Age of Sites

The Navajo presence in Dinetah is
divided into two major phases - the
Dinetah phase (ca. 1500-1630), encom-
passing the entrance and settling of the
Navajo people in the area, and the
Gobernador phase (ca. 1630-1800),
during which time the Navajo culture
became fully defined. The division
(1630) between th Dinetah and
Gobernador phases is based on the
recovery of Gobernador Polychrome
sherds from securely dated sites.
Recently, archaeologists have proposed
separating the Gobernador into Early
and Late subphases, based roughly on
the time of the Spanish reconquest and
the construction of pueblitos, sometime
between 1700-1721.

Using a combination of dendrochronological,
thermoluminescent, archaeomagnetic, radiocarbon, ceramic
and projectile point stylistic dating, phase designations were
assigned for most of the Navajo sites in the study area. The
various dating methods employed to produce a chronological
record of the sites in this area were only partially successful.
Nine were assigned to a specific phase or subphase - four to
the Gobernador, four to the Early Gobernador and one to the
Late Gobernador. Of the remaining sites, two probably date to
the Dinetah or Early Gobernador, and the other seven are of
unknown phase (although Dinetah is suspected for four).