Late Prehistory Along The Rimrock: Pinto Canyon Ranch

Three rockshelters containing evidence of Late Prehistoric (700–1535 A.D.) occupation of Pinto Canyon Ranch, Presidio County, Texas, were excavated during Fall 2004. Though each of these sites are of the same general type—rockshelters—each was used somewhat differently. Tres Metates is interpreted as a more general use campsite, where plant foods were processed and stored. Potsherd Rockshelter was used as a short-term hunters’ campsite, and Boulder Rockshelter functioned as a lookout/short-term camp used primarily to put the finishing touches on weaponry and other tools for the processing of game. Evidence for the use of cultigens and ceramics at Tres Metates and Potsherd Rockshelter is used to infer that present-day Pinto Canyon Ranch was used as foraging grounds by semi-sedentary peoples from La Junta de Los Rios, or the confluence of the Rio Grande and Rio Conchos near Presidio, Texas.