PAUL F. REED
LORI STEPHENS REED

Recent work on the nature of the Navajo occupation of the Upper San
Juan River area has dramatically changed the way archaeologists describe
this period. Although no consensus has been reached, many researchers
working in the area now agree that the Navajo and other Athapaskans
were present by at least A.D. 1500 and perhaps earlier. This is in contrast
to the long-held view that the Navajo were latecomers to the Southwest,
perhaps arriving just before or after the Pueblo Revolt and Spanish
Reconquest (A.D. 1680-1696). Hand-in-hand with this hypothesis of a
late arrival for the Navajo is the notion that Navajo culture was dramati-
cally and irrevocably changed as a result of contact with Puebloan groups
in the late 1600s and early 1700s. Among the more dramatic changes in
Navajo culture that have been documented during this period are the
manufacture of pottery and the use of stone masonry to construct
dwellings. Recent analyses, however, have challenged the idea that
Navajo culture witnessed extensive, rapid change during this period. For
example, evidence suggests that the Navajo brought a ceramic technology
with them to the Southwest ( Brugge 1981b; Marshall 1985), and, al-

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