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Stephen E. Nash 16 June 1999 |
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The Delgar Site (aka Hough Survey (1907) Site 102, Danson Survey (1957) Site 83) is the largest site examined by the Field Museum in the Reserve Area. It consists of three large room blocks, one of which contained over 100 rooms, and covers six acres. |
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Figure 1: Map showing location of The Delgar Site  |
Pothunters had already greatly disturbed the site by the early 1900s. As Hough (1907:73) noted: "Immense deposits of rubbish surround it, indicating long-continued occupancy. The Delgar [site] group has been for many years the source of Tularosa pottery, and great quantities of entire specimens have been secured (broken specimens being discarded). So extensive has been the work that it is almost impossible to ascertain the ground plan of the pueblos." |
EXCAVATION STRATEGY "The object of the test excavations was to identify on the basis of modern taxonomy some of the pottery types found, and thus to place the ruin roughly in its temporal position" (Rinaldo n.d.:22). Provenience information on the artifacts curated at the Field Museum indicates that at least 11 test trenches were excavated across the site, but it is not clear where these were placed, how they were excavated, or why they were placed where they were. Given the paucity of artifacts (N=544) recovered from relatively extensive excavations at this rich site, it appears that Martin and Rinaldo were highly selective in what they noted and kept as a result of their excavations. Excavation Records Department of Anthropology Archives Box SW 9, Folder "Southwest Expedition 1955: Foote Canyon, Saddle Mountain, Delgar, Perry Lawson, Powerline (#1)" contains a sketch map of the Delgar Site, though it is not to scale and contains minimal detail. Box SW 9 Folder "Southwest Expedition 1955: Foote Canyon, Saddle Mountain, Perry Lawson, Delgar Site: Photos with Explanation (#2)" contains several photos of the Delgar Site. Box SW 9 Folder "Southwest Expedition 1955: Foote Canyon Sherd Summary Sheets. Also: Delgar, Powerline, BO, Perry Lawson, Frisco Pueblo, Saddle Mountain (#3)" contains a sherd tabulation for the site. |
Accession Files Accession File 2535 in the Department of Anthropology at the Field Museum states the following with regard to the 1955 Expedition to the Southwest: Archaeological material from: Foote Canyon 133 stone, bone, shell, and baked clay artifacts 22 restorable pottery vessels 6 intact pottery vessels 161 flake knives, scrapers, and choppers (of these approx. 1/3 catalogued and 2 fragmentary human skeletons 540 stone, bone, shell, and clay artifacts (not counting pottery vessels) were |
Catalog Files On their return from the field in 1955, Field Museum staff catalogued the human remains (No. 258000) from Burial 02, Trench 11, four sherds, a grooved abrader, a palatte, and seven whole vessels. Martin Project staff in 1998 catalogued an additional series of artifacts, largely from unknown proveniences, including 163 sherds, 26 additional human remains, 43 faunal remains, and one piece of chipped stone. Photograph Files Box SW 9 Folder 2 in the Department of Anthropology Archives contains photos (Negative Nos. 95542, 95543, 95544, 95545, 95546), of Burial 1 in Trench 11. Department of Anthropology Photo Archives volume 35X contains the same photos. |
| NATURE AND INTEGRITY OF THE COLLECTION Rinaldo (n.d.:23 - 25) describes several artifacts from the Delgar site, including three manos, a chopper, two flake knives, a scraper, and an arrow shaft smoother. He also describes a burial (No. 2; from Trench 11). It is not clear how or why he selected this sample of artifacts for description. There are no manos from the Delgar Site present in the Museum's collection, which might explain why he described them. Rinaldo (n.d.:23) noted that 2131 sherds were recovered from the test trenches; only; only 166 are currently on the shelves. There are 120 pieces of human bone, 247 pieces of animal bone, one grooved abrader, two chipped stone tools, one piece of chipped stone, six bowls, and one pitcher. |
| PUBLICATION RECORD Martin and Rinaldo never published a report on the Delgar Site, though short treatments may be found in Hough (1907) and Danson (1957). Rinaldo's (n.d.:23-26) brief treatment raises more questions than it answers. DISCUSSION The heavily damaged Delgar Site was examined in order to date the site through ceramic cross dating. Provenience information is problematic. At least one artifact has a field number written on it, but no field number list has been found. The burial in Trench 11 seems to have been untouched by pothunters when it was excavated, and might therefore be worth of additional analysis. It is curious that so little chipped stone remains in the collection, though given the goals of the investigation, it is perhaps not so surprising. On the whole, however, the arbitrarily selected assemblage from this site cannot be considered representative of the variability present at the Delgar Site as a whole. |
| REFERENCES Danson, Edward B. 1957 An Archaeological Survey of West Central New Mexico and East Central Hough, Walter. 1907 Antiquities of the Upper Gila and Salt River Valleys in Arizona and New Rinaldo, John B. n.d. Notes on Minor Excavations in the Reserve Area, West |
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