North America - Southwest (Geographic Keyword)
651-675 (899 Records)
During the late thirteenth century, the Salado Phenomenon swept across much of the U.S. Southwest, leaving its most indelible mark in the form of Salado Polychrome pottery. Chemical sourcing indicates that this pottery was produced in many of the areas in which it is found and many researchers now associate production areas with the settlement of Kayenta migrants. Archaeologists frequently use stylistic analyses to infer shared socio-cultural backgrounds. For example, some colleagues have noted...
Reassessing Taos Area Archaeology: What We Still Don’t Understand in 2015 (2016)
Like many areas of the American Southwest, the Greater Taos region has a long history of research, spanning over 100 years. The majority of investigations have focused on either end of the research spectrum. Some being very narrowly centered on specific issues or sites usually resulting from the particular interests of a researcher, while others are very generally focused on data collection resulting from CRM research. This dichotomy of data collection/research has resulted in a highly variable...
Rebound, stress, persistence, or subsistence? The pre-Pueblo Revolt fauna from Isleta Mission Convento (2017)
Although the Spanish documentary record from 17th century New Mexico describes challenging environmental conditions, faunal analyses from this time and region largely suggest a period of environmental amelioration. However, many of the assemblages that have been used to argue for improved conditions are from indigenous sites. Here, we present data on taxonomic relative abundance from the 17th century zooarchaeological assemblage from the Isleta Pueblo Mission Complex, and then use those data to...
Recent Advancements in Remote Sensing Studies in Chaco Canyon (2017)
Remote sensing has been an integral part of Chacoan archaeology for several decades, helping to identify and map the broader landscape in and around the canyon. Early remote sensing studies, while pioneering, were often experimental and limited by the available technology. As the technical aspects of remote sensing continue to improve with advancements in computer power and data processing, it is now possible to move beyond experimental studies and broad characterizations of the Chacoan...
Recent Explorations for Casas Grandes Viejo Period Settlement (2015)
Much is known about political, social, economic, and ritual organization during the Casas Grandes Medio period (ca. A.D. 1200-1450). A looming question is, What are the roots of the Medio period? The preceding Viejo period, assumed to begin around A.D. 500, is poorly understood because so little work has been conducted at Viejo sites, and few sites from this time period are known. We recently conducted reconnaissance and systematic survey north and south of the Medio capital settlement of...
Recent New Evidence for Late Archaic Occupation in the Pecos River Valley near Carlsbad, New Mexico (2017)
This poster presents evidence of a singular Late Archaic period habitation feature. Recent compliance excavations conducted at site LA 45730 along the Pecos River east of Carlsbad, New Mexico have provided rarely seen evidence of occupation in the Permian Basin. A small pit structure exposed in a highly eroded floodplain terrace provides an opportunity for further insights. Few such structures have been fully documented in this region. Material remains recovered from the pit structure provide...
Recent Research on Western Apache Roasting Pits (2016)
Hundreds of Western Apache roasting pits have been documented by archaeological surveys in Central Arizona, but prior to A.D. 2000 few had been excavated. These large, visible, accumulations of fire-cracked rock and dark soil are essentially the only enduring Western Apache modifications of the physical landscape and the best candidates for planned research on past Western Apache experience, as pre-reservation sites and features in the region are often far more subtle. Two large roasting pits,...
Recent Test Excavations at an Early Agricultural Period Cerro de Trincheras Site on the Upper Gila River, Arizona (2015)
Investigations on a cerro de trincheras site overlooking the Gila River were conducted in 2014. The Round Mountain site tentatively dates to the Early Agricultural period (2100 B.C.-A.D. 100). The 6 ha expanse of the site includes 1.9 km of constructed walls and terraces. The remains of 16 houses are defined by a constellation of rock rings in the central part of the site. Projectile points include five Tularosa corner-notched points. This style of point is associated with both Early...
Recent Work in Southeast New Mexico by SWCA: The impact of TRU analysis on how we define site boundaries (2017)
SWCA has performed seven data recovery projects in southeast New Mexico between 2015 and 2016 with TRU (Transect Recording Unit) surface survey, collections and analysis. Notable sites have included an archaic pit house structure, a bedrock mortar site and several coppice and parabolic dune sites. A summary of the excavation work will be presented, focusing on highlights from three of these sites. The results of TRU surface collection and analysis will be presented in conjunction with...
