Report of the 2001 Field Season of the Blanding Red Ware Project
By
William A. Lucius, Field Director
Irene Lopez-Wessell, Field Assistant
The following report represents a summary of our activities on public and private lands in San Juan County during and after the 2001 field season of the Blanding Red Ware Project under Antiquities Section Annual Permit U-00-LU, Bureau of Land Management Permit 00UT78756, United States Forest Service Permit MON33 and Edge of the Cedars Curation Agreement 2001-12.
Fieldwork
With the assistance of Manti-LaSal National Forest Archaeologist Leigh Ann Hunt a total of fifteen Passport in Time volunteers were recruited to assist in the fieldwork. Fieldwork was divided into two ten-day sessions with eight volunteers per session - one volunteer attended both sessions:
1st Session 2nd Session
Fred & Nancy La Turner Don & Jeanne Ketchum
Frances Mayse Renna & Andrew Lantz
David Mottola Dick and Ebby Malgren
Tom Noble Virginia Trail
Candy Shoemaker Steve Wiencek
Anne Whitfield
Stever Wiencek
The field camp was located on Forest Service lands north of Recapture Reservoir. The Forest Service also provided a set of porta-potties and a water tank and trailer in support of the Passport in Time volunteers. Vaughn Hadenfeldt of Far Out Expeditions in Bluff, Utah was contracted to provide meals to all participants and Winston Hurst of Blanding, Utah was contracted to provide a day-long volunteer field trip during each session. During each session the volunteers received general orientation and training in the subjects of archaeology, geology and ceramics, instruction and experience in field methods and data collection and an introduction to field laboratory analysis procedures.
Given the presence of suitable clay and temper sources, water and fuel in the general camp site area (extending from Recapture Reservoir north along the west bank of Recapture Wash to approximately 7,000 feet elevation and east to the Burro Canyon sandstone rim of Bulldog Canyon, the field activities of the first session were dedicated to pedestrian evaluation of the presence of Pueblo I habitation sites possibly responsible for red ware manufacture. In addition to public lands, permission was secured with the aid of Winston Hurst to investigate various private land holdings in the area. Contrary to our expectations, no identifiable Pueblo I habitation sites were observed anywhere in the area, despite the regular occurrence of both Basketmaker III and Pueblo II sites. This negative data prompted us to use the intervening four day period before the next session in the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management offices researching known site locations.
Armed with specific site location data, efforts of the second field season were dedicated to the collection of red ware surface artifacts from Pueblo I habitation sites as outlined in the project research design. With the exception of site 42SA13 located on Alkali Ridge, these red ware sites were all located adjacent to Cottonwood Wash, on either Forest Service or BLM properties. Review of selected sites and areas in the Westwater Canyon area failed to identify any Pueblo I habitation sites. A total of 175 red ware sherds were collected from 6 sites, with two separate middens collected at 42SA13. Of that total, fifteen red ware sherds represent intrusive items from the Kayenta area. Additionally, seven clay voucher samples and one mineral voucher sample (oolitic limonite for slip/paint matching) were collected during the field season.
The intensive fieldwork and records review of the 2001 field season served to refine our knowledge of the geological variability and availability of ceramic resources and the geographic distribution of Pueblo I populations in relation to this resource base. Despite the wide geographic availability of ceramic resources, Pueblo I red ware production was probably localized with one production area centered in the Cottonwood Wash area near the site of Red Knobs (42SA1964). The two Morrison Formation clays that were consistently selected for redware manufacture are not available west or north of that site. It follows that all red ware (and probably all ceramics) associated with the numerous Pueblo I sites in the upper Cottonwood Wash and Horse Flats area must have been brought in rather than produced locally.
It also became apparent that existing IMACS site location data is inadequate for the needs of the Blanding Red Ware Project since many of the areas of interest have not been subjected to field reconnaissance surveys that result in formal site forms. Therefore subsequent fieldwork will continue to emphasize pedestrian familiarization with target areas for the association of Pueblo I habitation sites with appropriate red ware clay sources. Specific areas of possible red ware manufacture that will be investigated in future years are the Brushy Basin, Alkali Ridge, Montezuma Creek and Nancy Patterson areas.
A third outcome of the fieldwork was the realization that the creation of a ceramic index of decorated wares (required for comparison of sites with widely differing sample sizes) was impossible. Nearly every Pueblo I habitation site in the area has a substantial Pueblo II occupation, resulting in a mixture of Pueblo I and Pueblo II white and red wares that can only be sorted out by binocular microscope inspection and refiring analysis. Because our research design and collection permits only allowed for the collection of red ware artifacts, we had to forego the creation of ceramic indices for all sites collected during the 2001 field season. Reformulation of the research design is currently underway and subsequent permit requests will be altered to reflect a solution to this problem.
Analysis
Binocular microscope inspection of the Pueblo I red ware sherds revealed that all contained crushed diorite temper, whereas Pueblo II Kayenta red ware sherds consistently exhibit quartz sand or quartz sand and sherd temper. The lack of temper type variability in the local red ware suggests the proximity of those sites to the area responsible for its production. With the exception of one vitrified sherd, all Pueblo I red ware sherds fall into one of two refired clay color groups (Kayenta red wares consistently refire to 2.5YR6/6). By weight, 56% have the refired color of 2.5YR5/8. The remaining 44% have a slightly lighter clay color of 2.5YR6/8. Because these two colors are very close to each other (they represent adjacent chips in the Munsell Soil Color Chart), the microscope was used to identify non-color characteristics of the clay types. Inspection of the artifacts in the 5YR5/8 category reveals the presence of a considerable amount of iron-stained rounded quartz grains. Upper Morrison clay voucher samples from just under the Burro Canyon sandstone rim refire to the same color and also exhibit the same quartz sand as a clay accessory – the sand does not represent added temper. Aboriginal preference for this readily identifiable and relatively thin clay layer should allow us to identify actual clay mines in future field seasons. Conversely, quartz sand is virtually absent in sherds and clay voucher samples with the 2.5YR6/8 refired color. These upper Morrison Formation clays consistently outcrop in a lower stratigraphic position than the redder-burning clays.
The percentage of refired clay color categories by site (or in the case of 42SA13 by midden area) reveals additional variability. With the notable exception of 42SA13085, red ware ceramics from the Cottonwood Wash sites have a preponderance of the redder-burning clay color (2.5YR5/8). Area 1 of 42SA13 is very similar to 42SA13085, whereas area 2 of 42SA13 is more similar to RedKnobs2. Interpretation of this confounding variability will have to await the collection and analysis of additional data.
Other Information
A summary report of the 2001 field season and some tentative interpretations was presented at the annual Pecos Conference, held in Flagstaff, Arizona. The presentation thanked the volunteers who participated in the field season research and re-emphasized that archaeological work in San Juan County, Utah is key to understanding the structure of the early Ancestral Pueblo adaptation of the Northern Southwest.
The 2002 field season will not include a public archaeology component, due to the associated costs of such a program, the transfer of Leigh Ann Hunt without replacement and the focus of future research on BLM rather than Forest Service lands. The goal of the 2002 field season is to correlate specific clay sources with specific Pueblo I habitation sites in order to define the geographical locales of red ware manufacture in the Blanding area.