Northwest Mexico (Other Keyword)
1-12 (12 Records)
One of the most enduring contributions made by Suzy and Paul Fish was their elucidation of the role played by multi-settlement communities in structuring socio-political organization. The community concept, initially elaborated in the Hohokam region, now fulfills a central interpretive role in many regions of Northwest Mexico. In this paper, I compare characteristics of communities across several regions of the Northwest/Southwest to demonstrate qualitatively different organizational precepts....
Culture Change at Casas Grandes: New Perspectives from Bioarchaeological Analyses (2017)
One of the significant ongoing debates surrounding Casas Grandes is whether the Medio period florescence of Paquimé arose from in situ developments or external stimuli. Some scholars have attributed Medio period cultural developments to the arrival of immigrants from surrounding regions, including Mesoamerica, west Mexico, and the American Southwest, while others have suggested that Paquimé grew out of the preceding Viejo period. To address this question, we use strontium and oxygen isotope...
Early Agricultural Use of Ground Stone in Southern Sonora (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavation at the site of Las Chachalacas in Quiriego, Sonora produced evidence for Early Agricultural period (EAP) occupation. Dating likely between the Silverbell Interval and the San Pedro phase this settlement would have been contemporaneous with other important early agricultural sites in Sonora, Chihuahua, and Arizona such as La Playa, Cerro...
El Corrido de Pablo y Suzy Pescado: Inspiring Archaeological Investigations in Northwest Mexico (2017)
We discuss Paul and Suzy Fish´s integral role in archaeological research in northwest Mexico, an important region that has been little studied by relatively few archaeologists to date. Over more than 25 years, along with our colleagues and many students, our archaeological investigations have included a reanalysis of the funerary mound at Guasave, Sinaloa and an evaluation of the relationship between Mesoamerica and Northwestern Mexico, the Pleistocene people of Sonora and Mexico, the Early...
Escaping Collapse in Northwest Mexico: Social and Environmental Factors of Resiliency at La Ferrería, Durango, Mexico (2016)
The end of the Mesoamerican Classic Period (ca. AD 900) was a time characterized by widespread social change, political upheaval, and broad regional drought conditions. In Northwest Mexico, several large centers such as La Quemada and Alta Vista were abandoned and never reoccupied. The site of La Ferrería in the Guadiana Valley of Durango, however, remained an important site for several centuries into the Postclassic Period. This presentation explores the social and environmental factors that...
Funerary Practices in Prehispanic Sinaloa: Assessing Aztatlán Mortuary Behavior (2015)
Funerary traditions reflect social behaviors that contain important information about the integration of several social groups. Funerary practices seem to persist over time because they comprise an integral aspect of group identity. In this paper we discuss the funerary practices known for the identified late prehispanic Sinaloan archaeological traditions. Specific locations to bury the dead appear to be the usual practice for the Aztatlán and Huatabampo traditions. Funerary mounds with extended...
A Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of the Trincheras Tradition: Community, Identity, and Foodways (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Trincheras Tradition thrived in the Altar Valley, Sonora, Mexico between AD 400 to 1400. The Hohokam are known for their extensive irrigation systems and reliance on agriculture. Lacking evidence of similar features, the Trincheras were interpreted as primarily hunters and gatherers, a rustic branch of the Hohokam. This characterization of Trincheras...
THE PROYECTO ARQUEOLOGICO RÍO SAHUARIPA: INTERACTION, INTEGRATION AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS IN THE SONORAN SERRANíA (2015)
The characterization and descriptions of the Rio Sonora and Serrana (formerly known as the southern or Alamos branch of Rio Sonora) archaeological traditions exemplify Richard Pailes’ contributions to the archaeology of Sonora (and northeastern Sinaloa as well) and our current understanding of the serranía region. The Proyecto Arqueológico Río Sahuaripa (PARS) represents the first systematic archaeological investigation of the Sahuaripa River basin, located in eastern Sonora. The primary...
Rancho La Cueva: Agaves and Casas Grandes in a cliff dwelling (2017)
La Cueva is a cliff dwelling built by the Casas Grandes people in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Sonora, México. It has been studied by the Sierra Alta de Sonora Archaeological Project with the aim of understanding the Subregional System on the mountains. So far, we have identified a protohistoric component and a prehistoric occupation from the Viejo and Medio Period (900-1450 A.D.). But the most relevant information is related with the mezcaleros knives, an industry well identified. At the...
The Rancho Santa María II: an archaic site in the Galeana Valley, Chihuahua. (2015)
In the summer of 2014, we conducted a rescue project in the Galeana Valley, Chihuahua on a site recorded early on. The site name is Rancho Santa María II, has a surface of 30,000 m2, and was identified for the high amount of FCR on surface mainly from ovens (several of them identified in surface). In addition, nearly 350 projectile points were found (fragments 70% and complete 30 %), some of them from the Paleo-Indian period. Four excavation units were performed at the site, mainly on ovens to...
The sound of dancing in the desert Northwest/Southwest. Copper bells from Trincheras, and the Casas Grandes Connection. (2015)
Since the 1963 Sprague and Signori’s tabulation on copper bells, to Vargas 1995 or Wilcox et al. 2008, there is no question that copper bells in the Southwest/Northwest were trade items produced in West Mexico. Different kinds of exchange networks were responsible for the distributional patterns of the very "rare" items (copper bells and macaws) as opposed to those exhibited by the more common shell and turquoise. Few central communities exchanged copper bells and macaws; being macaws (Ara...
Variations in Connectivity: Mapping Long-distance interaction in the Prehistoric U.S Southwest (2016)
Changes documented from the pre-Classic to Classic period (A.D. 475-1450) suggest that a larger social or political movement was occurring within the Hohokam regional system, but the motives behind this change are poorly understood. To fully understand this phenomenon it is necessary to examine how the change differed within the Hohokam regional system. Researchers can observe this relationship through the study of what Nelson (2006:345) calls "interaction markers", artifacts and architectural...