Welcome to Southern New Mexico Heritage

A tour through ancient archaeological sites and modern cultures in Southeast New Mexico

Welcome to Southern New Mexico Heritage

A tour through ancient archaeological sites and modern cultures in Southeast New Mexico

From hunting camps and stone tools to village sites and ceramic pots, the archaeology of southeast New Mexico tells of a storied past that is made meaningful by the ancestral peoples who survived and thrived on the landscape, and by their descendants who remain here today. 

Southern New Mexico Heritage is a tour through ancient archaeological sites of southeast New Mexico. Here you can explore the sites and their evidence of homes, foods, tools, and art, all created by the ancestral peoples who lived in the region for generations. You will also learn about their descendants, the modern indigenous peoples who remain here today, and their relationships to this ever changing landscape.

NM regions map.

Lifeways and Landscape

Learn about the people and traditions of SE New Mexico.

Rock art at the Three Rivers Petroglyph site

Notable Sites

Maps, resources and articles about notable sites.

View inside Boyd's cave

Site Records

Explore the collection of site records including photos and data.

Browse the Collection of Site Records

Explore the records in the collection including photographs, site descriptions and more.

“…local populations were probably highly mobile compared to manycontemporaneous groups elsewhere in New Mexico, and some areas reflect the continuation of Archaic-like mobility and subsistence strategies. Lord and Reynolds (1985) have dubbed the lifeway of these highly mobile hunters and gatherers the “Neo-Archaic,” characterized by the same subsistence practices used during the Archaic, with the addition of the bow and arrow. Excavation data from the Permian Basin study area appears to support the continuation of a mobile lifeway based on hunting, gathering, and foraging well into the Ceramic period.”

—A Class III Transect Recording Unit Survey and Geophysical Prospection at the Burro Tanks Site, Chaves County, New Mexico