RARFS_Sum_2011 with photos for web

Rock Art Ranch Field School Survey 2011 Summary Rich Lange, Associate Fieldschool Director September 2011 The Rock Art Ranch Field School offered by the University of Arizona School of Anthropology and Arizona State Museum was in the field from June to July 8, 2011 The field school was directed by E Charles Adams (University of Arizona and Arizona State Museum), Vincent LaMotta (University of Illinois— Chicago), and Richard Lange (Arizona State Museum) The directors were assisted by three graduate students (Claire Barker and Liz Cutright-Smith [University of Arizona] and Jim Meierhoff [University of Illinois—Chicago]) Sixteen students were admitted to the field school and local rock art specialist Darlene Brinkerhoff also participated in the field season The Rock Art Ranch Field School focused on two field activities: excavations and testing at two sites (RAR-2 and 17), and survey Excavations were directed by Vince LaMotta, and the survey was directed by Adams and Lange Two features identified at the survey sites were also tested by the survey crews (at RAR -12 and RAR-22) in order to obtain carbonized plant materials for possible radiocarbon dating Survey occurred in part of the N ½ of N ½ of Sec 13 T17N R 17E; all but the extreme southeast corner of Sec 18 T17N R18E, and in part of the W ½ of Sec 17 T17N R18E Survey Methods and Results The Rock Art Ranch Survey was conducted by two crews usually consisting of to students and a supervisor The survey began near the ranch house, and worked westward toward Chimney Canyon, the first major drainage west of the ranch headquarters The survey did systematic transects designed to provide 100 percent coverage, working between natural features such as fencelines, roads, and the canyon The survey worked west of the ranch, north of the road and range fence that exits the main ranch headquarters area to the southwest, north to the north ranch boundary, and in and along both sides of the middle portion of Chimney Canyon To orient the transects, GPS units were used initially to locate starting and ending points, to map roads and fencelines, and to locate isolates, site centers, and site boundaries The GPS units were set to either NAD27 or NAD83, with the setting carefully noted The NAD27 setting and resulting coordinates is useful for translating the coordinates into plots on the existing USGS 7.5-minute topographic sheets for the area The NAD83 data can be overlayed onto digital topographic maps and manipulated in GIS software such as ArchView Fortunately, it is possible to translate between the two coordinate systems easily Unfortunately, they give very different results (sometimes 100s of meters difference in the eastings or northings) so the translation from one projection to another must be done depending on what the data will be used for Experiments with the students showed that using the GPS units to align transects was less than satisfactory We used toilet-paper flags in bushes to mark edges of the transects to make it easier to follow the alignment on the return transect We tried to maintain spacing between crew members at 10 meters—paced off and measured off with a tape Regularly, we found crews crossing over the TP lines, or major “bends” or “dog-legs” developing in the middle of the transects With the GPS units displaying the compass function, it was already known that the GPS compasses are not particularly sensitive We clearly proved this again as the students trying to follow the compass headings wandered around the landscape like they had been drinking heavily, and although they started about 10m apart, within 50 to 100m had crossed over each other’s line Similarly, if we started out two of the crew with the standard spacing to follow a given coordinate (easting or northing) on the GPS, with the + 4-5 m accuracy (which is about ½ the transect interval), again, within 50 to 100 m they had crossed over each other’s line and were not maintaining any real consistent spacing between each other However, with a simple magnetic compass (eg, a Silva Ranger), it was possible to keep the crew walking straight The simple magnetic compass also required far less time to “check” for orientation and direction The GPS units were like watching a videogame—students became so focused on the GPS units that they were not looking at their fellow crew members for spacing, were not looking at the ground for artifacts, and in one case, nearly stepped on a snake The GPS units were valuable, however, for recording coordinates for isolates, and for recording the datums and boundaries of sites and loci And it is important to be able to translate coordinates from one projection system to another (NAD83 to NAD 27, or NAD27 to NAD83) In all, approximately mi2 (1200 acres) were surveyed, and about 15 new sites were recorded A preliminary visit to the area in June 2010 had resulted in the recording of 11 sites, some of which were revisited during 2011 So, in all, 34 sites and loci have been documented in a small area of the Rock Art Ranch thus far The site density was very low until right along the edges of Chimney Canyon Along the eastern edge of the canyon is a roughly 100 to 200m swath of low density but continuous artifact scatter in the sand dunes The scatter is so diffuse that in many cases this would not meet the definition of a site based on artifact densities, and it is continuous enough that it is difficult to separate into clearly defined sites or scatters Between the canyon and the ranch were other scatters, usually very small (spatially), low density scatters of sherds and flaked