The Sand Canyon Pueblo Database

Near the southwest end of the pueblo in Architectural Block 800; part of the great kiva complex.

Adjacent to, and west of, the great kiva (Structure 800).

Public architecture.

Use of the room is assumed to have been associated with the great kiva somehow, but the specific use or uses could not be determined. The absence of a constructed thermal feature suggests that the room was not used for habitation; however, only half of the structure was excavated, so a hearth could be present in the unexcavated portion of the room. A doorway (Structure 809, Feature 1) in the northeast wall of this room provided access, first, between this room and outdoors; after Structure 809 was built, the doorway provided direct access between Structures 805 and 809. These were the only two peripheral rooms around the great kiva that are known to have been connected by a doorway.

No whole, useable items were left on the floor. Instead, miscellaneous items, including sherds, a modified flake and a pendant fragment were left behind. An incomplete bone awl was found in roof fall and might have been left on the roof or tucked between roof beams inside the rooom. The roof of this room was not burned.

The postabandonment events that occurred in this room are difficult to determine from the available data. Oddly, either at the same time, or just after, the room was abandoned, a large area of the inner face of the west wall was destroyed somehow (see Database Photo 2017). The missing section extends the full height of the wall as preserved (including the lowermost course at floor level), and at least 1.15 m of length was destroyed; only this much length was exposed in the excavated portion of the structure. Just as oddly, the exterior face of this same wall, which served as the upper lining wall of Structure 808, is preserved (see Database Photo 3480). Because the face of the wall in Structure 805 is missing even at floor level, and because the field notes state that only a few rocks were found in the lower fill of this room (see Database Map 4303), it appears that the stones that formed the interior face of this section of wall must have been intentionally removed for some reason. Then, after 25 cm of fill accumulated on the floor, some activity that resulted in a burned spot (Feature 1) occurred. Either a fire was built, or ash containing live coals was dumped into the structure from a nearby hearth. After these events, the roof and upper walls collapsed naturally over time.

No excavation details recorded for this study unit.