Burning as Ritual in the Jornada Mogollon

Summary

What is the significance of multiple burning events at Cottonwood Spring Pueblo (LA 175) an El Paso Phase (A.D. 1300-1450) Mogollon village in Southwest New Mexico? What do these burning events tell us about the life history of the pueblo? When did they occur? How do they compare to burning events at contemporary sites in the American Southwest? Contextual evidence suggests they are separate ritual events. What purposes did these events serve? How do they differ from other purposeful pueblo burning? This poster explores these questions through a case study of one of the largest villages in the region. We employ multiple chronological methods (stratigraphic superposition, dendrochronology, radiocarbon and archaeomagnetism) to contextualize burning within the site for our comparison. This pueblo straddles a cultural boundary between the Jornada and Mimbres branches of the Mogollon offering a good case study in this understudied region and phase. We found burning events in 16 of the 18 rooms and at least two areas with evidence of superimposed burning events. Our poster argues that the burning appears to have resulted from a combination of retiring particularly important ritual rooms, remodeling phases, and the final abandonment of the site.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage