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Introduction
by Kristin A. Kuckelman
1
Yellow Jacket Pueblo (Site 5MT5) was a large village in what today is
southwestern Colorado. The site is located in the central Mesa Verde region,
defined by Varien (2000*1:Figure
1) to include portions of both southwestern Colorado and southeastern
Utah. Yellow Jacket Pueblo is believed to have been the center of a larger
community that included an unknown number of smaller sites in the vicinity
of the large village. Archaeologists from the Crow Canyon Archaeological
Center, with the assistance of participants in the Center's educational
programs, conducted test excavations at Yellow Jacket Pueblo from 1995
through 1997. The data generated as a result of those excavations indicate
that the village was occupied from the mid–A.D. 1000s through the
late A.D. 1200s, which corresponds to the late Pueblo II through Pueblo
III periods.
2
With permission from various landowners, we were able to map the entire
site (Database Map 263). We were permitted to excavate, however,
only on the portions owned by The Archaeological Conservancy and on one
parcel of land on the southwest talus slope owned jointly by Joe Tipton
and Jack Hawkins, both now deceased. Our research was designed to disturb
the site as little as possible: we limited our excavations to three seasons
and confined much of our testing to disturbed contexts such as the great
tower complex. Although we excavated only 112 units, encompassing 167
m2, or .04 percent, of this nearly 100-acre site (Database
Map 264), we accomplished a great deal. The success of this approach
to excavation can be measured by the quantity and quality of data and
interpretations contained in the database and in these interpretive chapters.
3
A substantial amount of archaeological research has been conducted in
the Yellow Jacket community. In 1931, at Yellow Jacket Pueblo itself (Site
5MT5), a field school from the Museum of Western State College in Gunnison,
Colorado, excavated a number of structures in the great tower complex
(Database
Map 263). We reexcavated several of these structures (see "Research
Design" and "Architecture"
for additional information on both excavations). Research on possible
archaeoastronomical alignments at Site 5MT5 and between Site 5MT5 and
other sites within the Yellow Jacket community was conducted by Malville
(1991*1:16), who also briefly discussed a monolith at the southeast
corner of Architectural Block 2600 and an "ash cave" below the south canyon
rim at Yellow Jacket Pueblo. Two areas recorded as separate sites—5MT7
and 5MT5771—are believed by Crow Canyon researchers to be part of
Site 5MT5; however, because they are registered as separate sites with
the Office of the State Archaeologist (Colorado Historical Society, Denver),
I have maintained that distinction here (Database
Map 263). Site 5MT7 consists of buildings and artifacts associated
with a shallow overhang along the east canyon rim. Site 5MT5771 is an
artifact scatter in a cultivated field at the north end of Site 5MT5.
These areas were not tested by Crow Canyon and are not discussed further
in these chapters.
4
Finally, this report would not be complete without mention of the many
years of field school excavations that Joe Ben Wheat supervised for the
University of Colorado Museum at the small sites southwest of Yellow Jacket
Pueblo (Sites 5MT1, 5MT2, and 5MT3; see Database
Map 335). Numerous papers, theses, and research projects have resulted
from the excavations at those sites. Notable publications include Cater
(1989*1), Karhu (2000*1),
Lange et al. (1986*1), Malville
(1989*1), Mobley-Tanaka (1997*2),
and Yunker (2001*1). A complete
list of works is available from the University
5
This publication presents site-wide interpretations based on data contained
in The Yellow
Jacket Pueblo Database, a separate publication that is intended
as a companion piece to this work. The reader is strongly encouraged to
review the database before proceeding, for it contains detailed descriptions
and interpretations of individual study units, including information on
features, point-located artifacts, masonry styles, stratigraphy, building
construction, and structure dating. The database also contains more than
70 AutoCAD maps and 800 color photographs, only a small fraction of which
are specifically cited in the chapters of this publication. A substantial
amount and variety of background information about Yellow Jacket Pueblo
and Crow Canyon's work there can be found in the "Site-Wide Data" section
of the database, and additional descriptive information about the environment
of the immediate site area is contained in this publication, in the chapter
titled "Subsistence."
References cited
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