Archeological Investigations in Cochiti Reservoir, New Mexico, Volume 4: Adaptive Change in the Northern Rio Grande Valley

Biella, Jan; Chapman, Richard

This volume is the final report concerning a five year long archaeological project which was undertaken to recover information about cultural resources within the present area of Cochiti Reservoir in the northern Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. Three previous volumes have summarized data recovered from intensive surveys and two seasons of excavation within the reservoir boundaries. These reports have served as basic documentation required by Federal law to mitigate the destruction of archaeological remains caused by flooding. This volume serves as an interpretive and analytical synthesis of those data. In 21 chapters, the contributors to this report provide detailed analyses of settlement, subsistence and adaptive changes which characterize the human occupation of the northern Rio Grande Valley over the last four millennia. Papers are grouped according to broad cultural and temporal periods of adaptation-Archiac, prehistoric Pueblo and Historic Spanish-and emphasize analysis of residential size, subsistence pursuits and economic articulation of the occupants within the region during each period of adaptation. Particular emphasis is placed upon developing and evaluating a number of models proposed to account for settlement dynamics and adaptive change through time. A diverse assortment of methodological studies are included as well. Specific topics range from techniques to identify properties of social structure and organization in the archaeological record, to experiments evaluating the effect current field and laboratory processing procedures may have on lithic wear patterns. New data concerning the modern vegetative make-up of the reservoir locale and a quantitative assessment of the availability of lithic source materials are also presented.