Events

The El Paso Archaeological Society & El Paso Museum of Archaeology Present:

"Pre-Hispanic Copper Artifacts Recovered from the Gila National Forest" by Christopher D. Adams, East Zone Archaeologist, Gila Forrest

📆November 16

⌚2:00PM

🏛️4301 Transmountain

BIOGRAPHY: Christopher Adams has been a professional archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service for 28 years and has been working in Southwestern archaeology for well over 38 years. Mr. Adams received his B.A. from Arizona State University. His specialty is using metal detecting technology on a vast array of historical sites for the last 40 years in North America and is one of the leading experts in the Spanish Colonial Period and Apache Indian War Period sites and artifact identification in the American Southwest. Christopher Adams has worked on numerous Spanish, Apache, U.S. Military, Civil War battlefield projects in New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Alaska, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia 

ASTRACT: The discovery of a native copper nugget/ore in 2009 on a Classic Mimbres pueblo site in the Black Range Mountains of the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico, initiated a new archaeological investigation for Pre-Hispanic copper artifacts in the Mimbres area. This preliminary investigation involved surveying a small sample of Mimbres prehistoric sites using the latest metal sensing technology available, utilizing experienced/trained metal sensing operators and documenting the geographic distribution of native and/or worked copper artifacts within the Mimbres Cultural area of the Gila National Forest. This is the first formal archaeological investigation that has employed the use of metal sensing technology on Mimbres sites in the American Southwest and more importantly this newly discovered evidence of Mimbres exploitation of native copper is extremely important for the Mimbres Cultural area. This paper will present the results of the metal sensing survey but more importantly it will focus on the Mimbres exploitation of natural and/or worked copper nuggets, fragmented/crushed copper bells, copper fetishes and other copper artifacts that have been recently discovered in Mimbres area dating from A.D. 850 – A.D. 1130.