The Developing Tale of Sayles Adobe

Summary

The Sayles Adobe terrace site (41VV2239) rests within Eagle Nest Canyon 300 meters upstream from the Rio Grande confluence. The site name comes from E.B. Sayles’ 1932 sketch map of the canyon which notes an area of "sandy adobe" below Skiles Shelter. ASWT research began at Sayles Adobe this past spring with excavations focused on investigating natural terrace formation and cultural deposits buried within. Using a combination of old and new archaeological techniques, Sayles was quickly found to be a deeply stratified, multi-component site, sharing similarities with other Lower Pecos terrace such as Arenosa Shelter and Devils Mouth. Numerous compacted-silt flood drapes frame the cultural deposits across the site, demonstrating stratigraphic integrity and in a few cases preserving a unique context for artifacts. A geoarchaeological analysis of the site will be the main focus, based on various sediment analyses – i.e. physical, chemical, magnetic susceptibility, etc. Radiocarbon dating of the cultural zones will lend a hand in the development of the cultural chronology and its relationship to the many sites within ENC. This presentation details the ongoing Sayles Adobe work as part of my master’s thesis research, and presents preliminary interpretations of the natural stratigraphic sequence and observable cultural patterns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Investigating a Ten-Millennia Record of Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways in the Northeastern Chihuahuan Desert

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16957