The Sand Canyon Pueblo Database

Block 1000, northeast quadrant of site.

Abuts the outside of the site-enclosing wall, just over the wall from the courtyard (Nonstructure 1000) and Structure 1002. Below Structure 1019 (Structure 1008 is the lower story, and Structure 1019, the upper, of this two-story building).

Tower.

This structure is the lower story of a D-shaped building abutted to the outside face of the site-enclosing wall. This structure was more than one story tall (as evidenced by ceiling-beam sockets in the walls). Because there appear to have been objects on the floor and possibly on the roof of the upper story (Structure 1019) that came down when the roofs collapsed, it is difficult to determine which artifacts on and near the floor of Structure 1008 were actually associated with the use of this structure rather than the structure above (Structure 1019). (For example, a portion of reconstructible Vessel 196 was found on this floor, but a portion of the same vessel was also found in roof fall, so the vessel clearly did not originate on the floor of Structure 1008.) Nevertheless, some general inferences can be made about the use of this structure. One important feature of this room is that it was not full height. The ceiling ranged from a low of 120 cm (approximately 4 ft) to a high of 154 cm (approximately 5 ft) above the structure floor. Most adults would thus not have been able to stand upright in this structure. This seems significant inasmuch as it indicates that the structure was neither designed to be, nor used as, a living room. Two firepits were present in the floor, although they had both been sealed with adobe sometime during the occupation of the structure. Artifacts found on the floor include a metate fragment, two complete manos, two complete and one fragmentary axe, a polishing stone, a projectile point, a complete jet pendant, eggshell, a peckingstone, some shaped slabs, animal bones, and many sherds and flakes. Ordinarily, low ceiling height suggests that the room was used for storage; however, the size of the structure, the presence of two firepits (used during some portion of structure occupation) and the number and variety of artifacts all suggest that this structure was used for more than storage. The only ground-level entry into the room was through the doorway that was knocked through the site-enclosing wall, which allowed access between this room and the courtyard (Nonstructure 1000). The placement of the structure against the outside face of the site-enclosing wall is a typical defensive construction cross-culturally, as this position (especially from the structure roof) allows a much wider view of the area outside the enclosing wall than a position from inside the enclosing wall. The structure location and the doorway placement both suggest that security from persons outside the site-enclosing wall was a consideration in the design of the structure. The presence of remains of persons who had received lethal injuries (Human Remains Occurrences 11, 19, 20, and 22) as well as evidence of several additional bodies that had been carelessly deposited in abandonment contexts in this kiva suite is further evidence that violence was a consideration in the design of some structures in this village.

The number of usable items left on the floor, the presence of beams from the roofs of this room and the room above (Structure 1019) in the roof fall sediment, and the absence of trash in the structure fill all suggest that the structure was abandoned when the kiva suite was abandoned (this appears to have occurred as the result of a warfare event).

The roof of this room and roof of the structure above (Structure 1019) appear to have remained in place for a period of time after the structure was abandoned; the two roofs then collapsed over time, and the upper walls of the structure above (Structure 1019) collapsed into this structure.

No excavation details recorded for this study unit.