Life on the Tularosa Frontier

Researchers from Archaeology Southwest have been working in the Upper Gila area of west-central New Mexico since 2008. The 2011 and 2012 Preservation Archaeology field school, a cooperative effort with the University of Arizona School of Anthropology, focused on excavations at the Fornholt Site. As at the Gila Cliff Dwellings, people lived at Fornholt during the 1200s. Archaeologists refer to this time period in the Mogollon Highlands as the Tularosa Phase. Together with the Gila Cliff Dwellings, Fornholt sits at the southern edge of the geographic area in which Tularosa Phase sites are found. Archaeology Southwest researcher Katherine Dungan will discuss preliminary results from recent investigations at Fornholt and how these results contribute to our knowledge of life along this “Tularosa Frontier.”