- Archaeology, Paleoclimate, Paleoecology, Paleoenvironment, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), Radiocarbon Dating (Earth Sciences), and 8 moreArchaeological Stratigraphy, Paleoindians, Lithic Sourcing, Younger Dryas archaeology, Younger Dryas, Cllimate Change, Late Pleistocene-Holocene transiton, and Rocksheltersedit
- I am now the Emeritus Director of the Office of Contract Archeology, having retired from The University of New Mexico... moreI am now the Emeritus Director of the Office of Contract Archeology, having retired from The University of New Mexico at the end of January, 2021. I joined UNM as OCA director in late-2013 and, for the next seven years, I enjoyed leading UNM’s nearly 50-year old cultural resources management (CRM) division.
After a short career as a Cadastral Surveyor for the USDI Bureau of Land Management in Colorado and Montana, and the owner of a small tree farm in the Yaak River Valley of Montana, I moved to New Mexico in 1986 to enroll in the UNM's anthropology graduate program. I continued archaeological fieldwork, working with the Santa Fe National Forest, the UNM Office of Contract Archeology, and a number of private contractors.
I completed my M.A. in Anthropology in 1991 and in 1993 opened my own cultural resource management firm, Escondida Research Group (ERG), in Socorro, NM. In 1999, I completed my Ph.D. in Anthropology at UNM, examining the effects of climate change on the subsistence behaviors of Basketmaker II foragers in western New Mexico.
At this time, I discovered the Water Canyon Paleoindian site during a CRM inventory for New Mexico Tech. I pioneered the X-ray fluorescence analysis of silicified rhyolites at the Black Canyon prehistoric quarry site near Socorro (partially funded by a grant from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division), and completed two field seasons of excavations at the deep, multi-component Lemitar Rock-shelter at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. The first season at Lemitar (also funded by a small grant from the NMHPD) initiated long-term collaborations with C. Vance Haynes and Vance T. Holliday, both of the University of Arizona.
In 2005, I was hired by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in Santa Fe to create a program for archaeology and compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 requirements — this for a state agency with dozens of state-wide wildlife management areas with hundreds of theretofore unmanaged and significant archaeological sites. I initiated an archaeological site database for the agency and began consultations with the State Historic Preservation Office, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Advisory Council of Historic Preservation, and Native American Pueblos, Tribes and Nations.
In 2007, I was hired as the Deputy Director of the Office of Archaeological Studies, Department of Cultural Affairs, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In wide-ranging field and collection-based research, I organized and completed two field seasons of mapping and test excavations at the Caja del Rio Paleoindian site near Santa Fe for the Bureau of Land Management; completed the photographic and metric documentation of early diagnostic artifacts from the donated Bockman Collection; completed the La Junta Dacite Quarry documentation and sampling project with the Taos Archaeological Society; and completed several seasons of interdisciplinary field work, analysis and write-up at the multi-component Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro. My team also documented the earliest known evidence of cotton (pollen, dated to ca. 2000-2300 yr BP) in New Mexico, at a site along the Mimbres River near Deming.
In 2013, I accepted positions at the University of New Mexico as a research associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and as director of the Office of Contract Archeology in the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Under my leadership, I and the OCA professional staff have trained and provided employment opportunities to numerous UNM undergraduate and graduate students while conducting innovative cultural resource management and historic preservation compliance and research for federal, state, Tribal, and private sector clients, and generating more than a million dollars a year in contracts and grants.
Directing OCA left little time for research or relaxation, though I continued my ongoing interdisciplinary and collaborative research at the Water Canyon site, with exciting discoveries including the first ever chronometrically dated Cody (Eden) Bison sp. bone processing area in New Mexico and the earliest known grinding stone (at ~9200 cal yr BP) found in New Mexico. I completed the final (4th) report on field work and analysis from the Water Canyon Paleoindian site in 2021.
I am currently wrapping up "back-burner" projects and, with my wife Patrice, a well-known bird and wildlife artist, have moved to my “old stomping grounds” in Montana to begin the next phase of my career. We live north of Yellowstone National Park in the Paradise Valley.edit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Ruppia cirrhosa (Ruppia) seed layers have been used to constrain the age of footprints along the eastern shoreline of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico to around 21,000–23,000 calibrated years before the present. However, there... more
Ruppia cirrhosa (Ruppia) seed layers have been used to constrain the age of footprints
along the eastern shoreline of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico to around
21,000–23,000 calibrated years before the present. However, there remain two
unresolved questions that can affect the reliability of the age(s) of the footprints.
