul- ture exhibits. (203) 432-5050 (Permanent exhibit)

High Desert Museum Bend, Ore.—A recently opened exhibit, “Sacred Sites, Sacred Places: Whose Culture and Whose Property?,” displays rubbings of prehistoric rock art images along the Co- lumbia River in northern Oregon. Ten rub- bings, made before dams flooded sacred pet- roglyph sites in the 1950s, will be on display

MUSEUM accompanied by explanatory material. (541) 382-4754 (Through January 14, 2001) HEARD Schingoethe Center The Heard Museum’s 11th Annual American Museum of Natural History New York, N.Y.—“Vikings: The North for Native American World Championship Hoop Dance Atlantic Saga” examines the historic impact Cultures Contest and 43rd Annual of recent archaeological finds and explores Aurora University, Aurora, the creative and enterprising spirit that led Ill.—After closing for ren- Indian Fair and Market the Vikings to North American shores ovation, the Schingoethe Hoop Dance Contest: February 3–4, Indian Fair 1,000 years ago—more than 500 years be- Center will unveil new and Market: March 3–4, Phoenix, Ariz. Come see fore Columbus landed. (212) 769-5100 exhibits in its Main Gallery, the world’s best Native American hoop dancers (Through January 21, 2001) including artifacts from from across the United States and Canada the Northeast Woodlands’ showcase their skill, athleticism, and grace as Yorktown Victory Center historic period, with special they compete for the prestigious title of world Yorktown, Va.—The exhibit “Shipbuilding emphasis on the Great champion. The Heard’s annual Indian Fair and in Colonial Virginia” traces the shipbuilding region. Another exhibit Market draws nearly 500 of the nation’s finest industry from the Virginia colony’s earliest highlights new acquisitions Native American artists, including jewelers, days through the American Revolution. from the Arctic region. sculptors, potters, painters, weavers, and bead- Examples of tools used in ship design and (630) 844-5402 or visit workers, who come to display and sell their construction are exhibited along with paint- the museum’s web site: work. The event also features traditional music ings, maps, documents, models, and nautical www.aurora.edu/museum and dance performances, storytelling, and native armaments. (888) 593-4682, (757) 253- (Opens February 1, 2001) foods. (602) 252-8840 4838 (Through February 28, 2001)

american archaeology 5 Events

Maxwell Museum of topics regarding Southwestern prehistory Anthropology and current research. (505) 827-6343 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M.—“Andean Textiles and Rituals as Arizona State Museum Cultural Communication” explores the Southwest Indian Art Fair ways in which the pre-Columbian February 24–25, Tucson, Ariz. Some of the Quechua peoples used textiles to finest Native American craftspeople will symbolically express relationships again dazzle visitors at the museum’s an- FOGDEN with the natural and supernatural nual Art Fair, which is expected to be big-

worlds. (505) 277-4405 (Through ger and better than ever. (520) 626-8381 KATHERINE June 2001)

Smithsonian National Hudson Museum Museum of the Maine Center for the Arts, The University of Maine, Orono, Maine—The prehistoric American Indian Mesoamerican exhibit “Realms of Blood Battery Park, New York, N.Y.— and Jade” focuses on the civilizations of the The new exhibit “Beauty, Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and West Mexico, Honor, and Tradition: The showcasing 250 fascinating objects that Legacy of Plains Indian date from 2,000 B.C. to the time of the Shirts” features beautifully crafted beaded, quilled, Spanish Conquest. (207) 581-1901 (Per- painted, and ribbon shirts, manent exhibit) as well as headdresses, ■ CONFERENCES & FESTIVALS leggings, and buffalo hides from the mid-19th to the Society for Historical Archaeology early 20th century. The Annual Meeting MUSEUM exhibition offers insights January 10–14, Queen Mary, Long Beach, BURKE into the materials used and Calif. This year’s theme is “Teach the the symbology embedded Mind, Touch the Spirit.” For more infor- The Burke Museum of Natural in the shirts, giving a better mation, call SHA headquarters at (520) understanding of the history, 886-8006, or check the society’s Web site History and Culture cultural context, and www.sha.org Seattle, Wash.—“Entwined With Life: Native development of shirts American Basketry,” the museum’s first major made and worn by Plains Museum of New Mexico exhibit featuring the Burke basket collection, tribes of North America. Spring Lecture Series is unique in its focus on the people behind the (212) 514-3700 Friday nights, January 26–February 23, artistry. The stunning baskets included in the (Opens December 10) Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa exhibit vary in age from contemporary to over Fe, N. M. Sponsored by the Museum of 600 years old and originate from the Southwest New Mexico Foundation, Friends of Arch- to the Alaskan Arctic. (206) 543-7907 aeology, this series of lectures will cover (Through May 6, 2001)

6 winter • 2000–2001 in the The Slow Process of Repatriation NEWS The laws and other factors have made it long and complicated.

en years after the passage of notices of all inventories of human the Native American Graves remains and funerary objects must be T Protection and Repatriation published by the NPS in the Act (NAGPRA) and the National federal register. Repatriation cannot Museum of the American Indian occur until the notices have been on Act, it’s estimated that only about the register for a minimum of 30 days 10 percent of the approximately to allow time for counterclaims. 218,000 sets of Native American Thus far, a total of 562 notices human remains in collections have been published. Due to a nationwide have been inventoried staffing shortage that has only and made eligible for return to their recently been addressed, there is a affiliated tribes, according to the backlog of 309 notices awaiting National Park Service (NPS). publication, according to the NPS. Repatriation legislation requires “People are frustrated because that federal agencies and museums (repatriation) is perceived as pro-

BECK inventory their Native American ceeding at a glacial pace,” says

JANE collections, document origins and Thomas Killion, the Repatriation conditions of the objects, assess Office program manager at the Native American claims to remains Smithsonian’s National Museum of and artifacts, work with tribal repre- Natural History. “There’s a lot more sentatives, and finally, repatriate or A Pawnee religious leader fans burning herbs going on than just the number of develop alternatives to repatriation. to purify the repatriated remains of Pawnee remains that have been returned.” Institutions face a number of scouts killed in action in the late 19th century. While this process takes an difficulties that slow this process. At institution’s time and money, and some of the larger museums, like the that were donated or acquired in ultimately, reduces its holdings, the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural the past often lacked accurate infor- laws have benefited museums in History, which, before it began to mation on their origins and proven- other ways. Working with Native repatriate, held over 18,400 sets of ience. Barbara Isaac, repatriation American leaders on repatriation has Native American human remains, coordinator at the Peabody, points led to new partnerships that inform and Harvard’s Peabody Museum of out the problems that older collec- exhibits and other museum projects. Archaeology and Ethnology, which tions present: “We have collections Having to create a detailed inventory held over 12,000, the task of inven- from the 1860s and ’70s. These of their holdings has also provided torying and documenting is immense. disciplines [anthropology and museums with much more informa- Adding to this is the fact that arch- archaeology] were just being formed tion on their collections than they aeological collections at major then. How could such objects be had previously. Killion observes that museums often consist of millions well documented?” repatriation efforts have resulted in of artifacts. Working with tribal leaders is an more information about Native In addition to the sheer volume integral, and time consuming, part of American human biology, archaeo- of these collections is the inadequacy the repatriation process. A further logy, history, and material culture. of initial documentation. Objects requirement causing delays is that —Martha Mulvany

american archaeology 7 in the Historic Shipwreck Sites NEWS May Be in Peril Zebra mussels invade the region and quickly spread.

ebra mussels, which are attach- A diver uses a syringe to ing to historic shipwrecks across take a water sample. The Zthe Great Lakes region at a rapid sample will be analyzed rate, sometimes in clumps as thick to determine if the zebra

as six inches, could be damaging mussels are affecting LAROCQUE the vessels. the iron fastenings of PIERRE The mussels were introduced to shipwrecks.

the Great Lakes in the late 1980s MUSEUM, from cargo ships originating in the

Caspian and Black Sea areas of MARITIME northern Europe; they have spread all the way from northern CHAMPLAIN to Louisiana. Observations made in LAKE Lake Erie indicated that they had spread to a density of 100,000 to In 1996, Arthur Cohn, of the Lake gunboat Spitfire, one of Benedict 200,000 per square meter by 1995. Champlain Maritime Museum, and Arnold’s Revolutionary War ships. “Historic shipwrecks that were a team of researchers began an “These ships represent what may pretty much pristine are now eight-year sonar survey to locate and be one of the most extraordinary severely fouled by the mussels,” document shipwrecks on the bot- archaeological collections, one that is says Chuck O’Neill, director of the tom of the lake before they become not widely recognized,” Cohn says. National Aquatic Nuisance Species completely encrusted with mussels. “Sites that were once ninety-nine to Clearinghouse. “It looks like a coral Fifty historic vessels have been one hundred percent intact are now reef down there.” found so far, including the 1776 threatened.” —Tamara Stewart Ancient Remains Meet Different Fates he fates of two of American archaeology’s most senior citizens have, for the moment, been determined. Spirit Cave Man Twill remain in federal custody, while is to be repatriated to an affiliated tribe. The Reno, Nevada, office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) determined that human remains from Spirit Cave, including the 9,000-year-old Spirit Cave Man, are Native American, but they cannot be culturally affiliated with any contemporary group. Spirit Cave Man has been housed at the Nevada State Museum for nearly 60 years. The determination was the result of more than four years of analyzing information and reviewing NAGPRA policy. “We looked at multiple lines of evidence,” said Pat Barker, an archaeologist with the Nevada BLM office. The determinations, which are in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, are informed by a wide variety of scientific and traditional evidence. The BLM will evaluate additional evidence, which could confirm or overturn its determination. Shortly after the Spirit Cave Man decision, the Department of the Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers informed U.S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks that a connection between Kennewick Man and modern tribes could be shown by tribal oral history and the location where the bones were discovered, as well as other evidence. DNA testing had been done on 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man at three different laboratories, but the researchers were “unable to extract useable DNA from the bone,” said Stephanie Hanna, a Department of the Interior spokesperson. Despite the determination, the lengthy process of repatriation won’t begin until a lawsuit filed by a group of scientists seeking to study Kennewick Man has been decided. A ruling on the lawsuit is expected in August 2001. —Michael Bawaya

8 winter • 2000–2001 Archaeologists Uncover in the a Three-Story Palace NEWS The site may have been an important Maya trade center.

orking in a remote area of Guatemala, archaeologists

FRANCE-PRESSE WArthur Demarest of Vanderbilt University and Tomás

AGENCE Barrientos of the Universidád del VIA Valle in Guatemala led a 6-month

OCIETY excavation and mapping project of S Cancuen, a well-preserved Maya cen- ter containing one of the largest and

GEOGRAPHIC most elaborate palaces ever found. The site was first discovered in 1905 by Teobert Maler, an explorer

TALBOT/NATIONAL with Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, and was partially surveyed and mapped by a Harvard team in

CHRISTOPHER the 1960s. Cancuen, which means “Place of Serpents,” remained little- Arthur Demarest (left) and Tomás Barrientos (right) discovered the huge palace in central Guatemala. known for 40 years, its size and importance unrealized. it was involved in alliances with all He adds that his findings thus Demarest was prompted to the major military powers of the far indicate that “there are big gaps explore this area by hieroglyphs deci- day, including Teotihuacán, Tikal, in our understanding of history and phered at the Dos Pelas site, which Calakmul, and Dos Pelas. politics in the Maya world.” tell the story of the site’s great king Cancuen is unusual in that its Demarest believes that a large conquering the region and bringing structures are primarily secular and cave system with religious items and his queen here from Cancuen. its orientation economic. Tikal, by Cancuen-style artifacts discovered Over five square kilometers comparison, has many temples and about five kilometers south of the have been mapped at Cancuen. a strong religious focus. site was a place of ritual, which The ruins include a three-story “What is most remarkable about would explain why there is so little limestone palace. With 170 rooms Cancuen is the nature of the site,” evidence of religious practice at around 11 courtyards, it is compara- explains Demarest. “Workshops for Cancuen. He hopes that their ble in size to the central palace at making jade plaques, pyrite mirrors, research team will have the funds the well-known Maya site of Tikal. and objects were located to explore this area in March. The Federico Fahsen, the project epigra- directly adjacent to the palace, main goal for next season, however, pher, has put together the site’s indicating that the site was a very is a community development dynastic history through hieroglyphs specialized place of production and project, in which Demarest hopes found both at the site and on monu- portage for highly valued sacred to involve the nearby Kekchi Maya ments looted from the site years ago. objects that were shipped downriver village of El Zapote to protect the According to ancient writings, the and traded all across the Maya site and the surrounding rainforest, Cancuen dynasty is much older world. The palace is probably and to promote eco-tourism by and more prestigious than that of disproportionately large because of building a lodge and leading tours Dos Pelas. Believed to date back to the king’s prestige, based on his of the site. —Tamara Stewart the second or third century B.C., control of precious commodities.”

american archaeology 9 in the Revisiting the NEWS Boston Saloon The excavation of a 19th-century saloon yields a glimpse of African American life in Nevada.

n 1861, an African American named William A. G. Brown I came to Virginia City, Nevada, hoping to profit from the economic boom fueled by gold and silver min- ing at the Comstock Lode. Brown opened up the Boston Saloon, which catered to the small African American population in the Com- stock Mining District. He ran the saloon until 1875, and soon after Brown closed up shop, the building burned to the ground. Last summer, the University of DIXON

Nevada, Reno’s Department of KELLY Anthropology, the Comstock Arch- Archaeologists, assisted by volunteers, found thousands of artifacts while excavating the saloon. aeology Center, and the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office spon- the Boston Saloon may help re- Boston Saloon suggests that African sored a field school and volunteer searchers understand how some of Americans were drinking the same project to excavate portions of the these highly complex social relation- products and using the same types of Boston Saloon. The excavation’s ships manifested themselves in daily glassware as were in use at Piper’s. findings may contribute to a better life. Dixon also worked on the exca- “These artifacts,” says Dixon understanding of the African vation of Piper’s Old Corner , an “allow us to visualize the ambience of American experience in the West. upscale gathering place for the city’s an African American saloon and rein- Thousands of artifacts were theater-going clientele associated with force the fact that people really aren’t unearthed, including broken bottle Piper’s Opera House. An informal that different.” —Martha Mulvany fragments, pieces of glassware and analysis of the artifacts found at the crystal stemware, plates, tobacco pipes, and the like. Since three other bars from this period have been Looters Target Verde Valley Site excavated in Virginia City, project n May, Yavapai County sheriff’s deputies John Price and Tony Mascher were caught illegally excavating the Kinninnick ruin, a large northern Sinagua director Kelly J. Dixon is hoping that NEWS prehistoric pueblo in the Coconino National Forest in Arizona’s Verde Valley, a comparative analysis will give some I between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Both men were indicted on October 23 under indication of how an African Ameri- the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act and for possession of can saloon was connected with other illegal firearms and making false statements to police officers. saloons in the mining West. Price could face up to 27 years in prison, and Mascher could face T I N G Virginia City was fairly integrated seven. The men were apprehended after a graduate student from Arizona State University spotted them looting the isolated site. for its time, but “while African Amer- “They had completely butchered seven burials at the site,” said Peter

icans may have received better treat- LOO Pilles, Coconino Forest archaeologist. “Artifacts, a sifting screen, and ment here in Virginia City, Nevada, digging tools were found at their camp, and $22,000 worth of prehistoric they still faced prevailing racist atti- artifacts were found at their houses.” —Tamara Stewart tudes and laws,” says Dixon. Work at

10 winter • 2000–2001 in the Evidence Mounts for Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge NEWS Artifacts recovered from the shipwreck have early 18th-century date.

our years after the discovery of a Divers bring up a shipwreck just off the coast of 17-foot-long piece of FNorth Carolina, work continues the hull of the ship. to yield artifacts indicating the wreck The wood is wrapped is the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which was in foam rubber for run aground by Blackbeard in 1718 protection. (see American Archaeology, Fall 1998). Mark Wilde-Ramsing, director of the State of North Carolina VARNAM Underwater Archaeology Unit’s

APRIL investigation of the wreck, is con- vinced that the ship is indeed that confirmed at the site,” says Wilde- Other evidence includes a 21- of the fearsome pirate Blackbeard, Ramsing. “That makes this as pound brass Spanish bell bearing the who plundered dozens of ships in heavily armed as any vessel in the date 1709, wine bottles bearing the American and Caribbean waters New World during the early 18th date 1712, gold dust, a blunderbuss before he was killed in a battle with century.” He says the Queen Anne’s barrel, and many other artifacts that the British navy in November 1718. Revenge is the only armed vessel of indicate the ship probably sank “The strongest evidence comes this size known to have sunk in sometime in the early 18th century. from the 22 cannons that have been this area. —Tamara Stewart Prehistoric Colorado Site Shows Evidence of Cannibalism n an article published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers reported that a new test designed to detect digested human muscle protein in human feces has proven that cannibalism took place at the Cowboy Wash site on Ute Mountain IUte tribal lands in southwestern Colorado. In 1992, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe hired Soil Systems, Inc., of Phoenix to excavate archaeological sites in the path of a new irrigation system. From 1995 to 1996, the company, led by project director Brian Billman, excavated a small pithouse community at Cowboy Wash that was occupied between about A.D. 1120 and 1150. Information recovered from one of the sites within the community indicates that, of the fifteen people who lived there, at least seven appear to have been massacred, then butchered, cooked, and eaten by their attackers. One of the attackers defecated in a cold hearth in one of the pit structures, providing researchers with the evidence to prove cannibalism took place here. Biochemist Richard Marlar of the University of Colorado School of Medicine designed the test for human myoglobin in preserved human fecal material that, when applied to the coprolite recovered from the hearth and a broken cooking vessel found nearby, clearly indicated that human remains were cooked and consumed. “While I think that there’s pretty convincing evidence for cannibalism at this site, the frequency and reason for it are still open for question,”says Billman, now an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina. “We would like to see the debate shift from whether cannibalism took place to the more interesting issues of why it occurred—in what context—and why it ceased after about A.D. 1200.” There seems to have been a significant outbreak of cannibalism in the area between 1150 and 1200. This outbreak may have been precipitated by problems such as drought, which may have resulted in social chaos and violence. Billman sees the incidence of cannibalism as a potential act of political terrorism, possibly by one group and possibly related to the abandonment of Chaco Canyon in north-central New Mexico, where for about 200 years, thousands of prehistoric Pueblo peoples were organized into a large social and political system of some kind. “While this is of course a sensitive issue to Native Americans today,”says Billman, “it is something in their past that their ancestors apparently found a way to deal with and put a stop to.” —Tamara Stewart

american archaeology 11 Christa Mueller,Jeffrey Brain, and Alex King discuss the excavation of a feature near the hearth of Admiral Raleigh Gilbert’s house at Fort St. George. King is a descendant of George Popham, the colony’s president.

12 winter • 2000–2001 iscovering an D rchaeological A ime Popham Colony was settled the T same year as apsule Jamestown, but it failed C and faded VEENER

E L L I S from memory. Archaeologist “Popham Rock, 1607.” This inscription was taped in large black letters on a Jeffrey Brain is parking-lot boulder last summer next to the excavation excavating this site of Fort St. George at Popham Beach, Maine. Every- one knows the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in undisturbed site, 1620, but this boulder’s message was: So what? The Eng- lish established the Popham colony 13 years earlier, the which, in some same year as Jamestown. So why isn’t Popham as famous as Plymouth or Pop- ways, he thinks is ham’s sister colony, the legendary Jamestown led by Cap- more significant tain John Smith? Because Popham’s colonists packed up, burned down their buildings, hauled the cannons back than Jamestown. onto their ships (they were for protection against the French), and sailed back to England after little more than a year—before the second winter set in. The Virginia colonists endured pestilence and native warfare, the Mass- achusetts Pilgrims faced cold and hunger, but a Maine winter is, as the state’s present inhabitants might say in by Lance Tapley Yankee understatement, different. But the Popham excavation has been a summer paradise for Jeffrey Brain, its hearty, ruddy-faced chief photography by archaeologist. Dean Abramson “I’ve never had so much fun. This is my reward for over 40 years of archaeology!” he exclaimed.

american archaeology 13 the Maine State Museum. They made up the bulk of his excavators. Also heading back to the trenches, located under white tents, were Brain’s three professional assis- tants and several experienced volunteers. “My hands were on the very same nails that my ancestor pounded,” marveled Alex King, a bearded house builder from the Chicago area. King has been doing genealogical research for 35 years and has volunteered here for three. His ancestor was the colony’s president, George Popham, a kinsman of the Lord Chief Justice of England. Helping out on this dig was an “overwhelming” experience for him, King said. He had high praise for Brain: “He’s a great motivator.” Brain became especially enthusiastic when talking about the archaeological significance of digging up the par- allel settlement to Jamestown, which he began doing in 1994, the same year Jamestown excavations started under William Kelso. Colonies established by the same company of speculators and comparable in size, “Jamestown is histor- ically more important, but Popham in some ways is archae- ologically more important,” Brain claimed. “We have here a time capsule of 1607–1608. Jamestown was continually set- tled and its critical first year of settlement disturbed. What we have here is undisturbed.” Pam Crane, one of Brain’s professional assistants, showed him a small, dark sherd of 400-year-old that came from the summer’s main target, the house of Raleigh Gilbert, the nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh and son of explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Raleigh Gilbert was the “admiral” of the colony and second in command. The Gilbert house, Brain said, has provided “10 times the artifacts” that were found in the colony’s storehouse, the focus of the previous several sum- mers’ excavations. These included frag- Jeffrey Brain holds pieces of a German stoneware jug. ments of liquor bottles and ale and The style of decoration dates these pieces from between wineglasses. 1590 and 1607. “Glass bottles were only used for the finest liquor,” he said. “This was a gentleman from English society. He Brain, an engaging 60-year-old man dressed in red sus- was well equipped with potables.” penders and red pants, talked about both the significance The pottery discovered, which of his findings—unearthing Fort St. George is a major included delft, was finer and more discovery for American historical archaeology—and ornamental than that found in the the pleasure of working on the sunny, breezy coast of storehouse. There were large sherds of Maine in summer. brown, German-made Bellarmine jugs. “All right, you loafers!” he yelled good-naturedly One had a medallion of the coat of arms of to his crew, who during their lunchtime had been chat- the city of Cologne. Also discovered were glass ting under the maple trees of the small waterfront park buttons for a waistcoat or jacket, pieces of iron armor, covering much of the site. “We’ve only got three weeks!” and musket and pistol balls. Only someone with real sta- Brain’s exuberance stirred up a group of middle-aged tus would have had a pistol, according to Brain. Gilbert students from a field school sponsored by the Friends of apparently was of a higher social position than George

14 winter • 2000–2001 Popham, which might have contributed to the conten- A row of tents protect the excavation area of Raleigh Gilbert’s house within tiousness in the settlement. Gilbert also had the biggest Fort St. George. In the background is Atkins Bay, at the mouth of the house, about 12 by 30 feet in dimension. Kennebec River. Peter Morrison, another of the professionals and Crane’s husband, was spending some of his time puzzling out a stone pile found in one excavation unit of the he Popham excavation is at Sabino Head on Gilbert house—“which we take to be the collapsed Atkins Bay, part of the Kennebec estuary hearth,” he said. Pointing to the stratification, he indi- about a half-hour’s drive from the small ship- cated a black charcoal streak on what is believed to be the building city of Bath. Across a cove of the bay floor of the house, likely evidence of a fire. A University T is the resort village of Popham Beach. It has of Maine graduate student in historical archaeology, lobster boats in the harbor, a white, bell-towered church, Morrison has been involved in studying a cross section of and yet another defunct military installation, a stone- a shallow, 20-foot-wide trench that encircled the fort. block Civil War battlement, Fort Popham, which looks The Gilbert house site is next to, and a small part of out on the Gulf of Maine. On the other side of the village it is under, the asphalt road that runs through the park. A are three miles of perfect beach. A homey bed-and-break- layer of gravel and sand about a foot and a half deep had fast has provided housing for the 15 students in the field been deposited on the site in 1981, when a parking lot school. The tuition of $500 for each person and an was created. When this fill was removed by a backhoe for $8,640 National Park Service annual grant have paid for the excavation, Morrison said, the earth underneath was the archaeology. found to be “surprisingly undisturbed.” The location is a New England paradise. With its Undisturbed—every archaeologist’s favorite word. At spruce and pitch , wild roses and beach peas, smells Fort St. George (named for England’s patron saint) this is of salt marsh and clam flats, this place must have indeed the rule rather than the exception. Even the early-20th- seemed pristinely beautiful to the 100 male adventurers century occupation of the spot by Fort Baldwin, a mili- who landed here in mid-August from the ships Mary tary base used principally during World War I, did not and John and Gift of God after a two-and-a-half-month result in significant disturbance. journey from Plymouth, England. Sent by the Virginia american archaeology 15 PROJECT P O P H A M C O U R T E S Y P O R T R A I T A N D A P M

