Hegmon, Michelle
2002 Recent Issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest, Journal of Archaeological Research 10(4)
ABSTRACT: Archaeological research in the Mimbres region (southwestern New Mexico) has focused on the post-A.D. 500 ceramic/agricultural occupations, especially the Mimbres Classic period (1000–1130). This work has advanced general anthropological issues regarding mobility, land use and human impact, and the concept of “abandonment.” Deeper understandings of some of these issues require more detailed demographic estimates, which in turn are dependent on methodological advances, particularly studies of site use life. Research on the production and distribution of Mimbres pottery—famous for its naturalistic black-on-white designs—is advancing rapidly. Although the designs have been well illustrated and much discussed, more systematic anthropological research on Mimbres design style is badly needed. Various aspects of Mimbres social and ideational realms (e.g., household and community organization, social hierarchy, the symbolism of the pottery designs) have received some attention but await new perspectives derived from current social theory.
Hegmon, Michelle and Margaret C. Nelson (editors)
2003 The Archaeology and Meaning of Mimbres, Archaeology Southwest 17(4).
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Hegmon, Michelle, Margaret C. Nelson, Roger Anyon, Darrell Creel, Steven A. LeBlanc, and Harry J. Shafer
1999 Scale and Time-Space Systematics in the Post-A.D. 1100 Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest. Kiva 65:143-166.
ABSTRACT: Time-space systematics for the end of the Classic Mimbres period and subsequent developments in southwest New Mexico are outlined, and the variable spatial scale of these processes is emphasized. The regional unity of the Late Pithouse and Classic periods began to break down around A.D. 1130, a time when disparate developments characterize different portions of the region. The Terminal Classic (ca. A.D. 1130 and later) represents the first steps toward significant and rapid changes and is seen primarily in the Mimbres Valley. The Postclassic Mimbres (ca. A.D. 1130-1200), in the eastern Mimbres area, represents settlement changes after the depopulation of large Classic Mimbres villages. The later, though not well dated, Black Mountain phase in the southern part of the region refers to new styles of pottery and architecture, with ties to the south, including Paquimé.
Hegmon, Michelle, Margaret C. Nelson, and Mark J. Ennes
2000 Corrugated Pottery, Technological Style, and Population Movement in the Mimbres Region of the American Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Research 56:217-240.
ABSTRACT: An understanding of small-scale population movements is essential to recent research on migration. Consideration of the technological style (processes of manufacture) of pottery, in conjunction with petrographic sourcing analyses, provides means of identifying and interpreting population movements at various scales. Diverse styles characterize Postclassic Mimbres (A.D. 1150-early 1200s) regional reorganization in southwest New Mexico. One new style, indented corrugated pottery, is similar to northern types. Postclassic assemblages include both roughly and finely made examples, both locally produced. The finely executed vessels were made by migrants and possibly by local potters who learned the northern techniques. The roughly made vessels were produced by local potters who copied the technique. The rough and fine vessels are found in the same contexts, suggesting no spatial or temporal differentiation. Thus in-migration to the eastern Mimbres area involved individuals or small groups who joined a preexisting network, possibly through intermarriage.
Hegmon, Michelle, Margaret C. Nelson, and Susan M. Ruth
1998 Abandonment and Reorganization in the Mimbres Region of the American Southwest. American Anthropologist 100:148-162.
ABSTRACT:Archaeological research on abandonments has focused primarily on their causes, as though they were final events. This article investigates the abandonment at the end of the Mimbres Classic Period as a process of reorganization within a larger social context. Analyses of pottery and architecture demonstrate that previously homogeneouos material culture was replaced by a diversity of technological styles. These material changes indicate that the reorganization involved the development of broader regional ties and the redefinition of community.
Hegmon, Michelle and Wenda R. Trevathan
1997 Gender, Anatomical Knowledge, and Pottery Production: Implications of an Anatomically Unusual Birth Depicted on Mimbres Pottery from Southwestern New Mexico. American Antiquity 61:747-754.
