Lemitar Cave

CURRENT PROJECTS

LINKS

Paleoindian Potential of Lemitar Cave, New Mexico. by Robert DelloRusso and Vance T. Holliday Lemitar Shelter is a stratified archaeological site in San Lorenzo Canyon, Socorro County, New Mexico. Based on current artifact cross-dating, the upper levels of Lemitar Shelter represent the remains of occupations during the Late Archaic period (1800 BC-AD 200), the Basketmaker III-Pueblo I period (AD 300-900), and the Pueblo III period (AD 1100-1300). The lowest levels of the site have never been intensively investigated, but have the potential to yield Paleoindian materials. Beginning in 2001, Dr. Robert Dello-Russo (2001), Principal Investigator and Co-owner of Escondida Research Group, LLC, began additional work at the site in order to evaluate the extent and character of the remaining deposits. This lead to AARF-supported research beginning in 2003. Lemitar Shelter has been the subject of four archaeological research efforts over the past 50 years. As a group, Vance Haynes, Gerald and Caroline Shelton, Brinton De Silva, and Samuel Kafoury completed preliminary exploratory excavations at the site in 1952. Additional efforts at the site were supervised by William L. Weinrod in 1953 while a graduate student at the University of New Mexico. A more extensive effort was undertaken in 1972 by Ronald D. Anzalone, under the direction of Cynthia Irwin-Williams, as research toward a Master's degree in Anthropology from Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM. Anzalone (1973) presented a description of some of the stratigraphy of the site's deposits, summaries and descriptions of the artifacts and other cultural materials recovered from the site (including those from the 1952-53 projects), a rudimentary analysis of the flaked stone, ground stone and ceramic artifacts in the recovered assemblage, and some theoretical ruminations on the role of Lemitar Shelter in prehistory. As with previous researchers, Anzalone never reached the bottom of the shelter deposits. Most recently, Dello-Russo (2003) completed a limited program of archaeological testing at the site in order to evaluate the nature and integrity of remaining cultural deposits. As a result of this work, it appears that approximately 150 square meters of intact deposits remain at the site and that the stratigraphy of the remaining deposits is similar to the stratigraphy of intact deposits investigated by Anzalone.
	View of Lemitar Shelter form San Lorenzo Canyon looking north.


	Excavation in progress.


	Projectile points and drills recovered from 1952-1972.

The 2003 Lemitar Shelter project sponsored by AARF focused on testing the lowest levels of the site to determine the potential for the presence of Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene cultural deposits. The depth of probable cultural deposits in the shelter reaches at least 3.02 m below the original ground surface. Excavations continued down to 4.29 m below the original ground surface and bedrock was not encountered. Two charcoal samples from the lowest meter of the deposits were dated to ~8000 years BP. There was no obvious evidence for a human presence in the lowest deposits, but the presence of charcoal raises the possibility of an early Holocene occupation. Additional work at the site is planned, aimed at further exploration of the deepest levels.

References Cited

Anzalone, Ronald David (1973) Archaeological Investigations in San Lorenzo Canyon, Socorro County, New Mexico. Master's Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales.

Dello-Russo, R.D. (2001) A Cultural Resources Inventory of 472 Acres in Socorro County, New Mexico – The Archaeology of the EMRTC / GLINT Project Area. Report ERG-2001-3 submitted to EMRTC / NMIMT by Escondida Research Group, Socorro, New Mexico.

Dello-Russo, R.D. (2003) Geochemical Comparisons of Silicified Rhyolites from Two Prehistoric Quarries and 11 Prehistoric Projectile Points, Socorro County, New Mexico. Geoarchaeology 19(3):237-264 .