North America - Southwest (Geographic Keyword)
851-875 (899 Records)
The Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona has a long record of prehistoric occupation, including within extensive deposits of semi-stabilized dunes and sand sheets. It has been hypothesized that during the Pueblo periods, inhabitants farmed these eolian soils. Eolian sands are not typically conducive to dry-farmed agriculture; however, dune farming is known ethnographically, and has been inferred in archaeological contexts on the southern Colorado Plateau. This paper...
Using Surface Archaeology to Estimate Ancestral Jemez Population Dynamics, AD 1300-1700 (2015)
Determining the population of ancestral Pueblo villages has beguiled inquisitive observers from the 16th century down to the present day. Spanish explorers and colonial settlers floated wildly variable population estimates upon their initial visits to Pueblo villages. Today archaeologists are no different, offering demographic estimates that often differ by orders of magnitude. This "population problem" plagues the Jemez region of northern New Mexico in particular. In this paper, we present the...
Using the Anasazi Origins Project Faunal Remains to Determine Archaic Subsistence Patterns (2015)
The purpose of this study is to prevent the loss of important archaeological information by examining a collection of faunal remains from the Anasazi Origins Project (AOP) that have been virtually untouched since their excavation. Re-evaluation of these collections will allow us to identify their research potential, as well as possible cultural significance that was not identified during initial investigations. The collection being examined for this study is the Anasazi Origins Project....
Using the NHL framework to Advance the Development of Applied Archaeology (2017)
In 2016, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial anniversary thus reminding the public that places of historical significance matter to our national cognizance. Using the National Historic Landmark designation as a means for public education, this papers draws upon my Master’s thesis project, which focuses on building a bridge among CRM, research, and public education at the national level. It serves as a model for how graduate-level, archaeological training contributes to...
Utilizing Corrugated Wares to Explore Regional Variations in the Virgin Branch Puebloan Culture (2015)
This poster will examine the variation of corrugated ceramics from the Virgin Branch Puebloan sites located on the Shivwits Plateau and in the lowland region of the Moapa Valley. Variation between these two regions is examined, as well as changes in corrugated designs over time and differences between wares. These data allow us to evaluate patterns of social interaction, trading networks and learning interactions between sites and regions. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of...
Utilizing Visual Resource Management to Assess Effects on Historic Properties; Working within the BLM VRM Framework (2015)
This paper will provide an overview of using the established Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Visual Resource Management (VRM) system to assess indirect visual effects on historic properties. Per Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the introduction of visual elements that diminish the integrity of the property’s significant historic features constitutes an adverse effect. The VRM system was designed to inventory landscapes, identify those with high scenic values worth...
The Value and Availability of Quality Obsidian at Antelope Creek (2017)
Antelope Creek is a part of the important larger obsidian source at Mule Creek in Southwestern New Mexico. Antelope Creek contains an abundance of both poor and good quality obsidian that appears to have developed from the same volcanic event. In this experiment, a large sample of Antelope Creek obsidian was collected and tested for quality through the process of flintknapping. Results indicate that knappers can readily tell a poor quality nodule from a good quality nodule from this source by...
Variability in Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Ratios in Banana Yucca (Yucca Baccata) from Cedar Mesa, Utah: Environmental, Inter-Organ and Processing-based Effects (2015)
Recent stable isotope and phytolith studies suggest that desert succulents (in particular Yucca sp. and Opuntia sp.) were a non-trivial component of Ancestral Puebloan diets. However, isotopic variability in such resources is poorly documented. We present 𝜹C13 and 𝜹N15 values for fruits and seeds of thirty modern Banana Yucca (Yucca baccata) specimens from Cedar Mesa, Utah. Experimental roasting and simulated mastication of yucca ‘crowns’ allow separate assays of whole tissue, fiber, and...
Variations in Connectivity: Mapping Long-distance interaction in the Prehistoric U.S Southwest (2016)
Changes documented from the pre-Classic to Classic period (A.D. 475-1450) suggest that a larger social or political movement was occurring within the Hohokam regional system, but the motives behind this change are poorly understood. To fully understand this phenomenon it is necessary to examine how the change differed within the Hohokam regional system. Researchers can observe this relationship through the study of what Nelson (2006:345) calls "interaction markers", artifacts and architectural...
