Basketmaker
North Americaprimarily hunter-gatherersBy Francis Smiley
c. 3000 BP - 1300 BP
Falls between the Middle Desert Archaic and Early Anasazi traditions.
Peoples ascribed to the Basketmaker tradition ranged across much of the northern Southwest, inhabiting, for the most part, the southern and central reaches of the Colorado Plateau. The Basketmaker culture area extends slightly outside the geologically defined reaches of the Colorado Plateau from southern Nevada on the west to the western flanks of the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. The Basketmaker groups appear to have ranged south as far as the Tularosa Mountains in east-central New Mexico and the Cerbat Mountains in western Arizona.
A polythetic suite of characteristics typifies Basketmaker cultural manifestations. The suite includes distinctive, side-notched dart points, the atlatl, two-rod-and-bundle basketry technology, scallop-toed sandals, elaborate funerary assemblages, a variety of subterranean storage cist types, and a widely distributed rock art style distinguished by the presence of anthropomorphic figures with wide, square bodies and shoulders slightly wider than hips.
[During Basketmaker III plain gray pottery with occasional Black-on-white pottery appears, beans were now cultivated, and the bow and arrow replaced the atlatl.]
The White Dog phase appears across the northern Southwest primarily in sheltered sites that provide excellent preservation of perishable materials. Archaeologists generally apply the term to the early farmers of the northern Southwest who lived, stored foods, and buried their dead in rockshelters. The White Dog phase occurs, among other localities, in southern and southeastern Utah in the Kanab area, in Grand Gulch, in the Red Rock plateau, and across the Bluff region. In northeastern Arizona, archaeologists recognize White Dog phase materials at Marsh Pass, in Sagiotsosi Canyon, on Black Mesa, and in Canyon de Chelly. In the Durango area, White Dog materials have been found in the Hidden Valley caves of the Falls Creek drainage. In northeastern New Mexico, the White Dog phase can be identified in rockshelters in the Chaco Wash drainage.
Following the White Dog phase, a number of regionally differentiated phases appear characterized by small, single-structure or multiple structure open-air settlements. In northeastern Arizona, the Lolomai phase, known from extensive excavations on Black Mesa, begins at about 1900 BP and appears to end by about 1600 BP, if not before. In northeastern New Mexico, the Los Pinos phase appears to date to the same general period. In the Durango area of southwestern Colorado, the Talus Village site appears to mark the emergence of a possible subtradition, and in southeastern Utah, the White Dog phase gives way to the Grand Gulch phase. The Grand Gulch phase finds its best expression on Cedar Mesa in the form of loosely clustered pithouses.
Although investigators can make a number of finer distinctions, the most widely recognized Basketmaker subtraditions consist of the sequential White Dog phase, or Early Basketmaker period, and the post-White Dog, or Late Basketmaker period, during which small, open-air settlements developed. The White Dog phase begins sometime before 3000 BP and lasts until approximately 2000 BP. The Late Basketmaker period begins by about 2000 BP and ends by 1500 BP. [The Basketmaker III period begins around 1500 or 1450 BP and ends by 1250 BP.]
White Dog Phase (Early Basketmaker): Atlatl cave, Bat cave, Cave I, Cave 7, the Falls Creek rockshelters called North and South shelters, respectively; Three Fir Shelter, Tularosa cave, White Dog cave. Late Basketmaker Sites: AZ D:7:152, AZ D:7:3107, AZ D:11:449, all on Black Mesa; Hay Hollow valley in the St. Johns, Arizona area; North Road sites on Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah; Talus Village near Durango, Colorado; Valentine Village in the Los Pinos drainage of northeastern New Mexico.
Projections do not cover the whole Basketmaker period, but suggest that beginning around 2300 BP, the northern Southwest experienced a downcutting (degradational phase) as a result of reduced ground water levels that reflect a period of reduced precipitation. By about 1900 BP, increased precipitation produced an aggradational sequence reflecting increased water tables. During the upsurge in precipitation from approximately 2100 - 1900 BP, the Late Basketmaker subtraditions characterized by small, open-air, pithouse settlements developed across the northern Southwest. The Late Basketmaker manifestation appears to have ended during, or shortly after, the downward portion of the precipitation cycle from about 1700 to 1500 BP.
