VCAPP RESEARCH

The Valles Caldera Archaeology and Paleogeography Project (VCAPP) combines archaeological research on hunter-gatherer land use and settlement systems with paleogeographic research on the distribution of habitats across the landscape and how this distribution changed over the course of human habitation. 

Valles Caldera Archaeology

The archaeology of the Jemez Mountains stretches deeply into prehistory, with obsidian from the VCNP used by some of the earliest inhabitants of the Southwest.  Previous studies in the VCNP have shown that use of the caldera appears to have increased across the Archaic period, but whether this reflects longer periods of use, increasing frequency of use, use for many more activities, or simply better preservation of the later archaeological record cannot be evaluated with the available data.  These are the research questions that drive the current archaeological inquiry.

VCNP Archaeologist Ana Steffen and UNM Professor Ann Ramenofsky explore Redondo Creek.

The first step is to identify sites with good records of non-quarry-related activity.  Across some areas of the VCNP, the sheer volume of lithic debitage related to primary and secondary reduction of obsidian from sources within the VCNP swamps the record left behind by other activities.  In Summer 2009, the field school will investigate Archaic Period use of the East Fork area of the VCNP through surface survey and excavation.  The East Fork is an important topographic corridor connecting the Jemez Mountains with lowland areas to the south (such as the Rio Puerco Basin and Chaco Canyon areas) and west (such as the San Juan Basin).  Surface surveys will be conducted to identify Archaic Period sites.  The goals of the surface survey are to determine the distribution of sites along this transportation corridor and their ages, to determine whether assemblages in this area are less swamped by reduction debitage than elsewhere in the VCNP and, if so, what sorts of activities can be inferred through analysis of the assemblages.

Test excavations will be conducted at sites previously identified at Cerro La Jara, a low, forested rhyolite dome where several very small rock shelters have been identified.  The excavations will enable us to get a preliminary understanding of rock shelter use over time.  Rock shelters are important because they are one of the few settings in this high altitude environment with a good potential for organic matter preservation.  Excavations this summer, however, will focus outside the drip line, so that we can obtain a preliminary assessment of the occupation history of the shelters without disturbing the areas most likely to harbor preserved organic matter and perishable materials.

Valles Caldera Paleogeography

In order to understand how hunter-gatherers make decisions about where and how to live, we need to understand the choices available to them.  Paleogeography is the study of temporal change in the distribution of habitats across a landscape.  It enables us to assess where resources may have been available and what trade-offs foragers made by choosing to exploit one area and not another.  Paleogeography encompasses a range of geoarchaeological and paleoecological approaches to the study of past environments used by humans.

VCAPP is interested in the paleogeography of the Valles Caldera.  We are interested in knowing what habitats were available for human exploitation, and how these habitats may have changed in response to major climate shifts and other natural disturbances throughout the Holocene.  We also need to know how environmental change has altered the archaeological record through erosion and other types of site loss, and whether or not this alteration is uniform across the entire Preserve.

The first step in VCAPP’s paleogeographic study is to determine the pattern of preservation of ancient deposits across the landscape and how this informs on the history of the landscape.  In 2009, geoarchaeological investigations will be conducted both on and off site within the East Fork and Cerro La Jara areas.  The data gathered will allow us to: