GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS Administrative History

Architecture

Anderson suggested that the cliff dwellings themselves had been built quickly—in perhaps as few as 11 years, according to the tree-ring dates. He reported that they had sheltered 40 to 60 people for about a generation and had then been abandoned. Without good provenience, artifact clustering could not be used to infer activity locations, but room size, floor and wall features, the presence of roofs, the number of openings, and the use of plaster were analyzed to determine the use of rooms (Table 1). The number of hearths, for example, suggested the number of households—eight to ten. Using an estimate of five to six people per household, Anderson arrived at a population figure.

Although the cliff site constrained the architecture and complicated comparison, Anderson observed that the proportion of apparent storage space to living space conformed remarkably with other excavated Tularosa phase ruins. [15] He inferred that the cliff dwellings were a complete village, with "all rooms and space necessary to sleep in privacy, work comfortably, store food, and hold communal gatherings and rituals." [16] Since the communal rooms had been built last, a conclusion based on the sequence of wall construction, Anderson also inferred that the cliff dwellings had begun not as a ceremonial site but as a new settlement. The lack of definable room suites, a trait shared by other Tularosa sites, in this case suggested further that the residents had arrived together and almost at once instead of gradually, family by family. Although the duration of Tularosa occupation at the site is unknown, its brevity was suggested to Anderson by the very small amount of architectural remodeling: no walls and only three doors had been modified. [17]

Plan of Gila Cliff Dwellings keyed to Anderson's matrix of room features represented on the following page. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Artifacts

Provenience problems hampered the analysis of artifacts. When possible, objects were associated with specific components, and a few inferences were made, but observations were often limited to noting similarities between specific assemblages and collections made at other Mogollon sites. Only a few new items were added to the Tularosa material trait list. Stone artifacts recovered at the cliff dwellings did substantiate two distinct phase assemblages: Archaic and Tularosa phases, with the more numerous, bigger, and presumably Archaic projectile points suggesting a large early occupation.

Since all materials for the stone artifacts were available within 40 miles of the cliff dwellings, elaborate trade networks were not conjectured. An unusual variety of shell artifacts, on the other hand, scarlet macaw feathers (Ara macao), and an anomalous spokeshave type of scraper made from a bison (Bison bison) rib did suggest trade with northern Mexico and the Great Plains. [18] In addition, stylistic analysis of the pottery suggested for the cliff dwellings slightly more contact with the Mimbres-Animas area than settlements along the San Francisco drainage apparently experienced.

With the exception of the bison rib beamer or scraper, bone artifacts from Gila Cliff Dwellings were largely typical of Tularosa phase assemblages. Also typical for the same phase were most wood, reed, and gourd artifacts, cordage and fabric, as well as fibrous artifacts. New items for material trait lists included a worked mountain lion claw, wrapped and/or filled split tubes (bone), a fragment of tie-dye cloth, and embroidered cloth, which had swaddled the infant burial recovered by Morris. Wickerwork and multiple-warp sandals, an atlatl fragment and pieces of darts, bits of gourd vessels, a wood trowel, a variety of pahos, wood die, a bark pendant, and a juniper berry skewer were all attributed to the earlier occupation of the cliff site. Inadequate provenience records, however, complicated attributions for some artifacts that may represent early styles used through the Tularosa phase.

Subsistence

Faunal remains at Gila Cliff Dwellings, which could not be distinguished by component, suggested a heavy reliance on mule deer and—curiously—bison (38.76% of the meat consumed). The reliance on mule deer represents a subsistence pattern apparently basic to the Mogollon rim for perhaps 1,600 years. [19] Of special interest was the avifaunal collection, which accorded closely with that of the thirteenth-century Grasshopper Pueblo in Arizona as well as that of Zuni Pueblo during the historic period.

The use of wild plants could not be separately analyzed for the Archaic and Tularosa components, either, in part because the same seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, and leaves were in all likelihood used during both occupations. Only macrobotanical specimens were sought during Vivian's excavation of the cliff dwellings, among which twenty-four taxa of wild plants were identified.

The assemblage of domestic plants was typical of later San Francisco and Tularosa phases and, based on the volume and variety of remains (eight taxa), provided evidence of a well-developed agriculture that included maize, three varieties of squashes, and at least five varieties of beans. Historically, the most commonly reported item at the cliff dwellings was corncobs, which occurred in such quantities that Vivian stopped collecting them in 1963. Instead, he filled a room with the cobs as an interpretive display. Whether any of this assemblage stems from the Archaic occupation is unknown. In the absence of cultural association and without radiocarbon dates, the analysts merely observed that "Gila Cliff Dwellings maize displays a great deal of variability." [20]