Aztec Ruins Administrative History

1919: THE SEASON AZTEC RUIN DATING STUDIES BEGAN

Realization that the Aztec Ruin project might never be resumed at the scale of the earlier two summers came when Morris was notified that the appropriations for 1919 were to be only $4,000. Since this amount was to cover his stipend, maintenance, and automobile expenses, it was obvious that the administration in New York did not foresee much digging. It had been Wissler's plan all along that, after the big thrust of 1918, work at Aztec would proceed at a more leisurely pace with less expenditure of dwindling funds. He just had not told Morris. Beside the practicalities of spreading the project out to conserve money and energy, it would allow more deliberate field analysis and write-up time so that excavation did not overwhelmingly outstrip publication. A one-man scientific staff could scarcely be expected to do all the necessary tasks simultaneously. [71]

In 1919, Morris turned to getting his notes and thoughts in order. At the same time, he continued to act as the museum's representative in negotiations with Abrams and in late summer began construction of a small house at the southwest corner of the aboriginal community.

Meanwhile, some excavation, repair, and cleaning of the site continued. In Room 139 at the juncture of the North and West wings, excavators uncovered a particularly interesting find illustrating a prehistoric medical procedure. A female between 17 and 20 years of age had suffered massive injuries that left her pelvic girdle crushed and her left forearm fractured. Some aboriginal medicine man fastened six splints around the arm, but death came before healing. The crew erected a temporary roof over Room 117 to protect incised mural ornamentation. [72] Outside the structure, the men cleared fallen earth and stone for 100 feet along the east end of the North Wing. They capped exposed sandstone walls with cement.

Two years before excavations began at Aztec Ruin, Wissler became excited about the possibilities of dating Southwestern antiquities through the growth patterns of pine and spruce beams often recovered in them. Actually, he may have been the first American scientist to grasp the potential significance to Southwestern archeology of studies being done by an Arizona astronomer, Andrew E. Douglass, in correlating patterns of rainfall with tree-rings. Following a Douglass article in the Geographical Society Bulletin describing this research, Wissler contacted the author to ask if it might be possible through analysis of their growth rings to date some timbers from Pueblo Bonito obtained through the Hyde brothers. [73] Douglass was interested in the idea but unable to come up with meaningful results.

Undeterred, the next year Wissler wrote the president of the University of Colorado requesting that a young graduate student, who was doing a bit of digging in sites in northern New Mexico under an agreement between the University of Colorado and the American Museum, secure 18-to-24-inch samples from all sound timbers that he might unearth. [74] The student was Earl Morris, who found no wood in the La Plata villages he was working but did submit a log from a Johnson Canyon cliff house to the west and several beams from old houses in the Gobernador area east of Aztec Ruins. These samples likewise proved unusable. [75]

Regardless of these early disappointments, Wissler jumped into action when the Anasazi house at Aztec turned out to be stuffed with ancient door and window lintels, primary roof stringers, and secondary cross members. On April 20, 1918, before work for the summer got under way, Wissler asked Morris to ship Douglass five specimens from the site and five specimens of living pine from the general Animas region. The modern wood could be used for comparative purposes. [76]

Douglass was especially interested to correlate the building of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco with that of Aztec Ruin through dates at which ceiling beams and aperture lintels had been felled and probably put in place. To Wissler he noted, "I think it would be possible to get evidence on the timbers from Chaco Valley and Aztec as to whether the ruins were contemporaneous. If they overlap for fifty years I think there would be a good chance of finding it out." [77] Morris supplied him with six sections from Aztec and three from Pueblo Bonito. Once more, the sample was unsatisfactory. Morris took the samples from unprovenienced stockpiles of reclaimed materials.

Finally in May 1919, nine additional wood samples from Aztec Ruin and Pueblo Bonito yielded promising results. Aztec relative cutting dates extended over two years. One example was cut in autumn, two in late summer, one in early spring, and one in mid spring. The comparative age between Chaco and Aztec specimens remained illusive. Douglass commented, "I am inclined to think that they [the Aztec Ruin Anasazi] had a better average condition of rainfall than has existed for the most part for the last two hundred years." [78] This is a statement at odds with a common explanation of drought having been a factor in the settlement's eventual abandonment.

Taking on the tree-ring dating problem more directly, that fall Douglass made a trip to Aztec to consult with Morris personally about the kinds of specimens needed and how best to obtain them. The fact that he could tap materials still in place in intact rooms was most appealing. After examination of these ancient dwellings, Morris then escorted Douglass to an area about 40 miles north of Aztec in southwestern Colorado known as Basin Mountain. Morris thought this region had been a source for much of the timber used locally by the aborigines.

After having closely examined the in situ timbers and discussing with Morris how best to secure a sample without endangering either the beams themselves or the floors above, Douglass told Wissler that he had made a suitable tool for the task. He added, "I hope with this to get a sample from a large number of beams in the same ruin and check the order of construction as worked out by you. If I can do that and obtain records from trees that were cut at small intervals one after the other I can make out a very much stronger case for myself in the dating of the ruin." [79]

At year's end, Morris had detailed instructions from Douglass on how best to proceed in getting specimens with a small-toothed tubular saw. The tool was designed to cut a core about an inch in diameter from beams still in place that would reveal a pattern of concentric rings from the outer surface, when the timber was cut, to its heart, when its life began. In order to maintain a tight control on provenience data, Douglass suggested that each core extracted be designated by the letter H followed by numbers in order after 30. The hole left in the beam from which the core was removed should be identically identified with permanent markings. Douglass felt it was imperative to take four or five samples from beams in any given room to be sure all were cut at approximately the same time. A comparable series of cores should be secured from various parts of the ruin considered from architectural or archeological evidence to be of different ages. Douglass further wondered if it were possible that the Indians had dragged the logs from the distant hills in the winter using the "snowshoes," willow loops with yucca lacing, which had been retrieved in room fill. [80]