ARCHAEOLOGY SOUTHWEST CONTINUE ON TO THE NEXT PAGE FOR YOUR magazineFREE PDF (formerly the Center for Desert Archaeology) is a private 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization that explores and protects the places of our past across the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest. We have developed an integrated, conservation- based approach known as Preservation Archaeology. Although Preservation Archaeology begins with the active protection of archaeological sites, it doesn’t end there. We utilize holistic, low-impact investigation methods in order to pursue big-picture questions about what life was like long ago. As a part of our mission to help foster advocacy and appreciation for the special places of our past, we share our discoveries with the public. This free back issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine is one of many ways we connect people with the Southwest’s rich past. Enjoy! Not yet a member? Join today! Membership to Archaeology Southwest includes: » A Subscription to our esteemed, quarterly Archaeology Southwest Magazine » Updates from This Month at Archaeology Southwest, our monthly e-newsletter » 25% off purchases of in-print, in-stock publications through our bookstore » Discounted registration fees for Hands-On Archaeology classes and workshops » Free pdf downloads of Archaeology Southwest Magazine, including our current and most recent issues » Access to our on-site research library » Invitations to our annual members’ meeting, as well as other special events and lectures Join us at archaeologysouthwest.org/how-to-help In the meantime, stay informed at our regularly updated Facebook page! 300 N Ash Alley, Tucson AZ, 85701 • (520) 882-6946 • [email protected] • www.archaeologysouthwest.org SUMMER AND ARCHAEOLOGY SOUTHWEST FALL 2014 A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGYmagazine SOUTHWEST VOLUME 28 | NUMBERS 3 & 4 Tortuous and Fantastic Cultural and Natural Wonders of Greater Cedar Mesa 3 Tortuous and Fantastic: Cultural and Natural Wonders of ISSUE EDITOR: Greater Cedar Mesa, William D. Lipe William D. Lipe 6 In Brief: Change through Time in the Northern Southwest, William D. Lipe 8 A Natural History of Cedar Mesa, Stewart Aitchison ONLINE EXCLUSIVES: 12 Early Archaeological Expeditions in Greater Cedar Mesa, For additional commentary, images, Fred M. Blackburn references, and links, visit our 14 In Brief: Reverse Archaeology, Fred M. Blackburn website at: 15 Documenting Early Collections of Perishable Artifacts from www.archaeologysouthwest.org/asw28-3-4 Greater Cedar Mesa, Laurie D. Webster 17 Culture History of Cedar Mesa Before 1300: Findings of the Cedar Mesa Project and Its Successors, William D. Lipe Cover image: Aerial view of the southern edge of Cedar Mesa along the San Juan 20 Photo Essay: Canyons of Danger River in morning light. In this view to the east, the San Juan River Gorge is visible at 23 The Lime Ridge Clovis Site, William E. Davis and Jonathan D. Till upper right, and Johns Canyon is at left. Although such spectacular geology draws 24 Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II: The Story Continues, R. G. Matson visitors today, people in the distant past lived and farmed where there was arable soil on 30 In Brief: Ancient Turkeys, Brian M. Kemp and William D. Lipe the mesa top and in some of the canyons. © 31 Adriel Heisey. Monumental Landscapes on Cedar Mesa, Jonathan D. Till and Winston B. Hurst inside this issue 36 Photo Essay: Petroglyphs and Paintings of Greater Cedar Mesa, Sally J. Cole 40 Younger Traces: Other Cedar Mesa Archaeologies, Winston B. Hurst and James G. Willian 43 The San Juan Mission, Stewart Aitchison 45 Photographing Cedar Mesa, Donald J. Rommes 47 Cedar Mesa’s Uncertain Future, Josh Ewing Archaeology Southwest Magazine (ISSN 1523- 51 Poem: Cedar Mesa, Cedar Mesa, Vaughn Hadenfeldt 0546) is a quarterly publication of Archaeology 52 Back Sight, William H. Doelle Southwest. Emilee Mead, Publications Director. Kate Sarther Gann (kate@archaeologysouth- Archaeology Southwest explores and protects the places of our past across the west.org), Content Editor. Kathleen Bader, American Southwest and Mexican Northwest. We have developed a holistic, Design Production. conservation-based approach known as Preservation Archaeology. By looking forward and acting now, we are achieving protections and creating meaningful connections between people and history that will benefit generations to come. Learn more at www.archaeologysouthwest.org. Copyright 2014 by Archaeology Southwest. All rights reserved; no part of this issue may Archaeology Southwest is a private 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization supported through memberships and donations, as well as grants from be reproduced by any means without written individuals, foundations, and corporations. For a gift of $35 or more, members permission of the publisher. and donors receive an annual subscription to Archaeology Southwest Magazine and other benefits. For more information, or to join, contact Kathleen Bader at 520-882-6946, ext. 26, or [email protected]. The convenient, Subscription inquiries: about us preprinted envelope enclosed with this issue may be used to join, renew an existing membership, or begin a gift membership. 