Papers by Scott Nicolay
Along the Frontier of La Jornada: Proceedings from the 22nd Jornada Mogollon Conference, 2023
An extensive archaeological and ethnographic record provides considerable evidence for the profou... more An extensive archaeological and ethnographic record provides considerable evidence for the profound role of caves and the underworld in the cosmovision of Indigenous peoples in the United States Southwest and northwest Mexico and some adjacent areas. Although researchers have identified dozens of caves and earth openings across the American Southwest/Mexican Northwest as shrines, the two sites that arguably best define this pattern belong to the adjacent Jornada Mogollon and Sierra Blanca regions: Ceremonial Cave near El Paso, Texas, and Feather Cave near Lincoln, New Mexico. Publications by the Cosgroves on the former (1947) and Ellis and Hammack on the latter (1968) defined a paradigm of ritual cave use related to ancestors and chthonic deities that operated throughout much of the Americas. In this, they largely anticipated the more recent conclusions of Mesoamerican Cave Archaeology, which has become a thriving subdiscipline over the last generation. The ongoing study of Jornada Mogollon cave shrines, including important rock art sites such as Surratt Cave, Picture Cave, and Centipede Cave; of legacy collections; and of speleothems (cave minerals) recovered from surface sites has the potential to provide valuable insights not only into prehistoric cosmovision, but also into perishable technologies and settlement patterns over a large region and a period spanning at least four millennia.
Collected Papers from the 21st Biennial Mogollon Archaeology Conference, 2023
Archaeologist Walter Hough spent 10 days in 1905 excavating a remarkable cave shrine in a side ca... more Archaeologist Walter Hough spent 10 days in 1905 excavating a remarkable cave shrine in a side canyon of the Blue River in eastern Arizona. Of the many sites that Hough visited during this expedition, none made a deeper impression on him than Bear Creek Cave. Hough felt that he had arrived "not a moment too soon," as vandals and looters had begun destroying and removing artifacts from the site over a decade earlier. This paper presents new information from recent site visits, unpublished material from Hough's archival papers, and other comparative data that suggests at least some of the people who used the site came from the nearby Gila Mimbres cultural region.
I hope that the readers of this journal will not pass this volume over in the mistaken impression... more I hope that the readers of this journal will not pass this volume over in the mistaken impression that its topic is an esoteric one, of interest only to ethnobotanists. The truth is that the study of the sweet potato cuts straight to the heart of some of the most important issues in Polynesian prehistory, especially for Rapa Nui.</p
Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation, 2007
Ea ter I land ha been the most intensely tudied Polyneian i land with regards to archaeology and ... more Ea ter I land ha been the most intensely tudied Polyneian i land with regards to archaeology and anthropology. Given that, however, if you are intere ted in pur uing reearch in Easter I land try to attack a re earch question from a different angle or approach, try different techniques and/or methodologie ,or elect uninve tigated sites or unde cribed skeletal element. There i till a great deal more that can be done to further contribute to our understanding of the prehi toric Ea ter Island people and culture. What would you have done if you had not pur ued your current line(s) o/research and interests? If I hadn't been exposed to biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, and Ea ter I land skeletal biology, it is quite likely I would have remained in the Navy and continued my career as a Surface Line Officer.
ONE OF THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED PAPERS in anthropology is at last in print: Terry Jones and Kathr... more ONE OF THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED PAPERS in anthropology is at last in print: Terry Jones and Kathryn KIar's case for transoceanic contact between Polynesians and the Chumash of southern California. It is appropriate that their paper should appear in an important venue as American Antiquity, as it has implications for the entire discipline of archaeology, extending beyond the two geographic areas upon which it focuses.</p
EASTER ISLAND Jennifer Vanderbes, 2003 New York: The Dial Press. 308 pp. hardback ISBN 0-385-3367... more EASTER ISLAND Jennifer Vanderbes, 2003 New York: The Dial Press. 308 pp. hardback ISBN 0-385-33673-X Review by Scott Nicolay</p
MANY READERS OF THIS JOURNAL will already have an entire bookshelf - or at least a large part of ... more MANY READERS OF THIS JOURNAL will already have an entire bookshelf - or at least a large part of one - dedicated entirely to Rapa Nui. However, until now, those shelves will have lacked a straightforward and complete history of the island and its people. So much has been written about the island's prehistory that it has been easy to ignore the absence of an actual history. Only after one begins to read Island at the End of the World does it become obvious· what has been missing all this time.</p
Anthropomorphic effigies remain one of the rarest and most poorly understood artifact categories ... more Anthropomorphic effigies remain one of the rarest and most poorly understood artifact categories in the Southwest/Northwest, and publications on this topic employ highly inconsistent nomenclature. In 2019, the lead author delivered a large sandstone effigy to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe after previously receiving it from Trina Newman, the granddaughter of the late William Harrison Gould. Gould originally found this figure near the Fort Stanton Petroglyph Site (LA 20301) in 1928 and later passed it on to his son, Tom Gould, who in turn gave it to his daughter, which means that both the provenience and a complete chain of custody/provenance exist for this object. Although the Gould effigy has several unique formal attributes, it clearly resembles other anthropomorphic carved effigies of stone and wood from the region, particularly those recovered at Pecos Pueblo. The only major attempt to synthesize data on similar examples is Henry Walt's unpublished 1978 master's thesis on the Cliff Valley cache. Herein, we discuss the Gould effigy in the context of its find-site and in relationship to other effigies in order to define an artifact class distinct from related representational categories, such as clay figurines and ceramic effigy vessels.
Review by Scott Nicolay THE JOURNAL OF iSLAND AND COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY i a new scholarly periodica... more Review by Scott Nicolay THE JOURNAL OF iSLAND AND COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY i a new scholarly periodical that is likely to be of intere t to a good part of the RNJ readership. When the orwegian Ar
Sacred Darkness: A Global Perspective on the Ritual Use of Caves, 2012
Published studies describe numerous caves in the Southwest as shrines or ceremonial sites. Despit... more Published studies describe numerous caves in the Southwest as shrines or ceremonial sites. Despite this recognition, as well as additional evidence for ritual cave use as early as the Late Archaic, there has been little attempt to explore what Hough (1914:91) described as a “cave cult” that “has survived to the present.” The purpose of the present study is to present an initial synthesis of the widely scattered information about ritual cave use in Southwest prehistory, to place both the archaeological record and its study in context, and to suggest avenues for future research.
Book Reviews by Scott Nicolay
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Papers by Scott Nicolay
Book Reviews by Scott Nicolay