Polychromes and People at 76 Draw, New Mexico

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.

People of the Casas Grandes and Salado regions are known for their polychrome pottery. Often pottery from both areas are found at the same sites, but the degree of interaction between the areas is not known. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) was conducted on Ramos and Gila Polychrome pottery, as well as some plain wares, from 76 Draw, a Medio period site in Luna County, New Mexico. These data were compared to other researchers’ data on the same types from other settlements in southern New Mexico. In total, 217 samples, including all of the Ramos Polychrome NAA samples north of Mexico, were analyzed at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). Several compositional groups were identified among the types including three Ramos Polychrome groups, a single Salado group (which corresponds to a previously identified production location in the Upper Mimbres), and six plainware groups. From this I conclude that one or more of the Ramos groups might reflect local production, but all of the Salado and likely much of the Ramos polychrome was acquired through trade. This in turn suggests that the Casas Grandes interaction sphere was operating as far north as southern New Mexico.

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): 25929