The second season of the research project "Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project", held in May and June 2012, provided  new plans of archeological sites as well as traditional and photographic documentation, prepared with the use of photogrammetry and non-invasive geophysical monitoring techniques.

"Geophysical monitoring is extremely important for the project. It helps to reconstruct the range and number of buildings situated underground. Besides providing us with details about the settlement demography, is also helps to establish other potential and promising excavation sites",  says Dr Radosław Palonka, the project coordinator from JU Institute of Archeology.

Three out of the examined 13th century archeological sites are in cliff alcoves, at the western slope of the Rock Creek Canyon. Next to them, beside a hardly accessible rock pinnacle, there is a detached tower. Other archeological sites are located in the east part of Sand Canyon, the main canyon of this area, measuring over 11 kilometres.

The research in Sand Canyon concentrated on the excavations at Mad Dog Tower site, where archeologists conducted magnetometric examination, as a part of geophysical research. The aim of the procedure was to verify previous assumptions by way of electrical resistance survey. The results only confirmed what had been thought before: a 3-metre-long underground tunnel connected the tower with an underground public-utility building called kiva.

Archeologists from Kraków have also reached one of the least accessible cliff sites in the settlement complex. It is situated in cliff overhang on a very steep side of one of Sand Canyon's eastern tributaries. It can be reached only through a narrow path, which cannot be covered but with climbing equipment.   

"The site is a classic example of the 13th century Pueblo settlement set in a hardly accessible place, probably for defensive reasons", says Dr Palonka. A tower found several dozens metres away from the site also supports this opinion. The tower overlooks several other sites and towers situated nearby.

The excavations in the Rock Creek Canyon took place in the canyon's western part. The archeologists investigated the areas of rock niches and one solitary tower. Most probably, the tower played a significant role in the communication between several settlements located in the canyon.

The excavations at the site called The Gallery, located near the tower, revealed well-preserved wall decorations. The murals included colourful wall plasters and paintings made of clay, mainly white, yellow and brown-red. One of the walls bore geometrical representations, spots, a snake, and three turkeys.

"The iconography of these representations is typical of Pueblo culture. Pueblo
myths and legends feature a snake as a symbol of fertility and underground world. Turkeys, on the other hand, were domesticated by Pueblo Indians around the 7th century and were often presented on murals, ceramics and rock art",  explains the project coordinator.

The project is run the Mesa Verde region in Colorado, Southwestern United States. Sand Canyon and Rock Creek Canyon, situated in the protected area of Canyons of the Ancient National Monument, is home to the remains of approximately 40 small settlements and one settlement centre – Castle Rock Pueblo.

One of the main aims of the investigation is to analyse and reconstruct the model of settlement and socio-cultural changes developed in Pueblo throughout the 13th century. The end of that century saw the fall of the culture and migration of Pueblo peoples towards the east and south-east. The descendants of ancient Puebloans, for example Hopi and Zuni Indians still live in present day Arizona and New Mexico.