The Sand Canyon Pueblo Database

Block 1200, southeast quadrant of site, on cliff edge.

Northeast corner of excavated portion of Block 1200, abutted to the site-enclosing wall. Located below collapsed Structure 1217 (Structure 1205 is the lower story, and Structure 1217, the upper, of this two-story building).

Storage room.

Little direct evidence of structure use. There were no doorways in the extant portions of the walls; access appears to have been through a hatchway in the southeast corner of the roof. There were no floor features and only a few artifacts were documented as having been resting on the floor surface (PL 17--a tchamahia, and PL 18--a cluster of sherds). Many artifacts were in the fill just above the floor, and in roof collapse material above that, but it is difficult to separate the artifacts that might have been stored in the roof rafters of this room (and thus associated with the use of this room) from those artifacts that were on the floor of the second-story room (Structure 1217), in the second-story rafters, or even those that might have been on the roof of the second-story room. Three bone awls were within a few centimeters of the floor of Structure 1205, and might have been associated with the use of this lower-story room. The conditions of preservation were exceptionally favorable in this structure, and numerous perishable artifacts were preserved, such as fragments of coiled basketry, a gourd vessel, several shaped pieces of wood, several possible reed grass "cigarettes," and a possible fragment of a bow; however, the precise vertical locations of many of these artifacts in relation to the structure floor is unclear, so it is difficult to draw inferences about the use of this room from these objects. In sum, the roof-type entry, the absence of a hearth, and the lower-story location all suggest that the room was used for storage.

Abandonment might have been leisurely, as evidenced by the presence of a concentration of artifacts on or near the floor in the southeast corner of the room. These artifacts appear to have been dumped through a hatchway as refuse, which suggests that use of the lower-story room ended before the kiva suite was abandoned, and possibly before the second-story room (Structure 1217) was abandoned.

Refuse appears to have been dumped into the room through a hatchway in the southeast corner. This is assumed to have occurred after the room was no longer being used. The roof and the upper walls of the second-story room (Structure 1217) collapsed, probably onto the floor of the second-story room (the roof of the lower-story room). The roof debris and wall rubble from the second-story room, along with the roofing material of the lower-story room, all fell onto the floor of the lower-story room. There was also some collapse of the upper walls of the lower-story room, and additional sediment was also naturally deposited into the room fill.

No excavation details recorded for this study unit.