Ruminating on Room 28

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Room 28 continues to provide puzzles for us to ponder.  By Friday afternoon, we were well into Level 4.  This level is characterized by a series of strips with different characteristics.  Along the west wall of the room, the matrix continues to contain charred roofing wood and burned daub.  To the east, in the center of the room, is a strip of sand, followed further east by more burned material, and then a final strip of sand and fallen masonry.  The complexity of the level makes it difficult to excavate, so we ended the day having about five centimeters left to complete the level.  We have not yet reached the partition wall that Pepper found separating Rooms 28 and 28a—it should be somewhere under the wall fall.  We think it is possible that the wall fall came from a wall constructed to keep people from entering the room some time in the last century.

Some of the daub is fascinating, with impressions of the small pieces of wood used in the roofing as well as the knots used to tie them together.  The largest chunk of daub is almost a square foot in size and includes both the impressions of the ceiling as well as the plaster floor above. 

We are fortunate to be able to screen all material close to the room—we are screening onto a large tarp set up above Room 37, with four screens set up side by side—three are ¼” and one 1/8”.  We put the sandstone we find into two areas: some shows signs of use for ground stone artifacts (broken manos, metates, and other grinding stones).  The stones that were architectural, such as masonry blocks, are put in a wagon and will be used by the stabilization crew in repairing walls in Chaco.  The dirt we screen will eventually be returned to the room when we are finished excavating. 

Artifacts are not abundant in the fill—we generally find only 1 artifact per screen.  Sherds are the most common artifact type, followed by chipped stone, and then ground stone.  We also find faunal bone, which seems to be from small animals.  Faunal expert and UNM faculty member, Emily Jones, visits us tomorrow, so we’re hoping to get some IDs for the bones from here.