Early Pithouse Villages of the Mimbres Valley and Beyond: The McAnally and Thompson Sites in Their Cultural and Ecological Contexts

by Michael W. Diehl, Paul E. Minnis (Contribution by), Steven A. LeBlanc, Roger Anyon (Contribution by), John W. Arthur (Contribution by)

Overview

Early Pithouse period villagers played a generative role in the cultural and historical sequence of the Mogollon region, which is best known for the stunning black-on-white pottery of the Classic Mimbres culture. This volume presents a complete report on the archaeology of two important Early Pithouse settlements located along the Rio Mimbres, including detailed accounts of the excavation units, depositional contexts, architectural details, radiocarbon dates, miscellaneous artifacts, and ceramic frequency distriductures.

The Thomson and McAnally sites contain architecture, artifacts, and other remains of the earliest relatively sedentary horticulturalists to occupy this part of the Southwest. The authors synthesize the data about charges over time in the villagers' lifestyle to develop a new chronology for the occupation of the region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780873652117
Publisher:	Harvard
Publication date:	06/20/2001
Series:	Papers of the Peabody Museum , #83
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	7.31(w) x 10.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven A. LeBlanc is an archaeologist and former Director of Collections at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	VI
1.	Introduction	1
	Background to the Mimbres Foundation Excavations	2
	Culture History Summary	3
	The Organization of This Volume	4
2.	The Environmental Context and Culture-Historical Framework of the Upland Mogollon Region	7
	The Upland Mogollon Region As It Is Defined in This Volume	7
	Upland Mogollon As a Prehistoric Resource Use Area	9
	A Description of Biotic Provinces Within 60 Km of Upland Mogollon Sites	12
	The Upland Mogollon Region As a Culture Area	17
	The Upland Mogollon Chronological Sequence Used in This Volume	20
3.	Competing Models of Upland Mogollon Pithouse Period Life-Styles	25
	Models That Describe What Happened Between A.D. 200 and 1000	26
	The Hilltop Locations of Early Pithouse Villages: Warfare Versus Social Interaction	31
	Economic Transitions from the Archaic to the Early Pithouse Period	33
	Concluding Thoughts: Mogollon Pithouse Village Archaeology and the "Big Picture"	34
4.	Mogollon Pithouse Architecture and Changes in Residential Mobility	37
	Are Su Site Pithouses Statistically Larger Than McAnally Site Pithouses?	37
	The Use of Architectural Details to Assess the Intensity of Site Occupations	38
	Attributes of Prehistoric Architectural Construction	41
	A Comparison of the Intensity of Site Occupation from A.D. 200 to 1000	43
	Summary	46
5.	Paleobotanical Remains	47
	Excavation and Processing Methods	47
	Seeds and Diet	49
	Intersite Distributions of Seeds At Mogollon Early Pithouse Villages	51
	Diachronic Changes in the Use of Maize	51
	Conclusion	57
6.	Ground Stone Analyses	59
	New Plants and Higher Populations: Catalysts for Change?	59
	The Methodology of the Ground Stone Analysis	62
	Mano Analyses	65
	Summary and Conclusion	68
7.	A Functional Analysis of Early Pithouse Period Ceramics	69
	Relationships Between Attributes of Ceramic Design and Use	69
	McAnally Site Ceramics	71
	Thompson Site Ceramics	75
	Summary	75
8.	Osteofaunal Remains	77
9.	Chipped Stone	81
	Efficiency, Foraging, and Farming	81
	Potential Interpretive Biases	82
	The McAnally and Thompson Site Assemblages	83
	Conclusions	89
10.	Miscellaneous Studies on the McAnally and Thompson Sites: Excavated Units and Depositional Contexts, Ceramic Seriation, and Miscellaneous Artifacts	91
	Excavation Methods	91
	The McAnally Site (La 12110)	93
	The Thompson Site (NM Z:5:35)	103
	Ceramic Descriptions and Seriation	108
	Miscellaneous Artifacts	112
	Summary	113
11.	Population Dynamics at McAnally and Thompson Sites and Their Valleywide Context	115
	Population Dynamics at the McAnally and Thompson Sites	115
	Valleywide Population Dynamics	118
	Discussion	119
Appendix	Tree-Ring Dates from Upland Mogollon Pithouse Villages	121
	References	129
	Figures
2.1.	The Upland Mogollon region of the greater American Southwest	8
2.2.	Biotic provinces within 60 kilometers of the McAnally site	11
2.3.	Petran Subalpine Conifer Forest	12
2.4.	Petran Montane Conifer Forest	13
