finally, the last of my trip west

Well, I guess it's time to put up the post about digging at Crow Canyon. The unit I was in was kind of unique. The old puebloes liked to build their kivas underground, but if the village was on bedrock they couldn't, so they built above ground then built a berm of dirt around it to make it seem like it was under the ground. Well, where I dug was just outside one of these kivas, where it was built next to the wall of the pueblo.
The midden (garbage heap) for this kiva was just outside, where it washed against the wall of the room block.
What I had to do was follow the wall down, while trying to follow the slope of the berm down through the midden.
Before this, most of the units at Goodman Point had been disapointingly sparse in artifacts, but man, this midden produced!
I found large amounts of potsherds, many datable, including many rim sherds, plus very many burnt corn cobs and kernals. It was rather thought provoking, knowing these were the remains of 800 year old meals.
I also got several large samples of ash, which can be analyzed through flotation to find out what sort of plants were being used at the time.
I also found a broken mano, which looked as though it had been grooved for hafting after being broken.
The neat thing was following the berm down. Apparently, no one has ever excavated one of these to know how they were built. The strata were amazingly visable on the walls.
They seemed to layer flat rocks to hold the dirt in place, but I just got started on the berm.
It was one of the neatest units I have ever dug.
There was another unique aspect of the unit, but I realy can't talk about that.