The Water Canyon Paleoindian Site - Preliminary Evidence of Site Formation Processes, Site Structure and Late Paleoindian Lifeways (original) (raw)

In, 2013 From the Pueblos to the Southern Plains: Papers in Honor of Regge N. Wiseman, pp. 51-63, edited by Emily J. Brown, Carol J. Condie, and Helen K. Crotty. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico 39, Albuquerque. PALEOINDIAN REMAINS IN NEW MEXICO are relatively rare with just over 1,200 Paleoindian sites and isolated projectile points documented in the New Mexico Archaeological Records Management System (ARMS) database. While the majority of Paleoindian manifestations may be points only, they constitute less than 1 percent of all documented “sites” in the state. More signifi cantly, fewer than 20 Paleoindian sites have been professionally excavated to any degree in New Mexico and, of those, good bone preservation at open, excavated Paleoindian sites is rarer still. Such sites include the type site for the Clovis culture—Black Water Draw; the type site for the Folsom culture—the Folsom site; and Milnesand, Ted Williams, Elida, and San Jon along the western edge of the high plains. Other open sites in other parts of the state, such as Ake, Boca Negra, and Mockingbird Gap, have produced some desiccated bone fragments and pieces of tooth enamel. Within that context, the discovery of the Water Canyon site (LA 134764) in Socorro County is signifi cant in that it represents the fi rst opportunity in west-central New Mexico to investigate an intact Paleoindian site with well-preserved faunal remains. It is also one of few such sites across the state directly associated with a robust record of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental change.