Groups of people dependent upon a different way of life from that of the
Early Hunters are known to have occupied much of the present area of New
Mexico. Although there is some suggestion of overlap in time of these
people with the Early Hunters, they appear to have become prominent
during the several thousand warm, dry years following the end of the
Pleistocene. Adapted, as they were, to a fuller utilization of the
resources of the area through the hunting and trapping of smaller game
and an emphasis on the gathering of a wide variety of wild plant foods,
these people ranged extensively across the varied terrain of the state.
Similar patterns of subsistence and artifacts are known from the Great
Basin region west of the Rocky Mountains, where they have been
categorized under the term _Desert Culture_. Local manifestations of the
Desert Culture in southeastern Arizona, extending eastward into western
and southern New Mexico, are identified as the Cochise Culture. Other
groups showing similarities with Archaic cultures to the east penetrated
the northeastern part of New Mexico at a time when the area was still
populated by Pleistocene bison.
Habitation sites of these gatherers are distributed in open situations
and in shelter caves. Such sites are commonly marked by milling stones
that characterize the preparation of wild foods (fig. 3), hearths,
chopping and scraping implements, and stemmed projectile points markedly
different from those used by the Early Hunters. These points were
affixed to dart shafts that were propelled with a spear thrower or
_atlatl_, a device that preceded the bow and arrow in America but is
still used by Australian Aborigines.
Seasonal changes in the local availability of wild foods must have
necessitated a nomadic or seminomadic way of life. The development of
agricultural techniques in the later years before the beginning of the
Christian Era, however, probably contributed to the development of a
semisedentary existence that was eventually to lead to the village life
of the later periods. The exact time of introduction of the principal
agricultural crops, corn, squash, and beans, is unknown, but evidence
from west-central New Mexico indicates their use by the Cochise people
by 2500 B.C.