PREFACE

As discussed in the previous sections of this chapter, the first three questions relate to the distribution andabundance of wild plant and animal resources, two of the key factors that probably conditioned thesubsistence strategies employed by prehistoric and protohistoric groups in southeastern New Mexico.The next three questions relate primarily to potential agricultural activities, which are relevant to thesubsistence strategies employed during the Ceramic period. All of these questions are also relevant toreconstructing the annual rounds and settlement/mobility strategies employed by prehistoric andprotohistoric groups in the region. The distribution of lithic raw material sources is also important to thisresearch because, once those sources are mapped and described, they are potentially useful in tracking themovements of prehistoric groups.The data needed to address these first seven questions will probably be derived exclusively from studiesof the modern environment. Maps of vegetation, soils, and hydrology are readily available, and probablyprovide enough detail for at least preliminary pattern recognition studies. More detailed information onthe distribution of potential plant and animal resources, as well as information about relative abundanceand seasonal availability can probably be gleaned from range and wildlife management studies.Meteorological data and climatic summaries for the region are also available and can be used inconjunction with elevation and topographic models to extrapolate spatial variability in temperature,precipitation, and growing season.Some published information may also be available concerning the caloric yields from potential foodresources and the labor effort required to process those resources, but I suspect that a special project willhave to be funded to collect the specific data needed to formulate the diet breadth model. Otherfundamental research is needed to identify the phytolith and lipid signatures of potential plant foodresources. The latter projects are part of the overall effort to enhance the recovery of subsistence remainsfrom excavated sites in the region.The last two questions relate to paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Katz and Katz (2001:6–11) provide ashort summary of paleoenvironmental studies in the region and of general environmental change since thePleistocene. The most dramatic climatic change occurs at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and muchof the paleoenvironmental research has focused on this period. Conditions during the middle Holoceneare marked by widespread erosion that is generally interpreted as evidence of a warm-dry climate, theAltithermal drought. The effects of this climatic interval on resource distribution remain largely unknownas mid-Holocene deposits are absent in most of the region. Consequently, research to locate depositsspanning this period and analyses of the both the sediments themselves and any paleoenvironmentalmaterials that can be recovered would contribute significantly to our understanding of human adaptationsduring the middle Archaic.By 4500–4000 BP, Katz and Katz suggest that climatic conditions ameliorated and modern plantcommunities became established. Modern resource distributions should therefore be useful for analysesof late Archaic and later adaptations to the region. There were significant climatic fluctuations during thisinterval that would have affected resource distribution, however. Thus there is a critical need for highresolutionpaleoclimatic data, particularly for the Ceramic period. Palynological studies of pondsediments and alluvial deposits can potentially provide a record of meso-scale changes in the regionalvegetation and, if the sampling localities are in environmentally sensitive areas (e.g., upper and lower treelines), then general precipitation and temperature trends can also be reconstructed. High resolutionpaleoclimatic data is probably best obtained from dendroclimatic research, which might be feasible in theSacramento and Capitan Mountains provided that wood from climatically sensitive species can beobtained from archaeological sites or some other source to extend the record. Failing this, data will haveto be extrapolated from studies in adjacent regions.4-55