Photo: The site of Gheo-Shih, looking northeast over Area A during excavation. One line of boulders has already been exposed to the level of sterile soil; however, portions of the Jícaras phase component still remain to be excavated. In the background, dirt from the excavation is being screened (Gheo-Shih, Figure 3.3, page 19).
Gheo-Shih, an Archaic site in the Valley of Oaxaca, was a 1.5 hectare open-air macroband camp near the Mitla River. It was repeatedly occupied in the summer rainy season during the period (cal.) 7500–4000 BC, possibly by 25–50 people. At other times of the year the local population dispersed in smaller, family-sized groups, occupying microband camps in caves and rockshelters. The available macrofossil and palynological data suggest that between 5000 and 4000 BC, the inhabitants were cultivating maize, squash, gourds, and (possibly) runner beans, while continuing to collect wild plants and hunt deer, rabbit, and mud turtle.
This book is a site report that describes the discovery of Gheo-Shih and the subsequent research carried out there: a systematic surface pickup, a series of test pits, targeted excavations, and analysis of the materials recovered.
Gheo-Shih: An Archaic Macroband Camp in the Valley of Oaxaca is published as a print book and an e-book. The book is also available to read on the U-M Press Fulcrum system (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.14477325), which is accessible to people in the U-M community and many other institutions.
Read more and buy the book here:
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/archaeology-books/2024/07/15/gheo-shih-an-archaic-macroband-camp-in-the-valley-of-oaxaca/
See also Cueva Blanca: Social Change in the Archaic of the Valley of Oaxaca, by Kent V. Flannery and Frank Hole, 2019.
