Dung Microremains as Archaeological Evidence of Pastoral Practices: Exploring Low Impact Methodology to Understand Early Navajo Sheepherding in Northwest New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Modelling Human Behaviour through Ethnoarchaeology: Ethnoarchaeology as Long-Term Traditional Knowledge (L-TeK)" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Spanish introduction of sheep to the U.S. Southwest in 1598 CE and their embrace by non-colonized early Diné (Navajo) communities in northwest New Mexico represent an important Indigenous cultural transformation in the history of North America. Not only were Diné lifeways and social organization impacted in ways that are still visible in Navajo society today, but pastoralism physically reshaped the environment of the region. These pericolonial processes have been poorly understood due to the lack of suitable zooarchaeological materials at early Navajo sites. The Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape Project (ENPLP) investigates the potential for low-impact methodology melding experiential ethnoarchaeology, geospatial modeling, and an assortment of archaeological field and lab techniques to evaluate an array of questions regarding Navajo pastoral practices and their roles in Diné society throughout history. Here, a minimally invasive methodology was developed for identifying early Navajo sheepherding sites through the identification of calcitic dung spherulites in archaeological soil samples associated with likely corral/pen enclosures. While a dung spherulite-focused approach has been successfully employed at dozens of sites worldwide, the results of the ENPLP analyses suggest that this approach may not be reliable for the early Navajo context, perhaps due to environmental or vegetative factors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Modelling Human Behaviour through Ethnoarchaeology: Ethnoarchaeology as Long-Term Traditional Knowledge (L-TeK)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52887