520-882-6946, ext. 26. 2 Archaeology Southwest Exploring and protecting the places of our past Tortuous and Fantastic: Cultural and Natural Wonders of Greater Cedar Mesa WILLIAM D. LIPE WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY “Tortuous and fantastic,” wrote archaeologist Nels C. Nelson in 1920, echoing Richard Wetherill’s sentiments of some twenty-five years earlier. Nelson was describing his experience of traveling in Grand Gulch, a forbidding canyon and tributaries in Cedar Mesa, an imposing landform in southeastern Utah. Led by experienced backcountry guide and trading post operator John Wetherill (Richard’s younger brother), Nelson was docu- menting cliff dwellings and rock art sites Richard and others had explored and excavated around the turn of the century. Some of the collections under Nelson’s care at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) had come from these expeditions. Indeed, such sites are the primary reason why Greater Cedar Mesa (see pages 4–5) is an iconic area in North American archaeology. Dur- ing the winter of 1893–1894, Morning light illuminates a cliff dwelling located just east of Comb Ridge. Since the 1890s, naturally sheltered “dry” sites in beginning at a place Greater Cedar Mesa’s canyons have yielded perishable organic artifacts that have helped archaeologists understand the lives known as Cave 7, of Ancestral Pueblo people. Unfortunately, these same sites have been—and continue to be—prime targets for commercial looters. Sites on open ground are also vulnerable to looting, and to off-road vehicle traffic, expanding road networks, and oil Richard Wetherill and gas development. PHOTO: © ADRIEL HEISEY used stratigraphic reasoning to turn archaeological observations into culture history. He showed that an earlier farming culture without pottery (“Basketmaker”) lay beneath the living surfaces of Pueblo cliff dwellings. As Fred Blackburn (pages 12–14) and Laurie Webster (pages 15–17) recount, the Cedar Mesa area was a hotbed of excavation in the 1890s. Much of this earliest work focused on obtaining extraordinary perishable artifacts from dry rock shelters on behalf of museums or to sell to collectors. Some of this work contributed to the growth of archaeological knowledge, and those few collections that went into museums such as the AMNH remain useful for research. Archaeology Southwest 3 Exploring and protecting the places of our past Greater Cedar Mesa Lifeways in the Distant Past The Northern San Juan (Mesa Verde) Archaeological Area. From the A.D. 500s Stewart Aitchison’s natural history (pages 8–11), Adriel Heisey’s aerial photographs, through 1200s, the densest populations Sally Cole’s essay on rock art (pages 36–39), and Donald Rommes’s images (pages 45–46) and largest sites were in the region show that Nels Nelson was not exaggerating. Although such spectacular canyons draw extending from Mesa Verde National Park people to the area today, it is important to realize that the majority of the archaeological in Colorado west to Cottonwood Wash in resource is on the mesa. The arable soils of the mesa top made Cedar Mesa Proper (see map Utah. Archaeologists usually call this the Central Mesa Verde Area. Cedar Mesa is at lower left) attractive to farmers from late B.C. times to the late A.D. 1200s. The alluvial in the Western Mesa Verde Area, which soils of the canyons represent a small fraction of the mesa’s farmland. Many, if not most, of was generally less well populated. The the people who lived in the canyons or used its sheltered sites for storage, rock art expres- Kayenta Archaeological Area lies south of sion, or burial grounds probably made part, if not all, of their living by dry farming on the the San Juan River in southeastern Utah and northeastern Arizona. Its densest adjacent mesa. populations were south and southwest of We know this, in part, through work R. G. Matson and I directed in the early 1970s— Cedar Mesa. the Cedar Mesa Project (pages 17–19 and 24–30)—and through the University of Utah’s contemporaneous excavation of sites affected by the rerouting of State Route 95. In recent The Hole-in-the-Rock Trail shows the route years, Cathy Cameron and Winston Hurst have undertaken limited excavations at the of the historic San Juan Mission (pages 43–44). Boundaries of the protective area Comb Wash Great House and adjacent sites, and Hurst has directed extensive surveys proposed by the Friends of Cedar Mesa in Comb Wash (see map at lower left). In this issue, Hurst and Jonathan Till report their (pages 47–49) are indicated in green. observations and analysis of Pueblo II and III cultural landscapes on Cedar Mesa Proper TRAIL AND BOUNDARY INFORMATION (pages 31–34). Information about the lives of the region’s residents before the adoption of COURTESY OF THE FRIENDS OF CEDAR agriculture has come from Phil Geib and Dale Davidson’s excavations at Old Man Cave MESA.