An Archaeological Investigation of Late Archaic Cerros de Trincheras Sites in Chihuahua, Mexico Results of the 1998 Investigations colluvium 5 berm fine sediment 4 wall 3 2 construction fill original surface colluvium bedrock 1 Robert J. Hard and John R. Roney with contributions by Karen Adams, Susan Fish, Gayle Fritz, Kevin Hanselka, Bruce Moses, Jennifer Nisengard, Lee Nordt, Kari Schmidt, Steven Shackley, Bradley Vierra, and José E. Zapata Report to Consejo de Arqueología Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Center for Archaeological Research The University of Texas at San Antonio Special Report, No. 25 1999 H a rd a n d R o n e y A n A rc h a e o lo g ic a l In v e s tig a tio n o f th e L a te A rc h a ic C e rro s d e T rin c h e ra s S ite s in C h ih u a h u a , M e x ic o S R 2 5 1 9 9 9 REPORT to Consejo de Arqueología Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia An Archaeological Investigation of Late Archaic Cerros de Trincheras Sites in Chihuahua, Mexico Results of the 1998 Investigations Robert J. Hard Center for Archaeological Research The University of Texas at San Antonio San Antonio, Texas 78249-0658 U.S.A. and John R. Roney Bureau of Land Management United States Department of the Interior 435 Montaño, N.E. Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107 U.S.A. with contributions by Karen Adams, Susan Fish, Gayle Fritz, Kevin Hanselka, Bruce Moses, Lee Nordt, Kari Schmidt, Steven Shackley, Bradley Vierra, and José Zapata Translated by José Zapata April 26, 1999 Center for Archaeological Research Special Report, No. 25 Contents Figures.................................................................................................................................................................ii Tables ..................................................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................................................. iii Introduction .........................................................................................................................................................1 Excavations..........................................................................................................................................................3 Additional Field Studies......................................................................................................................................8 Analytical Results..............................................................................................................................................18 Summary and Conclusions................................................................................................................................28 Appendix 1: Cerro Juanaqueña Feature Descriptions.......................................................................................33 Appendix 2: Cerro los Torres Feature Descriptions (94-287)...........................................................................53 Appendix 3: Cerro Vidal Feature Descriptions (95-392)..................................................................................57 Appendix 4: Modern Vegetation Found in the Janos Area, September 4–6, 1998...........................................59 References Cited................................................................................................................................................61 i Figures 1. Aerial photograph of Cerro Juanaqueña, with the Rio Casas Grandes floodplain in foreground...................1 2. Five cerro de trincheras sites photographed with aerial imagery....................................................................2 3. Cerro Juanaqueña with 1997 and 1998 excavations. ......................................................................................4 4. Cerro los Torres with 1998 excavation. ..........................................................................................................5 5. Cerro Vidal with 1998 excavation...................................................................................................................6 6. Idealized terrace construction stratigraphy. ....................................................................................................7 7. Cerro Juanaqueña projectile points. ................................................................................................................9 8. Geomorphic map of the Rio Casas Grandes and Rio San Pedro...................................................................12 9. Geomorphic cross-section of the Rio Casas Grande.....................................................................................15 10. Geomorphic cross-section of the Rio San Pedro.........................................................................................15 11. Locational of rock art panels on Cerro Juanaqueña....................................................................................19 12. Obsidian sources..........................................................................................................................................21 13. Plan view of T97. ........................................................................................................................................33 14. Cross-section of T97 ...................................................................................................................................34 15. Unit 1 and 2 profile, T97.............................................................................................................................35 16. Plan view of T163. ......................................................................................................................................39 17. Cross-section of T163 .................................................................................................................................40 18. Unit 1 and 2 profiles, T163. ........................................................................................................................40 19. Plan view of T387. ......................................................................................................................................47 20. Cross-section of T387. ................................................................................................................................48 21. Unit 1 and 2 profiles, T387. ........................................................................................................................48 22. Plan view of T1, Cerro los Torres...............................................................................................................53 23. Cross-section of T1, Cerro los Torres.........................................................................................................54 24. Unit 1 and 2 profiles, Cerro los Torres........................................................................................................55 25. Rock-Ring Features on north end of Cerro Vidal. ......................................................................................56 Tables 1. Shovel Test Results .........................................................................................................................................3 2. 