From the Pleistocene to the Holocene: Human Organization and Cultural Transformations in Prehistoric North America

8. Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic Foragers in the Northern

171 Introduction Despite a resurgence in the amount of research on the Archaic and Paleoindian periods in the American Southwest, this work has primarily focused on Folsom and Late Archaic. The relationship between Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic is still unclear, with many questions remaining unanswered. Little has been done to resolve these issues since the 1970s, when IrwinWilliams (1973:4–5) proclaimed that the two periods differed “so greatly in technology, typology and functional classes . . . that there [was] no generic connection between them.” This statement was primarily based on her excavations at the Dunas Altas site (Vierra 2007). On the other hand, Tainter and Gillio (1980) questioned whether these Late Paleondian populations were actually plains-based, but rather represented a resident population characterized by a more generalized foraging strategy. If so, the Early Archaic simply represented the continuation of a strategy beginning during Late Paleoindian times. How similar or different are these ancient foragers of the Northern Rio Grande Valley? We examine the current evidence for Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic occupation in the Northern Rio Grande region, where very little research has been conducted for the time interval between 9000 and 5000 B.P. We present some of our preliminary findings on chronology, typology, technology, and material selection for artifacts recovered from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Creede, Colorado. These data reveal some productive avenues for future research involving the Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic patterns of stone tool technology and land use strategies. Study Area The Northern Rio Grande Valley occupies a portion of the Rio Grande rift, which extends in its entirety from Chihuahua to the Upper Arkansas in central Colorado. The section of the valley included in our study runs from the San Luis Valley and adjacent foothills of the San Juan Mountains, south to the area around Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Jemez Mountains. From tundra and high mountain meadows in the San Juan and Jemez Mountains, to the Rio Grande Valley to the marshes and grasslands of the San Luis Valley to piñon–juniper covered mesa tops, the region contains a diverse array of resources across elevations ranging from about 1600 to 4260 meters (5200–14,000 ft). Lithic raw materials also abound in the area including obsidian , fine-grained dacite, and Pedernal chert in the Jemez Mountains area, ancient gravel terraces along the Rio Grande, fine-grained dacite around San Antonio Mountain, and high-quality cherts and quartzites from the eastern San Juan Mountains and foothills. In order to spatially delineate our sample, we divided our study area into three separate zones (fig. 8.1). Zone 1 is located at the southern end of the region, including the Santa Fe–Abiquiu area; Zone 2 includes the Taos–Tres Piedras area; and Zone 3 consists of the San Luis Valley and Rio Grande headwaters . A total 149 Late Paleoindian and 196 Early Archaic projectile points are included in our study. However, as table 8.1 illustrates, most of the Late Paleoindian points are present in Zone 3, with a relatively similar number of Early Archaic points being distributed across the three zones. This is due to the greater representation of private collections in the San Luis Valley sample Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic Foragers in the Northern Southwest Bradley J. Vierra, Margaret A. Jodry, M. Steven Shackley, and Michael J. Dilley 8 172 Vierra, Jodry, Shackley, and Dilley versus Zones 1 and 2, which are primarily from Cultural Resources Management projects. Paleoindian/Archaic Transition The Northern Rio Grande Valley witnessed a long period of occupation from Clovis, Folsom, Late Paleoindian, to Early Archaic times. As previously noted, the replacement versus continuity arguments that question the relationship between Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic populations still resound, especially in northern New Mexico where Irwin-Williams’ Oshara model was Figure 8.1. Northern Rio Grande Valley study areas (Zones 1 to 3). Table 8.1. Time period by study zone. Period Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Total Late Paleoindian 20 15 116 151 Early Archaic 57 81 63 201 173 Northern Southwest developed. Here researchers question whether Jay and/or Bajada points represent the latest Paleoindian or earliest Archaic foraging strategies. Based on similarities between the Lake Mojave complex in southern California and the Jay phase, Irwin-Williams suggested that the beginning of the Oshara Tradition represents the eastern movement of western-based hunter-gatherer groups into northwestern New Mexico, at...