DATA RECOVERYAT LA 843 I8 A Multicomponent Artifact Scatter along the Pecos River near El Cerrito, San Miguel County, New Mexico STEPHEN s. POST MUSEUMOF NEWMEXICO OFFICE OF ARCHAEOLOGICALSTUDIES 4:. 4:. *:* *:* Archaeology Notes 202 2000 MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO OFFICE OF ARCH.AEOLOGICAL STUDIES DATA RECOVERY AT LA 84318, A MULTICOMPONENT ARTIFACT SCATTER ALONG THE PECOS RIVER, NEAR EL CERKITO, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, NEW MEXICO Stephen S. Post with contributions by Guadalupc A. Martinez Linda S. Mick-O'Hara Kegge N. Wiseman Submitted by Timothy D. Maxwcll Principal Investigator ARCHAEOLOGY NOTES 202 SANTA FE 2000 NEW MEXICO ADMINIS'I'KATIVE SUMMARY In December 1991 1-1ndJanualy 19!1?, the Office o~Archacologica1 Studies, MuseumofNew Mexico, conzplctcd a data recovcry program near E1 Cerrito, San Miguel County,New Mexico. The pro+jcct was completed atthe request of the Ncw Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department (NMSIITI)) in conjunction with road construction on County Road 1327A. The data recovcryprog'aln focusccl on a portion ofLA X43 1 X thnl extended intothe right-of- way, which has been acquircd rroln private sources by NMSH'I'D. LA 843 I X was identified by survey andtesting as a rnulticomponcl~tlithic artifact scatter withthe potential for intact cultural deposits. The culturaldeposits werc indicative of a long but discontinuous occupation bygroups practicing a hunting and gathering subsistcncc strategy. A large amount of tool manuhcture debrisand discarded tools were recovered from a s~nall excavation area. Some of tllesc arlilicts were spatially associated with three firc-cracked rock coacentrations that were probablythe cietlated rcmains ofhe,zrths. The artifactsand realures remain from 5,000 years of periodic occupation ofthe sitc by Archaic, Pncbln, Athabaskan, and Hispano populations. NMSHTD Project No. BR-0-7547(2), C:N .IO015 MNM I'roject No. 41.507 (El Ckrrito Bridge) ... 111 CONTENTS ... ADMINIS'IXA'I'IVE SUMMARY ............................................... 111 TNTRODUCTTON ............................................................. i ENVIRONMENT ............................................................. 3 CULTURE HJSTORY .......................................................... 5 Regional Prehistory ......................................................... 5 ArcllaicPcriod ............................................................. 6 The Pueblo Period and EarlyAthabaskan Settlement ............................... 7 .. The Hlstorlc Period ........................................................ 13 El Cerrito History ......................................................... 1.7 A RESTATEMENT OF THE DATA RECOVERY PLAN ............................ 21 RcscarchQucstions ........................................................ 21 FIELD METHODS. by Rcggc N . Wiseman ........................................ 25 Variances from the Original Excavation Plan .................................... 26 EXCAVATION RESULTS. by Regge N . Wiscman .................................. 29 Pre-Excavation Sile Description .............................................. 29 Augcring Rcsults .......................................................... 30 Grid Excavation Results .................................................... 30 Cultural Features .......................................................... 34 Evidence of Post-Occupational Mixing of Dcposits.by Stcphcn S . Post ............... 37 PREHTSTORTC MATERTAT. CULTURE .......................................... 45 The Chipped StoneAssemblage .............................................. 45 Grad Stone hrtlfacts.. ..................................................... 62 Aboriginal Pottery ......................................................... 63 HISTORIC ARTIFACT ANALYSIS. by Guadalupe A . Martincz ....................... 65 Artifact Dating Mctllods and Site Dates ........................................ 65 Historic Artifact Asscmblagc ................................................ 66 Summary ................................................................ 68 FAUNAL RLMAINS. byLinda S . Mick-O'Hara .................................... 69 Mcthodology ............................................................. 70 Ovcrvicw of the Faunal Remains ............................................. 70 Distribution of Faunal Remains .............................................. 71 Conclusions .............................................................. 71 RESEARCH QUESllONS AND CONCLUSIONS .................................. 73 Chronology .............................................................. 73 Economic Organization and Subsistcncc Strategy ................................ X4 LA X43 1X and thc Middlc PccosRiver ......................................... X9 KUI'ERENCES CITED ........................................................ 95 V APPENDlX 1: SITE LOCATION INFORMATION ................................ 105 APPENDIX 2 . TRACE ELEMENT CONCENTRATION VALUES .................... 107 hPPENDlX3:TARLES ...................................................... 109 I . Project vicinity map.......................................................... -3 2 . Location of auger holes....................................................... 31 3 . Depth of auger holes and locationof artifacts ..................................... 32 4 . Stratigraphic protile along the 4E linebetween 1 ON and 20N ......................... 33 5 . Stratigraphic profile along the20N line between OE and 4E.......................... 33 6 . Plan ol'Feature 1 ............................................................ 35 7.Feature1,excavated. ........................................................ 35 X . Plan of Feature 2............................................................ 36 9.Feature2,excavated. ........................................................ 36 IO. Plan of Feature 3 ........................................................... 38 11. Fealure 3. excavated ........................................................ 38 12. Plan or excavation area along the west side of thc road ............................. 39 13. Fire-crackcd rock scatter (right)and natural rock outcrop........................... 40 14. Nonmanufacture flake breaks (excluding testing phase)............................ 41 15. Calcium carbonatc by level ................................................... 41 16 . Historic artifact distributionby Icvcl ........................................... 43 17. Debitage type percentages by excavation Icvcl ................................... 46 18. Dorsal cortex. local lithic material. by excavation level ............................ 49 I9 . Obsidian debitage cortex by excavation level .................................... 49 20 . Distribution of thermally altered debitage byexcavation level ....................... 50 2 1 . Chcrt/chalcedony angular debrislength by excavation level ......................... 51 22 . Chcrt/chalcedony and siltstone core llakelength by excavation lcvcl .................. 53 23 . Chcrt/chalcedony core flakethickness by excavation level .......................... 54 24 . Siltstone corc l-lakc thickness by excavation Icvel ................................. 54 25 . C'hert/chalcedony biface l-lake length by excavation Icvcl ........................... 56 26 . Obsidian biface flakelength by excavation level .................................. 56 27 . Core length and width by material class ......................................... 60 28 . Core typcs by lenglh and width ............................................... 60 29 . Core cortex by length and width ............................................... 61 .. 30 . Prcyectlle points ........................................................... 62 3 I. Dntcs ol'historic artif2Lcts .................................................... 67 32. Chipped stonc densityplot. Level 1 ............................................ 74 33 . Chipped stone density plot. Level 2 ............................................ 75 34 . Chipped stonc densityplot. Level 3 ............................................ 76 35 . Chipped stone densityplot. Level4 ............................................ 77 36 . Chipped stone density plot, LcvclS ............................................ 78 37 . C'hippcd stone density plot, Level 6 ............................................ 79 38 . Chipped stone densityplot. Level 7 ............................................ X0 39. Chipped stonc densityplot, Level X ............................................ X1 40. Secondary andtertiary Hake percentages by site size,temporal unknown ...............92 4 1 . Secondary and tertiary flake percentages by sitesetting. temporal unknown ............92 42 . Prirnr-lry and tertiary flakc percentages by site size, temporal unknown .................94 43 . Prin~aryand tertiary Ilake percentages by site setting, temporal unknown.............. 94 vi IN'I'RODUCTTON During Dcccmbcr 1991 and January 1992, nl thc request ofthe New Mexico State IIighwayand 'I'raasportation Department (NMSHTD),the Office of Archaeological Studies(OAS), Museum of New Mexico, conducted a data recovery progam north of the bridge at El Ccrrito along County Road R27A, San Miguel County, New Mexico, on private land that has since been acquired by the NMSlITD (Fig. 1 and Appendix 1). The data recovery efforlfocused on a portion oflA X43 1 X that extended into the right-of-way for a roadrealignment project. Thc field phase of the datarecovery elkt was directed byKegge Wiseman. He was assisted by Natasha