Jeff and Mary at Bat Ledge

The Kaibab National Forest Heritage Team hosted its eleventh Passports in Time (PIT) project from September 13-18th, 1999. This time, archeologists and volunteers searched the rim country further to the east. During the project, archeologists and PIT volunteers recorded 16 new sites. The sites included additional rockshelters, hilltop pueblos with massive masonry wall rubble and agricultural terraces. One site, a hilltop pueblo had been severely pothunted and the volunteers helped conduct a damage assessment. On Tuesday, Alan Sullivan's Unviersity of Cincinatti field school discussed their work in the Upper Basin and on Thursday members of the Havasupai tribe shared their knowledge of the Coconino Rim around the campfire.

Most of the sites dated to the Pueblo III period (AD 1100-1200). Volunteers found many Pueblo III pottery types such as Flagstaff Black-on-White and Tsegi Orange Ware Polychromes. The most eastern hilltop pueblos contained Turkey Hill Red, an Alameda Brownware (made around Flagstaff) never before identified in this region. In addition, Little Colorado White Wares greatly increased in quantity.

Another unanticipated discovery has created more questions. While the hilltop Pueblos contain predominantly Pueblo III ceramic assemblages, the agricultural sites with terraces below them indicated a Late Pueblo I occupation. Although these sites are only a few hundred meters apart, they seem to be separated in time. Despite their extensive rubble, the pueblos seem to have been occupied only for a brief period. The question most volunteers wondered is if the hilltop pueblos were not habitation structures, then where were the PIII folks living and why the great effort to build these imposing features? To take a stab at this query, archeologists will next focus their Passports in Time efforts at the base of the Coconino Rim.