Michael Adler | Southern Methodist University (original) (raw)
Papers by Michael Adler
Journal of Anthropological Research, 1993
We present obsidian-sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloa... more We present obsidian-sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloan settlements in the Northern Rio Grande, occupied from at least 1260 ce until ca. 1320 ce when much of the pueblo was burned and the site was depopulated. Although the occupation of Pot Creek Pueblo was short, it occurred during a pivotal period in the Northern Rio Grande. The population of the region increased rapidly at this time, possibly due to an influx of migrants from the Mesa Verde/San Juan area to the west, and locally people living in relatively small villages comprised of pithouses and above-ground unit pueblos begin to coalesce into fewer, but much larger above-ground pueblos. Obsidian-source choices throughout the region may provide insight into how the proposed migration impacted existing resource-procurement patterns. Our data demonstrate that despite the diverse histories of the settlement’s inhabitants, the exchange system supplying obsidian to Pot Creek Pueblo remained...
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2022
We present obsidian sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloa... more We present obsidian sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloan settlements in the Northern Rio Grande, occupied from at least 1260 ce until ca. 1320 ce when much of the pueblo was burned and the site was depopulated. Although the occupation of Pot Creek Pueblo was short, it occurred during a pivotal period in the Northern Rio Grande. The population of the region increased rapidly at this time, possibly due to an influx of migrants from the Mesa Verde/San Juan area to the west, and locally people living in relatively small villages comprised of pithouses and above- ground unit pueblos begin to coalesce into fewer, but much larger above-ground pueblos. Obsidian-source choices through- out the region may provide insight into how the proposed migration impacted existing resource-procurement patterns. Our data demonstrate that despite the diverse histories of the settlement’s inhabitants, the exchange system supplying obsidian to Pot Creek Pueblo remained stable throughout its occupation. We argue that exchange dynamics of the local community remained the primary means of obtaining obsidian despite potential for new avenues that might have been available through the addition of new community members from outside the region and despite population growth and changing settlement patterns in the broader Northern Rio Grande.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1996
Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to ... more Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to infer past human social dynamics on the site, local, and regional levels. Given the inferential linkages between past landscape use and social relationships, archaeology can benefit from an approach that more explicitly delineates relationships between systems of land use and land tenure, the social means through which people define and assert land use rights. This research outlines a set of methods for modeling prehistoric land tenure systems and developing a middle range theory of land tenure relationships that may assist archaeologists in their investigations of prehistoric resource access systems. Land tenure systems are complex risk-buffering strategies that are conditioned by the labor invested in food production, the size of groups holding direct access to productive lands and resources, and the temporal duration of land access rights. The role of these variables is supported by cross-cultural data from a worldwide sample of food-producing societies. The land tenure model is applied to data from the prehistoric Southwest to help explain local and regional changes in food production, settlement size, and community organization in southwest Colorado between 900 and 1300 A.D.
Journal of World Prehistory, 1996
After over a century of archaeological research in the American Southwest, questions focusing on ... more After over a century of archaeological research in the American Southwest, questions focusing on population aggregation and abandonment continue to preoccupy much of Pueblo archaeology. This article presents a historical overview of the present range of explanatory approaches to these two processes, with a primary focus on population aggregation in those regions occupied by historic and prehistoric Pueblo peoples. We stress the necessarily complementary nature of most of these explanations of residential abandonment and aggregation. Case studies from the northern Southwest illustrate the continuous nature of these processes across time and space. We suggest that additional explanatory potential will be gained by the use of well-defined theoretical units to frame our current approaches. We extend the use of the "local community" concept as a theoretical unit of organization that, along with explicit archaeological correlates, should help advance our research into population aggregation and abandonment in this and other regions of the world.
Saving the Past for Whom? Considerations for a New Conservation Ethic in Archaeology, 2005
This paper addresses ethical and professional issue in archaeology that simultaneously conjoin an... more This paper addresses ethical and professional issue in archaeology that simultaneously conjoin and segregate archaeologists and indigenous groups when concepts of ancestry, cultural affiliation, and ethnicity are at stake
Oxford Handbook for Southwest Archaeology, 2017
Reviews aspects of the built environment among ancestral communities in the American Southwest
Traditional Lands Agriculture: Understanding the Past for the Future, 2015
This chapter assesses archaeological evidence for precontact (before 1600 CE) irrigation technolo... more This chapter assesses archaeological evidence for precontact (before 1600 CE) irrigation technologies in the Taos area of the northern Rio Grande. Evidence for early irrigation is critiqued and standards for assessing the age of water control features are discussed.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1996
Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to ... more Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to infer past human social dynamics on the site, local, and regional levels. Given the inferential linkages between past landscape use and social relationships, archaeology can benefit from an approach that more explicitly delineates relationships between systems of land use and land tenure, the social means through which people define and assert land use rights. This research outlines a set of methods for modeling prehistoric land tenure systems and developing a middle range theory of land tenure relationships that may assist archaeologists in their investigations of prehistoric resource access systems. Land tenure systems are complex risk-buffering strategies that are conditioned by the labor invested in food production, the size of groups holding direct access to productive lands and resources, and the temporal duration of land access rights. The role of these variables is supported by cross-cultural data from a worldwide sample of food-producing societies. The land tenure model is applied to data from the prehistoric Southwest to help explain local and regional changes in food production, settlement size, and community organization in southwest Colorado between 900 and 1300 A.D.
