From Drought to Drought, An Archaeological Record of Life Patterns as Developed by the Gallina Indians of North Central New Mexico, 1050 to 1300, A.D. - Softcover

Florence Hawley Ellis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865341206 ISBN 13: 9780865341203

Publisher: Sunstone Press, 2016

Synopsis

How did ancient Pueblo Indian farmers survive in the American Southwest when drought all but prevented agriculture? In 1971, archaeological research began on one of these commonly hypothesized but least actually known survival strategies. The area: Northern New Mexico; the people: one of the least studied, those of the Gallina culture; the time: the 1200s when extended drought drove people south out of Mesa Verde, Chaco and the Four Corners area (southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico) in general toward areas of rivers or mountains in the hope of more rain. The Gallina people established some of the highest camps known in the American Southwest where they spent the summer hunting, gathering, and possibly growing some corn or beans, returning home in the fall hopefully heavily laden with dry ''jerky'' meat, dried berries and medicinal plants. In the spring they would come back bearing camping equipment including pottery for cooking, eating and carrying water. They carefully hid these items probably intending to reuse them next year. But finally they ceased to return. The pottery and camp sites waited quietly, unfound for centuries to be discovered and excavated by Dr. Ellis's first excavation crew.

About this title

About the Author

Florence Hawley Ellis, PhD, was one of the pioneer anthropologists of the American Southwest where she taught and published on her extensive excavations and related research in ethnology and such associated fields as tree-ring dating and pottery analysis. Her excavations include areas in Chaco Canyon, along the Chama, Rio Grande and Jemez river valleys and elsewhere in the Southwest. She published over 200 articles and monographs. She was trained at the University of Arizona and University of Chicago, and is also the author of San Gabriel del Yungue from Sunstone Press.

Review

''Florence Hawley Ellis is a distinguished anthropologist and historian, and is now Director of the Florence Hawley Ellis Museurn and the archeological Field School at Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, New Mexico. Over the past years she has directed excavation at hunting and gathering camp sites on Canjilon Mountain in Rio Arriba County, northern New Mexico, dating from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, A.D. These sites were inhabited seasonally by people from the greatest settlements to the north and west--aniong them Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon--to avoid the recurrent summer droughts. In hot summers the people brought camping equipment, and in the fall they packed up stores of dried meat, berries, and medicinal plants to take back to their cliff dwellings and stone houses. Later they moved to the Jemez Pueblo on the Rio Grand between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, where their descendants live today. This report has the usual archeological data (drawings of artifacts, floor plans of caves, measurements of structures, etc.), but Dr. Ellis never loses sight of the people who used these artifacts and lived in the caves on these lava flats. She tells us about the little capes made of turkey feathers from domesticated birds, the dog fur that was woven into garments, the little sipapus (holes in the floor to communicate with the underworld), and other evidence of Pueblo Indian life and work. Dr. Ellis' knowledge of history and her superior writing make this a most readable and unusual archeological report.'' ----Janet Lecompte, Independent Publisher

''Readers familiar with Ghost Ranch will welcome this opportunity to learn more about the archaeological work going on there. Florence Hawley Ellis, who directs the work and for whom the Ghost Ranch Museum of Anthropology is named, reports on the Canjilón Mountain hunting and gathering sites.'' ----Fern Lyon, New Mexico Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Sunstone Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0865341206
• ISBN 13: 9780865341203
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216