Reconciling Responsibilities: A Case Study from the Galisteo Basin, New Mexico (2016)
What responsibility do archaeologists have in presenting Indigenous perspectives through their interpretations? What would this presentation look like, and what bridges must be built to accommodate differing knowledge sets and perspectives? Using Thornton Ranch Open Space as a case study, we consider the constraints and possibilities of working with/for the interests of descendant communities within the context of contemporary cultural resource management in order to respect various connections...
Red or Green? Examining the Reliability of Macaw Postcranial Identification (2017)
Archaeologists consider macaws highly valuable trade items which served an important economic and ritual role in the prehistoric Southwest. Costly to acquire, brightly colored, and difficult to keep, macaws are often an exciting indicator of social complexity. There is a consensus that the bright red Scarlet Macaw was used and traded with greater frequency than the emerald green Military Macaw in the American Southwest. Yet variation in size and morphological similarity of Ara sp. postcrania...
Red Ware and Migration in the Northern San Juan Region: A View from Pit Structure Architectural Practice (2017)
Previous researchers have proposed that early red ware traditions in Southeast Utah (i.e., Abajo Red-on-orange) represent an intrusive practice in an area generally dominated by black-on-white ceramics. This red ware "intrusion" has previously been interpreted as possibly representing the in-migration of southern groups into Southeast Utah and Southwestern Colorado. Using the communities of practice approach, this paper characterizes pit structure architectural practice in relation to...
Reducing Human Error and Identifying Unknowns: X-ray Fluorescence as a Tool for Identifying Paint Composition of Mesa Black-on-White Pottery (2015)
Although Mesa Verde Black-on-white pottery paste and temper have been well-studied, the composition of the decorative black paints and white background slips to identify available resources and the varying recipes used across time and space has received much less attention. Paints are typically categorized as either coal-based (organic) or iron-based (mineral), and archaeologists have long used visual differences to identify these two paint bases. While it has been shown that even novices can...
Reevaluating Mimbres Late Pithouse to Classic Period Transformations of the Upper Gila (2015)
Professional archaeological research has been conducted in southwest New Mexico’s upper Gila valley since at least 1929, when Burt and Hattie Cosgrove completed a survey of archaeological sites. Projects of various scales have been carried out periodically since then, however minimal research has occurred at Woodrow Ruin, one of the region’s largest sites. This paper presents new information from my recent dissertation research at Woodrow Ruin that is helping to redefine the Late...
Reevaluating rock art panels in Northern New Mexico (2017)
This paper examines what might be called the "palimpsest panel" rock art tradition of the northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico. Palimpsest panels are rock faces with petroglyphs that have accrued in a layered fashion through time. Prior research into such panels has typically focused on questions of chronology, each layer representing a distinct culture-historical era of iconographic production or a chapter in a linear chronology. Here, however, I move away from the traditional chronological...
Refinement of Early Agricultural Site Chronology in the Tucson Basin (2015)
A sample of 140 radiocarbon dates from 14 Early Agricultural sites was used to model the chronology of settlements in the Tucson Basin using OxCal v.4.2.3; one site in northern Sonora was also included in this analysis. The sites range in age from about 2100 BC to 700 BC, spanning two phases of the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period: the "Silverbell Interval" (ca. 2100-1200 BC) and the San Pedro Phase (ca. 1200-800 BC). Most dates are AMS assays of maize kernels, cupules, or cobs, other...
Regional Variability in Stable Isotope Food-Web Baselines and Sex-Based Differences in Diet: An Example from Early Agriculturists in Southeastern Utah (2017)
This paper provides an isotope-ecology context for Cedar Mesa, Utah by presenting isotope data on over 400 modern botanical and archaeo-faunal specimens from the area. While carbon data fit with regional expectations, nitrogen isotope ratios throughout the Cedar Mesa food-web show depletion in 15N relative to other ecosystems in the intermountain west--consistent with nitrogen inputs from cyptobiotic soil crusts. In light of this localized isotope baseline, we reassess previously published...
