The Paleoindian and Archaic Occupation of Grants, New Mexico: A Review and Reanalysis of the Grants San Jose Sites and Projectile Point Collections

Abstract

In the late 1930s Joseph Toulouse Jr., Kirk Bryan, and Bryan McCann published two articles describing the archaeology and geology of seventeen preceramic sites near Grants, New Mexico. George Agogino, Jim Hester, and William Roosa periodically revisited a subset of these sites during the 50s and 60s, publishing three brief articles and collecting additional artifacts. Despite the importance of these sites to the history of preceramic research in Northern New Mexico, no complete inventory or analysis of the projectile point collections has been undertaken to date. In this article, we provide: (1) a brief history of the Grants San Jose collections, (2) an inventory of diagnostic projectile points, (3) an analysis of raw materials represented and geochemical analysis of a sample of volcanic dart points, and (4) a brief discussion of the collections’ implications for the pre-ceramic archaeology of the Grants area.