With NSF funding, Robert Hard at the University of Texas at San Antonio and John Roney of the Bureau of Land Management have been exploring why hunters and gatherers began to farm in the Southwest. The shift to farming is perhaps one of the most important historical developments to humankind as agriculture is the economic basis of virtually all civilizations, past and present. In 1997 Hard and Roney began archaeological excavations at a dramatic hilltop settlement in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico about 125 miles southwest of El Paso, Texas. On this hill, three thousand years ago, Native Americans constructed over 500 terraces overlooking the surrounding desert grasslands and the Rio Casas Grandes. This site and a series of associated settlements have proven to be the largest, early settled farming communities in Northwest Mexico and the American Southwest and pushes the age of settled farming for the region back 1,500 years. The terraced site of Cerro Juanaquena has revealed numerous artifacts including spear points, pipes, food grinding implements, and house remains. Hard and Roney are examining these materials to consider the causes and consequences of these precocious settlements. They argue that the terraces were built, not as agricultural features, but to form flat living space so they could live atop this highly defensible hill and repeal potential raiders. The current NSF funding will be used to complete the laboratory analyses of the artifacts so a book and other publications may be completed. Hard and Roney's work has already resulted in numerous scientific publications including an article in Science. National newspapers, including the Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, as well as broadcasts and publications in Canada, Mexico, and Europe have reported on their work. Hard and Roney have given 18 public presentations in Washington D.C., Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona and another 20 presentations at international, national, and regional scientific meetings.
