Abstract
Professional and avocational archaeologists have recovered thousands of perishable artifacts from caves and rockshelters across the southern US Southwest, but few have been radiocarbon dated. This article reviews thirty AMS radiocarbon dates obtained on perishable items from nine shrine caves in the Jornada and Mimbres Mogollon regions of south-central New Mexico and west Texas. Dates were obtained from fragments of tablitas, effigies, prayer sticks, projectile point foreshafts, and flat curved sticks. Several convey iconographic elements of the Jornada Style of rock art while others are implements and weapons, but all were deposited in shrine caves. Problems inherent in the dating of shrine cave deposits and perishable artifacts are reviewed and technical matters involving contamination, curation, context, and sample materials are discussed. Analysis reveals several significant trends, one of the most salient being that the Goggle-eye motif, a signature element of Jornada and Mimbres iconography, has greater antiquity than previously assumed.
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