Post by L Roebuck on Jun 20, 2006 8:41:36 GMT -5
Cotton cache pots found in mountains return home
By Steph Slater, Staff Writer
After 23 years and many tall tales, an ancient set of pots found in the Galiuro range of the Pinaleño Mountains will return to the Gila Valley to be permanently displayed at the Eastern Arizona College museum.
Two cousins, Lammell and Joey Layton, went on a motorcycle adventure in 1982 to look for the famous McInery Tunnel, aka The Mammoth Tunnel, which is south of Pima.
Instead of rediscovering the historical mountain tunnel started in the early 1900s, the boys, ages 17 and 18 at the time, made history of their own by finding a cave with a very ancient pot known as a cotton cache. The first pot was discovered near a hole within the cave by Joey, who accidentally broke it.
"We knew there were other pots down in the hole, but the cave was so dark, and we didn't want to break those pots, too," Layton said.
Because they needed ropes, flashlights and a better mode of transportation, the young men decided to keep the find a secret. Several months went by, and Joey left to serve a church mission.
Meanwhile, Jason Bigler, 12, another cousin of Joey and Lammell, told Boy Scout leader Steve Taylor the secret of the clay pots, and the two went exploring.
Bigler showed Taylor the cave, but they did not have flashlights, either. Taylor said he and Bigler made a torch for illumination, but the cold drafts in the cave kept blowing it out.
"Through a crevice and down a hole, there was a huge granite slab where the ancient pots sat upon it as if it were a table," Bigler said. "It was all very pristine."
Without the proper equipment, the two decided to postpone the exploration. They did leave behind a white first-aid kit because it fell through the hole.
Several days later, Taylor asked Keith Crockett and Jim Bryce to join him on a horseback ride to the site.
Upon finding the broken pot of about 3 feet in length, Taylor said he began crawling through the small crevices and openings until they opened up to a room.
"Because of the way the shadows first fell, I saw the pots and thought I'd found King Tut's tomb," he said.
They also discovered a set of ancient pots deeper in the cave with bowls that were used to seal the contents inside. The first-aid kit dropped by Taylor and Bigler was also recovered.
Crockett also said the first-aid kit was a kind of location point for the find, and the three men used ropes to shimmy down into the hole. When they reached the vessels, they carefully pried open the mouths while making sure the pots were not moved.
"I was quite surprised to learn the pots were for storing cotton," Crockett said.
Cotton, cotton seeds and other seeds were stored in the large vessels by their previous owners. Insect and animal remains, including the skeleton of a bat, were also found in or near the vessels. Small, bowl-like baskets were also found.
In an Eastern Arizona Courier article written in July, 1983, the credit of the find was first attributed only to Taylor, Bryce and Crockett because they made the discovery known to the U.S. Forest Service.
Officials from the Forest Service, EAC archaeologist Thomas Scott and members of the Crockett and Bryce families visited the cave and extracted the pots from the site a few weeks later.
Bigler and Lammell were also present at the extraction, but Joey was still serving a church mission.
A human chain of about eight people carried the pots and baskets safely to several crates filled with shredded paper, and the crates were loaded onto a helicopter.
Upon examination, arch-aeologists discovered the cotton within the vessels to be in mint condition and showed very little sign of advanced aging. It was also determined that the cotton, the pots and the baskets were from different periods.
The cotton cache has been on display at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson since September 1983. A journal called "Kiva" (Volume 59, Number 2) completed a study of the artifacts recovered as well as the location of the site in 1993.
Using radiocarbon dating, the findings showed three separate cotton samples within the vessels dated from 477 to 766 A.D., 584 to 890 A.D. and 1170 to 1360 A.D.
The pots were a Gila plain jar and a red ware jar, dated at about 1100 to 1200 A.D., possibly from the ancestors of the Hopi or O'Odham Native American tribes.
The bowls found with the ancient pots were Encinas bowls from about 900 A.D. and were used to seal the contents within the vessels. "This find was left by some Native American farmers who practiced fairly advanced cotton growing," Forest Service archaeologist Mary Farrell said.
"The Gila Valley was most likely a mecca of early people and cultures," she said.
