Morefield Reservoir.

WPI’s first Ancestral Pueblo investigation was in 1995 at what was then called “Morefield Mound” at Mesa Verde National Park.  The site was referred to as a mound because it was unclear whether the raised hill had been a dance platform, a reservoir or a remnant of an old terrace.  Using level surveys and sedimentation and soil analyses, both with augers and in a large trench we were allowed to excavate, WPI determined that the site had been a reservoir with a feeder channel.  As the reservoir and channel filled with sediment over 350 years of operation (A.D. 750–1100), constant dredging over the sides created a reservoir elevated 21 feet over its original bottom.  The inlet canal elevation had to increase over the years to match the reservoir’s rising elevation.