Dolores Archaeological Program Technical Reports, DAP-086: Archaeological Investigations on Grass Mesa: Area 4, 1979

Excavations in Area 4 of Grass Mesa Village (Site 5MT23) encountered multiple surface rooms and a pithouse. All of the structures are dated by ceramics to the A.D. 840 to 910 time period, with abandonment of the pit house and the later rooms occurring between A.D. 875 and 910. Although dating to the same ceramic period , the rooms and the pithouse may not be strictly contemporaneous. The surface rooms we re remodeled and rebuilt several times, while the pithouse had only one remodeling episode. Very few artifacts were associated with the structure floors, suggesting leisurely abandonment , although the pithouse was destroyed by a catastrophic fire before any degradation of the walls or roof had occurred. A small amount of trash was present in the pit house fill, indicating that occupation of the area continued for at least a short time, and it is possible that the pithouse was destroyed during a period of seasonal disuse rather than immediately after permanent abandonment.