Harry J. Shafer

Useful for academic and recreational archaeologists alike, this book identifies and describes over 200 projectile points and stone tools used by prehistoric Native American Indians in Texas. This third edition boasts twice as many illustrations—all drawn from actual specimens—and still includes charts, geographic distribution maps and reliable age-dating information. The authors also demonstrate how factors such as environment, locale and type of artifact combine to produce a portrait of these ancient cultures.

Painters in Prehistory is a revised update of the book Ancient Texans: Rock Art and Lifeways along the Lower Pecos, edited by Harry Shafer with photographs by Jim Zintgraff, and published by the Witte Museum, in conjunction with a permanent exhibition in 1986. The Witte Museum is known for its focus on natural history, science, and the history and culture of South Texas, and the scholarly and artistic pieces collected in the book are the result of years of research and dedication to the story of the ancient canyon dwellers along the Rio Grande. The remnants of prehistoric Lower Pecos people reveal lifeways unlike those anywhere else in the world. The people who inhabited the land in what is now Texas left a unique series of narratives in their shelters, including art on rock walls, pictographs, and organic residue and trash. These narratives are tantalizing in their novelty--they provide information about almost 12,000 years of existence, the last 7,000 of which are still astoundingly evident. This updated edition features significant research by new scholars who have deepened the understanding of rock art interpretation, scientific analysis of artifacts and coprolites, and the lifeways of prehistoric Lower Pecos people.

The Mimbres Valley and the NAN Ranch Ruin are located in southwest New Mexico, near Silver City. According to Harry Shafer, 'The site was named after the ranch cattle brand, NAN, by C. B. Cosgrove, who, with the help of his son, Burt Jr., in 1926, was among the first to excavate at the site.' After more than twenty years of excavating the large Classic Mimbres pueblo site overlying a pithouse village in the Mimbres Valley and analyzing the finds, Shafer argues there was a fascinating restructuring of Mimbres culture and society. The catalyst, Shafer theorizes, was the implementation of irrigation agriculture about AD 850-900. The social reorganization resulted in a number of material changes, including substantive shifts in architecture from pit houses to surface pueblos, the establishment of lineage-based residences, lineage cemeteries, and new ritual activity and behavior that resulted in the architecture, mortuary behavior, and decorated ceramics.

Field Methods in Archaeology has been the leading source for instructors and students in archaeology courses and field schools for 60 years since it was first authored in 1949 by the legendary Robert Heizer. Left Coast has arranged to put the most recent Seventh Edition back into print after a brief hiatus, making this classic textbook again available to the next generation of archaeology students. This comprehensive guide provides an authoritative overview of the variety of methods used in field archaeology, from research design, to survey and excavation strategies, to conservation of artifacts and record-keeping. Authored by three leading archaeologists, with specialized contributions by several other experts, this volume deals with current issues such as cultural resource management, relations with indigenous peoples, and database management as well as standard methods of archaeological data collection and analysis.