First, what is the nature of the geological context of the seed layers? Second, did the
hard‐water effect impact the accuracy of the radiocarbon dates? It has been argued
that the dated Ruppia plants grew in situ in a very shallow, freshwater‐infused
system that minimized the hard‐water effect. Many of these Ruppia seed layers
contain ball‐like aggregations made of Ruppia plant materials. We provide new
evidence that these balls and seed layers were introduced to the discovery site by
high wind seiche events during Late Pleistocene thunderstorms. In our proposed site
formation model, the Ruppia plants and seeds originated in deeper water settings
outside the site, thus it is very likely that the hard‐water effect has impacted the
accuracy of the radiocarbon dates. As such, the radiocarbon assays of Ruppia seeds
previously used to date the prehistoric footprints along Paleolake Otero could be
thousands of years too old.
along the eastern shoreline of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico to around
21,000–23,000 calibrated years before the present. However, there remain two
unresolved questions that can affect the reliability of the age(s) of the footprints.
First, what is the nature of the geological context of the seed layers? Second, did the
hard‐water effect impact the accuracy of the radiocarbon dates? It has been argued
that the dated Ruppia plants grew in situ in a very shallow, freshwater‐infused
system that minimized the hard‐water effect. Many of these Ruppia seed layers
contain ball‐like aggregations made of Ruppia plant materials. We provide new
evidence that these balls and seed layers were introduced to the discovery site by
high wind seiche events during Late Pleistocene thunderstorms. In our proposed site
formation model, the Ruppia plants and seeds originated in deeper water settings
outside the site, thus it is very likely that the hard‐water effect has impacted the
accuracy of the radiocarbon dates. As such, the radiocarbon assays of Ruppia seeds
previously used to date the prehistoric footprints along Paleolake Otero could be
thousands of years too old.
Research Interests:
AbstrAct—The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat. This landscape-scale feature, which was extant across the late Pleistocene–early Holocene... more
AbstrAct—The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat. This landscape-scale feature, which was extant across the late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition, represents the remains of a wetland resource that, during the early Holocene, may have served as an ecological refugium for flora, fauna and Paleoindian groups as other regional water sources disappeared. Today the organic-rich deposit has proved to be an important proxy data archive for environmental , climatic and archaeological reconstructions. Our recent paleoenvironmental reconstruction efforts at the site have focused largely on the period from ~8300 to 11,100 radiocarbon years ago, and have generated a range of proxy data, including dated pollen profiles, stable carbon isotope values, charcoal species identifications, and both faunal and macrobotanical remains. The pollen data currently provide the most robust basis for our paleoenvironmental reconstruction and, together with our chronometric data, affirm that the black-mat forming wetland served as a persistent place of ecological diversity. These findings provide us with provocative glimpses of past environments in a heretofore largely understudied region of the American Southwest, and add to a growing body of Southwest reconstructions that will ultimately enable researchers to compare paleoenvironments and paleoclimates at both local and regional scales.
Research Interests:
Abstract The margins of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico, USA, contain one of the largest concentrations of fossilized late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) megafauna trackways in North America. These fossil footprints include tracks of... more
Abstract The margins of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico, USA, contain one of the largest concentrations of fossilized late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) megafauna trackways in North America. These fossil footprints include tracks of Ice Age proboscideans, ground sloth, dire wolf, and camelids, as well as humans. Biomechanical interpretations of these fossil footprints suggest that prehistoric people in the basin regularly interacted with the megafauna. However, these trackway studies employ a geomorphic context that assumes an unlikely static landscape that changed very little after the human–megafauna interaction occurred during much of the terminal Pleistocene to the latest Holocene. In this study, we present a new lacustrine paleoclimate record from the western margin of Paleolake Otero to demonstrate that the lake underwent six developmental phases as lake levels waxed and waned at the end of the last Ice Age, reflecting a dynamic shoreline. We also reconcile how different factors have complicated the currently proposed timing of these human–megafauna trackway intersections; namely, the lake is now thought to have persisted during the terminal Pleistocene longer than previously thought, and multiple older pre-Ice Age trackways are thought to have been exhumed by Holocene wind erosion. Finally, we propose an alternative model that states that the human trackways are not contemporaneous with nearby megafauna trackways, but simply reflect humans crossing over re-exhumed, and much older, trackway surfaces.
