The Cordillera de Talamanca, the principal mountain range in southeastern Costa Rica, is a rugged chain which overlies, in part at least, an earlier volcanic mass, and is directly connected with the Chiriqui range of western Panama. The Pacific Ocean is, as the crow flies, a comparatively short distance from the Talamancan peaks. From the Rio Savegre in the southwest to the Rio Chiriqui Viejo in Panama runs a smaller parallel chain, known as the Pacific coastal range.

A textile recently found undoubtedly relates to an early phase of the Paracas style of the Peruvian south coast. The decorative techniques consist of slit tapestry, brocade, and warp striping. The tapestry design is a complex feline figure with various traits of the Chavin style. The techniques and design are of considerable interest since no Paracas textile of this or earlier date has been previously published.

The attention given to the details of pottery description has of recent years absorbed so much of the interest of specialists in Southwestern archaeology that to the outsider it often appears an unduly exaggerated, if amusing, preoccupation which consumes a great deal more time and effort than it deserves. To those who have tried to work in the area, however, it is not necessary to point out the importance which this relatively imperishable trait holds. This is especially true in the case of exploration of new areas by means of surface survey, where broken pieces of pottery make up the larger part of the diagnostic material available, and in the excavation of the less well-preserved sites, especially in the peripheral areas.

Despite Fewkes's reports of 1909 and 1916 that a legend of a battle with the Anasazi was obtained from the Utes, such knowledge was denied by all Southern Utes queried in 1963. Their matter-of-fact acceptance of a common identity between the ruins builders and the modern Pueblo peoples, together with evidence from Spanish documents, led to the hypothesis that the Utes have had a long, unbroken (if somewhat peripheral), and for the most part nonviolent contact with the Anasazi-Pueblo. Spanish records also suggest that eastern Utes in early historic times had become quite unlike their more closely studied Great Basin relatives, and that as participants in the general plains culture they had further contact with the Pueblos and the Spanish. Evidence that an Athapascan intrusion successfully blocked Ute-Pueblo contact seems far from conclusive.

A general outline of, and justification for, this study, as well as a discussion of the major related concepts, are presented in this chapter.

Carl Lloyd supervised an archaeological survey of the area adjacent to the Ackmen pueblo in southwestern Colorado in 1937 in order to supplement the data recovered from the excavation of this famous site. Sixty-six quarter-sections (each equivalent to a ¼ sq mi area) measuring ½ mi on each side, were intensively surveyed by a large crew. Members of the crew were stationed 100 ft apart along the ½-mi width of the quarter-section, and the entire crew walked across the ½-mi length of the quarter-section.

From each section consisting of 4 quarter-sections, 2 diagonal quarter-sections were selected for investigation. Lloyd assumed that 66 surveyed quarter-sections would reflect adequately, at least, on a 33-sq mi area near the rim. This assumption was based on the rather large (50%) sampling fraction that he employed. He was not certain that his survey methods would produce a contribution to the archaeology of the area and stated the uncertainty as follows: “Given a discontinous intensive archaeological survey of a region, what contributions can be made to the archaeology of that region by means of an analysis of the data thus obtained?” (Lloyd 1938:282). He did not explicitly answer that question during the course of his report. However, I believe that his answer was implicitly positive, that is, the kind of survey he performed did produce a meaningful contribution to the archaeology of the Ackmen-Lowry region.

In cultural terms, the Southwest has never been satisfactorily defined. This is particularly true of the southern boundaries. Archeologists usually include the territory occupied by the groups we term Anasazi, Hohokam, Mogollon, and Patayan; it is this area that will be considered here.

Physiographically (Atwood 191+0; Darton 1925; Fenneman 1931), the northern and eastern parts of this area belong primarily to the Colorado Plateaus Province; the southern and western parts comprise a portion of the Basin and Range Province. Physiographers subdivide these major provinces into lesser units having more significance for the archeologist. The Colorado Plateaus Province is marked primarily by high mesas and plateaus underlain by nearly horizontal strata of strong, cliff-producing rocks locally covered by volcanic features or domed by igneous intrusions. This extensive area is drained largely by the Colorado River and its tributaries. Among the distinguishing features are the hundreds of deeply entrenched canyons and great retreating cliffs or escarpments.