Pit Structure Abandonment in the Four Corners Region of the American Southwest: Late Basketmaker III and Pueblo I Periods

1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Cameron
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
Basketmaker Iii

Evidence for Population Aggregation and Dispersal during the Basketmaker III Period in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Wills ◽  
Thomas C. Windes
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Great Part ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Population Aggregation ◽  
Basketmaker Iii

The appearance of pithouse settlements in the American Southwest that have multihabitation structures has been considered evidence for the emergence of "village" social organization. The interpretation that village systems are reflected in pithouse architecture rests in great part on the assumption that large sites correspond to large, temporally stable social groups. In this article we examine one of the best known pithouse settlements in the Southwest—Shabik’eschee Village in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico—and argue that the site may represent episodic aggregation of local groups rather than a sedentary occupation by a single coherent social unit.

Archeointensity of the Four Corners Region of the American Southwest

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Jones ◽  
L. Tauxe ◽  
E. Blinman ◽  
A. Genevey
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Four Corners

The Stable- and Radio-Isotope Chemistry of Western Basketmaker Burials: Implications for Early Puebloan Diets and Origins

2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Brenner Coltrain ◽  
Joel C. Janetski ◽  
Shawn W. Carlyle
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Isotope ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Large Collection ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Maize Agriculture ◽  
Great House ◽  
Four Corners

The timing and degree of reliance on maize agriculture in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest has been a central issue in studies that examine the origins of Puebloan society. Both diffusionist (various, but see Wills 1995) and migrationist (Berry and Berry 1986; Matson 1991) models have been proposed to explain the processes responsible for the movement of maize (Zea mays) north into the Four Corners region. This paper reports bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values with paired accelerator radiocarbon dates on a large collection of human remains from western Basketmaker II/III sites in Marsh Pass and other areas of northeastern Arizona, as well as data on a small number of Puebloan remains including Chacoan Great House burials. The results make clear that Basketmaker II people were heavily dependent on maize by 400 B.C. Moreover, their degree of dependence is similar to that of Pueblo II and III farmers of the Four Corners region. These findings and the apparent rapidity of maize dependence support a migrationist model for the origins of maize farming in the northern Southwest.

A Time to Rend, A Time to Sew: New Perspectives on Northern Anasazi Sociopolitical Development in Late Prehistory

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Van West ◽  
Timothy A. Kohler
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Food Sharing ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Resource Pooling ◽  
The North ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
The Impact

Slightly before A.D. 1300, the Four Corners area of the North American Southwest was abandoned by prehistoric agriculturists. By that time, populations had undergone three major cycles of aggregation into large settlements, first constructing relatively large “public” facilities and then redispersing. The reasons for the final abandonment of this area, as well as for the earlier collapse of the Chacoan-related system of the mid-1100s, are classic areas of archaeological inquiry. Recently, the earliest cycle of village formation and dispersal, in the A.D. 800s, has come under increased scrutiny as well (Orcutt et al. 1990; Wilshusen 1991). In this paper we reexamine these phenomena by posing a simple but fundamental question: Under what conditions will farmers find it in their own best interest to share the food they produce? Whatever the particular features of these cycles of aggregation and dispersion, we suggest that periods of increasing complexity in the fabric of sociopolitical organization—which involve the growth of settlements, elaboration of social roles and networks, and heightened cooperation in building, hunting, and exchange—are constructed on top of reliable systems of food sharing beyond that expected among close kin. Such resource pooling has the effect of reducing the impact of variability in agricultural production in an area where great unpredictability surrounds the growing of food. Our thinking about how to approach these systems of food sharing has been influenced by recent analyses of sharing among hunter-foragers (e.g., Kaplan and Hill 1985; Smith 1988) and by current discussions of risk and uncertainty in behavioral ecology and microeconomics (Clark 1990; Stephens 1990). This study focuses on an area in southwestern Colorado about 3 5 km north of the New Mexico border and immediately east of the Utah state line. Notable landmarks include the northward bend of the Dolores River on the northeast, the escarpment of the Mesa Verde in the southeast, and the commanding presence of a volcanic laccolith—Sleeping Ute Mountain—on the south.

scholarly journals Starch granule evidence for the earliest potato use in North America

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (29) ◽  
pp. 7606-7610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisbeth A. Louderback ◽  
Bruce M. Pavlik
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Starch Granule ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Wild Potato ◽  
Starch Granules ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Diagnostic Characteristics ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
Solanum Jamesii ◽  
Historical Accounts

The prehistory of wild potato use, leading to its domestication and diversification, has been well-documented in, and confined to, South America. At least 20 tuber-bearing, wild species ofSolanumare known from North and Central America, yet their importance in ancient diets has never been assessed from the archaeological record. Here, we report the earliest evidence of wild potato use in North America at 10,900–10,100 calendar years (cal) B.P. in the form of well-preserved starch granules extracted from ground stone tools at North Creek Shelter, southern Utah. These granules have been identified as those ofSolanum jamesiiTorr. (Four Corners potato), a tuber-bearing species native to the American Southwest. Identification was based on applying five strictly defined diagnostic characteristics (eccentric hilum, longitudinal fissure, lack of fissure branching, fissure ratio, and maximum granule size) to each of 323 archaeological granules. Of those, nine were definitively assigned toS. jamesiibased on possession of all characteristics, and another 61 were either likely or possiblyS. jamesiidepending on the number of characteristics they possessed. The oldest granules were found in substratum 4k (10,900–10,100 cal B.P.). Younger deposits, dating to ∼6,900 cal B.P., also contained tools withS. jamesiigranules, indicating at least 4,000 y of intermittent use. Ethnographic and historical accounts extend the period of use to more than 10,000 y. The question then arises as to whether someS. jamesiipopulations could have undergone transport, cultivation, and eventual domestication over such a long period of time.

Edge-abraded Flakes, Blades, and Cores in the Puebloan Tool Assemblage

1965 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Richard P. Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Rock Fragments ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
Basketmaker Iii ◽  
Geometric Designs ◽  
Building Elements

AbstractSome of the use-modified stone artifacts obtained from Puebloan sites on Wetherill and Chapin mesas exhibit one technological attribute, edge-abrasion, which does not seem to have been reported previously from the Four Corners region nor from other sections of the United States. These artifacts are grouped under 38 styles, based on variations of edge-abrasion and other features resulting from use. They are assignable to each of the ceramic stages identified in the Mesa Verde district — Basketmaker III, Pueblo I, Pueblo II, and Pueblo III. Experiments suggest that edge-abrasion resulted from using the sharp-edged rock fragments to incise geometric designs on sandstone building elements and linear figures on fallen blocks of sandstone and, more commonly, to cut or saw “blanks” for artifacts and possibly many of the slabs and blocks (for architectural purposes) from larger pieces of the locally abundant, soft, fine-grained sandstone.

scholarly journals Remote Sensing of Chaco Roads Revisited

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Friedman ◽  
Anna Sofaer ◽  
Robert S. Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Aerial Photography ◽  
Land Development ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Light Detection And Ranging ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Ground Survey ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Road Segments

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on the first and highly effective use of Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) technology to document Chaco roads, monumental linear surface constructions of the precolumbian culture that occupied the Four Corners region of the American Southwest between approximately AD 600 and 1300. Analysis of aerial photographs supplemented by ground survey has been the traditional methodology employed to identify Chaco roads, but their traces have become increasingly subtle and difficult to detect in recent years due to the impacts of natural weathering, erosion, and land development. Roads that were easily visible in aerial photography and on the ground in the 1980s are now virtually invisible, underscoring the need for new, cutting-edge techniques to detect and document them. Using three case studies of the Aztec Airport Mesa Road, the Great North Road, and the Pueblo Alto Landscape, we demonstrate lidar's unprecedented ability to document known Chaco roads, discover previously undetected road segments, and produce a precise quantitative record of these rapidly vanishing features.

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