The Tj Ruin

Excerpt from Tj Ruin: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, New Mexico The TJ Ruin overlooks the half-mile-wide valley of the Gila River at the confluence of the West and Middle Forks (figure The site lies at the edge of a 100 foot high bluff of exposed Gila Conglomerate on the north side of the river at an elevation of 5775 feet. Covering the site is a dense stand of saltbush which concentrates on the house mounds and masonry features. Grama grass and other range grasses cover the exposed mesa top while mixed juniper and walnut woodlands encroach on the old polo field which lies just north of the ruin. In the valley below, the river supports denser stands of cottonwood, sycamore, walnut, wild grapes, willow, reeds and other plants of a more mesic community. In sheltered side canyons south of the river, Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir give way, on canyon 510pes, to more xeric communities of pinon, yucca, prickly pear, and oaks. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Salado is an enigma of the past. One of the most spectacular cultures of the ancient Southwest, its brilliant polychrome pottery has been subjected to varied interpretations, from religious cult to artistic horizon. Stephen Lekson now uses data from two Salado sites—a large pueblo and a small farmstead—to clarify long-standing misconceptions about this culture. By combining analysis of the large whole-vessel collection at Dutch Ruin with the scientific excavation of Villareal II, a picture of Salado emerges that enables Lekson to evaluate previous competing theories and propose that Salado represents a major fourteenth-century migration of Pueblo peoples into the Chihuahuan deserts. Lekson demonstrates that late, short-lived Salado farmsteads—difficult to identify archaeologically in areas with larger Mimbres concentrations—coexisted with larger Salado towns, and he argues that Salado in the Upper Gila region appears as a substantial in-migration of Mogollon Uplands populations into what was a vacant river valley. Throughout the fourteenth century, Salado communities in the Upper Gila were integrated into the larger Salado horizon and were closely connected to Casas Grandes, as indicated by the export of serpentine to the city of Paquimé and the occurrence of Casas Grandes pottery at Upper Gila Salado sites. The book includes illustrations of 71 vessels from Dutch Ruin plus a full-color frontispiece. Through analysis of these two sites, Lekson has taken a large step toward clearing up the mystery of Salado. His work will be welcomed by all who study the movements of peoples in the prehispanic Southwest.