Northern Mexico Archaeology

Las colecciones privadas o descontextualizadas pueden ser de gran ayuda en las investigaciones arqueológicas. Sin embargo, su estudio ha sido ha sido prácticamente ignorado por la arqueología, a pesar de que podrían aportar mucho más información que algunos sitios arqueológicos.
La información que se produce con el estudio de colecciones sin contexto arqueológico puede llegar a ser contrastable con el registro arqueológico sólo en las cualidades intrínsecas de los materiales en cuanto a técnica de manufactura, morfología, materia prima, etc. Pero para que esta información sea útil, debemos contar con información procedente de contextos arqueológicos de la misma región de donde proceden las piezas de las colecciones descontextualizadas.

Since the late 19th Century, Eduard Seler and others recognized that the Late Postclassic Central Mexican deity, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli--"the God of Dawn"--embodied Venus as the Morning Star. With roots in Early Postclassic Toltec-related iconography, this deity is often depicted as a skeletal and stellar war god shooting darts. A closely related ritual complex emphasized fertility and warfare and was centered upon stars, feathered serpents, and celestial darts. This study examines this complex in the art of ancient Central Mexico and Northwest Mesoamerica and relates it to strikingly similar iconographic motifs and a historically related cosmology evident in Pueblo IV kiva murals and rock art and in present-day beliefs and practices among Pueblo people in the American Southwest. The transmission of these beliefs during the Postclassic period through West Mexico via expanding communication and economic networks implicates the Aztatlán culture as  a fundamental link in the movement of a new or highly refined religion into the prehispanic American Southwest by AD 1300.

The earliest known foragers to populate most of North America
south of the glaciers [∼11,500 to ≥ ∼10,800 14C yBP; ∼13,300 to
∼12,800 calibrated (Cal) years] made distinctive “Clovis” artifacts.
They are stereotypically characterized as hunters of Pleistocene
megamammals (mostly mammoth) who entered the continent
via Beringia and an ice-free corridor in Canada. The origins of
Clovis technology are unclear, however, with no obvious evidence
of a predecessor to the north. Here we present evidence for Clovis
hunting and habitation ∼11,550 yBP (∼13,390 Cal years) at “El Fin
del Mundo,” an archaeological site in Sonora, northwestern Mexico.
The site also includes the first evidence to our knowledge for
gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) as Clovis prey, otherwise unknown
in the North American archaeological record and terminal Pleistocene paleontological record. These data (i) broaden the age and geographic range for Clovis, establishing El Fin del Mundo as one of the oldest and southernmost in situ Clovis sites, supporting the hypothesis that Clovis had its origins well south of the gateways into the continent, and (ii) expand the make-up of the North American megafauna community just before extinction.

Research demonstrates the association between musical instruments and ritual practices and political complexity in the past. Musical instruments have been found at the Late Medio period regional polity of Paquimé in northern Mexico and in sites ancestral to Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, but they have never been meaningfully compared. Paquimé’s occupation corresponds with the first half of the Pueblo IV period in the Southwest, a time when instruments were most numerous and diverse. Intriguingly, some instruments are found in both regions whereas others are not. We summarize the types known for both locations and compare them, considering the social and physical contexts of their use.

