Religious Interaction Along La Frontera

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Fountain support Drs. William Walker and James Skibo will conduct three years of archeological investigation at the site of Joyce Well, located in southern New Mexico. The site is part of a larger Chihuahua interaction sphere which was centered on the major town of Casas Grandes and which, in the several centuries preceding the arrival of Spanish in the New World, covered much of the US Southwest and adjacent regions in northern Mexico. Shared similarities across this large region indicate a relatively high degree of social integration but it is unclear the nature of the "glue" which bound together widely separated communities over this extensive area. Archaeologists originally theorized that trade was responsible and that sites were integrated into a larger system which extended South into central Mexico. Walker and Skibo postulate however that the region forms part of a religious interaction sphere comprised of autonomous groups whose common ritual activities resulted in homogenous assemblages of certain classes of material culture. Rather than uniting into a single economic or political entity, the investigators believe communities in this regional system possessed similar artifacts such as shared polychrome style ceramics, architecture and rock art which is indicative of a reservoir of shared beliefs and ritual practices. The organization of religious interaction in the region however remains murky because until recently the majority of research has focused on the central site of Casas Grandes. Although Casas Grandes is relatively well known, the majority of sites in the complex remain untested or unreported. With NSF support the investigators will conduct research at Joyce Well one of several large son the northwestern periphery of the interaction sphere. Evidence of community and household ritual power at this site and others likely resides in their method of abandonment. Joyce Well like many other sites in the region including Casas Grandes, exhibits evidence of fiery destruction that has consistently been attributed to prehistoric violence. Ongoing southwestern archaeological research however suggests that this burning may have resulted from ritual activities rather than war. The investigators will conduct careful stratigraphic excavation in an attempt to determine the cause of destruction. Researchers wish to understand the factors which led to the rise of complex societies and because they are so readily accessible and document increasing complexity over time, archaeologists have focussed on the US Southwest and adjacent areas in Mexico. Very few however have seriously considered religion and associated ritual as forces strong enough to allow cohesion over such a large sparsely inhabited region and this research is important because it will evaluate what role such a factor may have played.