This is site, referred to as "160," is located close to the Mogollon Rim in ponderosa pine forest. It consists of a circular great kiva, a masonry room block, and an associated midden area. This site is geographically and temporally close to Hough's Great Kiva and is estimated to date to ca. AD 1080-1150 This site was discovered and recorded during a 1991 cultural resource management survey. Unfortunately, it has sustained quite a bit of damage. A logging or fire road over the pueblo has obscured evidence of the layout or configuration of the roomblock. In addition, a new age "medicine man" collected most of the decorated ceramics on the surface of the site for his medicine bag. Because of the extensive damage to the roomblock, the limited excavations at this site focused on the great kiva and the trash midden.

Because the room block is in poor condition, and the trash midden is ephemeral, excavations focused on the architecture of the great kiva. Comparative architectural and construction information was obtained through the excavation of two grid squares in the great kiva and a trench across the northern berm area. Surprisingly, a portion of the great kiva's northern masonry wall is still standing. The great kiva's interior diameter is approximately 15.5 m, making it one of the smaller great kiva structures studied. There may have been a partial roof, covering the seating area, but no impressed daub or charcoal was found like in excavations at other great kivas. Because no evidence for a roof was encountered, the possibility that the structure was unroofed remains. In fact, the great kiva may not have been completed, as the walls are less substantial than other great kiva sites.

It is difficult to glean a full picture of the occupation of the site because of the lack of information from the habitation rooms. The excavations of the trash deposits and the kiva structure suggest that the occupation at the site was short. The thin trash deposits suggest that the site was probably not occupied for a long period of time, as they were only about 20 cm thick with a low artifact density. Although no faunal and few botanical remains were recovered from the two midden grid squares, the sparse ceramics aided in the dating of the site. The architecture of the kiva is considerably less substantial than the great kivas at Hough's Great Kiva and Cothrun's Kiva sites. Other great kivas studied also had a more substantial floor surface preparation. The extant floor surface at AZ P:16:160 was only encountered at the base of the bench. Although the occupation of the site appears to have been shorter than other great kiva sites, a substantial amount was invested in the kiva structure. This suggests that longer occupation may have been intended at some point.

© 2002. Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona.
Drawings by Douglas Gann (Mills et al. 1999)
Comments to Barbara Mills