An Unusual Masonry Wall in a Kayenta Anasazi Cliff Site

Located in deep, narrow limestone canyons draining into the Little Colorado River in the vicinity of Wupatki Basin in northern Arizona are numerous small masonrywalled cliff ruins. While these were apparently occupied at the same time as the large pueblos now included within the boundaries of Wupatki National Monument, they are little known and have not previously been reported upon except in the archaeological surveys of the Museum of Northern Arizona.One of these sites, N.A.3940, situated with a southern exposure some fifty feet above the floor of Antelope Canyon, is of interest in that the masonry courses are laid in beds of grass rather than with the usual adobe mortar. The ruin itself is located in a shallow overhang in the Kaibab limestone cliff and contains but three small rooms. In no place do the walls remain standing over three feet, and along the front they have almost completely deteriorated. On the surface of the fill inside the rooms only a few corn cobs and four sherds were found

Archaeology · Canyon · Cliff · Front (military) · Geography · Geomorphology · Masonry · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology · Rangeland and Wildlife Management

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