The Anasazi Origins Project

This is a set of studies and documents relevant to the Anasazi Origins archaeological project directed by Cynthia Irwin- Williams in central New Mexico 1965-1970. Pollen records of surface samples from rockshelter and dune sites representing the Paleoindian (Jay Complex) to Basketmaker time period in the Arroyo Cuervo area. Includes palynological observations by Peter J. Mehringer and J. Schoenwetter, report on the area's alluvial/paleoclimatic chronology by C. Vance Haynes, C. Irwin-Williams' radiocarbon-based interpretations of inter-site chronology, and Schoenwetter's proposed pollen sequence. Publication required identification of artifact associations with sample/episodes of the pollen sequence, but Irwin-Williams did not accomplish the necessary archaeological analyses before her death.
The Anasazi Origins project was initiated in 1965 by Dr. Cynthia Irwin-Williams, then employed at the Department of Anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University. Also generally known as the Arroyo Cuervo project, it involved the survey and study of the archaeological record of a district of central New Mexico which yielded an unusually complete sequence of Late Paleoindian, Archaic and Early Puebloan Period remains. This PDF contains the NSF grant proposal submitted by Irwin-Williams (1969), a report on the Quaternary geology of Arroyo Cuervo, N.M., by C. Vance Haynes, Jr., a manuscript of comments by Irwin-Williams to P.J. Mehringer with notes on the stratigraphy from LA 9245 and LA 9254, a cultural chronology chart of the region (by Irwin-Williams), and pollen analysis charts by Schoenwetter for the various archaeological sites.