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Home , Axe, Bow drill, Bradawl, Stitching awl

Annotated Object List: The Ancient Southwest: Ancestral Pueblo Discovery Kit

(Please note: all artifacts are real unless otherwise stated)

Ground Stone Artifacts

Axe This is one invention that has not changed much over time. Though it is missing its handle, which would have been hafted to a strong stick, would be used much as our are used today. Native Americans used axes to build their pit houses. They would chop down trees to create the sturdy post and beam frameworks of the structure. Another example is using the chopped trees to create the poles for teepees.

Maul Like the axe in this kit, this maul is analagous to the modern . The maul is a shaped stone that would have been hafted to a strong, thick stick with cordage material and used to flatten meat or to break open rocks (in mining activities).

Mano A smooth hand-held stone, the is used against a , typically a large stone with a depression or bowl. The movement of the mano against the metate consists of a circular, rocking or chopping grinding motion using one or both hands.

In its early use in the American Southwest, the mano and metate were used to grind wild plants. The mano began as a one-handed and once cultivation of maize became more prevalent, the mano became a larger, two-handed tool that more efficiently ground food against an evolved basin or trough metate. Ancient Pueblo People often set up work rooms, called mealing rooms, that were established with sets of manos and for mass grinding efforts.

Chipped Stone Artifacts

Tanged (cast) Pueblo I, A.D. 750-900, Wallace Ruin, Montezuma, CO This tanged point was found during one of the excavations at Wallace Ruin near Cortez, Colorado. It dates to the beginning of the during the Anasazi era sometime between A.D. 750 to A.D. 900. This point is very thin and made. It was made from a beautiful piece of green Morrison Siltstone and it measures 1 11/16 inches (4.3 cm) long.

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Education Section, UCB 218 Boulder, CO 80309 (303) 492-1666 http://cumuseum.colorado.edu Pueblo (cast) Pueblo II-III, A.D. 900-1300, Wallace Ruin, Montezuma, CO This very thin bifacially flaked knife was found during a scientific excavation at Wallace Ruin near Cortez, Colorado. Bifacially flaked artifacts, other than projectile points and , are not common in Pueblo II-III sites. This knife was expertly crafted by its maker who used superb percussion thinning. It's made of dark gray Burro Canyon quartzite and measures 4 7/16 inches long. It most probably would have been hafted onto a short handle made of either antler, bone or .

Side-Notched Projectile Point (cast) Pueblo III, A.D. 1100-1300, Wallace Ruin, Montezuma, CO This side-notched arrow point was discovered during excavation of the Wallace Ruin site near Cortez, Colorado. This side-notched point was made from a beautiful piece of red and it measures 1 5/16 inches (3.3 cm) long.

Hide (2) Hide scrapers were generally seed-shaped pieces of stone that were sharpened along one edge and used for scraping flesh from hides. They were shaped as such to make them easy to handle and highly effective. The hide scraper could be held by the fingers against the flat surface of the thumb and pulled across a hide to remove flesh and expose the skin. Hide scrapers could also be used as .

Drill Small drills like this one were hafted onto wooden shafts and used to holes in wood, shell, and other soft organic materials.

Other Artifacts

Potsherds (3 Black on White, 3 Corrugated) Southwestern was made from natural . The clay was mined from bedrock or from the sides of gullies or “arroyos.” Mixed with water and sand (temper), the clay was formed into thin ribbons or which were then “coiled” in a spiral from the base of the pot up to its rim. For many pots, the coils were then smoothed over, on the inner and outer surfaces.

For some pots, however, the coils were left visible in patterns that look almost like basketry – archaeologists call this “corrugated.” If a pot was to be painted, the surface would be carefully smoothed. Sometimes, the surface was finished with a final, outer coat of high quality white clay, called a “slip.” The slip might be rubbed with a stone (burnished) to a high sheen. Then the potter painted the pot. Like the designs themselves, the kind of was traditional. The paint was either a vegetable-based (beeweed) or a mineral-based ( or manganese) . Most Chaco Canyon area pots had mineral-paint; many Mesa Verde area pots had vegetable-paint.

