Recent issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres region of the North American Southwest

Michelle Hegmon

doi:10.1023/A:1020525926010

Recent issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres region of the North American Southwest

Michelle Hegmon

Human Evolution and Social Change, School of (SHESC)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

Archaeological research in the Mimbres region (southwestern New Mexico) has focused on the post-A.D. 500 ceramic/agricultural occupations, especially the Mimbres Classic period (1000-1130). This work has advanced general anthropological issues regarding mobility, land use and human impact, and the concept of "abandonment." Deeper understandings of some of these issues require more detailed demographic estimates, which in turn are dependent on methodological advances, particularly studies of site use life. Research on the production and distribution of Mimbres pottery-famous for its naturalistic black-on-white designs-is advancing rapidly. Although the designs have been well illustrated and much discussed, more systematic anthropological research on Mimbres design style is badly needed. Various aspects of Mimbres social and ideational realms (e.g., household and community organization, social hierarchy, the symbolism of the pottery designs) have received some attention but await new perspectives derived from current social theory.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	307-357
Number of pages	51
Journal	Journal of Archaeological Research
Volume	10
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020525926010
State	Published - Dec 2002

Keywords

Land use
Mimbres
Pottery designs
US southwest

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Archaeology
Archaeology
General Arts and Humanities

Access to Document

10.1023/A:1020525926010

Cite this

@article{2914fd1d59c649be8451d1423a975326,

title = "Recent issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres region of the North American Southwest",

abstract = "Archaeological research in the Mimbres region (southwestern New Mexico) has focused on the post-A.D. 500 ceramic/agricultural occupations, especially the Mimbres Classic period (1000-1130). This work has advanced general anthropological issues regarding mobility, land use and human impact, and the concept of {"}abandonment.{"} Deeper understandings of some of these issues require more detailed demographic estimates, which in turn are dependent on methodological advances, particularly studies of site use life. Research on the production and distribution of Mimbres pottery-famous for its naturalistic black-on-white designs-is advancing rapidly. Although the designs have been well illustrated and much discussed, more systematic anthropological research on Mimbres design style is badly needed. Various aspects of Mimbres social and ideational realms (e.g., household and community organization, social hierarchy, the symbolism of the pottery designs) have received some attention but await new perspectives derived from current social theory.",

