PERMFILE111962

• Permit No: C1996084
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/2/1997
• Section_Exhibit Name: EXHIBIT 05 CULTURAL RESOURCES REPORT 5
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

5
• are floor stringers, and were removed from the outside wall of the structure. The other two are either
stringers or roofing members from another azea of the structure. All four appeaz to be untrimmed,
and also appear to retain their outermost rings, and should thus give some good indication of date
of construction for Structure 1. The records of the Las Animas County Assessor aze also going to
be checked to determine if they contain tax information that might provide indication of dates of
construction for any or all parts of the Structure 1/Featwe 8 complex, or other structural features at
the site.
Test Pit 3 and Test Pit 7 Area. Five square meters were excavated in this azea, in addition
to the two square meters represented by Test Pits 3 and 7, which were excavated during the testing
phase in the spring of 1997. The treatment plan proposed up to ten square meters, in addition to the
test pits, to explore what appeared to be a possible aboriginal feature, and to further explore the
nature and associations of lithic component materials at the site. Afrer five squaze meters of data
recovery were completed, it became apparent that what lithic component materials were present were
relatively spazse, and appeaz to be associated with an erosional surface that has also been impacted
in places by the historic occupation.
The possible aboriginal feature, Feature 9, is a cluster of fve-altered rocks. Some of these
aze tabular, and suggest a possible rock-lined basin. This feature lacks any evident fill, and may be
quite eroded. It appeazs to have been arock-Filled or rock-lined hearth.
Artifacts recovered from this area number 339, of which about 75%aze debitage (see table
• in Appendix A). A biface, three pieces of aboriginal ceramics, a chipped stone drill, a flake tool,
and three ground stone fragments round out the lithic assemblage materials. Thirty-three bone
fragments were recovered; their association with either component is not yet established, but may
become appazent once the bone has been identified to taxa. The historic assemblage includes 86
items, of which the greatest proportion is plate and vessel glass.
Stratigraphic evidence from these excavations indicates a possible lithic component
occupation surface that predates the historic occupation. This level is buried below the historic level
in the northeastern most excavations at the edge of the gravel pit cut, and appeazs to become
shallower to the west, where it eventually reaches a depth shallow enough to have been impacted by
historic occupation. In the western excavations in this area, historic and lithic component materials
aze most concentrated, and mixed, in the top 20 cm of deposition. Thare is some evidence in one
of the excavations that this azea has been plowed and may have served as a gazden, though its utility
as a garden is in doubt, given the lack of water and [he proximity of floodplains along Lorenci[o
Creek and the Purgatoire River within a few tens of feet of the site. Alphonso Trujillo indicated that
his family's gardening all occurred on the floodplain.
Feature 10. Feature 10 is the remains of one of the site's outhouses. Its general location was
first identified by Alphonso Trujillo, who turned out to be very close in his estimation of its location.
It includes both the outhouse pit itself, and a substantial collection of chazcoal in a pit above the
outhouse pit, which may represent some "reclamation" effort by later landowners to bury the
• outhouse pit and obscure its existence. The coring effort did locate the charcoal and did prompt
excavation, but core holes just missed the actual outhouse pit. Two squaze meters were excavated