We've been studying these sites for over 39 years. See videos at
"Golio Endeavors" on Youtube.
We've been studying these sites for over 39 years. See videos at
"Golio Endeavors" on Youtube.
We've been studying ritual enclosures, prehistoric forts, and hilltop sites for almost 40 years. Our work was originally presented at an early 90's Pecos Conference. This brought it to the attention of David Wilcox. About 4 years ago Mike started putting 3D and drone videos of the sites on YouTube's "Golio Endeavors". A video, site report, and photos for each site are given to the archaeologists we are working with. The 2023 Pecos Conference had a presentation and poster that used our work. We were very surprised to watch a zoom where some of our work was presented by an older, but fairly new archaeologist. He did not give us credit and instead sprinkled his presentation with , "my original work". This is how we found out that the archaeologists we were working with were giving all our ideas, site reports, photos, and drone video locations to this archaeologist who they thought they could trust. I think the main reason people steal other people's work is because they think they can get away with it. We decided to let people know what we're working on. Below are some of the more interesting things we've found including 2 previously unknown eagle traps.
JJ and MIke Golio
For even more fun see our Geology, Archaeology, and HIstory Guide to Badger Springs Trail
Early in the pandemic, we found 2 previously unknown eagle trap sites. We told archaeologists about these sites who then told someone they thought they could trust. Now they're in his "My Original Work" presentation. The traps are fragile.
A one person rock shelter on the top has rock slabs across the top. Gaps in the slabs allow the person to reach through the slabs.
High elevation rectangular sites with core veneer rubble filled walls are defensible, but their primary purpose does not appear to be defense. There is a consistency to these sites which are scattered across Central and Northern Arizona. We believe them to be ritual, ceremonial, or community sites. The unique features are probably related to the area's specific beliefs.
Dating sites like this is difficult because they're a wall. The ones without rooms have little to no artifacts. When rooms abut the wall, there is no way to know how much later they were built. Standalone rooms could have been built before or after the wall.
This is a large rectangular site with a double white band on one side and a single white band on another. The single band side is on the edge of a cliff. The rest of the structure faces open areas on top of a butte. Up until now our definition of prehistoric fort had been blocked access either by cliff or core veneer rubble filled wall. The sites often had skewed entryways and loopholes. It's shape was usually determined by the promontory or peak it was on.
This rectangular site wall was capped with red sandstone at a low height It had a wingwall that pointed to another site.
This rectangular site had 2 monoliths. The monoliths went all the way to the ground inside the wall. They were not added at a later date.
This rectangular site was missing its fourth wall. There was no sign that a wall had ever been there.
This rectangular structure had core veneer rubble filled expansion wall running along the edge of the cliff. There is more about expansion areas below.
3D View
Up until this site, every rectangular site had an unusual feature. We could not find one for this site. It may be something we didn't recognize, it could be gone now, or maybe it was never been there.
This site had a core veneer rubble filled wall, skewed entry, and at least 7 loopholes. It's unusual features were 2 detached core veneer rubble filled walls blocking the edges without cliffs.
The wall facings were beautiful, but the blocks were not staggered to make the wall strong. This site was defensible, but not defensive. It's location on a broad ridgetop is similar to the other rectangular sites.
Crenulations in the wall were regular with clean edges indicating they were made this way on purpose.
Ritual Enclosures are usually on hilltops and have core veneer rubble filled walls. This site was on a hilltop, but had a circular piled rock wall. There were at least 3 petroglyph boulders showing people doing things that may be related to what happened inside the circle.
This site was very defensively located. 2 crevices led to the top. 1 was blocked by a wall. The other crevice led to a terrace area. There were 4 rooms on top. They were D-shaped with a wall across the top of a U.
This site had a pristine loophole with a wood lintel. It can be used for C14 dating.
This site's expansion was in a very different different architectural style. Whatever was going on lasted through 2 architectural styles.
The main part of the site is on the right. It doubled in size with the expansion on the left.
This site's expansion was the same architectural style as the rest of the site.
3D View
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