I can't remember when I started going to Crow Canyon Archaeology Center, but its been a few decades ago.  My first memory that hooked me was arguing with Ricky Lightfoot over if a wall out at Castle Rock fell up the sloop or down.  I can't remember what the conclusion was, but I am sure I was wrong.  I love a good intellectual fight and I love them more when I lose because then I know more then I did before.  In my first trip they put me through a crash course in Archaeology that pointed out that context is everything.  Sure a pot might be whole and beautiful, but where was it found?  Was it in a kiva or a room block, or out somewhere on its own.  If it was in a kiva, it could have been used for ceremonial or normal cooking.  If in a room block, perhaps its for storage.  Somewhere on its own, perhaps some teenager hid it as a joke, but then who knows?  I was able to take that principle and apply it in my profession.  If you can imagine sitting in a room full of engineers trying to find out why something went wrong, context is everything.  I've done well because of Crow Canyon.

And now to the topic at hand.  Years ago I went on a Cultural Exploration into Chaco Canyon where the archaeologist was <put name here>.  He was one of the originals who documented Chaco Canyon.  We were camping out at Chaco and after a great dinner we started talking around the fire.  I've always found the Ancestral Puebloan's double mug to be an unusual and beautiful device.  I asked several questions about them but what I was after was if it was true that the lower connector was always hollow and open to each side in the mugs.  He said yes, always.  The light bulb went off.  I suffer from that infection, the one where you connect various ideas in ways nobody expects.

In Physics and Engineering there are some basic principles.  Ramps are one as they are used for various purposes.  Compression and tension are others.  But the one I'm writing about is that water will always find its level.  You can put water in a pot and then tilt that pot, and the water will always be level.  In middle school they showed us how siphons worked by putting a water filled tube into two water filled cups.  No matter if you lifted one cup higher then the other, the water level would always be the same in both cups.  Regardless of what these double mugs were used for, they still would be a water level.

The basic principle of a water level has been used by many civilizations for thousands of years.  The Egyptians used this to create a level foundation on which to build the pyramids that exist today.  Without a level foundation it is impossible to build any structure out of any material to last.

So were these double mugs used as levels?  Well, I don't know.  It would be interesting to know the context in which they were found.  Were the broken ones found in middens, or perhaps at the base of walls?  Then maybe the apprentice dropped it or the master just said “oops”.  If they were found in kiva's, were they found in the niches, which means they were special.  I wish I knew.