Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T02:07:57.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Viejo Period of Chihuahua Culture in Northwestern Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joe D. Stewart ,
Jane H. Kelley ,
A. C. MacWilliams  and
Paula J. Reimer
Joe D. Stewart
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON. Canada P7B 5E1 (jstewart@lakeheadu.ca)
Jane H. Kelley
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4 (kelley@ucalgary.ca)
A. C. MacWilliams
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4
Paula J. Reimer
Affiliation:
Centre for Climate, the Environment & Chronology, School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 INN, U.K. (P.J.Reimer@Queens-Belfast.AC.UK)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

“Chihuahua culture” refers to two prehistoric periods of ceramic agricultural occupation in northwestern Mexico. It has long been known that the Medio period (ca. A.D. 1200–1450), with substantial adobe pueblo villages and towns, and ceramics that included elaborate polychrome wares, occurred over a vast region in western and northern Chihuahua and northeastern Sonora. It was also recognized that the preceding Viejo period, with pithouse and wattle-and-daub surface architecture, and less elaborate ceramics, was ancestral, at least in part. However, the geographical extent, dating, and nature of the Viejo-Medio transition were unclear. Recent research by several field projects has demonstrated that Viejo and Medio period occupations were geographically coextensive, as was the transition. A foundation for Viejo period chronometric dating (ca. A.D. 700–1200) is now established by 30 radiocarbon determinations from excavations in west central Chihuahua and one from northeastern Sonora. We discuss the dimensions of the Viejo period in west central Chihuahua with data from 1998–2000 excavations by the PAC (Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua). It provides an example of a broad-based transition from a relatively simple to a relatively complex pattern, and new perspectives on the interpretation of radiocarbon dating.”

“La cultura Chihuahua” se refiere a dos periodos prehistóricos de ocupación de una población agrícola que conocía la cerámica, en el noroeste de México. El periodo Medio (ca. 1200–1450 a.C.) se dio en una amplia región al oeste y norte de Chihuahua y al noreste de Sonora, con pueblos y ciudades de adobe y una cerámica policroma. En el periodo Viejo anterior, la arquitectura se caracterizó por casas de ramas y lodo, así como una cerámica menos elaborada. La extensión geográfica, duración, y naturaleza de la transición del periodo Viejo al Medio no estan claros. Investigaciones recientes han demostrado que la ocupación de los periodos Viejo y Medio, así como la transición de uno a otro, coexistieron geográficamente. Además se ha establecido un lapso cronológico para el periodo Viejo (ca. 700–1200 a.C.) a través de pruebas de carbono catorce. Este trabajo examina la cronología del periodo Viejo en la región centro-occidental de Chihuahua. La información recabada a través de las excavaciones de 1998-2000 del PAC (Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua), proporciona un ejemplo de una transición general de un patrón relativamente simple a uno relativamente complejo y presenta nuevos puntos de vista en la interpretación de las fechas radiocarbónicas.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 2005 , pp. 169 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Brand, Donald D. 1933 The Historical Geography of Northwest Chihuahua. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Brand, Donald D. 1943 The Chihuahua Culture Area. New Mexico Anthropologist 6–7:115–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, C. E., Kenworthy, J. B., Litton, C. D., and Smith, A. F. M. 1991 Combining Archaeological and Radiocarbon Information: A Bayesian Approach to Calibration. Antiquity 65:808–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burd Larkin, Karin T., Kelley, Jane H., Hendrickson, Mitchell J. 2004 Ceramics as Temporal and Spatial Indicators in Chihuahuan Cultures. In Surveying the Archaeology of Northwest Mexico, edited by Gillian Newell and Emiliano Gallaga M., pp. 177–204. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Carey, Henry A. 1931 An Analysis of the Northwestern Chihuahuan Culture. American Anthropologist 33:325–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christen, J. Andrés 1994a Bayesian Interpretation of Radiocarbon Results. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, School of Mathematical Sciences, Division of Statistics, University of Nottingham, Nottingham.Google Scholar