Article: www.eacourier.com/articles/2006/06/19/local_news/news03.txt
Arizona State Museum
By Steph Slater, Staff Writer
After 23 years and many tall tales, an ancient set of pots found in the Galiuro range of the Pinaleño Mountains will return to the Gila Valley to be permanently displayed at the Eastern Arizona College museum.
Two cousins, Lammell and Joey Layton, went on a motorcycle adventure in 1982 to look for the famous McInery Tunnel, aka The Mammoth Tunnel, which is south of Pima.
Instead of rediscovering the historical mountain tunnel started in the early 1900s, the boys, ages 17 and 18 at the time, made history of their own by finding a cave with a very ancient pot known as a cotton cache. The first pot was discovered near a hole within the cave by Joey, who accidentally broke it.
"We knew there were other pots down in the hole, but the cave was so dark, and we didn't want to break those pots, too," Layton said.
Because they needed ropes, flashlights and a better mode of transportation, the young men decided to keep the find a secret. Several months went by, and Joey left to serve a church mission.
Meanwhile, Jason Bigler, 12, another cousin of Joey and Lammell, told Boy Scout leader Steve Taylor the secret of the clay pots, and the two went exploring.
Bigler showed Taylor the cave, but they did not have flashlights, either. Taylor said he and Bigler made a torch for illumination, but the cold drafts in the cave kept blowing it out.
"Through a crevice and down a hole, there was a huge granite slab where the ancient pots sat upon it as if it were a table," Bigler said. "It was all very pristine."
Without the proper equipment, the two decided to postpone the exploration. They did leave behind a white first-aid kit because it fell through the hole.
Several days later, Taylor asked Keith Crockett and Jim Bryce to join him on a horseback ride to the site.
Upon finding the broken pot of about 3 feet in length, Taylor said he began crawling through the small crevices and openings until they opened up to a room.
"Because of the way the shadows first fell, I saw the pots and thought I'd found King Tut's tomb," he said.
They also discovered a set of ancient pots deeper in the cave with bowls that were used to seal the contents inside. The first-aid kit dropped by Taylor and Bigler was also recovered.
Crockett also said the first-aid kit was a kind of location point for the find, and the three men used ropes to shimmy down into the hole. When they reached the vessels, they carefully pried open the mouths while making sure the pots were not moved.
"I was quite surprised to learn the pots were for storing cotton," Crockett said.
Cotton, cotton seeds and other seeds were stored in the large vessels by their previous owners. Insect and animal remains, including the skeleton of a bat, were also found in or near the vessels. Small, bowl-like baskets were also found.
In an Eastern Arizona Courier article written in July, 1983, the credit of the find was first attributed only to Taylor, Bryce and Crockett because they made the discovery known to the U.S. Forest Service.
Officials from the Forest Service, EAC archaeologist Thomas Scott and members of the Crockett and Bryce families visited the cave and extracted the pots from the site a few weeks later.
Bigler and Lammell were also present at the extraction, but Joey was still serving a church mission.
A human chain of about eight people carried the pots and baskets safely to several crates filled with shredded paper, and the crates were loaded onto a helicopter.
Upon examination, arch-aeologists discovered the cotton within the vessels to be in mint condition and showed very little sign of advanced aging. It was also determined that the cotton, the pots and the baskets were from different periods.
The cotton cache has been on display at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson since September 1983. A journal called "Kiva" (Volume 59, Number 2) completed a study of the artifacts recovered as well as the location of the site in 1993.
Using radiocarbon dating, the findings showed three separate cotton samples within the vessels dated from 477 to 766 A.D., 584 to 890 A.D. and 1170 to 1360 A.D.
The pots were a Gila plain jar and a red ware jar, dated at about 1100 to 1200 A.D., possibly from the ancestors of the Hopi or O'Odham Native American tribes.
The bowls found with the ancient pots were Encinas bowls from about 900 A.D. and were used to seal the contents within the vessels. "This find was left by some Native American farmers who practiced fairly advanced cotton growing," Forest Service archaeologist Mary Farrell said.
"The Gila Valley was most likely a mecca of early people and cultures," she said.
Article: www.eacourier.com/articles/2006/06/19/local_news/news03.txt
Arizona State Museum