Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since the 1960s, faculty from Brigham Young University have conducted archaeological research in southeastern Utah. The focus has been Montezuma Canyon, a long, winding drainage renowned for its rich archaeological heritage, especially Ancestral Puebloan ruins. Ray Matheny directed nine field schools in the canyon beginning in 1969, and Joel Janetski continued the tradition with four field seasons in the 1980s. Students of those field schools have completed numerous Master’s theses as well as scholarly publications on that work, which has emphasized both survey and excavation. Research interests have varied from canyon demographics to human impacts on the canyon and shifting subsistence emphases over time. Recent studies have focused on canyon geomorphology. In this session we summarize the history of that research and present a synthesis of findings in the broader context of regional prehistory.

Other Keywords
Ancestral Pueblo • Settlement patterns • Geoarchaeology • Architecture • Landscape Archaeology • Pueblo • Digital Archaeology: Photogrammetry • Subsistence • Chronology • Artifact

Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) • North America (Continent) • USA (Country) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Colorado (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-14 of 14)

  • Documents (14)
Documents
  • The Basketmaker Component of Cave Canyon Village, Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Glenna Nielsen-Grimm. Diana Christensen Hawks.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cave Canyon Village is a large, multi-component site investigated through survey and excavation by Brigham Young University Archaeology Field School in 1975-78. Two years of excavation in the Basketmaker component of the site uncovered 5 large pit structures, and associated small slab-lined cists that date to the...

  • Ceramic from the Early Components at Nancy Patterson Village (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Charmaine Thompson.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Nancy Patterson Village (42SA2110) is a large Ancestral Pueblo site in southeastern Utah. The site spans the entire Ancestral Pueblo sequence, although most of the remains come from two relatively short periods when it was a village-sized settlement. Brigham Young University excavated at the site from 1983 through 1986,...

  • Coal Bed Village: Test excavations of a major Ancestral Pueblo site in Southeast Utah (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Yoder. James Allison. Scott Ure. Haylie Ferguson.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Coal Bed Village (42SA920), located at the confluence of Coal Bed and Montezuma Canyons, is one of the largest Ancestral Pueblo sites in the state of Utah. The site was first documented by William Henry Jackson in 1875, but has never been systematically investigated. Rubble mounds covering the top, slope, and alluvial...

  • An Introduction to the Archaeology of Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ray Matheny. Winston Hurst. Joel C. Janetski.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Montezuma Canyon is a large entrenched north to south drainage in southeastern San Juan County, Utah. Significant tributary canyons join it along its course to the San Juan River. Our focus here is the canyon segment from near the head down to the Navajo Nation border. There are a few records of early explorers and...

  • Lasers and Pixels: Using Terrestrial LiDAR and Photogrammetry to Record Rock Art at the Polychrome site in Montezuma Canyon (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Ure.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. LiDAR scanning and photogrammetry are quickly becoming extremely useful tools for archaeologists. This is especially the case for documenting complex rock art panels that can be difficult to fully represent using traditional techniques constrained to 2D formats. In contrast, terrestrial LiDAR and photogrammetry provide a...

  • The Late Holocene Geomorphic History of Montezuma Canyon and the Puebloan Agricultural Landscape (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Wayne Howell. Eric Force.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our study identified four depositional packages in our Montezuma Canyon study area, the older two of which formed the Ancestral Puebloan canyon bottom agricultural landscape. The older unit began accreting during the mid-Holocene and was formed by a meandering channel that periodically overflowed its banks, filling the...

  • Low Altitude Aerial Photography in Montezuma Canyon (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Haylie Ferguson. Scott Ure.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Photogrammetric imagery, spatial modeling, and resulting high-resolution orthomosaics can be used to identify potential excavation areas, previously unrecorded architecture and other archaeological features, and to verify and update existing mapdata and site information. This paper discusses the methods and results from...

  • Montezuma Village Revisited (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Deanne Matheny. Winston Hurst. Ray Matheny. Glenna Nielsen-Grimm.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Montezuma Village, located in San Juan County, Utah, was a large prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan community center. Although the village was visited by explorers and archaeologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the first effort at documenting the entire village was in the early 1960s by Ray...

  • Puebloan Patterns in Montezuma Canyon: Insights from the Nancy Patterson Ruin (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joel Janetski. Charmaine Thompson.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Nancy Patterson Ruin is one of several large, multi-component pueblos, positioned at the mouths of side canyons draining into Montezuma Creek. Although occupations at Nancy Patterson span at least Basketmaker III through late Pueblo III, the most visible occupations are late Pueblo I and mid-Pueblo III. Unique...

  • Re-examination of the 1975 – 1977 Excavations of the Pueblo I-II Components of Cave Canyon Village, Montezuma Canyon, Utah (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Christensen Hawks. Craig Harmon.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Brigham Young University’s Archaeology Field School conducted three seasons of fieldwork from 1975 - 1977 on the Basketmaker III and Pueblo 1 – Pueblo II Ancestral Puebloan components of Cave Canyon Village in Montezuma Canyon, southeastern Utah. The excavations provided data, including radiocarbon, archaeomagnetic and...

  • San Juan Redware Economy: Tracking the Pottery of Montezuma Canyon to the Great Sage Plain (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steven Di Naso. David Dove. Winston Hurst. William Lucius.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Montezuma Canyon, in extreme southeast Utah, was home to large populations during the Basketmaker III through PIII period (AD 500-1300). Potters located throughout this deeply-incised, 73 km long north-south running canyon, produced San Juan Redware pottery in abundance well-beyond the needs of the village. ...

  • Soil Chemical Traces of Ancient Human Activities at Montezuma Village, UT (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard E. Terry. Glenna Nielsen-Grimm. Deanne Matheny. Ray Matheny.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many of the elements associated with foodstuffs and mineral ores were deposited in the surface of soils and floors of ancient dwellings. Phosphorus and certain heavy metals remain chemically sorbed on soil and floor particles. Soil samples were collected from ancient patios of two structures associated with the...

  • Surveying Montezuma Canyon (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kenneth Wintch. Deanne Matheny. Ray Matheny.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the history of archaeological surveys by Brigham Young University in upper and middle Montezuma Canyon during the latter half of the 20th Century. The sequence, methods, context and goals of those various inventories are briefly presented, followed by a brief discussion of salient results and patterns...

  • Three Kiva Pueblo Revisited (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Donald Miller.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Three Kiva Pueblo Revisited In 1969, the BYU Field School of Archaeology began intensive excavations at site 42Sa863, Three Kiva Pueblo, in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah. Four seasons of field-work, including analysis of architecture, ceramics, lithics, and various artifact materials were reported in a 1974...