Camping and Hot-Rock Cooking: Hunter-Gatherer Land Use in the Southwest Pecos Slopes

Summary

This project entailed thematic reconnaissance survey, evaluation, and small-scale excavations of a total of 42 previously recorded archaeological sites. Survey was conducted using the Transect Recording Unit (TRU) method, with 10-by-10-m TRUs. Excavations consisted of bisections of features that exhibited carbonized remains sufficient for macrobotanical identification and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, in addition to phytolith and starch analyses. The project resulted in examination of TRU evaluation of site boundaries and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility; creation of a chronological framework based on radiocarbon dates for the study area; definition of a site typology; elucidation of settlement patterns; determining the function and chronological placement of small sites containing five or fewer artifacts and three or fewer fire-cracked-rock features; creation of criteria for feature definitions; examination of patterns of lithic procurement, reduction, transport, use, and discard; identification of rock formations within or adjacent to the study area that potentially could have provided sandstone, limestone, or dolomite for ground stone tools; initiation of a ground-stone-tool typology for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Carlsbad Field Office (BLM-CFO); and evaluation of the importance of integrity in the application of Criterion d.

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Principal Investigator(s): Monica Murrell

Record Identifiers

Bureau of Land Management(s): Carlsbad Field Office

File Information