PREFACE

site classifications, it has functional implications based on general ethnographic analogy. In this case,behavioral implications for the non-architectural site types are derived largely from Binford’s (1980)discussion of hunter-gatherer mobility strategies.Based on that discussion, five general classes of sites are potentially present in the archaeological recordof southeastern New Mexico – residences, field camps, stations, caches, and locations. In general,residences are expected to contain debris from a variety of manufacturing, food processing, and domesticactivities. Field camps, the temporary operational centers for task groups, are also expected to yieldhabitation debris, but the material remains at these sites should reflect short-term occupation, and thereshould be ample evidence of the dominant procurement and processing activities in which the group wasengaged. Stations are sites where task groups are engaged in information gathering, the best example ofwhich is the game overlook. These sites should yield some debris from food preparation andconsumption, and from tool maintenance and unrelated craft activities. Consequently, theirenvironmental setting is likely to provide the most reliable evidence of site function.Caches represent temporary storage locations for equipment, raw materials, or subsistence resources.Caching may occur at residences, field camps, and stations or in isolated locations. The latter should haveminimal debris, so unless the stored items are still in place, the only material evidence of the cache will bethe storage facility. The major behavioral implication of caches is the expectation that the cachedmaterials will be retrieved. That expectation may be definite in instances where subsistence resources arecached for later transport, or when equipment is cached at sites that the group expects to return to thefollowing year, or it may be indefinite as when materials are cached in case they are needed in anemergency (i.e., Binford’s “insurance caches”). Locations, the last site category, are the actual loci ofresource procurement. These may be obvious in certain cases, such as kill sites and lithic procurementareas, but most often the only material remains are the debris from sporadic tool maintenance, or toolsthat are broken and discarded or lost. Most locations therefore have very low visibility in thearchaeological record, and they tend to be recorded as isolated occurrences rather than sites.The preliminary site typology included three categories of residential sites – single residences, multipleresidences, residential complexes – all of which have architectural evidence (i.e., structures) evidencing aresidential occupation. The three categories are distinguished based on the estimated number ofhouseholds that occupied the sites. Most of the sites classified as residences date to the Ceramic periodand appear to be permanent or semi-permanent farmsteads or settlements. Residential sites dating to theProtohistoric period are marked by tipi rings and probably represent short-term or seasonal camps. Mostof the possible structures also date to the Ceramic period and probably represent permanent residentialsites. If horticulturalists in the region had a land-extensive agricultural strategy (i.e., fields in widelyscattered locations), however, then some of these sites could be either seasonal residences (fieldhouses) orfield facilities, which can be field camps or locations depending on their distance from the residence(Sebastian 1983). Components classified as domestic features, ring middens, and bedrock mortars as wellas many of the components with charcoal/ash stains classified as miscellaneous features could be eitherresidential camps of varying duration, or field camps. Caves and rockshelters not classified in one of thepreceding categories and a subset of the miscellaneous features are potentially either caches orceremonial/ritual locations. The quarry/lithic procurement areas are mostly locations although a few haveassociated domestic feature components. The bone beds classified as miscellaneous features alsorepresent locations, although I suspect that most of them are associated with nearby residential or fieldcamps. Finally, the artifact scatters probably include a number of short-term field camps as well asstations and locations.4-47