Company, a group of West Country merchants chartered by King James I, they came to legitimize the company’s claim to this “North” Virginia sec- tion of the North American shore. The sister expedition that had landed in Jamestown three months earlier had been sent to do the same for “South” Virginia. The historical records show that, like their counterparts at Jamestown, the Popham colonists arrived with misconceptions. One man was in charge of finding gold mines such as had been discovered by the Spanish in Mexico. A report of a body of water to the west assured George Popham that the Southern Ocean and , as he suggested to the king in a letter he wrote in Latin, were just around the corner. The fragments of expensive bottles and glasses indicate that Raleigh Gilbert was determined to transpose his noble family’s elegant lifestyle to the wilderness. The harshness of a Maine winter soon blew away any thought of a paradise, however, as it frequently does still for members of the state’s “summer colony”—as they are called by native Mainers—who linger here beyond early fall. Within months the colonists ran short of food. They (Above) The plan of Fort St. George, which was drawn traded for furs, but the natives were not as helpful as the famous Squanto by one of the colonists, John Hunt, in October 1607. and his friends were at Plymouth. As early as December, half of the colony It is the only existing detailed plan of one of the first departed on the Gift of God. For the 45 or so who wintered over, troubles English settlements in America. with the natives increased, food continued to be a problem, and lack of the opposite sex was felt. Worries about the French, who had established a fort (Below) A portrait of Raleigh Gilbert, the admiral of in 1604 on St. Croix Island, 175 miles north up the coast, were constant. the colony and its second president. Bickering broke out, especially between the “timorously fearful” Popham and the proud, arrogant Gilbert, as a contemporary described them. Smothering everyone’s spirits were the deep snow and severe cold, the likes of which these Englishmen had never seen. George Popham, who may have been in his 70s, died in February 1608. Raleigh Gilbert, only 25, took over. But Gilbert, a swashbuckler also

16 winter • 2000–2001 described as “headstrong,” decided to abandon the colony art and maritime institution, and was looking for some- when the Mary and John returned late in the summer thing to work on in New England. His Fort St. George with supplies. The ship also brought the news that research disclosed, much to his surprise, that very little Gilbert’s brother had died and that Gilbert had inherited archaeological work had been done on Popham. The site the family’s estates. This event was apparently much more was generally known from historical documents, but promising for him than American colonization. The rest unlike Jamestown, it had languished unappreciated, and of the discouraged men joined him. In October 1608, for all intents and purposes, undiscovered, for centuries. they returned to England aboard the Mary and John and In 1962 and 1964, Wendell Hadlock, the director of a the Virginia of Sagadahoc, a 30-ton pinnace built at the small Maine art museum, had conducted excavations at colony that was the first English vessel constructed in the Popham. Although he came across some 17th-century Americas. The Popham colony became a footnote instead artifacts, his now-out-of-date methods (narrow trenches of a major chapter, like Jamestown, in American history. dug with shovels) precluded discovering the fort. So Brain Popham is the capstone of Jeffrey Brain’s career, and a decided to excavate. serendipitous one at that. In the summer of 1990, he was a tourist visiting Popham Beach. He saw a reference to is first excavation was financed by a small Fort St. George on an interpretive placard at the Fort grant from the National Geographic Soci- Popham State Historic Site. Up narrow Fort Baldwin ety. After a few weeks of frustration, sev- Road he found the tiny, state-owned picnic grounds eral artifacts came to light as well as a hole between white clapboard houses. When Brain first visited, H that had contained a one-square-foot post. there wasn’t even a placard about the ancient Popham Based on the documentary information, he concluded that colony, the remains of which he supposed lay under the the post must have been part of the fort’s storehouse. The grass and parking lot. His interest was piqued. information on the fort’s design, which was of a modified Brain is a Yale University Ph.D. who at that point “star” structure typical of that period in Europe, came from was not long retired from 20 years at Harvard University’s an extraordinary document: a precise fort plan created by Peabody Museum, where he had specialized in prehistoric cultures of the Southeast. He had recently become associ- Volunteer Peter Hutchinson carefully profiles the sediments that filled ated with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., an the fortification ditch after Fort St. George was abandoned.

american archaeology 17 (Top) Volunteer John Bradford excavates a posthole at Raleigh the expedition’s military draftsman, John Hunt. It showed the forti- Gilbert’s house. fications, the positions of the cannons, each building in some detail, and it listed the function of each building. It also had a scale. An (Below) The posthole has been excavated, but the mold American researcher had discovered the plan in a Spanish archive in from the post, and the stones that were used to support it, 1888. The Spanish ambassador to England had sent it to Spain in are left in place. 1608. The Spanish, archenemies of the English at the time, would have been interested in getting their hands on a copy of any English military map. “It’s the only detailed plan we have of an initial English settle- ment in America,” Brain said. The work in 1994 “convinced me we had a 1607 context, but one posthole does not a storehouse make, much less a fort,” Brain related. So after doing more historical research and arranging the financing of an investigation that could be continued for three weeks each year, he went back to dig at Popham in 1997. Brain superimposed the Hunt plan on the oldest topographical map he could find, one from 1865, of Sabino Head. The posthole lined up roughly with the storehouse shown on the plan. The Hunt plan was so detailed it showed the interval between storehouse posts to be approximately nine feet, and Brain and his team excavated accordingly, locating the postholes. This work also led them to discover the surface of the store- house floor, where bits of cheap pottery, glass beads, bottle pieces, lead balls and shot, nails, a pipe bowl and stems, and pieces of armor were found. There was a caulking iron, too, a relic of the shipbuild- ing. The storehouse was a post-and-beam structure with a thatched

18 winter • 2000–2001 roof, wattle-and-daub walls, and an earthen floor. Its charred boards and burned thatch, daub, and earth sug- gested a fire. Raleigh Gilbert’s house was also excavated using the Hunt plan as a guide. Brain decided on this house due to a historical reference to its presence. Only one other structure, the chapel, is referred to in the documents as having been constructed, but its site is on private land and can’t be excavated. Next season Brain will see if Hunt’s plan is correct about the fort’s buttery, the storage facility for casks of cider, beer, and cheap wine. Although there is no historical reference to it other than in the plan, Brain thinks it “logical” that such a useful structure would have been built. Brain hopes to spend several more seasons at Popham. He would love to find George Popham’s grave. This discovery would halfway match the two celebrated colonial skeletons found in recent years at the Jamestown excavations. More important, Brain would like to answer further questions about how the Popham colonists lived and why they failed. “People remember success, not failure,” he comment- ed, “but lessons were learned here.” He believes the Pilgrims heeded some of the lessons learned at Popham Colony. The Pilgrims had strong lead- ers, brought women and children, had more supplies, and settled farther south. Brain is looking toward the year 2007, the 400th anniversary of both Popham and Jamestown, the very earli- est foundations of English America. “We’re in touch with the folks at Jamestown” about the possibility of a joint celebration, said Robert Bradley, asso- ciate director of the Maine Historic Preservation Com- mission at the state capital of Augusta. He oversees the fed- eral grant that funds the Popham project. A joint celebration might include lectures and traveling exhibits. Bradley, like Brain, was adamant about Popham’s impor- tance, and, like Brain, he has been enlivened by a spirit of friendly competition with the Jamestown archaeologists. Near the hearthstones (foreground) of Raleigh Gilbert’s house, castings “This is a nationally significant site,” Bradley declared. for lead munitions and fragments of kaolin tobacco pipes were found. “The best Jamestown can do is get something dated to within a decade. The people at Jamestown would kill for [an equivalent of] the Hunt map.” wanting to see artifacts, which he put on display in the Both Bradley and Brain also talked about the possi- back of a pickup truck. bility of a book and a Maine State Museum exhibit in However, by mid-September, both tourists and archae- Augusta. The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands intends ologists are gone, and the excavation is covered with earth. to put up interpretive panels at the site. A private group In the late fall only an occasional year-round resident of has begun raising money to build a replica of Virginia of Popham Beach strolls in the little park by the bay. In the Sagadahoc by 2007. Meanwhile, public interest in the dig blustery, cold, snowy winter, no one strolls there. Not many has increased. The Boston Globe has run a major feature of the summer colony spend the winter in Maine, and the on it, and the Washington Post was preparing an article. Popham colonists were the first to learn why. Last summer Brain had to station an official greeter to talk with the stream of tourists asking questions and LANCE TAPLEY is a freelance writer who lives in Maine. american archaeology 19 Fishing DESERTIN THE

e are standing in one of North America’s driest When a vast lake deserts, worrying about rain. Three archaeolo- gists, a photographer, and I debate the odds of suddenly formed and being cut off by a if we venture too gradually evaporated in W far off the beaten path in search of ancient their desert, the Cahuilla Indian fish traps. Grape-sized raindrops pelted the windshield of our vehicle earlier, and we’ve already people were forced to been stuck in the sand once today. Behind the Santa adapt. Archaeologists are Rosa Mountains, northwest of the Salton Sea, forks of pale blue lightning split a sky brushed in purple and studying the ancient fish pewter tones. Glowing halos of peach and rose tint traps the Cahuilla left the spots where the sun pours through, suggesting an behind, which are proof El Greco painting. “This isn’t exactly our usual weather pattern out of their resourcefulness. here,” says Jay von Werlhof, our craggy-faced guide and a veteran researcher of the unique culture of the BY RICK DOWER Desert Cahuilla people. He scans the weird tableau. “I think we’ve just gotten most of the year’s rain in the PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOB GRIESER last few hours.”

20 winter • 2000–2001 Archaeologists Gary Hurd (left) and Jay von Werlhof in the . In the foreground is one of the desert’s many fish traps.

Indeed, southern California’s Colorado Desert—the 80- Mexican border, and 50 miles wide from the Santa Rosas mile-wide basin sandwiched between the mountains of San nearly to the . In a geologic eye-blink, Diego County to the west and the to the Lake Cahuilla became one of the largest freshwater lakes in east, hard on the Mexican border—receives less than three North America. inches of rain a year. The notion of native stone fish traps Fed by fluctuating snowmelt in the Rockies, archae- among the creosote and mesquite bushes seems paradoxical. ologists believe the giant lake filled, receded, and evapo- Yet, the rugged landscape here is dotted with hundreds rated several times before drying up for good around of them, dating back nearly 1,000 years. Beginning some- 1700, when the Colorado River returned to its former time around A.D. 700, the desert basin filled with an enor- course. The lake’s relatively sudden appearance was a seri- mous lake that would dwarf the present Salton Sea, the ous liability to the Desert Cahuilla, who were forced from modern landscape’s most prominent feature. Ancient Lake their homes in the northern part of the basin into the Cahuilla (pronounced kah-WEE-yah) formed after the upland plateau. The water also disrupted trade connec- nearby Colorado River, its delta filled with , shifted its tions to other nearby tribes such as the Yumans to the east historic course from south to the , to and the to the west and south. But in time, the north and west. The mercurial river poured into the Salton lake attracted wild game and waterfowl and fostered edi- Trough, much of which lies more than 200 feet below sea ble marsh plants such as cattails and tule, providing the level, filling it like a washtub under a broken spigot. At its Cahuilla with an enviable living. But it was fishing that largest, the water stretched more than 100 miles from its set the Cahuilla people apart, leaving clues to adaptive northern shore near present-day Indio to well below the strategies for archaeologists to decipher. american archaeology 21 Von Werlhof, the director of the College Desert Museum in nearby Ocotillo, has been studying fish traps for 22 years.

