Mimbres Games, Gambling and Gods

This paper reviews the archaeological evidence for the presence of games played by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Mimbres region in the US Southwest/Northwest Mexico, emphasizing perishable materials recovered from cave/rock shelter deposits and iconic imagery present on Mimbres ceramic vessels. He compares the archaeological evidence with ethnographic information for gaming and gaming-related activities among Western Puebloan groups. Gaming and gambling among the ethnohistoric Hopi, Zuni and Acoma were important ritual as well as secular activities, and serve as an interpretive framework for understanding the relationship of prehistoric games and gambling with Mimbres ritual.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.