The Archaeology of the Greater Southwest: Migration, Inequality, and Religious Transformations

The Greater Southwest is often considered a laboratory for archaeology because of the visibility and preservation of sites, fine-grained chronological control, and rich ethnographic record. Geographically defined as from Durango (Colorado) to Durango (Mexico), and Las Vegas (New Mexico) to Las Vegas (Nevada), there are many more archaeologists working in the United States, but research interests are shared by those working on both sides of the international border. This article focuses on a few key topics and refers the reader to longer works for more comprehensive overviews. It aims to point out a few major themes in current research to place contemporary work in context. Because of the prevalence of independent dates in the Southwest and abundant decorated ceramics, chronological frameworks are well developed for most of the area; dating of sites can be as precise as 25-50-year increments.