1998 Surface Collections.................................................................................................................................8 3. Geomorphic Radiocarbon Dates from Samples............................................................................................14 4. Summary of AMS Radiocarbon Dating, 1997 and 1998 ..............................................................................20 5. Summary of 1997 Faunal Analysis...............................................................................................................22 6. Number and Percentage of Identified Faunal Remains from 1997 Excavations..........................................22 7. Summary of Faunal Remains from Terrace 163, 1998 Excavations ............................................................23 8. Charred Reproductive Parts...........................................................................................................................25 9. Wood Charcoal..............................................................................................................................................25 10. 1997 Pollen Samples ...................................................................................................................................26 11. Percentages of Pollen Grains by Taxa.........................................................................................................27 ii Acknowledgments We conducted the field work reported here between June 1 and July 3, 1998, with the permission of INAH’s Counsel on Archaeology (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, PA/21/98/No. 3143) and with the concurrence of the Municipalities of Casas Grandes and Janos, and the Ejidos of Casas Grandes, Hidalgo, and Janos. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (SBR-97086210 and SBR-9809839). We could not have conducted this work without the support of these organizations and greatly appreciate the assis- tance their personnel have provided us. We greatly appreciate the assistance of the many individuals who have assisted us and we apologize for being unable to include everyone. We want to thank Ing. Joaquin García Barcena, President of INAH’s Counsel on Archaeology (INAH-México); Antrop. José Luis Perea González, Director of Centro INAH-Chihuahua; Lic. Arturo Peña Zazueta, Administra- tor of Customs, Paloma, Chihuahua; Sr. Nazario L. Prieto, Mayor of Janos; Sr. Lorenzo Barajas, President of the Janos Ejido; Sr. C. Alfonso Bustillos, Mayor of Casas Grandes; Sr. Espiridión Terrazas of Nuevo Casas Grandes; and Sr. Cruz Lara, President of the Hidalgo Ejido. In the field, our project was greatly aided by the efforts of Jorge Bencomo, Casimiro Lucero, and Peter Wall, residents of Colonia Oaxaca and Colonia la Virginia. We also greatly appreciated the assistance and patience of Sr. Gerardo Barajas, Mayor’s Secretary, Municipality of Janos; Sra. Geli Rubio and Sr. Saul Jaques, who pro- vided our living accommodations in Janos; and Sr. Filiberto Lopez, for the many instances that he assisted us with repairs of various sorts. And for the attention, assistance, and the many delicious meals, we particularly want to thank Sra. Angelina Madrid and members of her family. We are extremely fortunate to have some of the finest colleagues in the world whose expertise, dedication, and personal qualities have made this project successful and enjoyable from the beginning. Thanks to: Dr. Karen Adams for her wonderful ethnobotanical analyses; Dr. Susan Fish for her detailed pollen work; Dr. Gayle Fritz for her careful analysis of our cheno-am samples; Dr. Lee Nordt for his unraveling of the geomorphology of the floodplain and the trincheras; Dr. Steven Shackley for his thorough obsidian work; and Dr. Brad Vierra for his sophisticated lithic analysis. The support of our home institutions has been essential to negotiate all the details necessary to conduct a project of this scale: The Bureau of Land Management has been very supportive of this project. At UTSA we would like to thank in particular Dwight Henderson, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, for his support; Sherri Sunaz, administrative assistant at CAR, has performed hundreds of tasks related to the preparations for and administration of the project; Carol Hollingsworth, Kathi Kortz, and Cyndi Orth of Grants and Contracts and Mike Wright of CAR have expertly handled the many financial transactions; and Britt Bousman has served asinterim and associate director of CAR and kept CAR running smoothly while Robert J. Hard’s attention and presence was focused on this project. Bruce Moses has prepared all of the excellent figures and William Bishel also has done a superb job preparing this document for publication. A UTSA Faculty Development Award was also instrumental in allowing Hard time to work on this report and other aspects of the project analysis and reporting. Finally we want to recognize the members of our team who bore the brunt of the heat, the hill, and the hard work; but always with good cheer: Kevin Hanselka, Bruce Moses, Jennifer Nisengard, Gerry Raymond, Rudi Roney, Kari Schmidt, Cindy Tennis, José E. Zapata, and Bridget Zavala. In addition we were aided by the wonderful assistance and company of Kim Rydel (Hard) and Christopher Hard. The assistance of José E. Zapata, who has also served as expert liaison and translator for the project has also been invaluable on many fronts, large and small. To each and everyone we are very grateful. Robert J. Hard and John R. Roney iii iv