North America - Southwest (Geographic Keyword)
351-375 (899 Records)
This paper asserts that certain Ancient American painted figures traditionally associated with established rain, agriculture or fertility deities, such as the Aztec "Tlaloc," in fact evolved from previously established Archaic pre-agricultural traditions that had already defined certain spiritual entities as "rain" or "thunderstorm" deities without reference to any formal agricultural practices. Evidence is drawn from iconographic and contextual analysis of anthropomorphic figures and motifs...
God's Empire: Ritual, Repression, and Resistance on the Rio Grande, 1300-1848 (2017)
This interdisciplinary project evaluates the relationship between Spanish and indigenous religious practices and their respective political objectives in proto-historic and colonial New Mexico. Beginning with a discussion of the emergence of a new religious idiom in the Pueblo world during the fourteenth century CE, I investigate the entanglement of political and economic forces with religion up to the conquest of the region by Anglo-Americans in the mid-1840s. In doing so, I highlight the...
Gomphotheres, Mastodons, and Mammoths: The Fauna from El Fin del Mundo, Sonora (2017)
El Fin del Mundo, Sonora is the only known site where Clovis artifacts have been found in association with the remains of gomphotheres (Cuvieronius sp.), dated to 11,550 ± 60 rcyBP. Analysis of the faunal remains from the site confirms the presence of two juvenile/sub-adult gomphotheres (Cuvieronius sp.) found in close association with Clovis artifacts. A second bone bed located beneath the cultural layer, dated to ≤12,180 ±40 rcyBP, contains the remains of gomphothere, mastodon, mammoth, horse,...
Gone but not forgotten: Perishable artifacts from Aztec Ruins (NM) preserved in photographs, 1916-1923. (2016)
When excavated 100 years ago, many of the perishable items found at Aztec Ruins did not long survive the process. Fortunately, chief archaeologist Earl Morris was an avid shutterbug and modern researchers are treated to dozens of curated photos of in situ perishable objects that include architectural features, basketry, fibers, etc. When (re-)placed into context with other archaeological data, these items are helping to tell new stories about Aztec Ruins.
Ground Stone as a Migration Marker: Using Finger-Grooved Manos and Fully Grooved Axe-Heads to Trace Kayenta Influence at Salado Sites. (2015)
The Salado phenomenon in southern New Mexico and Arizona includes a set of cultural traits that are believed to have been stimulated by the arrival of Kayenta migrants in the late 1200s from northern Arizona and southeastern Utah. Identifying the influence of these northern migrants at Salado sites has been one of the ongoing goals of Archaeology Southwest’s field excavations. In addition to perforated plates and certain architectural features, the presence of particular ground stone tools at...
Ground Stone Landscapes of the Ancestral Pueblo World (2015)
The lives of pre-Columbian communities in New Mexico were anchored and shaped by stone features in the landscape. Stones were pecked, ground, and piled into cairns or circles; ethnographic evidence from descendant communities suggest certain stones received offerings of corn pollen, antlers, or prayer sticks; in other cases, parts of stones were removed as potent medicine, either as stone powder or flakes; elsewhere, it was the abrasive contact between fixed bedrock and tools that appears to...
Groundstone Shrines of the Pueblo Southwest (2015)
The Pueblos of the American Southwest define their sacred geographies by using ground boulders and bedrock shrines (cupules, slicks, grooves, and channels) to establish land tenure, reflect cosmologies and religious organization, and to record history. Based on ethnography and Pueblo collaboration we know that these places mark the remains of the deceased, act as communication nodes with the spiritual world, and delineate social boundaries. Because these landscapes (and their associated shrines)...
Groundtruthing from the Air: Reconstructing Tribal Agricultural and Landscape Systems in the Lower Chama Valley, New Mexico Using Low Elevation UAV Technology. (2015)
Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are changing the way that archaeologists conduct fieldwork with Native American Tribes. We present an application of UAV mapping and visualization technology in a combined boots-on-the-ground and satellite reconnaissance of Classic period (A.D. 1350-1600) ancestral Pueblo sites and agricultural systems. This approach reduced field time and enhanced efficiency in the identification and recordation of regionally extensive prehistoric features at a level of...
The Group Within the Group: Carter Ranch Pueblo and the Chaco Regional System (2015)
Fifty years ago Paul Martin and John Renaldo of the Field Museum of Natural History directed the excavation of Carter Ranch Pueblo in the Hay Hollow Valley of east central Arizona. Decades later, archaeologists recognized a regional system of settlements in and around the San Juan Basin linked to great houses in Chaco Canyon via roads and highly visible material cultural characteristics. Although Carter Ranch Pueblo displays typical Chacoan attributes, its inclusion within the Chaco regional...
Habitual Postures of the Medio Period Casas Grandes People: A Comparison of Visual Art Representations and Skeletal Data (2016)
One of the most distinctive forms to come out of the Medio period (1200-1475AD) Casas Grandes ceramic tradition was human effigy vessels. These vessels exhibit primary and secondary sexual traits, and the males and the females are seated in different postures. The males are usually seated in a squatted position, whereas the females typically sit with their legs straight out. To see if these vessels reflected real-life habitual postures, Medio period skeletal remains from Paquimé were examined....
Hadiya:wa: Do You Hear What Traditional Pueblo Cultural Advisors Are Saying? (2017)
Archaeological collaboration with traditional Pueblo communities faces many practical challenges. Archaeologists typically expect cultural practitioners to accept what archaeology entails as a scientific discipline and its approach to understanding the past. Within traditional Pueblo perspectives, archaeological excavation might not be an appropriate measure for mitigating adverse effects in the federal Section 106 compliance process. Rather than asserting the primacy of their preferences and...
Hand in Hand: the Physical and Symbolic Representation of Social Bonding in the Prehistoric American Southwest. (2016)
A key theme of archaeological research in the American Southwest has been understanding the diverse ways people came together to form communities. This paper examines the physical and symbolic practice of forming social bonds through the practice of hand-holding in communal performance. Iconographic representations of hand-holding figures (on ceramic vessels and rock art) from the prehistoric period (A.D. 500 – 900) will be presented. These images provide an exceptional opportunity to explore...
Hands-on Experience: NMSU Summer Fieldschool at Twin Pines Village in the Gila National Forest 2015 (2016)
To develop a better partnership between academics and United States Forest Service, and disseminate the concept of stewardship to the public, the Gila National Forest and the Department of Anthropology at New Mexico State University collaborated together at a fieldschool at the Twin Pines Village—a northern Mimbres settlement and the largest Mimbres phase site—for six weeks in 2015. The major goal of the project is to add our understanding of the cultural trajectory of the Twin Pines communities...
Hard Choices Along the Rio Grande: Piro Trade Networks and Decision-Making During the 1680 Pueblo Revolt (2015)
The Piro Pueblos along the southern Rio Grande did not join with the rebelling Pueblos in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and instead left New Mexico with the retreating Spanish or migrated to other Pueblos. The events of the Revolt and the circumstances of Spanish colonialism required that the Piro make political decisions such as these. The same was true for the northern Pueblos organizing the Revolt, who decided not to include the Piros as part of the rebellion. For both groups, these decisions were...
The Hartley Mammoth, North-Central New Mexico (2016)
A scatter of large mammal bone scrap along a shallow rill led to discovery of the Hartley Mammoth site in north-central New Mexico. Informal testing revealed a shallowly buried partial skull and a group of three rib fragments some 2 m apart. On the surface 9 m away was a small, impact-damaged Clovis point, suggesting the possibility that the mammoth had been the victim of Clovis predation. Excavations in 2015 revealed the remains of a juvenile mammoth, consisting of rib fragments, portions of...
Harvesting, Management, and Possible Cultivation of Chenopods (Chenopodium spp.) in the North American Southwest (2017)
Chenopodium seeds are ubiquitous in archaeobotanical samples from sites across the U.S. Southwest, commonly interpreted as representing the harvest of wild populations or weedy plants that were encouraged to grow in garden plots and agricultural fields. Up to 75% of projects from various SW U.S. regions contained Chenopodium, and/or Amaranthus, and/or Cheno-am seeds. Archaeobotanists differ in how they recognize and report these seeds. At least 22 wild species of Chenopodium are native to one or...
