Revisiting Conejo Shelter: Refining Cultural Chronologies of the Lower Pecos, Texas

Author(s): Elanor Sonderman

Year: 2018

Summary

The Lower Pecos region of Texas is a remarkable study area, primarily because perishable artifacts (those made of plant materials, bone, and leather) survive in near pristine conditions in its very dry caves and rockshelters. Vaughn Bryant was among the first researchers in the region to use pollen data to build paleoclimatic and ecological chronologies from this region, his dissertation is still one of the most comprehensive analyses of this region’s ecological past. Following this path, my dissertation focuses on Conejo Shelter, which Bryant also worked on in his graduate student days, back in the late 1960s. This rockshelter has a substantial, but under-studied assemblage of perishable artifacts including basketry, cordage, sandals, and coprolites. Thirty new, direct dates, using material from fiber sandals and coprolites, have formed the basis of a more fine-tuned radiocarbon chronology for Conejo Shelter. Esri ArcGIS has been used to incorporate new chronological data with information from the original excavation notes, in order to visualize the site’s stratigraphy, better understand changes in the perishable assemblage through time, and track potential migrations of people and ideas between the Lower Pecos and adjacent regions.

Cite this Record

Revisiting Conejo Shelter: Refining Cultural Chronologies of the Lower Pecos, Texas. Elanor Sonderman. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 445054)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -124.365; min lat: 25.958 ; max long: -93.428; max lat: 41.902 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22525