Paula Massouh

I am currently a doctoral candidate specializing in the archaeology of the prehistoric American Southwest, specifically that of the Ancestral Puebloan culture. This culture inhabited areas of present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Nevada and consists of ten branches or geographic variants.

My current research pertains to the L/102 site that is affiliated with the Largo-Gallina branch and located in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. The prehistoric Largo-Gallina inhabited portions of north central New Mexico from approximately A.D. 1000 - 1275. Current archaeological evidence indicates that they remained relatively isolated from the other Ancestral Puebloan peoples. Some distinctive traits of the Gallina include utilitarian pottery with conical bottoms; architecture with very thick walls and elbow shaped pipes with two lugs or feet.

This site was excavated during summer field schools conducted in 1972 and 1973 by Drs. Albert Mohr and L. Laetetia Sample while affiliated with the University of Toronto, Erindale College. The artifacts and associated records are now housed at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology (MIAC/LOA), in Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of the Mohr-Sample Collection.

During part of 2003 I served an appointment as the first New Mexico Bureau of Land Management Research Fellow during which I examined certain artifacts and associated records in the Collection pertaining to the L/102 site. As a result of my examination, I developed my dissertation topic "Household Organization and Function within the Largo-Gallina Branch of the Ancestral Puebloan Culture: A Case Study of the L/102 Site." This research is believed to be the first study devoted exclusively to household archaeology at a Largo- Gallina site.

I previously received a Master of Arts in Applied Anthropology from American University in 1996. My thesis topic was "The Chacoan Tower Kiva Sites of Kin Klizhin and Kin Ya'a" in which I analyzed the architecture and artifacts from two outlier sites associated with the Chaco branch. I also have made presentations at various professional meetings on my research and have had an article published on my analysis of the L/102 site by the Archaeological Society of New Mexico.

Project Outline

Study of Largo-Gallina Archaeological Sites from the Mohr/Sample Collection

Paula Massouh served an appointment as the first New Mexico Bureau of Land Management Research Fellow at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During her appointment, Paula researched collections from Largo-Gallina sites excavated by field schools in the 1970s conducted by Dr. Laetitia Sample and Dr. Albert Mohr of the University of Toronto, Erindale College. Paula hopes to incorporate this data into her dissertation in which she plans to do a comparative analysis of Largo-Gallina occupations throughout northcentral New Mexico.

• Site plan of Building C at Site L/102
Reference:
Mohr, Albert and L.L. Sample
1972 Archaeological Excavations at Site No. L/102, Rio
Arriba County, New Mexico – 1972. Laboratory of
Anthropology Notes, Museum of New Mexico. Santa Fe,
New Mexico.

• Photo of examples of various ceramic artifacts found in Mohr/Sample Collection of Site L/102, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, NM.
Credit: Photo taken by Paula A. Massouh.

The term “Largo-Gallina” or “Gallina” refers to a group of Ancestral Puebloan people who inhabited an area of north central New Mexico from approximately A.D. 1150-1300. Current archaeological evidence indicates that they remained relatively isolated from the other Ancestral Puebloan peoples. Some distinctive traits of the Gallina include utilitarian pottery with conical bottoms, architecture with thick walls that were sometimes as thick as six feet, side notched points and elbow shaped pipes with two lugs or feet.

While much has been written about other Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the prehistoric Southwest, such as those that inhabited the Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon areas, much less has been written about the Gallina. Furthermore, the literature, with few exceptions, has been mainly descriptive in nature and has failed to compare sites on a regional level. Therefore, various Gallina sites needs to be to researched in order to understand the role that this culture played in the prehistory of the American Southwest.