Location: Winslow, Arizona, United States

Season Dates: June 3, 2013 - July 5, 2013
Application Deadline: March 15, 2013

Website: http://anthropology.arizona.edu/node/722

Flyer:

Program Type
Field school

Affiliation: School of Anthropology, University of Arizona

Project Director: E. Charles Adams, PhD

Project Description

Rock Art Ranch is a private ranch 25 miles southeast of Winslow, AZ, that still raises cattle and bison. The ranch contains some of the Southwest’s most spectacular rock art dating from 6000 BCE. to 1300 CE, which has been completely documented. The ranch lies in the high desert at 5100’ elevation, in an area used over the past eight thousand years by mobile hunting and gathering groups, early farmers, and later, after C.E. 500, by more sedentary farmers representing archaeological cultures of the adjacent Mogollon Rim and Colorado Plateau regions. Until the fieldschool began in 2011, no professional archaeological work had been conducted on the ranch or its nearest neighbors other than documentation of the petroglyphs. During 2011-12, the fieldschool surveyed 1800 acres west of the ranch house and along two shallow canyons. A total of 50 sites have been discovered and intensive mapping and collections were done at several of the sites. Fifteen sites or site components are pre-ceramic with estimated ranges of occupation between 3500 BCE. to 500 CE. Burned features excavated on two radiocarbon date to 100 BCE and 500 CE. The remainder of the sites and components have ceramics and date between 600-1200 CE.. Excavations were conducted at two small pueblos dating to ca. 1200 C.E. revealing a partially subterranean with stone masonry walls that may be a ceremonial room or kiva. The other pueblo has as many as 10 rooms and numerous plaza features dating to the pueblo occupation and a preceramic occupation. The goals of the 2013 field season are to survey areas farther west around Bell Cow Canyon, which are expected to reveal many more sites, to test the pre-ceramic sites documented in 2011-12,  continue excavations at the two pueblos and test a much larger pueblo, the Multi-kiva site 11 miles SE of the ranch. Goals of the fieldschool are to gain an understanding of how the landscape was used by groups over the past 6000-8000 years, how and why groups migrated to and from the area, the nature and direction of exchange with groups outside the area, and what role rock art played in communicating identity and ownership during this period. Excavations will help develop a tighter chronology for the area and provide details on regional affiliation of settlers, the nature and regional organization of exchange relations, length of site occupation and subsistence base.

Period(s) of Occupation: Neolithic: American Southwest, 3500 B.C.E. to 1250 C.E.

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: 25 days - entire field season

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: none

Room and Board Arrangements

All room, board and transportation is provided by the University of Arizona and is paid out of tuition and fees. Students will stay in wood frame cottages at the ranch. Near the cottages are restroom and shower facilities separated by gender. All housing is adjacent to the dining hall, which has electricity and running water with two bathrooms and a kitchen. There is also a small museum on site. Breakfast and dinner will be served in the dining hall and lunch will be eaten in the field. Students will be transported in University of Arizona vehicles to Rock Art Ranch from Tucson at the beginning and end of the fieldschool.

Cost: $1,200 fee for accommodations

Academic Credit
Name of institution offering credit: University of Arizona
Number of credits offered: 7
Tuition: $348/undergrad; $412/grad per credit hour

Contact Information
E. Charles Adams
PO Box 210026, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0026
USA
ecadams@email.arizona.edu
Phone: 520-621-2093
Fax: 520-621-2976

Recommended Bibliography

Adams, E. Charles (2002) Homol'ovi: an Ancient Hopi Settlement Cluster. University of Arizona, Tucson

Bohrer, Vorsila L. (2007) Preceramic Subsistence in Two Rock Shelters in Fresnal Canyon, South Central New Mexico. Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series No. 199. University of Arizona, Tucson

Huckell, Bruce B. (1995) Of Marshes and Maize: Prehistoric Agricultural Settlements in the Cienega Valley, Southeastern Arizona. Anthropological Papers No. 59. University of Arizona, Tucson.

McBrinn, Maxine (2005) Social Identities among Archaic Mobile Hunters and Gatherers in the American Southwest. Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series No. 197. University of Arizona, Tucson.