Jornada Research Institute

Schedule of Events

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FRIDAY, MAY 5

9:00 ─ 5:00     Set up for Venders and Exhibitors (Room 4)

11:00 ─ 7:30   Registration: Conference and Field Trips (Room 4)

1:00 ─ 3:00     Board of Trustees Meeting (Room 1/Sierra Blanca Room)

3:15 ─ 4:15     Rock Art Meeting (Room 1/Sierra Blanca Room)

4:15 ─ 5:00     Certification Meeting (Room 1/Sierra Blanca Room)

5:00 ─ 6:00     Meet and Greet, Cash Bar (Room 4)

6:00 ─ 7:30     Buffet (Rooms 5 and 6)

7:00 ─ 7:15     Welcome to Ruidoso and Southern New Mexico (Rooms 5 and 6)

7:15 ─ 9:00     Keynote Address (Rooms 5 and 6) by David Greenwald, Conference Chairperson, Jornada Research Institute

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF TULAROSA CANYON: AD 600-900

By David Greenwald

Abstract:
Tularosa Canyon contains numerous archaeological resources, primarily Jornada Mogollon and Historic period sites. This presentation focuses on those that date to the Mesilla phase of the Jornada sequence documented primarily in the past 20 years and further investigated by Jornada Research Institute over the past 10 years.

Our research efforts have examined the archaeological remains in the Tularosa Canyon project area as a cultural landscape. These studies show the spatial distribution of sites, and their contemporaneity represent small-scale irrigation communities. Jornada Mogollon people constructed irrigation systems that diverted water from the Rio Tularosa. They also created reservoirs and constructed terraced agricultural fields with smaller ditch systems. Villages consisted of multiple residential wards that were located along the irrigation canals. These residential wards were located on elevated landforms and scattered in a similar distribution as the linear nature of the irrigation systems. At least one great kiva was present within each irrigation system; the function of these great kivas likely served a range of functions, none being domestic in nature, and some have now been determined to have been observatories in addition to their communal administrative, socio-political, and likely ritual functions.

Our investigations show that sites such as Creekside Village were permanently occupied villages, with populations represented by the dispersed residential wards estimated at 200 or more people at any given time. Pithouses were several times larger than previously documented Mesilla phase pithouses, capable of housing extended families of perhaps 10 or more individuals. Ubiquity levels of maize recovered from botanical samples indicate that maize represented minimally 80 percent of all plant remains considered foods or potential foods.

The Mesilla phase remains thus far documented in Tularosa Canyon provide several important additions to Mesilla phase assemblages: great kivas, irrigation systems, permanent year-round villages, and terraced agricultural fields. The full impact of the data being gathered from the communities in Tularosa Canyon upon previous perspectives of the Mesilla phase Jornada Mogollon remains to be determined, but seemingly will be profound.

Biography:
Dave Greenwald is the President of Jornada Research Institute, Director of the Tularosa Canyon Archaeological Program, and a Trustee of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. With 50 years of archaeological experience, Dave moved to Tularosa in 1997 from Arizona. While in Arizona, Dave worked on numerous Hohokam projects, many involving irrigation systems. Armed with that experience, he immediately began recognizing irrigation canals and ditches in Tularosa Canyon. In 2004, he discovered the great kiva at what was later named Creekside Village. In 2011, Dave and others founded Jornada Research Institute, a non-profit to study the archaeology in Tularosa Canyon and provide learning opportunities for both vocational and avocational archaeologists. All efforts to document the sites being studied in Tularosa Canyon have been on a volunteer basis, supported by donations and small grants.

