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Stephen E. Nash 16 June 1999 |
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Figure 1: Map showing the location of the Perry Lawson Site  |
The Perry Lawson Site is a large, ca. 50-room pueblo, consisting of a large rectangular block of rooms grouped around a plaza or courtyard (possibly a Great Kiva?) EXCAVATION STRATEGY Rinaldo (n.d.a.) noted that the site "was believed to be a defensive site of the type representative of the last occupation in the area. The regularity of the ground floor, as it appeared before excavation, the apparent shallow accumulation of trash inside the room, the condition of the masonry, and the presence of Tularosa White-on-red, Tularosa Fillet Rim, etc, in the surface collection made it seem worthwhile testing for what could be found to confirm or deny this theory." Ten test pits of various sizes were arbitrarily placed across the site. Excavation Records Department of Anthropology Archives Box SW 9 Folder 1 "Southwest Expedition 1955 Foote Canyon, Saddle Mountain, Delgar, Parry Lawson, Powerline" is supposed to contain notes on the Perry Lawson site, but such are not present. Box SW 9 Folder 2, however, contains a textual description of the site (Rinaldo n.d.a) as well as a sketch map of the location of the ten test trenches excavated by Martin and crew in 1955. It is likely that Rinaldo produced this text for his short paper (Rinaldo n.d.b.) "Notes on Minor Excavations in the Reserve Area, West Central New Mexico." The format of the text is the same, the year of excavation is the same, and it appears that he simply neglected to have the notes for this site typed and included. The text of his report is quoted in full in Appendix I. Box SW 9 Folder 3 contains "1955 Foote Canyon Sherd Summary Sheets" and includes such sheets from the Perry Lawson Site. They indicate that a total of 754 sherds were recovered from the 10 test trenches, most of them San Francisco Red, Reserve Smudged, Reserve Indented Corrugated, Alma Plain, and Reserve Indented Corrugated Smudged Interior. 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 Perry Lawson Site Saddle Mountain Site Delgar Site Powerline Site 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 illustrated in report - 53?) 2 fragmentary human skeletons 540 stone, bone, shell, and clay artifacts (not counting pottery vessels) were excavated. Over 200 of these, including 185 manos, were left in the field." Catalog Files Only two artifacts were catalogued prior to the Martin Project: a chipped stone "saw" (No. 258108) and a bone awl (No. 258109). Martin Project staff catalogued a bag of 35 sherds (No. 319681) from an unknown provenience. Photograph Files Box SW 9 Folder 2 in the Anthropology archives contains several photos of the Perry Lawson Site: Negative No. 95535: General view of the site, looking north. Negative No. 95540 and 95541: Test Trench 8; note the slab lined and floored firepit Negative Nos. 95536 and 95537: Test Trench 9; Note the slab lined firepit. It is also slab floored. Negative No. 95538 and 95539: Test Trench 10; Note the slab lined firepit. It is also slab floored. Photo archives album 35X: Southwest Expedition 1955 contains another set of the same photographs. NATURE AND INTEGRITY OF THE COLLECTION Given the size of the Perry Lawson Site and the goals of excavation, it is curious that only 38 artifacts are currently at the Museum. One wonders why any artifacts were returned at all. The 35 sherds represent an arbitrary five-percent grab-sample of the 754 sherds excavated and cannot be considered representative. Neither the bone awl nor the chipped stone tool seem particularly impressive on their own, nor can they be considered representative of the site in any way. DISCUSSION The Perry Lawson site collections, like those from the Delgar Site, Powerline Site, Saddle Mountain Pueblo, and other sites excavated in 1955, raise more questions than they answer. They seem to have been arbitrarily selected, unsystematically tested, and haphazardly recorded. The primary site excavated in 1955, Foote Canyon Pueblo received an extensive and systematic treatment by Rinaldo (1959), but the lesser sites seem to have not enjoyed such examination. Given the paucity of artifact and problems with the provenience information, the Perry Lawson site collection is perhaps best used as a basic teaching collection. REFERENCES CITED Danson, Edward B. 1957 An Archaeological Survey of West Central New Mexico and East Central Arizona. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 44(1). Hough, Walter. 1907 Antiquities of the Upper Gila and Salt River Valleys in Arizona and New Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 35. Washington. Rinaldo, John B. n.d.a. Perry Lawson Pueblo. Unpublished handwritten manuscript on file in the Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. Archives Box SW 9 Folder 2. n.d.b. Notes on Minor Excavations in the Reserve Area, West Central New Mexico." Unpublished manuscript on file in the Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. Archives Box SW 25. 1959 Foote Canyon Pueblo, Eastern Arizona. Fieldiana Anthropology 49(2). APPENDIX I: RINALDO'S (n.d.a) TEXT Summary Notes: Perry Lawson Pueblo "This large pueblo (Site Number 82) was located by Danson (1958) in his survey for Peabody Museum of Harvard University. It consists of a large rectangular block of rooms grouped around a plaza or courtyard (possibly a Great Kiva?), and was to believed to be a defensive site of the type representative of the last occupation in the area. The regularity of the ground floor, as it appeared before excavation, the apparent shallow accumulation of trash inside the room, the condition of the masonry, and the presence of Tularosa White-on-red, Tularosa Fillet Rim, etc, in the surface collection made it seem worthwhile testing for what could be found to confirm or deny this theory. "This pueblo is located due west of the Apache Creek to Highway 60 (Quemado) road, near the junction of the road and the trail into Perry Lawson campgrounds, Apache National Forest. The ruin is on a knoll across the first arroyo west of the road. Large ponderosa pine grow on the ruin and the hills and mountains in the vicinity are forested with this and other pines and junipers. Architecture: "Ten test pits put down in various rooms of the pueblo revealed little that was not already determined by the survey. The general plan of the pueblo was that of a rectangular block of rooms surrounding a courtyard or plaza, with a passageway leading off the southeast corner to the east. There were possibly 50 ground floor rooms, at least three of which were furnished with a stone slab sided fire boxes, similar to those found at Higgins Flat Pueblo (Martin and Rinaldo et al 1956:40, Fig. 24, 25), Apache Creek Pueblo (Martin Rinaldo et al 1957?), Valley View Pueblo (ibid), and the Foote Canyon Pueblo (Rinaldo in press). "At least some of the masonry (in the plaza) was of smoothed sandstone blocks laid in relatively regular courses. Ceramics: "Tularosa Black-on-white was the dominant painted decorated pottery type. Reserve Indented Corrugated was the dominant textured type. This would be indicative of a Tularosa Phase Site as defined in our previous excavation. Other types which were found and which are also indicative of the phase are Red Indented Corrugated [sic?], Tularosa Fillet Rim, and San Francisco Red Smudged Interior (bottoms of Tularsoa White on Red Bowls). One sherd of Tularosa White-on-red was found in the trenching and others on the surface. However, no true polychrome sherds were found. Artifacts: "Manos: Trench 09 [FN?] 424: Rectangular in outline, two parallel grinding surfaces, 1 flat, the other convex. L 22.2cm, W.11.1cm, Th3.6cm Trench 09 [FN?] 420: Rectangular in outline, two parallel grinding surfaces, 1 flat other [illegible] L18.7cm, W10.5cm, Th2.9cm "Metate: Trench 09 [FN?] 423: Trough open at both ends, grinding surface slightly concave. L49.5cm, W29.3cm, Th.5.2cm "Flake Knife: Trench 02: Random flake knife of opalized chert, roughly rectangular in outline, triangular in cross section, one face worked, one edge with secondary chipping. L2.4cm, W2.5cm, Th.0.5cm. [Note that none of the artifacts described here by Rinaldo were catalogued and remain available for study.] Discussion: "The ground plan of the pueblo is reminiscent of Valley View Pueblo, Hough's Sites 40, 48, 62 on the Blue River (Foote Canyon Pueblo Site 48), Site 68 near Luna, etc. These are all late pueblos of the Tularosa Phase or later, although many are located on knolls and appear to be planned sites, excavation has revealed no evidence of warfare. "The ceramics of the pueblo is [sic] characterized by the presence of Tularosa White-on-red, Tularosa Black-on-white, Tularosa Fillet Rim, and St. John's Polychrome, and/or occasionally later polychrome types and or Pinedale polychrome (Foote Canyon)" |
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