The Joyce Well site is in the remote boot heel of New Mexico, within the Gray Ranch, a huge spread whose owners continue to exercise careful control over its archaeological and natural resources. The site consists of a single-story pueblo of about 200 rooms that appears to have been associated with the Casas Grandes culture (Paquime) farther south in Chihuahua.
Habitation peaked between AD 1200 and 1400. One of the questions researchers have sought to answer is the nature of the interaction between Paquime and sites such as Joyce Well.
In 1963 Eugene McCluney excavated a portion of...