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| Title: | LANDUSE PATTERNING OF EARLY FORAGERS IN THE NORTHEASTERN DESERT OF MEXICO: INTERPRETATION AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL VISIBILITY |
| Authors: | White, James Michael |
| Keywords: | hunter-gatherer mobility
Nuevo Leon
deflation in arid environments
Archaic resource acquisition
Pleistocene/Holocene transition |
| Date Created: | 2006 |
| Publisher: | University of Kentucky |
| Abstract: | This dissertation describes the results of archaeological survey and excavations
undertaken on the Mesa el Chaparral in the county of Mina in Nuevo Leon, Mexico
during 2001. Sixty-six previously undocumented archaeological sites were discovered on
the arid surface. Excavations found no intact subsurface deposits, but a wealth of surface
data was collected. Subsequent analyses demonstrated a forager lifeway for the majority
of the Holocene human occupation of the region in a remarkably stable pattern.
To understand sites found on the deflated modern surface necessitated
contemplation of the basic theories and models used in hunter-gatherer research. This
allowed for the construction of new diagrams designed to hypothesize fundamental
relationships between general aspects of the lifeway including environmental factors, site
size and visibility issues, and human mobility patterns. From some basic continuums,
more detailed diagrams were created that allow understanding and prediction of human
behavior based upon data found from artifacts and features. After testing their salience,
the models were dynamically combined with the site data and ethnographic analogies to
arrive at an understanding of the human lifeways represented by the recovered
archaeological data. This provided a fascinating look into the day-to-day lives of the
generalized mobile foragers of prehistoric northeastern Mexico.
Included in the recovered data are hearth features, lithic debitage and artifacts,
and basic site descriptions. Archaeological locations ranged from small with a single
feature to over a square kilometer with over 100 features, all located on the surface where
they are subject to wind deflation and water erosion. Most of the sites contained
diagnostic artifacts from the entire Holocene, further compounding the analytic
complexity of the project. Understanding the context of the data and making use of the
models and ethnographic analogies, it was estimated that every site represented an
occupation by a small band of mobile forgers making generalized use of the resources
available in the region. Making residential moves often allowed people to survive in the
harsh environment. Few lifeway changes were noted prior to Spanish influence in the
region from the time the environment became arid at the end of the Pleistocene. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10225/102 |
| Appears in Collections: | Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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