Four Corners Archaeological Project. Report Number 24. Archaeological Excavations at the Peccary Pit Locus, Site LA4169/5AA1345 Navajo Reservoir, Archuleta County, Colorado

摘要

In 1987, Complete Archaeological Service Associates, under contract with the Bureau of Reclamation, carried out emergency investigations at the Peccary Pit Locus, a part of the Oven Site (LA4169/5AA1345). The locus was exposed on the eastern shore of Navajo Reservoir in Archuleta County, Colorado, when the water level of the reservoir was lowered to facilitate repairs to the dam. Twenty-three burned pits with five human burials, six surface artifact concentrations, and the remains of at least two Terminal Pleistocene extinct giant peccaries were mapped, excavated, and collected from the Peccary Pit Locus. Analyses of the data from both portions of the site indicate that the highwly fired pit 'ovens' constituted a sophisticated storage facility for possible surpluses of corn during the late Sambrito phase in the seventh century. Between A.D. 650 and 700, the pits were utilized as convenient burial cists. This report presents descriptions and interpretations of the pits and associated materials, as well as the results of tree-ring, archaeomagnetic, and radiocarbon dating, and artifactual and biocultural analyses.