SATURDAY, MAY 6

8:00 AM Registration opens (Room 4)
8:30 ─ 8:45 Welcome/Announcements by David Greenwald (Rooms 5 and 6)
9:00 ─ 11:45 Presentations by Guest Speakers (Rooms 5 and 6)
12:00 ─ 1:30 Lunch on your own
12:00 ─ 1:45 Board Meeting (12:00 – 1:30) followed by Business Meeting (Rooms 5 and 6)
2:00 ─ 5:15 Presentations by Guest Speakers (Rooms 5 and 6)
5:30 ─ 6:30 Social Hour/Cash Bar (Room 4)
6:00 Silent Auction Ends
6:30 ─ 7:30 Dinner and Awards
7:30 ─ 9:00 Bandelier Lecture: by Myles Miller: Jornada Mogollon Pueblo Communities in Time, Space, and Thought (Rooms 5 and 6)

SUNDAY, MAY 7 TOURS

8:00 AM Creekside Village (free) led by David Greenwald: meet in front of the Ruidoso Convention Center to caravan to the site (ca. 35 miles).
8:30 AM Willow Spring Petroglyph Site (donation) led by Lay Powell: meet at the ball field in Carrizozo along US 380 ½ mile east of the US 54/380 junction.
8:00 AM Rio Bonito Petroglyph Trail (free) led by Mike Bilbo: meet at the Ruidoso Convention Center to caravan to the Rio Bonito.
7:30 AM Three Rivers Petroglyph Site (BLM fee per car load) led by Joan Price: meet at the parking lot at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site.
9:00 AM Monjeau Look Out (free) led by Bill Sapp, USFS: meet in front of the Ruidoso Convention Center and caravan to Monjeau.

TOURS CONT.
Sign up for the tour that you are interested in participating. Participation is limited only to those who registered for the conference as there will likely be few spaces on the tours than conference attendees.

Additional tour information will be available at the Registration Table or ask the tour leader for details. We realize that some logistic may need to change prior to the start of the annual meeting.

For each tour, wear a hat, sun screen or clothing that covers, good walking shoes (mesquite thorns will go through sneakers), bring snacks or a lunch, water or other liquids, and be prepared for up to 3 hrs on some tours. Temperatures will be in the high 80s or low 90s. Creekside will require walking about 1.5 miles on irregular trails.

PRESENTATIONS

HOW OLD ARE THE WHITE SANDS FOOTPRINTS? WHY RUPPIA LAKE BALLS ARE A PROBLEM

By Dave M. Rachal, Robert Dello-Russo, Jim Mead,
and Matthew T. Cuba
Saturday 9:00 – 9:25 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Ruppia cirrhosa (Ruppia) seed layers have been used to constrain the age of footprints along the eastern shoreline of Paleo-lake Otero in southern New Mexico to around 21,000–23,000 calibrated years before the present. Many of these Ruppia seed layers contain tightly interwoven ball-like aggregations made of Ruppia stems and seeds. We provide new evidence that these balls and seed layers were introduced to the discovery location by high-wind seiche events during Late Pleistocene thunderstorms. In our proposed site formation model, the Ruppia plants and seeds originated in deeper brackish water settings outside the site, thus it is very likely that the hard-water effect has impacted the accuracy of the radiocarbon dates. As such, the radiocarbon assays of Ruppia seeds previously used to date the prehistoric footprints along Paleolake Otero could be thousands of years too old.

Biographies:
Dr. Dave Rachal is a professional geomorphology/ geoarchaeology consultant. He has over 12 years of professional experience consulting in southern New Mexico and west Texas. Dave has been involved in all phases of archaeological investigations including survey, testing and evaluation, and data recovery projects throughout the southwest. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Soil Science and Physical Geography from New Mexico State University. His research interests include soil geomorphology, modern and paleo-eolian systems, geoarchaeology, Quaternary environments, and arid pedology.

Dr. Robert Dello-Russo is the Director Emeritus of the Office of Contract Archeology and retired Research Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico. Previous positions include Deputy Director of the Office of Archaeological Studies, NM Department of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Resources lead for the NM Department of Game & Fish, and owner and co-principal of Escondida Research Group, LLC. During his almost 40-year archaeology career, Robert has worked primarily in the American Southwest. He also engaged in field work in the mountains and plains of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, the Great Basin of Oregon and the Pacific coast of Washington. His specialties include Paleoindian archaeology of western North America, geoarchaeology, hunter-gatherer studies, lithic analysis, and chronometrics. For 20 years, Robert was the Principal Investigator for interdisciplinary studies at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site in west-central New Mexico. He now lives in Montana, back where he first began his career.