sites with vineyards and vegetable crops. Highway and road construction, gravel mining, and, most recently, damage from off-road vehicle activity have also taken their toll on the largely unpro- tected sites. “We have no way of knowing how many traps have already been lost,” says Ed Collins, staff archaeologist for the sprawling Imperial Irrigation District, the region’s water and power utility. With a nod toward the well-watered , he adds, “Population growth, housing develop- ments, and agriculture have become the driving force today of what destroys cultural resources.” The pony-tailed Collins is one of a growing number of archaeologists employed by public utilities, local governments, and other public agencies in California and elsewhere to survey and preserve archaeological sites. He’s also a former student of von Werlhof’s at Imperial Valley College. Collins convinces our group that it would be dicey on such an unsettled day to try to visit the prime fish traps site, where the main access road was washed away three weeks earlier in acking the technology or handy materials to build boats, and a rainstorm. The area includes a large Cahuilla confronted with a shallow shoreline unsuitable for nets or village, a ceremonial complex, and rich pockets spearfishing, the Cahuilla began experimenting with fish of cultural artifacts nearby. To protect it, The traps. Using bowling-ball-sized granite stones that still pep- Archaeological Conservancy recently acquired a L per the landscape, they developed a simple, but apparently 370-acre portion of the site. highly effective, method to concentrate and collect humpback suckers, , and freshwater mullet. fter the existence of the desert fish traps “These people had come right out of the ; they was formally documented in the 1940s, a had limited experience with fish or fishing,” von Werlhof says comprehensive survey of the sites was admiringly. “So as the huge lake appeared in the desert and filled undertaken by archaeologists and stu- up, sooner or later they must have noticed the fish and started A dents from the University of Redlands wondering ‘How the heck are we going to get these things?’ And beginning in the 1950s. Von Werlhof became they figured it out rather brilliantly.” interested in the traps in 1978, when he led stu- With his shock of unruly white hair, leathery skin, and a worn dents from Imperial Valley College on a resur- silver medallion he wears around his neck, von Werlhof trudges hat- veying project. Now retired from teaching, he less through the sere landscape with his walking stick. was initially attracted to desert work involving Several hundred traps have been surveyed since the 1940s, geoglyphs and pictographs left by the Cahuilla, when they were first documented. Those probably represent only a Kumeyaay, and other local native groups. But fraction of the number that may have been constructed in the cen- for the past 22 years, von Werlhof has devoted turies before the Spanish and other settlers arrived. Engineers began himself to the fish traps, viewing them as a tapping the Colorado for ambitious irrigation projects for the Impe- means of understanding Cahuilla history, cul- rial and Coachella valleys around 1900 (one such water-the-desert ture, and organizational structure. scheme went badly awry in 1905, resulting in the accidental creation Near the traps, circular stone rings reveal of the Salton Sea), and the farmers who followed covered over many the location of foundations of Cahuilla brush

22 winter • 2000–2001 (Foreground) This sandstone fish trap was made by the Kumeyaay, a Native American tribe that fished and hunted in the desert. In the background are archaeologists Ed Collins (left) and von Werlhof (middle) and writer Rick Dower.

in a ‘U.’ Researchers believe the traps became increasingly sophisticated as the Cahuilla’s fishing expertise grew. “I’m just in awe of how sharp these people were. With these stone traps, they’ve left concrete evidence of their intelligence,” says Collins. “They got to the point where the traps were basically low-maintenance—they’re working 24 hours a day and probably it just takes a cou- ple of men to work them.” Research to date suggests the Cahuilla probably began building their fish traps around A.D. 1000. The lake had filled to its highest point, 43 feet above sea level, stabilized for a period, then must have begun a process of retreating to the extent that the natives could use traps along the shal- low shoreline. The greatest concentration of traps has been found at sites 40 to 85 feet below sea level, suggesting the Indian fishers followed the retreating shoreline, which was a sort of movable feast. But in at least one location, a for- mer U.S. Navy test base, traps have been found more than 100 feet below sea level, suggesting that fishing occurred for longer than previously presumed.

shelters the fishermen probably used while tending the traps or processing the catch. Also visible nearby are descending lines of gravel deposits, laid down by waves as the lake ebbed. At first, the traps themselves are difficult to discern among the scrubby brush and jumble of desert rocks. But as von Werlhof points one out, the dominant features take shape: a long row of stones with a parallel shorter row in front creating a narrow canal that ends in a ‘V.’ A few feet away lies another. Then another, until he points out six traps in a staggered formation. At the small opening where the two rows converge, the point where fish were funneled, the Cahuilla may have waited with a stone to drop into the gap to block escape. It isn’t clear whether the Indians used a basket, a stick weir, their bare hands, or some other method to col- lect the trapped fish. While most of the traps share a sim- ilar basic design, shaped like a check mark and built at right angles to what was a gently sloping shoreline, there are distinct differences. Some have arms more equal in length, while others are shorter; some end in a ‘V,’ others

The Kumeyaay crushed acorns, pine nuts, and desert seeds in stone mortars such as these.

american archaeology 23 Lake Cahuilla was formed approximately A.D. 700 when the Colorado River shifted course and flowed into the . The lake evaporated for the third and final time around 1700, when the Colorado River returned to its former course. Two centuries later, in 1905, irrigation canals were dug to draw water from the Colorado River.A levee burst, resulting in the accidental creation of California’s largest body of water, the Salton Sea. REDLANDS O F

(Below) The high-water mark of Lake

Cahuilla–43 feet above sea level— UNIVERSITY is clearly seen at Travertine Point. B U C K L E S , J O S E P H expresses admiration for the ways the Indians learned to adapt so quickly to their changing environment. He says the ’ physical world changed so radically, and so abruptly, “you might say they experienced long peri- ods of instability punctuated by shorter periods of stability. That’s what I find so fascinating—how exactly did they cope with it?” Hurd helped develop a method of studying shell deposits left over the centuries by tiny crustaceans called ostracods. Their shells, he says, can be used to determine variable conditions rom the parking lot of the Fire House Café in sleepy in the ancient lake such as water, salinity, and temperatures Desert Shores, a tiny, sun-blasted town on the west- at different times. Tufa, a coral-like deposit that encrusts ern edge of the Salton Sea, von Werlhof points out rocks submerged for long periods, helps archaeologists the high-water mark of Lake Cahuilla, clearly visible determine what was underwater when. The thicker the tufa, F as a discolored line above State Highway 86. Reach- the longer the rock was under water. Hurd has also con- ing well up the base of the nearby mountains, it resembles ducted radiocarbon dating on a shell midden found in the a bathtub ring. lake bed that dates from A.D.1250, plus or minus 60 years. “One thing I’d really like to find out is how long does “This tells us that as soon as the water reached its high- it take for standing water to leave a mark like that?” von est level, the Cahuilla must have started working on the Werlhof says. He points out the café would have been problem of how to get those fish,” he said. about 50 feet under water at the time. Another aid to research into the ancient lake’s secrets Gary Hurd, a curator with the Orange County Natural is the Salton Sea. The sea—California’s largest body of History Museum and an enthusiastic Cahuilla researcher, water—is a model for how the ancient lake may have catches up with us at the café. Over burgers, Hurd also influenced the desert, and vice versa. Ninety-five years

24 winter • 2000–2001 after its accidental creation, the Salton Sea has fallen on hard times. With only two sources of fresh water, the badly polluted New and Alamo rivers, the sea is predicted to become too salty to support its plentiful wildlife. Despite the flurry of recent interest in the Cahuilla and their fish traps, many questions remain unanswered, says archaeologist Jerry Schaefer, a senior archaeologist with ASM Affiliates who has worked in the Colorado Desert for 20 years. Did the traps’ effectiveness result from luck or a knowledge of fish spawning behavior? Were the adjacent encampments used by individual fam- ily units or were they communal? How did such large- scale fishing fit into the Cahuilla’s tightly-organized cul- tural and political structure? What were the Cahuilla’s logistical strategies for dealing with problems and oppor- tunities afforded by the lake? Whatever the answers, Schaefer thinks the Desert Cahuilla have much to teach researchers about rapid human adaptation. “The fish traps represent a very discrete picture of how the Cahuilla were adapting to change over a very defined period,” he says. “And because the lake receded so quickly, each line of traps and fish camps represents something that happened relatively quickly and sequentially.”

(Above) Tufa, a coral-like deposit, covers these rocks that were once on the floor of Lake Cahuilla. Researchers have found coats of tufa as thick as three inches. (Below) The Salton Sea attracts a variety of waterfowl.

american archaeology 25 Saving the Salton Sea The Salton Sea is in decline. The desert sea, 35 miles long and 15 miles wide, is already 25 percent saltier than the ocean and get- ting more so every year. If nothing is done, it’s predicted that within the next 10 to 15 years, the sea will become too salty to support its abundant fish and waterfowl. Along with the salinity problem, one of the sea’s two feeder rivers, the New River, which originates in northern Mexico, is often said to be the most polluted river in North America. Nutrient-rich agricultural and municipal runoff from the fertile Imperial, , and Coachella valleys contributes to algal blooms in the sea that can result in the deaths of huge numbers of fish.With such stress on the ecosystem, diseases such as avian cholera and botulism peri- odically break out, killing tens of thousands of brown and white pelicans, cormorants, , and other resident species. The Salton Sea was formed over an 18-month period beginning in June 1905, when irrigation engineers dug canals to tap the nearby Colorado River. The river burst through a levee and began pouring into the desert, destroying homes and flooding farmland. Finally, in early 1907, after countless trainloads of rubble were brought in to close the breach, the river returned to its banks. The Salton Sea is in trouble because it has no natural drain. Its fresh water evaporates quickly under the blistering desert sun while salt remains. Following years of debate about how to avert an environmental disaster,a rescue plan for the sea has been developed. Both the U.S. Congress and California legislature have approved bills funding studies and cleanup plans. After evaluating dozens of proposals in recent years, the Salton Sea Authority,a multi-agency study group, has chosen the most promising one. Under this plan, water would flow through gates into large diked areas up to several thousand acres in size. There, the water would evaporate and the salt be removed. As fresh water from the two rivers continues to flow into the sea, researchers hope its salinity will decline. A $1 million pilot project is scheduled to begin by the end of this year to test the idea’s feasibility. Proponents believe this plan, estimated to cost several hundred million dollars, is the cheapest and most effective way to save the sea. —Rick Dower

Von Werlhof notes that, unlike at most active archae- Cahuilla artifacts will soon go on display in the new ological sites, little actual excavation is conducted at the Imperial Valley College Desert Museum now under Cahuilla locations. Most of the sites are on federal or construction. Indian tribal lands. Digging and removal of artifacts is sel- Von Werlhof is 78. He has worked as a teacher and dom permitted, so research must be carried out in situ. archaeologist for half a century, covering California from “But that’s the beauty of desert archaeology,” he says. end to end. He estimates he has about four more years of “You don’t have to dig. Stuff is lying there undisturbed on research to complete on the traps before calling it quits. the surface. It isn’t digging, it’s simply picking things up.” “I find desert cultures absolutely fascinating,” he Along with the fish traps, researchers have found no explains. “Desert people are very inventive and clever. shortage of other remnants of Desert Cahuilla culture— They have to be to survive. And I love the desert. People potsherds, stone cutting tools and flint-chippers, round may think it’s empty, but it isn’t. It’s not empty at all. It’s stone mortars, and the grinding stones called manos and full—full of rocks, full of animals, of cultural artifacts. metates, as well as sandstone and granite brush-house It’s full of life.” foundations. Some of the tools and pots are catalogued and stored in the tiny desert outpost of Ocotillo, where RICK DOWER is a freelance writer in San Diego.

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- . 27 SEMINGER I R . W I L L I A M

An artist’s conception of Cahokia, circa A.D. 1150. Monks Mound overlooks the Grand Plaza, with the Twin Mounds at the opposite end. The central ceremonial area is enclosed by the palisade wall. The circular formation at the far left is Woodhenge, the celestial calendar.Agricultural fields surround the site.

Their knowledge of geometry and surveying was sufficient to lay out major monuments with surprising precision. Yet they had no written language and did not use the wheel. For three and a half centuries, their ancient metropolis flour- ished. Then, by A.D. 1350, it was abandoned and swallowed up by the prairie. They left behind numerous mounds and a pair of mys- teries as tantalizing as they are elusive: What brought these people together? What drove them apart? During their time at Cahokia, the Mississippians developed complex rituals and beliefs, one of which was human sacrifice. Within those rituals are clues that might help decipher their lives and mysteries—if only we knew how to read them. Once their wood-and-thatch huts had fallen to pieces and their palisade wall had collapsed, when early European settlers had dis- mantled their temple mounds and carved roads across their sacred plazas, little remained to suggest the elaborate achievements of Mis- sissippian culture. For decades, the ancient stone cities of South America and the towering pueblos of the American Southwest eclipsed this prehistoric metropolis in the heartland. But a burst of scholarship in the past decade—fueled by digs such as those that occurred last summer, and by a reappraisal of material collected during earlier excavations—has produced a remarkably detailed picture of the Mississippians. In the process, it has transformed this ancient metropolis and the large towns that once surrounded it from an archaeological backwater into some of the most important prehistoric sites in North America.

