more from out west

I guess I better finish up on my trip to Colorado.
My digging this year wasn't as exciting as is has been, I mostly moved rocks.
I was in a unit which was just outside a major ceremonial structure, a triwalled structure. There aren't many of these in the southwest, but one just like it is at Sand Canyon ruins a few miles away. At just this point at Sand Canyon there is a small kiva outside the tri walled structure, no one knows quite why it's there. If the archaeologists are right and Goodman Point is related somehow to Sand Canyon, there might be a kiva here too.
Well, they put a test pit here, and ran into the top of a curved wall. The idea of this unit was to follow the wall down and see if it is indeed a kiva.
I mostly moved wallfall. When these ruins decay, the roof falls in first, then the walls fall on top. This is called deposition. So you have to remove all the masonry blocks from the walls, then you remove the wooden beams and adobe from the roof, then you get to the hearth, bench, floor,etc., basically the good stuff. But first you have to carefully (very carefully) take out all the wall blocks. I have over many years become kind of an expert at this, so that's what I did. You don't find many artifacts, it's not glamorous (it sure ain't Indiana Jones), but it's an important part of modern archaeology.
That's about it for the trip,I just came home.
Well, except for friday night at the Dolores Brewpub. One of the hottest new spots in Colorado (and if the locals find out I put this on the web, they'll kill me).