The Northern Periphery of the Casas Grandes World: An Assessment and Update of the Animas Phase

Summary

In the 1930s through 1960s, several sites in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico were excavated to assess their role in a regional system that spanned across the international border. Many of these sites were characterized by their shared, mixed composition of architectural, ceramic, and iconography traits that did not neatly fit into established archaeological cultures. Subsequently, they became the basis of understanding for the northern Casas Grandes frontier, oftentimes termed the ‘Animas Phase’. More recently over the past thirty years, significant progress has been made in understanding the character and extent of the Medio period Casas Grandes culture. However, these new changes in understanding have seldom been applied to the Animas phase assemblages analyzed and site interpretations constructed. This paper reassesses the use and meaning of the Animas phase in response to these developments and seeks to understand incorporated sites not only as a Paquimean 'hinterland', but on the local scale as multiethnic communities integrated into several socio-cultural networks spanning across the borderlands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21098