Dr. Jim Mead is the current Director of Research at The Mammoth Site in South Dakota and retired Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University. Previous positions include Paleontologist at the University of Maine – Center for the Study of Early Man and Chair for the Department of Geosciences at East Tennessee State University. During his 40-year paleontology career, Jim has published over 170 professional articles in journals and book chapters. His current research interests include paleontology and paleoenvironments at The Mammoth Site and cave paleontology in the Great Basin (Nevada), Trans-Pecos region in Texas, and the many caves in the Black Hills.

For Matthew T. Cuba, see his biography listed under his presentation.

BLACKWATER DRAW IN REVIEW: PAST AND CURRENT RESEARCH AT THE CLOVIS TYPE-SITE

By Brendon P. Asher
Saturday 9:30 – 9:55 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1, the Clovis type-site, was first investigated by professional archaeologists over 90 years ago. Since that time, numerous excavations have been conducted by different institutions, the results of which have shaped our current understandings of past human behavior in the Southern High Plains region. This presentation reviews the rich history of archaeological research and excavations at the site since 1929, and highlights significant discoveries and contributions to the field of archaeology. As a National Landmark maintained by Eastern New Mexico University, the site and museum today strive to foster public outreach and education. Ongoing excavation projects and continued research as well as the difficulties associated with maintaining an open excavation for public display are discussed. Plans for future interactive exhibits and public outreach opportunities are noted.

Biography:
Brendon P. Asher is the Director of the Blackwater Draw National Historic Landmark and Museum and an Assistant Professor at Eastern New Mexico University. He has over 20 years of archaeological experience primarily within the Great Plains region. His interests focus on land-use studies of prehistoric groups revolving around lithic procurement practices, lithic transportation and use, prehistoric subsistence strategies, and butchering practices. As the director of the Clovis type-site, he is also interested in discussions of the early peopling of the Americas and has worked at several pre-Clovis sites throughout the Plains region.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SMALL-SCALE TESTING, AND GEOMORPHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ALONG SALADO DRAW, LEA COUNTY, NEW MEXICO

By Samuel Cason, Jill Onken, Michael Heilen, Phillip Leckman, Kimberley Babicz, and Taylor McCoy
Saturday 10:00 – 10:25 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Statistical Research, Inc. conducted investigations in the far southeastern corner of New Mexico along Salado Draw, a small drainage between the Pecos River and the Southern High Plains. The project was carried out under the BLM’s Permian Basin Programmatic Agreement, Blanket Purchase No. 11. Our presentation highlights what we have learned from extensive geomorphological investigations, Transect Recording Unit (TRU) survey, small-scale excavations, and special studies. We discuss how the landscape evolved over the past 24,000 years and how settlement and land use changed from Clovis to post-Formative times. The archaeology of the ~7000-acre study area is noteworthy for several reasons. It contains the highest known density of Paleoindian artifacts (29 projectile points) in the BLM’s Carlsbad Field Office region. In addition to deeply buried Paleoindian-age depositional units, unexpected residential occupations dating to the Late Archaic through post-Formative were identified, some of which appear to be closely associated with an unprecedented number of bedrock mortars (ca. 800). Spatial analyses of TRU and excavation data help to delineate potential small villages amidst dense archaeological sites that add new dimensions to our understanding of indigenous settlement on the Mescalero Plain.

Biographies:
Samuel Cason, M.A., is a Senior Project Director at Statistical Research, Inc. Samuel has worked as an archaeologist in the Rocky Mountain region of the American West and in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas and New Mexico for 25 years. Much of his research has focused on the Big Bend portion of West Texas and the Permian Basin.

Jill Onken, Ph.D, RPA, is an Independent Geoarchaeology & Geomorphology Consultant Research Associate with the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona. She has been involved in projects throughout the western U.S., but in recent years she has been working primarily in southeast New Mexico and along the Guatemala border with Mexico.

Michael Heilen, Ph.D, RPA, is the Director of the Center for the Study of Cultural Landscapes, Statistical Research, Inc., and a Board Member of the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis.

