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9780826322043 Academic Inspection Copy

Mimbres Archaeology at the NAN Ranch Ruin

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Following two decades of excavations and research at the NAN Ranch Ruin in south-western New Mexico, Harry Shafer offers new information and interpretations of the rise and disappearance of the ancient Mimbres culture that thrived in the area from about AD 600 to 1140. The NAN Ranch site gives evidence of a fascinating restructuring of Mimbres culture and society, owing to the introduction of irrigation agriculture in the late ninth century. The social restructuring that accompanied this shift in technology resulted in changes that are visible in architecture, mortuary practices, and ceramic decoration. The NAN Ranch ruin has yielded the largest body of evidence ever gathered at a single Mimbres site and thus offers the clearest picture to date of who the ancient Mimbrenos were in relation to their Anasazi and Hohokam neighbours to the north and east. Shafer introduces us to the Mimbres people, gives a history of archaeological research in the Mimbres Valley, and traces the occupation of the NAN Ranch site from pithouses to classic pueblo to abandonment. Social customs, subsistence, biological information, and the symbolism of the distinctive Mimbres designs in their ceramics, pottery, stone artefacts, textiles, and jewellery are all addressed in this comprehensive survey.
Harry J Shafer is professor emeritus of anthropology at Texas A&M University, College Station.
"For those with a serious interest in southwestern archaeology, this book is a must-read. In a succint, no-nonsense manner, it explores the social and ideological contexts that nurtured the development of this fascinating prehistoric condition." "This impressive scholarly volume presents findings from 20 years of extensive excavations at the NAN Ranch ruin--offering new views of the ancient Mimbreños that once thrived in New Mexico from about A.D. 600 to 1140."
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