Research Interests:
... St. B-100, Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-827-6472, Robert. Dello-Russo1@ state. nm. ... CONF-9409325. Grand Junction, CO: US Department of Energy. Dello-Russo, RD 1999. Climatic ... period. PhD diss., University of New Mexico. . 2003. ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Publikationsansicht. 6225804. Climatic stress in the middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico : an evaluation of changes in foraging behaviors during the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II period / (1999). Dello-Russo, Robert D. Abstract.... more
Publikationsansicht. 6225804. Climatic stress in the middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico : an evaluation of changes in foraging behaviors during the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II period / (1999). Dello-Russo, Robert D. Abstract. "May, 1999.". Thesis (Ph. ...
Research Interests:
This report describes the final archaeological and interdisciplinary research efforts completed at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site (LA 134764) under the direction of Dr. Robert Dello-Russo as the Principal Investigator. These efforts... more
This report describes the final archaeological and interdisciplinary research efforts completed at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site (LA 134764) under the direction of Dr. Robert Dello-Russo as the Principal Investigator. These efforts occurred during the 2015 and 2016 field seasons, and included manual and mechanical excava-tions in the field and the recovery of a broad range of physical samples. The report discusses these and provides the results of some analytical studies (such as the development of an age-depth model using both previously and newly acquired radiocarbon dates). The results of laboratory-based analyses are also discussed in the body of the report; the detailed analytical reports by individual specialists are provided in the report appendices. These analyses included a phytolith study (Appendix C), a diatom study (Appendix D), a ground stone residue analysis (Appendix E), and a soil micromorphological study (Appendix F). Additional appendices include the Field Sample Log (Appendix A) for all work done during the 2015 and 2016 seasons, locations and descriptions for all mechanical sediment cores (Appendix B), and reports from radiocarbon dating laboratories for all chro-nometric samples submitted after the 2015–2016 seasons (Appendix G). Appendix H comprises a listing of all publications (peer reviewed and otherwise), presentations, papers, and posters that derived from work at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site. Further, within the report, there is a summary of recently acquired chronometric dates for the site and a summary of temporally diagnostic projectile points. The report closes with a brief discussion of potential future directions for research at the site, conclusions, and a references section.
Research Interests:
The margins of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico, USA, contain one of the largest concentrations of fossilized late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) megafauna trackways in North America. These fossil footprints include tracks of Ice Age... more
The margins of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico, USA, contain one of the largest concentrations of fossilized late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) megafauna trackways in North America. These fossil footprints include tracks of Ice Age proboscideans, ground sloth, dire wolf, and camelids, as well as humans. Biomechanical interpretations of these fossil footprints suggest that prehistoric people in the basin regularly interacted with the megafauna. However, these trackway studies employ a geomorphic context that assumes an unlikely static landscape that changed very little after the human-megafauna interaction occurred during much of the terminal Pleistocene to the latest Holocene. In this study, we present a new lacustrine paleoclimate record from the western margin of Paleolake Otero to demonstrate that the lake underwent six developmental phases as lake levels waxed and waned at the end of the last Ice Age, reflecting a dynamic shoreline. We also reconcile how different factors have complicated the currently proposed timing of these human-megafauna trackway intersections; namely, the lake is now thought to have persisted during the terminal Pleistocene longer than previously thought, and multiple older pre-Ice Age trackways are thought to have been exhumed by Holocene wind erosion. Finally, we propose an alternative model that states that the human trackways are not contemporaneous with nearby megafauna trackways, but simply reflect humans crossing over re-exhumed, and much older, trackway surfaces.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico is directly associated with an extensive buried wet meadow deposit. While extant across the Pleistocene – Holocene transition and into the middle Holocene, this landscape-scale... more
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico is directly associated with an extensive buried wet meadow deposit. While extant across the Pleistocene – Holocene transition and into the middle Holocene, this landscape-scale deposit arguably represented a persistent, regional wetland resource, not only for plants and animals, but Paleoindian groups as well. Today, as a black mat, it represents an important proxy data archive for environmental, climatic and archaeological reconstruction. Our recent research efforts at the site have focused largely on the period from 8300 to 9900 radiocarbon years ago, and have generated a range of proxy data, including dated pollen profiles, stable carbon isotope data sets, charcoal species identifications and both faunal and macrobotanical remains. These findings provide us with provocative glimpses of past climates in a heretofore understudied region of the American Southwest.
