North America - Southwest (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (899 Records)
We report on stone tool patterns derived from several recent archaeological excavation projects in Central Texas that provide a record of lithic use spanning most of the prehistoric sequence in the region. The projects, located within a few kilometers of one another, effectively sample debitage and tools reflecting Late Paleoindian, Early and Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, and the Terminal Late Prehistoric periods. Supported by several radiocarbon dates, these assemblages span roughly 10,000...
13,000 Years of History in 990 Square Feet: Recent Undertakings in Public Archaeology at Petrified Forest National Park. (2015)
Petrified Forest National Park boasts an archaeological record spanning 13,000 years of human history with occupations dating from the Paleoindian, Archaic, Basketmaker II and III, Pueblo I –IV, and Historic periods. This remarkable depth and diversity of archaeological sites has long drawn the interest and attention of researchers. Yet the public remains largely uninformed about many of the park’s unique cultural resources. Recent undertakings in public archaeology at the park are beginning to...
3D Modeling the Sites of the Virgin Branch Ancestral Puebloan with Photogrammetry and BIM (2017)
On the Shivwits Plateau, there is scarce information concerning how the Virgin Branch Ancestral Puebloan people constructed their pueblos. This is a result of post-depositional processes that have destroyed much of the building materials. To overcome this hurdle, 3D Building Information Modeling (BIM) is allowing archaeologists to reconstruct these ancient structures digitally. These digital 3D models output volumetric data that are used to estimate material quantities, labor investments, and to...
Absent or Overlooked: Addressing the Early Athapaskan Presence in the San Juan Basin of Northwest New Mexico (2015)
The San Juan Basin of New Mexico is one of the most archaeologically rich areas of the American Southwest. Three years in, the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is the latest in a long history of infrastructure projects that provides the opportunity to conduct archaeological research and expand our understanding of the past. One question being addressed is when the Southern Athapaskans moved into the upper San Juan Basin and how long they occupied it before Navajo culture emerged. At the...
Access, Accumulation, and Action: The Relationship between Architectural and Depositional Patterns at Homol’ovi I (2015)
Throughout its occupation, Homol’ovi I, a Pueblo IV site in northeastern Arizona, underwent continuous alteration reflecting the movement of groups both internally and externally. The constant attention to rebuilding, redirecting, and resurfacing rooms and the meticulous patterning of depositional material within structures indicate a continued endeavor to reform the built environment to better reflect the identities, needs, and memories of the current residents. In order to analyze the...
Addressing Surface Site Palimpsests with GIS and Lithic Technology (2015)
Archaeologists contend with palimpsests and multicomponent surface sites on a regular basis. Although it is interesting to know that one spot on the landscape repeatedly attracted people, these sites present interpretive and methodological problems. Specifically, how can we interpret the behaviors behind non-diagnostic artifacts from multicomponent sites? In this presentation we discuss using a combination of GIS modeling and lithic analysis to better articulate the relationship between...
Addressing the Curation Crisis through Research in University Legacy Collections (2015)
Despite their critical importance, the care and management of archaeological collections has not always been at the forefront of the discipline’s overall methodology or federal and state regulations that are intended to mitigate harm to those resources. A seminal paper by Marquardt et al. (1982) argued for the existence of a crisis in the curation of archaeological collections. Marquardt, et al. (1982) as well as Childs (1995, 2003) and Sonderman (1996) highlight the ethical responsibility to...
Advanced Spatial Documentation of Cultural Resources at Southern Arizona National Parks (2015)
This poster presents the experiences to date associated with the execution and development of an advanced spatial documentation program at the National Park Service Southern Arizona Office, including sample products, case studies, success metrics and challenges associated with development and implementation. In late 2013, resource managers and support staff of the NPS Southern Arizona group decided to invest in the capacity to complete 3D digital documentation projects in-house. The goals of...
Agency of Access: Public Architecture in Mesa Verde National Park (2015)
There are many architectural features in the Mesa Verde region that have been defined as "community centers," or rather, specific areas of cultural and social significance. Community centers may contain several public features, including a: Great Kiva, Reservoir, Great House, Plaza, Tower, and others. Although these features are assumed to have served a large surrounding population, the placement of these structures on the landscape can help us understand the ease with which the surrounding...