28 winter • 2000–2001 The Rise of Religion they came from no farther away than the Ozark Mountains At its height, Cahokia was a city of thatch houses and in what is today east-central Missouri. earthen mounds. But it may have been built upon a reli- Even if it wasn’t corn or trade, something surely engen- gious foundation. dered significant changes in the region around A.D. 1000. An earlier generation of archaeologists explained its Within a very short time, perhaps as little as 10 years, what rise with objects: corn or items of trade. The city sprang had been a village of about 1,000 people grew more than up, according to these theories, because early Mississippi- tenfold. Other, smaller, villages in the area that is today ans began extensive farming of maize, an ancestor of southern Illinois and eastern Missouri emptied as their modern corn. Or perhaps it blossomed because of its inhabitants moved to Cahokia. central location, which laid the foundation for a vast A relatively new theory puts a more human face on trading empire. the sudden blossoming of . It depicts Certainly maize played an important role in Missis- Cahokia as a center of pilgrimage, a metropolis that grew sippian society. And there is no question that early under the sway of a charismatic leader and new religious Native Americans were involved with long-distance insights drawn from old Native American beliefs. Anthro- trade. Cahokia’s location at the heart of a river network pologist Timothy Pauketat of the University of Illinois at spanning two-thirds of the continent provided a liquid Urbana-Champaign, who first proposed this interpreta- highway to distant lands. tion in 1993, calls it “the big bang.” He found evidence But maize was adopted in the region as a food staple to support it at Cahokia’s most elaborate burial site and about A.D. 800—two centuries before the Mississippians’ inside an ancient garbage dump. rise. And though some archaeologists believe the Mississip- Archaeologist Melvin Fowler of the University of pians engaged in long-distance trade, recent discoveries Wisconsin excavated a small ridge-shaped mound at indicate otherwise. Archaeologist Thomas Emerson, direc- tor of the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, used X-ray diffraction and other sophisticated An artist’s conception of a Cahokia market. People from other areas HAMPSHIRE techniques to analyze raw material in effigy pipes, figurines, brought seashells, copper, pottery, stone tools, fabrics, and other materials and other important Mississippian artifacts. He concluded to trade with Cahokia’s elite. M I C H A E L

american archaeology 29 (Left) Geoarchaeologist Mike Kolb takes core samples at regular intervals to help deter- mine the location of the palisade wall on the west side of the Grand Plaza. (Below) Mary Beth Trubitt consults with Kolb. JR. N A U N H E I M J E R R Y were also found in the debris, indicating the feasts took place in late summer or early fall. Also in the pit were broken remains of religious objects not seen before—highly valued quartz crystals chipped into arrowheads and human figures. With them were bits of brightly painted pottery inscribed with religious symbols: wings, eyes, and Cahokia in 1967. Inside, he discovered the ceremonial masks. body of a middle-aged man laid out on a bed of Pauketat and Kelly believe the increasingly elaborate feasts, beads fashioned from seashells that had come unusual objects, and ritualistic burial demonstrate that changing from the Gulf of Mexico. The beads were religious beliefs coincided with the blossoming of Mississippian arranged in the shape of a large bird, a design culture. But not everyone is convinced. Unlike the Maya, Missis- thought to have religious significance. sippians left no inscriptions recounting their myths and beliefs. In a trench nearby, the bodies of 54 young Whatever social or political factors sparked Cahokia’s growth—and women were laid out in two rows. Most experts collapse—must be deduced from bones and potsherds. believe they were ritually sacrificed. Elsewhere in the mound were other pits that unquestion- ably contained victims of human sacrifice. A Shift in Beliefs The man’s burial occurred shortly after the Of all the unanswered questions that remain, Monks Mound is rise of Cahokia. Its like had not been seen before. undoubtedly the most imposing. Named for a group of Trappist Clearly, this was a man of great importance. monks who once lived nearby, the huge mound covers an area About the same time Fowler started work, more than three football fields long and almost three fields wide. another archaeologist began excavations a few Centuries after construction, the mound holds fast to its hundred yards away. Instead of an important secrets. This summer, a team led by William Woods of Southern leader, he found a midden. The archaeologist, Illinois University Edwardsville succeeded in wresting one of those the late Charles Bareis, carefully bagged the secrets away. It was a small but significant victory for Woods, who material he uncovered and stored it away. has spent years studying the soil composition of Monks Mound. Nearly 30 years later, a team led by Pauketat His earlier work has detailed the surprisingly sophisticated con- sifted through that trash and uncovered a sur- struction methods used to build it. Rather than haphazardly piling prising wealth of information. dirt, Mississippian engineers layered various types of soils to permit The team, which included zooarchaeologist drainage and ensure the mound’s stability. Lucretia Kelly of Washington University, found In July, Woods led a team that cored a portion of the mound the remains of many feasts, laid one over the called the first terrace—a 35-foot-tall platform abutting the southern other. Discarded bones revealed what was on the edge. Drilling to ground level, the team retrieved sections of the ter- menu: swan, prairie chicken, and the choicest race. As Woods had predicted, the coring seems to show that the first cuts of venison. Amazingly, remnants of berries terrace was added sometime after the mound was completed. Instead

30 winter • 2000–2001 John Kelly uses surveying instruments to map the Cahokia Mounds area.

of carefully layering soil, the terrace was built quickly with whatever dirt was close at hand. It might seem surprising that ancient builders would alter their greatest monument. But Woods believes that he may have uncovered the reason—a literal shift in the foundation of their religion. Monks Mound was once crowned with one of the largest buildings at Cahokia. Here, screened from the sight of ordinary people, a great religious leader is thought to have performed rituals to greet the rising sun and ensure a bountiful harvest. Some time around A.D. 1200, perhaps triggered by a massive centered on the nearby New Madrid , an enormous portion of this sacred mound’s western side broke away and slid down to form what has until recently been interpreted as a lower terrace. Part of the temple building was carried with it and destroyed. Studying soil composition on the mound’s western slope, Woods found evidence of a hasty patch job. this patchy clay,” Tr ubitt said. “We’re going to dig down Afterward, a large temple was built on the first terrace deep to see if we have a trench on one side or the other.” within sight of crowds that gathered in the great plaza to That elusive trench may have been dug out 800 years the south. Within about 25 years, the first palisade wall earlier in preparation for building the great defensive pal- was begun. isade. It was an undertaking that required up to 20,000 trees, each as tall as 20 feet—enough large oak and hick- ory to denude portions of the surrounding countryside. A Show of Force Parts of that wall, in the form of linear soil stains On a humid summer day last July, Mary Beth Tr ubitt, an caused by disturbed soils and decomposed wood, were archaeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, visible in aerial photographs taken in the 1920s. But that looked up from inside a shallow pit where she was straining record was incomplete. More recently, excavations have to spot subtle variations in the wet soil. “We keep finding revealed the eastern and southern portions. For the last three years, Tr ubitt has been trying to document the pal- isade’s western edge. By closely mapping variations in the surface topog- raphy and by charting subtle differences in resistance when electrical current is transmitted underground, Tr ubitt and her team can identify subsurface features that could be the remains of trenches. Only by digging into them and analyzing the soil composition can they be sure. Her team’s meticulous labor is an example of the lengths to which archaeologists go to coax ancient secrets from the reluctant earth. By the time the first serious investigations occurred around Cahokia, the Mississippians had been gone for centuries and another group of settlers—European Americans—had moved onto the ruins. When archaeol- ogists had become convinced of its size and importance, many outlying sites and even parts of Cahokia had

JR. disappeared. Whatever remained of large Mississippian

N A U N H E I M Elizabeth Severson, an anthropology student at Northwestern University, prepares the site at Mound 34 for photographing. J E R R Y

american archaeology 31 settlements in what is now the know from the accounts of early city of East St. Louis, Illinois, explorers that, in the 1500s, the were thought to have been for- focus of Mississippian warfare ever lost. was the desecration of mortuary John Kelly put the lie to that temples and the bones of the notion. Kelly is an archaeologist chiefs’ ancestors.” at Washington University and Spanish explorer Hernando the husband of Lucretia Kelly. de Soto encountered Mississip-

In pioneering excavations, he pian tribes in what are now Ala- JR. located tell-tale evidence of wall bama, Georgia, Mississippi, and

trenches and dark, compacted Arkansas, around 1540. By that N A U N H E I M clay that marks the base of time Cahokia had been long J E R R Y mounds just beneath the back- abandoned. But traditions ob- yards and alleys of East St. Louis. The head of a chert hoe made by the Mississippians. The heads served by those tribes, such as A team from the University of were attached at right angles to wooden handles. mound building, religious rituals, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and possibly warfare, could well spent the fall of 1999 digging along a busy interstate have been rooted in the past when Cahokia flourished. In highway near where Kelly had worked. The team also any case, Tr ubitt said, the palisade likely served as “a show found the remains of mounds, plazas, and small build- of force, a show of readiness.” ings. During his early work in East St. Louis, Kelly had The object of this intimidation remains a mystery, also seen evidence of burned buildings with food and one of many that linger centuries after the Mississippians valuables still inside. departed. Last spring, the University of Illinois team cautiously released their analysis. It looked as if a large part of this ancient town, located about two miles down a ridge-top More Clues, More Questions road from Cahokia, had been burned to the ground. The On early maps, the hillock a few hundred yards east of signs all pointed to warfare, Pauketat said. the better known Monks Mound is designated “Mound The same thing was uncovered during later excava- 34.” When it was built around A.D. 1200, it stood no tions at outlying Mississippian villages conducted by more than 10 feet high. Today, reduced by centuries of Pauketat and Emerson. At another dig in the Illinois erosion, farming, and artifact hunting, it lies sandwiched River Valley, Emerson found evidence of a torched village between an interstate highway and a warehouse, covered and violent death—individuals killed in farm fields, then by tall grass and weeds. scalped or otherwise mutilated. But items found here belie the mound’s unimpressive Not everyone is convinced that all the burned build- appearance. Among the most precious are pieces of several ings in East St. Louis and the outlying settlements engraved drinking cups fashioned from a seashell. They were the result of warfare. But to Pauketat and others, were broken, perhaps as some sort of consecration ritual, those clues point to an epoch of upheaval in Mississip- about the time the mound was built. The cups were pian culture. As it occurred, residents of discovered by archaeologist Gregory Perino in Cahokia turned away from their monu- 1956. One was engraved with a block line mental mound building to embark on a motif believed to have religious significance. public works project of stunning size: the “That particular artistic style represents palisade wall. a codification, a refinement of religious It was built and rebuilt four times themes that had been seen for years among between about A.D. 1175 and 1275. Even Native Americans here and elsewhere,” at its most expansive, the wall is believed explained archaeologist James Brown of to have enclosed only a small part of the Northwestern University. “It may turn Cahokia site. Most of the community’s out that rituals defined here set the stan- thousands of homes were left outside, dard for rituals practiced throughout the unprotected. That seems a strange de- American Southeast.” fensive strategy.