keywords = "Land use, Mimbres, Pottery designs, US southwest",

author = "Michelle Hegmon",

note = "Funding Information: Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the 1930s, professionals and skilled amateurs conducted excavations at a number of large Mimbres and nearby Mogollon sites (Bradfield, 1929; Bryan, 1927; Cosgrove and Cosgrove, 1932; Fewkes, 1989; Haury, 1936; Hough, 1907; Jenks, 1928; Nelson, n.d.; Nesbitt, 1931) (Table II; for more details on history of research see LeBlanc, 1983, pp. 28– 31, LeBlanc, 1986). In the 1930s through 1950s Martin and colleagues (especially Bluhm, 1957; Martin, 1940, 1943; Martin et al., 1952, 1957; Martin and Rinaldo, 1947, 1950) worked intensively in Pine Lawn Valley and other areas around Reserve, northwest of the Mimbres region, and their research helped establish the basic Mogollon sequence. Professional archaeological interest in the Mimbres region waned, but looting became increasingly popular; by the late 1960s looters were mining the sites, often using heavy equipment, to procure vessels for the art market. In response, LeBlanc established the Mimbres Foundation, funded in part by collectors who were gaining an increased appreciation of the archaeological context behind the pottery. Beginning in 1974 the Mimbres Foundation did survey (Blake et al., 1986) and excavated a number of sites in the Mimbres Valley, sometimes working in well-preserved contexts but often attempting to make sense of looted areas and synthesizing disparate notes from much earlier projects (e.g., Anyon and LeBlanc, 1984). Analysis and write-up of Foundation materials are ongoing (e.g., Anyon, personal communication, 2001; Diehl and LeBlanc, 2001; Gilman, personal communication, 2001). Other recent projects that focus on large Mimbres Valley sites include Shafer{\textquoteright}s work at NAN and Creel{\textquoteright}s work at Old Town. Lekson (1990) summarized the more limited work that has been done in the Upper Gila, including Fitting{\textquoteright}s work in the 1970s. Margaret Nelson has worked in the eastern Mimbres since 1982, and since 1993 we have codirected the ongoing Eastern Mimbres Archaeological Project (EMAP). New Mexico State University and Human Systems Research (HSR) (recently in collaboration with Steve Lekson, at the University of Colorado) also have conducted research in the area. Most cultural resource management work in the Mimbres region has involved survey (reviewed below), but CRM excavation projects include work by the New Mexico Highway Department (Turnbow et al., 2000), the Museum of New Mexico (e.g., Bussey, 1972) and the University of New Mexico{\textquoteright}s Office of Contract Archaeology (Schutt et al., 1994), as well as work around the Continental Mine (Brown, 1998, 1999a,b). Funding Information: search Reports No. 2, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Fitting, J. E. (1973a). An early Mogollon community: A preliminary report on the Winn Canyon site. The Artifact 11(1&2): 1–94. Fitting, J. E. (1973b). Four Archaeological Sites in the Big Burro Mountains of New Mexico, Center for Anthropological Study Monograph No. 1, Las Cruces, NM. Fowler, A. P., and Stein, J. R. (1992). The Anasazi great house in space, time, and paradigm. In Doyel, D. E. (ed.), Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, Anthropological Papers No. 5, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque, pp. 101–122. Gero, J. M., and Conkey, M. W. (eds.) (1991). Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, Blackwell, Oxford. Gilman, P. A. (1987). Architecture as artifact: Pit structures and pueblos in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 52: 538–564. Gilman, P. A. (1989). Households, communities, and painted pottery in the Mimbres region of south-western New Mexico. In MacEachern, S., Archer, D. J. W., and Garvin, R. D. (eds.), Households and Communities, Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary, pp. 218–226. Gilman, P. A. (1990). Social organization and Classic Mimbres period burials in the SW United States. Journal of Field Archaeology 17: 457–469. Gilman, P. A., Canouts, V., and Bishop, R. L. (1994). The production and distribution of Classic Mimbres Black-on-White pottery. American Antiquity 59: 695–709. Gomolak, A. R., and Ford, D. (1976). Reclamation of a vandalized prehistoric settlement: Field report and preliminary analysis, Berrenda Creek Project, Report to the National Science Foundation. Graves, W. M., and Spielmann, K. A. (2000). Leadership, long-distance exchange, and feasting in the Protohistoric Rio Grande. In Mills, B. J. (ed.), Alternative Leadership Strategies in the Prehispanic Southwest, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 45–59. Gregory, D. A. (ed.) (2001). Excavations in the Santa Cruz River Floodplain: The Early Agricultural Period component at Los Pozos, Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson, AZ. Grissino-Mayer, H. D., Baisan, C. H., and Swetnam, T. W. (1997). A 1,373 year reconstruction of annual precipitation for the Southern Rio Grande Basin, Report submitted to the Directorate of Environment, Natural Resources Division, Fort Bliss, TX. Ham, E. (1989). Analysis of the NAN Ruin Burial Patterns: An Examination of Mimbres Social Structure, M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station. Hard, R. J. (1990). Agricultural dependence in the mountain Mogollon. In Minnis, P. E., and Redman, C. L. (eds.), Perspectives on Southwestern Prehistory, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 135–149. Hard, R. J., Mauldin, R. P., and Raymond, G. R. (1996). Mano size, stable carbon isotope ratios, and macrobotanical remains as multiple lines of evidence of maize dependence in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 253–318. Hard, R. J., and Merrill, W. L. (1992). Mobile agriculturalists and the emergence of sedentism: Per-spectives from northern Mexico. American Anthropologist 94: 601–620. Haury, E. W. (1936). The Mogollon Culture of Southwestern New Mexico, Medallion Papers 20, Gila Pueblo, Globe, AZ. Hays-Gilpin, K., and Hill, J. H. (2000). The Flower World in prehistoric Southwest material culture. In Hegmon, M. (ed.), The Archaeology of Regional Interaction: Religion, Warfare, and Exchange Across the American Southwest and Beyond, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, pp. 411–428. Hegmon, M. (1992). Archaeological research on style. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 517–536. Hegmon, M. (1996). Variability in food production, strategies of storage and sharing, and the pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the northern Southwest. In Tainter, J., and Tainter, B. B. (eds.), Evolving Complexity and Environmental Risk in the Prehistoric Southwest, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, pp. 223–250. Hegmon, M. (1999). The Archaeology of Regional Interaction: Religion, Warfare, and Exchange Across the American Southwest and Beyond, University Press of Colorado, Boulder. Hegmon, M., Allison, J. R., Neff, H., and Glascock, M. D. (1997). The production of San Juan Red Ware in the northern Southwest: Insights into regional interaction in early Puebloan prehistory. American Antiquity 62: 449–463. Hegmon, M., Brady, J. A., and Nelson, M. C. (2000a). Home suite home: Classic Mimbres room suite variability. Paper presented at the XI Mogollon Conference, Las Cruces, NM.",

year = "2002",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1023/A:1020525926010",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "10",

pages = "307--357",

journal = "Journal of Archaeological Research",

issn = "1059-0161",

publisher = "Springer New York",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Recent issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres region of the North American Southwest

