TRACING THE SAN JUAN REDWARES
THE 2003 PASSPORT IN TIME PROJECT
William A. Lucius and Irene Lopez-Wessell
Institute for Archaeological Ceramic Research
The Institute for Archaeological Ceramic Research: We are a not for profit educational research institute with IRS 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt status dedicated to combining public archaeology with original research. William A. Lucius serves as Board President and Field Director and is assisted in the field by Irene Lopez-Wessell. Our home base is in Boulder, Colorado.
The Blanding Red Ware Project: The guiding theory of our research is that red ware exchange served to establish and maintain social interactions among the Ancestral Pueblo populations of the Northern Southwest (the red ware proposition). The Blanding Red Ware Project is a long-term research program designed to identify where Abajo Red-on-orange and Bluff Black-on-red were made in the Blanding, Utah area through geological reconnaissance, resource sampling and characterization studies of ceramic artifacts collected from the surface of Pueblo I habitation sites. Further fieldwork will document their distribution across the cultural landscape. Those data will be used to reconstruct the ceramic exchange networks and result in a better understanding of social interaction among dispersed agricultural groups. The Blanding Red Ware Project combines research with public archaeology to accomplish our goals.
The Concept Was Simple: The plan was to enlist two Passport in Time crews for two ten-day sessions and teach them enough about geology, archaeology and ceramics to allow them to collect artifacts and sample the clay and temper sources used by the Ancestral Pueblo I (750 - 900 AD) potters to make their widely exchanged red ware pottery. Of course that meant an almost non-stop barrage of instruction and information that often began at breakfast and continued on through the workday and past dinner into the night. Complaints about having to learn so much were minimal, despite the bewildering range of pottery types and geological strata to be memorized. When queried at night about what they had learned that day, the most common answer was "Too much".
The Setting Was Idyllic: A traditional archaeological field camp (with porta-potties and a water tank) was laid out among the soaring Ponderosas of the Manti/La Sal National Forest at the Kigalia Ranger Station on Elk Ridge. The camp was spacious, with enough space for tents, RV's and vehicle parking as well as large open spaces. Limited funds prevented us from hiring a camp cook, but we provided a cook stove, Dutch ovens, and coolers for crew use and fed the entire crew once each session with all of the pancakes and bacon they could eat. We also occasionally pooled our food, creating some memorable communal meals, followed by lively discussions around the campfire. Our primary work area was downhill and east of camp on Milk Ranch Point, a broad shelf of the Chinle Formation. Being able to return to the relative coolness of the camp after working in the heat of the day was always a treat.
We Had Some Interesting Times: The 2002 Hammond Fire effectively removed the vegetation from the northern area of Milk Ranch Point, and both crews had to deal with powdery soils and with being covered with charcoal marks from brushing against burned branches. But being able to walk unimpeded across the landscape as well as being able to see the sites from a distance was a joy. The unimpeded view across the landscape to the continental divide in Colorado on the eastern horizon was inspiring. We thank the Forest Service for hiring Winston Hurst to relocate the sites in the burned area and Don Irwin of the Monticello office for supplying us with the new GPS coordinates. In contrast, trying to find sites in the unburned southern portion of Milk Ranch Point gave the crews a taste of how frustrating archaeology can be. We had to avoid disturbing the erosion-control excelsior mats on sites in the northern area and because previous surveyors had effectively removed most surface artifacts in both areas, we ended up looking at a lot more sites that we collected. Although the second crew did not have to deal with gnats that pestered the first crew, they did experience the smoke and falling ash from a nearby fire in the wilderness area to the west of the camp. We occasionally received reports about the fire from firefighters who came to Kigalia for supplies but it never came closer than three to four miles away. However the fire traffic on the road was dangerous! The first crew had to deal with cleaning a smelly equipment tent, but the second crew had to deal with the aftermath of a windstorm that flattened and nearly destroyed the same tent. With a lot of duct tape and ropes we were able to recreate a tent shape. We set aside one day of each session for a field trip, an event that saw some of the crew head off on their own while the rest of us went to look at sites away from our primary work area. Participating second session crew members were treated to the small hometown Fourth of July celebration in nearby Dove Creek, followed by a side trip to sites in Montezuma Creek. During each session crewmembers were given the materials and instruction in making replica red ware pots. The first crew was treated to the experience of making temper out of diorite river cobbles. The second crew was thankful that they were able to use the left over temper rather than make their own. The first crew also gathered enough juniper fuel for both firings. A large fire pit at the camp was converted into a small pit kiln where the pots were fired each session. Although none of the pots will grace a museum, the experience and camaraderie was a sight to behold.
