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5 Defining the Mogollon Culture Gila Pueblo was much more than just the impact of its geographic setting, but one cannot dissociate its physical location from its stellar professional reputation, the dedication of its staff, and its freedom to act without being unduly influenced by federal, state, and political constraints. —Emil Haury (1988:ix) New Mexico—even the name is evocative,hinting of exotic lands improbably hidden deep in the American West. It is possibly the most quintessential southwestern place, capturing the essence of Pueblo cultures and Spanish Colonial history in a landscape of fierce light and red earth. Its houses and pueblo towns lie close to the land, clinging to sheer rock mesas or mounding subtly on the earth from which they are made. Blueblack mountain ranges cut into skies of evanescent blue. Over it all lingers the scents of cinnamon and roasted chile wafting from the cocinas, burning piñon, and the cold fragrance of snow-covered stone. The southwestern corner of this magical land is mountain country. Ranges and ridges roll endlessly into the distance. Snowmelt in the Gila and Mogollon mountains feeds the San Francisco, Mimbres, and Gila rivers, and from the rivers spill Cameron, Sapillo, and Mule creeks. In a few choice places, the river valleys widen to offer farmland. This rugged country provided substance and shelter for one of the Southwest’s most mobile and least agricultural ancient people, the mountain Mogollon. During the survey of discovery in 1931, Haury took a special interest in two of the many Mogollon sites that he and his companion, Hastings, had recorded—Mogollon Village, overlooking the San Francisco River some ten miles north of Glenwood, New Mexico, and Harris Village, located on the Mimbres River about seventy-five miles southeast of Mogollon Village. These two pit-house villages may appear innocuous, but the report that Haury penned after excavating them in the summers of 1933 and 1934 incited a storm of controversy that was not quieted for decades. In this chapter, we seek to convey what Haury discovered and why he thought these two sites were sufficiently distinctive to require the definition of a new cultural phenomenon that would set theAmerican archaeological world astir—the Mogollon culture. Mogollon and Harris Villages Mogollon Village lies atop a mesa above the San Francisco River. The river can be seen meandering a bit to the north before its course disappears . Below, leafy cottonwoods refresh eyes weary from the incessant light. In June, they seem to spring from the riverbank like billowy, green thunderheads. The Mogollon Mountains rise to the east; to the west and northwest, broken ridges and hills separate the San Francisco and Blue river drainages. The rugged, dissected landscape belies the fact that this is desert country—dry, and in the summer, hot, as we discovered one day in June 2000.We fought our way through scrubby juniper, mesquite, and cactus to reach the flat mesa top,sweating and out of breath.As Haury noted in his report on the site, it is inaccessible from all sides but one. The locale commands an outstanding view of the river below and the foothills of the mountain ranges. It would be difficult to imagine a more suitable place to live, if one were a casual farmer heavily invested in hunting the region’s abundant game, collecting its rich plant resources, and seeking safety for family and stored foods. The Harris Village, labeled New Mexico q:1:14 in the Gila Pueblo sitenumbering system, was the second site Haury excavated, and it is located in a different setting. The surrounding country is just as rugged as that near Mogollon Village, but the site is situated on an open, level terrace, and the river valley is broad and open. Scrubby, piñon-juniper woodland covers the site area, and a dense riparian zone with cottonwood, walnut, and other trees lines the riverbanks. Today, neither site hints at the archaeological riches hidden below. In general, pit structures give few indications of their presence from the surface—perhaps a depression,possibly a subtle difference in soil or vegetation—and time has erased most traces of the excavations. On August 1, 1933, Haury and Hastings established a camp among the piñon trees near the highway and about ten minutes’ walk to the site, 46 Chapter 5 and work began on the Mogollon Village. Two O’odham laborers from Blackwater, Arizona, and James Simmons, an avocational archaeologist from...

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