CLINE POINT
Samel Duwe and Barbara J Mills

The site of Cline Point consists of a six to eight room pueblo and a large, circular great kiva (Figure 1).  Based on ceramics it dates to the late A.D. 1000s to the early to mid-1100s. Although multiple great kiva sites are present on or near the Mogollon Rim at this time (Herr 2001), these sites are located adjacent to agricultural lands, either in valley bottoms or nearby ridges.  By contrast, Cline Point is located on one of the highest hills in its area, commanding a view of the surrounding landscape.  It also has been recorded as having one of the largest great kivas in the Mogollon Rim region. The primary research goals guiding fieldwork at Cline Point included (1) defining the timing of occupation at the site; (2) understanding the occupational sequence of the pueblo; (3) understanding the architecture and construction of Cline Point’s great kiva to compare with others in the area; and (4) collecting materials for comparison with contemporary great kiva sites and sites occupied later in time.  Impacted by both the Rodeo-Chedeski Fire of 2002 and heavy looting, an additional and primary goal of fieldwork was the preservation of the site through stabilization and data collection.

Figure 1.
Cline Point Site looking south with Great Kiva in the foreground.

Based on our mapping of the site we estimate that Cline Point contains 6-8 rooms in a single room block that is located on the northern half of the mesa and which abuts the great kiva (Figure 2). It appears that nearly every room had one or multiple looter’s pits, obscuring some of the wall definition. The great kiva is located directly south of the room block, directly abutting this structure.  It was estimated that the diameter of the kiva is 23 meters, and is cut into a small rise on the southern portion of the mesa top. A triwall structure is located to the east of the masonry room block, with a slightly different masonry style. It possessed well-defined walls that lay flush with the ground surface.  We think that this triwall structure postdates the rest of the occupation at the sites.
           

Figure 2.
Plan of Cline Point Site.

Two middens of various sizes were located; the smaller lay directly east of the room block, the larger to the southeast and extended down the southeast side of the mesa, probably from erosion.  These midden areas were untouched by pot hunting activities. 

SCARP crews conducted fieldwork at Cline Point for four weeks in 2003.  Site mapping, 100 percent surface collection (Figure 3), and looter’s pit damage assessment were accomplished before excavation.  Portions of three rooms, Rooms 1, 2, and 3, were excavated as well as a 1 x 4 meter trench into the great kiva.
           

Figure 3.
Location and numbering of 5 x 5 meter surface grid squares.

Room 1

Room 2

Room 2 is located north of Room 1 along the same line of rooms in the Cline Point room block.  Because of the disturbed nature of the site, it was not possible to trace out the wall outlines precisely, but it is estimated that the room is 4.75 m by 3.75 m.  Due to time constraints, only a portion of the room was excavated, which took the form of a 2 m by 2 m grid square in the NE corner.  This was excavated down to the floor and then subfloored.  Although not quartered and excavated as a quadrant, we believe that this closely represents a quarter of the room. 

The walls of Room 2 were constructed in a simple, semi-coursed masonry style using shaped tabular and angular sandstone and cemented with mud and chinking stones, as evident by the exposed north and east walls.  The roof of the structure had obviously been burned, and evidence of roof construction was ample in the excavated portion of Room 2.  31 segments of burnt beams were taken for tree-ring dating, none of which produced any dates.  A large amount of oxidized daub and plaster were recovered as well, some with beam impressions.  Large primary beams were recovered on or near the floor.
           
The area in which the NE corner of Room 2 was excavated was also the location of two large superimposed looter’s pits.  Although the pothunters did not dig deep enough to interfere with the cultural layers under the rubble, they did disturb the masonry walls considerably.  When removing these masonry blocks that had been thrown in the looter’s spoil dirt, we discovered a door sill that was approximately 35 cm long, and fit exactly in a vacant section of the east wall of Room 2, extending out into the area that we would call Room 3.  Therefore it was established that there was a doorway allowing for passage to and from the room.
           
One floor was identified in Room 2, which was 1 cm to 3 cm thick and like Room 1, consisted of a use-compacted, gray silty loam.  The floor was almost completely intact, with no features and only one artifact, a mano, resting on the floor in the NE corner of the study unit (Figure 5).  The unit was subfloored in the SE corner and against the east masonry wall.  The floor sat upon a layer of clay and gravel, which further lay on sterile, yellow hard-packed clay.  This suggests that gravel layer had been used as fill to level the ground surface for use as a floor.  The basal stones for the wall rested on this fill layer and not the sterile soil, suggesting that the ground was first leveled, and then the walls were built.

Room 3

Room 3 began as a 1 m by 1 m grid square at a wall corner in the northern section of the room block.  It is directly opposite of Room 2. After excavation, and an examination of the architecture and fill stratigraphy, it was apparent that the area which we call Room 3 began as a room adjacent to Room 2, began to deteriorate, and therefore was filled and its eastern wall dismantled.  In short, Room 3 began as a room and ended as an outdoor area to Room 2.
           
