I was lucky. I managed to convince Helen Murdock and Nancy Thompson of Pima Community College that this was a great potential draw for their community outreach program. That was the easy part. I took them on a whirlwind tour of Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly in three days and they were convinced.

Looking across the ruins of Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico. I took hundreds of people to these spectacular sites and Old Pueblo continues that tradition with tours led by well-known archaeology buffs such as Ron Towner. Photo by M. Severson. Pictured: L. Burnett and son Ian. ca 1980.

After that it was simply my willingness to set aside four or five days, several times a year and work non-stop for those days making sure that everyone got as much as possible from the excursions into prehistory. It was great, I got to go to my favorite places and I was willing to take people along with me to share the experiences. Pima College did all the advertising and made all the arrangements, it was a a godsend second job for an archaeologist turned teacher.

During most of this euphoric time another archaeologist was laboring in a parallel fashion to increase archaeological education for the greater good of the public. His name is Al Dart and his mission since establishing the non-profit organization Old Pueblo Archaeology has been to bring the fascination of the field of archaeology to children and adults alike.

Al brings unquestioned credentials to the endeavor as an archaeologist and professional educator. He received his bachelor’s in anthropology at the University of New Mexico, a master’s from the University of Arizona and has worked extensively in Arizona and New Mexico. He maintains high professional standards for all he does and demands that any program that represents Old Pueblo Archaeology also achieves those goals.

As a founding member of the board of directors for Old Pueblo Archaeology I have witnessed first-hand Al’s unwavering commitment to his vision of public archaeology awareness. It has not been an easy road to follow. There are times when it appeared the organization must dissolve into obscurity due to lack of public and private support. And yet time and time again through sheer force of will and tireless devotion to his dream Al has managed to keep the doors open and the programs available.

And yet lacking a handful of donations this year, the end of that dream could occur at any time. Archaeology is a non-renewable resource. What we see now will never be replicated once lost through inattention, the forces of progress or blatant vandalism. I join with Al in believing that only through aggressive education can we preserve and possibly protect the archaeology that still remains for us to marvel at.

Ignoring the problems means the loss of amazing cultural heritage.

Very large, old archaeologist and visitor to bedrock mortars that give Los Morteros, a Hohokam site in the Tucson Basin, its name. OPAC visits many sites in and around Tucson as well as other well known southwestern places like the Mimbres Valley in New Mexico and the Hopi Mesas.  Used by permission.

That time may be fast approaching. As we all know, our economy especially in Arizona, has been sluggish at best. In times like these non-profits often are forced to rely upon what little they have managed to stash away to keep the wolf from the door. That wolf is howling outside OPAC as I write, rattling the door jambs and shaking the windows.

Early man site Ventana Cave is another of the fascinating sites to be seen on tour with Al Dart and his staff from Old Pueblo Archaeology Center. Photo by M. Severson

If, like me, you believe in Al’s mission and the concept of Old Pueblo Archaeology it is time to do what you can to help preserve this important organization. There are numerous ways to help. You can go to their website and become a member, you can attend the free Third Thursday talks held at various restaurants in and around Tucson and add a donation to your evening’s entertainment. Or quite simply you can donate to Old Pueblo Archaeology’s outreach program which helps fund scholarships for the various educational programs sponsored by the organization. 1)

If you would like to mail Old Pueblo Archaeology Center a tax-deductable, let me repeat that, a tax-deductable donation, please make your check payable to “Old Pueblo Archaeology Center” (or simply OPAC), and please write “Armchair Marcaeologist Donation” on the check’s memo line  (so we can track donation sources and I can see if anyone reads this stuff I write), and send it to:

Old Pueblo Archaeology Center

PO Box 40577

Tucson AZ 85717-0577

Thank you.

1.) https://www.oldpueblo.org/

I will be taking you to some of the lesser known places in Chaco Canyon in some later posts but for now I am stopping at an outlier about 50 miles south of Chaco and it is one that is integrally related to the prehistoric cities of the canyon.

Outliers in the professional archaeologist parlance are habitation sites that are somehow connected to a larger sphere of influence but located somewhere outside it’s core.

Driving from Gallup, exit at Thoreau (pronounced ‘threw’; it’s named for a former railroad man) as if to take the short cut to Farmington, New Mexico. Traveling by this back road toward the Bistii Wilderness, and eventually Farmington, as I am sure you have done many times, you may have noticed in passing an interesting rock formation east of the highway near Crownpoint. It looks much like a natural spire of sandstone when seen from the road traveling 70 plus miles an hour. Closer inspection though, discloses that while it is a stone spire, it is of man-made origin.

