The Coolidge examiner., 1930-04-11
EXCAVATING at RUINS

the roof poles projecting all around
the sides Of the roof. Anyone who
has seen real Indian pueblo will
realize that the roof poles are laid
across either the long or the short
axis, for obvious reasons. The ends
project on only two walls and these
are opposite walls. Any architect
who has them showing all around
the building simply does not know
his onions.
The life of a field archeologist
is certainly interesting. There are
so many things to do and so many
of them require technical knowl-
edge which all of us do not have.
/ have been having a time with
map making Not a civil engineer
and always more than a little dull
with mathematics and rules and
scales, am prone to make ridicu-
lous blunders.
Find Another Pithouse
After | had thrcwn al Of the
earlh out OF tho pithouse at the
north end of tbs compound l found
the north wall, Just east of the pit.
For a day / trenched alongside it
to a depth of 28 inches. going down
a few inches below the bottom of
the wall | soon ran into a bench of
caliche, which is as yet uneXplain-
ed. A few feet beyond that, still go
ing east along the wall, | ran into
the side of another pithouse which
| marked &C" for Identification; my
first one was "a" and Keleman's.
at the south end of the compound,
is "B."
The first two pithouses have
rounded corners; but the southwest
corner of &C" is angular; almost a
right angle. The north wall stops
abruptly where the corner of the
pithouse is; and | am looking for
the east side of the pithouse so
that can pick up the compound
wall again.
This new pithouse has a fine
floor of caliche, smooth and stained
with wood ashes. The pit is filled
with dry soil, bone-dry and very
dusty. In it are potsherds, for the
most part plain or featureless; but
am interested in the fact that
nearly all of the decorated sherds
are black-on-wnite. | found part of
a black-on-white bowl on the floor
One sherd is polychrome This is
very important to US because we
shall want to date the pithouse by
its decorated pottery if possible.
| followed the south wall of the
pithouse for a few feet and then
lost it. The floor continues and |
am not into the outskirts of the
trash heap just a little east of north
of the compound. Tonight | could
hardly quit digging, the problem
had become so interesting.
CaIiche-Iined Basin
Kelemen is housecleaning He
has excavated his pithouse and is
cleaning up the floor. Near the
east side he has a beautiful ca
liche-lined basin, which may have
been in use for a fireplace; but
there are no ashes in it or about it,
so we do not know just what it was.
Milton Snow found a similar ca
basin in his trench out
side the west wall of the compound.
| am told that they are not uncOm-
mon in this region and that no one
is quite sure a sto their purpose.
My pithouse is keeping me guess
ing. I lost the south side of it and
the west side of it and the last
thing this afternoon I picked up a
portion of the east side. Rodents
have tunneled in and about the pit
so often the thin caliche platter
is quite completely broken down.
The floor is in pretty good shape.
Near the middle of the floor l have
run into a mass of caliche and
hardened soil, wit hwood ashes and
charcoal above it. 1t may be that
have run into a hearth.
Here and there, lying directly on
the floor are black-on-white sherds.
A few red-on-buff sherds are scat
tered in the upper part of the earth
which fills the pit.
Near the southwest corner of this
pithouse there is a tangled mess of
old and new structures. The north
wall of the compound was dug
through and a caliche-lined basin
built in the space. Then my pit
house was built Near the basin
is another, apparently. Further
more, someone, many centuries ago,
so confused things at this spot that
l can't find the rest of the north
wall, which | sadly need. The pit
house is right on the edge of the
trash heap.
Today Julian found a beautiful
stone bead, tubular, about three
quarters of an inch long and about
three-sixteenths thick.-The Arizo-
ma Republican.
GLOBE HOLSTEIN SETS
RECORD FOR TWO STATES
1. Z