Cache Flow: An Analysis of Vessel Assemblages from the Elk Ridge Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Local Development and Cross-Cultural Interaction in Pre-Hispanic Southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Designs on Mimbres pottery have long fascinated archaeologists. These complex geometric and figurative images can shed light on daily activities, household organization, and groups of potters. Excavations at the Elk Ridge Site, a large Classic Mimbres pueblo in the northern portion of the Mimbres River Valley, have yielded numerous complete or nearly complete vessels, many in caches. Vessel caches have been recovered from both household and extramural contexts. The room block under investigation is also of importance because it reveals a sequence of construction that extends from the pithouse-to-pueblo transition until site abandonment at the end of the Classic period. This poster analyzes whole and partial cache vessels recovered from the site to investigate ceramic type and use-wear, puts them in their larger context to determine if they were associated with domestic and/or ritual activities, and how this may have changed through time. Additionally, the designs are examined, both within and between the caches, in order to gain information on their similarities and differences and to ascertain data related to the presence of potters or learning frameworks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Local Development and Cross-Cultural Interaction in Pre-Hispanic Southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24703