Paleoindians, paleolakes and paleoplayas: Landscape geoarchaeology of the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico

Abstract

Karl Butzer was one of the first prehistorians to think about and write about people, ancient and modern, on the landscape. Moreover, as a geomorphologist he knew that past 29 landscapes were as dynamic and varied as they are today-not static entities that formed the 30 backdrop for human activity. That viewpoint is critical in understanding the physical 31 environment faced by humans during the early peopling of the Americas (~13,500 to ~10,000 cal 32 YBP). North America was undergoing rapid environmental changes as the continent was coming 33 out of the last Ice Age. In the southwestern part of the continent large paleolake levels were 34 falling and smaller playa basins were aggrading as the area was occupied by Paleoindian groups 35 such as Clovis, Folsom, and later groups of First Americans. The paleolakes would have provided some resources, but modern gypsum deposits indicate that lake waters were unpotable. Numerous small depressions (playas) scattered around the floor of the Tularosa Basin contain muddy fills that span the Holocene and terminal Pleistocene, indicative of fresher water at least seasonally. Paleoindian sites tend to be clustered around these small basins and along drainages off of the mountains that flank the basin, as well as settings with good viewsheds rather than the main paleolake margins. Paleolakes were dramatic components of the late Pleistocene landscape in the Southwest, but likely were not the primary attractions to the First Americans.

Walking in mud: Remarkable Pleistocene human trackways from White Sands National Park (New Mexico)

“…Humans were present in North America sometime before 14.5kya (Waters and Stafford, 2007;Waters, 2019;Ardelan et al, 2020;Becerra-Valdivia and Higham, 2020). They are known to have been in the Tularosa Basin since at least Clovis times as evidenced by the presence of Clovis (+ Folsom) artifacts in private collections and professionally documented archaeological sites from the area (Holliday et al 2019).…”

Geoarchaeology and the search for the first North Americans

“…Paleoindian sites are common on the basin floors along the Rio Grande Rift (Hill & Holliday, 2011; Holliday, 2015; Holliday, Harvey, Cuba, & Weber, 2019; Jodry, Jodry, Spero, & Taylor, 1999; Judge, 1973), but they are less common in other basins to the west. Paleoindian sites are also reported from some of the basins in parts of the Great Basin (where the early archaeological sites are referred to as “PaleoArchaic” by some researchers; e.g., Adams et al, 2008; Beck & Jones, 1997; Grayson, 2011; Madsen, 2007, 2016; Madsen, Schmidtt, & Page, 2015).…”

“…The Tularosa Basin (Figure 2) along the southeastern Rio Grande Rift provides a case study of Paleoindian landuse, based on Holliday et al (2019). The basin contained paleo‐lake Otero.…”

“…The well‐known White Sands dunes and associated sand sheets are composed of gypsum derived by deflation of the ancient lake. Paleoindian sites are widely scattered across the basin, from the surrounding mountains to basin‐margin settings such as fans, bajadas and associated drainages, to the basin floor (Condon, Holliday, & Vaughn, 2013; Holliday et al, 2019; Wessell, Eidenbach, Meyer, Comer, & Knight, 1997).…”

“…Most known Paleoindian sites in the Tularosa Basin are on the basin floor (Amick, 1994a, 1994b, 2000; Condon et al, 2013; Holliday et al, 2019; Wessel et al, 1997). There are several general models proposed for changes in land use and settlement over time by the earliest foragers in both the Southwest and the Great Basin.…”