University of Virginia Library

Refuse Mound of Pueblo I.

Pueblo I is represented here by a pottery complex in which Lino
Gray and Red Mesa Black on White (Gladwin)[3] rank highest in proportion,
with Escavada Black on White (Hawley)[4] and Exuberant
Corrugated (Roberts)[5] as the next two highest, and Gallup Black on
White (Hawley)[6] as a low percentage. The first three are predominant
in Pueblo I; the latter two, predominant in Pueblo II and into the early
part of Pueblo III, were evidently being made for the first time. The
designs of the La Plata Black on White are found to be carried over,
in part, to Red Mesa and to the Escavada Black on White, and the
designs of the Escavada are found to be carried over, in part, to
the Gallup Black and White. In so far as a type piece of pottery
carries the designs chiefly characteristic of a preceding or of
a succeeding period, it is probable that that piece was made earlier or
later within the period to which it is assigned by its most important
characteristics, but this observation cannot be used as a strict criterion
of age or of period, although, with other indications, it may aid in such
time identification.

Red Mesa Black on White was originally marked by Gladwin as
in the Mancos Mesa phase of Pueblo II, and it was identified with the

Chaco Transitional Black on White (Roberts)[7] . The Chaco Transitional
has now been broken up into the Red Mesa Black on White of
Pueblo I and of early Pueblo II, and the Escavada Black on White of
late Pueblo I and of Pueblo II. The former stands close to the Kiatuthlanna
Black on White (Gladwin)[8] in typology, with thin walls, polished
slip, and designs which indicate development from the La Plata
Black on White, while the latter is distinguished by walls which average
slightly thicker, by an unpolished slip, and by heavier designs
which carry over some of the elements of Pueblo I but with the thicker
lines of Pueblo II. The stratigraphy and associated trade shards of
Mound 50 dump indicate that while Red Mesa lasted into Pueblo II,
it was paramount in Pueblo I, in the Chaco, while the Escavada was
second, but the Escavada was more popular than Red Mesa in early
Pueblo II. The Escavada is more of a borderline transitional type then
the Red Mesa, although both ran from one period into the other.

It should be noted, also, that the shards designated as Lino Gray
might equally well be shards from the lower portion of a Kana-a Gray
(Hargrave) vessel typical of Pueblo I. This situation has been kept
in mind throughout the study. Moreover, since the so-called Lino Gray
has been found in appreciable amounts all through the dump, in every
stratum, it is possible that either the true Lino Gray or the neck-banded
Kana-a Gray[9] were made through Pueblo II at this site, but
another consideration must accompany such a question. Since the Red
Mesa Black on White and the La Plata Black on White are likewise
found scattered throughout the dump in minor percentages, we must
either postulate considerable holding over of these styles into later
periods or considerable mixing of the dump material through such
agents as gophers or the washing of the steep sides of the earlier
deposits and the consequent mixing of shards from these deposits with
those of the later period. The latter would seem the more reasonable
explanation. The steepness of the mound of Pueblo I and the large
association of Basket Maker III shards in this mound in the northeastern
corner, over the pithouses (?), would certainly make for considerable
mixing, during the wash of heavy rains, of Pueblo I and Basket
Maker III shards with those being deposited during Pueblo II just
to the west of the steep peak of the earlier mound. (Fig. 7.)

Trade relations of this period are indicated by scattered shards of
Deadman's Black on Red (Colton),[10] by the unnamed thin walled Pueblo
I ancestor of the red ware with black burnished interior found in the
Upper Gila and Mogollon districts, by a shard which was identified by

Haury[11] as belonging with those from the White Mound site on the
Arizona Puerco, dating about 700 A. D., by Lino Black on Gray (Hargrave)[12]
and Kana-a Black on White (Hargrave)[13] from the Flagstaff
district, by the gray with black smudged interior found by Roberts
in the Stollsteimer Mesa ruins of the Piedra district.[14]

One small bowl of peculiar black on red ware of Pueblo I design
and finish was taken from a Pueblo I grave, and a number of shards of
similar type were found in the dump. This vessel is of gray paste,
fairly coarse in texture, and is slipped on outside and inside with a dull
red which is only bright enough in color to indicate that the shade was
not due to over-firing. The color is not of the ruddy shade on later
bowls of the various types of black on red known in the Southwest,
however, and suggests that the vessel represents an early experiment
with red slip by a people who were more accustomed to making black
on white vessels. The bowl was examined by J. O. Brew of the Peabody
Museum, who has kindly allowed his comments to be quoted.

"At first glance in the interior it suggests in color possible relationship
with the early black on white which Morris finds so prevalent
in the La Plata region and of which I find a few shards on Alkali
Ridge. However, the paste and the exterior color are sufficiently different
from any of my Alkali stuff at least to prohibit classing the two
together, even aside from the design. The panelled band of the design
with the parallel lines division, which is characteristic of the later
developmental Pueblo Black on White on Alkali, does not occur in the
red on orange. Such a piece found on Alkali I should expect to be associated
with very early type kivas and small houses of wattle and daub
or one and two room coursed masonry. Such an attempt at placing the
piece is based entirely on the design as that is the only thing that is
strictly comparable to specimens from my sites on Alkali."[15]

The steep western and lower eastern slopes of the mound of Pueblo
I (Fig. 7) indicate that it grew up from the west, the people walking
out from their homes, climbing to the top of the growing mound, and
throwing their sweepings over onto the eastern side. The location of the
dump on the eastern side of the house mound, as at Chetro Ketl, was
probably the result of their observation of the prevailing westerly
winds and the desire not to have the trash blown back into their faces
and into their houses. It will be noticed that the northern end of the
Pueblo I dump is entirely on the east side of the excavated portion of
the refuse mound; the peak is in Trench 9. The peak in Section II is

in Trench 5, with a fairly even distribution east and west of that trench
but in a very steep slope on the west and a low gradual slope on the
east. In Section III the peak is in Trench 9, with a low slope toward
the west, and in Section IV the peak is in Trench 4, with a very steep
slope on the west and a slope only slightly less steep on the east. By
this tracing of peaks and slopes we may outline the original dump of
Pueblo I, a somewhat serpentine curving of the ridge, with the central
section closer than the ends to the house mound and wider than the nine
trenches excavated. (Fig. 7.) This Pueblo mound covered the Basket
Maker III hummock and extended beneath the Pueblo II dump and
roughly catercornered to it, to somewhere beyond the present excavations,
so that neither end has been uncovered and hence cannot be
plotted. The relative narrowness of the early mound in Section IV suggests,
however, that we are fairly close to the south end.