My one chance to get out on project in the last month was a four day project to Wupatki National Monument, the site of an 800 year old pueblo in the volcanic fields around Flagstaff. The short drive, small group of five people and short days made for a very laid back hitch that felt more like a family camping trip. Anasazi and Sinagua people inhabited this area for about two hundred years after the eruption of Sunset Volcano in 1050 a.d. On a very interesting guided tour by one of the NPS Archaeologists we toured the site and learned that trade routes extended from this Northern Arizona location all the way down to South America, and included copper bells, live Macaws and the rubber balls used to play the popular South American ball games.
Our work was a continuation of an earlier ACE project. The previous crew had backfilled some of the excavated rooms in the Wupatki Pueblo to stabilize the walls, and we were shaping and tamping the dirt so that rain will drain properly in the upcoming monsoon season. This effort will keep water from pooling up in the ruins and damaging the walls. We used pressure sprayers to water the dirt, and then waited for it to dry to just the right consistency so we could tamp it into place.
Tamping a steeply angled backslope in a small room with an 8-10 lb tamper was challenging and monotonous, but we passed the time by getting into a rhythm as a group and "dancing with the tool" as the Hopi NPS guys advised us to do. The best moments were when the whole group was working in unison, singing and dancing in this sacred site. The project partners were awesome and it was great to get to know them and talk about their connection with this pueblo of their ancestors.
We camped nearby in the Coconino National Forest at a primitive site set up by one of the ACE supervisors. The volcanic sand and vegetation was unlike anything I'd seen before, and we spotted unexcavated dwellings and structures sitting peacefully among the scrub. Our chef, Junior, kept us well fed and entertained, introducing a game of tug-of-war that involved two people balanced on elevated platforms. When another ACE crew rolled in for a fencing project, we had a battle for crew supremacy late into the night, accompanied with drum rhythms banged out on the hand wash bucket and garbage can lid.
At the end of our short days, we rolled around to other impressive archeological and geological sites like Wukoki, Sunset Crater and The Citadel (pictured above); an unexcavated pueblo atop a hill that sits right next to a big sink hole. Seeing volcanic stones in the walls of the dwellings reminded me of man's connection to the land and made me realize that 1000 years ago, people were sweating and laboring and working together to move rocks. They would have been kick-ass conservation workers!
My one chance to get out on project in the last month was a four day project to Wupatki National Monument, the site of an 800 year old pueblo in the volcanic fields around Flagstaff. The short drive, small group of five people and short days made for a very laid back hitch that felt more like a family camping trip. Anasazi and Sinagua people inhabited this area for about two hundred years after the eruption of Sunset Volcano in 1050 a.d. On a very interesting guided tour by one of the NPS Archaeologists we toured the site and learned that trade routes extended from this Northern Arizona location all the way down to South America, and included copper bells, live Macaws and the rubber balls used to play the popular South American ball games.
Our work was a continuation of an earlier ACE project. The previous crew had backfilled some of the excavated rooms in the Wupatki Pueblo to stabilize the walls, and we were shaping and tamping the dirt so that rain will drain properly in the upcoming monsoon season. This effort will keep water from pooling up in the ruins and damaging the walls. We used pressure sprayers to water the dirt, and then waited for it to dry to just the right consistency so we could tamp it into place.
Tamping a steeply angled backslope in a small room with an 8-10 lb tamper was challenging and monotonous, but we passed the time by getting into a rhythm as a group and "dancing with the tool" as the Hopi NPS guys advised us to do. The best moments were when the whole group was working in unison, singing and dancing in this sacred site. The project partners were awesome and it was great to get to know them and talk about their connection with this pueblo of their ancestors.
We camped nearby in the Coconino National Forest at a primitive site set up by one of the ACE supervisors. The volcanic sand and vegetation was unlike anything I'd seen before, and we spotted unexcavated dwellings and structures sitting peacefully among the scrub. Our chef, Junior, kept us well fed and entertained, introducing a game of tug-of-war that involved two people balanced on elevated platforms. When another ACE crew rolled in for a fencing project, we had a battle for crew supremacy late into the night, accompanied with drum rhythms banged out on the hand wash bucket and garbage can lid.
At the end of our short days, we rolled around to other impressive archeological and geological sites like Wukoki, Sunset Crater and The Citadel (pictured above); an unexcavated pueblo atop a hill that sits right next to a big sink hole. Seeing volcanic stones in the walls of the dwellings reminded me of man's connection to the land and made me realize that 1000 years ago, people were sweating and laboring and working together to move rocks. They would have been kick-ass conservation workers!
No comments:
Post a Comment