“Whether this site was ever attacked This jar, found east of Monks Mound, is the only one of RECORD O F and the palisade served as defense, that’s its kind that has been discovered at Cahokia. It’s an open question,” Tr ubitt said. “We believed to date between 1050 and 1150. P I C T U R E S

32 winter • 2000–2001 Examples of pottery decorated in the same style have been found at other sites, some occupied well after Cahokia was abandoned. “You see the same designs on ceramics in east Tennessee. You see it throughout the lower Mississippi Valley, and you see it on shells found in eastern Okla- homa,” said Kelly. Many archaeologists believe religion was Cahokia’s main export. But was it the same religion that sparked the flowering of Mississippian culture? Did beliefs change after a portion of Monks Mound collapsed and the pal- isade wall was begun? Kelly and Brown led a team that re-excavated part of Mound 34 last summer in search of anything that might lend context to the shell cup, or add detail to what is RECORD

O F known about Mississippian beliefs. They unearthed no Rosetta stone, but they did find

P I C T U R E S some intriguing puzzle pieces. At a corner of the mound where Perino described what he called a “copper work- This ceramic effigy vessel of a mother and nursing child shop”—a place where copper was worked into jewelry or was found in a small mound in East St. Louis. repoussé plates—they discovered nuggets of raw copper. At a place where Perino found sharks’ teeth and flint chipped to resemble sharks’ teeth, Brown and Kelly found Saving Prehistory from Urban Sprawl another shark’s tooth with a hole drilled in it. The teeth A traveler flying into Lambert–St. Louis International Airport were probably attached to war clubs. They also discovered and taking the interstate eastward to Cahokia will pass the projectile points and small pieces of bone that appear to locations of two other important Mississippian mound and have been painted or inscribed. village centers without noticing them. The St. Louis mound And late one humid July morning, members of their group, found on early 19th-century maps just north of the team meticulously brushed flecks of dirt away from a city, has been completely destroyed by urban expansion. bundle of white and cream-colored shells similar to those The East St. Louis mound group is now located beneath the used to make the broken drinking cup. They may have city of that name. In the early 19th century it still consisted of 20 to 22 mounds estimated to have been between been bound by a mat or cloth in the way similar so-called 12 and 20 feet high. Only one low mound, fortuitously votive bundles discovered at other Mississippian sites were preserved between two railroad tracks, is visible today. held together. Because votive bundles are often found at However,recent investigations in East St. Louis have the base of mounds, archaeologists believe they had reli- been surprisingly successful in locating intact prehistoric gious significance to the Mississippians—perhaps as part deposits beneath the historic landscape. As a result, The of a ritual to purify and consecrate the ground before a Archaeological Conservancy is now working with archaeo- mound was built. logist John Kelly and other local preservationists to identify But why, at a time when thousands of Cahokians areas within the now blighted urban zone that can be acquired to create an archaeological preserve. This will must have been engaged in building the palisade wall, did probably involve buying some recent ruins in order to pre- they decide to divert resources to construct another serve the significant prehistoric remains beneath them. mound? And why outside the palisade? For now, at least, Even at Cahokia, urban sprawl has taken its toll. Brown and Kelly have no answers. Many mounds were destroyed to provide fill for modern Each new discovery provides further clues. But it also construction projects and large portions of the site raises fresh questions about the ancient Mississippians have disappeared under the modest houses, shops, and who communed with their gods at Cahokia, a place of mobile home courts of the surrounding neighborhood. mounds and mysteries. Here as well, Kelly and his associates are working to identify well-preserved deposits within the urban zone. The Archaeological Conservancy is acquiring a 2.5-acre JOHN G. CARLTON is an editorial writer and WILLIAM ALLEN is a tract in a residential area on the western margin of science writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They collaborated Cahokia, where Kelly’s investigations have revealed a on a five-part series for the paper exploring Mississippian workshop area where shell ornaments and perhaps basalt culture and Cahokia, which appeared in December 1999 and figurines were made. —Paul Gardner January 2000.

american archaeology 33 A Cultural Affiliation Controversy Archaeologists and Native Americans are protesting Chaco Culture National Historical Park’s determination that the Navajo are related to the Anasazi.

By Joanne Sheehy Hoover

CHACO CULTURE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK IN NORTH- that, like the Puebloan peoples of the area, who are thought western New Mexico is considered a sacred ancient site to be descendants of the Anasazi, the Navajo could legally by the Pueblo Indian tribes of New Mexico, the Hopi in lay claim to human remains and artifacts within the park. Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the region. Chaco is This decision set off a chain of protests. Sixteen of also the epicenter of a conflict involving Native Ameri- the 19 Puebloan tribes that form the All Indian Pueblo cans, archaeologists, and the federal government. Council in Albuquerque formally joined with the Hopi This conflict was set in motion by the National Park tribe to dispute the claim. The process of repatriation and Service’s actions taken under the Native American Graves reburial at Chaco came to a halt. A NAGPRA Review Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). Committee, established to hear NAGPRA disputes and One of the act’s primary purposes is to permit tribes make recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior, to determine what will happen to human remains and found that Chaco had done an inadequate job of deter- funerary, sacred, and communally-owned objects with mining cultural affiliation and recommended that the which the tribes are culturally affiliated. park service rethink its findings and hire a consultant to The trigger for the conflict was Chaco’s inclusion of the review the evidence. When the park service refused to do Navajo Nation in March 1999 in its list of tribes deter- this, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) wrote mined to be culturally affiliated with the Anasazi, the pop- to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, questioning the ular term for the peoples who occupied Chaco between the validity of the park service’s findings and requesting a ninth and thirteenth centuries. The park’s findings meant review of its decision.

34 winter • 2000–2001 COLLECTION U S E U M M N H P C U L T U R E C H A C O • S E R V I C E P A R K N A T I O N A L

Majestic Fajada Butte towers over Chaco Culture National Historic Park.

This controversy “got everybody’s attention because of the Chaco finding “confused a legal definition of cultural the political aspects,” according to Francis P. McManamon, affiliation with a common sense understanding of cultural the park service’s chief archaeologist. The park service, relationship.... It was badly flawed.” as represented by Chaco, is also at odds with a significant NAGPRA, which establishes a careful balance between portion of the archaeological community that believes the traditional Native American and scientific interests, defines Navajo’s claim is contradicted by archaeological and other cultural affiliation as a relationship of shared cultural iden- scientific evidence. tity that can be traced through time to a modern tribe. Current archaeological thinking does not place the Navajos THE CONTROVERSY CENTERS ON THE TERM “CULTURAL in the Southwest until the 15th or 16th century, long affiliation.” NAGPRA states that culturally-affiliated tribes after the dispersal of the Anasazi from Chaco. The Navajo have the right to determine the disposition of their ances- language derives from a language family known as Atha- tors. In the case of Chaco, where virtually every modern paskan, which is unrelated to the languages spoken by the tribe in the area claims a connection to the site, determin- Puebloan peoples. At stake, said Kintigh, is “the definition ing which groups fit that category becomes difficult. Inter- of cultural affiliation ....If you say anything can be cultural mingling of clans and intermarriage between the Puebloan affiliation, then you can repatriate anything to anybody. peoples and the Navajo also complicate the picture. The law’s intent is to allow tribes that have reasonably close In the view of Keith Kintigh, professor of anthropol- connections to determine what happens to the remains of ogy at Arizona State University and president of the SAA, their ancestors.” american archaeology 35 “If you say anything can be cultural affiliation,then you can repatriate anything to anybody.” —Keith Kintigh

said the committee was advised by a government lawyer who is well versed in NAGPRA law. The review commit- tee did its best to uphold the letter and spirit of the law, he said, adding that NAGPRA is subject to interpretation, and that one of the committee’s roles is to establish guide- lines for enforcing the law.

O’Shea believes Chaco’s controversial determination SHEARS L . resulted from the park wanting to resolve a difficult situ-

ation “as expeditiously as possible.” He was surprised that B R E N D A Wendy Bustard, the museum curator at Chaco, Chaco rejected the review committee’s unanimous recom- pointed out that recently Babbitt officially proclaimed mendation to reconsider its determination. NAGPRA to be “Indian Law,” a legal principle that tilts “Some people felt [Chaco] couldn’t be trusted to do the scales of justice in favor of the Indians. Chaco inter- honest work,” he observed. preted NAGPRA as Indian Law in concluding the Navajo are culturally affiliated to the park. “[NAGPRA] was designed for the benefit of Ameri- can Indians, not archaeology,” she stated. “We believe we complied with the law,” said Butch Wilson, the superintendent of Chaco. The Navajo furnished Wilson and his staff with oral traditions and historical records as well as “a ton of ethnographic and written literature” which established cultural affiliation. “The NAGPRA review committee looked at it differently than we did.” Wilson stated the review committee lacked a firm grasp of the law and that some of its members were biased. John O’Shea, a University of Michigan archaeolo- P O 0 R E gist who chaired the review committee’s dispute hearings, D A R R E N “[NAGPRA] was designed for the benefit of American Indians,not archaeology.” —Wendy Bustard

36 winter • 2000–2001 MESA VERDE CONCURS WITH CHACO “The Navajo have been officially determined to be a culturally affiliated tribe to the people and objects in the collection at Mesa Verde,” said Will Morris, ’s public affairs officer. Mesa Verde conducted a study in 1995 that resulted in this determination. “We feel it was an appropriate study,” Morris said, though he acknowledged that a number of Native Americans and archaeologists are of a different opinion. Oral history was “the line of evidence that made the difference,” said Linda Towle, the park’s chief of research and resource management. She said the study complied with NAGPRA regulations. Approximately 400 individuals are being prepared for burial, and Mesa Verde officials plan to “return the remains to the ground as soon as possible,” Morris said. Twenty-four tribes are considered to be culturally affiliated to the remains and objects at Mesa Verde, four of whom— the Acoma, Hopi, Zuni, and Zia—have been selected to receive the remains and objects. Though Mesa Verde is prepared to repatriate, it can’t until the four tribes have signed the repatriation agreement, and so far none of them has. Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, the director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, said his tribe is appealing Mesa Verde’s decision. Morris said he had no idea when this dispute will be resolved. —Michael Bawaya

OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS OPPOSING THE NAVAJO Ancient-DNA testing, a relatively new archaeological claim, the Hopi are the most vigorous in their protest. The field, might also offer some answers. David Glenn Smith, Hopi reservation in north-central Arizona is surrounded by an anthropologist at the University of California and one the vast Navajo reservation, and the two tribes have a long- of the country’s leading ancient-DNA researchers, believes running conflict over land issues. Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, that, if a genetic link between a modern tribe and the director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, objected Anasazi exists, DNA testing can reveal it by identifying to the weight the decision placed on oral tradition and folk- the genetic makeup of the prehistoric remains and com- lore. Though the Hopi use these things to prove their tie to paring them to those of modern populations. Chaco, he said they also have specific cultural objects and But getting reliable results from the ancient samples ceremonies that support their relationship. He also ques- can be challenging, and Native Americans generally con- tioned the evidence for a shared identity between the sider DNA testing to be invasive and destructive. Navajo and the Anasazi. As an example, he pointed to “Ultimately, genetics will tell the full history, but , plazas, and organized room blocks that are part of many tribes, including the Hopi, don’t endorse DNA contemporary Hopi life and the Chaco past. (testing),” said Kuwanwisiwma. “Did Navajos have organized villages, room blocks, In response to the Hopi’s appeal, the park service has plazas, kivas? I don’t think so,” Kuwanwisiwma said. said it will conduct a public review of the entire NAGPRA The Navajos, according to Alan Downer, director of process. Unfortunately, Kuwanwisiwma noted, such a the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department, review will not directly address the Hopi’s appeal. recognize that “contemporary pueblos are descended from “The next step is to the Secretary of the Interior,” the Anasazi. We don’t dispute that view. It’s just too lim- he said. ited.” Navajo claims of cultural affiliation with the The Zuni, a pueblo closely allied with the Hopi, sug- Anasazi were initially based on their oral history. Downer gest avoiding confrontation and turning to unrelated mat- said he believes that the Navajo may have come to the ters where cooperation can be achieved. The park service area earlier than the accepted archaeological date. The hopes continued discussions between the Pueblo tribes Navajos have thus far made no requests for remains at and the Navajos will yield a resolution. The Navajo want Chaco because their oral historians, who have declared private discussion, not public confrontation, with other they are culturally affiliated with the Anasazi, have said Native Americans. the remains are not Navajo ancestors. In the meantime, archeologists could unearth evi- “It’s not better for the remains to be in a Navajo dence that might settle the dispute—or ignite a new holding facility than in the Smithsonian,” said Downer. controversy. Bustard noted the dispute may have one positive out- come, this being a renewed interest in looking for earlier JOANNE SHEEHY HOOVER is a freelance writer living in Albuquerque, Navajo archaeological sites. Discovery of a Navajo site New Mexico. Her work has appeared in numerous publications includ- prior to or coexistent with Chaco could significantly alter ing the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. thinking about the Southwest’s history. american archaeology 37 new acquisition Learning about the Tataviam The Conservancy’s acquisition of Lannan Ranch may provide important information about a little-known people.

