DONATE TODAY
Introduction
by Melissa J. Churchill
About Woods Canyon Pueblo
1
From 1994 through 1996, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center conducted
test excavations at Woods Canyon Pueblo (Site 5MT11842), a Pueblo III
village located in the central Mesa Verde region, in southwestern Colorado.
The excavations were undertaken as part of the Center's Village Testing
Project, which was designed to further our understanding of community
development during the Pueblo II and III periods (see Ortman
et al. [2000*1] and "Research
Objectives and Methods" for more-detailed discussions of project goals
and methods). Fieldwork at Woods Canyon focused on the test excavation
of a small number of kivas and their associated middens in an effort to
date the occupation of the site and to assess kiva use and abandonment
mode. Several possible public areas and water-control features were also
tested.
2
The results of both surface mapping and subsurface testing indicate
that Woods Canyon Pueblo had approximately 50 kivas, 16 towers, and between
120 and 220 surface rooms, as well as numerous midden areas, several water-control
features, and a possible plaza. Multiple lines of evidence, including
tree-ring dates, pottery data, and architectural style, indicate that
the pueblo was inhabited for approximately 150 years, from about A.D.
1140 through the late 1200s. The village was located only .75 km southwest
of a large reservoir whose use is believed to have overlapped with the
occupation of the pueblo (Crow Canyon's excavations at the reservoir are
reported separately in Wilshusen
et al. [1997*1]). The departure of the inhabitants from Woods Canyon
Pueblo toward the end of the thirteenth century coincided with the general
depopulation of the Mesa Verde region as a whole.
About this Publication
3
The 11 chapters that make up this publication include analytic
and interpretive summaries similar to those presented in traditional printed
site reports. There is one notable difference, however, between this electronic
volume and publications that exist only on paper: Although summary data
are reported in both tabular and graphic form to support the arguments
presented in text, the emphasis in this publication is on interpretation
and synthesis, not on the reporting of basic data. For the latter, the
reader is referred to The
Woods Canyon Pueblo Database, a digital, on-line database
that contains far more descriptive and analytic data than would be possible
to publish on paper. Information assembled in the database includes detailed
field observations, the results of basic artifact and ecofact analyses,
a history of investigations at the site, a description of site physiography,
the details of land ownership and government permitting, and an explanation
of field methods specific to our work at Woods Canyon. The two publications—the
interpretive chapters and the supporting database—are designed to be complementary,
but each may be used independent of the other as well.
Format
4
This site report and its supporting database are electronically linked,
which allows users to read text while calling up the relevant maps, photographs,
excavation data, and artifact information from the database. To assist
the reader in using this new format, we provide the following tips and
guidelines (paragraphs 5–9):
Navigation
5
Each chapter in this publication (see Contents)
contains links to a variety of auxiliary text and/or graphics files, including
figures, tables, and references. This publication automatically opens
a second browser window when the reader clicks on a link, and the linked
item is displayed in the second window. By selecting either the chapter
window or the "link window," the reader can move back and forth between
the two. Alternatively, the reader can resize the two windows, position
them side-by-side, then view the contents of both simultaneously. (To
navigate effectively between duplicate open windows, the reader needs
to understand how his or her particular browser handles such situations.)
Each time the reader selects another link to a figure, table, or reference,
that item will replace the previously linked item in the "link window."
6
This publication also contains links to maps and photographs in
The Woods Canyon Pueblo Database.
These links are referenced in text as "Database Map" or "Database Photo,"
and each reference includes a unique number that corresponds to its number
in the database.
7
This publication uses HTML style sheets and therefore is
best viewed with a browser that supports this feature. Readers whose browsers
do not support styles may experience minor display irregularities, but
these should not interfere with reading or navigating the publication.
Paragraph Numbering
8
Because page breaks in electronic publications are dependent on document
parameters (for example, font type and margin width) selected by individual
users, readers who wish to cite the sources of specific material cannot
use standard page-number reference formats in their in-text citations.
Therefore, to help the reader cite specific text passages in the electronic
site report, we have assigned consecutive numbers to every individual
paragraph, by chapter; these paragraph numbers may be used in lieu of
page numbers in in-text reference citations.
Reference Citation Format
9
The reader will notice that the format used for references in this publication
varies slightly from typical citation formats. Specifically, a suffix
consisting of an asterisk and a number is appended to every author-date
citation in text, creating a unique code for any given reference. This
same code (author-date-suffix) is repeated at the beginning of the corresponding
entry in the lists of references. This system allows us to generate reference
lists automatically from an electronic database and minimizes the potential
for introducing error during production.
Feedback
10
We welcome user
feedback on this publication. Your comments and suggestions will help
Crow Canyon refine its electronic formats and produce publications that
better serve the needs of our readers.
Copyright © 2002 by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. All rights reserved.