Venturing into the Borderland: Revisiting the 13th-Century Occupation of the Upper Gila (2015)
Between the end of the Mimbres Classic period in the 12th century C.E. and the beginning of the 14th-century C.E. Cliff Phase, most of the Upper Gila region of New Mexico is thought to have been only sparsely populated if not entirely unoccupied. Recent excavation in Mule Creek has demonstrated a strong 13th-century presence in this area, however. Like the Gila Cliff Dwellings on the West Fork of the Gila, the settlements in Mule Creek show clear connections to contemporary sites in the Mogollon...
Vertebrate Faunal Assemblages and Bone Tool Use in the Early Agricultural Period (2015)
Researchers have recovered large faunal assemblages containing several hundred bone artifacts at Las Capas, a San Pedro phase site in Tucson, Arizona. Artifacts include utilitarian and non-utilitarian objects with a variety of technical and symbolic uses. Excavations at Los Pozos, a large Cienega phase site in the Tucson Basin, yielded a very large collection of animal bone with a rich bone artifact assemblage. Bone technologies were often used to make items from plant fibers, wood, animal...
Vesicular Basalt Provenance Analysis: A Collaborative Research Effort among Southern Arizona Native American Communities and Archaeologists (2015)
Vesicular basalt was a preferred material for groundstone manufacture in central Arizona, and identification of source areas for raw materials will provide important information regarding prehistoric and historic exchange and interaction patterns in the region. As part of archaeological research under the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project, the Gila River Indian Community’s Cultural Resource Management Program has recently devoted considerable effort to the creation of a vesicular basalt...
Virtual Preservation and Outreach for Nake'muu Pueblo: Using Technology to Make Inaccessible Sites Accessible (2016)
Nake’muu Pueblo is situated at the tip of a mesa above the confluence of Water Canyon and Cañon de Valle at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This area of LANL is not accessible to the public. Nake'muu is an ancestral site to the Pueblo de San Ildefonso. The site is important as a Coalition period (A.D. 1200-1325) site and because it was reoccupied during the Pueblo Revolt (A.D. 1680-1682). Nake’muu is also the only pueblo at LANL that retains standing walls. For...
Vision and Action: Suzanne Fish and Paul Fish and the Hohokam World (2017)
Throughout their careers, Paul Fish and Suzanne Fish cast a wide net in their studies of the American Southwest, and the Hohokam region of southern Arizona in particular. This powerhouse duo vigorously applied their intellectual breadth and energy throughout their long productive careers to ferret out the complexities of the ancient past. Their team approach and complementary skill sets include regional archaeology; method and theory; settlement structure and social organization; field survey...
Visiting a "Villagescape": The Early Classic Period Marana Mound Site (2017)
We explore Early Classic Period Hohokam society through the medium of inhabitants’ lives in the center with a platform mound and over 40 residential compounds in the northern Tucson Basin. We approach the topic as a retrospective based on 30 years of intermittent mapping and excavation at the Marana Mound Site, coupled with insights from advancing Hohokam studies. We ask how the spatial and architectural configuration or "villagescape" of this center reflected and embodied the principles of...
War and Peace in the Sixteenth-Century Southwest: Objected-Oriented Approaches to Native-European Encounters and Trajectories (2017)
Although conflict and conquista campaigns characterized many of the earliest encounters between Native and European groups in New Spain and La Florida, the transformation of objects, communities, and strategic policies in these areas was locally variable and changed dramatically by the close of the sixteenth century. Materials characteristic of these changes and variegated responses are found widely in the archaeological record of the American Southwest, but have seldom been explored for the...
