GEOARCHAEOLOGY & PALEOHYDROLOGY OF THE NORTHERN CHACO OUTLIERS PROJECT: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Our geoarchaeological work accompanies ongoing excavations at the Wallace (5MT6970) and Haynie (5MT1905) sites near Mancos, CO. Such great house sites represent the northern extent of the Chaco regional system and demonstrate its incredible extent. At the Wallace site, we mapped a potential reservoir with dGPS. The feature is roughly diamond in shape with an inlet on the north corner and outlet on the south. Profiling and auguring revealed charred logs, sediment infilling, and small sandstone pieces, but no conclusive artifactual evidence. The Haynie site’s archaeological architecture spans from pithouses to great houses, with extensive modern incursion and redistribution complicating the existing palimpsest. We also mapped the Haynie site with dGPS and are developing a site formation model combining features at the surface with contacts between soils, bedrock, and archaeological materials exposed during excavation. We excavated, sampled, and described profiles at Haynie for soil horizonation, structure, color, and texture to understand these materials at the scale of pedogenesis. Additionally, we have modeled the immediate area hydrologically in GIS to explore how water moves through this landscape. Results indicate the relatively high precipitation levels necessary to produce the equivalent water necessary to fill current water features, including a spring on the Haynie site’s southeast corner, a likely result of the heavy irrigation throughout Montezuma County watersheds. We sampled both the spring and irrigation waters for potential future analysis.