stone Several habitation sites were recorded on small dunes and ridges, clustered near the canyon and near areas that appeared to be ideal for dry farming General Physiography The Rock Art Ranch is located in the Great Basin Desert Grasslands centered on an area to mi south of the Little Colorado River It is near the boundary of the grasslands and juniper-dominated uplands, located a mile or two to the south Between the ranch headquarters and the Little Colorado River are several ridges and valleys that drain more to the adjacent canyons rather than directly into the river The ridges and higher terrain associated with Apache Butte effectively direct the flow east to McDonald Canyon or west to Chimney Canyon and Chimney Draw before reaching the river Sand dunes, including several large, active dunes, occur in the area north and west of the ranch, and occur predominantly along the east side of Chimney Canyon The sand is thrown up or dropped along this part of the canyon by the predominant southwest winds These dunes and small side valleys seem to be ideal locations for dry farming The RAR is located a bit west of the halfway point between McDonald and Chimney canyons, both of which seem to convey large amounts of water at times from the highlands to the south along the Mogollon Rim In their middle reaches, both canyons are much shallower than Chevelon Canyon (farther west), and are therefore more accessible to get water and to potentially use interior terraces and bottomland for farming In the middle reaches of Chimney Canyon surveyed by the RARFS in 2011, there are “dikes” where the bedrock rises up in small ridges running across the canyon, restricting the flow of water in the canyon The basins created by these dikes are generally filled with loose sand, and there are some extensive patches of exposed bedrock as well If the sand were cleared out of these basins, ponds of water would probably remain for many weeks if not months There are often several terrace levels within the canyon, sometimes loaded with artifacts from farther upstream or eroding into the canyon from the dunes along the edges The canyons near the RAR are also significant in that they introduce a different riparian-oriented feature into the otherwise fairly homogeneous grassland area The resulting plant diversity and concentration of farmland and water clearly attracted earlier human populations to the canyons, and was repeated in recent times with a Navajo homestead located on an inner terrace of Chimney Canyon in this same area One of the natural dikes across the canyon was enhanced by this small homestead in order to retain even more water in the nearby basin Early in the field season, it was noted by all that nighttime temperatures were much cooler than we had usually experienced in Winslow Certainly the urban setting and old structure of the dorm contributed to the warmer temperatures in town, but seemingly the position of the RAR leads to those cooler temperatures: RAR is slightly higher than most of the Homol’ovi area, it is a non-urban area, it is closer to the higher elevation of the Mogollon Rim, and it is close to several small, shallow drainages that drain colder air from the highlands past the ranch flowing downslope toward the river as part of the typical diurnal cycle Noteworthy things: 1) as was suggested by an earlier survey along the west side of Chevelon Canyon by Bruce and Lisa Huckell (1993?), there is a continuous use of this upland area from Middle Archaic times on— indicated by the diagnostic projectile points, bifacial lithic technology evident in the debitage, type of ground stone present, and stone slab features 2) as compared to what we are familiar with from the Homolovi State Park area, the absence of Jeddito Yellow Ware was striking We found one JYW bowl rim the whole field season 3) again compared to sites through all time periods at Homol’ovi, there is far less obsidian present in this area of the Rock Art Ranch The survey and excavations recovered only a handful of obsidian flakes (any points?) 4) we knew about the potential for Archaic materials, but the initial research was proposed to investigate a boundary situation primarily during the later ceramic periods ( PIII and PIV) At least in the area surveyed, we found everything but information on the late prehistoric period There was abundant evidence in points, lithic debitage, and ground stone that the area was used regularly from Middle Archaic times through BMIII and PI, into PII/III There seem to be features dating to all of these periods, and an occupation in the later periods (PII/III) that makes use of partially subterranean, stone masonry rooms and roomblocks Survey area and major topographic features of the Rock Art Ranch field school The 13 th-century pueblo is RAR-2, where excavations began in 2011 by Dr Vincent M LaMotta, University of Illinois, Chicago Spear and arrow points recovered from the ground surface during the 2011 field season The points range in age from ca 9000 BCE to 1250 CE  ... not looking at the ground for artifacts, and in one case, nearly stepped on a snake The GPS units were valuable, however, for recording coordinates for isolates, and for recording the datums and... apart, within 50 to 100m had crossed over each other’s line Similarly, if we started out two of the crew with the standard spacing to follow a given coordinate (easting or northing) on the GPS, with. .. “check” for orientation and direction The GPS units were like watching a videogame—students became so focused on the GPS units that they were not looking at their fellow crew members for spacing,