Before Pecos: Settlement Aggregation at Rowe, New Mexico

Pecos Pueblo, a prehistoric site that is now a National Monument just a few miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been a focus of archaeological interest throughout the twentieth century, in part because the Pecos area offers the possibility of a combined ethnographic, archaeological, and historical study. Rowe ruin, about a mile from Pecos Pueblo, was first excavated in 1917 by Carl Guthe but not studied systematically for some sixty years thereafter. The 1980s excavations reported in this book were undertaken by University of New Mexico archaeologists in an effort to learn the relationship between social complexity and environmental conditions.This report comprises a discussion of Rowe ruin including summaries of the environment both today and in prehistoric times, the history of research at the site, and a commentary on the process of site aggregation in the Pecos area in comparison with other localities in the northern Rio Grande valley. Also included are a transcription of the 1917 field notes of Carl Guthe, as well as technical reports on botanical, faunal, and ceramic remains and site surveys. Professional and amateur archaeologists with an interest in Puebloan societies will welcome the appearance of this long-awaited volume.