ARCHEOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 

 IN THE SAN JON DISTRICT, EASTERN NEW MEXICO 



By frank H. H. ROBERTS, Jr. 

 Archeologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



(With 9 Plates) 



INTRODUCTION 



In continuance of a study of early horizons in North American 

 archeology a Bureau of American Ethnology-Smithsonian Institution 

 expedition spent the field season, June 20 to September 6, 1941, 

 conducting investigations in eastern New Mexico. Members of the 

 party, in addition to the writer, were : Dr. Kirk Bryan, Department 

 of Geology and Geography, Harvard University; Herbert J. Dick, Jr., 

 University of New Mexico ; Robert Easterday, Colorado State 

 Teachers' College; Walter B. Greenwood, Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology; S. Sheldon Judson, Harvard University; Bert E. Lohr and 

 Edison P. Lohr, Loveland, Colo. ; Donald D. McPhail, Michigan 

 State College ; Robert H. Merrill, engineer, Grand Rapids, Mich. ; 

 Robert M. White, Harvard University ; Eugene C. Worman, Jr., 

 Harvard University; Beulah J. Lohr, Linda B. Roberts, and Mrs. 

 Merrill, Numerous interested scientists and amateurs from nearby 

 southwestern and other institutions visited the camp during the prog- 

 ress of the work. 



Most of the excavations centered around a site on the north rim 

 of the Staked Plains loj miles (16.9 km.) south of the town of 

 San Jon and 20 miles (32.2 km.) south of the Canadian River. 

 At this location there is a shallow basin that appears to be a remnant 

 of an old fiUed-in lake bed or series of ponds that had formed in 

 the fill resulting when an original valley in the escarpment was 

 blocked by sand deposits. The bottom of the basin is traversed 

 by a series of deep ravines and broad arroyos (pi. i, fig. 2) that 

 come together and cut through the rim to join one of the intermittent 

 tributaries of the Canadian heading in the brakes below. The local 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 103, No. 4 