Hemish Migration, Movement, and Identity (2017)
We examine migration, travel, landscape, and place names as key elements of Hemish (Jemez) identity. Language is a key element of Hemish identity, and place names figure prominently in Hemish historical and cultural discourse. The place names that define the footprint of Hemish ancestral territory are associated with the migration that culminated in the occupation of Walatowa and with pilgrimages and land use that take Hemish people back into areas where their ancestors formerly lived. Jemez...
Heḍt (2016)
Iron oxides and other associated minerals (“ochre”) are among the most common pigments used by prehistoric North American populations, particularly in the Hohokam region of central Arizona where they were employed in mortuary rituals, as body paint, and to decorate pottery, basketry, arrows, and pictographs. This paper identifies the wide variety of iron-oxides making up Hohokam, O’odham and Pee Posh red paint (in O'odham, heḍt) and it considers how prehistoric artisans manipulated earthy,...
Hidden Revolutions: Re-examining Transitions in the American Southwest from an Anarchist and Network Perspective (2015)
Globally, archaeologists often talk about cultural change as a dynamic, directional process that leads toward either failure (collapse, reorganization, abandonment, and "stability") or state level societies. This evokes a unilinear evolutionary framework that most admit is flawed. But what if state level societies were not the "pinnacle" of human civilization? What if states represent societal failure instead? From this position, often glossed over historic periods may stand out as lynchpins...
His Life before He Died: Pueblo Bonito's Burial #14 (2016)
More than a century of intensive archaeological investigations in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico has produced a vast literature on all types of remains and alternative theories about the development, organization, and collapse of Chacoan society. But often missing in this overwhelming amount of information is the lived experiences of the prehistoric Chacoans themselves. This paper synthesizes Chacoan archaeology from the perspective of one of the canyon’s residents. Pueblo Bonito’s Burial #14 is best...
Historic Pueblo Canteens: How were they made and how were they used? (2015)
Historic Pueblo potters formed ceramic canteens that have one flat and one bulbous side. This form posed unique issues for construction. The form is symmetrical along only one axis, and while other Pueblo ceramic forms exhibit this feature, such as duck effigies, these flat-sided canteens are unique in that they were made to carry water. The shape suggests it was designed to be transported against a flat object. 19th century ethnographic research suggests transportation against a human back,...
Historical Continuity in Southern Arizona Free Range Ranching Practices: Carbon, Oxygen, and Strontium Isotope Evidence from two 18th Century Missions (2016)
Carbon (δ13C), oxygen (δ18O), and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopes from cattle, caprine, and small mammal teeth from two historic-period Spanish missions and modern cattle were assayed with the goal of reconstructing historic ranching practices in the Sonoran Desert of southwestern North America. Carbon isotope ratios from modern cattle indicate that it is possible to distinguish cattle free ranged within upper elevations desert habitats compared to lower elevation free ranged or possibly foddered...
A Historical-Processual Approach to Household Architecture in the Northern U.S. Southwest. (2015)
The transition from lightly built, short-term or ephemeral structures to substantially built, sophisticated dwellings occurred between A.D. 400 and 1400 in the Ancient Pueblo Southwest. At the early end of this period, most dwellings were occupied by a single household and may have only lasted for about a decade. By the end of this period, nearly the entire population of the northern Southwest lived in multi-household, apartment-style dwellings that housed entire villages for generations. This...
A History of Service: The Civilian Conservation Corps at Petrified Forest (2017)
Part of Roosevelt’s New Deal Program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established in 1934 as a work relief program for unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25. Designed to assist families during the Great Depression, the Corp members were paid $30 per month, $25 of which was sent back to help support their families. Up until its disbandment in 1942, multiple companies of these young men were stationed at Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO). Throughout their time at PEFO these CCC...
Ho! To the Land of Sunshine: Mitigation and Public Outreach for the BNSF Abó Canyon Double Track Project in Central New Mexico and The Ute Lake Subdivision Project in Northeastern New Mexico: Lawsuits, Artifacts, and an Archaeological Right-of-Entry Agreement (2017)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Regulatory Program initially served a fairly simple, straightforward purpose: to protect and maintain the navigable capacity of the nation's waters. Time, changing public needs, evolving policy, case law, and new statutory mandates have changed the purview of the program, adding to its breadth, complexity, and authority. Prior to the issuance or authorization of any Department of the Army permit under Corps regulatory authorities (e.g. the Clean Water...