Continued Interdisciplinary Research at the Water Canyon Paleoindian Site (LA 134764) - 2012 (original) (raw)
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The Water Canyon site now comprises a minimum of two Late Paleoindian components at two tem-porally distinct bison kill/butchering locales and a potential Clovis component. The former, in Locus 1, primarily on the south bank of No Name Arroyo, and in Locus 5 along a deeply buried possible ancient drainage meander, are represented by butchered bison bone beds with associated flaked stone artifacts. An additional Late Paleoindian component—perhaps associated with Locus 5 materials—is thought to exist at Locus 4. A Clovis component may exist in Locus 3, based on the recovery of a Clovis point base from the surface and the results of OSL dating in Backhoe Trench 4. The robust late Pleistocene—early Holocene paleoenvironmental archive in the “Black Mat,” from which we have recovered additional macrobotanical, pollen and phytolith samples, is allowing us to more thoroughly reconstruct the paleoecology of the site and its environs. While many chronometric samples have been processed and their dates reported in this volume, additional environmental and analytical data will be presented in future reports after all labora-tory analyses have been completed.
OCA Report No. 185-1318, 2021
This report describes the final archaeological and interdisciplinary research efforts completed at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site (LA 134764) under the direction of Dr. Robert Dello-Russo as the Principal Investigator. These efforts occurred during the 2015 and 2016 field seasons, and included manual and mechanical excava-tions in the field and the recovery of a broad range of physical samples. The report discusses these and provides the results of some analytical studies (such as the development of an age-depth model using both previously and newly acquired radiocarbon dates). The results of laboratory-based analyses are also discussed in the body of the report; the detailed analytical reports by individual specialists are provided in the report appendices. These analyses included a phytolith study (Appendix C), a diatom study (Appendix D), a ground stone residue analysis (Appendix E), and a soil micromorphological study (Appendix F). Additional appendices include the Field Sample Log (Appendix A) for all work done during the 2015 and 2016 seasons, locations and descriptions for all mechanical sediment cores (Appendix B), and reports from radiocarbon dating laboratories for all chro-nometric samples submitted after the 2015–2016 seasons (Appendix G). Appendix H comprises a listing of all publications (peer reviewed and otherwise), presentations, papers, and posters that derived from work at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site. Further, within the report, there is a summary of recently acquired chronometric dates for the site and a summary of temporally diagnostic projectile points. The report closes with a brief discussion of potential future directions for research at the site, conclusions, and a references section.
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.
The Water Canyon Paleoindian Site - A New Window into New Mexico's Distant Past
El Palacio, Volume 54 2012 - from a scientific point of view, New Mexico has been pivotal in the history of archaeological thought. Noteworthy finds such as the 1908 discovery of the Folsom type site (near Folsom) and the 1929 discovery of the Clovis type site at Blackwater Draw (near Portales) are the basis for our understanding of the early human presence in the New World. Information from those sites provided us a first glimpse of a world that was very different from today’s, one in which stone tools enabled hunter-gatherers to kill large animals that are now extinct. Over the intervening decades since those discoveries, archaeologists have, in fits and starts, found new windows into that ancient past and broadened our understanding of human life at the end of the late Pleistocene geological epoch and the beginning of the Holocene epoch (ca. 13,000 to 8,000 years ago).
The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico is directly associated with an extensive buried wet meadow deposit. While extant across the Pleistocene – Holocene transition and into the middle Holocene, this landscape-scale deposit arguably represented a persistent, regional wetland resource, not only for plants and animals, but Paleoindian groups as well. Today, as a black mat, it represents an important proxy data archive for environmental, climatic and archaeological reconstruction. Our recent research efforts at the site have focused largely on the period from 8300 to 9900 radiocarbon years ago, and have generated a range of proxy data, including dated pollen profiles, stable carbon isotope data sets, charcoal species identifications and both faunal and macrobotanical remains. These findings provide us with provocative glimpses of past climates in a heretofore understudied region of the American Southwest.
AbstrAct—The Water Canyon Paleoindian site near Socorro, New Mexico, is directly associated with an extensive buried wetland deposit, or black mat. This landscape-scale feature, which was extant across the late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition, represents the remains of a wetland resource that, during the early Holocene, may have served as an ecological refugium for flora, fauna and Paleoindian groups as other regional water sources disappeared. Today the organic-rich deposit has proved to be an important proxy data archive for environmental , climatic and archaeological reconstructions. Our recent paleoenvironmental reconstruction efforts at the site have focused largely on the period from ~8300 to 11,100 radiocarbon years ago, and have generated a range of proxy data, including dated pollen profiles, stable carbon isotope values, charcoal species identifications, and both faunal and macrobotanical remains. The pollen data currently provide the most robust basis for our paleoenvironmental reconstruction and, together with our chronometric data, affirm that the black-mat forming wetland served as a persistent place of ecological diversity. These findings provide us with provocative glimpses of past environments in a heretofore largely understudied region of the American Southwest, and add to a growing body of Southwest reconstructions that will ultimately enable researchers to compare paleoenvironments and paleoclimates at both local and regional scales.