Isotopic Approaches to Animas Phase Marine Shell Exchange

Summary

Previous studies of shell exchange in the Greater Southwest have supported archaeological interpretations of competing exchange 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. Notably, these studies found that Animas phase sites, including Joyce Well, clustered with the Casas Grandes shell network. In this study, we attempt to further studies of economic interaction in the borderlands region by comparing carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of Olivella shell from the 76 Draw, a large Animas phase site near Deming, New Mexico, with several published modern Gulf of California datasets. The geochemical analysis of Olivella shells from 76 Draw, as well as other Animas phase samples, will provide a clearer picture of exchange and interactions between Paquimé and the hinterlands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

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