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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.,
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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

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References

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