Review by Choice Review
The ancestral Pueblos were among the most resilient of people, and their traditions among the most enduring legacies of the American hemisphere. Centered on the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, today the Pueblos boast 60,000 descendants spanning 31 distinctive communities in Arizona and New Mexico, and one in Texas. Whereas Spanish colonial exploration of the Río Grande was initiated after 1539, San Marcos Pueblo remained unknown to the Spanish until the Rodríguez-Chamuscado expedition of 1582. Known as the Turquoise Pueblo for its proximity to the rich lead and turquoise mines of the nearby Cerrillos Hills, exploitation of the mines proved instrumental to the site's commercial growth and importance, particularly given its pivotal role in the ancient turquoise trade and in the production of protohistoric, lead-glazed wares. Editors Ramenofsky (New Mexico) and Schleher (Crow Canyon) have assembled an invaluable exemplar for what archaeology demands in the way of state-of-the-art scientific reporting and analysis. Contributions span a cutting-edge, 10-year repertoire of archaeological field methods, architectural histories, spatiotemporal considerations, and laboratory findings bearing on first contact, population dynamics, social organization, lithics, metallurgy, and the surface archaeological record. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries; professionals. --Rubén G. Mendoza, California State University, Monterey Bay
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
