Award Date

May 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Anthropology

First Committee Member

Barbara Roth

Second Committee Member

Karen Harry

Third Committee Member

Jiemin Bao

Fourth Committee Member

John Tuman

Number of Pages

127

Abstract

This research project investigates stone tool technology at pithouse and pueblo sites in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. Starting around AD 550, people in this area were shifting from mobile foragers who moved in seasonal rounds to sedentary village farmers. This process of subsistence change sparked further changes in material culture and social organization across the Mimbres region. The dissertation focuses on lithic debitage, the stone flakes and rock shatter that resulted from reducing stone cores into usable cutting and scraping tools. Debitage from three Mimbres sites, the Harris site, La Gila Encantada, and Elk Ridge were analyzed to address the relationship between debitage reduction, technological style, and social units at the Mimbres sites. Analysis results showed a reduction sequence common to the three sites, as well as a consistent pattern of material use and flake morphology inferred as technological style. These findings were used to consider how communities of practice and learning frameworks related to debitage reduction and how Mimbres debitage fit into the overall picture of Mimbres Mogollon technological identity during the Late Pithouse (AD 550-1000) and Mimbres Classic (AD 1000-1130) periods.

Keywords

debitage; identity; lithic style; Mimbres; Mogollon; Southwest

Disciplines

Archaeological Anthropology

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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