Anomalous Basketmaker II Sites on Cedar Mesa: Not so Anomalous after All

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 1991 I investigated a series of Basketmaker II (BM II) sites on Cedar Mesa that had been located, mapped, collected, and classified during the Cedar Mesa Project of the 1970s, but were situated in unusual places, or in environmental locations that were similar to those in which late Archaic sites were reported elsewhere. Limited excavation showed that four sites were good BM II habitation sites, complete with pit houses, albeit in unique settings. Others, interpreted as BM II “campsites” during the Cedar Mesa Project, were found to be associated with diagnostic BM II sandstone slab-lined cists, and to date to BM II times, confirming their initial identification. One habitation site appears to be the earliest known Anasazi defensive “cliff dwelling.” Most of these sites appear to date to the widespread, mesa-top BM II Grand Gulch phase, although several, including one pit house, may date to the earlier rockshelter White Dog Cave phase.