A Ranchería in the Gran Apachería: Evidence of Intercultural Interaction at the Cerro Rojo Site

Distinctive Places, Suitable Spaces: Conceptualizing Mobile Group Occupational Duration and Landscape Use

“…This resulted in a shift toward high and rugged elevations among convoluted canyons for larger settlements, as is exemplified by the setting of the 300-feature 130-acre Cerro Rojo Site in the Hueco Mountains of southern New Mexico (Seymour 2002a(Seymour , 2004a. Large settlements were sometimes situated in lower settings if sufficiently remote areas could be found.…”

“…A second group is represented by the seasonally transhumanant ancestral Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache or early Athapaskan occupants (Cerro Rojo complex; Seymour 2002aSeymour , 2004a. Four strategies are recognizable with regard to settlement choice and site layout that are temporally dependent.…”

“…These likely represent one or more of the nonAthapaskan groups referenced for the area by the Spaniards (most likely the Jano or Jocome) in southern Arizona (Seymour 2002a(Seymour , 2004a(Seymour , b, 2007a(Seymour , 2008c. These non-Athapaskan mobile groups had a durable biface-and formal-tool oriented flaked-stone technology, small expedient groundstone, and small rock-ringed structures or clearings in a rocky surface, as have been recorded on sites from southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and southwest Texas (Seymour 2002a(Seymour , 2009a.…”

“…The sedentary Sobaípuri (Seymour 2004a(Seymour , b, 2007a(Seymour , b, 2008d) establish a basis for comparison between these sedentary farmers and the contemporaneous mobile groups with respect to the way the built environment organized space and served as the focal point for activities. This group, whose distinctive pattern is visible between 1400 and the 1770s, is an interesting point of contrast because the material record of the Sobaípuri looks superficially flimsy, requiring little investment in labor, and so appears indicative of a transitory lifeway.…”

“…This small residential site is nestled in the oak and piñon forest on a south-facing slope in the foothills (Seymour 1995;Seymour and Harlan 1996). The core of the site consists of two structures (a lean-to and a rock-ring structure), two small roasting pits, a probable gaming feature, a grinding slick, and a surface scatter of artifacts (see Seymour 2002aSeymour , 2004aSeymour , 2009a; for definitions of structure types). The presence of only two structures suggests that this site is a small camp, perhaps occupied by two families or an extended family.…”