The Rio Rancho Phase: A Preliminary Report on Early Basketmaker Culture in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico

A Basketmaker II manifestation is defined from the excavation of an open site northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico, containing two surface dwellings and a large outside cooking pit. Designated the Rio Rancho phase, this culture is found to have had had affinities to Basketmaker II cultures in the San Juan area and to late Cochise and early Mogollon cultures in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. The Alameda phase, an early Basketmaker III manifestation in the same area, is believed to have developed out of the Rio Rancho phase with accretions coming primarily from the San Juan area.