Research Interests:
This paper documents the results of nondestructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemical analyses and comparisons of silicified rhyolites from the Black Canyon and Sedillo Hill prehistoric quarries near Socorro, New Mexico, and subsequent... more
This paper documents the results of nondestructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemical analyses and comparisons of silicified rhyolites from the Black Canyon and Sedillo Hill prehistoric quarries near Socorro, New Mexico, and subsequent comparisons of the quarry rhyolites with 11 temporally diagnostic projectile points. At the current level of analysis, findings indicate that (1) the two quarries are chemically distinct and (2) the lithic materials of two projectile points match the silicified rhyolite from the Black Canyon quarry, suggesting quarry use during the Early Archaic period (4800–3200 B.C.) and the Late Archaic period (1800–800 B.C.). A close match between the Black Canyon rhyolite and one other point provides tentative support for use of the quarry during the Clovis Paleoindian period (9500–9000 B.C.). Additional geochemical analyses of the two quarries and other regional sources should be undertaken to verify these results and further expand our understanding of prehistoric mobility in the Southwest. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Research Interests:
During the spring of 2003, a program of archaeological field research was completed at Lemitar Shelter (LA18139). This rockshelter site is on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro County, New Mexico, which is managed by the US... more
During the spring of 2003, a program of archaeological field research was completed at Lemitar Shelter (LA18139). This rockshelter site is on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro County, New Mexico, which is managed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. The 2003 Lemitar Shelter project sought to investigate the lowest levels of the site, in order to 1) characterize the geological deposits found in levels below those excavated during earlier archaeological efforts (1952, 1953, 1972, 2001); and 2) test the potential for the presence of Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene cultural deposits. While more recent cultural deposits (eg. Late Archaic, Middle Archaic) were encountered, fully documented and appropriately curated, the main thrust of the project was to recover either temporally diagnostic artifacts (i.e. projectile points or point fragments) and/or dateable charcoal samples deposited during occupations of the site between 8,000 years before present (BP) and 11,500 years BP.
The Water Canyon site now comprises a minimum of two Late Paleoindian components at two tem-porally distinct bison kill/butchering locales and a potential Clovis component. The former, in Locus 1, primarily on the south bank of No Name... more
The Water Canyon site now comprises a minimum of two Late Paleoindian components at two tem-porally distinct bison kill/butchering locales and a potential Clovis component. The former, in Locus 1, primarily on the south bank of No Name Arroyo, and in Locus 5 along a deeply buried possible ancient drainage meander, are represented by butchered bison bone beds with associated flaked stone artifacts. An additional Late Paleoindian component—perhaps associated with Locus 5 materials—is thought to exist at Locus 4. A Clovis component may exist in Locus 3, based on the recovery of a Clovis point base from the surface and the results of OSL dating in Backhoe Trench 4. The robust late Pleistocene—early Holocene paleoenvironmental archive in the “Black Mat,” from which we have recovered additional macrobotanical, pollen and phytolith samples, is allowing us to more thoroughly reconstruct the paleoecology of the site and its environs. While many chronometric samples have been processed and their dates reported in this volume, additional environmental and analytical data will be presented in future reports after all labora-tory analyses have been completed.
Research Interests:
Publikationsansicht. 6225804. Climatic stress in the middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico : an evaluation of changes in foraging behaviors during the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II period / (1999). Dello-Russo, Robert D. Abstract.... more
Publikationsansicht. 6225804. Climatic stress in the middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico : an evaluation of changes in foraging behaviors during the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II period / (1999). Dello-Russo, Robert D. Abstract. "May, 1999.". Thesis (Ph. ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Publikationsansicht. 6225804. Climatic stress in the middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico : an evaluation of changes in foraging behaviors during the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II period / (1999). Dello-Russo, Robert D. Abstract.... more
Publikationsansicht. 6225804. Climatic stress in the middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico : an evaluation of changes in foraging behaviors during the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II period / (1999). Dello-Russo, Robert D. Abstract. "May, 1999.". Thesis (Ph. ...
