SILVER CITY – The Western New Mexico University Museum has acquired a new collection of artifacts from La Gila Encantada, a Late Pithouse-era Mimbres site located in Little Walnut Canyon. The site is on land owned by the Archaeological Conservancy and dates to approximately A.D. 550–1,000.
According to Dr. Danielle Romero, director of the WNMU Museum, the site was excavated in 2004 and 2005 during a field school led by Dr. Barbara Roth of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “The site is small, with 19 pithouses and a two-room field house,” Romero said. Pithouses are partially subterranean dwellings used by Mimbres people before the Classic Era, when larger above-ground pueblos became common.
“We think these are all autonomous pithouses,” Romero explained. “At larger sites, we see evidence of extended households, but here they appear to house independent families.”
The collection consists primarily of household vessels and utensils, including two small ceramics believed to have been made by children learning the craft. “You can tell one vessel was made by someone who wasn’t confident forming it, and the lines are messy,” Romero said. The items were found in separate pithouses, suggesting multiple children were learning ceramics at the site.
An unusual feature of La Gila Encantada is a room that burned during prehistoric times. Romero noted that Roth’s excavation uncovered evidence of the fire’s origin and how it spread, with some vessels in the collection bearing burn marks.
The collection is significant for the museum as it includes materials from the Late Pithouse period, filling a gap in its broader Mimbres collection, which is largely from the later Classic period. It is also the museum’s only entirely academic collection from the Pithouse era, meaning the items were excavated by trained archaeologists rather than obtained through looting. The associated excavation notes and photographs are also part of the donation.
Romero highlighted that the collection is not subject to the North American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) because no gravesites were found at the site. This allows the museum to display the artifacts publicly.
The artifacts are now on display at the WNMU Museum, which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum is closed on university holidays and campus-wide closures.