The Mimbres people once inhabited the far southwestern corner of what is now the state of New Mexico.  Their culture, part of the more widespread Mogollon phase of prehistoric Native American occupation of this region, flourished between 700 and 1200 AD.  They were a village-dwelling Puebloan people who subsisted by combining  hunting and gathering with horticulture.  Their occupation sites are most readily identified through artifactual evidence in the form of a distinctive black-on-white style of pottery that many experts feel was the most sophisticated ceramic tradition ever developed in North America. Intricate geometric designs often incorporated animal figures and depictions of ceremonial rituals.  Some examples of their style may be found at this web site published by the University of Minnesota's Weisman Art Museum.  Archaeologists have recovered a number of bowls and jars that  manifest a ritual "killing" of the pot by perforating a hole in the bottom of the vessel thereby rendering it useless.  Unfortunately, many of the Mimbres  village sites were destroyed by  pothunters who were simply after the artifact without trying to understand the context of surrounding data and stratigraphy.  Nevertheless, through the efforts of several scholars, most notably Steven LeBlanc, Paul Minnis, J.J. Brody, and Harry J. Shafer, we may learn something of this intriguing culture and of their successful adaptation to a rather harsh environment.
 

Map source: LeBlanc 1983, p. 12.

Environment
The region is known for its rough and uneven topography, and may be characterized as semi-arid uplands in the north, with desert plains in the south, along the Mexican border.  Rainfall arrives in the form of winter cyclonic fronts and summer thunderstorms, with great variation depending on elevation and orographic influence.  The natural vegetation ranges from a douglas fir - ponderosa pine tree cover in the mountains to juniper scrub and shrub-steppe cover in the lowlands.  Several  streams, some of which are  intermittent or ephemeral,  form headwaters in the upper elevations and flow in a generally southward direction; the main perennial course was named the Rio Mimbres by Spanish explorers after the willows found along its banks.    After flowing out of the mountains this river disappears in the desert plains north of Deming.
 

Settlement Pattern
As revealed by archaeological survey,  Mimbrenos lived in a series of villages spaced at regular intervals along the main channel of the Mimbres River.  Clustered pithouse forms of sedentary settlements developed during the third and fourth centuries, AD.   Roughly a dozen villages of perhaps 300 people in each one contained the Mimbres cultural efflorescence, which lasted for several hundred years.   Increasing complexity in social organization and livelihood resulted in above ground village structures by 600 AD, exhibiting elements of ceremonial architecture and increasing elaboration in ceramic production displaying phenomenal artistic achievement.    Although scattered outlying sites have been identified with Mimbres occupation, the majority of the population was centered in the valley bottom, where access to a reliable source of water ensured the sustainability of subsistence agriculture.  A mid-elevation foothills situation likewise enabled access to the greatest range of foraging resources and faunal niches to exploit through hunting strategies.
 

Cultural Ecology
The Mimbres people gathered wild plants, hunted both deer and rabbits, and practiced agriculture on the valley floor with ever-increasing sophistication.  Corn, beans, and squash were the dietary staples, supplemented by game and wild plants, nuts, and seeds.  Over time there may have been a shift in the proportions of animal species consumed, possibly as a result of hunting pressure, with the bones of rabbits becoming more common than deer in the stratigraphic record.  Evidence also points to a population surge during the Classic Mimbres period after 1000 AD, with an attendant need to boost the productive capacity of the land resource through irrigation as well as more intensive methods of gathering.  Irrigation infrastructure such as canals, terraces, and check dams have been identified in the landscape.  Environmental perturbations were also occuring during this time period.  From tree ring analysis we know that a drying trend had begun by 1100 AD, perhaps contributing to the demise of Mimbres occupation of the valley.  We may never conclusively ascertain the reason for the collapse of this culture that evinced such a  rich tradition of ceramic artistry, but by 1400 AD the Mimbres people were no longer.
 

References
 

Web Resources

Links to Web sites for Mimbres Archaeology/Anthropology/Material Culture

Course on Mimbres archaeology offered by Dr. Harry J. Shafer at Texas A&M University

Mimbres Archaeology Web Page - with excellent graphics and bibliography

Gila National Forest
 

This web page written and compiled by R. Kuhlken for GEOG 440, Ecology and Culture, Spring 1999.
 

E-mail comments and suggestions to: kuhlkenr@cwu.edu
 

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