Patterns of Precontact Lava Tube Cave Use at El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the field seasons of 2020 and 2021, the Cultural Resources Branch at El Malpais National Monument undertook an inventory of archaeological sites located within some of the monument’s more than 400 lava tube caves. While scores of caves containing cultural resources have been identified through an ongoing mapping initiative, few had previously been systematically investigated or formally recorded. The project recognized recurrent themes in cave features and artifact assemblages associated with four behavioral categories: cave ice harvesting, pottery caching, faunal bone caching, and the construction of subterranean architecture. Aspects of each of these practices may have been utilitarian, ceremonial, or both. Further, these behavioral categories often intersect. For example, utilized ice caves also frequently harbor faunal caches, suggesting that these two practices were pragmatically or symbolically linked. While internal architecture is not usually found within ice caves, in some instances it does occur in a second, dry cave within a few hundred meters. This overlap points to the possibility that these various behaviors were facets of the same overarching program of cave use. Rare or isolated artifact occurrences, not conforming to the above categories, offer invaluable clues to symbolic practices once conducted in El Malpais caves.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36049.0