Phillip O. Leckman, M.A., RPA, is the Director of the Cartography and Geospatial Technologies Department at Statistical Research, Inc.

Kimberley Babicz serves as a Geospatial Technician for Statistical Research, Inc. Kimberley received her M.A. focusing on Egyptian archaeology from the University of Chicago and has worked at several sites in the Middle East. She recently worked for the University of Chicago’s Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership, where she used remote sensing techniques to look for archaeological sites in Afghanistan.

Taylor McCoy, M.A., is the Blackwater Draw Museum Collections Manager at Eastern New Mexico University.

Break 10:30 – 10:45
GYPSUM OVERLOOK: PALEO-ARCHAIC OCCUPATION OF THE TULAROSA BASIN

By Matthew Cuba and Joel Butler
Saturday 10:45 – 11:10 (Rooms 5 & 6)
Abstract:
The chronology of the prehistoric occupation of the Tularosa Basin is well established and traditionally has begun with the fluorescence of the Clovis culture and proceeding through the Paleoindian period and into the Archaic. However, the transition from Paleoindian to Archaic is poorly understood and even less-well dated. Recent findings along the eastern shoreline of Paleo Lake Otero offer a rare opportunity to view a single component Paleo-Archaic site that has retained intact features, including habitation structures, hearth features, and a unique and diverse assemblage. The habitation structures encountered at LA 199959 (Gypsum Overlook) are the earliest dated habitation structures thus far recorded in the American Southwest and represent the first holistic view of what a Paleo-Archaic occupation looks like in the Tularosa Basin.

Biographies:
Matthew Cuba (MA) is a Cultural Resource Manager at Holloman Air Force Base in the Tularosa Basin.

Joel Butler (MA) serves as Principal Investigator at Westwood Archaeological Services, Buda, Texas.

SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES IN THE PERMIAN BASIN: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF RING-MIDDEN SITES IN THE CARLSBAD, NEW MEXICO FIELD OFFICE DISTRICT

By Evan Giomi
Saturday 11:15 – 11:40 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Between 2018 and 2022, Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI) conducted intensive pedestrian survey of 60,429 acres across seven parcels within the Bureau of Land Management Carlsbad, New Mexico Field Office District (BLM-CFO). While all cultural materials within the survey areas were recorded, the primary goal of this work was to provide data for a comparative study of ring-midden features within the Permian Basin of southeastern New Mexico. Ring-midden features are found throughout southeastern New Mexico and are accumulations of fire-cracked rock (FCR) and sediment resulting from repeated use of earth ovens for cooking with heated rocks. Because of their association with cooking, ring-middens are a valuable line of evidence for understanding subsistence use of the Permian Basin landscape. SRI survey crews recorded contextual information and both metric and morphological attributes for more than 1300 ring-middens and more than 900 additional FCR features across seven study parcels. This presentation reports on the scope of this study and preliminary analysis of the collected ring-midden data.

Biography:
Evan Giomi is a project director for Statistical Research, Inc., Albuquerque office. He received his Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Arizona in January 2022. His expertise includes ceramic analysis and both Spanish Colonial and Puebloan archaeology.

Lunch 11:45 – 2:00
CAÑADA ALAMOSA AND THE JORNADA MOGOLLON

By Karl Laumbach
Saturday 2:00 – 2:25 (Rooms 5 & 6)
Abstract:
Cañada Alamosa is located in a high walled canyon on the Rio Alamosa in southwestern Socorro County, New Mexico. Beginning in 1999 Human Systems Research conducted a wide range of archaeological and historical studies that were primarily, but not exclusively, focused on four sites that collectively yielded a 4000-year record of human occupation. Analyses of recovered materials are now in the final stages and have revealed that the well-watered Cañada Alamosa was the venue for a series of population influxes and abandonments from ca. A.D. 600 through A.D 1400. A geomorphic study coupled with macrobotanical material from the four sites has provided an outline of prehistoric and historic climate change, documenting periods of erosion and stability and the resultant changes in plant communities.