AU - Hegmon, Michelle

N1 - Funding Information: Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the 1930s, professionals and skilled amateurs conducted excavations at a number of large Mimbres and nearby Mogollon sites (Bradfield, 1929; Bryan, 1927; Cosgrove and Cosgrove, 1932; Fewkes, 1989; Haury, 1936; Hough, 1907; Jenks, 1928; Nelson, n.d.; Nesbitt, 1931) (Table II; for more details on history of research see LeBlanc, 1983, pp. 28– 31, LeBlanc, 1986). In the 1930s through 1950s Martin and colleagues (especially Bluhm, 1957; Martin, 1940, 1943; Martin et al., 1952, 1957; Martin and Rinaldo, 1947, 1950) worked intensively in Pine Lawn Valley and other areas around Reserve, northwest of the Mimbres region, and their research helped establish the basic Mogollon sequence. Professional archaeological interest in the Mimbres region waned, but looting became increasingly popular; by the late 1960s looters were mining the sites, often using heavy equipment, to procure vessels for the art market. In response, LeBlanc established the Mimbres Foundation, funded in part by collectors who were gaining an increased appreciation of the archaeological context behind the pottery. Beginning in 1974 the Mimbres Foundation did survey (Blake et al., 1986) and excavated a number of sites in the Mimbres Valley, sometimes working in well-preserved contexts but often attempting to make sense of looted areas and synthesizing disparate notes from much earlier projects (e.g., Anyon and LeBlanc, 1984). Analysis and write-up of Foundation materials are ongoing (e.g., Anyon, personal communication, 2001; Diehl and LeBlanc, 2001; Gilman, personal communication, 2001). Other recent projects that focus on large Mimbres Valley sites include Shafer’s work at NAN and Creel’s work at Old Town. Lekson (1990) summarized the more limited work that has been done in the Upper Gila, including Fitting’s work in the 1970s. Margaret Nelson has worked in the eastern Mimbres since 1982, and since 1993 we have codirected the ongoing Eastern Mimbres Archaeological Project (EMAP). New Mexico State University and Human Systems Research (HSR) (recently in collaboration with Steve Lekson, at the University of Colorado) also have conducted research in the area. Most cultural resource management work in the Mimbres region has involved survey (reviewed below), but CRM excavation projects include work by the New Mexico Highway Department (Turnbow et al., 2000), the Museum of New Mexico (e.g., Bussey, 1972) and the University of New Mexico’s Office of Contract Archaeology (Schutt et al., 1994), as well as work around the Continental Mine (Brown, 1998, 1999a,b). Funding Information: search Reports No. 2, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Fitting, J. E. (1973a). An early Mogollon community: A preliminary report on the Winn Canyon site. The Artifact 11(1&2): 1–94. Fitting, J. E. (1973b). Four Archaeological Sites in the Big Burro Mountains of New Mexico, Center for Anthropological Study Monograph No. 1, Las Cruces, NM. Fowler, A. P., and Stein, J. R. (1992). The Anasazi great house in space, time, and paradigm. In Doyel, D. E. (ed.), Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, Anthropological Papers No. 5, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque, pp. 101–122. Gero, J. M., and Conkey, M. W. (eds.) (1991). Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, Blackwell, Oxford. Gilman, P. A. (1987). Architecture as artifact: Pit structures and pueblos in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 52: 538–564. Gilman, P. A. (1989). Households, communities, and painted pottery in the Mimbres region of south-western New Mexico. In MacEachern, S., Archer, D. J. W., and Garvin, R. D. (eds.), Households and Communities, Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary, pp. 218–226. Gilman, P. A. (1990). Social organization and Classic Mimbres period burials in the SW United States. Journal of Field Archaeology 17: 457–469. Gilman, P. A., Canouts, V., and Bishop, R. L. (1994). The production and distribution of Classic Mimbres Black-on-White pottery. American Antiquity 59: 695–709. Gomolak, A. R., and Ford, D. (1976). Reclamation of a vandalized prehistoric settlement: Field report and preliminary analysis, Berrenda Creek Project, Report to the National Science Foundation. Graves, W. M., and Spielmann, K. A. (2000). Leadership, long-distance exchange, and feasting in the Protohistoric Rio Grande. In Mills, B. J. (ed.), Alternative Leadership Strategies in the Prehispanic Southwest, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 45–59. Gregory, D. A. (ed.) (2001). Excavations in the Santa Cruz River Floodplain: The Early Agricultural Period component at Los Pozos, Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson, AZ. Grissino-Mayer, H. D., Baisan, C. H., and Swetnam, T. W. (1997). A 1,373 year reconstruction of annual precipitation for the Southern Rio Grande Basin, Report submitted to the Directorate of Environment, Natural Resources Division, Fort Bliss, TX. Ham, E. (1989). Analysis of the NAN Ruin Burial Patterns: An Examination of Mimbres Social Structure, M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station. Hard, R. J. (1990). Agricultural dependence in the mountain Mogollon. In Minnis, P. E., and Redman, C. L. (eds.), Perspectives on Southwestern Prehistory, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 135–149. Hard, R. J., Mauldin, R. P., and Raymond, G. R. (1996). Mano size, stable carbon isotope ratios, and macrobotanical remains as multiple lines of evidence of maize dependence in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 253–318. Hard, R. J., and Merrill, W. L. (1992). Mobile agriculturalists and the emergence of sedentism: Per-spectives from northern Mexico. American Anthropologist 94: 601–620. Haury, E. W. (1936). The Mogollon Culture of Southwestern New Mexico, Medallion Papers 20, Gila Pueblo, Globe, AZ. Hays-Gilpin, K., and Hill, J. H. (2000). The Flower World in prehistoric Southwest material culture. In Hegmon, M. (ed.), The Archaeology of Regional Interaction: Religion, Warfare, and Exchange Across the American Southwest and Beyond, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, pp. 411–428. Hegmon, M. (1992). Archaeological research on style. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 517–536. Hegmon, M. (1996). Variability in food production, strategies of storage and sharing, and the pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the northern Southwest. In Tainter, J., and Tainter, B. B. (eds.), Evolving Complexity and Environmental Risk in the Prehistoric Southwest, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, pp. 223–250. Hegmon, M. (1999). The Archaeology of Regional Interaction: Religion, Warfare, and Exchange Across the American Southwest and Beyond, University Press of Colorado, Boulder. Hegmon, M., Allison, J. R., Neff, H., and Glascock, M. D. (1997). The production of San Juan Red Ware in the northern Southwest: Insights into regional interaction in early Puebloan prehistory. American Antiquity 62: 449–463. Hegmon, M., Brady, J. A., and Nelson, M. C. (2000a). Home suite home: Classic Mimbres room suite variability. Paper presented at the XI Mogollon Conference, Las Cruces, NM.

