Preliminary Insights from Las Chachalacas (SON S:8:004): A Pleistocene-Holocene Occupation Record from Quiriego, Sonora, Mexico

Abstract

This article summarizes recent work at the site of Las Chachalacas, located in the Municipio of Quiriego, southern Sonora. Set within the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Las Chachalacas was adjacent to an arroyo that periodically became impounded, producing a marsh like environment. Stratigraphic associations and a minimal number of ¹⁴C dates suggest the site was regularly utilized from the terminal Pleistocene through the Early Agricultural period. Results contribute to several enduring debates in the North American Southwest regarding Pleistocene landscape use, demographic continuity through the Holocene Climatic Optimum (7500–5000 cal BP), the sequence of mobility and subsistence changes in the Archaic/Early Agricultural periods, and the identities of the earliest farmers indexed by material culture such as projectile points.

Este artículo resume trabajos recientemente realizados en el sitio Las Chachalacas, ubicado en el Municipio de Quiriego, al sur de Sonora. Situado en las estribaciones occidentales de la Sierra Madre Occidental, el sitio las Chachalacas se localizabaadyacente a un arroyo que periódicamente quedaba embalsado, produciendo una ciénega. Las asociaciones estratigráficas y un número mínimo de fechamientos por 14C indican que el sitio fue utilizado regularmente desde el Pleistoceno terminal hasta el Período Agrícola Temprano. Los resultados contribuyen a varios debates que persisten en el suroeste de América del Norte acerca del uso del paisaje durante el Pleistoceno tardío, la continuidad demográfica a través del Óptimo Climático del Holoceno (7500–5000 cal AP), la secuencia de cambios en los sistemas de movilidad y subsistencia en el Arcaico y el Período Agrícola Temprano, y las identidades de los primeros agricultores indicado por la cultura material, específicamente las puntas de proyectil.

KEYWORDS:

• Sonora
• Early Agricultural period
• Middle Archaic
• Early Archaic
• origins of agriculture

Acknowledgments

We thank the Municipio of Quiriego for their hospitality in hosting this research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 These counts include specimens collected upon site discovery in 2018 that are not included in the assemblage counts provided that pertain only to the 2021/22 season.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in large part by the Rust Family Foundation. NSF [grant number BCS-1724445] provided funding for initial site discovery and contextual survey of the surrounding Cedros Valley; Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.