New archaeological research and computer simulation suggest why Ancestral Puebloans deserted the northern Southwest United States (original) (raw)
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Ancestral pueblo population aggregation and abandonment in the North American Southwest
Journal of World Prehistory, 1996
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.
A HARD TIME TO DATE: THE SCOTT COUNTY PUEBLO (14SC1) AND PUEBLOAN RESIDENTS OF THE HIGH PLAINS
American Antiquity, 2018
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Puebloan women (if not entire families) were incorporated into Apache Dismal River communities in western Kansas. In at least one site (14SC1), Puebloan people lived in a small masonry pueblo. We evaluate the timing and nature of the Puebloan occupation at 14SC1 and its relationship to the Dismal River population at the site. We use a Bayesian analytical framework to evaluate different models of the pueblo's use history, constraining 12 radiocarbon dates by their stratigraphic data and then comparing this framework with different temporal models based on the historical record. We conclude that Dismal River people lived at 14SC1 prior to the appearance of Pueblo migrants, sometime between cal AD 1490 and 1650. Construction and early use of the pueblo by migrants from the Rio Grande valley occurred between cal AD 1630 and 1660, and the pueblo was closed by burning sometime between cal AD 1640 and 1690. Site 14SC1 lacks Rio Grande Glaze Ware, and its residents seem rarely to have engaged with the groups in the Southern Plains Macroeconomy. Our results contribute to studies of indigenous community formation and Puebloan residential mobility during the Spanish colonial period. Durante los siglos XVII y XVIII, las mujeres Pueblo (o posiblemente familias enteras) fueron incorporadas a las comunidades Apaches de la cultura Dismal River en Kansas occidental. Por lo menos en un sitio (14SC1), los indígenas Pueblo vivieron en un pequeño poblado de mampostería. Evaluamos la cronología y la naturaleza de la ocupación Pueblo en 14SC1 y su relación con la ocupación Dismal River en el sitio. Usamos un marco analítico bayesiano para evaluar diferentes modelos de la cronología ocupacional del pueblo, delimitando los rangos de doce fechas de radiocarbono por sus posiciones estratigráficas y luego comparando este marco con diferentes modelos temporales basados en el registro histórico. Concluimos que los indígenas Dismal River vivieron en 14SC1 antes de la aparición de los migrantes Pueblo en algún momento entre 1490 y 1650 cal dC. La construcción y el uso inicial del pueblo por migrantes procedentes del valle del Río Grande ocurrió entre 1630 y 1660 cal dC, y el pueblo fue cerrado por un incendio entre 1640 y 1690 cal dC. El sitio 14SC1 carece de vajillas del estilo Río Grande con engobe, y sus residentes parecen haber tenidos interacciones limitadas con los grupos que participaron en la macroeconomía de las Planicies del Sur. Nuestros resultados contribuyen al estudio de la formación de comunidades indígenas y la movilidad residencial Pueblo durante el período colonial español.
The Kiva, 1999
The Pueblo I period (A. D. 750-900) in the northern Southwest was a dramatic time that witnessed large-scale population movements and the formation of the first large pueblo villages. By A.D. 860, there may have been more than 10,000 people settled in villages north of the San Juan River in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. The populations of these villages appear to have come from at least two distinct cultural backgrounds. By A. D. 890, the population of this region had declined by at least two-thirds. Migration of substantial village populations to the south must be considered in any explanation of developments in the subsequent Pueblo 11 period, including the Chaco phenomenon.
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American Antiquity, 2004
One of the most prominent but least understood demographic phenomena in the precontact Southwest is the disappearance of the Hohokam from the valleys of southern Arizona. Despite extensive research, no widely accepted explanation has been offered. We argue that the failure to identify a satisfactory cause is due to excessive focus on catastrophic phenomena and terminal occupations, and a lack of attention to gradual demographic processes. Based on a combination of macro-regional population studies and local research in the lower San Pedro River valley, we present an explanation for gradual population decline precipitated by social and economic coalescence beginning in the late A.D. 1200s. In the southern Southwest an influx of immigrantsf rom the north led to a shiftf rom a dispersed, extensive settlement/subsistences trategy to increased conflict, aggregation, and economic intensification. This shift resulted in diminished health and transformationf rom population growth to decline. Over approximately 150 years gradual population decline resulted in small remnant groups unable to maintain viable communities. Small, terminal populations were ultimately unable to continue identifiable Hohokam cultural traditions and consequently disappeared from the archaeological record of southern Arizona, either through migration or a shift in lifestyle that rendered them archaeologically invisible.
Demographic Reconstructions in the American Southwest
Kiva, 1987
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Journal of Arizona Archaeology, 2019
A synthesis of previous archaeological investigations combined with archival research and GIS- (geographic information systems) based analysis of Ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites in the Hay Hollow Valley of east central Arizona reveal changes in settlement and land use over time. Apparent increases in population, presumably linked with the transition from hunting and foraging to farming maize, a phenomenon demonstrated across much of the Prehispanic Southwest, may have led to increasing competition for finite natural resources including perennial water and arable land. Previous research projects in the Hay Hollow Valley, primarily the Field Museum’s Southwest Archaeological Expedition, have produced a wealth of archaeological site data. In particular, the data reveal strong patterns of settlement and land use over time, shifts in settlement likely associated with changes in subsistence strategies, the development of technological innovations designed to control the flow of water, and evidence of complex systems of community integration that challenges previously held notions of small, autonomous farmers living in an area peripheral to other, more densely populated areas of the American Southwest. Rather than competition, the results of the analysis suggest that interdependence and adaptability may have been driving changes in Ancestral Pueblo social organization between about AD 100 and 1325 in the Hay Hollow Valley.
2015
OF DISSERTATION LIVING ON THE EDGE: RETHINKING PUEBLO PERIOD: (AD 700 – AD 1225) INDIGENOUS SETTLEMENT PATTERNS WITHIN GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, NOTHERN ARIZONA This dissertation challenges traditional interpretations that indigenous groups who settled the Grand Canyon during the Pueblo Period (AD 700 -1225) relied heavily on maize to meet their subsistence needs. Instead they are viewed as dynamic ecosystem engineers who employed fire and natural plant succession to engage in a wild plant subsistence strategy that was supplemented to varying degrees by maize. By examining the relationship between archaeological sites and the natural environment throughout the Canyon, new settlement pattern models were developed. These models attempt to account for the spatial distribution of Virgin people, as represented by Virgin Gray Ware ceramics, Kayenta as represented by Tusayan Gray Ware ceramics, and the Cohonina as represented by San Francisco Mountain Gray Ware ceramics, through an exami...