In May 2019, the Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico conducted a reconnaissance survey of the parabolic gypsum dunes at Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) in west Texas. The dune field is in several ways very... more
In May 2019, the Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico conducted a reconnaissance survey of the parabolic gypsum dunes at Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) in west Texas. The dune field is in several ways very similar to that at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico where OCA has previously identified a pattern of horizontal stratigraphy of sites distribution spanning from the Middle Archaic period to the El Paso phase Jornada Mogollon period. At GUMO, the dune field has undergone severe wind erosion in the past that has obliterated all of the so-far documented prehistoric features. As a result, site dating will have to rely solely on the association of diagnostic artifacts such as ceramics and projectile points. This paper summarizes the preliminary results of the fieldwork.
Research Interests:
AbstrAct—The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat. This landscape-scale feature, which was extant across the late Pleistocene–early Holocene... more
AbstrAct—The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat. This landscape-scale feature, which was extant across the late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition, represents the remains of a wetland resource that, during the early Holocene, may have served as an ecological refugium for flora, fauna and Paleoindian groups as other regional water sources disappeared. Today the organic-rich deposit has proved to be an important proxy data archive for environmental , climatic and archaeological reconstructions. Our recent paleoenvironmental reconstruction efforts at the site have focused largely on the period from ~8300 to 11,100 radiocarbon years ago, and have generated a range of proxy data, including dated pollen profiles, stable carbon isotope values, charcoal species identifications, and both faunal and macrobotanical remains. The pollen data currently provide the most robust basis for our paleoenvironmental reconstruction and, together with our chronometric data, affirm that the black-mat forming wetland served as a persistent place of ecological diversity. These findings provide us with provocative glimpses of past environments in a heretofore largely understudied region of the American Southwest, and add to a growing body of Southwest reconstructions that will ultimately enable researchers to compare paleoenvironments and paleoclimates at both local and regional scales.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In, 2013 From the Pueblos to the Southern Plains: Papers in Honor of Regge N. Wiseman, pp. 51-63, edited by Emily J. Brown, Carol J. Condie, and Helen K. Crotty. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico 39, Albuquerque.... more
In, 2013 From the Pueblos to the Southern Plains: Papers in Honor of Regge N. Wiseman, pp. 51-63, edited by Emily J. Brown, Carol J. Condie, and Helen K. Crotty. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico 39, Albuquerque. PALEOINDIAN REMAINS IN NEW MEXICO are
relatively rare with just over 1,200 Paleoindian
sites and isolated projectile points documented
in the New Mexico Archaeological Records
Management System (ARMS) database. While
the majority of Paleoindian manifestations
may be points only, they constitute less than 1
percent of all documented “sites” in the state.
More signifi cantly, fewer than 20 Paleoindian
sites have been professionally excavated to any
degree in New Mexico and, of those, good bone
preservation at open, excavated Paleoindian sites
is rarer still. Such sites include the type site for
the Clovis culture—Black Water Draw; the type
site for the Folsom culture—the Folsom site;
and Milnesand, Ted Williams, Elida, and San
Jon along the western edge of the high plains.
Other open sites in other parts of the state, such
as Ake, Boca Negra, and Mockingbird Gap,
have produced some desiccated bone fragments
and pieces of tooth enamel. Within that context,
the discovery of the Water Canyon site (LA
134764) in Socorro County is signifi cant in that
it represents the fi rst opportunity in west-central
New Mexico to investigate an intact Paleoindian
site with well-preserved faunal remains. It is also
one of few such sites across the state directly
associated with a robust record of paleoclimatic
and paleoenvironmental change.
relatively rare with just over 1,200 Paleoindian
sites and isolated projectile points documented
in the New Mexico Archaeological Records
Management System (ARMS) database. While
the majority of Paleoindian manifestations
may be points only, they constitute less than 1
percent of all documented “sites” in the state.
More signifi cantly, fewer than 20 Paleoindian
sites have been professionally excavated to any
degree in New Mexico and, of those, good bone
preservation at open, excavated Paleoindian sites
is rarer still. Such sites include the type site for
the Clovis culture—Black Water Draw; the type
site for the Folsom culture—the Folsom site;
and Milnesand, Ted Williams, Elida, and San
Jon along the western edge of the high plains.