ABSTRACT: The anatomical details of a birth scene depicted on Classic Mimbres (A.D. 1000-1150) bowls from southwestern New Mexico can produce clues to gender relations in Classic Mimbres society. The scenes show an infant emerging facing forward (unusual in human birth) with its arms up (virtually unknown in human birth). These details suggest that the scene was painted by someone unfamiliar with the birthing process. Ethnographically, men rarely see human births. Thus, it is likely that the birth scene, and perhaps other Mimbres pottery designs, were painted by men.
Nelson, Margaret C. (editor)
1984 Ladder Ranch Research Project: A Report of the First Season. Technical Series of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Number 1. Albuquerque.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Natural and Cultural Setting
3. Research Design: Organization of Settlement and Technology
4. Prehistoric Settlement in the Middle Palomas Drainage, Southern New Mexico
by Stephen H. Lekson
5. Marginality in the Mogollon
by Luann Wandsnider
6. Architectural and Site-Plan Variation on the Anderson Site
by Margaret C. Nelson, Lindsey Price, and Kristen L. Carey
7. Preliminary Report on the Anderson Site Ceramics
by Patricia A. Gilman and Barbara J. Mills
8. Functional Analyhses of Ceramics from the Anderson Site
by Barbara J. Mills
9. Bone and Bone Fragments from the Anderson Site
by LuAnn Wandsnider
Nelson, Margaret C.
1993 Changing Occupational Pattern Among Prehistoric Horticulturalists in SW New Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 20:43-57.
ABSTRACT: Studies of the land use patterns of prehistoric agriculturalists have traditionally assumed that cultivation implies sedentism. Recent research has challenged this as a necessary assumption, offering various views on the mobility patterns of prehistoric agriculturalists. This paper presents an evaluation of the occupational history of a Mimbres and Tularosa Mogollon site located in SW New Mexico, but outside core population areas. Although cultivation was the primary activity throughout the history of site occupation, discontinuity of site use and change in occupation patterns indicate considerable movement by these prehistoric cultivators. Abandonment of large sites in core population areas of the Mimbres branch occurred during the occupation of this small site. The change in its role in the settlement system may indicate regional reorganization of the Mimbres population or abandonment by that population, preceding reoccupation by a different group.
Nelson, Margaret C.
1993 Classic Mimbres Land Use in the Eastern Mimbres Region, Southwestern New Mexico. Kiva 59:27-47.
ABSTRACT: The abandonment of the Mimbres Valley between A.D. 1130 and 1150 is re-examined with data from an adjacent area. Land-use changes in the eastern Mimbres area, from the Rio Grande up the eastern slopes of the Black Range, are evaluated as consequences of abandonment of large villages in the Mimbres Valley. Surface survey data on architectural sites area from intensive systematic survey along Palomas Creek, draining east from the Black Range into the Rio Grande, and from reconnaissance survey along the Rio Grande and lower portions of other Black Range drainages. Land use prior to A.D. 1130 is dominated by part-time or seasonal occupation or by special use, probably farming. After A.D. 1130, the emphasis shifts towards greater residential use and continuity of occupation. Sites spanning this time show evidence of ceramic continuity in the continued presence of Classic Mimbres Black-on-white Style III. This change in the eastern Mimbres region is considered in the context of abandonment of the Mimbres Valley. The importance of attention to scale in archaeological analysis is discussed.
Nelson, Margaret C.
1999 Mimbres During the Twelfth Century: Abandonment, Continuity, and Reorganization. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Abandonment is No Mystery
2. The Mimbres
3. Evidence for Mimbres Occupation During the Eleventh through Thirteenth Centuries
4. Occupational Histories of Four Postclassic Hamlets
5. Foraging and Farming
by Margaret C. Nelson and Michael W. Diehl
6. Social Contexts of the Postclassic
by Margaret C. Nelson and Michelle Hegmon
7. Rethinking Abandonment
Nelson, Margaret C.
2000 Abandonment: Conceptualization, Representation, and Social Change. In Social Theory in Archaeology, edited by M.B. Schiffer, pp. 52-62. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Nelson, Margaret C. and Michelle Hegmon
2001 Abandonment is not as it Seems: An Approach to the Relationship Between Site and Regional Abandonment. American Antiquity 66:213-235.