The current climate varies markedly across the large region formerly inhabited by Basketmaker groups, but can be characterized as semiarid. In general, investigators think the climatic conditions during Basketmaker times across the northern Southwest were similar to present-day conditions with highly variable precipitation and variable-length growing seasons. The climate during Basketmaker times remains somewhat problematical because investigators have completed few climate studies since the establishment of the antiquity of the tradition. Several scholars detect a cyclical pattern of alluvial aggradation and degradation that reflects 500-600 year cycles in ground water levels linked to precipitation.
Basketmaker environmental topographic conditions vary dramatically across the northern Southwest. Most of the early Basketmaker (White Dog phase) sites occur in rockshelters in deeply incised canyons in the Colorado Plateau. The Grand Gulch, Marsh Pass, Canyon de Chelly systems, all tributaries to the Colorado or San Juan Rivers, contain numerous Basketmaker sites. The Late Basketmaker, more subregional manifestations, including the small pithouse settlements, tend to occur near floodplains, and the Black Mesa sites, the Los Pinos sites, the Cedar Mesa sites, and the Durango sites epitomize the differences between the deep canyon localities of White Dog phase sites and the flood plain situations of the later settlements.
Basketmaker groups existed in a variety of geologic circumstances, but generally lived in areas that provided deep enough soils for farming; massive sandstones, deeply incised, that provided shelter to the earlier Basketmaker groups; and subirrigation situations that ensured sufficient water for crops grown in essentially dry-farming conditions. Examples of the subirrigation preferences can be found near the confluence of Butler wash and the San Juan in southeastern Utah.
Most Basketmaker populations had access to the pygmy conifer forest and appear to have relied to a significant extent on the pinyon pine nut masts that, while infrequent, tended to produce massive quantities of high calorie, nutritionally balanced food. The Basketmaker groups appear to have exploited large game such as deer, antelope, and mountain sheep, as well as rabbits, numerous other rodent species, and birds across the biotic regime.
Basketmaker groups exploited a range of biotic communities. Primary among these, the deep canyon environments, consisted of herbaceous vegetation, cottonwood, willow, and other deciduous trees. Two other biotic regimes appear to have been critical to Basketmaker success. The first of these is the sage community, the vegetation of which consisted of varying combinations of sage, rabbit brush, saltbush, snakeweed, and other brushy and herbaceous plants. The second consists of the pygmy conifer forest (pinyon pine and juniper) that covers large portions of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin.
During the earlier White Dog phase, Basketmaker groups appear to have settled mostly in sheltered locations. The caves and rockshelters in which they lived tended to occur in clusters where the massive sandstones of the Colorado Plateau had been deeply incised by meandering streams. Whether the earlier Basketmakers used open sites to any appreciable extent remains a real possibility, but we know of few such sites that date to the period 3000 BP to about 2200 BP. After about 2000 BP, settlement changes dramatically. Although Basketmaker groups continue to use rockshelters in some areas, small settlements of a few to as many as 12 pithouses appeared across the Colorado Plateau. The change seems to reflect a population increase and may be related, in part, to the climate change noted above.
Basketmaker groups across the northern Southwest appear to fall between the classic definitions of the settlement, economy, and social organization of band and tribal societies. Clearly classifiable as small-scale societies, the Basketmaker peoples seem to exist as semi-mobile farmers. They tended to bury their ancestors in the social context of the living, that is, in storage facilities and under house floors, as many tribal peoples do. At the same time, population levels appear to have remained low and group sizes appear to have approximated those of band-level societies, rather than village-based tribal groups.
The pithouses vary in style from region to region, but can all be characterized as small earthen dwellings, sometimes dug into friable bedrock, many with floor storage features and hearths. Few of the structures exceeded 4 m in diameter. Most fall in the 3-4 m range. The superstructures of Basketmaker pithouses consisted of cribbed, forked-stick, or conical arrangements of logs and earthen coverings. In some cases, pithouses evidenced anterooms.
