Prehistoric Demography in the Southwest: Migration, Coalescence, and Hohokam Population Decline

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brett Hill ◽  
Jeffery J. Clark ◽  
William H. Doelle ◽  
Patrick D. Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Population Studies ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
San Pedro River ◽  
The North ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Regional Population ◽  
Local Research

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 immigrants from the north led to a shift from a dispersed, extensive settlement/subsistence strategy to increased conflict, aggregation, and economic intensification. This shift resulted in diminished health and transformation from 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.

A Ball Court Located on the San Pedro River in Southeastern Arizona

1951 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Dipeso
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
River Channel ◽  
The West ◽  
San Pedro River ◽  
The North ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
Cochise County ◽  
Desert Flora ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City

The Amerind Foundation, Inc. spent the first three weeks of December, 1948, excavating a ball court at the archaeological site of Arizona:BB:15:3, which is located in Cochise County, Sec. 20, T15S, R20E. The actual village area is located on the west bank of the San Pedro River twenty-two miles north of the city of Benson at an approximate elevation of 3300 feet.The ball court was located in the north half of the village on a terrace some forty feet above the river channel. It appeared as a shallow but conspicuous oval depression which was overgrown with mesquite trees and other desert flora of the Sonoran plateau type. Fortunately the court had not been disturbed by any previous excavations nor by erosion (Fig. 86, a).

The NOAA Hydrometeorology Testbed Soil Moisture Observing Networks: Design, Instrumentation, and Preliminary Results

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 1129-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Zamora ◽  
F. Martin Ralph ◽  
Edward Clark ◽  
Timothy Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Heavy Precipitation ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
San Pedro River ◽  
The North ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Russian River

Abstract The NOAA Hydrometeorology Testbed (HMT) program has deployed soil moisture observing networks in the watersheds of the Russian River and the North Fork (NF) of the American River in northern California, and the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona. These networks were designed to serve the combined needs of the hydrological, meteorological, agricultural, and climatological communities for observations of soil moisture on time scales that range from minutes to decades. The networks are a major component of the HMT program that has been developed to accelerate the development and infusion of new observing technologies, modeling methods, and recent scientific research into the National Weather Service (NWS) offices and to help focus research and development efforts on key hydrological and meteorological forecast problems. These forecast problems are not only of interest to the NWS, but they also play a crucial role in providing input to water managers who work at the national, state, and local government levels to provide water for human consumption, agriculture, and other needs. The HMT soil moisture networks have been specifically designed to capture the changes in soil moisture that are associated with heavy precipitation events and runoff from snowpack during the melt season. This paper describes the strategies used to site the networks and sensors as well as the selection, testing, and calibration of the soil moisture probes. In addition, two illustrative examples of the data gathered by the networks are shown. The first example shows changes in soil moisture observed before and during a flood event on the Babocomari River tributary of the San Pedro River near Sierra Vista, Arizona, on 23 July 2008. The second example examines a 5-yr continuous time series of soil moisture gathered at Healdsburg, California. The time series illustrates the transition from a multiyear wet period to exceptionally dry conditions from a soil moisture perspective.

scholarly journals The Influence of Locality on Migration: a Comparative Study of Britain and Sweden in the Nineteenth Century

2013 ◽  
pp. 13-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin G. Pooley
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Population Studies ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
Migration Data ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Regional Population ◽  
Patterns And Processes

This paper uses migration data for Britain and Sweden to critically examine the contention that locality or place influenced migration patterns and processes in the nineteenth century. Despite their very different geographies patterns of migration in Britain and Sweden in the nineteenth century were remarkably similar. Any differences can be accounted for by limitations in the available data. It is argued that at the national level geography had little impact on migration, but that at the local level most people in both countries were tied closely to particular localities. However, it is suggested that this is not primarily due to the specific characteristics of a place but, rather, can be attributed to the ties to family, friends and community which, while being situated in a place, are not produced by it. Finally, it is suggested that further comparative studies of demographic processes can aid the interpretation of local and regional population studies.