Christen, J. Andrés 1994b Summarizing a Set ot’Radiocarbon Determinations: a Robust Approach. Applied Statistics 43:489–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordell, Linda 1997 Archaeology of the Southwest, second edition. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Creel, Darrell, and Long, A. 1986 Radiocarbon Dating of Corn. American Antiquity 51:826–837.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruz Antillón, Rafael, and Maxwell, Timothy D. 1999 The Villa Ahumada Site. In The Casas Grandes World, edited by Curtis F. Schaafsma and Carroll L. Riley, pp. 43–53. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Dean, Jeffrey S., and Ravesloot, John C. 1993 The Chronology of Cultural Interaction in the Gran Chichimeca. In Culture and Contact: Charles Di Peso’s Gran Chichimeca, edited by Anne Woosley and John C. Ravesloot, pp. 83–103. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Di Peso, Charles C. 1966 Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Northern Sierra. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, edited by Gordon F. Ekholm and Gordon R. Willey, pp. 3–25. Archaeological Frontiers and External Connections, Volume 4. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Di Peso, Charles C. 1974 Casas Grandes: A Fallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca, Vols. 1–3. Amerind Foundation Publications 9. Northland Press, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Di Peso, Charles C., Rinaldo, John B.. and Fenner, Gloria J. 1974 Casas Grandes: A Fallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca, Vols. 4–8. Amerind Foundation Publications 9. Northland Press, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Douglas, John E. 2000 Exchanges, Assumptions, and Mortuary Goods in Pre-Paquimé Chihuahua, Mexico. In The Archaeology of Regional Interaction Religion, Warfare, and Exchange Across the American Southwest and Beyond, edited by Michelle Hegmon, pp. 189–208. The University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Douglas, John E., and Quijada, César A. 2004a Between the Casas Grandes and Río Sonora Valleys: Chronology and Settlement in the Upper Bavispe Drainage. In Surveying the Archaeology of Northwest Mexico, edited by Gillian Newell and Emiliano Gallaga M., pp. 93–109. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Douglas, John E., and Quijada, César A. 2004b Not So Plain After All: First Millennium A.D. Textured Ceramics in Northeastern Sonora. KIVA 70:29–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, John E., and Quijada, César A. 2004c Di Peso’s Concept of the Northern Sierra: Evidence from the Upper Bavispe Valley. Sonora, Mexico. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Missoula.Google Scholar
Fralick, Philip W., Stewart, Joe D., and MacWilliams, A. C. 1998 Geochemistry of West Central Chihuahua Obsidian Nodules and Implications for the Derivation of Obsidian Artefacts. Journal of Archaeological Science 25:1023–1038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilman, Patricia A. 1987 Architecture as Artifact: Pit Structures and Pueblos in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 52:538–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guevara Sánchez, Arturo 1988 Arqueología del Valle de las Cuevas, Chihuahua reconocimietos. Cuaderno de trabajo 5, Instituto National de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Guevara Sánchez, Arturo 1992 Un sitio arqueológico Aldeano de Namiquipa, Chihuahua. In Tercer Congreso Internacional de Historia Regional Comparada 1991: Actas, editado por R. León García, pp. 41–45. Universidad Aútonoma de Ciudad Juárez, Juárez.Google Scholar
Hegmon, Michelle, Nelson, Margaret C., Anyon, Roger, Creel, Darrell, LeBlanc, Steven A., and Shafer, Harry J. 1999 Scale and Time-Space Systematics in the Post A.D. 1100 Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest. Kiva 65:143–1–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Warren D. 1992 Chronology of the El Zurdo Site, Chihuahua. Unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Hodgetts, Lisa M. 1996 Faunal Exploitation at the El Zurdo Site (Ch-159), a Horticultural Village in North-Central Chihuahua. KIVA 62:149–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley, J. Charles 1995 Trade Goods, Traders and Status in Northwestern Greater Mesoamerica, in The Gran Chichimeca: Essays on the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Northern Mesoamerica, edited by Jonathan E. Reyman, pp. 102–145. Worldwide Archaeology Series 12. Avebury, Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K. Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H., and Villalpando C., María Elisa 1996 An Overview of the Mexican Northwest. In Interpreting Southwestern Diversity: Underlying Principles and Overarching Patterns, edited by Paul R. Fish and J. Jefferson Reid, pp. 69–77. Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers No. 48, Tempe.Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H., Stewart, Joe D., and MacWilliams, Arthur C. 1999 Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua informe de la temporada de 1998. Ms. on file, Consejo de Arqueología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H., Stewart, Joe D., MacWilliams, Arthur C., and Neff, Loy C. 1999 A West Central Chihuahuan Perspective on Chihuahuan Culture. In, The Casas Grandes world, edited by Curtis F. Schaafsma and Carroll L. Riley, pp. 63–77. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H., Adams, Karen R., Burd, Karin T., Garvin, Richard A., Hendrickson, Mitchell J., Stewart, Joe D., and Webster, Monica 2000 Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua informe de la temporada de 1999. Ms. on file, Consejo de Arqueología. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H, Stewart, Joe D., and Burd, Karin T. 2000 Viejo Architecture in Namiquipa. Paper presented at the Tercera Reunión de la Frontera Norte de México, 29 junio – 1 julio 2000. Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, México Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H., Stewart, Joe D., Adams, Karen R., Burc Larkin, Karin T., Hart, David, and Webster, Monica 2001 Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua informe de la temporada de 2000. Ms. on file, Consejo de Arqueología Instituto Nacional de Antropología.Google Scholar
Kelley, Jane H., Stewart, Joe D., MacWilliams, A. C., and Adams, Karei R. 2004 Recent Research in West-Central Chihuahua. In Identity, Feasting, and the Archaeology of the Greater Southwest, edited by Barbara J. Mills, pp. 295–310. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred V. 1939 Notes on the Archaeology of the Babícora District, Chihuahua. In So Live the Works of Men, edited by Donald D. Brand and Fred E. Harvey, pp. 221–230. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Kintigh, Keith W. 2003 Tools for Quantitative Archaeology. Privately distributed by the author. Address: 2014 East Alameda Drive, Tempe, Arizona 85282–4002. Phone: (602) 968–7684. Email: Kintigh@asu.edu.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, Steven A. 1980 The Dating of Casas Grandes. American Antiquity 45:799–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lekson, Stephen H. 1984 Dating Casas Grandes. The Kiva 50:55–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, Robert H. 1953 Excavations in Cave Valley, Chihuahua, Mexico. American Antiquity 19:166–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, Robert H. 1958 Archaeological Excavations in the Northern Sierra Madre Occidental, Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. University of Colorado, Series in Anthropology, No. 7, Boulder.Google Scholar
MacWilliams, A. C. 2001a The Archaeology of Laguna Bustillos Basin, Chihuahua, México. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
MacWilliams, A. C. 2001b Beyond the reach of Casas Grandes: Archaeology in Central Chihuahua. In From Paquimé to Mata Ortiz: The Legacy of Ancient Casas Grandes, edited by G. Johnson, pp. 55–64. San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego.Google Scholar
MacWilliams, A. C, Stewart, Joe D., and Kelley, Jane H. 1996 A Synopsis of Chihuahuan Archaeology. Paper presented at the Sixth Biennial Southwest Symposium, Her-mosillo, Sonora.Google Scholar
MacWilliams, A. C, and Kelley, Jane H. 2004 A Ceramic Period Boundary in Central Chihuahua. In Surveying the Archaeology of Northwest Mexico, edited by Gillian Newell and Emiliano Gallaga M., pp. 247–264. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Minnis, Paul E., and Whalen, Michael E. 2004 Chihuahuan Archaeology: An Introductory History. In Surveying the Archaeology of Northwest Mexico, edited by Gillian Newell and Emiliano Gallaga M., pp. 113–126. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Oppelt, Norman P. 2002 List of Southwestern Pottery Types and Wares, with Dates and References to Descriptions and Illustrations. Oppelt Publications, Greeley, Colorado.Google Scholar
