Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

84 Chaco Project SynthesisFigure 3.17. Overview of dune ridge location of Sleeping Dune. (Chaco Culture NHP MuseumArchive, Slide no. C-1389. Thomas Mathews, photographer.)burning, Cynomys (prairire dogs), Sylvilagus (cottontailrabbits), Neotoma (wood rats), and Thomomys(pocket gophers) were utilized to a limited extent.Sleeping Dune and Ant Hill Dune. Thelocation of these two sites on a low, deflated duneridge is not the typical setting for Archaic sites(Figures 3.17 and 3.18); such sites are usually foundon sandy ridges overlooking the canyon floor. Neller(1976b, 1976c) described the Sleeping Dune site as aresidual lithic concentration with chipped stone tools,cobble manos/hamerstones, and fire-burned sandstone.An arbitrary grid system was laid out in 1 m squares.Two test trenches indicated no natural stratigraphy.No features were found in the 146 m 2 excavations thatcovered approximately 17 percent of the site (Figure3.19). Ant Hill Dune was a smaller area with a fewflakes, almost no stone tools, abundant fire-burnedsandstone, a "biscuit" mano, a basin metate, and amidden of sand with fine particles of charcoal. Withinthe trench that contained 20 m 2 grids, a hearth areaand a portion of a midden, plus a fire-burned soil areabeneath the surface manifestation of the hearth, wereexposed (Figure 3.20).Understanding Archaic Use of the Rincon.Neller (1976b) made the first attempt to understandthese sites. His chipped stone study included both ananalysis of early trade patterns and a determination ofthe types of activities associated with the pictographs.Data from Atlatl Cave (29SJ1156) were comparedwith those from surface collections at 29SJ1157 and29SJ1159. Only 121 pieces of debitage were examinedfrom Atlatl Cave, yet materials reflected 19 differentsources, five of which accounted for 75 percentof the sample because many pieces came from thesame core. One projectile point was made from Alibateschert (Texas). The remaining materials arecurrently found in the Anasazi region. Neller recognizedthe need for detailed survey of lithic sources andtechniques to measure distinctions among them,possibly using trace elements. Comparison of chippedstone materials among the three sites indicated that thesame sources were represented, but in different proportions(Table 3.6). Neller thought that the threelithic sites represented a similar culture at a similartime period (based on source material similarities), butthat the two open sites showed more variability thanthe shelter. He believed that this supported his idea