UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE BLACK ROCKS IN THE BORDERLANDS: OBSIDIAN PROCUREMENT IN SOUTHWESTERN NEW MEXICO AND NORTHWESTERN CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO, A.D. 1000 TO 1450 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By SEAN G. DOLAN Norman, Oklahoma 2016 BLACK ROCKS IN THE BORDERLANDS: OBSIDIAN PROCUREMENT IN SOUTHWESTERN NEW MEXICO AND NORTHWESTERN CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO, A.D. 1000 TO 1450 A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY ______________________________ Dr. Bonnie L. Pitblado, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Patricia A. Gilman ______________________________ Dr. Paul E. Minnis ______________________________ Dr. Samuel Duwe ______________________________ Dr. Sean O’Neill ______________________________ Dr. Neil H. Suneson © Copyright by SEAN G. DOLAN 2016 All Rights Reserved. For my parents, Tom and Cathy Dolan Acknowledgments Many people have helped me get to this point. I first thank my professors at Pennsylvania State University where I received my undergraduate education. Dean Snow, Claire McHale-Milner, George Milner, and Heath Anderson introduced me to archaeology, and Alan Walker introduced me to human evolution and paleoanthropology. They encouraged me to continue in anthropology after graduating from Happy Valley. I was fortunate enough to do fieldwork in Koobi Fora, Kenya with professors Jack Harris and Carolyn Dillian, amongst others in 2008. Northern Kenya is a beautiful place and participating in fieldwork there was an amazing experience. Being there gave me research opportunities that I completed for my Master’s thesis at New Mexico State University. Carolyn deserves a special acknowledgement because she taught me about the interesting questions that can be asked with sourcing obsidian artifacts. I thank my professors and friends at New Mexico State University, particularly my advisers Monte McCrossin and Brenda Benefit. I also thank Bill Walker who introduced me to archaeology in the hot stinking desert of Deming, New Mexico. I was lucky to be a part of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in 2011. It is one of the best places in the world to study and learn about archaeology, and I was fortunate to learn from Shanna Diederichs, Steve Copeland, Caitlin Sommer, Mark Varien, Susan Ryan, Paul Ermigiotti, Kristin Kuckelman, Scott Ortman, Rebecca Hammond, and Grant Coffee. They showed me a brand new part of the Southwest and got me out of the hot stinking desert, at least for a little bit. I don’t know what I would have done without Allison Hill, Sarah Johnson, and Jessa Fowler who were my fellow iv Crow Canyon interns. Allison deserves special thanks because she has become one of my best friends after leaving Cortez. I’m grateful for my time in Norman, Oklahoma because it is one of the best universities to study anthropology and archaeology. I was fortunate to work at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey with Bob Brooks and Marjy Duncan in 2012 when I first arrived. The archaeology faculty always gave me advice and encouragement when it was needed. Thank you to Patrick Livingood, Asa Randall, Marc Levine, Susan Vehik, and Don Wyckoff. I must thank my fellow grad students when I lived in Norman. Thanks to Sonya Beach, Juliet Morgan, Stephanie Stutts, Bill Ankele, Anne Kroeger, Nicole Umayam, Caroline Fernald, and Alesha Marcum-Heiman. Ali Livesay, Shawn Lambert, and Andrew Ozga deserves special thanks because they were always there when I needed revisions or to join me for happy hour. This dissertation would not have been completed without the encouragement of Jen Payne and LeAnn Purtzer from Los Alamos National Laboratory. I also thank my coworkers Alan Madsen, Gerald Martinez, Kari Garcia, Ellen McGehee, Amanda Cvinar, Sandi Copeland, David Holtkamp, and Jeremy Brunette for putting up with me when I point out every piece of obsidian I see on an archaeological site. Data collection, travel, and analysis for this dissertation were funded by the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Anthropology, Graduate Student Senate, Arts and Sciences, as well as the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society. I would like to thank Julia Clifton and Rachel Johnson at the Laboratory of Anthropology/Center for New Mexico Archaeology/Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, as well as v Luis Tena from INAH in Chihuahua. A tremendous thank you and acknowledgement must be given to Michael Whalen for helping me get the obsidian artifacts from Casas Grandes, and letting me borrow pants, shorts, and socks after I lost my clothes in Chihuahua. I thank my fellow archaeologist who I’ve shared meals, drinks, car rides, and classrooms with. You have meant a lot to my development as a scholar, archaeologist, and a person in general. Conversations with other grad students, faculty, and researchers at many universities, institutions, and CRM companies have greatly improved this research. In alphabetical order, thank you: Neil Ackerly, Fumi Arakawa, Katie Baustian, Nick Beale, Judy Berryman, Kyle Bocinsky, Christopher Caseldine, Robin Cordero, Kristin Corl, Bob DeBry, Lauren Falvey, Jeff Ferguson, Andrew Fernandez, John Fitch, Brian Halstead, Thomas Holcomb, Eric Kahldal, David Kirkpatrick, Karl Laumbach, Steve Lekson, Lonnie Ludeman, Myles Miller, John Taylor-Montoya, Sarah Nichols, Anna Osterholtz, Matt Peeples, Barb Roth, Mike Searcy, Mark Sechrist, Jakob Sedig, Kari Schleher, Chris Schwartz, Fabiola Silva, Caitlin Stewart, Bob Stokes, Matt Taliaferro, Elizabeth Toney, John Ware, Aaron Woods, and Kristina Wyckoff. Two people in particular deserve special acknowledgment. First I thank Steve Shackley. He is one of the reasons why I moved to northern New Mexico after leaving Oklahoma. His home and XRF lab is less than an hour away from me, and I am thankful for him and family for being so helpful and allowing me to spend time with them. This study would not have been possible without his help and expertise. Katy Putsavage has been a big sister to me during this process. She was instrumental in vi keeping me sane and I greatly appreciate our weekly and sometimes daily phone calls. I think we both learned a great deal from them. Finally, I thank my dissertation committee. Pat Gilman, Paul Minnis, Bonnie Pitblado, Sean O’Neill, Sam Duwe, and Neil Suneson have helped me with this research from the start. Pat and Paul are the reason why I went to Oklahoma. I knew I wanted to study with them during our first meeting at the Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque before the 2012 Southwest Symposium. They provided me with the tools to succeed and the right connections to study Mimbres and Casas Grandes archaeology. They are also great land lords. Bonnie deserves a special acknowledgment because she stepped in when Pat and Paul retired. I greatly appreciate the time and conversations I had with her, especially the adventure in Corales, New Mexico seeing artifacts in a private collection that archaeologists dream of seeing. Prehistoric diapers, really?! I’m very happy Sam joined the faculty at Oklahoma. I know he and his future students will contribute immensely to the archaeology of northern New Mexico. I also thank Neil and Sean who I had very engaging conversations with about obsidian in all parts of the world. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................. xii List of Figures ................................................................................................................ xiv Abstract ........................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Research Goals and Measures .................................................................................... 8 Dissertation Organization ......................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 4 ............................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 5 ............................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 6 ............................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 7 ............................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 2: Southwestern New Mexico and Northwestern Chihuahua, A.D. 1000 to 1450 ............................................................................................................................ 14 Southwestern New Mexico, A.D. 1000 to 1450 ....................................................... 15 The Mimbres Mogollon ...................................................................................... 16 The Mimbres Classic Period .............................................................................