2.5.	Great Basin Conifer Woodland	14
2.6.	Plains Grassland	15
2.7.	Semidesert Grassland	16
2.8.	Chihuahuan Desertscrub	16
6.1.	The relationship between time stress, grinding tool size, and efficiency	63
6.2.	Histogram of surface areas of manos from Upland Mogollon pithouse villages	64
6.3.	Surface areas of large, maize-grinding manos from Upland Mogollon pithouse villages	67
8.1.	Antler tool from the McAnally site	78
9.1.	Projectile points from the Thompson and McAnally sites	89
10.1.	The Rio Mimbres floodplain viewed from the McAnally site	92
10.2.	A typical summer flow of the Rio Mimbres near the McAnally site	92
10.3.	Aerial view of the McAnally site and the Mattocks Ruin	94
10.4.	Site plan for the McAnally site	94
10.5.	Plan view and profile of Unit 8 at the McAnally site	96
10.6.	McAnally site, Unit 8, excavated to floor	97
10.7.	McAnally site, Unit 8, Loci 3, 4, and 7	97
10.8.	Plan view and profile of Unit 11 at the McAnally site	100
10.9.	McAnally site, Unit 11, excavated to floor	102
10.10.	Site plan for the Thompson site	103
10.11.	Plan view and profile of the Thompson site, Unit 1	104
10.12.	Thompson site, Unit 1, excavated to floor	105
10.13.	Plan view and profile of the Thompson site, Unit 2	107
10.14.	Thompson site, Unit 2, excavated to floor	108
10.15.	Aerial view of the Thompson site	109
10.16.	Shell ornament from the Thompson site	112
	Tables
2.1.	Biotic provinces within 60 kilometers of Upland Mogollon branches or sites	10
2.2.	Means of most recent tree-ring dates from Mogollon pithouses	19
2.3.	Radiocarbon dates from Upland Mogollon pithouse villages	20
2.4.	Upland Mogollon Pithouse period attributes and chronology	22
4.1.	Surface areas of McAnally pithouses	38
4.2.	Frequencies of different hearth types in Mogollon pithouses	43
4.3.	Presence or absence of plaster in Mogollon pithouses	44
4.4.	Wall construction materials in Upland Mogollon pithouses	44
4.5.	Spjotvoll-Stoline analysis of variance of mean value of post density	45
4.6.	Presence or absence of remodeling in Upland Mogollon pithouses	45
4.7.	Changes in architectural indices of occupation duration/residential mobility	46
5.1.	Latin taxonomic and common names of plants found in McAnally and Thompson site samples	48
5.2.	Frequencies of charred seeds from the McAnally and Thompson sites	49
5.3.	Ubiquities of plant seeds at various Upland Mogollon Early Pithouse villages	52
5.4.	Ubiquities of maize from Upland Mogollon pithouse intervals	52
5.5.	Frequencies of charred wood taxa from the McAnally and Thompson sites	54
5.6.	Ubiquities of charred wood taxa at Upland Mogollon pithouse villages	54
5.7.	Pollen counts from McAnally and Thompson site samples	56
6.1.	Ground stone artifacts from the McAnally and Thompson sites	60
6.2.	Manos from Mogollon Pithouse period sites used in this research	65
6.3.	Mean grinding surface areas of manos from Early Pithouse period Upland Mogollon sites	67
6.4.	Spjotvoll-Stoline analysis of variance of mean surface areas for Pithouse period maizegrinding manos	68
7.1.	Rim diameters of McAnally site jars	72
7.2.	Rim diameters of McAnally site bowls	72
7.3.	Rim diameters of McAnally site tecomates	73
7.4.	Use-alteration of partially reconstructed McAnally site jars	74

What People are Saying About This

The latest of many important contributions to the science of anthropology and the archaeology of the Southwest that have--improbably--emerged from the vandal-ridden, archaeologically battered Mimbres Valley during the last quarter century.

J. J. Brody

The latest of many important contributions to the science of anthropology and the archaeology of the Southwest that have--improbably--emerged from the vandal-ridden, archaeologically battered Mimbres Valley during the last quarter century.

Editorial Reviews

The latest of many important contributions to the science of anthropology and the archaeology of the Southwest that have—improbably—emerged from the vandal-ridden, archaeologically battered Mimbres Valley during the last quarter century.

J. J. Brody

Archaeologists synthesize information about Upland Mogollon Pithouse period occupations, AD 200-1000, throughout the southwest US region, and present a complete account of the excavations of and artifacts obtained from the two sites, which were occupied by the earliest agriculturally based people of that region. There is no index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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