Other open sites in other parts of the state, such
as Ake, Boca Negra, and Mockingbird Gap,
have produced some desiccated bone fragments
and pieces of tooth enamel. Within that context,
the discovery of the Water Canyon site (LA
134764) in Socorro County is signifi cant in that
it represents the fi rst opportunity in west-central
New Mexico to investigate an intact Paleoindian
site with well-preserved faunal remains. It is also
one of few such sites across the state directly
associated with a robust record of paleoclimatic
and paleoenvironmental change.
Research Interests:
"This paper focuses on recent findings at Lemitar Shelter and presents arguments about the potential of the site to contain cultural deposits from the Paleoindian period.
"The timing of the arrival and earliest use of maize in the Southwest is summarized using radiocarbon dates from early maize samples. A Precipitation Threshold for Forager-Farmers, established at the mean local precipitation level, is... more
"The timing of the arrival and earliest use of maize in the Southwest is summarized using radiocarbon dates from early maize samples. A Precipitation Threshold for Forager-Farmers, established at the mean local precipitation level, is proposed as a critical point below which mobile Archaic period forager-farmers altered their subsistence behavior and, in some instances, adopted or intensified their use of maize and other domesticates. Research findings support the idea that Archaic forager-farmers responded to drought-induced changes in food supply by altering the relative dietary contributions of wild seeds and cultivated domesticates. It is also argued that this subsistence strategy underwrote the early adoption of maize and the early development of mixed-economy communities in
various parts of New Mexico and beyond."
various parts of New Mexico and beyond."
Recent Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico (OCA) site evaluations on White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) have resulted in a substantial dataset that has offered new perspectives on our understanding of prehispanic... more
Recent Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico (OCA) site evaluations on White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) have resulted in a substantial dataset that has offered new perspectives on our understanding of prehispanic cultural life ways during the El Paso phase (A.D. 1200–1450) of the Jornada Mogollon period. The data for our research comes from the recently investigated sites of Adobe Wall Pueblo (LA 32079), West Dry Lake Pueblo (LA 104864), Shaman Village (LA 117502), Olivella Pueblo (LA 150925), and LA 170438 (Figure 1). We also compared data from our recently documented sites of Turquoise House (LA 55129) and Casitas Solas (LA 186219) (Kurota et al. 2016).
Cite as:
Kurota, Alexander, Evan Sternberg, Thatcher A. Rogers, and Robert Dello-Russo
2020 New Trends in El Paso Phase Jornada Mogollon Occupation in the Southern Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. In A Lifelong Journey: Papers in Honor of Michael P. Marshall, edited by Emily J. Brown, Matthew J. Barbour, and Genevieve N. Head, pp. 129-162. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico No. 46. Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Cite as:
Kurota, Alexander, Evan Sternberg, Thatcher A. Rogers, and Robert Dello-Russo
2020 New Trends in El Paso Phase Jornada Mogollon Occupation in the Southern Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. In A Lifelong Journey: Papers in Honor of Michael P. Marshall, edited by Emily J. Brown, Matthew J. Barbour, and Genevieve N. Head, pp. 129-162. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico No. 46. Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Research Interests:
In this presentation, we will examine how the geomorphic and chronometric aspects of an early Holocene Bison antiquus bone bed can potentially bias our interpretation of human behavior at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico is directly associated with an extensive buried wet meadow deposit. While extant across the Pleistocene – Holocene transition and into the middle Holocene, this landscape-scale... more
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico is directly associated with an extensive buried wet meadow deposit. While extant across the Pleistocene – Holocene transition and into the middle Holocene, this landscape-scale deposit arguably represented a persistent, regional wetland resource, not only for plants and animals, but Paleoindian groups as well. Today it represents an important proxy data archive for environmental, climatic and archaeological reconstruction. Our recent research efforts at the site have focused largely on the period from 8300 to 9600 radiocarbon years ago, and have generated dated pollen profiles, stable carbon isotope data sets, charcoal species identifications and both faunal and macrobotanical remains. These findings provide us with provocative glimpses into the environment, climate, bison ecology, and human diet during Late Paleoindian times.
