Memory-Dependent Practices at a Chaco Outlier: Insights from the Ceremonial Deposition of Shell Ornaments at Salmon Pueblo, 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.

In the late Pueblo II period, around A.D. 1090, migrants from Chaco Canyon constructed Salmon Pueblo, which would become an important ceremonial and political outlier in the Middle San Juan region of New Mexico. Salmon Pueblo rivals the size of canyon great houses, boasting three stories and nearly 300 rooms, as well as a tower kiva and great kiva. The Ancestral Puebloans who occupied Salmon continued to emulate Chacoan characteristics, especially through the possession and ritual deposition of shell ornaments. In this study, I present the results of research conducted at the Salmon Ruins Museum regarding taxonomic and stylistic classification of the shell assemblage from Salmon. Further, I evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of the shell ornaments utilizing data from the Salmon Pueblo Archaeological Research Collection (SPARC). Participation in the deliberate creation of a Chacoan locale at outliers like Salmon Pueblo may be enabled by a memory-dependent exchange of objects embedded with high social value. With this in mind, I consider how the attainment and ceremonial deposition of shell ornaments at Salmon Pueblo might inform our understanding of social transformations in the Middle San Juan prior to and following large-scale changes in Chaco Canyon.

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): 25960