Although scant evidence supports a population influx from the Jornada Mogollon area, ample data show constant contact throughout the pithouse to pueblo sequence. In some cases Cañada Alamosa was the recipient of eastern ceramics, but in others it has been demonstrated that the Jornada Mogollon area was the beneficiary of western ceramics that flowed through the Canada Alamosa before being traded to the east.

Whereas the shifts in climate demonstrated by the geomorphic study are most appropriately tied to the local sequence, the study is also a valuable addition to regional interpretations of prehistoric climate change. Data from the Desert Project in the Las Cruces area, packrat middens in the San Andres Mountains and geomorphic data from the Three Rivers drainage have all contributed to the Cañada Alamosa study and made it clear that the major changes showcased at Cañada Alamosa were regional in scope.

Biography:
Raised on a northeastern New Mexico ranch located between Springer and Cimarron, Karl Laumbach has pursued an archaeological career in southern New Mexico since 1972. A graduate of New Mexico State University, he directed projects for the NMSU contract archaeology program for nine years before joining Human Systems Research, Inc. (HSR) in 1983. After serving as Executive Director of that organization for 10 years, he is now an Associate Director and Principal Investigator for HSR. His research interests are varied, including historical research in his native northeastern New Mexico, the pueblo archaeology of southern New Mexico, and the history and archaeology of the Apache. Fascinated with the history of south-central and southwestern New Mexico, Karl has been involved in recording sites and collecting history of that area for the last 50 years. His interaction with private landowners has been integral in the preservation of numerous archaeological sites. Another major effort has been the Cañada Alamosa Project, a research program that explores the last 4000 years of human occupation and environmental change in the Rio Alamosa drainage of Socorro and Sierra Counties.

Active in public education, Karl has co-authored a curriculum for New Mexico school teachers entitled “Capture the Past”, published by Eastern New Mexico University. Another publication is Hembrillo: An Apache Battlefield of the Victorio War” available through the White Sands Missile Range Museum web site. Karl was a gubernatorial appointment on the Cultural Properties Review Committee for the State of New Mexico from 1997 to 2003. Active in the history of Sierra County, he has been affiliated with the board of directors for the Sierra County Historical Society and Geronimo Springs Museum since 1992. Karl lives and works in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his wife Toni and their son Kristopher.

UNCOVERING THE RESIDENTIAL COMPLEXITY OF WEST DRY LAKE PUEBLO, LA 104864

By Alexander Kurota
Saturday 2:30 – 2:55 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Recent Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico field projects on White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) have revealed evidence for extensive residential features often buried just beneath the ground surface. Careful documentation of surface artifact concentrations mixed with ashy sediments and a placement of targeted testing units within tank trail roads have provided glimpses into the diversity of architectural features at West Dry Lake Pueblo, LA 104864. The results of these testing efforts indicate that West Dry Lake Pueblo consisted of two major adobe room-block complexes with each complex consisting of a maze of pit structures and above ground rooms. The adobe architecture indicates the use of four different types of adobe construction. These features have been partially exposed within WSMR tank trails and maintenance roads. Updates on the results of ceramics, lithic, faunal and macrobotanical analyses and a complete set of radiocarbon dates are presented.

Biography:
Originally from Nitra, Slovakia, Alexander Kurota received an M.A. in Anthropology at Wichita State University and currently operates as a Project Director at Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico. He currently is an Archaeology Projects Administrator for the Office of Contract Archeology, Univerisity of New Mexico. Alex has 26 years of experience working in the American Southwest primarily in Arizona and New Mexico. In the past 20 years, his research has focused on the archaeology of White Sands, Tularosa Basin and the general southern New Mexico region. He has been highly active in researching southwestern ceramics and is on the editorial board of Pottery Southwest. For over two decades now, Alex has collaborated with many colleagues on the introduction of a variety of new southwestern ceramic types. Most recently, he participated on the sub-division of El Paso Polychrome into four temporally sensitive sub-types. Alex also is acting as a Research Associate and a Board Member at Jornada Research Institute. In 2022, he became the JRI’s Vice President.