The Navajo (Dine′) have named it Kin Ya’a — the Tall House.

The Tall House, notice how the shadow makes it look like a natural formation. Looking east. Photo by M. Severson

It represents the remains of what must have been an imposing structure in its day. Archaeologists refer to it as a ‘tower kiva’ because there appears to be a ceremonial significance to the interior room at the top of the tower. Modern kivas are ceremonial rooms in pueblo towns and by the referential process of archaeological interpretation, archaeologists have identified these rooms as being ceremonial in ancient pueblos also. Tree ring dates place the building of Kin Ya’a around 1100 AD.

Generally kivas make up a small percentage of the overall rooms in a village. Tower kivas are a unique structure even among these less common specialized rooms because rather than being subterranean as  are most prehistoric kivas, they rise several stories into the air.

One theory is that building a kiva so high up gives it a stronger connection to the realm of the sky and therefore increases the viability of any prayers for rain that originate there. Since it appears that some tower kivas may be several of the structures stacked one atop the other, they may also replicate the four worlds of pueblo myths.

Tower kivas are not exclusive to sites that are linked to Chaco Canyon but they are most commonly found in Chacoan towns. The one at Chettro Ketl, the second largest town in the canyon, has some interesting stone projections that appear to allow for entry by those adventurous souls brave enough to ascend the exterior of the tower in that manner. A more likely function is to illustrate to the people when it was time to re-plaster the exterior walls. When the rock projections start to show it’s time to start mixing more plaster.

The Chettro Ketl tower kiva has been excavated to illustrate the amount of work that went into the foundations of the structure. Not surprisingly it sits upon an impressive stone base excavated more than twenty feet into the Chaco soil. West of Pueblo Bonito, the compact town of Kin Kletso has two structures that appear to be tower kivas. If you are interested in learning more about Chaco you can go to the NPS site. 1)

Here in a close-up of remains of the tower kiva interior wall where you can see the reddish coloring of oxidation on the sandstone bricks indicating that the structure probably burned. Looking north. Photo by M. Severson

Most archaeologists agree that the tower kiva at Kin Ya’a has a very specific reason for its placement at this particular Chacoan town. But because they are archaeologists they don’t all agree on what that reason is. It all depends on who you talk to.

This site is unexcavated, which means all the information is still there waiting for future improvements in archaeological techniques. Looking northeast. Photo by M. Severson

The purpose of the structure may have long been open to debate but I like the signal tower aspect that has been presented in many discussions. The idea is that fires built atop the kiva could be used to signal other sites far away, especially at night. Kin Ya’a lies along the Great South Road out of Chaco, in fact the road bisects the pueblo diagonally.

To read more information on Kin Ya’a and a nice interpretive reconstruction painting go to the NPS brochure 2).

If you want to go to Kin Ya’a I better tell you my story.

Anyone traveling to Chaco today normally enters by the Pueblo Pintado road between Bloomfield and Cuba, NM;  built a decade or so ago to facilitate visitation to the remote site. Back in the day, a generation or more in the distant past, this adventurous explorer used to enter the canyon by the south road at the old trading post (TP) turnoff and return the next day by the Blanco TP or Nageezi TP road. I have always been a lover of bad roads.

Exploring the site, Chaco road is in foreground. Exploring the site, people are standing on the ruins of multistory rooms. A portion of a Chaco road is in the foreground, the tower kiva to the right of picture. Looking west. Photo by M. Severson

Of course, while on tour, I also wanted to stop and see Kin Ya’a since I drove right by it. Not bothering to get directions, (Don’t say it!) I felt I could find my way to the site. After all, I am a trained archaeologist. I’ve surveyed hundreds of miles of desert without getting lost. I can surely find my way to a stone spire that anyone can plainly see.

Yep.

On my first attempt I wound up in a local front yard somewhere south of Kin Ya’a. Sitting there slightly embarrassed but unashamed I watched as a Navajo granny in long skirts came out her front door. She looked at the huge white van loaded with bil-ganas (the term Navajos use for ‘white people’) that was being driven by some big guy with a nervous smile on his hairy face. She slowly shook her head, turned around and walked back in the house shutting the door behind her

As you can tell by my photos, I did finally find my way to Kin Ya’a but I still owe that granny an apology.

The carefully constructed Chacoan walls usually had a visual pattern to the layers of sandstone. Then they were covered by plaster and never seen by the people who lived there. Looking northwest. Photo by M. Severson

1) http://www.chaco.com/park/brochure.html

2) http://www.nps.gov/chcu/planyourvisit/upload/

KIN%20YA’%20A%20-%202005.pdf