Relational Native Ontology and Tewa Ethnogenesis in the Pueblo of Pojoaque (2017)
This paper recognizes the collaborative potential between American Indian Studies and an emerging landscape archaeology in furthering interdisciplinary studies of the American Southwest. Here the authors call for the continued reinterpretation of ancestral and contemporary Tewa sites by employing Native ontological and decolonized historical approaches to archaeological and ethnographic contexts situated in the backdrop of a larger and active cultural landscape. Such methods offer nuanced...
Relations in the Zuni Region: A Comparative Study of Ceramics (2015)
In the Cibola region of the American southwest, the Pueblo III to Pueblo IV transition saw a major increase in the local production of red ware and polychrome vessels. In addition, the period is characterized by a dramatic increase in ceramic decorative style diversity in the Cibola region. In this poster, I present evidence for shifts in settlement patterns and community organization, including collective actions and social transformations in the Zuni region during the Pueblo III and Pueblo...
The Relationship between Violence and Geographic Origins at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico: Preliminary Results from Strontium Isotope Analyses (2015)
Casas Grandes, also known as Paquimé, was one of the largest and most complex societies in prehistoric northern Mexico, with established trade networks and social influences from Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and western Mexico. Analyses of the human skeletal remains from Casas Grandes have found evidence for interpersonal conflict, human sacrifice, and cannibalism during the Medio period (ca. 1200-1450 AD), which coincides with increasing sociopolitical complexity and emerging social...
Religion and Death: Missionization and its effects on Puebloan Burial Practices during Spanish Colonization (2017)
For the Spanish, conversion to Catholicism was an important part of the colonial strategy in the New World in order to have more perceived control over the indigenous groups they encountered there. In New Mexico, conversion of the Puebloan peoples became the main reason for remaining in the territory after little to no material wealth was found. Much of this conversion was forced, and the question remains as to exactly how many Puebloans converted and how many converted in public while...
Religious Conversion and Social Networks in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico: A Case Study from Pecos Pueblo (2016)
The religious conversion of Native North Americans was a fundamental goal of European colonizers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Native experiences of missionization have often been framed within a concept of religious conversion as ontological transformation that descends from Christian doctrine. Many Native ‘converts’ doubtless eluded encounters with the transcendent leading to fundamental inner change, and archaeologists have often been frustrated in the search for convincing...
Relocating the Platform Mound at La Plaza: Recent Archaeological Investigations on Arizona State University’s Tempe Campus (2017)
Recent archaeological and historical investigations at the Hohokam site of La Plaza revealed robust evidence that a Classic period platform mound once stood in the north part of Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. Maps from the late 1800s and early 1900s documented three Hohokam platform mounds within La Plaza. However, these mounds were leveled by the early to mid-1900s, and archaeologists today can only approximate their locations based on old maps of dubious accuracy. An earlier...
Remote Sensing as a Method of Promoting Group Identity: Rediscovering Edinburg’s African-American Cemetery (2015)
Remote Sensing as a Method of Promoting Group Identity: Rediscovering Edinburg’s African-American Cemetery Roland Silva, Anthro Graduate-University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg, Texas was founded in 1909 some fifteen miles north of the Rio Grande in the then newly irrigated "Magic Valley." A decade later Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery was established, with a remote corner of the burial ground allocated for African-Americans. Many of the earliest people interred hailed from rural...
Remotely sensed seasonal and interannual variability of vegetation and temperature indices from Ancestral Pueblo fields in the lower Rio Chama basin, New Mexico, USA. (2017)
An analysis of multispectral satellite imagery in the lower Rio Chama basin, in northern New Mexico, reveal that seasonal patterns of vegetation cover (NDVI) are significantly altered by Pre-Hispanic agricultural features surrounding ancestral Tewa pueblos. Interannual variability of NDVI on previously cultivated upland surfaces is similar to a model derived from terrain attributes of minimally-modified watersheds. However, in relict agricultural fields late-summer and autumn NDVI tends to be...