[One other kind of structure occasionally appears during the Basketmaker III period: the great kiva. In the later Anazasi tradition these were used for ceremonies.]
Basketmaker groups of the earlier White Dog phase lived mostly in rockshelters. Such shelters provide excellent protection from precipitation, but wind can frequently make a shelter only marginally habitable. A growing body of evidence suggests that in a number of cases, the rockshelter dwellers constructed small surface dwellings or very shallow pithouses within the shelters. After the White Dog phase, Basketmaker peoples began to build small pithouses in groups of a few to 12.
Basketmaker populations do not appear to have begun to increase until about 2000 BP. Even during the period of the formation of small, open-air settlements, population levels appear to have remained relatively low, hardly approaching the carrying capacities of the various farming localities. Although hundreds of Basketmaker individuals have been recovered from sheltered sites over the past century, the physical remains of the Basketmakers remain almost completely unstudied. Studies of a small number of individuals from the later open-air settlement phases reveal that grinding technology as a source of grit in the diet caused tooth wear. The diet, containing significant amounts of carbohydrates in the form of corn, produced carries in some individuals.
The pinyon masts occur only every 4-7 years, but supply high-quality food that can be stored for 2 years or more. Similarly, the corn harvest in any given year might be problematic, but on average, the corn would supply something. In good years, early Colorado Plateau farmers must have realized corn surpluses, that, like pinyon nuts, could be stored for 2 or more years. In combination, the periodic pinyon masts and the chancy, year-to-year corn yields probably tended to compensate for one another and allowed the Basketmakers to make a reasonable living. Simultaneous crashes in the two staples, however, may have occurred and may be the reason why the early farming populations remained extremely low for nearly a millennium.
The Basketmaker subsistence appears to have been fairly complex, consisting of a highly variable mix of wild plants and animals with corn and squash. Basketmaker subsistence, reflected in the storage capacities of many sites, both sheltered and open-air, seems to have been reliant on farming. On the other hand, the stochastic nature of the Colorado Plateau agricultural environment undoubtedly made farming a chancy enterprise. Combined with the use of pinyon pine nuts, however, Basketmakers probably faired well, on average. Part of the Basketmaker success may stem from the maintenance of low population levels, but the combination of corn farming and the harvest of the periodic pinyon nut mast seem to have contributed to continued mobility and to persistence in a difficult environment.
Basketmaker peoples relied heavily on wild foods the most important of which, pinyon nuts, provided a staple in years in which a nut mast occurred. A list of other important plant foods includes Indian ricegrass, juniper berries, chenopodium, amaranth, and other wild seeds. The Basketmakers also hunted and trapped wild animals. The big game inventory contained deer, mountain sheep, and antelope; the take of smaller animals from cooperative net hunting and trapping includes rabbits and lesser rodents. The frequency of cached trapping gear in rockshelters suggests that trapping made a significant dietary contribution.
The Basketmaker groups began the practice of farming in the northern Southwest. Whether they migrated in as farmers in all cases or whether they adopted the materials and techniques of agriculture from neighboring groups remains debatable. Probably, farming reached all the nooks and crannies of the northern Southwest in both fashions. In every case, however, the suite of cultigens remained small throughout the Basketmaker period. The Basketmakers grew both corn and squash. Virtually all rockshelter and open-air sites excavated by means that will allow the recovery of such fragile materials, yield one cultigen or both. Rockshelter sites tend to be overflowing with corn debris and frequently contain examples of primary corn storage in the form of selected seed ears with kernels intact. [During Basketmaker III times beans were also cultivated.]
The primary industries in which Basketmaker peoples appear to have spent their time include textile manufacture and the production of stone tools.
