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

Summary

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

Understanding changes in mobility and subsistence practices among Jornada Mogollon hunter-gatherer groups remains a substantial research issue. Residents across the Permian Basin largely maintained a hunting-and-gathering cultural adaption throughout prehistoric times, although some segment of the local population practiced cultivation during the Late Formative period. The Southwest Pecos Slopes reflects transitional vegetation community that interfaces between succulent-rich uplands and mesquite-dominated lowlands. Available resources, such as lithic raw materials and edible plants, are scarce within this region; however, numerous small sites related to resource-processing and cooking activities persist across the area. The BLM Carlsbad Field Office requested an evaluation of existing site and feature typologies, to explore the potential for deriving more-meaningful behavioral interpretations regarding prehistoric use of region. This investigation aimed to better understand local patterns of lithic-raw-material-sources, procurement, reduction, transport, use, and discard, in addition to examining temporal and spatial trends in the prehistoric occupation across the region in relation to to mobility patterns. The combination of these detailed studies were used to elucidate the function and chronological placement of small sites, and enhance the BLM’s ability to manage sites within the developing region, especially in regard to understanding issues of site eligibility and research potential.

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): 23410