Geoarchaeology, 2007
This article investigates adobe wall construction materials utilized by prehistoric inhabitants o... more This article investigates adobe wall construction materials utilized by prehistoric inhabitants of Chaves-Hummingbird Pueblo, an ancestral Pueblo village located ~20 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The walls were constructed with native clay-rich soils some time between approximately 1275-1450 A.D. Samples were analyzed with a diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer from the near ultraviolet (NUV) through the visible (VIS) and into the near infrared (NIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Cluster analysis of samples from 275 adobe walls and 36 soil locations surrounding the pueblo room blocks indicates four clusters. Comparison of typical samples from the four clusters indicates that they are very similar and are distinguished by minor variations in the three primary spectrally determined components, Na-Ca montmorillonite, bentonite, and goethite. In general, clusters correspond with room construction episodes that are discernible through patterns of wall bonding and abutment recorded during the archaeological investigation of the site. This suggests that during different phases of construction the source of the wall adobe changed. Many of the soil samples are included in wall clusters and therefore reveal a potential source of material used for adobe, adjacent soils. However, not all the soil surrounding the pueblo grouped with wall clusters indicating a preference for certain soil types and that some soils were probably unsuitable for making adobe. Therefore, diversity in spectrally identified construction materials provides insights into source locations and possible construction preferences of the site inhabitants.
Journal of World Prehistory, 1996
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1996
Books by Michael Adler
Picuris Pueblo through time eight centuries of change in a northern Rio Grande pueblo, 1999
Summary of archaeological and ethnographic research conducted by Herbert Dick and others at Picur... more Summary of archaeological and ethnographic research conducted by Herbert Dick and others at Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico, from 1961-1999
Journal of Anthropological Research, 1993
We present obsidian-sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloa... more We present obsidian-sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloan settlements in the Northern Rio Grande, occupied from at least 1260 ce until ca. 1320 ce when much of the pueblo was burned and the site was depopulated. Although the occupation of Pot Creek Pueblo was short, it occurred during a pivotal period in the Northern Rio Grande. The population of the region increased rapidly at this time, possibly due to an influx of migrants from the Mesa Verde/San Juan area to the west, and locally people living in relatively small villages comprised of pithouses and above-ground unit pueblos begin to coalesce into fewer, but much larger above-ground pueblos. Obsidian-source choices throughout the region may provide insight into how the proposed migration impacted existing resource-procurement patterns. Our data demonstrate that despite the diverse histories of the settlement’s inhabitants, the exchange system supplying obsidian to Pot Creek Pueblo remained...
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2022
We present obsidian sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloa... more We present obsidian sourcing data from Pot Creek Pueblo (LA 260), one of the northernmost Puebloan settlements in the Northern Rio Grande, occupied from at least 1260 ce until ca. 1320 ce when much of the pueblo was burned and the site was depopulated. Although the occupation of Pot Creek Pueblo was short, it occurred during a pivotal period in the Northern Rio Grande. The population of the region increased rapidly at this time, possibly due to an influx of migrants from the Mesa Verde/San Juan area to the west, and locally people living in relatively small villages comprised of pithouses and above- ground unit pueblos begin to coalesce into fewer, but much larger above-ground pueblos. Obsidian-source choices through- out the region may provide insight into how the proposed migration impacted existing resource-procurement patterns. Our data demonstrate that despite the diverse histories of the settlement’s inhabitants, the exchange system supplying obsidian to Pot Creek Pueblo remained stable throughout its occupation. We argue that exchange dynamics of the local community remained the primary means of obtaining obsidian despite potential for new avenues that might have been available through the addition of new community members from outside the region and despite population growth and changing settlement patterns in the broader Northern Rio Grande.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1996
Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to ... more Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to infer past human social dynamics on the site, local, and regional levels. Given the inferential linkages between past landscape use and social relationships, archaeology can benefit from an approach that more explicitly delineates relationships between systems of land use and land tenure, the social means through which people define and assert land use rights. This research outlines a set of methods for modeling prehistoric land tenure systems and developing a middle range theory of land tenure relationships that may assist archaeologists in their investigations of prehistoric resource access systems. Land tenure systems are complex risk-buffering strategies that are conditioned by the labor invested in food production, the size of groups holding direct access to productive lands and resources, and the temporal duration of land access rights. The role of these variables is supported by cross-cultural data from a worldwide sample of food-producing societies. The land tenure model is applied to data from the prehistoric Southwest to help explain local and regional changes in food production, settlement size, and community organization in southwest Colorado between 900 and 1300 A.D.
Journal of World Prehistory, 1996
After over a century of archaeological research in the American Southwest, questions focusing on ... more After over a century of archaeological research in the American Southwest, questions focusing on population aggregation and abandonment continue to preoccupy much of Pueblo archaeology. This article presents a historical overview of the present range of explanatory approaches to these two processes, with a primary focus on population aggregation in those regions occupied by historic and prehistoric Pueblo peoples. We stress the necessarily complementary nature of most of these explanations of residential abandonment and aggregation. Case studies from the northern Southwest illustrate the continuous nature of these processes across time and space. We suggest that additional explanatory potential will be gained by the use of well-defined theoretical units to frame our current approaches. We extend the use of the "local community" concept as a theoretical unit of organization that, along with explicit archaeological correlates, should help advance our research into population aggregation and abandonment in this and other regions of the world.
Saving the Past for Whom? Considerations for a New Conservation Ethic in Archaeology, 2005
This paper addresses ethical and professional issue in archaeology that simultaneously conjoin an... more This paper addresses ethical and professional issue in archaeology that simultaneously conjoin and segregate archaeologists and indigenous groups when concepts of ancestry, cultural affiliation, and ethnicity are at stake
Oxford Handbook for Southwest Archaeology, 2017
Reviews aspects of the built environment among ancestral communities in the American Southwest
Traditional Lands Agriculture: Understanding the Past for the Future, 2015
This chapter assesses archaeological evidence for precontact (before 1600 CE) irrigation technolo... more This chapter assesses archaeological evidence for precontact (before 1600 CE) irrigation technologies in the Taos area of the northern Rio Grande. Evidence for early irrigation is critiqued and standards for assessing the age of water control features are discussed.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1996
Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to ... more Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to infer past human social dynamics on the site, local, and regional levels. Given the inferential linkages between past landscape use and social relationships, archaeology can benefit from an approach that more explicitly delineates relationships between systems of land use and land tenure, the social means through which people define and assert land use rights. This research outlines a set of methods for modeling prehistoric land tenure systems and developing a middle range theory of land tenure relationships that may assist archaeologists in their investigations of prehistoric resource access systems. Land tenure systems are complex risk-buffering strategies that are conditioned by the labor invested in food production, the size of groups holding direct access to productive lands and resources, and the temporal duration of land access rights. The role of these variables is supported by cross-cultural data from a worldwide sample of food-producing societies. The land tenure model is applied to data from the prehistoric Southwest to help explain local and regional changes in food production, settlement size, and community organization in southwest Colorado between 900 and 1300 A.D.
Geoarchaeology, 2007
This article investigates adobe wall construction materials utilized by prehistoric inhabitants o... more This article investigates adobe wall construction materials utilized by prehistoric inhabitants of Chaves-Hummingbird Pueblo, an ancestral Pueblo village located ~20 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The walls were constructed with native clay-rich soils some time between approximately 1275-1450 A.D. Samples were analyzed with a diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer from the near ultraviolet (NUV) through the visible (VIS) and into the near infrared (NIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Cluster analysis of samples from 275 adobe walls and 36 soil locations surrounding the pueblo room blocks indicates four clusters. Comparison of typical samples from the four clusters indicates that they are very similar and are distinguished by minor variations in the three primary spectrally determined components, Na-Ca montmorillonite, bentonite, and goethite. In general, clusters correspond with room construction episodes that are discernible through patterns of wall bonding and abutment recorded during the archaeological investigation of the site. This suggests that during different phases of construction the source of the wall adobe changed. Many of the soil samples are included in wall clusters and therefore reveal a potential source of material used for adobe, adjacent soils. However, not all the soil surrounding the pueblo grouped with wall clusters indicating a preference for certain soil types and that some soils were probably unsuitable for making adobe. Therefore, diversity in spectrally identified construction materials provides insights into source locations and possible construction preferences of the site inhabitants.
Journal of World Prehistory, 1996
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1996
Picuris Pueblo through time eight centuries of change in a northern Rio Grande pueblo, 1999
Summary of archaeological and ethnographic research conducted by Herbert Dick and others at Picur... more Summary of archaeological and ethnographic research conducted by Herbert Dick and others at Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico, from 1961-1999