Feature 7
Feature 7 was a pithouse that was located near the west-central portion of the property. The feature was originally identified in both walls of Trench 8 as a well burned level surface situated on top of the culturally sterile silt. An intrusive pit (Feature 177) was observed to have bisected the floor in the trench profile and contained artifacts beneath the level of the house floor. Feature 7 was an oval structure built in a pit. The pit outline was evident during mechanical excavation as an amorphous dark stain slightly above the level of the floor. The aboriginal occupation surface was a minimum of 0.21 m above the floor as indicated by the level at which the entry step was found. The feature had been excavated into an earlier accumulation of cultural fill. Haury (1976) has classified similar houses as type S-1.
The entrance was oriented approximately
due north and was 1.6 m long and 1.0 m wide. It had two constrictions. One
was 0.65 m wide and was situated where two postholes flanked the entryway
at the juncture with the house floor. The other was 0.90 m wide and was
located where the riser bisected the entrance. The earthen riser was vertical,
well plastered, and smoothed. The step was plastered, had a bulbous plan
view, and was raised 0.21 m above the floor. No postholes were present inside
of the entryway. One plow scar had destroyed a portion of the step and adjacent
floor. The entrance was slightly offset from the center of the house in
plan view.The pithouse floor was plastered with caliche and was very smooth in the area surrounding the hearth. The floor was level, but was raised near the hearth where the lip of the hearth was 0.02 m above the surrounding floor. Replastering was present southwest of the hearth and was represented by a thin band resting on the original floor. Oxidation of the floor was evident from the burned surface and high density of charcoal on the floor. Disturbances to the floor were caused by historic plowing and post-abandonment prehistoric occupation. Three plow scars were present that paralleled the short axis of the house. One of the plow scars had dragged fragments of the riser as much as 1.2 m away from the step.
Roof and wall fall were present above (up to 0.20 m) and on the floor. Burned daub was present throughout the house, but organic impressions in the daub were lacking; unburned daub was present in the hearth. During excavation of a test unit in the structure, a portion of the roofing was uncovered at 0.03 m above the floor. This material was found in a matrix of ashy gray silt with some caliche nodules; small fragments of daub were present in the matrix as well. The bottom layer consisted of small mesquite twigs laid parallel to each other. The twigs were less than 0.01 m in diameter. Three layers of a material that might have been desert willow were laid above the mesquite and measured approximately 0.004 m wide. Orientation of the lowest layer of these strips was perpendicular to the mesquite twigs. The second layer of possible desert willow was parallel to the mesquite twigs while the third layer was again perpendicular. A small cluster of grass stems, species unknown, was oriented perpendicular to and above the last layer of possible willow strips. Above the grass, a final layer of willow strips was parallel to the grass stems. None of these layers were interwoven or impressed into daub.
Unfortunately, historic plowing had mixed some artifacts from post-abandonment sediments with the house floor context.