CEU Excavations at Range Creek

Greetings from Range Creek! We have found five new sites, and have started gridding and mapping two Fremont habitation sites. We are also visiting rock art sites and granaries in other parts of the canyon, including the "Lost Cow" granary in a small tributary of Range Creek and these beautiful bighorn sheep petroglyphs.


This week we are excavating a small, 1000-year old farming village in the north part of Range Creek at an elevation of nearly 7000 ft above sea level. It has been surprisingly chilly up here, with daytime highs in the 80s and nighttime lows in the 40s, so we have a fire in camp most evenings. So far we have documented the remains of at least three different houses, including two pithouses and the remains of a circular, one room Fremont pueblo. The pueblo is at the top of a very steep hillside-- above the creek, the floodplain and the pithouses on the site. It has a "bird's-eye view" of everything going on in the canyon below. Artifacts include appliqué and grayware pottery, projectile points, lithic waste flakes, a hammerstone, and several fragments of manos and metates.


The floor of the house is compact, bright orange in places, and has a small ash-filled hearth with charred animal bones and charcoal and about a dozen pottery sherds. Given its east-facing aspect and high elevation, we expect that this was a summer home overlooking several pithouses lower on the bench, and maize farms along Range Creek. We have collected samples for 14C dating, pollen and macrofossil analyses, and are still excavating the floor in hope of finding the back wall, a central hearth, and perhaps a few subterranean storage pits.

Students and volunteers participating in the excavation include Ashley Humphries, Weber State University; Bill Heffner, CEU Prehistoric Museum; Casey Dooms, College of Eastern Utah; Caprielle Barlow, Willamette University; and Alex Murillo, Oregon State University.


Last week we had visitors in camp and at the museum documenting Range Creek for a new PBS archaeology special called "Time Team, USA." This series will begin airing in 2009 or 2010 with six episodes patterned after the Great Britain show, and they may start with the Range Creek episode. The "Time Team" visited the CEU Prehistoric Museum to document Fremont figurines on display in the Archaeology Hall, including the Lee Figurine and the world-famous Fremont figurines found by Clarence Pilling.

http://www.pbs.org/aboutpbs/news/20080326_timeteam.html



Renee Barlow, Ph.D.
Curator of Archaeology
College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum
451 East 400 North, Price, Utah 84501
phone/voicemail 435-613-5290