GOSHEN, Utah—Archaeologists have struck gold at a dig near the town of Goshen about 35 miles south of Provo: the largest Fremont Indian structure ever found.
Jim Allison, anthropology professor at Brigham Young University, said the 850-square-foot structure is unique because it served as a communal area that brought the entire village together.
It’s several times larger than typical Fremont structures, which average between 80 and 90 square feet.
“It was really almost by chance we found this and excavated it, and it’s in fact the largest Fremont Indian pit structure ever excavated,” he told the Deseret News.
Allison, who oversees students’ work at the site, said radiocarbon dating shows it probably was occupied between 1025 and 1100.
The sheer volume of artifacts found on top of the burned-out structure is interesting, he said, and they show how the Fremont Indians lived.
“There was actually a layer of prehistoric trash that was really rich in artifacts that we found,” Allison said. “We have probably a couple of hundred arrowheads. There’s animal bones from meals, residue of meals they were eating. We’ve got corn and beans out of it, lots of broken pottery.”
He said he thinks it was used as a communal building for “a fairly long time before it burned. But then I think they kept using the space for communal purposes but without the building.”
The Fremont Indians inhabited sites in what are now Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Colorado between 700 and 1300. They were known for their pottery, figurines, moccasins and use of farming.
The communal structure was found in an old Fremont Indian village where a total of nine buildings have been excavated mostly by students over the last four years. Allison believes there are many more structures nearby.
“Figuring out how large this village was is difficult because the hills are active and dirt is shifting,” he told Provo’s Daily Herald. “This central part was completely buried and it isn’t easy to tell where structures may be. There could easily be dozens more.”
The site, located at the mouth of Goshen Canyon near Current Creek, now is part of the ranch property of Richard Wolf.
“It’s been really a surprise to see what’s been uncovered here—the artifacts, the bowls, the game pieces, the figurines they’ve found. It’s just amazing,” Wolf said.
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Information from: Deseret News,