Introduction This informe summarizes the investigations under- taken at Cerro Juanaqueña and other related sites un- Cerro Juanaqueña is a large cerro de trincheras lo- der the oficio No. C.A. 401–36/560 (22 de mayo de cated in northwestern Chihuahua, in the municipio of 1998) authorized by the Consejo de Antropología. The Janos. The site was built over 3000 years ago on the project was funded in 1997 by National Science Foun- summit and slopes of a 140 meter high basalt hill which dation (NSF) SBR-97086210 and in 1998 by NSF overlooks the floodplain of the Rio Casas Grandes SBR-9809839. Our primary objective during 1998 was and its major tributary, the Rio San Pedro. Large con- to recover charcoal for radiocarbon dating and structed terraces cover an area of about 8 hectares, macrobotanical analysis, as well as to expand the with over 8 kilometers of terrace wall and 108 stone sample of faunal materials. Our strategy was to select circles (see Figure 1). A large number of stone arti- 10 terraces on Cerro Juanaqueña for test excavation. facts are found with these features, and excavations Descriptions of these excavations are in Appendix 1. have revealed rich midden deposits with abundant We continued geomorphological investigations of bone and carbonized plant material (Hard and Roney floodplain deposits, which were begun in 1997, as well 1998a). as in-field analysis of ground stone and limited sur- face collection. With assistance from the INAH Centro In our 1998 informe (reporting results of our 1997 Regional in Chihuahua we also arranged to have large- field season) we described test excavations in three scale aerial photographs taken of Cerro Juanaqueña terraces and four stone circles, as well as mapping and four other nearby cerros de trincheras, as well as activities, collection of surface materials, geomorphic a part of the floodplain near Cerro Juanaqueña. Ana- investigations of the Rio Casas Grandes floodplain, lytical activities continued, and we are able to report documentation of rock art, and reconnaissance at other two additional radiocarbon dates on materials exca- similar sites. vated in 1997, as well as preliminary results of the Figure 1. Aerial photograph of Cerro Juanaqueña, with the Rio Casas Grandes floodplain in fore- ground. View toward northwest. 1 U N I T E D S T A T E S L a g . M E X I C O G u z m á n L a g . S a n t a M a r i a Cerro Juanaqueña o e d r s e d Cerro el Canelo n P n a Cerro los Torres a r a Ri o S R i Ga s a s C o Cerro la Cruz oM a a tn S ar i R i Cerro Vidal MN Figure 2. Five cerro de trincheras sites photographed with aerial imagery. 2 geomorphological study, pollen analysis, and lithic cavated soil was screened through 1/8-inch mesh analysis. screen. Artifacts and bone from these units were tabu- lated, but not curated. Instead they were put back into In 1998 we expanded our project to include limited the holes as they were backfilled. The purpose of these work at two other cerro de trincheras in the Rio Casas units was to determine whether or not more extensive Grandes drainage, Cerro los Torres and Cerro Vidal testing was likely to be productive in particular ter- (see Figure 2). Both of these sites were originally reg- races. Positive results in these small test units led us istered and mapped during Minnis and Whalen’s to place larger test units in T387, T413, and R234a. project in 1996. Cerro los Torres is located about 20 Several other terraces appeared promising on the ba- km north of Nuevo Casas Grandes. The site consists sis of surface observations but were not selected for of over 2 km of terrace walls and perhaps 20 rock more extensive testing because the small test pits rings built on an 85 m high isolated hill overlooking yielded negative results (T74, T195, T213, T217, the floodplain. Although some pottery and a few ar- T261, and T273). The shovel tests and their results row points have been found on Cerro los Torres, it are summarized in Table 1. also has dart points and other artifacts which are reminiscent of those at Cerro Table 1. Shovel Test Results Juanaqueña. The terraces and stone circles are also similar to the features on Feature Depth Results Cerro Juanaqueña. For these reasons we T 74 30 cm 6 lithics suspect that the site was originally built T 195 80 cm 17 lithics, 1 bone and used during the Late Archaic period. T 213 40 cm 11 lithics, 3 bone T 217 50 cm 19 lithics, 9 bone This site and our test excavations there T 261 40 cm 1 lithic, 1 bone are described more fully in Appendix 2. T 273 40 cm Numerous lithics and bone fragments T 387 52 cm 28 lithics, 11 bone, 14 charcoal Cerro Vidal is a third cerro de trincheras A few lithics and bones, significant located adjacent to the Rio Piedras T 413 50 cm charcoal Verdes 6 kilometers south of Colonia R 234a 40 cm 16 lithics, 11 bone Juarez in the municipio of Casas Grandes Viejo. This site is located on an 120 m high hill. It includes approximately 2.3 km of terrace Test Units wall and about 40 rock rings. No pottery has been found, and although there are arrow points on the site, Ten terraces at Cerro Juanaqueña, one terrace Cerro its overall similarity to Cerro Juanaqueña in terms of los Torres, and one terrace at Cerro Vidal were se- artifacts and form of its features suggests that it also lected for more intensive testing. Figures 3, 4, and 5 dates to Late Archaic times. Owing to newly acquired show maps of each site and the locations of our exca- data, this last suggestion has been reconsidered. This vations. Appendices 1, 2, and 3 provide detailed de- site and our test excavations there are described in scriptions of the individual terraces which were tested Appendix 3. as well as the results of these excavations. Our pri- mary objective in these test units was to obtain char- coal for radiocarbon dating and macrobotanical Excavations analysis. In addition, we hoped to expand the sample of faunal material and to expose stratigraphic profiles which would help us better understand the formation Shovel Tests processes on Cerro Juanaqueña. The terraces were se- lected with several criteria in mind. First, results of the 1997 excavations suggested that bone and char- In 1998 we excavated nine small shovel tests at Cerro coal are not well preserved near the surface, so we Juanaqueña, each less than .5 m x .5 m in size. These attempted to select terraces which had deposits a meter units were excavated in 10 cm increments and the ex- 3