Native Chronology

Sometime between the Big Bang and the discovery of the local ditch, I was reading about the Basketmakers.

I must confess I’ve always had a hard time remembering the various phases of prehistoric native culture. People are surprised. They think that because you’re interested in rocks you’d be interested in arrowheads - or projectile points as they’re now called.

I might be if they ever mentioned the rocks - the ones used and their sources. The first is interesting because of what it suggests about the body of scientific lore and the observations that built that knowledge about hardness, workability, and general geography. The second often implies the existence of trade networks or economic specialization.

But when what I read is details on corner notched or stem notched, my eyes glaze over.

I finally figured out the way to remember the phases: forget the points and think about the targets.

The earliest group in New Mexico were those using Clovis points to hunt mammoths, mastodons, and other very large mammals. They existed at the end of the glacial period, 13,000 years ago, when there still were such animals.

Next came the group who used Folsom points to hunt the animals that came next, the bison beginning some 11,000 years ago.

Some 8000 years ago, it’s estimated two-thirds of mammals weighing more than 100 pounds were extinct.

Natives still hunted animals like big horned sheep, but they had to supplement their diet with plant foods. Following ripening cycles of seeds and fruits became more important than following herds. By 7000 years ago, they had developed the first plant processing tools, the mano, metate and coiled basket. Hence the term Basketmaker I, now generally called Archaic.

When the climate changed yet again only the rabbit remained. By then, some 3500 years ago, a new body of scientific lore, one based on botany rather than zoology or geology, was substantial and people began growing their food, not hunting it. The development of one particular grass, corn, marks the beginning of the Basketmaker II phase.

Basketmaker III is marked by the replacement of the atlatl with the bow and arrow about AD 500 or 1500 years ago. Archaeologists, of course, always mention changes in farming and diet, housing, and the perfection of pottery. Oh, and of course major changes in projectile points with the change in the delivery system.

From there, the various phases of Pueblo life develop around AD 750 or 1250 years ago. That brings us to modern times, where my eyes have glaze over again.