THE ROLE OF EL PASO POLYCHROME IN REFINING SITE CHRONOLOGY AT ROADMAP VILLAGE AND LAS ANIMAS VILLAGE, NEW MEXICO

Abstract

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries of the Late Postclassic period (ca. A.D. 1200 – 1450), a cluster of large pueblo villages formed along western tributaries of the Rio Grande in the eastern Mimbres area. These appear to have been contemporaneous but dissimilar in several regards. They exhibit a high degree of variability in architectural style, settlement layout, and frequency of nonlocal diagnostic ceramics. Mogollon Prehistoric Landscapes Project (MPLP) research focuses, in part, on determining whether the occupations of these pueblos were indeed coincident with one another, and whether different traditions co-occurred within this cluster.El Paso Polychrome, found at most of the sites in the Late Postclassic eastern Mimbres cluster, can be used to assess the contemporaneity of sites. As a ceramic type, it dates to ca. A.D. 1100–1450, a relatively long time period. Jomada-produced El Paso Polychrome jars, however, have temporally sensitive rim attributes and can be ordered in time using established micro-seriation. An initial study of El Paso Polychrome rim sherds recovered at Roadmap Village (LA45157) and Las Animas Village (LA3949)—which appear to represent different cultural traditions— demonstrates the value of the type by placing the two sites in refined chronological context. The same technique was then applied to ceramics from individual rooms at Roadmap Village to better understand intrasite occupational change. Although limited, results suggest that the Late Postclassic components of both pueblos lasted longer than previously thought and, though overlapping, were not entirely contemporaneous. Similarly, data suggest temporal disparity between two excavated sections of Roadmap Village that appear strikingly different in the archaeological record.