One week after Solstice

-->

Excavations on Friday (June 28, 2013) brought some surprises.  We reached the bottom of our 11^th 20 cm level, meaning that we have now excavated 2.2 m below the surface.  It’s getting harder to get in and out of the room.  The eastern wall of the room does not really appear in the photographs from Pepper and Wetherill’s excavations, so we were uncertain what this wall would look like, especially in the SE corner of the room.  We knew that the partition wall between 28 and 28A was about 1’ wide (according to Pepper) and masonry.  On Friday, we uncovered a post-reinforced adobe or plaster wall directly in front of the masonry wall (see photo below).   The tops of the post holes were filled with ash, but the slightest tap and the ash fell into a seemingly bottomless hole.  Measurement with a carpenter’s rule revealed that the postholes are 1.2 meters deep!  It feels as if there is a flagstone at the bottom of each.  In the SE corner of Room 28, two flat stones are positioned—there was burned daub atop them, so it is likely they are actually part of the wall, but they are definitely shaped stone.  

Postholes in partition wall between Rooms 28 and 28A.  Note flat stones in SE corner of room.

Work in the western part of the room revealed several surprises.  A mass of burned material surrounded a glass bottle.  Our resident historical archaeology expert, crewmember Leigh Cominiello, is working on finding out more about the bottle and its contents.  The bottle, two rusted cans, and several nails constitute the historic artifacts we have found.  Along the south wall of the room, about midway between the west and east walls, we encountered a wooden plank that is over a meter in length.  The plank is in good condition.  Because Pepper did not describe finding any planks in Room 28, the recovery of this plank helps confirm that Room 28 was backfilled with material from another room or rooms.  Nearby were two other pieces of wood, probably posts or roofing material.  We took all of these for identification of the wood and possible tree-ring dating.  Having read about planks in Pepper and Judd’s volumes on Pueblo Bonito, it is instructive to see how uniformly shaped and thin they are.  It is hard to imagine creating these with stone tools.

Near the center of the room, we found a complete trough metate.  It is in excellent condition, but Pepper and Wetherill probably decided it was too cumbersome to ship back East and left it in the room.  

Base of Level 11 in Room 28.  Note the beautiful screw-jacks!  The metate is visible in the center of the photograph. 

I believe we are now within about 20 cm of the surface where Pepper and Wetherill found the cylinder jars.  The matrix is sandy loam, but there are lots of rocks just beneath this level, so the next level may take some time to excavate.  Note our two new screw-jacks, which provide novel ways to challenge our hard hats!