Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T17:05:09.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Unusual Pueblo III Ruin, Mesa Verde, Colorado

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ralph A. Luebben ,
Laurence Herold  and
Arthur Rohn
Ralph A. Luebben
Affiliation:
Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
Laurence Herold
Affiliation:
University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo
Arthur Rohn
Affiliation:
National Park Service, Mesa Verde National Park, Colo.,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Site 52, a possible platform mound, is unusually situated near the bottom of a draw rather than along the ridge of Chapin Mesa. Complete excavation of the small surface structure yielded two distinct levels of construction and several architectural phenomena which previously had not been reported from San Juan Anasazi sites. A rectangle of multiple-coursed masonry was built on a sloped, irregular ground surface. An interior crosswall with a floor level opening, a raised circular floor feature, two peripheral stepped abutments on opposite sides, and a complex of masonry walls and external alignments on the third side were added to the basic rectangle. The second construction level utilized what appeared to be intentional interior and exterior fill as a base, and two alignments further subdivided the rectangle. Two rubble-filled abutments were appended externally to the fourth wall of the rectangle. Artifacts were rarely found. Solid, continuously built coursed masonry, construction techniques, and pottery types suggest that Site 52 was built during Pueblo III and may have been a platform mound of ceremonial significance.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , July 1960 , pp. 11 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel, L. J. 1955. Pottery Types of the Southwest: Wares 5A, 10A, 10B, 12A, San Juan Red Ware, Mesa Verde Gray, and White Ware, San Juan White Ware. Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic Series, No. 3B. Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Brew, J. O. 1946. Archaeology of Alkali Ridge. Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 21. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ferdon, E. N. Jr. 1955 A Trial Survey of Mexican-Southwestern Architectural Parallels. Monographs of the School of American Research, No. 21. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Hibben, F. C. 1948. The Gallina Architectural Forms. American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 32–6. Menasha.Google Scholar
Lancaster, J. A. and Pinkley, J. M. 1954. Excavations at Site 16. In “Archeological Excavations in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, 1950,” by Lancaster, J. A. and others, pp. 23–86. National Park Service Archeological Research Series, No. 2. Washington.Google Scholar
Lancaster, J. A. and Van Cleave, P. F. 1954. Excavation of Sun Point Pueblo. In “Archeological Excavations in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, 1950,” by Lancaster, J. A. and others, pp. 87–111. National Park Service Archeological Research Series, No. 2.Google Scholar
Luebben, Ralph, Rohn, Arthur, and Givens, Dale 1958. Site 981, Mesa Verde National Park. MS, on file at Mesa Verde National Park.Google Scholar
Stubbs, S. A. 1950. Bird's-Eye View of the Pueblos. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Wendorf, Fred 1953. Excavations at Te'ewi. In “Salvage Archaeology in the Chama Valley, New Mexico,” by Wendorf, Fred and others, pp. 34–93. Monographs of the School of American Research, No. 17. Santa Fe.Google Scholar