Las investigaciones de campo de la etapa 2 del proyecto apoyado por CONACYT, se llevaron acabo del 1 de noviembre al 22 de diciembre de 2009 bajo la responsabilidad de John Carpenter, Guadalupe Sánchez e Ismael Sanchez Morales. Con la participación de un grupo de estudiantes de de séptimo semestre quienes tomaron la clase de técnicas de excavación II con los titulares del proyecto y realizaron las practicas de campo obligatorias en el proyecto. Los estudiantes involucrados en el proyecto fueron Alejandra Abrego, Alejandra Castañeda, Alba Tellez, Hugo García Ferrusca, Adriana Ontiveros, Astrid Aviles, Lizeth Hernández, Israel Andrade, Fabian Gutiérrez. Los asistentes de campo fueron Ismael Sánchez Morales y Alejandro López Jiménez, también contamos con la colaboración del arqueólogo Becket quien tomó muestras de arenas y arcillas para hacer estudios de
procedencia cerámica. Los vestigios arqueológicos en la planicie aluvial del Norte de Sinaloa están siendo destruidos de una manera acelerada y alarmante por los procesos agrícolas industrializados junto con los saqueos y la urbanización de algunos poblados. Uno de los sitios más conocidos del norte de Sinaloa es el sitio de El Ombligo en Guasave, excavado por Gordon Ekholm en 1939, se trata de un montículo funerario de donde se recuperaron más de 200 entierros. Esta investigación se había quedado aislada y no sabemos la extensión regional de
estos elementos arqueológicos, tampoco sabemos si había más montículos funerarios en las proximidades de Guasave ya que toda esta zona baja de la planicie aluvial ha sido arrasada por completo. En Mochicahui se sabe de la existencia de por lo menos dos montículos funerarios en las proximidades del poblado, que están siendo saqueados y destruidos por el urbanismo de Mochicahui. El enfoque principal de campo en las investigaciones de la temporada 2009 fue la zona de Mochicahui, El Fuerte, Sinaloa para buscar contextos arqueológicos intactos antes de que desaparezcan por completo. En total se
intervinieron 4 sitios (Borboa de Mochicahui, Vialacahui-Gasera, Ruiz Felix; Leyva de Mochicahui). Todos dentro del poblado moderno de Mochicahui.

An integrated magnetic survey was carried out on key places within the La Quemada archaeological complex, built over a hill on the northern frontier of Classic period Mesoamerica. Samples were collected from the Plaza of Sacrifices and Hall of Columns in an attempt to precisely determine the age intervals corresponding to the decline and abandonment of the site, apparently due to the intentional firing as a closure ritual. Well-defined char- acteristic remanent magnetizations were retrieved from 23 of 32 samples. Moreover, twelve samples belonging to two areas yielded reliable determinations under criteria curtailed in this study. In any case, a primary re- manent magnetization is carried by pseudo-single-domain Ti-poor titanomagnetite, as evidenced by hysteresis and continuous thermomagnetic curves. The archaeomagnetic dating was performed using full geomagnetic vector (directions and absolute intensity) using the last SHADIF14k model. The Plaza of Sacrifices seems to been burned between a time interval from 854 to 968 CE, while a late interval from 1018 to 1163 CE is assigned to the samples collected in the Hall of Columns, which suggest the gradual abandonment of the site. The first aban- donment stage is almost synchronous to the same phenomena observed for other sites at the Bajío area (central and western Mesoamerica) region. Under these circumstances, it cannot be discarded that La Quemada was burned in its entirety during the first stage of abandonment, but the Hall of Columns was again burned later.

This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America (“the Southwest”). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticates, they had distinctive demographic and social consequences. The first phase of the ADT occurred only in a scattering of favorable regions, between 1900 and 1000 BC in Mesoamerica and 1200 BC–AD 400 in the Southwest. Its demographic consequences were modest because it was underwritten by still rather unproductive maize. During this phase, increased population was confined mainly to a few agricultural heartlands, whereas surrounding regions remained sparsely populated. The second phase of the ADT was more dramatic in the spatial scale of its impact. This “high productivity” phase unfolded between 1000 and 200 BC in Mesoamerica and AD 500–1300 in the Southwest, and it was fueled by more productive maize varieties and improving agricultural technologies. It was accompanied by sweeping social, economic, and political changes in both regions.

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Este artículo examina la estructura espacial y temporal de la transición agrícola-demográfica (ADT por sus siglas en inglés) en Mesoamérica y el Suroeste estadounidense. El análisis de los datos de patrones de asentamientos publicados hasta la fecha sugiere que las ADT prolongadas que han ocurrido en estas regiones involucraron dos épocas sucesivas de rápido crecimiento de la población que resultaron en estructuras espaciales de gran escala características particulares. La primera fase de la ADT fue más débil a la escala espacial del impacto demográfico, probablemente porque estuvo basada en un maíz todavía poco productivo. Esta fase temprana de crecimiento rápido ocurrió tan solo en algunas regiones relativamente favorables, ampliamente dispersas en el área de interés, durante el segundo milenio aC en Mesoamérica y durante finales del segundo milenio/principios del primer milenio aC en el Suroeste estadounidense. La segunda fase del ADT fue más dramática en la escala espacial de su impacto. Esta fase de “alta productividad” probablemente fue impulsada por variedades más productivas de maíz. Esta fase se desarrolló durante el primer milenio aC en Mesoamérica y el primer milenio dC en el sudoeste estadounidense, en numerosas regiones, incluidas aquellas que experimentaron la primera fase de expansión y muchas otras que no la experimentaron. Fue acompañado por cambios sociales, económicos y políticos radicales en ambas regiones.

