Little Room in the Pueblo

We returned to the excavations in Room 28 at Pueblo Bonito today after a hiatus.  The complex way in which the room was backfilled continues to surprise us.  In the NW corner of the room, we continue to find charred roofing beams suitable for tree-ring dating (although we don’t know exactly which room they came from).  In the SW corner, there is a clear area of sand that may be: an unexcavated area left by George Pepper OR blow sand that filled a void in the room once it was excavated OR blow sand from some other room thrown here by Pepper as he excavated adjoining rooms.  This area is easy and fun to excavate.  The center of the room from west to east is filled with rocks—masonry from some place, often with air pockets between the rocks.  The rocks seem endless—the Park Service provides a wagon for the rocks and takes them away to use in stabilization activities.  They have hauled away five or six wagon loads of rocks so far.  

Panorama view of excavation area.  On the left, screens set up on top of a tarp.  In the center, stabilization crew carries plywood by little green wagon filled with rocks from the excavation.  To the right, the gray 'garage' covering Room 28. 

The NE door, which led into Room 51A has largely collapsed—the lintel is broken and leaning at a dangerous angle.  So despite our interest in working in this area, it is too dangerous to remove any more supporting dirt in front of the door.  The door to the plaza, located in the SE corner of the room had been filled with rock at some point in the last hundred years—just in front of the door is an iron can surrounded by rock, all clearly located within a pit.  The entire feature may have been placed here to support the rocks in the door.  This was a door that had steps that led up into the plaza adjacent to Room 28.  Because of the rocks filling the door, we will have to forego excavating the door further—once again, it’s too dangerous.  Another screwjack will be placed from door to door on the eastern end of the room sometime in the next couple of days.  We are getting a lot of exercise bobbing up and down around the screwjacks.

As we get closer to the area where George Pepper found the cylinder jars, we have begun screening everything with 1/8^th inch mesh and some areas with windowscreening.  It takes longer to screen this way, but it ensures that we aren’t missing artifacts and fauna in the screens.  Dr. Wills located a corncob in the screen today!  Only our second in this room. 

Some friends in Alaska graciously sent us a vintage game called Mr. Bucket to play in our spare time.  We appreciate the opportunity to spend more time with buckets.  Thanks to Will and Mark for the excellent gift!