Tewa Place Names for Early Habitation Sites in the Northern Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACTPlace names have the potential to aid in the investigation of regional settlement histories because they reflect the importance of specific locations in the social or cultural memories of indigenous groups. Unique place names for ancient habitation sites such as villages or hamlets, i.e., those names for which there are no cognates in other languages, suggest that those ancient villages or hamlets still retain the names given to them by their original inhabitants. Here, we present Tewa place names for habitation sites identified archaeologically in the northern Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. The results of our study strongly suggest that the Tewa language was spoken in the northern Rio Grande Valley, specifically, within the southern Tewa Basin, as early as the Late Developmental period (a.d. 900–1200), thus challenging the currently well-accepted model postulating a Mesa Verde origin for the Tewa language and culture.