In the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico, archaeologists have been working for decades to meticulously excavate archaeological sites.

Expanding beyond studies that focus on a single pueblo, this volume represents the final report on the excavations of the Mimbres Foundation. It brings together data from a range of pithouse and pueblo sites of different sizes and histories in diverse locations—to refine the current understandings of Mimbres region archaeology in the context of the Greater Southwest.

From the end of the Late Pithouse period through the Black Mountain phase, the book provides excellent documentation of the artifacts and data recovered from the sites, addresses models of Mimbres community, and tracks change and continuity in the valley over centuries. In addition, the authors consider the nature of the relationship between the Classic Mimbres period population of the valley and the people of the succeeding Black Mountain phase, as well as relationships among the Black Mountain phase people and those of neighboring parts of the region, including the Casas Grandes world and the Jornada Mogollon area.

In Ancient Communities in the Mimbres Valley two leading archaeologists bring together a trove of unpublished investigations, expanding understandings and setting a course for the future.
 

Roger Anyon has conducted almost fifty years of research on the pre-Hispanic occupations of the Mimbres Valley. He is a co-editor of New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology and co-author of The Galaz Ruin.

Steven A. LeBlanc is the former director of collections at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He is a co-author of Mimbres Life and Society and The Galaz Ruin.
 

“It’s hard to believe this will be the last report from the Mimbres Foundation. Nearly a half-century later, the Foundation’s work remains fundamental to our understanding of the ancient people who lived in the Mimbres River valley. This report contains a trove of data that would have been lost to looting were it not for the Mimbres Foundation’s work. Mimbres scholars and enthusiasts will undoubtedly rely on this volume for the next half century and beyond.”—Jakob W. Sedig, co-editor of Mogollon Communal Spaces and Places in the Greater American Southwest

“This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of Mimbres archaeology literature. Anyon and LeBlanc have assembled a significant collection of Late Pithouse, Classic, and Postclassic site reports excavated by the Mimbres Foundation. The book will be of particular interest to archaeologists in the greater Southwest and northern Mexico.”—Harry Shafer, author of Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

“This is a crowning achievement. Anyon and LeBlanc manage to provide critically important primary data and offer an up-to-date synthesis of Mimbres archaeology, providing a foundation for and pointing the way toward new areas of research.”—Patrick D. Lyons, editor of The Davis Ranch Site

“Anyon and LeBlanc have done two things in one with this book: presented an excellent site report on an important set of excavations and taken a new and interesting approach to the enduring question of ‘What happened after the Classic Mimbres period?’”—Karen Gust Schollmeyer, University of Arizona— -