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The Viejo Period of Chihuahua Culture in Northwestern Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joe D. Stewart ,
Jane H. Kelley ,
A. C. MacWilliams  and
Paula J. Reimer
Joe D. Stewart
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON. Canada P7B 5E1 (jstewart@lakeheadu.ca)
Jane H. Kelley
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4 (kelley@ucalgary.ca)
A. C. MacWilliams
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4
Paula J. Reimer
Affiliation:
Centre for Climate, the Environment & Chronology, School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 INN, U.K. (P.J.Reimer@Queens-Belfast.AC.UK)
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Abstract

“Chihuahua culture” refers to two prehistoric periods of ceramic agricultural occupation in northwestern Mexico. It has long been known that the Medio period (ca. A.D. 1200–1450), with substantial adobe pueblo villages and towns, and ceramics that included elaborate polychrome wares, occurred over a vast region in western and northern Chihuahua and northeastern Sonora. It was also recognized that the preceding Viejo period, with pithouse and wattle-and-daub surface architecture, and less elaborate ceramics, was ancestral, at least in part. However, the geographical extent, dating, and nature of the Viejo-Medio transition were unclear. Recent research by several field projects has demonstrated that Viejo and Medio period occupations were geographically coextensive, as was the transition. A foundation for Viejo period chronometric dating (ca. A.D. 700–1200) is now established by 30 radiocarbon determinations from excavations in west central Chihuahua and one from northeastern Sonora. We discuss the dimensions of the Viejo period in west central Chihuahua with data from 1998–2000 excavations by the PAC (Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua). It provides an example of a broad-based transition from a relatively simple to a relatively complex pattern, and new perspectives on the interpretation of radiocarbon dating.”

“La cultura Chihuahua” se refiere a dos periodos prehistóricos de ocupación de una población agrícola que conocía la cerámica, en el noroeste de México. El periodo Medio (ca. 1200–1450 a.C.) se dio en una amplia región al oeste y norte de Chihuahua y al noreste de Sonora, con pueblos y ciudades de adobe y una cerámica policroma. En el periodo Viejo anterior, la arquitectura se caracterizó por casas de ramas y lodo, así como una cerámica menos elaborada. La extensión geográfica, duración, y naturaleza de la transición del periodo Viejo al Medio no estan claros. Investigaciones recientes han demostrado que la ocupación de los periodos Viejo y Medio, así como la transición de uno a otro, coexistieron geográficamente. Además se ha establecido un lapso cronológico para el periodo Viejo (ca. 700–1200 a.C.) a través de pruebas de carbono catorce. Este trabajo examina la cronología del periodo Viejo en la región centro-occidental de Chihuahua. La información recabada a través de las excavaciones de 1998-2000 del PAC (Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua), proporciona un ejemplo de una transición general de un patrón relativamente simple a uno relativamente complejo y presenta nuevos puntos de vista en la interpretación de las fechas radiocarbónicas.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 2005 , pp. 169 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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