Gendered Places and Depositional Histories: Reconstructing a Menstrual Lodge in the Interior Northwest

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 400-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Carney ◽  
Jade d'Alpoim Guedes ◽  
Kevin J. Lyons ◽  
Melissa Goodman Elgar
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Thin Section ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Columbia Plateau ◽  
The North ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
History Of ◽  
Experimental Firing ◽  
River Inundation

This project considered the deposition history of a burned structure located on the Kalispel Tribe of Indians ancestral lands at the Flying Goose site in northeastern Washington. Excavation of the structure revealed stratified deposits that do not conform to established Columbia Plateau architectural types. The small size, location, and absence of artifacts lead us to hypothesize that this site was once a non-domestic structure. We tested this hypothesis with paleoethnobotanical, bulk geoarchaeological, thin section, and experimental firing data to deduce the structural remains and the post-occupation sequence. The structure burned at a relatively low temperature, was buried soon afterward with imported rubified sediment, and was exposed to seasonal river inundation. Subsequently, a second fire consumed a unique assemblage of plant remains. Drawing on recent approaches to structured deposition and historic processes, we incorporate ethnography to argue that this structure was a menstrual lodge. These structures are common in ethnographic descriptions, although no menstrual lodges have been positively identified in the archaeological record of the North American Pacific Northwest. This interpretation is important to understanding the development and time depth of gendered practices of Interior Northwest groups.

Carbon and Nitrogen Export from Semiarid Uplands to Perennial Rivers: Connections and Missing Links, San Pedro River, Arizona, USA

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 546-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Meixner ◽  
Paul Brooks ◽  
James Hogan ◽  
Carlos Soto ◽  
Scott Simpson
Keyword(s):  
San Pedro River ◽  
Nitrogen Export ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
San Pedro

Geoarchaeological dating of Holocene stream terraces along the San Pedro River, southeastern Arizona, USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 342 ◽  
pp. 20-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Onken ◽  
Joseph P. Cook ◽  
Ann Youberg ◽  
Philip A. Pearthree
Keyword(s):  
San Pedro River ◽  
San Pedro

Estimation of potential pollution from mine tailings in the San Pedro River (1993–2005), Mexico–US border

2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Gómez-Alvarez ◽  
Diana Meza-Figueroa ◽  
Arturo I. Villalba-Atondo ◽  
Jesús Leobardo Valenzuela-García ◽  
Jorge Ramírez-Hernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mine Tailings ◽  
San Pedro River ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
Potential Pollution

Detecting changes in riparian habitat conditions based on patterns of greenness change: A case study from the Upper San Pedro River Basin, USA

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Bruce Jones ◽  
Curtis E. Edmonds ◽  
E. Terrance Slonecker ◽  
James D. Wickham ◽  
Anne C. Neale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Riparian Habitat ◽  
Habitat Conditions ◽  
San Pedro River ◽  
San Pedro

Kean Miltos: The Well-Known Iron Oxides of Antiquity

1997 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 359-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Photos-Jones ◽  
A. Cottier ◽  
A. J. Hall ◽  
L. G. Mendoni
Keyword(s):  
Iron Oxides ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The North ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Industrial Mineral

The island of Kea in the North Cyclades was well known in antiquity for its miltos, a naturally occurring red iron oxide valued for its colour and wide range of applications. By combining geological field work, physico-chemical analytical techniques, simulation (heating) experiments as well as simple laboratory tests, this paper describes the study of Kean iron oxides in an attempt to characterize this material which is still largely elusive in the archaeological record. The present work corroborates previous observations about the superior quality of some Kean iron oxides. Furthermore, it puts forward the hypothesis that miltos may have been considered an industrial mineral, and as such may have been used as an umbrella term for a variety of materials including mineralogically distinct purple as well as red iron oxides.

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