2001-12-11_PERMIT FILE - C1980005 (3)

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• spalling, an attribute which an independent consultant has intemreted as being the result of heating by sanething hotter than a brush fire; the investigators decided that a hearth must be located nearby (PTheeler, 1980, p. 25). The types and diversity of artifactual materials, the recovery of a Scottsbluff point, and the observation that rapid natural deposition is occurring on the site convinced the original investigators of its sig- nificance to regional prehistory. This significance (possible National Register of Historic Places eligibility), and impending destruction by coal mine activities, required the investigators to reoonmend that the site be first tested and, if significant subsurface materials were en- countered, eventually mitigated. The results of archaeological testing on the site are discussed in the next section. ARC~F~EIJLDGICAL TESTING • Consequent to the original dis~very and recording of site 5KC139, Western Cultural Resource b4anagement, Inc. (WORM) initiated a multimethod testing program to determine the significance of the site. Testing pro- cedures were artpleted by June 2, 1980, and a draft report was suksnitted to Seneca Coals, Ltd. on September 5, 1930. The followirxJ discussion on the results of the testing program is based upon this latter report, authored by O. D. Hand (1980). As was specified in the testing proposal, cotsipletion of the following activities would fulfill an adequate testing program at the site: (1) surface mapping of all exposed artifacts, features, and topographic manifestations; (2) four 1 meter x 1 meter test pits; (3) four arroyo stratigraphy columns; and (4) four backhce trenches, each 20 meters long. The test pits were employed in order to discern the loci of cultural occupation, the placement of the pits determined by the distribution of surface materials. • 17