History Forum / General / Archaeology / October 2004

By John Prater
Southern Methodist University
October 20, 2004

In the mid-1990s, looters offered Richard Chaves, who just purchased a
plot of land in central New Mexico, several hundred thousand dollars
for whatever artifacts they could find buried on his ranch.

In January 1996, instead of accepting the offer, Chaves approached
Michael Adler at the SMU Department of Anthropology for advice.
Chaves carried with him a shoebox full of artifacts he gathered from
the surface of the land, and he sensed the potential archaeological
value of what might still remain unearthed.

Chaves turned out to be right. The artifacts in the shoebox captured
Adler’s interest and the two men began planning how to excavate the
ranch. From that afternoon meeting has emerged the identification of
the Chaves/Hummingbird site in New Mexico, an annual summer project
for students and faculty of the anthropology department since 1998.

Since Oct. 1, the first floor lobby of Fondren Library has housed an
exhibit showcasing some of the artifacts and other findings from the
excavation.

The site consists of a Pueblo Indian village dating from the 13th and
14th centuries and located along one of the tributaries of the Rio
Puerco. Its archaeological name both honors the Chaves family and
refers to the ancestral Pueblo village, known as Hummingbird Ruin.
Excavators intend to improve the documentation of the prehistory of
the region and the river, which served as a crossroad for regional
relations during this time period, according to
http://www.smu.edu/isem/humming-bird.

The idea for exhibiting the material culture uncovered at the site
began as a discussion between John Phinney, a professor and librarian
in the anthropology department, and Adler, research director for the
excavation. Phinney said he is pleased with the results, which
include arrowheads and other stone projectile points as well as
examples of Puebloan pottery.

“All of [the artifacts] are originals, some of which the graduate
students reassembled with glue on campus,” said Phinney, who designed
the exhibit and prepared it for display. “I think people are getting a
good look at what’s been happening at the site. I’ve been getting lots
of nice comments and phone calls about it.”

Despite the large number of artifacts recovered as a result of the
Chaves/Hummingbird project, Adler believes the most important
contribution to the project may be the opportunity it has provided
Adler and others to educate more people about Pueblo culture and
archaeology.

For the past two summers, Adler used the location for the SMU Summer
Field Program in Archaeology, where students get first-hand knowledge
of excavation and archaeological analysis.

“There has been an ever-widening group of people who have gotten
involved,” said Adler, who is director of the field school.

Adler has also reached out to the remaining Pueblo Indians in the
area, inviting them to participate in the excavation.

“We’ve tried to get some of the local tribes in it to see what they
know about their past, and so we can see who these people were
affiliated with,” he said. “The involvement of the public, the
outreach, the involvement of a lot of different groups — I think
that’s been the most important contribution of this project.”

Thanks to the work of Jay Pheuer, a graduate student in the
anthropology department, the span of that outreach has grown and
continues to grow. For the past two summers, Pheuer has overseen a
10-day program that invites 10 to 12 middle school students to
experience archaeology firsthand at the Chaves/Hummingbird site. Some
of the students travel from a school in Albuquerque, while others
travel from a school in Rochester, N.Y.

Pheuer said he got the idea after realizing how little chance there
was for non-graduate-level students to get direct exposure to
archaeology. The middle school students in Pheuer’s program have the
opportunity to participate in activities such as excavation, artifact
washing and mapmaking.

At the end of the program, students compose reports based on their
findings. The quality of the results surprised even Pheuer.

“The first year, I was absolutely amazed,” Pheuer said. “The work that
they produced was impeccable. And they would listen and always do what
they’re asked and they would ask questions when they didn’t know
things.”

The program will continue next summer, but the scope of the project’s
outreach continues to grow. Pheuer and others involved in the ongoing
Chaves/Hummingbird excavation are working to obtain grant money for a
larger program that will bring to the site middle school-aged kids
from both Albuquerque and from the local Hopi, Zuni and Acoma
Puebloan tribes.

“I want to bring some of these kids together because you learn about
the culture by entering into it, by being fully immersed in it,”
Pheuer said. For now, he will focus on next year’s 10-day program.

Research Director Adler said that the SMU Field School would not use
the site next summer, instead allowing for more intensive analysis of
what has already been found.

Those interested in seeing examples of those findings have until
Friday to view the exhibit, located just inside the first-floor
entrance of Fondren Library.

http://www.smudailycampus.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/20/417606894ae19

Garry W. Denke
Geologist.Geophysicist
Denoco Inc. of Texas
Wildcat Station, P.O. Box 866488
Plano, Texas 75086.6488
Tel #972.422.8268
Fax #972.423.6337
Cell #940.521.1667
GarryDenke@hotmail.com
DenocoInc@hotmail.com