"Spanning from the end of the Classic Mimbres period to the Black Mountain phase, this volume contains the final report on the excavations of the Mimbres Foundation. The authors consider the nature of the relationship between the Classic Mimbres period population of the valley and the people of the succeeding Black Mountain phase, as well as relationships among the Black Mountain phase people and those of neighboring parts of the region"--
In the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico, archaeologists have been working for decades to meticulously excavate archaeological sites. Expanding beyond studies that focus on a single pueblo, this volume represents the final report on the excavations of the Mimbres Foundation. It brings together data from a range of pithouse and pueblo sites of different sizes and histories in diverse locations—to refine the current understandings of Mimbres region archaeology in the context of the Greater Southwest. From the end of the Late Pithouse period through the Black Mountain phase, the book provides excellent documentation of the artifacts and data recovered from the sites, addresses models of Mimbres community, and tracks change and continuity in the valley over centuries. In addition, the authors consider the nature of the relationship between the Classic Mimbres period population of the valley and the people of the succeeding Black Mountain phase, as well as relationships among the Black Mountain phase people and those of neighboring parts of the region, including the Casas Grandes world and the Jornada Mogollon area. In Ancient Communities in the Mimbres Valley two leading archaeologists bring together a trove of unpublished investigations, expanding understandings and setting a course for the future.
This book offers a detailed account of the archaeological excavation of one of the last possible Mimbres Classic pueblos, including photography of the painted black-on-white pottery--Provided by publisher.
A New York Times Best Art Book of 2018 This generously illustrated book explores the pottery of the Mimbres people and offers new insight into its imagery. Named after a valley in what is now Southwestern New Mexico, the Mimbres culture flourished between the 9th and 12th centuries. Through the exploration of paintings on Mimbres bowls, this book offers revelations about the culture's worldview based on the patterns and shapes depicted in their pottery. Drawing on extensive research as well as photography of the flora and fauna that still thrive in the Mimbres valley, the authors make the case that the pottery's beautiful black-and-white paintings and highly intricate designs are abstractions of visual experiences--some seen in the natural world and others generated by trance-like states brought on by ingesting the datura plant. Presenting a distinctive new interpretation of the iconography of ancient Mimbres painted ceramics, this volume addresses Mimbres culture and how this past civilization lived and communicated with the spirit world. Published in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest presents new research on human organization in the American Southwest, examining families, households, and communities in the Ancestral Puebloan, Mogollon, and Hohokam major cultural areas, as well as the Fremont, Jornada Mogollon, and Lipan Apache areas, from the time of earliest habitation to the twenty-first century. Using historical data, dialectic approaches, problem-oriented and data-driven analysis, and ethnographic and gender studies methodologies, the contributors offer diverse interpretations of what constitutes a site, village, and community; how families and households organized their domestic space; and how this organization has influenced researchers’ interpretations of spatially derived archaeological data. Today’s archaeologists and anthropologists understand that communities operate as a multi-level, -organizational, -contextual, and -referential human creation, which informs their understanding of how people actively negotiate their way through and around community constraints. The chapters in this book creatively examine these interactions, revealing the dynamic nature of ancient and modern groups in the American Southwest. The book has two broad complementary themes: one focusing on household decision-making, identity, and structural relations with the greater community; the other concerned with community organization and integration, household roles within the community, and changes in community organization—violence and destabilization, coalescence and cooperation—over time. Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest weaves a rich tapestry of ancient and modern life through innovative approaches that will be of interest not only to Southwestern archaeologists but to all researchers and students interested in social organization at the household and community levels. Contributors: James R. Allison, Andrew Duff, Lindsay Johansson, Michael Lindeman, Myles Miller, James Potter, Alison E. Rautman, J. Jefferson Reid, Katie Richards, Oscar Rodriguez, Barbara Roth, Kristin Safi, Deni Seymour, Robert J. Stokes, Richard K. Talbot, Scott Ure, Henry Wallace, Stephanie M. Whittlesey
In the early 1970s, understanding of the Mimbres region as a whole was in its infancy. In the following decades, thanks to dedicated work by enterprising archaeologists and nonprofit organizations, our understanding of the Mimbres region has become more complex, nuanced, and rich. New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology brings together these experts in a single volume for the first time. The contributors discuss current knowledge of the people who lived in the Mimbres region of the southwestern United States and how our knowledge has changed since the Mimbres Foundation, directed by Steven A. LeBlanc, began the first modern archaeological investigations in the region. Many of these authors have spent decades conducting the fieldwork that has allowed for a broader understanding of Mimbres society. Focusing on a variety of important research topics of interest to archaeologists—including the social contexts of people and communities, the role of ritual and ideology in Mimbres society, evidence of continuities and cultural change through time, and the varying impacts of external influences throughout the region—New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology presents recent data on and interpretations of the entire pre-Hispanic sequence of occupation. Additional contributions include a history of nonprofit archaeology by William H. Doelle and a concluding chapter by Steven A. LeBlanc reflecting on his decades-long work in Mimbres archaeology and outlining important areas for the next wave of research.
In central New Mexico, tourists admire the majestic ruins of old Spanish churches and historic pueblos at Abo, Quarai, and Gran Quivira in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The less-imposing remains of the earliest Indian farming settlements, however, have not attracted nearly as much notice from visitors or from professional archaeologists. In Constructing Community, Alison E. Rautman synthesizes over twenty years of research about this little-known period of early sedentary villages in the Salinas region. Rautman tackles a very broad topic: how archaeologists use material evidence to infer and imagine how people lived in the past, how they coped with everyday decisions and tensions, and how they created a sense of themselves and their place in the world. Using several different lines of evidence, she reconstructs what life was like for the Ancestral Pueblo people of Salinas, and identifies some of the specific strategies that they used to develop and sustain their villages over time. Examining evidence of each site’s construction and developing spatial layout, Rautman traces changes in community organization across the architectural transitions from pithouses to jacal structures to unit pueblos, and finally to plaza-oriented pueblos. She finds that, in contrast to some other areas of the American Southwest, early villagers in Salinas repeatedly managed their built environment to emphasize the coherence and unity of the village as a whole. In this way, she argues, people in early farming villages across the Salinas region actively constructed and sustained a sense of social community.
During more than a thousand years before Europeans arrived in 1540, the native peoples of what is now the southwestern United States and northern Mexico developed an architecture of rich diversity and beauty. Vestiges of thousands of these dwellings and villages still remain, in locations ranging from Colorado in the north to Chihuahua in the south and from Nevada in the west to eastern New Mexico—a geographical area of some 300,000 square miles. This study presents a comprehensive architectural survey of the region. Professionally rendered drawings comparatively analyze 132 sites by means of standardized 100-foot grids with uniform orientations. Reconstructed plans with shadows representing vertical heights suggest the original appearances of many structures that are now in ruins or no longer exist, while concise texts place them in context. Organized in five chronological sections that include 132 professionally rendered site drawings, the book examines architectural evolution from humble pit houses to sophisticated, multistory pueblos. The sections explore concurrent Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi developments, as well as those in the Salado, Sinagua, Virgin River, Kayenta, and other areas, and compare their architecture to contemporary developments in parts of eastern North America and Mesoamerica. The book concludes with a discussion of changes in Native American architecture in response to European influences. Written for a general audience, the book holds appeal for all students of native Southwestern cultures, as well as for everyone interested in origins in architecture. In particular, it should encourage younger Native American architects to value their rich cultural heritage and to respond as creatively to the challenges of the future as their ancestors did to those of the past.