PY - 2002/12

Y1 - 2002/12

N2 - Archaeological research in the Mimbres region (southwestern New Mexico) has focused on the post-A.D. 500 ceramic/agricultural occupations, especially the Mimbres Classic period (1000-1130). This work has advanced general anthropological issues regarding mobility, land use and human impact, and the concept of "abandonment." Deeper understandings of some of these issues require more detailed demographic estimates, which in turn are dependent on methodological advances, particularly studies of site use life. Research on the production and distribution of Mimbres pottery-famous for its naturalistic black-on-white designs-is advancing rapidly. Although the designs have been well illustrated and much discussed, more systematic anthropological research on Mimbres design style is badly needed. Various aspects of Mimbres social and ideational realms (e.g., household and community organization, social hierarchy, the symbolism of the pottery designs) have received some attention but await new perspectives derived from current social theory.

AB - Archaeological research in the Mimbres region (southwestern New Mexico) has focused on the post-A.D. 500 ceramic/agricultural occupations, especially the Mimbres Classic period (1000-1130). This work has advanced general anthropological issues regarding mobility, land use and human impact, and the concept of "abandonment." Deeper understandings of some of these issues require more detailed demographic estimates, which in turn are dependent on methodological advances, particularly studies of site use life. Research on the production and distribution of Mimbres pottery-famous for its naturalistic black-on-white designs-is advancing rapidly. Although the designs have been well illustrated and much discussed, more systematic anthropological research on Mimbres design style is badly needed. Various aspects of Mimbres social and ideational realms (e.g., household and community organization, social hierarchy, the symbolism of the pottery designs) have received some attention but await new perspectives derived from current social theory.

KW - Land use

KW - Mimbres

KW - Pottery designs

KW - US southwest

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DO - 10.1023/A:1020525926010

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ER -

Recent issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres region of the North American Southwest

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