Calibration of Chronometric Assays from the WS Ranch Site (LA 3099) and Other Sites in the Middle San Francisco River Valley, West-Central New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The aggregation of existing radiocarbon assays and tree-ring and obsidian hydration assays, combined with new linear accelerator dates, allows the potential realignment of regional chronologies in West-Central New Mexico, the Middle San Francisco River valley in particular. The WS Ranch Site Project, sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin and supported by the USDA Forest Service, conducted contextual analysis of chronometric assays collected over 16 years of field research. The research shows the occupation of the river valley at least as early as Cochise Archaic times. Pithouse occupation began as early as A.D. 100 on low as well as high terraces above the river, supported by some degree of maize horticulture. Great Kiva ceremonialism began at A.D. 750 or earlier, and it persisted through the Puebloan occupations, ending slightly later than A.D. 1300. Saladoan sites and limited reoccupations of Puebloan rooms at the WS Ranch site left a few dates in the early A.D. 1500s.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25191