PUEBLO ON THE PLAINS: THE MERCHANT SITE OF SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO.

By Myles R. Miller, Tim Graves, John Speth, and Mark Willis
Saturday 3:00 – 3:25 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Two seasons of archaeological investigations at the Merchant site sponsored by the Carlsbad Field Office (CFO) of the BLM have revealed one of the more unusual and important prehistoric settlements in southeastern New Mexico. First excavated by Robert Leslie and Lea County Archaeological Society 60 years agos, the Merchant site remained a somewhat legendary yet mostly unpublished mystery of southern New Mexico prehistory. In 2016, the CFO contracted Versar, Inc. to conduct remedial excavations to recover information from looted features and stabilize the site. A second season of fieldwork was completed in 2019 to further examine domestic rooms, kivas, and suspected agricultural fields. The Merchant site is a pueblo settlement of sixty or more jacal rooms, kivas, agricultural gridded fields, and exceptionally dense midden deposits containing thousands of bison, antelope, and deer bones. Chemical compositional analysis determined Ochoa Indented Corrugated ceramics were made locally whereas analysis of the flaked stone tools and debitage found that most raw materials were obtained from distant sources in Texas. The combined research efforts from the 1960s and the present have significantly changed our perspective on 14th century settlements in southeastern New Mexico. The Merchant site is a fascinating test case for the study of migration, social interaction, and how new social identities were formed on the southern Plains of New Mexico during the 14th century.

Biographies:
Myles Miller has been professionally involved with the prehistory of southern New Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas since returning to El Paso upon completion of graduate school in 1983. For the past 39 years he has conducted research throughout the region and has participated in numerous excavations of prehistoric and historic Native American settlements in west Texas, southern New Mexico, and southeastern Arizona. His current research interests involve the relationships between prehistoric social organization, ritual, landscapes, ceramic and rock art iconography, chronometrics and chronology, and chemical compositional analysis. He currently serves as a Principal Investigator with Versar (formerly Geo-Marine, Inc.).

Tim Graves is a professional archaeologist who has conducted extensive fieldwork and research in southern New Mexico and west Texas for over forty years. During those four decades he has worked with 28 CRM companies and supervised fieldwork for over 400 projects sponsored by Fort Bliss Military Installation, the Bureau of Land Management, White Sands Missile Range, the US Forest Service, the New Mexico and Texas Departments of Transportation, and several other agencies. He has served as Field Director, Project Director, and Principal Investigator for many of the significant pithouse and pueblo excavations of the past decades and has authored or co-authored over 200 technical reports, conference presentations, and chapters in edited volumes. For his contribution to New Mexico history and prehistory, Mr. Graves was awarded the 2018 Archaeological Heritage Award by the New Mexico Governor’s Office for the investigations at the Merchant Site. He was also awarded the Alexander J. Lindsay Unsung Hero Award by the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society at the 2019 Pecos Conference.

John D. Speth is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor (Emeritus) of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He completed his BA in Geology at the University of New Mexico (1965) and his PhD in Anthropology at Michigan (1971). Dr. Speth studies prehistoric hunter–gatherer and small-scale farmer diet and foodways, and the way these societies coped with food shortages. Largely through the study of animal bones, he also explores the nutritional basis of Plains–Pueblo interaction in the Southwest, and Neanderthal hunting strategies in the Near East. Dr. Speth’s books include: Living and Dying on the Periphery: The Archaeology and Human Remains from Two 13th–15th Century AD Villages in Southeastern New Mexico (co-authored with Jamie L. Clark, 2022, Utah); Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins: Human Hunting Behavior During the Later Pleistocene (co-edited with Jamie L. Clark, 2013, Springer); The Paleoanthropology and Archaeology of Big-Game Hunting: Protein, Fat, or Politics? (2010, Springer); Human Paleoecology in the Levantine Corridor (co-edited with Naama Goren-Inbar, 2004, Oxbow); Bison Kills and Bone Counts: Decision Making by Ancient Hunters (1983, Chicago).

