Experimental Archaeology: Insights from the Construction of an Adobe Room

Summary

Experimental archaeology is a useful tool for improving our understanding of prehistoric technologies and testing archaeological interpretations. The "Hands On Archaeology" project at the 2014 Archaeology Southwest / University of Arizona Upper Gila Preservation Archaeology Field School focused on the experimental construction of a single-story adobe pueblo room in the style of the Cliff phase (AD 1300-1450+). This project was done in conjunction with limited excavation in three Cliff phase rooms at the Dinwiddie site, which provided information on building materials and construction styles. Experimental studies during construction of the adobe room improved our understanding of both labor effort and the construction techniques required to produce the types of walls and features observed in the excavated rooms. A full-scale adobe room and a portable small-scale model allow us to share what we learned with the public in different venues. This ongoing project will continue to generate data on the durability and maintenance required for this type of structure.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Perspectives on Salado   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage