5MT261

Cliff dwelling with an isolated tower outside the alcove to the west on a nearly inaccessible rock formation and a boulder with petroglyphs located to the east of the alcove. The site is located on the northwestern side of the mouth of a small eastern tributary of Sand Canyon. The alcove is about 30 m below the rimrock of the canyon and faces directly south. The elevation of the site is 1707 m (5600 ft.) asl. Most rooms are within the cliff alcove; at least ten to twelve rooms are present but with no trace of a kiva, and the quantity of rubble within and below the alcove suggests the presence of additional structures. Wall plasters in some rooms and alcove ceiling in the central part of the site are heavily smoke blackened; smoke blackening is also visible in a T-shaped doorway between two rooms; also, charcoal is visible on the floor of the alcove. A tower (that might have been semi-circular) is located about 300 m west of the alcove on almost inaccessible rock have an commanding view on the lower part of Sand Canyon and partly on the McElmo valley as well as it have visual contact with several sites in Sand and Graveyard canyons). Access to the site is very difficult and approaches the shelter along a narrow ledge from the head of a small canyon to the east; the entrance to the alcove was probably very easy to protect. Access to the tower was probably by hand-and-toe holds or a wooden ladder on the ledge where the tower stands. The nearest intermittent water source is 122 m west of the site, in Sand Canyon and the nearest permanent water source is McElmo Creek about 0.8 km south of the site. Water might have seeped through the walls of the alcove; two or more cisterns, attached to the walls of two rooms have been pecked into the bedrock. Basing on the style of architecture and typology of pottery we may place the chronology of this site for the Late Pueblo III period (ca. 1250-1280 A.D.); tree-ring samples were collected at this site in 2018, but we are still waiting for the results (from the LTRR in Tucson, AZ).

Cliff dwelling with an isolated tower outside the alcove to the west on a nearly inaccessible rock formation and a boulder with petroglyphs located to the east of the alcove. The site is located on the northwestern side of the mouth of a small eastern tributary of Sand Canyon. The alcove is about 30 m below the rimrock of the canyon and faces directly south. The elevation of the site is 1707 m (5600 ft.) asl. Most rooms are within the cliff alcove; at least ten to twelve rooms are present but with no trace of a kiva, and the quantity of rubble within and below the alcove suggests the presence of additional structures. Wall plasters in some rooms and alcove ceiling in the central part of the site are heavily smoke blackened; smoke blackening is also visible in a T-shaped doorway between two rooms; also, charcoal is visible on the floor of the alcove. A tower (that might have been semi-circular) is located about 300 m west of the alcove on almost inaccessible rock have an commanding view on the lower part of Sand Canyon and partly on the McElmo valley as well as it have visual contact with several sites in Sand and Graveyard canyons). Access to the site is very difficult and approaches the shelter along a narrow ledge from the head of a small canyon to the east; the entrance to the alcove was probably very easy to protect. Access to the tower was probably by hand-and-toe holds or a wooden ladder on the ledge where the tower stands. The nearest intermittent water source is 122 m west of the site, in Sand Canyon and the nearest permanent water source is McElmo Creek about 0.8 km south of the site. Water might have seeped through the walls of the alcove; two or more cisterns, attached to the walls of two rooms have been pecked into the bedrock. Basing on the style of architecture and typology of pottery we may place the chronology of this site for the Late Pueblo III period (ca. 1250-1280 A.D.); tree-ring samples were collected at this site in 2018, but we are still waiting for the results (from the LTRR in Tucson, AZ).