Dating Apache Sites

DESPOBLADO OR ATHAPASKAN HEARTLAND:
A METHODOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
ATHAPASKAN LANDSCAPE USE IN THE SAFFORD AREA

Paper in Crossroads of the Southwest,
Volume edited by David Purcell for Cambridge Scholars Press, New York. 2008

ABSTRACT

Historical sources cite event-specific large ancestral Apache settlements of thousands of people located in the interior
mountains and now two such sites are known from the Safford area. Distinctively Athapaskan rock art, features, flaked stone,
and pottery provide evidence of these early Athapaskans. Chronometric dates, including radiocarbon samples derived from
annual species, place them in these ranges at and before Marcos de Niza and Coronado trekked through the region, in areas
these explorers considered a despoblado or unsettled. The importance of the Safford area and Mogollon uplands within a
province of early Athapaskan occupancy is discussed and the archaeological and historical relevance of their specific mobile
adaptation is considered. Undue reliance on the content of historical documents has contributed to the widely held notion
that this area was devoid of population until the 1600s, which highlights some important methodological implications.
Documentary and archaeological sources provide different information regarding the past and one must not be subordinated
to or subrogated for the other. Moreover, past focus of migration theory on sedentary groups has contributed to our inability to
see and understand the early Athapaskan presence. Mobile groups migrate differently than sedentary ones and they use the
landscape differently, partially accounting for their invisibility. Athapaskan-speaking groups were present in the late
prehistoric period and so have relevance to a variety of topics, including Puebloan migrations.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF MOBILITY, REOCCUPATION, AND
LOW VISIBILITY PHENOMENA FOR CHRONOMETRIC DATING

Deni J. Seymour (C) 2004-2008. Under Review.

ABSTRACT

Finding and interpreting chronometric dates from protohistoric and early historic sites occupied by mobile groups requires a different approach
than that for more sedentary societies. This issue of the low archaeological visibility of highly mobile groups in areas where there were also more
sedentary folk that sometimes used the same places has applicability beyond the southern Southwest. Recognition of gradations in mobility and
acknowledgment of the regular incidence of reoccupation are the first and important steps toward achieving reliable and accurate chronologies.
Also required is application of a more nuanced approach to wood-use behavior and site formation processes. By addressing the data presented
by the unobtrusive and meager record on its own terms, rather than maintaining standards developed for and applied to more sedentary systems,
it is possible to differentiate and date with increased confidence the Athabascan and non-Athabascan mobile occupations in the southern
Southwest.

paper temporarily removed

CONTEXTUAL INCONGRUITIES, STATISTICAL OUTLIERS, AND ANOMALIES:
TARGETING INCONSPICUOUS OCCUPATIONAL EVENTS

Deni J. Seymour (C) 2010. American Antiquity (January Issue)

New methodologies are needed to address multiple componentcy and short reuse episodes that are characteristic of mobile group
residential and logistical strategies. Chronometric results are often misinterpreted when evaluated within a framework suited to
long-term sedentary occupations. The standard practices of ‘age-averaging,’ eliminating apparent ‘anomalous’ results, and relying on
high profile ‘diagnostics’ and the most visible features—along with the expectation for ‘contextual congruence’—mask
multicomponentcy and episodic reuse. High incidences of site reuse have been detected by considering alternate site development
models and looking specifically for evidence of distinct shorter term occupations.