ABSTRACT: Abandonments of residential sites by prehistoric farmers are most often explained as failures or responses to poor social or environmental conditions. These perspectives ignore the role of residential mobility among farmers as a regionally sustainable approach to land use. To understand the various reasons for abandonment of residential sites, movement patterns at both site and regional scales must be empirically linked. In this study of the eastern Mimbres area of southwestern New Mexico, we examine the relationship between site and regional occupation patterns. Rather than assume that site abandonment implies regional depopulation and that site abandonments are responses to stress or crisis, we use multiple lines of evidence to document the occupational histories of sites in an effort to evaluate whether the abandonment of villages correlates with regional abandonment. Architectural, ceramic, and chronometric data provide evidence for occupational continuity and growth of small residential sites during the twelfth century in the eastern Mimbres area in the context of the depopulation of large villages. This regional reorganization in settlement suggests a strategy for maintaining regional occupational continuity.
Nelson, Margaret C. and Heidi Lippmeier
1993 Grinding-Tool Design as Conditioned by Land-Use Pattern. American Antiquity 58:286-305.
ABSTRACT: The form in which archaeologists recover artifacts is the product of intentional design, use modification, and postdepositional alteration. Analysis of grinding tools, from small prehistoric sites in southwestern New Mexico, indicates the effects of intentional design and use modification on artifact form. These variables of technological behavior are considered in relation to anticipated, regular occupation of sites. Distinguishing the extent to which site visits are anticipated and regular can enhance our understanding of how places and resources were used and how land use was organized. Because grinding tools commonly remain on sites, their anticipated reuse signals anticipated reuse of the places where they occurred. While characteristics of intentional design positively correlate with regularity of site occupation, the effects of use modification do not.
Nelson, Margaret C. and Karen Schollmeyer
2003 Game Resources, Social Interaction, and the Ecological Footprint in Southwest New Mexico, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 10 (2): 69-110.
ABSTRACT: Humans have modified their environments for millennia, but the role of these impacts on economic and social strategies among communities can be difficult to assess. This is due in part to the difficulty of quantifying impacts, which hinders our evaluations of the effects of different resource acquisition strategies and impairs attempts to understand competing demands on resources and their effects on the evolution of social relations. In this paper we employ footprint analysis, a tool used in ecology, to assess the impact of prehistoric subsistence farming communities on the environment, specifically faunal resources. We use footprint analysis to quantify the impact of various strategies of game acquisition by Classic Mimbres period (AD 1000-1130) farmers in the North American Southwest. Assessments are then employed in identifying changes in social relations among communities that may have contributed to settlement changes in the region.
Nogue, Leslie Kim
2001 Classic Mimbres Demographic Shifts and Interaction: Precursors to Postclassic Reorganization. MA Publishable paper, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.
ABSTRACT: At around AD 1130 many Classic Mimbres villages in southwest New Mexico were depopulated. Earlier researchers interpreted this depopulation as evidence for abandonment of the Mimbres region and the end of the Mimbres culture. However, more recent work has demonstrated that occupation at some villages and in parts of the region continued after AD 1130. The mid 12th century is now often viewed as a time of regional reorganization, involving movement from villages to dispersed hamlets and an expansion of interaction and exchange networks. This paper contributes to an understanding of reorganization by examining these processes at broader spatial and temporal scales. Drawing on data from the Mimbres region and beyond, I examine changes in population movement and social interaction that preceded and followed the reorganization. My results support interpretations of the reorganization as a long-term process that began well before AD 1130.
Schollmeyer, Karen Gust
1999 Settlement Size, Environmental Impact and Large Mammal Use in the Mimbres Region, Southwest New Mexico. MA Publishable paper, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.
ABSTRACT: Prehistoric settlements with large populations are often thought to have had more significant impacts on their environments than small settlements. This type of impact may produce noticeable changes in local plant and animal communities, affecting the types of species present and the population level of those species. In this paper, data from Mimbres sites in southwestern New Mexico are used to determine the effects of settlement size on local plant life and the relationship between this environmental change and human use of large mammal species. Although settlement size was found to affect local plants, human use of large mammals was more heavily influenced by other factors. Differences in human impact between settlement areas are also linked to patterns of depopulation and movement in the Mimbres region.
Document updated August 2004