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FEATURE DESCRIPTIONS, SITE LA25358 FEATURE 1. This was the only feature at Site LA25358 reported during earlier investigations for the Army Corps of Engineers. Feature 1 was recorded as one or two charcoal stains and interpreted as probably being a hearth. A radiocarbon sample was collected that yielded a date (shown in Table 9.1) of 2260±330 B.P. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers n.d.); no lab number was reported. Subsequent excavations revealed that Feature 1 was not a hearth. It was a semicircular charcoal stain approximately five meters in diameter. The builders of this feature had dug forty centimeters into the uphill (north) side of the slope and less into the lower (south) side of the slope, thereby providing a level floor to the feature. Recent erosion had destroyed the southern portion of the feature, causing its semicircular plan; an original circular plan is probable. Features located on the floor of Feature 1 were designated as subfeatures. Two hearths, three pits, and two possible postholes were given subfeature designations within Feature 1. FEATURE 2. This feature was discovered when augering revealed a dark fill level; it was suspected that the level indicated the presence of a structure. The top 10 cm of loose sand were removed in 1-x-1-m provenience units. After this was accomplished, the outline of the dark fill level could be detected. The burned fill of Feature 2 was then removed in 10 cm levels. As with Feature 1, the northern half of this feature had been dug deeper into a sloping hillside than had the southern half, producing a level floor. Feature 2 measured 5.5 m east-west x 4.6 m north-south. Feature 2 abutted a large boulder on the west. Two rocks were apparently incorporatedintothestructure’ssouthwestwall.Fourpostholeswereencountered Appendix K Descriptions of Features at Abiquiu and Casa de Nada 282 Appendix K on the floor, and these probably indicate the method used to support the superstructure . Many fragmented stone slabs were found along the western side of the feature. These slabs were sloping from the boulder down toward the center of the feature and appear to have been lying on the superstructure or to have been part of the superstructure. Apparently when the walls and roof collapsed, the slabs came to rest at the angle revealed by excavation. The slabs were found only on the west side of Feature 2 (similar to the location of slabs found in Feature 11). A central interior hearth, thirteen unlined pits, and one stone-lined pit were located inside the structure. Several exterior features were probably associated with this structure. The dark black fill of Feature 2 indicates that the feature burned before the collapse of the superstructure, or possibly its burning caused the collapse. Subsequent to the burning, the floor became riddled by thousands of insect burrows, perpendicular to the floor and one to two centimeters each in diameter, that resulted in vertical disturbance; clean, yellow sand was streaked through the lower black fill, and black fill deposits protruded through the floor into culturally sterile deposits. This insect activity obviously caused vertical disturbance to the cultural deposits. FEATURE 3. After completion of the excavation of Feature 1, several 1-x-1-m test squares inside the feature were excavated to levels below the floor. The purpose of this testing was to determine the presence of stratigraphically lower features or culturally sterile deposits. The presence of a feature below the floor of Feature 1 was evidenced by many pieces of debitage and a compact level. This lower level, designated Feature 3, was a structure located below the eastern twothirds of Feature 1. It was an irregular circle in plan, roughly three meters in diameter. The northern and eastern portions of the feature were built into a colluvial sandstone gravel deposit. A large, naturally deposited sandstone slab rested upright and formed the northeast edge of Feature 3. The fill of the structure was black charcoal-stained soil. Feature 3 had burned; the central area of the floor was heavily oxidized to a reddish brown. The floor, about seventy centimeters below the modern ground surface, had been built on a culturally sterile aeolian deposit and appeared to have been dug into the prehistoric ground surface about ten to fifteen centimeters. Four unlined basin-shaped pits had been dug into the floor of Feature 3. FEATURE 5. This scatter of fire-cracked rock was discovered during surface stripping of grid squares; it was located...

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