Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Some artifacts from my recent dig.
In an Early Ceramic period (A.D. 50-600) pithouse we found seven animal bone and two ceramic gaming pieces. These were used to play gambling games by the Native Americans living there. We found scraps of deer bone and some grinding stones in the house, and they may have actually made these inside the house. What is most interesting is that nothing like this has ever been found in the Tucson area (similar ones are found in northern Arizona).
Gaming pieces (click to enlarge).
Tanque Verde phase pottery.
The designs on pottery changed every 50 to 100 years, which is how you can tell how old they are (based upon radiocarbon dates from other features containing decorated pottery). During the Tanque Verde phase bowls were decorated on both the inside and outside. The designs included a lot of cross-hatching, geometric spirals, and the use of free floating "X" designs (see the right hand side of the bottom middle sherd).
And in other news, I made pizza and went over to John H's house and helped him research his mysterious great-grandmother. We were able to locate an index to a newspaper that reported her obituary, I felt very smart afterwards.
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In an Early Ceramic period (A.D. 50-600) pithouse we found seven animal bone and two ceramic gaming pieces. These were used to play gambling games by the Native Americans living there. We found scraps of deer bone and some grinding stones in the house, and they may have actually made these inside the house. What is most interesting is that nothing like this has ever been found in the Tucson area (similar ones are found in northern Arizona).
Gaming pieces (click to enlarge).
In one area we found a depression that had been filled in with trash during the Tanque Verde phase (A.D. 1150-1300). These decorated ceramics were among four shopping bags worth of pottery sherds we found in a 2m by 2 m square area.
Tanque Verde phase pottery.
The designs on pottery changed every 50 to 100 years, which is how you can tell how old they are (based upon radiocarbon dates from other features containing decorated pottery). During the Tanque Verde phase bowls were decorated on both the inside and outside. The designs included a lot of cross-hatching, geometric spirals, and the use of free floating "X" designs (see the right hand side of the bottom middle sherd).
And in other news, I made pizza and went over to John H's house and helped him research his mysterious great-grandmother. We were able to locate an index to a newspaper that reported her obituary, I felt very smart afterwards.