Warfare, Invasion, and Ethnogenesis during the Protohistoric Period in Sonora (2015)
When examined separately, the archaeological record and early Spanish accounts of Sonora are seemingly insufficient or ambiguous with respect to culture continuity and change. However, critical juxtaposition of the two "data sets" suggests that the late prehistoric period in Sonora was a time when competing chiefdoms or "statelets" embraced slavery and territorial expansion , contributing to processes of ethonogenesis that have confounded previous interpretations of the archaeological and...
Watch Out For Landslides and Gopher Holes! using obsidian hydration to measure post-depositional site disturbance in the VCNP (2017)
Our study examines the potential for using obsidian hydration analyses to quantify post-depositional site disturbance. The Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) in northern New Mexico encompasses a diverse and dynamic mountainous landscape that people have visited regularly for millennia to access large obsidian quarries and other resources. The result is a rich archaeological record with abundant obsidian artifacts. However that record has been altered, sometimes dramatically, by physical,...
We Built This System: Hohokam Irrigation Communities as Social Networks (2016)
In the prehispanic Salt River Valley (SRV), the extensive canal systems that provided irrigation to the desert farmers, known by archaeologists as the Hohokam, also serve as tangible networks that link villages along an individual canal’s route. Many of the villages in the valley are incredibly long-lived, spanning hundreds of years and multiple generations, providing unique time-depth in which to study how social relationships changed within a region of the Southwest. In order to better...
Weapons of a Spanish Colonial Road: An Analysis of Arms Found at Paraje San Diego, New Mexico (2017)
The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro served as the main conduit of transportation in New Mexico from 1598 until the 1880s, with continued regional use afterwards. Situated in strategic locations along this road were stopping points, called parajes, which travelers used to rest. Parajes are usually described as campsites in literature and less attention is given to the other activities that occurred at these sites. In recent reanalysis of collections from Paraje San Diego, a historical paraje near...
West Mancos Survey and Site Preservation Project, Southwest Colorado (2017)
The Ute Mountain Reservation in the Four-corners region of the American Southwest contains some of the most spectacular and numerous prehistoric archaeological sites containing standing architecture in the country. Combining research and preservation efforts at these sites is a priority of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Historic Preservation Office. The West Mancos Project focused on three sites along the Mancos River containing the remnants of circular towers. Preservation and research efforts...
We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place: Formation and Resettlement of a Pre-Classic Hohokam Village (2015)
It has long been thought that large Hohokam villages, once established, were long-lived and fixed in a single location. La Villa, a pre-Classic Hohokam village on Canal System 2, was one of the largest in the area. It has roots that stretch as far back as the Red Mountain phase and had achieved village status by Vahki times. The village continued to grow through the Pioneer Period, and much of the Colonial Period. Toward the end of the Colonial however, we see a sharp drop-off in both ceramics...
What Does Fremont Mean Anyway? Finding a Useful and Constructive Way to Conceptualize a Regional System (2016)
The meaning of the term Fremont has been heavily debated for almost as long as it has existed. For over half of a century many archaeologists have argued that the term is only useful in that it encapsulates the highly variable practices of a region. Others have argued that defining Fremont is impossible and even unproductive. We disagree with these assertions. We believe that there are sufficient similarities in material culture and social organization across the Fremont region to suggest that a...
What Doña Ana Phase and Modern Jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) Can Tell Us About Climate Change in the Southeastern Southwest (2017)
This paper documents the environmental conditions of the Tularosa Basin/Hueco Bolson during the Late Formative Period in the Jornada Mogollon Region of the U.S. Southwest by comparing stable carbon isotope values of black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) from archaeological site LA 12361 to modern jackrabbits in southern New Mexico and west Texas. Recent research by Stephen Smith and his collaborators provides evidence that carbon isotope values of jackrabbit bone collagen produce an...
What the Imagery Offers: Rock Art in the Study of Ancient Chacoan Culture (2015)
More than a hundred years of archaeological investigation have been focused on Chaco Canyon and, more recently, the Chaco World. Most of that work has been related to Great Houses, Great Kivas and the related material culture found therein. Exhaustive analyses of the archaeological data has brought much to light in our understanding of the Chaco phenomenon, and raised many more questions that are currently being researched. The authors of this paper contend that a wealth of information has yet...