The walls of Room 3 were constructed in a simple, semi-coursed masonry style using shaped tabular and angular sandstone and cemented with mud and chinking stones, much the same as the other excavated rooms at Cline Point.  The walls were approximately 40 cm in width, and existing wall heights were between 0.8 m and 1.0 m. Although no floor surface was found, we assume that because of the plastered walls that this was a room and was built at the same time and coexisted with Room 2. The fill of this room consists of three strata, the first being masonry wall fall, the second being a dark soil with some room beams and artifacts, and the third a gray soil.  Therefore, using the above evidence, it appears that Room 3 was a room adjoining Room 2, began to fall into disrepair (the collapsed NW corner), and therefore was remodeled by dissembling the eastern wall and filling the room with soil.  The new surface, which can be seen in the southern profile of the study unit, is at the same level of where the door sill was placed in the doorway to Room 2.  After Room 3 was filled, a doorway was built into Room 2, and this new area became an outdoor, possibly work, area.

Room 3 existed as a room contemporary with Room 2, was dismantled after the walls started to crumble and collapse, and was turned into an outside area for Room 2, as indicated doorway and a new ground surface.  We do not know much about the original use of Room 3 because no floor surface was discovered.  However, the significance of this room lies in the fact that a major remodeling even occurred.

Great Kiva

Cline Point’s great kiva resembled other great kivas that have found in the Silver Creek area.  When mapped, the kiva is 23 meters in diameter, has a ramped entryway in the eastern side, and appears to abut the room block.  A looter’s trench, most likely made after the 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski fire, had been dug from the inside of Room 1 through a portion of the great kiva wall, leaving exposed masonry.  Therefore, this was an appropriate area to expand the trench and excavate an area into the kiva to understand the architecture.  The trench with all segments covered a 1 m by 4 m area.

The goal of excavating a trench into the kiva was to understand the relationship between the wall, a possible bench (they are common in contemporary great kivas) and the floor.  Although it was assumed that the kiva and the room block were joined, this became apparent when the trench was expanded.  The looter’s pit only damaged a portion of the kiva wall, which was double-coursed with a rubble and clay core.  This was stacked directly against the single coursed wall of Room 1.  The interior wall of the kiva was made with a semi-coursed sandstone and mortar and chinking (Figure 6).  It was 60 cm in width and stood at an average height of 50 cm.  Although the height of the excavated walls are lower than those of Room 1, the foundation of the walls in both the room and the kiva are at approximately the same depth.   
           

Figure 6. 
Trench 1 in Great Kiva, looking north, showing interior face of masonry wall.

When excavating the trench, changes in stratigraphy were seen, but it was only when the finished profile was examined that conclusions could be made on the architecture of the kiva.  Approximately 40 cm below the existing top of the kiva wall a bench consisting of heavy local clay was situated, and continued out from the wall for 2.6 meters, where it abruptly dropped off.  Although this clay is most likely local, it is unlike anything else in the surrounding soil matrix.  Therefore, it appears that the kiva was excavated and the wall built, and clay (possibly from the side of the mesa) was carried up the hill and stacked up against the wall to create a bench.  Other evidence for a bench lies in the fact that the sandstone masonry that is from the fallen kiva wall drops quickly at the edge of the bench.  Although no floor surface was found, a sterile soil layer at the lowest point of the trench was found, indicating that the floor was possibly slightly higher than sterile.  There was no evidence of roof materials, such as burnt timbers or oxidized daub and plaster, as in the excavated rooms.  Therefore there is no support that the great kiva was roofed.  It appears that the kiva was a semi-subterranean structure, with the proposed floor 80 cm below the floor of Room 1.                          
           
Although excavations were minimal, it is apparent that the great kiva at Cline Point is similar in size (if not bigger) than other contemporary kivas in the Silver Creek area, and architecturally similar as well.  In the cross section of the trench it was apparent that a wide bench was present along the wall of the kiva, and that the kiva was excavated almost a meter into the earth.

Ceramics

            All ceramics from the site were analyzed and their spatial distribution assessed.  Two midden areas are located to the east of the roomblock and great kiva.  No differences were seen between these middens, which predominately contained ceramics of Cibola White Ware and Mogollon Brown Ware (Table 1). Within Cibola White Ware, Escavada Black-on-white was most common, followed by Red Mesa Black-on-white in the subsurface assemblage and roughly equal percentages of Red Mesa, Puerco, Gallup, and Snowflake Black-on-whites in the surface assemblage (Table 2).

Table 1.
Ceramic Wares Present at Cline Point

Table 2.
Date Ranges and Ceramic Types for Major Cibola White Ware Types
in the Cline Point Assemblage

Restoration
Following excavation, all units were backfilled.  The surface was reseeded and covered with straw (Figure 7).   During the summer of 2004, a revisit to the site showed that the reseeding was highly successful (Figure 8) and that the site surface has been stabilized.

Figure 7.
Field School staff and students assist Forest Service employees
in reclamation of the Cline Point Site at the end of the 2003 field season.

Figure 8.
Cline Point Site at the beginning of the 2004 field season.
           
Reference Cited

Herr, Sarah A.
2001    Beyond Chaco: Great Kiva Communities Along the Mogollon Rim Frontier.  University of Arizona Anthropological Papers No. 66.  University of Arizona Press, Tucson.