Prehispanic Copper Artifacts Found in the Gila National Forest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Research Hot Off the Trowel in the Upper Gila and Mimbres Areas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The discovery of a prehispanic copper artifact on a Classic Mimbres site in the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico in 2009 initiated an archaeological investigation to determine if more prehispanic copper artifacts existed in the Mimbres area. This preliminary investigation involved surveying a small sample of Mimbres prehistoric sites using the latest metal sensing technology available, documenting the distribution of native copper nuggets and prehispanic copper artifacts within the Mimbres area of the Gila National Forest. This poster will highlight the results of the metal sensing survey but more importantly it will focus on the Mimbres exploitation of natural/worked copper nuggets, fragmented/complete copper bells, copper fetishes and other copper artifacts that have been recently discovered adjacent to Mimbres pithouses and Classic Mimbres pueblo sites dating from AD 950 to 1130.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Research Hot Off the Trowel in the Upper Gila and Mimbres Areas

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33018