EVOLVING SURFICIAL PALEOHYDROLOGY AND PALEOINDIAN LAND-USE IN THE TULAROSA BASIN, NEW MEXICO

Perennial lakes and wetlands occupied many intermontane basins of the western United States during the last glacial period. Spatio-temporal trends in Paleoindian land-use and subsistence inferred from the distribution of sites relative to paleo-lakes remain speculative for many basins in the Southwest in the absence of well-constrained paleo-lake-level chronologies, limited paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and few systematic attempts to identify and determine the distribution of Paleoindian sites. We present the results of geoarchaeological investigations focused on understanding the distribution of predominately Folsom and later Paleoindian sites in relation to the evolving surficial paleohydrology of the northern Tularosa Basin, south-central New Mexico. Previous work indicates that Paleoindian sites are disproportionately associated with small playa basins and are sparse proximal to paleo-lake Otero. Our coring and radiocarbon assays indicate that non-gypsiferous paludal deposits accumulated in playas contemporaneous with the initial human occupation of the basin. We speculate that the hypersalinity of paleo-lake Otero rendered water unsuitable for human consumption and, consequently, hypothesize that the distribution of Paleoindian sites in the northern Tularosa Basin reflects the availability of potable freshwater in playa wetlands and ephemeral streams. Our results contribute to increased understanding of the regional environmental response to hydroclimate changes during the last deglaciation and inform basin-scale models of Paleoindian land-use.