Casas Grandes (Other Keyword)
26-38 (38 Records)
The 76 Draw archaeological site (LA 156980) is located in southwestern New Mexico. This Medio period (A.D. 1200-1400) site is situated within the northern edge of the Casas Grandes interaction sphere just south of Deming, New Mexico. It includes the remains of pueblo-like adobe structures overlain with a scatter of thousands of artifacts including lithic and mixed ceramics. In the summer of 2013, the University of Missouri and University of North Florida surface sampled the site. One purpose of...
Plazas, Proxemics, and Ritual Power: The Main Plaza and Ceremonial Precinct at Paquimé, Chihuahua, and Its Place in a Plaza-Pueblo World (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In his seminal article on Andean plazas, Jerry Moore (1996) characterized plazas as spaces that serve as a setting for diverse public interactions, including as arenas that help to structure verbal and nonverbal ritual communication in the context of ritually infused power dynamics. In the Puebloan and Mogollon...
Power before Paquimé? Hypotheses on Political Economies in Casas Grandes. (2015)
In this paper, I outline alternative hypotheses on the nature of the late-Viejo and early-Medio Period political economies in the Casas Grandes Regional System from what is now Chihuahua, Mexico. Recent research has described in impressive detail the productive base and the ideology that may have emerged at Paquimé during its late-Medio Period (AD 1350-1450) florescence. However, little is known about power in the Casas Grandes region either prior to Paquimé’s brief 14th Century expansion into...
Problematic at Best: Assigning Sex to Prehistoric Remains with Consistency (2018)
Historically, the sex of prehistoric human skeletal remains has been visually assessed by researchers who are (hopefully) knowledgeable about the population being examined. However, methods of assigning sex can be largely subjective and often lead to inconsistent results. In this study, we consider human skeletal remains from the Medio period (A.D. 1200–1475) from Paquimé, a site in northern Chihuahua, Mexico, that was the economic and political center of the Casas Grandes region. The sexes of...
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...
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...
A Reevaluation of Viejo Period Architecture and Construction in the Casas Grandes Region (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From 1958 to 1961 Charles Di Peso and Eduardo Contreras Sánchez conducted extensive archaeological excavations at Paquimé and the Convento sites in Chihuahua, Mexico. These excavations produced the data that forms the bulk of our understanding about the Casas Grandes archaeological culture during the Viejo period (approximately 700-1200 AD). In the...
Results of Petrographic Analysis of Polychromes across the Casas Grandes World (2015)
This research, part of my dissertation, focuses on the mineralogical variability of Casas Grandes polychromes. Whereas past studies have suggested that some Casas Grandes polychrome types are more common in some geographic areas than others (see Brand 1935; De Atley 1980; Findlow and DeAtley 1982; Kelley et al. 1999; Larkin et al. 2004 for more complete discussions), these studies have been challenged as they assume polychromes recovered at sites are made locally, rather than imported (Douglas...
Results of Petrographic and NAA of Ramos and Babicora Polychromes from Across the Casas Grandes Region (2016)
Whereas past studies have suggested that some Casas Grandes polychrome types are more common in some geographic areas than others (see Brand 1935; De Atley 1980; Findlow and DeAtley 1982; Kelley et al. 1999; Larkin et al. 2004 for more complete discussions), these studies have been challenged as they assume polychromes recovered are made locally, rather than imported from other sites (Douglas 1995; Minnis 1984, 1989). As a result, recent studies refocus on polychrome production (Carpenter 2002,...
Ritual Use of Fauna in the Casas Grandes Region (2015)
The use of faunal remains for ritual purposes was an important part of Casas Grandes society throughout the Medio period (1200 – 1450 A.D.). The past inhabitants of this region utilized the bones of numerous animals for ritual and symbolic functions, as well as for personal adornment. Past archaeological and zooarchaeological research conducted within this region has focused significantly on the site of Paquimé and the artifacts/remains recovered from that site. This paper, although considering...
Sourcing Basalt from the Santiago Quarry in Chihuahua, Mexico Using XRF (2017)
During survey in 2013, we identified the only known vesicular basalt quarry in the Casas Grandes region in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. Using XRF, we analyzed basalt from the Santiago Quarry and compared the results to the chemical characterization of formal tools (mostly mano and metate fragments) recovered at the site of Paquimé in order to determine if this quarry was one of the sources exploited by prehistoric stoneworkers during the Medio period (1200-1450 A.D.).
Spatiotemporal Trends in Ceramics and Architecture in Domestic Paquime, Chihuahua, Mexico (2016)
A recent examination of domestic architecture at Paquime demonstrated support for structural differences present throughout the Medio period following Di Peso's phases. No known analysis, though, outside of Di Peso's publications has examined the ceramics data to assess whether differences exist between rooms or units. This paper examines the connection between differences in ceramic types and distributions and those present in structural elements of architecture. The broader implications of...
There And Back Again: A Geochemical Analysis of Casas Grandes Shell Procurement and Exchange (2015)
Previous studies of shell exchange in the Southwest have supported archaeological interpretations of competing regional networks in which the Hohokam, Sinagua, and Anasazi acquired shell from the Gulf of California, while the Casas Grandes, Mimbres, and Western Puebloan groups acquired shell from West Mexico. This study will build on previous analyses by integrating stylistic analysis with an expanded compositional database to further examine the role of shell exchange in the Animas phase region...