Orton, Clive 1980 Mathematics in Archaeology. William Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London.Google Scholar
Pailes, Richard A. 1980 The Upper Rio Sonora Valley in Prehistoric Trade. Transactions of the Illinois Academy of Science 72:20–39. Springfield.Google Scholar
Phelps, Alan L. 1998 An Inventory of Prehistoric Native American Sites in Northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. The Artifact 36:1–175.Google Scholar
Phillips, David A. Jr. 1989 Prehistory of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Journal of World Prehistory 3:373–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, David A. Jr., and Carpenter, John P. 1999 The Robles Phase of the Casas Grandes Culture. In The Casas Grandes World, edited by Curtis F. Schaafsma and Carroll L. Riley, pp. 78–83 University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Pitezel, T. Alan 2003 The Hilltop Site of El Pueblito. Archaeology Southwest 17:10.Google Scholar
Quijada López, César A., and Douglas, John E. 2003 El Valle Bavispe, entre las culturas Río Sonora y Casas Grandes. Noroeste de México 14:17–26.Google Scholar
Rakita, Gordon F. 2001 Social Complexity, Religious Organization, and Mortuary Ritual in the Casas Grandes Region of Chihuahua, Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Ravesloot, John C, Dean, Jeffrey S., and Foster, Michael S. 1995 A New Perspective on the Casas Grandes Tree Ring Dates. In The Gran Chichimeca:Essays on the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Northern Mesoamerica, edited by Jonathan Reyman, pp. 240–251. Avebury Press, Brook-field, Vermont.Google Scholar
Sayles, Edward B. 1933 Detail Sheets of the Gila Pueblo Chihuahua Survey. Documents on file at the Arizona State Museum Archives, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Sayles, Edward B. 1936 An Archaeological Survey of Chihuahua, Mexico. Medallion Papers 22. Gila Pueblo Foundation, Globe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Schaafsma, Curtis F, and Riley, Carroll L. 1999 The Casas Grandes World: Analysis and Conclusion. In The Casas Grandes World, edited by Curtis F. Schaafsma and Carroll L. Riley, pp. 237–250. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Skibo, James M., and Walker, William H. (editors) 2002 The Joyce Well Site On the Frontier of the Casas Grandes World. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Stewart, Joe D. 1984 Jornada Ceramics at Casas Grandes: Chronology and Interaction. Pottery Southwest 11:1–3.Google Scholar
Stewart, Joe D., MacWilliams, A. C., and Kelley, Jane H. 2004 Archaeological Chronology of West Central Chihuahua. In Surveying the Archaeology of Northwest Mexico, edited by Gillian Newell and Emiliano Gallaga M., pp. 205–245. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Polach, H. A. 1977 Discussion: Reporting of Radiocarbon Data. Radiocarbon 19:355–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, Ronald W. 2000 CALIB Rev. 4.3. Electronic computer program and document, http://www.calib.org. (2/24/2004).Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., Bard, E., Beck, J. W., Burr, G. S.. Hughen, K. A., Kromer, B., McCormac, G., van derPlicht, J., and Spurk, M. 1998 INTCAL 98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 24,000-0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40:1041–1083.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, G. K., and Wilson, S. R. 1978 Procedures for Comparing and Combining Radiocarbon Age Determinations: A Critique. Archaeometry 20:19–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, Monica 2001 Prehistoric Diet and Human Adaptation in West Central Chihuahua, Mexico. Unpublished Masters thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Whalen, Michael E., and Minnis, Paul E. 1996 The Context of Production in and Around Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico. In Interpreting Southwestern Diversity: Underlying Principles and Overarching Patterns, edited by Paul R. Fish and J. Jefferson Reid, pp. 173–182. Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers No. 48. Tempe.Google Scholar
Whalen, Michael E., and Minnis, Paul E. 2001 Casas Grandes and its Hinterland. The University of Arizona Press. Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whalen, Michael E., and Minnis, Paul E. 2003 The Local and the Distant in the Origin of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. American Antiquity 68:314–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar