Site Recording and Condition Assessment

Archaeologists from Lone Mountain performed detailed field recording of two previously known Navajo sites in northern New Mexico (Hiener Springs and Deer House) containing pueblitos. Pueblitos are masonry structures typically found in easily defensible, hard-to-reach locations, and were constructed during a time of conflict and upheaval in the region. The goal of the project was to fully document the sites, provide a condition assessment of both pueblitos, and provide a stabilization plan and recommendation for both structures.

Dendochronology dates provided by timber structural elements at Deer House and relative dates based on ceramic styles at Hiener Springs situate the construction of the two pueblitos between the mid 1720s and the early 1740s, squarely within the overall pueblito construction phase. Each pueblito is accompanied by outlying features and structures. Hiener Spring pueblito consists of at least four contiguous rooms and at least one isolated room and 16 associated features, including probable sweat lodges, middens, and hand and foot holds. Similarly, the Deer House pueblito has seven contiguous rooms with 19 associated features including at least one forked-pole hogan (with others likely present though currently not identifiable with certainty), possible ramadas, and middens.

At both pueblito sites, the visible surface artifact assemblage consists of thousands of individual items including ceramics, flaked-stone tools and debitage, and groundstone. Faunal materials are also well represented, with both burned and unburned bone occurring in nearly every identified extramural feature. Burned or thermally altered sandstone is also well represented across the site, identified in most feature contexts. Ceramic artifacts are mostly Dinétah Gray and Gobernador Polychrome jar sherds. Puebloan tradewares are also present in a few features. Ancestral Puebloan brownwares were also observed, probably reflecting earlier habitation of the area.

The presence of domestic features and artifacts suggests that the sites were residential. Bearing in mind the mean occupation range of 8.5 years for pueblitos (as ascertained in prior projects), perhaps it is fair to say that groups of Navajo (and possibly Puebloan refugees) took up residence at these sites for periods of time, rather than using them purely as defensive or military sites. The sites appear to have been multi-purpose, providing domestic comforts as well as additional security (far-ranging views, defensibility, and easy communication with nearby pueblitos) in times of stress. Deer House, in fact, exhibits evidence of two independent occupational events. Rather than representing long-term sedentary or semi-sedentary communities, these sites were apparently short-term havens for frontier communities that may otherwise have remained largely mobile.

A detailed preservation plan for both sites was presented in the report. Lone Mountain is proud to have contributed to the preservation of these important sites, as pueblitos are crucial to understanding the protohistoric and historic Navajo use of the area, the interaction between Pueblo and Navajo peoples, and the changes in culture wrought by conflicts between the Navajo, Pueblo, Spanish, and Ute-Comanche during that time.

Hot Springs