When and how did the late Pleistocene, Paleoindian cultures make the transition from a big game-hunting focus to foraging and other pursuits at the dawn of the Holocene epoch? Recently some archaeologists in southern New Mexico, the Great Basin, and southern California have recognized a “Paleo-Archaic” adaptation that marks the change to the Archaic period’s gathering-and-hunting economy.
In this June 20, 2024 Third Thursday Food for Thought program, archaeologist Matthew Cuba discusses the Gypsum Overlook and Gomolak Overlook archaeological sites in southern New Mexico, which have provided unusually good evidence of the Paleo-Archaic transition.
Gypsum Overlook, located on southern New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, is situated in the Tularosa Basin on the eastern shore of the now dry Paleo Lake Otero. Archaeological excavations at this site identified three or possibly four habitation structures, five hearths or roasting pits, and flaked and ground stone artifacts dating to approximately 8,800 years ago during the transition from the Paleoindian to Early Archaic period.
The Gomolak Overlook site, which includes archaeological features, a one-hand mano, and flaked stone artifacts similar to those found at Gypsum Overlook, dates to 8,200 years before present. Gomolak Overlook is within the confines of a much older, filled-in arroyo between two large drainages emanating from the Sacramento Mountains alluvial fans, suggesting the Paleo-Archaic people were utilizing riparian areas along the margins of the Tularosa Basin and the now dry Paleo Lake Otero. The 600- to 400-year younger Gomolak Overlook could represent the shift away from the margins of Paleo Lake Otero to the riparian areas along the distal elements of the Sacramento Mountains alluvial fan, or could be yet another resource patch utilized throughout the Paleo-Archaic time period.
Gomolak Overlook's situation suggests future attempts to identify Paleo-Archaic occupations in the bTularosa Basin should focus on relict riparian resource patches along the terminus of the mountains' alluvial fan as well as on areas that would have been riparian at the beginning of the Holocene.
The cultural features and artifacts at Gypsum Overlook and Gomolak Overlook provide one of the earliest records of Early Holocene housing structures and ground stone assemblages in New Mexico and the greater Southwest, as people began to diversify their subsistence patterns to adapt to the drying and warming post-Pleistocene climate. The unusual preservation of the sites is due to the unique ability of the White Sands’ gypsum that has been burned to change into anhydrite, which is more resistant to erosion. This burning preserved the sites' features in stunning detail, allowing a rare view of the Paleo-Archaic adaptation in the Southwest.
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