Primary utensils for the Basketmakers consist of a wide variety of baskets and string bags. Some baskets were waterproof for boiling foods. The Basketmakers made large burden baskets, small, flattened winnowing baskets, and a variety of storage baskets. String bags woven from yucca twine served a number of needs as well. The Basketmaker groups put a great deal of labor into bifacial, side-notched projectile points and large biface knives and scrapers, as well as atlatls, dart shafts, and fending sticks. Other wood tools, such as seed beaters, digging sticks, and scoops round out the list of basic wood utensils. [Basketmaker III people began to make a plain gray pottery with the occasional black-on-white pot. This utensil was needed to cook the beans that were added to the diet. Beans, unlike corn, squash, or meat, require one or more hours of boiling to make them edible.]
The most frequently observed ornamentation consisted of marine shell pendants, necklaces, and bracelets. Rock art styles suggest hair adornment, the use of masks, and headdresses.
The Basketmaker groups apparently engaged in some long-range trade as the presence of marine shell from the West Coast attests. Some lithic raw materials appear to have been acquired through trade, as well.
Because resources tend to be widely and differentially scattered across the northern Southwest, investigators can assume that access to resources could be a major conditioning factor for virtually any society in the region. In fact, some evidence from the analysis of the distributions of rock art styles suggests that Basketmaker groups maintained interregional alliances or, minimally, relationships that may have made interregional access to differential resources possible. In addition, the low regional population densities and apparent mobility of the Basketmaker groups placed them under the same sorts of imperatives for extensive communications maintenance under which band societies operate.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Basketmaker culture, the apparent transitional status between band and tribal organization, makes the archaeology of these groups both critically important and fascinating. Although they farmed, the Basketmakers retained relatively high levels of mobility. They continued to rely on wild resources to a significant degree. They lived in groups the size of classic band societies and maintained panregional stylistic traditions in basketry, rock art, and projectile point forms that suggest extensive, band-level social organization. On the other hand, the Basketmakers put a certain amount of labor into “place,” building storage facilities and small dwellings. They buried their dead in the social context of the living in storage cists or under house floors. In short, they engaged in a range of cultural practices that encompassed the cultural, social, technological, and ideological diagnostics of both bands and tribes. Accordingly, they appear to represent the band-to-tribe transition.
Although the Basketmaker groups fit easily within the rubric of small-scale societies, apparently lying between bands and tribes, they provide a few vivid examples of conflict. A number of mummified bodies excavated mostly around the turn of the century in the southeastern portion of Utah exhibit severe wounds; in once case, someone actually sewed back together (postmortem) an individual cut nearly in two. In another instance, a pair of “hands,” actually the lower arm bones and hands of a single individual, came to light near an elaborate grave in Canyon del Muerto. In other instances, the graves of Basketmaker persons were disturbed prehistorically, the skulls removed, and other damage done. We do not yet know whether Basketmaker people caused the damage or whether later Puebloan occupants of particular rockshelters inflicted the damage. In any case, Basketmaker archaeology provides some spectacular, if rare, evidence of violent conflict.
The Basketmakers clearly developed or acquired a set of beliefs that differ from the general band society model. In band societies, people tend to avoid the dead, both in conversation and in terms of physical proximity. The Basketmakers occasionally buried their dead in their dwellings and frequently interred the dead in storage cists in rockshelters or open-air sites. The new practice of burial in domestic space suggests a radically different cultural attitude toward death and the dead. The burials tend to be fairly elaborate with much grave furniture in the forms of baskets, atlatls, darts, foreshafts and points, and knives.
The only unequivocal evidence for the ceremonial lives of the Basketmakers, elaborate burial practices, suggests well-established and widespread beliefs of afterlife, the importance of lineage, and the identification of the ownership of locations, mostly rockshelters, with lineages.
Basketmaker arts tend to be most vibrantly manifest in rock art and in the construction styles of basketry and of textiles, such as elaborate string bags and fur and feather robes. Rock art styles, in particular, tend to be panregional with important regional variations, but adhering closely to a general structure and style. Engraved bone, shell, and stone pendants show a certain general style as well, but rarely evidence a great deal of labor input.
As noted above, the Basketmakers appear to have had deeply imbedded beliefs about the importance of the dead because they buried their deceased in social context, with elaborate grave furnishings, and with a great deal of ceremony and care. Infants, adults, and the elderly all appear to have received the generally levels of funerary treatment.