Cold Cases and Forgotten Caves: Reconstructing the Provenience of Unique Artifacts from the Greater Southwest

Summary

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

Museum collections contain many unique objects from the Greater Southwest that lack complete provenience, especially items from caves and other shrines. These sites often served the region’s inhabitants as both offertory locations and the terminal repositories for ceremonial objects, resulting in enormous and well-preserved assemblages, many composed primarily of perishable items otherwise rare in the archaeological record. Unfortunately, due to extensive looting that began in the nineteenth century, no archaeologist ever observed an intact cave shrine, and most researchers today believe the potential for such sites to yield new data has been exhausted by multiple cycles of looting, vandalism, and excavation. Artifacts without provenience, no matter how spectacular or appealing to museumgoers, rarely become the subjects of archaeological study. Conversely, other artifacts and even entire collections from identifiable sites have gone missing. Although most archaeologists consider these to be "lost causes," it is sometimes possible to extend or even complete the chain of provenience. This paper reports progress in multiple cases, and demonstrates how these efforts can enhance our knowledge of the archaeological record even when we cannot fully reestablish provenience. This knowledge may apply to other sites and hold special value for tribes working to preserve their cultural heritage.

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): 24975