Pithouses, Pueblos, Projectile Points, Petroglyphs, and Possible Plazas: An Update on the 2015 Petrified Forest National Park Boundary Expansion Survey

Summary

Petrified Forest National Park is in the third and final year of its Boundary Expansion Survey, which has nearly doubled the park’s size to 221,552 acres. Over the last three years researchers have identified and recorded over 300 archaeological sites in a variety of ecological zones. Our survey focuses on a 640-acre parcel that encompasses flat grasslands, dune-covered Triassic ridges, washes, and mesa tops. Site types range from large Basketmaker II habitation sites, to Pueblo II and Pueblo III jacal structures, rock shelters, pithouses, and masonry pueblos ranging from over a single room to 20 rooms. Our research discuses the temporal and spatial distribution of sites recorded across a grassland capped cuesta in one area of the Boundary Expansion Survey. We highlight the variability present in a small portion of new park lands and compare the sites from the sandy grasslands atop the cuesta top, the gently sloping sandy grasslands that climb the cuesta, and the silty flats below the cuesta.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Recent Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park

Keywords

Spatial Coverage