Boca Necra Cave 
Boca Negra Cave is situated on the northeast side of 
a voleanic cone near the city of Albuquerque. The cave 
measured 274 feet deep, 205 feet wide and 6 feet high 
before excavation. The details of the excavations are 
described by Reinhart (1968). 
Because the terrain around the cave and for a mile to 
the river is rocky and otherwise unsuited for agriculture, 
the site probably never had a permanent agricultural 
settlement. Nevertheless along record of maize and other 
artifacts was left apparently by migrants who camped at 
the cave for a short time and then moved to other Bas- 
ketmaker III agricultural sites along the river such as 
those at Artificial Leg. 
The stratigraphy at Boca Negra Cave has a bearing 
on our understanding of the evolution of southwestern 
maize. Its succession includes material which is both 
older at the lower level and more recent at the upper 
level than that found at the BR-45 Site. The earliest 
culture present was of the late Atrisco Phase (Campbell 
and Ellis, 1952) which dates prior to 1000 B.C. and is a 
local Cochise manifestation. While incipient agriculture 
may have been practiced, there is no direct evidence of 
it either at Boca Negra Cave or at the west mesa sites 
at this early time. The Atrisco Phase is preceramic and 
is represented here only by lithic tools. While the next 
Phase, Rio Rancho, was also preceramie, it contained 
cobs of Chapalote, the indigenous race of the Southwest 
and Mexico which will be described later. Both the ce- 
ramics and a new race of maize, Maiz de Ocho, appear 
in the Alameda Phase, an early Basketmaker III culture 
dated at A.D. 370+168 at the Boca Negra Cave Site. 
This stratigraphy extending over a 8000 year period to- 
gether with the racial identity of the maize present are 
given in Table IIT. 
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