Mark Willis is an archaeologist specializing in 3D visualization and photogrammetry and is also an expert in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV or drone) mapping. He is widely recognized as an innovator in adapting emerging technologies for a wide range of important archaeological applications. Trained in traditional photogrammetry, he was the first to use the new technology of Structure from Motion (SfM) to create 3D models of archaeological sites, features, and artifacts, something it was not initially designed to do. Mark has over 25 years of experience in 3D modeling and has applied his talents at archaeological sites in a score of countries and on four continents. He has pioneered documentary techniques for rock art sites in the New World, Australasia, and Europe. Mark’s innovations have been recognized by the President’s Science and Technology Policy Institute. He is Adjunct Academic Status holder in Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University.

Break: 3:30 – 3:45
ZOOARCHAEOLOGY OF THE MERCHANT SITE, LEA COUNTY, NEW MEXICO

By Jeremy Loven
Saturday 3:45 – 4:10 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Recent data recovery excavations conducted at the Merchant site in southeastern Lea County, New Mexico, resulted in the recovery of a substantial faunal assemblage. The faunal analysis indicates the inhabitants of this Ochoa phase (A.D. 1300/1350 to 1450) site hunted a variety of animals, notably bison, deer, pronghorn, canids, jackrabbits, and cottontails. This paper explores the importance of these animals and how they were used for subsistence and ceremonial purposes. Their potentially use as trade items with pueblo communities to the west is also examined.

Biography:
Jeremy received his MA from Eastern New Mexico University and BA from Metropolitan State University (Denver) and is a Cultural Resources Team Leader/Principal Investigator/Faunal Analyst with Chronicle Heritage. He has over 12 years of professional archaeological experience, and has managed and directed numerous cultural resource projects throughout the American Southwest, Great Basin, and Plains regions. Jeremy’s primary area of expertise centers on zooarchaeological studies, with a focus on paleoecology and human-animal interactions in the prehistoric U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico.

SIERRA BLANCA: A FLOWER WORLD IN THE JORNADA MOGOLLON CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

By Joan E. Price
Saturday 4:15 – 4:40 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
This presentation supports the oral history of a Hopi cultural advisor after visiting a large sunflower petroglyph recorded at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in 2005. I review existing material records of the Jornada Mogollon including petroglyphs to suggest the existence of an ancient ideology and iconography of a “flower world” in the Hopi archaic language previously brought out by linguist Jane Hill (1992), which can be found at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. In addition, thousands of produced petroglyph circle motifs as part of the “Flower World” suggest a context that has not received scholarly attention and places Three Rivers Petroglyph Site firmly as a prominent Jornada Mogollon cultural identity and pilgrimage destination for centuries.

Biography:
Joan E. Price, MFA, writer, photographer and educator, has been studying the vast Three Rivers Petroglyph Site for over 25 years. Joan has collaborated with several contemporary Native Americans who have visited Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, an ancestral sacred landscape. Since 2015, she has begun to share her findings at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in Power Point lectures and papers including Southwest Seminars in May 2016, the Biennial Jornada Mogollon conferences and publications, the El Paso Archaeological Society lecture series and publication The Artifact, and the Tularosa Basin Conference and publication series. She was co-founder of The RainHouse with Dr. Kay Sutherland to facilitate dialog between scientific investigators and Native Americans with traditional and ancestral relations at Hueco Tanks State Park, Texas. Joan is a Research Associate with Jornada Research Institute and a member of the El Paso Archaeological Society.

A DRAGONFLY’S TALE: A HISTORY OF THE DRAGONFLY IN THE JORNADA MOGOLLON REGION

By Lay Powell
Saturday 4:45 – 5:15 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
Based on the frequency of occurrence of rock art images, the ancient dragonfly was apparently held in high regard by prehistoric peoples of the northern Tularosa Basin for thousands of years. Petroglyph images found at a dozen sites, within a 60-mile radius, show a complete evolution of form and style around the insect’s depiction. Over time, influences from other cultural regions begin to alter the simple dragonfly image and perhaps belief systems associated with it. With water being of major importance to the Jornada people, a spiritual entity represented as a dragonfly became a symbol of reliable water sources. In this paper, I agrue that through time, migration, trade, and cultural diffusion brought Mesoamerican ideology into the Jornada Mogollon region, influencing local cosmology, iconography, and expressionism. With such influence evolved an amalgamation of water deities, belief systems, and metaphorical symbolisms that transformed simplistic depictions into more complex and stylized designs.

