Excavation Methods
The entire month of August, 1936, was consumed by this excavation.
The students of the 1936 Chaco Field Session were employed as
junior archaeologists, overseers in charge of minor projects and general
assistants under the supervision of the staff of the Field Session.
The laborers used were some ten to sixteen Navajos, the number being
inversely proportionate to the proximity and duration of "squaw
dances," "sings," and horse races.
The students, assisted by the laborers, first traced out all of the
walls possible on the surface of the mound (Plate IIa). A room was
assigned to each two students as a special responsibility. Room numbers
were assigned to kiva enclosures also, as these had been used for
living purposes in every case. The walls of the rooms on the west tier
were distinguishable on the surface before excavation. Many of the
other walls, and those especially of the kivas, were from one to three
feet below the surface. In the southeast corner of each room, a column
one meter square was left as a permanent record of the stratigraphy
within that room. The rest of the room fill was excavated in foot
levels, the artifacts from each level being sacked and examined separately
later in the field museum. All artifacts were numbered with the
Museum of Anthropology numbers immediately upon their acquisition.
Burials, when encountered, were taken out by members of the staff
(Plate IIb). The somatological material first was photographed with
the permanent museum numbers noted, and then was prepared and
sacked in the field. All wood and perishable objects were preserved in
the field with appropriate materials and removed to the field museum.
The kivas presented a special problem but were treated in general as
were the rooms, a "strat" column being left from the original surface
down to the first floor.
After excavation had proceeded in the superstructure down to the
first floor, these "strat" columns were scraped clean, photographed, described
and graphed. A regular photographic crew was constantly
prepared to photograph any new objects or subjects of interest which
came to light. Throughout the excavations and the subsequent examination
of the stratigraphy columns, the shard evidence was carefully
noted and percentages computed.
In addition to the above, a trench was carried completely around
the ruin to serve as a stratigraphy test on the fill surrounding the
exterior. Additional trenches were cut in at right angles to the encircling
trench at the four points of the compass and carried out
twenty-five feet from the walls.
All excavated earth was examined twice for content—from trowel
to shovel, and from shovel to wheel barrow, according to each level as
mentioned before. This dirt was then deposited in the low flat to the
north of the mound, well out of the way and below the drainage level
of the excavation. Drainage from the denudational slope above the
mound was accomplished by a V-shaped cut to carry the run-off water
to both sides of the mound.
The stratigraphy test in the refuse mound was carried on at the
same time as the main excavations. Also, a surveying crew kept in
constant touch with the developments of the excavation as they
progressed.
As the mound, as it first appeared, became complicated in its lower
levels with earlier horizons and different periods, the process of excavation
was renewed on the old lines after the first floor was reached. A
series of substructures occurred on the western edge of the mound,
located by a test trench in that direction. These extended under the
whole superstructure, as was later ascertained. Therefore, after the
primary excavation of the superstructure, and the examination of room
fill and stratigraphy columns, the process was repeated beneath these
rooms. The floor of each top room was dug away, and the contents
of the exposed interior room noted in levels as before. A stratigraphy
column was left as before, the top of which was a portion of the room
floor of the superstructure. The substructure, which may from this
time on safely be called Pueblo I, did not in each case coincide with the
walls of the pueblo which had been built upon it. (Fig. 1.) Tests were
completed below the Pueblo I level, and a large number of Basket
Maker shards and a portion of a pithouse indicated yet another level of
occupancy. Thus, this small but remarkable ruin, Tseh So, presented
features of a gigantic stratigraphy test in itself. No better could have
been procured for the initial education of the students involved. Full
realization of the possibilities which this ruin presented made the careful
examination of all possible stratigraphy tests essential. Complete
notes on the cubic content of every portion of the ruin made possible a
rather detailed description of the fill and architectural features of every
portion of it and a number of interesting deductions derived thereform.
