Creekside Village: Early Village Organization and Subsistence Strategies in Tularosa Canyon, South-central New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Investigations at Creekside Village are focused on exploring the cultural landscape within Tularosa Canyon. Creekside Village is one of the best preserved and most informative sites of the Mesilla phase in the Tularosa Basin. Investigations conducted indicate that it was occupied between AD 600 and 850, and its occupants established a permanent settlement that included numerous pit houses (ca. 200) and a great kiva. Residents built an irrigation system that diverted water from the Rio Tularosa for fields located on the floodplain. They also created an elaborate water collection and conservation system that included ditches, a reservoir, and agricultural terraces above the floodplain. Considerable effort was invested in constructing facilities to increase the carrying capacity of their surroundings in support of a sedentary lifestyle with a focus on corn agriculture through diverse farming methods and water conservation. Attempts are being undertaken to assess the level at which Tularosa Canyon was used as a travel corridor and the role of Creekside Village in regional trade and exchange. Additional contemporaneous villages in Tularosa Canyon are being evaluated. These efforts are demonstrating the need to reconsider the organization of and strategies employed by the Jornada Mogollon during the Mesilla phase.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22989