University of Virginia Library

THE WEST MOUND TRENCH

Our West Mound Trench (fig. 7), which largely provoked this
chapter, held many surprises. Foremost, as previously explained,
was the admixture of early and late pottery and the presence of
constructional waste throughout. Our stratigraphic columns of 1921,
1922, and 1924 were each cut to clean sand at a depth of 20 feet or
thereabout (pl. 6, left). Early in 1925, still seeking an explanation
for the confused nature of the mound debris, we extended the trench
northward to Room 136 and thence through the West Court to
Kiva Q. Later in the season, at Kirk Bryan's suggestion, it was
extended southward to intercept his buried channel, a subject of
much interest that summer (Bryan, 1954, p. 33).

In this 2-way extension we came upon evidence of a former eastwest
watercourse, an open gully under the south rooms of the pueblo,
that invited the dumping of village waste. As this waste increased
in bulk it not only filled the one-time channel but forced its transient
floodwaters southward into a succession of substitute channels.

Between mound and ruin our trench averaged 11 feet deep. The
bottom of it was a bed of clay-streaked sand with a scattering of
gravel. The dumping of village rubbish began early and on top of
one early pile we cut through a small, clay-lined hearth, made to

meet a temporary need (fig. 7, above Sta. 158). Village debris extended
both north and south, some of it continuing northward under
Room 136 as though dumped there intentionally to provide space for
additional rooms. This thought may seem fantastic, but, whether
intentional or otherwise, it is a fact that additional space was
provided.

At 45 feet from Room 136 our trench crossed the north side
of the West Mound enclosure. This clearly was an attempt to confine
the accumulating village waste, and a tardy attempt at that. The
lateness of the effort may be judged from the fact that 8 feet or
more of such debris had collected here before the Late Bonitians
began the barrier. They began it with their well-known secondtype
masonry but later, when the need for more height arose,
third-type stonework was employed. The base of this replacement
lies 2 or 3 feet above floor level of Room 136 and about 4 feet above
the present plain in mid-valley which, as noted elsewhere, lies from
2 to 5 feet above that in existence when Pueblo Bonito was inhabited.

Between Stations 95 and 115 is a purposeful dump of constructional
debris that has been eroded, both north and south, by water
action. Across the top of this pile is a puzzling silt surface for which
I have no convincing explanation unless it be that chunks of adobe
mortar among the discards had been rained on and trampled and then
left bare for a considerable period. Other such surfaces exposed by
our trenching operations were, in general, far less extensive.

Two masonry walls at Stations 35 and 50, the latter the earlier
of the two, clearly were erected to confine channeled floodwaters
(fig. 7). Layered sand, clay, and gravel on the north side of each
barrier establish the recurrent presence of running water. To the
right of Station O, strata of laminated and clay-streaked sand
slope down and toward the south, there to be lost among the unconformities
of Bryan's buried arroyo. Farther to the right, between
-25 and -45, miscellaneous potsherds were recovered at depths of
9 to 10 feet in the refill of that ancient arroyo. Beyond the end
of our drawing and a short distance to the east more sherds, including
Late Bonitian types, were recovered in Test Pit No. 3, 18 feet 3
inches deep, as described by Bryan (1954, p. 58).

To repeat, I made an unsuccessful stratigraphic test in 1922 at
the upcanyon end of the East Refuse Mound. Later a second test
was attempted at the crest of the mound and about 75 feet west of
the first but it, too, proved a failure. However, this second effort
brought to light an entirely unsuspected midmound feature, a partially

razed and buried wall of excellent second-type construction,
23 inches thick (fig. 24, c above Stations 85-105).

We lengthened our test pit to expose more of this wall and found
a neat corner 20 feet from the inner north side of the enclosure (pl.
79, left). The wall had been built upon a compact adobe surface
that dips west 10 or 12 inches in our 5-foot-wide trench, but continues
southward above the diversified fill of a former broad watercourse.
When razing the corner the Bonitian demolition crew allowed
more waste to fall inside the angle than out.