The Prehistory of the San Juan Basin Nancy S
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New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/28 The prehistory of the San Juan Basin Nancy S. Hewett, 1977, pp. 65-75 in: San Juan Basin III (northwestern New Mexico), Fassett, J. F.; James, H. L.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 28th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 319 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1977 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. These books have set the national standard for geologic guidebooks and are an essential geologic reference for anyone working in or around New Mexico. 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One printed copy of any materials from the NMGS website or our print and electronic publications may be made for individual use without our permission. Teachers and students may make unlimited copies for educational use. Any other use of these materials requires explicit permission. This page is intentionally left blank to maintain order of facing pages. New Mexico Geol. Soc. Guidebook, 28th Field Conf., San Juan Basin III, 1977 65 THE PREHISTORY OF THE SAN JUAN BASIN NANCY S. HEWETT Agency of Conservation Archaeology Salmon Ruins San Juan County Museum Association Bloomfield, New Mexico INTRODUCTION cepts and mythology and child rearing practices can only be Visitors and residents alike have wondered about the lives of speculated upon. Analogy with living Puebloan lifeways pro- the "ancient ones"; the builders and inhabitants of the large vide a valuable base upon which to build the framework of masonry cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and the imposing C- societal structure. We must keep in mind, however, that to- shaped towns in Chaco Canyon. Yet hundreds of exposed day's Indians in the Southwest have borne some 400 years of prehistoric sites in the San Juan Basin attest to a nearly contin- contact, often repressive and destructive of their traditional uous human occupation since the closing stages of Wisconsin culture. glaciation. The foundations of American archaeology were laid upon POST GLACIAL GEOCHRONOLOGY expeditions and surveys which began in the late 19th century. "Prehistoric geography" is the term that Butzer (1971, p. 4) Primarily interest lies in amassing museum collections and has chosen to describe the environmental basis of man's exploration of the newly opened frontier territories following occupation of the land. Lacking written descriptive or quan- the settlement of the "Indian problem." The remarkable titative records, the archaeologist and geologist must make preservation in an arid and semiarid land drew regions of grad- climatic inferences through interpretation of evidence as seen uate students to the area to dig, while the living descendants of by earth scientists. The law of uniformitarism can be culturally the Pueblo peoples stoically endured the curious ethnog- applied to sources of water, shelter and food. The level of rapher's endless probing. The artifactual remains also lured technology is quite different, but the basic survival needs are pothunters and Sunday afternoon explorers to the rubble much the same as the present. Artifacts and their contextual mounds and trash dumps in search of turquoise beads and associations are but one facet of archaeological interpretations. whole pots destined for private collections. Artifact associa- Paleoenvironmental determination complements the scene of tions, near and dear to archaeological research goals, were thus the man-created artifact. destroyed in the search for "goodies." Providing clues to prehistoric environment is the domain of Within the last 20 years or so, archaeologists have increas- the "soft dirt" geologist. Soils, plant remains and events ingly called upon experts in allied fields to deal with the related to recent glacial activity form the basic bank of infor- abundant information obtained from large scale projects and mation for the geochronologist. Absolute dating methods salvage programs. The multidisciplinary approach is now an include carbon-14 analysis, dendrochronology and historic accepted mode of operation, and elicits aid from geologists, records. Pollen analysis, ceramic analysis and stratigraphy biologists, botanists, ethnographers, statisticians, aerial and provide measures of relative dating. Interpretation of soil and infra-red photographers, as well as archaeologists skilled in sediment characteristics of structure, texture, consistency and specific categories of research and analysis. Ceramics, lithics, other features can be used to reconstruct paleoenvironmental textiles, bones (anything associated with human occupation); conditions within whose limits man had to fulfill his basic all must be analyzed and interpreted. Always the reality of survival needs. archaeologists are the logistics of setting up a field camp, and The post glacial environment in the Southwest has been the ubiquitous shovel, screen and wheelbarrow operations. discussed by a number of authors, to wit: Antevs 1952, 1955; The prehistory of the San Juan Basin has been drawn from Bryan 1925, 1941; Clisby, et al, 1957; Mahrer 1961; Martin nearly 100 years of surveys and excavations and, as the arti- 1961; Martin and Mehringer 1965; Mehringer 1965, 1967; facts have accumulated in museum storerooms, the general Mehringer and Hays 1965; Mehringer, Martin and Hayes 1967; outlines of prehistoric occupation have become more clear. Haynes 1966, Haynes and Agogino 1966; Kottlowski, et al, The prehistoric technology represents a continuum of gradual 1965; Peterson and Mehringer 1976. These authors have recog- changes in artifact inventory, largely the result of environ- nized an alluvial chronology defined by Haynes as, "a strati- mental fluctuations and the concomittant adjustments, and graphic record of alluvial deposition and erosion that occurred migrations into and within the area. The Four Corners region between late Wisconsin time and the present" (1966, p. 2). was seldom an area of optimum exploitation for food re- These alluvial strata have been recognized in the deep arroyos sources for groups utilizing a simple technology, and the of the Rio Puerco Valley of New Mexico and the horizons prehistoric record reflects an increasing sophistication of tech- have been identified and named by Fred Nials (personal com- nological adaptations to an often marginal environment. A munication) of Eastern New Mexico University. The correla- significant problem of reconstructing prehistoric societies is tions of Haynes' chronology, Nials' horizon nomenclature and the differential preservation of the record. Within a dry rock climatic interpretations and associated culture complexes shelter, textiles, food remains and wooden artifacts accom- appear in Table 1. pany the more enduring pottery and stone remains and are The alluvial deposition and erosion record is characterized used to better describe the life of their owners. Open sites, by three periods of alluviation separated by periods of arroyo however, present a greatly diminished record and the scanty cutting, widespread in most valleys of the Colorado Plateau, remains are patiently sifted and examined for clues. So much is lost. Language, social organization, folk tales, religious con- and ranging from late Wisconsin in age to about A.D. 1880 (Haynes 1966, p. 17, 18). Typical composition of horizons (Kottlowski, et al, 1965, p. 294). Unit A of Deposition 1 lacks reflecting altithermal conditions contain sands, gravels, aeolian positive evidence of man and contains extinct fauna of mam- sand in dune form, slope wash and colluvium. Modern fauna moth, horse, camel, wolf, sloth and bison. The buried rem- are noted (Haynes 1966, p. 11, 12). At Locality AP-4 in the nants of valley fill are composed of fluvial gravels, sands, silts Rio Puerco region, the deep Salado horizon is characterized by and clays. Pollen analyses of this earliest unit of the initial post layers of differentially sorted sand and thinly laminated clay glacial alluvial deposition indicate considerably more aboreal layers in some areas indicating less active fluvial activity. The vegetation than today (Haynes 1966, p. 7). Also within this uniform sorting of the sand, the vertical cracks and the