he 1,600-acre Lannan Ranch rests along the slopes of assure her continued use of the property until her the Sierra Pelona Mountains north of Agua Dulce, death, which occurred earlier this year. TCalifornia. In 1995, Tom Haile, a respected avocational Even in dry years, numerous springs provide archaeologist of the nearby community of Acton, contacted water to the high desert hillsides of Lannan Ranch. the Conservancy about the property. He believed it to This was one reason for the establishment of the contain an important prehistoric village. large prehistoric village at the site. The ranch is also The ranch was owned by Belva Lannan, who had one of the few known inland sources of steatite in established it with her husband in the 1930s. In later years, California. Steatite, commonly known as soapstone, Lannan watched the quiet valleys fill with houses and the is a soft rock that was avidly traded by Native rural ranching economy suffer as a result of higher land Americans, and highly prized because it could be prices and the development of utilities, roads, and other easily carved into bowls, pipes, and ornaments. infrastructure. Because Lannan wanted to preserve the Because soapstone can be traced to the originating archaeological resources on her land, she donated the ranch quarry, steatite artifacts and the location of their to the Conservancy in late 1998, retaining a life estate to sources form the basis for important hypotheses about the extent of trade between groups in South- ern California and other areas of the Southwest. The area around Lannan Ranch was inhabited in the 18th century by a group known as the Tataviam. They spoke a dialect of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family similar to that of their Gabrieleño and Kitanemuk neighbors. The Tataviam was one of the earliest groups contacted by Spanish missionaries in the region, and their villages were described by members of the Don Gaspar de Portolá expedition as early as 1769. Even given these early accounts, little ethno- graphic or historical information is available about the Tataviam people. Research at another Tataviam- occupied area along the Santa Clara River, the Conservancy’s preserve at Assistencia de San Francisco, uncovered historical documents which indicate that by 1810, all of the Tataviam people had been transported to mission properties to work in vineyards, orchards, and fields. They were baptized at Mission San Fernando and soon began to intermarry and mix with other groups. Exposure to Old-World diseases quickly caused their population to plummet. The last speaker of Tataviam, Juan José Fustero, died in 1921. The Tataviam were likely similar to their Fernan- deño and Chumash neighbors in terms of subsistence

Lannan Ranch is a source of steatite, a soft rock that Native Americans DUNBAR

carved into bowls, pipes, and ornaments. L Y N N

38 winter • 2000–2001 strategies. They lived in houses of wooden poles planted in the ground and covered with woven panels and thatched roofing. The temperate Southern California climate and varied topography allowed the Tataviam to draw upon a large variety of food sources. They hunted deer, squirrels, rabbits, birds, lizards, and snakes, and gathered chia seeds, sage, agave, yucca, buckwheat, toyon berries, acorns, grasshoppers and caterpillars. The Tataviam were known for their weaving and basketry skills, and stone bowls associated with Tataviam sites show an unusual tell-tale ring of pitch around the rim, where a basket may have been affixed to the bowl. This emphasis on basketry may explain the dearth of ceramics in Tataviam sites. The Tataviam were known to store caches of artifacts in caves in the region. During a DUNBAR recent survey, archaeologists David Whitley

L Y N N and JoeSimon discovered such a cache, yield- ing a variety of deposits that had been dam- Tom Haile called Lannan Ranch to the attention of the Conservancy. aged by looting. The best known cache of Tataviam goods was Bowers Cave, near Val Verde. It was found by a teenager, McCoy Pyle, in 1884. relics to private collectors and to Harvard University’s Pyle was out deer hunting and noticed a dark opening in a Peabody Museum. sandstone cliff. Within the cave were large baskets contain- The Lannan Ranch sites have never been excavated. ing stone tools, obsidian blades, deer bone whistles, strings Archaeologists hope that the sites may contain further of beads, crystals, and spectacular headdresses and capes clues to Tataviam political and social organization, made of iridescent condor and flicker feathers. The cache ceremonial traditions, and tenure on the land. also contained painted stone discs attached to wooden Whitley and Simon hypothesize that a wide-scale handles that were likely used for ceremonial purposes. inland population expansion began about 4,000 years Soon after the discovery, local collector Stephen Bowers ago, when a drought ended, and then tapered off about purchased the entire cache for $1,500, and sold the 800 years ago, when drought returned. However, Tom Haile believes that recent discoveries and radiocarbon dating at sites near the Lannan Ranch may reveal a Tataviam To Learn More occupation stretching back 8,000 years. The Antelope Valley Indian Museum was originally Haile also believes that the Tataviam constructed by homesteader and artist H. Arden influence may have extended to islands Edwards in 1928 and contains his collection off the coast. of artifacts from aboriginal and Due to the lack of detailed historical contemporary California and information about the Tataviam and the Southwestern cultures as well as fact that so many nearby sites have been the collection of anthropologist looted or disturbed, this acquisition is an extremely important one. There are Grace Oliver. The museum, archaeological research questions which which is 15 miles east of might be answered only at Lannan Ranch. Lancaster, is open 11 A.M. Belva Lannan has left an important legacy, to 4 P.M. from the end of passing on the heritage of the earlier September through the middle landowners, the Tataviam, to us all. of June. (661-946-3055) —Lynn Dunbar or www.avim.av.org

american archaeology 39 new acquisition History on the Shores of Big Lake Once the traditional homesite of Passamaquoddy Indian chiefs, Governor’s Point in Maine has the distinction of being the Conservancy’s northeastern-most preserve.

t is difficult to imagine a more pleasant place than Maine in the Isummertime. Yes, there are mosqui- toes and an occasional squadron of black flies, but these minor nuisances disappear when you are in the middle of one of Maine’s emerald lakes. Last June, owner Jim Thompson paddled his 100-year-old Passama- quoddy canoe out onto Big Lake with the Conservancy’s Eastern HART regional director, Rob Crisell. The

only way to visit Governor’s Point, G R E G O R Y a Late Woodland archaeological site A view of the sandy beach at Governor’s Point. Excavations were conducted here in 1988 and 1992. and the Conservancy’s fourth prop- erty in the state, is by boat. Thomp- During historic times, chiefs Governor’s Point was discovered son, Sturgis Hooper Professor of of the Passamaquoddy tribe in 1986. Cox and his crew recovered Geology, Emeritus, at Harvard traditionally resided at Governor’s numerous prehistoric artifacts, University, decided to donate the Point across from what is now the such as stemmed bifaces, prehistoric seven-acre property—located near the Passamaquoddy Indian Reservation, pottery, calcined bone, and cooking small town of Grand Lake Stream— giving the site its name. Evidence hearths. Early 17th-century artifacts after many years of safeguarding from two digs at the site conducted include copper objects, trade beads, the site himself. by archaeologist Steve Cox suggests Bellarmine jar fragments, barbed that Governor’s Point was also a iron points, kaolin pipe fragments, Conservancy major seasonal village throughout and French gunflints. Plan of Action the Woodland period and well into “Although the prehistoric the historic period (1000 B.C. to Woodland period components alone SITE: Governor’s Point A.D. 1800). The property is vital for would make Governor’s Point a CULTURE & TIME PERIOD: Woodland understanding details of the relation- National Register-quality site,” period to historic (1000 B.C.–A.D. 1800) ship between the first European explains Cox, “the early contact STATUS: Jim Thompson is donating this settlers and the Passamaquoddy. material is particularly significant seven-acre property to the Conservancy because of the scarcity of such after protecting the site for more than components in Maine and because two decades. of the dynamic and complex ACQUISITION: The Conservancy must cultural interactions of the period.” raise $15,000 to pay for survey, site —Rob Crisell stabilization, closing, fencing, and Exploring Maine’s Past long-term management costs. The Abbe Museum (207-288-3519) in Bar Harbor fea- HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send your tures changing exhibits on the state’s Indian culture, contributions to The Archaeological history, and art. Other nearby attractions include the Conservancy, Attn: Project Governor’s Maine State Museum (207-287-2301) in Augusta and Point; 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite St. Croix Island International Historic Site 402; Albuquerque, NM 87108. (www.nps.gov/sacr) in Calais.

40 winter • 2000–2001 new POINT Preserving a Record of acquisition Prehistoric Village Life The Archaeological Conservancy partners with a local land trust to preserve the Cambria site.

erched atop Lodge Hill, with a view of the Pacific Ocean, the PCambria site is one of the best preserved and oldest prehistoric villages on California’s Central Coast. Radiocarbon dating has established that the site is 8,000 years old, which is unusual for an intact shell midden here. Most early sites have been lost to intense coastal development or eroded

GIBSON away by wind and waves. Cambria is a charming vacation

R O B E R T town between San Luis Obispo and Monterey. Greenspace, a nonprofit These abalone ornaments are approximately 2,000 years old. organization in Cambria, has lead efforts to create parks, nature trails, commodities such as food, luxury in the archaeological record. In fact, historic sites, and community items, and tool-making materials. since native societies here were deci- gardens throughout the town. Over time, they were forced to adapt mated by contact and colonization, The Archaeological Conservancy to climate change, technological the underground record of village has joined forces with Greenspace advancement, and cultural shifts, life is essential to our understanding to preserve the site. This is the first and these adaptations are reflected of California’s prehistoric peoples. time that the Conservancy will —Lynn Dunbar contract directly with a local land trust in a joint venture, and may serve as a model for future arch- aeological preservation. The site was first excavated in 1978 and has been tested repeatedly since then. It contains stone and bone tools, projectile points, shell beads, pipes, stone and shell pen- dants, and ornaments. In prehistoric times, the Cambria area was inhabited by the Northern POINT Acquisitions Chumash and the Southern Salinan The POINT Program is the Conservancy’s new people. They followed an annual emergency acquisition initiative to save sites cycle of fishing, hunting, and throughout the country. (See the POINT Program harvesting wild plants. They traded donor list and information on page 45.)

american archaeology 41 CONSERV ANCY FieldNotes

New Excavations Lead to a Mississippian ceramic styles but fashioned in the Wood- Surprising Discovery land method. This unexpected SOUTHEAST—Researchers from turn of events indicates the the University of Illinois at Chicago, site was occupied at the end led by Cameron Wesson, braved of the Woodland period extremes in weather to complete an and promises to shed light archaeological survey of the Conser- on the origins of the Missis- vancy’s 60-acre Samuel Preserve near sippian culture. Wetumpka, Alabama. The Samuel However, one feature Preserve possesses several distinct particularly piqued Wesson’s archaeological features, including interest: the so-called “Dough- mound groups and middens that were nut Mound.” When the originally recorded over 30 years site was originally recorded, ago by archaeologist David Chase. archaeologists believed the Since their recording, the sites Doughnut Mound to be a have remained undisturbed. Wesson, burial mound or midden that who originally believed the sites were looters had dug out in the separate from one another, hoped to distant past, leaving only an learn more about the cultural affilia- earthen ring. Wesson exca-

tions of the various sites, paying par- vated a few test units to l WESSON ticular attention to the mound groups. earn more about the mound.

The Conservancy planned to utilize What he found shocked C A M E R O N the information gained from the and amazed archaeologists Working in a trench on the top of Doughnut Mound, survey to better manage the preserve. throughout Alabama. researchers identify the various layers of soil used to After completing over 500 shovel Wesson determined that construct the mound. tests at 20-meter intervals, it became the Doughnut Mound was apparent that the Samuel Preserve was not a mound at all, but a structure. are known to date to as early as the not several distinct sites but one very Additional excavations confirmed his Woodland period,” states archaeologist large site dating to the end of the theory; he had located an earthlodge, Craig Sheldon, chairman of Alabama’s Woodland period (A.D. 850–1100), a rare, semi-subterranean type of Historical Commission. “The struc- with Archaic and Creek Indian council house similar in many respects ture resembles one I excavated at Fusi- components. Wesson found copious to the kivas found in the Southwest. hatchee, but this structure is about amounts of pottery throughout “Few earthlodges have ever been eight hundred years older and is the preserve resembling the later discovered in Alabama, and no others enormous for the Woodland period.”