The Volunteers Were Extraordinary: Being old hands at public archaeology and volunteer management, we knew to expect exciting folks on the crews. Our expectations were exceeded. Spending all of your waking hours talking about and doing archaeology with an interesting and interested group of volunteers is invigorating! We thank the volunteers for all that they contributed! William Bruce Ellis, Heritage Program Manager of the Manu-LaSal National Forest, recruited a total of fifteen Passport in Time volunteers to assist in the fieldwork. Renna and Andre Lantz had volunteered with us in the 2001 field season. They brought a great amount of enthusiasm and knowledge to the 2nd session crew.
The Fieldwork Was Rewarding: Each crew had the opportunity to learn various tasks, including the proper use of various technological gadgets, including GPS receivers, hand-held computers and digital scales. We did experience catastrophic failure of one of the scales (too much sand and too many bumps) and some minor technology glitches. Each crew-member was expected to rotate through the various fieldwork roles, so by the end of each session most crewmembers were comfortable with all facets of the collection and sampling procedures, or adamant about what they felt comfortable doing. In general, the Pueblo I occupation observed on Milk Ranch Point appears to represent an intensive if short-term (775-825 A.D.) homestead settlement pattern consisting of residential hamlets situated on cleared fields organized into two broad communities (Milk Ranch Point North and South). It is proposed that the integrative community great pit house for the northern locale is probably buried under the later occupation at Site 42SAl1800 (a large imposing site visited by the first session crew). The location of the community center for Milk Ranch Point South is probably hidden somewhere beneath all of the oak brush. It is unlikely that the Pueblo I red ware ceramics recovered from Milk Ranch Point were manufactured there, given that the sites are situated at some distance from appropriate Morrison Formation clays and diorite stream cobbles. The assemblages suggest that the homesteaders came from nearby communities, bringing their red ware vessels with them. Additionally, they would have maintained contacts with red ware producing communities in order to replace broken vessels. A single homestead hamlet located on Forest Service lands in Notch Canyon was also collected, as well as several sites on Bureau of Land Management lands on Big Mesa (between Big Canyon and Brushy Basin) and Black Mesa. The second crew was treated to documenting a probable Pueblo I red ware kiln in the Brushy Basin area. The kiln was a small and oval shaped with no upright slabs and interior ash. Although no associated ceramic wasters were noted, a clay voucher sample taken from within the site complex matches one clay type favored for Pueblo I red ware production. Diorite river cobbles probably derived from the nearby Brushy Basin Wash were also noted on the site.
The Field Laboratory Analysis Results Are Interesting: Each crew received instruction and gained experience in the various facets of the field laboratory, including refiring analysis using a generator-powered portable research kiln, Munsell Soil Color coding of refired clay colors and the use of a binocular microscopes for the identification of temper type. Refiring analysis of red ware sherds documented four distinct clays derived from the Morrison Formation, all of which were tempered with crushed diorite. The percentages of the first two refired clay colors complement previous data, supporting the interpretation that two major production zones were primarily responsible for red ware production in the Blanding area. However, the occurrence of two previously undocumented refired clay colors suggests the possibility of two additional production zones. Pueblo I white ware sherds were also most often tempered with crushed diorite, indicative of production zones in the general area. Non-local imports from the Kayenta Region to the south were identified by the presence of quartz sand temper. The six sherds of gray ware in the collections demonstrate how difficult some crewmembers found it to distinguish between red and gray ware when every sherd was stained red from the iron in the soil.
Summary Statement: We were often frustrated by not being able to relocate sites where they were supposed to be, more often than not we were uncomfortably hot and by the end of each day very tired. However, the fieldwork contributed greatly to our understanding of the complicated geological and cultural factors of Pueblo I habitation and red ware production in the Blanding, Utah area and as such the fieldwork added to solid foundation necessary for future investigations. And the volunteers made it all worthwhile. We would like to take the opportunity to thank them again.