EMAP (2003) Report to the National Geographic Society on Activities Conducted under Grant 6980-01

Funds from grant 6980-01 enabled us to gather information about the Classic Mimbres period
in Southwest prehistory and improve our understanding of the relationship between population,
subsistence, and mobility. Eleven separate analyses (of subsistence remains, demography, resource
use, and site use life and intensity), enabled or directly supported as part of this research, facilitate
comparisons between the Classic Mimbres period settlement in villages and the Reorganization phase
settlement in smaller hamlets, both in the eastern Mimbres area. Population levels decreased slightly
between the two periods while subsistence strategies (farming and use of locally available wild
resources) remained relatively unchanged. Also, in contrast to the Mimbres River Valley, where there is
strong evidence of environmental degradation in Classic Mimbres times, human impact in the eastern
Mimbres Classic is relatively light and should not be characterized as degradation. Residential mobility
in the eastern Mimbres also increased between the Classic period and the Reorganization phase.