Medio Period Borderland Dynamics at 76 Draw

Summary

This is an abstract from the "25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The New Mexico/Chihuahua border was also a borderland between AD 1200 and 1450 where the contemporaneous Casas Grandes, Salado, and El Paso phase cultures overlapped. The excavation of 76 Draw, a Medio period site on the northern periphery of the Casas Grandes region, is designed to evaluate the relationship among these cultures. Were different communities/households affiliated with each culture? Or were traits from each culture blended through cultural syncretism? Likewise, was the border between the cultures porous and largely informal, or more rigid and clearly defined? We evaluate these borderland dynamics at 76 Draw using ceramic type analysis and geochemical provenience analysis of obsidian. Both data sources reflect types/sources from the Salado and Casas Grandes regions. However, the ceramic assemblage has a greater proportion of Casas Grandes polychromes when compared to nearby Salado and El Paso phase settlements. Further, the obsidian from sources in the Casas Grandes region reflects direct procurement of unreduced cobbles whereas obsidian from outside the region reflects the acquisition of previously reduced obsidian through trade or discard from visitors. Our analysis indicates direct, community-level cultural integration with the Casas Grandes culture, but trading relationships with surrounding Salado and El Paso phase communities across a well-defined border.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25832