The Identification and Distribution of the Ceramic Types in the Rio Puerco Area, Central New Mexico

Author

Dorothy Louise Luhrs

Publication Date

Summer 6-5-1937

Abstract

The Rio Puerco valley of the East has had a small proportion of human occupants with recent years and by the ceramic evidence available it is supposed that there was a small number of occupants living in the valley in prehistoric times. The earliest inhabitants probably entered the valley prior to channel trenching and surface denudation and possibly maintained small fields through flood water farming.

The ceramic evidence implies that there have been frequent group movements through the Rio Puerco area, thereby revealing the valley to be a migration route through which many different groups passed from early to late times. The migrations probably took place as early as 800 A.D. and varied in their intensity through 1700 A.D. In the former case the aborigines moved by some influences unknown to archaeology; in the later years, especially in the Historic era, the movements were due to the conflicts between the Indians and the Spaniards.

The pottery stages, i.e., Basket-Maker III to Pueblo IV are found in the Rio Puerco in varying amounts. In addition the pottery types are altered from their true form to give hybrids in painted wares and in glazed wares, at the same time retaining the original form which is not exceed in numbers by the hybrid forms.

Keywords

Pueblo Pottery, Ancestral Pueblos, Rio Puerco, Mesa Verde Black on White, Santa Fe Black on White

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Donald Dilworth Brand

Second Committee Member

Florence May Hawley

Third Committee Member

Edward Franklin Castetter

Recommended Citation

Luhrs, Dorothy Louise. "The Identification and Distribution of the Ceramic Types in the Rio Puerco Area, Central New Mexico." (1937). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/118