FURNACE FLATS 1
October 2007
Excavated: September 12-19 and October 2-10, 2007
Image Taken: October 10, 2007
Backfilled: October 11, 2007
Run-off from heavy rains in the summer of 1983, coupled with high flows from Glen Canyon Dam, cut a number of arroyos through a series of masonry rooms at Furnace Flats, eroding them, and washing artifacts away. The NPS conducted limited excavations here in 1984, but the sites were still unstable and vulnerable to further erosion. Glen Canyon Dam has cut off the majority of the sediment supply that once buried these sites and protected them.
Crews spent two 10-day field sessions at Furnace Flats and completely excavated this large masonry room, revealing a ventilator shaft and a large rectangular hearth. Based on the artifacts recovered here, this room was occupied midway through the ancestral Puebloan time period, from approximately A.D. 1050-1100.