Research Interests:
Since 2008, interdisciplinary research at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site in west-central New Mexico has generated not only archaeological materials from Clovis, Late Paleoindian, and possibly late Folsom uses of the site, but... more
Since 2008, interdisciplinary research at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site in west-central New Mexico has generated not only archaeological materials from Clovis, Late Paleoindian, and possibly late Folsom uses of the site, but identifiable activity areas. Excavations have recovered butchered Bison antiquus bones and tooth enamel, well over 30 radiocarbon and OSL dates, a robust pollen record and other proxy paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data that are not found – as a package – elsewhere in this region of the Southwest. The site occurs at the location of a fossil wet meadow which is represented by a spatially extensive black mat deposit. The data archive at this site provides critical research potential for understanding how wetlands may have conditioned regional Paleoindian settlement and mobility during the terminal Pleistocene – early Holocene.
Research Interests:
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat (c.f. Haynes 2008; Quade et al. 1998; Pigati et al. 2014). This landscape-scale feature represents... more
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat (c.f. Haynes 2008; Quade et al. 1998; Pigati et al. 2014). This landscape-scale feature represents the remains of a wetland that was extant across the late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition, and is today an important proxy data archive for environmental, climatic and archaeological investigations. Our paleoenvironmental reconstruction at the site focuses on the period from ~8300 to 11,100 radiocarbon years ago, and utilizes a range of proxy records, including dated pollen, phytoliths, diatoms, stable carbon isotope values, fossil land snails and macrobotanical remains. The combination of the analytical data from these proxies with the multi-component archaeological remains (Clovis, Folsom, middle-late Archaic activity areas; and Bison antiquus bone beds associated with Cody Complex and late Paleoindian artifacts), is unique west of the Pecos River in New Mexico and affirms that the black-mat forming wetland served as a persistent place of ecological diversity that attracted grazing herbivores and human hunter-gatherers over thousands of years. Our interdisciplinary research provides provocative glimpses of past environments in a heretofore largely understudied region of the American Southwest.
Research Interests:
El Palacio, Volume 54 2012 - from a scientific point of view, New Mexico has been pivotal in the history of archaeological thought. Noteworthy finds such as the 1908 discovery of the Folsom type site (near Folsom) and the 1929 discovery... more
El Palacio, Volume 54 2012 - from a scientific point of view,
New Mexico has been pivotal in the history of
archaeological thought. Noteworthy finds such as
the 1908 discovery of the Folsom type site (near
Folsom) and the 1929 discovery of the Clovis type
site at Blackwater Draw (near Portales) are the basis
for our understanding of the early human presence
in the New World. Information from those sites
provided us a first glimpse of a world that was very
different from today’s, one in which stone tools
enabled hunter-gatherers to kill large animals that
are now extinct. Over the intervening decades since
those discoveries, archaeologists have, in fits and
starts, found new windows into that ancient past
and broadened our understanding of human life at
the end of the late Pleistocene geological epoch and
the beginning of the Holocene epoch (ca. 13,000 to
8,000 years ago).
New Mexico has been pivotal in the history of
archaeological thought. Noteworthy finds such as
the 1908 discovery of the Folsom type site (near
Folsom) and the 1929 discovery of the Clovis type
site at Blackwater Draw (near Portales) are the basis
for our understanding of the early human presence
in the New World. Information from those sites
provided us a first glimpse of a world that was very
different from today’s, one in which stone tools
enabled hunter-gatherers to kill large animals that
are now extinct. Over the intervening decades since
those discoveries, archaeologists have, in fits and
starts, found new windows into that ancient past
and broadened our understanding of human life at
the end of the late Pleistocene geological epoch and
the beginning of the Holocene epoch (ca. 13,000 to
8,000 years ago).
Research Interests:
This report documents the results of archeological survey of Lake Lucero Site (LA 21162) and Huntingtin Pueblo (LA 14820) located at White Sands National Monument (WSNM or Monument) and also on White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). The two... more
This report documents the results of archeological survey of Lake Lucero Site (LA 21162) and Huntingtin Pueblo (LA 14820) located at White Sands National Monument (WSNM or Monument) and also on White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). The two sites belong among the largest prehistoric loci at Monument (WSNM). Previous documentations revealed significant cultural resources at both sites including the remnants of pit structures and possible jacal structures as well as a variety of thermal features and substantial prehistoric trash deposits (middens).Fieldwork was performed between May 15th and June 28th, 2018. The survey of the two sites revealed the presence of vast cultural resources that have provided a massive amount datasets. These data were utilized
during various specialized analyses that altogether elevate our understanding of the sites’ significance in the local and regional context.
during various specialized analyses that altogether elevate our understanding of the sites’ significance in the local and regional context.