A Basketmaker Midden Circle or cooking pit
A cut-bank showing an elongated Basketmaker Midden in Slaughter Canyon
Practically all game was hunted, notably mule deer, elk, and buffalo; and next, if not the most important, rabbits, both the cottontail and jackrabbit. Also, antelope, plains white-tail deer, big horn sheep, peccary (Javelina), mountain lion, bobcat, wolf, fox, coyote, badger, porcupine, ring-tailed cat, opossum, prairie dog, armadillo, pack rat, kangaroo-rat, muskrat, field mouse, white-foot mouse, beaver, pocket mouse, ground squirrel, pocket gopher as well as fish, ducks, hawks, owls, quail, desert tortoise, pigeons, doves, large terrapin, lizards, and snakes were utilized.
Our people had the dog and probably ate him in time of famine. Although some turkey bones have been found, it is quite certain that this bird was not domesticated here as it was among the Pueblos. Needless to say, leather was fashioned from the skins of practically all animals and was used for pouches, snares, etc.
Usually the first thing to enter our minds when stone is mentioned in connection with aboriginal peoples is arrowheads or projectile points. Stone was used for many and varied purposes, and it would be difficult to list these in order of importance. Projectile points were, of course, important, though used primarily for hunting rather than warfare. Points of various sizes, shapes and materials were used by the Carlsbad Basketmakers. First were the dart and lance points, and later, as arrow points, after the introduction of the bow to the Southwest. Flints, cherts, and chalcedonies were the most common materials used for points and small tools, although rhyolite, felsite, etc., have been found. Stone was worked by grinding, pecking, drilling, and percussion and pressure flaking.
Mortars were usually cut into stationary rock near camping places such as those seen near the natural entrance to the Caverns, although small portable mortars were used to some extent. The pestles were usually made of granite and were carried from camp to camp, as pestles with yucca leaf carrying-straps have been found.
Projectile points, pottery, decorated sea shell, a mano-pestle and a sandal fragment from Carlsbad Caverns National Park
(National Park Service Photo)
Metates or grinding bowls are less common. Metates were made from limestone, sandstone, and granite, while the mano, the small stone used for crushing and grinding on the metate, was composed of limestone, granite, and travertine. The metates are oval, circular, and semi-flat in appearance, and the manos are of the one-hand type.