Biography:
Lay Powell is a native New Mexican, born into a ranching empire in eastern New Mexico. He received a BFA with a minor in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1982. After serving in the military, Lay started to draw upon multiple mediums to recreate hidden archaeological sites and prehistoric art from the greater southwestern United States. He initially started as an archaeological field illustrator with ASNM at Three Rivers in 1991. His love for archaeology and rock art studies led him to join multiple organizations such as the Friends of the Albuquerque Petroglyphs (FOTAP), Chimney Rock Archaeological Group (CRAG), the American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA), the Taos Archaeological Society, and continued work for ASNM via site surveys and land trades when employed by the Bureau of Land Management in the Taos Resource District as a Ranger, in the Rio Grande Gorge. Six years were devoted to the Petrified Forest National Park while assisting the New Lands Acquisition Survey for archaeological sites and rock art, where he was the primary “illustrator/recorder”. Currently, Lay participates in various excavation programs and rock art studies with Jornada Research Institute. He has also served as an Instructor at the Eastern New Mexico University, Ruidoso, for art classes, rock art education, and a Rock Art Recording Field School held with BLM at the Upper Rio Bonito Petroglyph site. Lay continues to express himself as an artist and archaeological field illustrator, and is an active member of archaeological investigations being conducted by Jornada Research Institute.

BANDELIER LECTURE

JORNADA MOGOLLON PUEBLO COMMUNITIES IN TIME, SPACE, AND THOUGHT

By Myles R. Miller
Saturday Evening: 7:30 – 9:00 (Rooms 5 and 6)
Abstract:
The decade of the 2020s marks the passage of a century since Harriet and Burt Cosgrove, Eileen Alves, Wesley Bradfield, and Stanley Stubbs described the first excavations of El Paso phase pueblo settlements in the southern Jornada Mogollon region. Since then, over sixty pueblo settlements have been investigated, although surprisingly few investigations took place between the mid-1980s and 2005. The past twenty years has witnessed a resurgence of pueblo investigations, ranging from surveys and excavations to studies of chronologies and material culture. Another dimension of research has focused on the spaces and places located beyond the confines of pueblo walls, examining shrines, shrine caves, trails, plant baking pits, and rock art and ceramic iconography. The cumulative and combined results of these studies have significantly broadened our understanding of El Paso phase pueblo communities, allowing researchers to look beyond conventional concerns of subsistence, chronology, technology, and settlement pattern to examine the social and ideational worlds of those communities. During the past twenty years we have gained specific insights into the ways in which pueblo societies engaged with landscapes of meaning, how communities and landscapes relationally constituted each other, and the deep time origins of such beliefs and practices. From an even broader perspective, these and other insights ultimately reveal how the pueblo communities of the Jornada region were an integral and significant part of the past, and present, Southwestern pueblo world.

Biography:
Myles Miller has been professionally involved with the prehistory of southern New Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas since returning to El Paso upon completion of graduate school in 1983. For the past 39 years he has conducted research throughout the region and has participated in numerous excavations of prehistoric and historic Native American settlements in west Texas, southern New Mexico, and southeastern Arizona. His current research interests involve the relationships between prehistoric social organization, ritual, landscapes, ceramic and rock art iconography, chronometrics and chronology, and chemical compositional analysis. He presently serves as a Principal Investigator with Versar (formerly Geo-Marine, Inc.) and is supervising archeological consulting work for the Bureau of Land Management, Fort Bliss Military Installation, White Sands Missile Range, and the Texas Department of Transportation. He was awarded the 2018 Award of Excellence in Cultural Resource Management by the Society for American Archaeology for his contributions to understanding the prehistory of southern New Mexico and west Texas and his contributions to cultural resource management practices.