The ripple effect of Spanish Colonial expansion northward to the Rio Grande was first expressed by the indigenous people in rock art panels displaying curiosity about imported traits, such as domestic animals, clothing, and permanent architecture. Depictions of violence and conflict increased, becoming a unifying theme for artistically disparate pictographs and petroglyphs. Acquisition of the horse and exigencies of warfare are reflected in panels found near water sources and defensi-ble sites. The competence of the artists and their choice of medium varied widely but the core values were personal valor and success in combat. Sometime after A.D. 1700, the characteristic Plains Indian style replaced local forms while retaining the emphasis on individualistic bravery, aggression and conflict. The Spanish military responded with written names and accounts of their victories. After the disruption of native culture, religious iconography became the dominant theme.

In this chapter we enlist historical documents and modern ethnographic and linguistic data to evaluate archaeological interpretations of pan-regional connectivity in Northwest Mexico and beyond. Despite early interest in the archaeology of Northwest Mexico, which began in the waning years of the nineteenth century, research has been sporadic particularly in the years following World War II (see Pailes and Carpenter this volume), and this vast region remains one of the least studied and, consequently, most poorly understood areas of the Borderlands and North America as a whole. On the other hand, it lies between two of the most intensively studied regions—Mesoamerica and the US Southwest; as a result, archaeological interpretations have promoted northwestern Mexico as little more than a marginal periphery relative to either northern or southern perspectives. Archaeologists have similarly portrayed this region as a vast hiatus—a "Chichimec Sea", or "despoblado"—sparsely occupied by small bands of impoverished hunter-gatherers (Chichimecs) who effectively separated the complex polities of Mesoamerica from the sedentary farming societies of the US Southwest (Brand 1935:288; McGuire et al. 1994:248; Riley and Hedrick 1978; Sanders and Price 1968:50; Upham 1992:144).
Yet, interregional interaction and integration between Mesoamerica and the American Southwest has long comprised a key issue in the debate over social, political and economic transformations of precolonial Southwestern societies and the development of the northern Mesoamerican frontier. In this regard, Northwest Mexico has been identified as holding "the answer to many important archaeological questions, including Mesoamerican-Southwestern relationships and the expansion...of Mesoamerican civilization" (Meighan 1971:754). The chapters by Mathiowetz and Schaafsma this volume provide excellent examples of the importance of these inferred relationships.

Since 2007 we have been investigating a Clovis site in the basin of the Bacoachi River, in northern Sonora. The site, El Fin del Mundo consists of at least 25 localities including: a buried, stratified feature where Clovis peoples hunted Pleistocene elephants (gomphotheres), several camp areas, and two lithic quarries. A total of 17 Clovis points and 27 Clovis preforms have been collected from various contexts at the site, along with more than a hundred Clovis artifacts (e.g. blades, conical cores, end scrapers). Four Clovis points were found in situ at the gomphothere feature. Of special interest is a complete rhyolite Clovis point discovered in 2012 associated with the mandible of Gomphothere #2. Small fragments of teeth and bone were found above and below the Clovis point. Twenty one flakes have been recovered from the feature. In 2012 charcoal fragments were found together with flakes at bone fragments at the western end of the feature.  One of the charcoal fragments was radiocarbon dated to 11560 ± 140 yrs B.P.  (cal BP: 13454 ± 170).

Utilizing data derived predominantly from investigations at El Ombligo, Mochicahui and Rincón de Buyubampo, we examine the northernmost extension of the Aztatlán archaeological tradition incorporating the Culiacán region along with the evidence of integration and interaction with the neighboring Huatabampo and Serrana traditions in northern Sinaloa and southern Sonora. We propose that the Culiacán region played an instrumental role in Aztatlán interaction with the Guadiana branch of the Chalchihuites tradition in Durango and suggest that the transmission of objects and ideology beyond the northern Aztatlán frontier was facilitated and enhanced by the existence of a shared Cahitan language continuum that extended along the western slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental from the Río Piaxtla to the international border.