42 winter • 2000–2001 “Our investigations determined adobe surface rooms and a deep square that the present shape of the mound pitroom, surrounded on the north and is a result of the collapse of a large east by shallow midden deposits. This circular structure with an interior structure was totally excavated by a floor area of approximately 12 meters group of amateur archaeologists from in diameter,” states Wesson. Roswell in the 1930s and 1940s, He also recovered posts and leaving nothing but the midden. None wall debris consistent with wattle- of the items recovered in those early and-daub architecture, and a large excavations were labeled or cataloged, central post that would have been and most were lost in the 1950s when one of four supports for the roof, the basement of the Roswell Art and discovered a large central hearth. Museum flooded. Speth was surprised Evidence indicates that the interior to discover that most of what had been of the roof was covered with daub thought to be midden was actually and the exterior with earth. architectural, with the community “Although we can never be sure,” now numbering at least 20 rooms, Wesson adds, “there is a very good and perhaps as many as 30 or more. possibility that this structure was The goal of last summer’s testing intentionally burned. I believe this was to obtain samples from the mid- because the floor and central fire den for radiocarbon dating, and to pit were cleaned out prior to being obtain faunal and floral samples to

ATHERTON burned. This usually only happens determine whether Bloom Mound’s when people intentionally burn economy had undergone changes

H E A T H E R a structure.” Kelly Britt, a member of the crew that worked comparable to those at Henderson. As is typical of most archaeologi- at San José de las Huertas, maps the site. Speth’s work at Henderson Pueblo cal excavations, Wesson raised as between 1994 and 1997 has shown many new questions as he answered. Rothschild previously produced a that this 50- to 60-room community He hopes to return to the Samuel surface map of the site’s features. Her underwent a dramatic restructuring Preserve in the near future to attempt recent work with Atherton included of its economy in the 1300s, chang- to solve the mysteries surrounding a geophysical survey using soil resistiv- ing from a system based on a mixture the earthlodge and its builders. ity and magnetometer studies to create of farming corn and hunting a variety a sub-surface map of the site’s features of small and large animals to one Remote Sensing at and structures. She also researched based on long-distance communal Spanish Colonial documents pertain- bison hunting. San José de las Huertas ing to the occupation of the site. Speth suspected that Bloom SOUTHWEST—Researchers Nan Mound post-dated Henderson by a Rothschild and Heather Atherton, Getting a Clearer Picture of few decades and might therefore with Columbia University’s Barnard represent the last stages in this trans- College, conducted remote sensing at Bloom Mound Pueblo formation of local farmer-hunters the walled Spanish Colonial village SOUTHWEST—Last summer, John into nomadic bison hunters. of San José de las Huertas, near Albu- Speth led members of the University The testing also produced the querque, New Mexico, last summer. of Michigan Museum of Anthropol- hoped-for economic data. While the They were assisted by a team of ogy field school in conducting a analysis of this material is just begin- graduate students. testing program at Bloom Mound ning, the preliminary results suggest This Conservancy preserve, Pueblo near Roswell, New Mexico. that Bloom Mound’s time of occupa- which covers 24 acres, was assembled Bloom Mound is located in the tion probably extends beyond that through the acquisition of three tracts Pecos Valley near Henderson Pueblo, of Henderson’s. The site therefore of land between 1986 and 2000. another Conservancy preserve. preserves an invaluable record of the Occupied from 1764 to 1823, San Bloom Mound was thought to final stages in the emergence of full- José de las Huertas contains at least have been a very tiny community, time bison hunters in this part of the 10 undisturbed housemounds. with just one small roomblock of nine Southern Plains.

american archaeology 43 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSERV ANCY

River to tour Lamanai, a Maya trading center established more than 2,000 years ago that was occupied until A.D. 1641. From the coast you’ll travel to the inner reaches of Belize and visit magnificent sites such as Cahal Pech, perched on a mountaintop, Xunantunich, the site of El Castillo, and El Caracol, possibly the largest Maya site. You’ll spend several days exploring the magnificent city of Copán, considered by many to be the crown jewel of the southern Maya. Its famous Hieroglyphic Stairway, with its 63 steps, describes the city’s achievements. John Henderson, professor of anthropology at Cornell Univer- sity and one of the foremost scholars on Mesoamerican cultures, will lead the tour. Rafting Through Time SAN JUAN RIVER T OUR When: June 2–9, 2001 Where: Southeastern Utah

How much: $1,495 ($45 single supplement) MICHEL If you love floating downriver, camping under the stars, or exploring remote archaeological sites, our San Juan River M A R K The ball court (lower right) is one of the attractions of the amazing trip is sure to be an adventure you’ll enjoy. In Bluff, Utah, central palace of Copán. you’ll begin a six-day journey down the scenic San Juan River, including its famous “goosenecks” stretch. Among the highlights of the trip are visits to several archaeological Palaces and Pyramids sites, such as River House, the largest on the BELIZE AND COPÁN San Juan. You’ll also visit Chinle Wash, the famous setting When: March 16–25, 2001 of author Tony Hillerman’s novel A Thief of Time. Where: Belize and Honduras At Lower Butler Wash you’ll view what is considered How Much: $2,295 ($295 single supplement) one of the Southwest’s most beautiful rock art sites. For Our Maya adventure begins on the coast of Belize, where those who wish to explore beyond the river, there are you’ll explore Belize City and take a boat ride up the New opportunities throughout the trip to hike river trails,

44 winter • 2000–2001 Patrons of Preservation Each year the Conservancy receives a substantial amount of its funding from individuals, foundations, and corporations. We would like to thank the following donors for their generous support for the period of August through October. Life Member Gifts of Foundation/Corporate $1,000 or more Gifts of $1,000 or more David Arthur, Illinois ARCO Foundation of Robert Connick, California California, California (in memory of Jean Pitzer) R.& F. Coal Co., Ohio Chris A. Cummings, Texas Hutchinson Family Fund Mrs. John Kee, Jr., Florida of The Greater Cincinnati William and Priscilla Foundation, Ohio Robinson, Arizona Santa Fe Community T. L. Samuel, Jr., Foundation, New Mexico Alabama Joan Irvine Smith & Athalie R. George M. and Nancy Shaffer, Clarke Foundation, California New Mexico Richard and Mary Solari Jacqueline Woodruff, Charitable Trust, California OLSSON California Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, California E R I K A Arthur Vining Davis Covered with life-sized , this rock art panel in Butler Wash Foundations, Florida extends more than 200 yards. To make a donation or become a member, contact: including Honaker Trail, a famous trail once used by pros- The Archaeological Conservancy pectors. David Grant Noble, photographer and author of 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 402 such books as Ancient Ruins of the Southwest and New Light Albuquerque, NM 87108 on Chaco, will accompany the tour and share his insights (505) 266-1540 • www.americanarchaeology.com about the people who once lived in this isolated region.

POINT Program Update This September, the POINT Program (Protect Our Irreplaceable National Treasures) was launched in order to preserve important archaeological sites that face imminent destruction. Conservancy founder and board member Jay Last pledged a gift of $1 million to the Conservancy to buy sites. In order to receive this gift, the Conservancy must raise matching funds. To date, we have received more than $150,000 from dedicated members and foundations. To all who have contributed to this very special campaign, we extend our deep appreciation. In addition, we would like to express our thanks to the following donors for their extraordinary generosity: POINT Program Gifts of $1,000 to $2,499 POINT Program Gifts of $2,500 to $4,999 Anonymous (1) Grace Hartzel, Ohio Betty Banks, Washington POINT Program Gifts of $5,000 to $9,999 Laurel Cooper, Arizona Anonymous (1) Helen Darby, California Dorothy Beatty, California Lindsay and Lucy Duff, Texas Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, Connecticut J. Scott Hamilton, Arizona June Stack, Pennsylvania Roger and Frances Kennedy, New Mexico Richard Woodbury, Massachusetts Derwood Koenig, Indiana POINT Program Gifts of $10,000 or more Paul McCament, Texas Nina Bonnie, Kentucky George Pardee, Jr., California Donna Cosulich, New York Hervey and Sarah Stockman, New Mexico Jerry and Janet EtsHokin, Illinois

american archaeology 45 Examining the Reviews Mystery of Rock Art

The Art of the Shaman: Rock Art of California By David S. Whitley (University of Utah Press, 2000; 145 pgs., illus.; $45 cloth; 801-585-9786)

Warrior, Shield, and Star: Imagery and Ideology of Pueblo Warfare By Polly Schaafsma (Western Edge Press, 2000; 216 pgs., illus.; $25 paper; 505-988-7214)

The Serpent and the Sacred Fire: Fertility Images in Southwest Rock Art By Dennis Slifer (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2000; 208 pgs., illus.; $35 cloth, $17 paper; 505-827-6454)

Three recently published books on prehistoric rock art in the American Southwest represent a range of current research into various aspects of this intriguing subject. Each book makes an important contribution to the knowledge of rock art and the cultural traditions from which it developed. For centuries, scientists and lay people alike have been fascinated by the gorgeous polychrome murals and elaborate petroglyphs prehistoric peoples created in public and private places, yet the real meaning of these enigmatic images has remained tantalizingly elusive. Ethnographic evi- dence indicates that the art was often produced by shamans, but for many years archaeologists dismissed these records as providing no useful information about the content of the art. In the masterful Art of the Shaman, a book as pleasing to look at as it is to read, David S. Whitley, an archaeologist who has written extensively on prehistoric art and religion (see “Reading the Minds of Rock Artists,” American Archaeology, Fall 1997), brings together ethnographical analysis, art interpretation, and findings from the esoteric field of neu- ropsychology to shed new light on this mystery. Whitley asserts that the forms of rock art found in California, though richly varied stylistically, actually represent a limited num- ber of specific themes related to shamanism, a concept known to be central to the religious beliefs of prehistoric Californians. The sites themselves—often caves, crevices, and natural formations chosen for their symbolic content—were sacred places intermedi- ate between this world and the world of the spirits. Whitley makes a compelling argument that rock art depicts the events of the shamans’ vision quests, the spirits they had encountered, and the rituals in which they had participated. The question remains of why shamans created art—that is, why they needed to permanently record their otherworldly experiences.

46 winter • 2000–2001 Guide to Rock Art of the Utah Region: Sites with Public Access By Dennis Slifer (Ancient City Press, 2000; 245 pgs., illus.; $16 paper; 800-249-7737) For those who wish to leave their armchairs to experience the wonders of rock art first hand, this book, also by Dennis Slifer, is an excellently organized guide to more than 50 sites in and around the Colorado Plateau that are now open to the public. The book includes a comprehensive overview of rock art styles and the cultural traditions that produced them, maps and directions for locating the sites, and extensive descriptions of the imagery. Slifer also includes much-appreciated chapters on rock art conservation and site etiquette, as well as photography tips.

Whitley suggests that a clue may be found in neuropsychol- these symbols with ethnographic data from diverse sources ogy. Scientists who study brain chemistry during altered to shed light on the ideological motivations for institu- states of consciousness have discovered that short-term tionalized conflict during the Pueblo IV period (ca. A.D. memory is severely impaired during a trance. This observa- 1325–1600). The art indicates that organized warrior so- tion eerily echoes ethnographic accounts of the great diffi- cieties and kachina cults evolved during this time, and that culty shamans had in remembering their hallucinogenic warfare was important to the rainmaking and sun cults experiences. Perhaps recording these important sacred that sought to ensure agricultural success. The concluding events in paint or carving was a way of ensuring that they chapter relates ancient war symbols to modern Pueblo war would not be forgotten. societies, where some of the more traditional rituals are Whitley’s ingenious thesis also offers an explanation for still performed. the puzzling geometric motifs that proliferate in rock art, Fertility has long been recognized as a theme of primary which have often been dismissed as mere decorative graffiti. importance in the art of prehistoric cultures. The abundance These images are strikingly similar to the optical illusions re- and universality of fertility images suggest that a primary ported by subjects to accompany a trance state or as precur- concern of ancient peoples was the appeasement of super- sors to migraine headaches. By drawing on findings from di- natural forces to assure the continuation of life, not just of vergent fields, Whitley has produced a highly original humans, but of other animals and plants upon which synthesis of current research into the meaning of these ubiq- human life depended. The Serpent and the Sacred Fire, by uitous and haunting images. Dennis Slifer, features hundreds of diagrams and numerous Another book dealing with the interpretation of rock photographs focusing on the iconography of fertility, cre- art is Polly Schaafsma’s Warrior, Shield, and Star, which ation, and abundance, and the connection between sexual- investigates the depiction of warfare in Southwest rock art as ity and the sacred, in the rock art of the American South- a means of understanding violence and conflict among the west. Slifer further compares these images to those found in prehistoric Pueblo peoples. The rock art and murals in the art of tribal peoples from other parts of the world to Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico incorporate demonstrate the archetypal nature of such depictions. some of the most dramatic, graphic images in Pueblo art. Undoubtedly, as research progresses on this com- Representations of shields and other weapons, warriors, pelling subject, new discoveries and insights will continue animal war patrons, and other warfare iconography suggest to add to our understanding. Nonetheless, these three a very different culture from the traditional “peaceful scholars have given us a great deal to think about and ad- farmer” model of the Anasazi. mire in the ancient people who preceded us in this place. Schaafsma’s investigation combines interpretation of —Betsy Greenlee american archaeology 47 Past Portrait Pueblo pottery from the Spanish Colonial village of San José de las Huertas, 1764–1823, a Conservancy preserve in New Mexico. (See the related article in Field Notes, page 43.) TEIWES H E L G A

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