After the pot had dried, it was fired in a . Mesa Verde were shallow trenches (three feet wide by six feet long by two feet deep), lined with thin slabs of stone. A wood fire was built in the trench and when it burned to coals, the unfired pots were carefully placed in the kiln. More wood

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Education Section, UCB 218 Boulder, CO 80309 (303) 492-1666 http://cumuseum.colorado.edu was heaped over the pots. When that wood burned, the heat turned the fragile clay to hard, sturdy pottery.

Sandal This sandal was found at a site in New Mexico. It was made by the Pueblo people from fibers from the abundant yucca plant. It is about 800 years old. The size and wear marks indicate that it was worn by an adult. Artifacts made out of organic materials usually do not preserve well, but, the southwest has a very dry climate, so objects like this are often found there.

Rope fragment A is a linear collection of plies, or strands which are twisted or braided together in order to combine them into a larger and stronger form. This rope is made out of fibers from the leaves of the yucca plant, found throughout the southwest.

Bone awl Bone has been used for making tools by virtually all societies, even when other materials were readily available. Any part of the skeleton can potentially be utilized; however, antlers and long bones provide some of the best working material. Long bone fragments can be shaped, by scraping against an stone, into such items as arrow and points, needles, awls, and fish hooks.

An awl is a long, pointed spike. It may be a , a tool for making holes in wood; a , a tool used for marking wood; or a , a tool for piercing holes in leather

As an organic material, bone often does not survive in a way that is archaeologically recoverable. However, under the right conditions, bone tools do sometimes survive and many have been recovered from locations around the world representing time periods throughout history and . Also many examples have been collected ethnographically, and some traditional peoples, as well as experimental archaeologists, continue to use bone to make tools.

Fire starter set (replica) The set includes a bow, a , a board, a bundle, and a stone handhold or cap stone and is a traditional method of starting fire without .

The uses the principle of fire by friction through the rotation of wood on wood. The spindle, or wooden shaft is short and wide (about the size of a thumb) and grinds within a notch against the soft wooden base of a hearth board (a wooden board with a carved notch in which to catch heated wood fibers created by friction). With the cap stone holding the spindle in place, the spindle is driven by the bow, in long strokes back and forth. This repetitive spinning and downward pressure causes black dust to form in the notch of the hearth board, eventually creating a hot, glowing coal. The coal is then carefully placed onto the tinder bundle and fanned gently until flame is produced. With a well-built bow drill and enough practice, fire can be easily created even in wet conditions.

Please note: This set will make an actual fire. Use with caution.

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Education Section, UCB 218 Boulder, CO 80309 (303) 492-1666 http://cumuseum.colorado.edu Atlatl (replica) and “Chuck It” ball thrower and ball An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity to throw a spear or . The atlatl consists of a shaft with a spur at one end, and a leather piece on the other end for a grip. The atlatl is held in one hand, gripped near the end farthest from the spur. The dart is notched on the spur, and thrown by the action of the upper arm and wrist. The throwing arm together with the atlatl acts as a . The atlatl is a low-mass, fast-moving extension of the throwing arm, increasing the length of the lever. This extra length allows the thrower to impart force to the dart over a longer distance, thus imparting more energy and ultimately higher speeds. A traditional atlatl is a long-range and can readily send a dart to speeds of over 150 km/h (93 mph).

The atlatl is early Ancestral Pueblo , commonly used during the Basketmaker period (500 B.C. to A.D. 750). By the Pueblo I period (A.D. 750 to 900) the would have been common, with possibly some use of the atlatl.

Today, our atlatls are in the form of the “Chuck It” ball thrower, a molded shaft with a ball holder at one end. This is used for throwing balls for dogs to fetch. Both atlatl and Chuck It use the same principle, an extension of the arm as a lever.

For more information and resouces, visit: http://cumuseum.colorado.edu http://www.crowcanyon.org/education/student_resources.asp http://www.crowcanyon.org/education/teacher_resources.asp http://projectarchaeology.org/ http://www.historycolorado.org/educators/educators http://archive.cyark.org/mesa-verde-info http://archive.cyark.org/dendrochronology-real-science-vs-hollywood-forensics-blog http://www.saa.org/publicftp/PUBLIC/resources/foredu.html http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc/links.print.html http://www.coloradoarchaeology.org/Chapters/chapters.htm http://coloradoarchaeologists.org/

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Education Section, UCB 218 Boulder, CO 80309 (303) 492-1666 http://cumuseum.colorado.edu