An Agricultural Landscape on the Northern Mimbres Frontier, South-Central New Mexico, USA (2017)
The Cañada Alamosa is the northernmost frontier of the ancestral Pueblo Mimbres people of the U.S. Southwest. Intensive survey of a side canyon has defined a distinct agricultural landscape composed of small pueblos, farmsteads, field houses, shrines, and other features. Occupation was centered around alluvial fans located on the first terrace above the drainage, fed by runoff from upper terraces, rather than the floodwaters of the drainage bottom itself. While the Cañada Alamosa has significant...
An agricultural risk mitigation strategy using multiple water sources, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (2016)
From approximately 850 to 1250 A.D., despite an extremely arid environment, the ancient people of Chaco Canyon were able to marshal the food production and engineering skills to build a string of "Great Houses", several containing hundreds of rooms. This poster describes a system of multiple water sources supplying the agricultural area below the Great House at Peñasco Blanco. High-resolution aerial lidar was key to identifying the multiple water sources. Rainfall and snow are the source of...
Agriculture at Las Capas: Tales Told by the Canals (2015)
Las Capas is an Early Agricultural period site in the Tucson Basin, Arizona. Canal irrigation began at the site as early as 1200 BC and the canal system encompasses more than 50 hectares. Agricultural features are unusually well-preserved, and more than 250 canals of various sizes and over 1000 bordered fields were exposed in multiple stratigraphic levels during excavation. The unusual degree of preservation provides an exceptional opportunity to examine the mode of construction, hydrology,...
Airway Beacons: Rehabilitation and Interpretation (2016)
Early airway beacons, which marked transcontinental flyways, may not be what you first think of when you see the term archaeology but they are a part of our broader history as a nation, and as historic structures or sites can be eligible for the National Register. In order to preserve a key piece of recent national history, two Passport in Time projects on the Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest focused on airway beacon sites. The partnership between the Forest Service and a...
Akimel O’odham Projectile Point Design and P-MIP Archaeological Research (2015)
This presentation summarizes a Gila River Indian Community research program that is designed to provide quantified projectile point data, which are used to address significant research questions for the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project data recovery investigations. In contrast to people from most other regions of the world, the Akimel O’odham continued to extensively employ flaked stone points until the late 1800s. Consequently, considerable ethnographic and ethnohistorical data are available...
All Potted Up: Exploring Seasonality at Small Late Pueblo II and Early Pueblo III Sites at Petrified Forest National Park (2015)
Researchers have conducted archaeological investigations within the vicinity of what is now Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO) for over 100 years. Although the majority of archaeological sites identified at Petrified Forest National Park consist of small habitation sites that date to the late Pueblo II (1030-1125 AD) and early Pueblo III (1125-1225 AD) periods, archaeologists have gathered little information regarding the habitation practices of people during this transitional time period....
Alliances, Coalitions, Hierarchies and Conflict in the Ancestral Pueblo World (2015)
Using the experimental testbed of the Village Ecodynamics Project’s agent-based simulation "Village," we examine how population growth and resource depletion in the Central Mesa Verde landscape between AD 600 and AD 1280 set the stage for territorial conflict, and how lineage and clan membership likely affected the structure of coalitions. We take a three-pronged approach, combining models for the evolution of leadership, models for the formation of coalitions and alliances, and models for...
Amateur and Professional Archaeologists: Who’s Who? (2016)
Archaeology in the state of Arizona has been a partnership between professionals and “amateurs,” or avocationalists, for more than a century. From an early focus on collecting “antiquities” for display, both professionals and avocationalists have followed a parallel course in the development of method and theory and the specialization of skills and interests, that today has blurred the distinction between “professionals” and “amateurs.” This paper will discuss the growth of avocational...
American Southwest, Mexican Northwest: An Examination of Ground and Chipped Stone Artifacts from Garden Canyon Village (2016)
Garden Canyon Village is a large multi-component formative period site located in southeastern Arizona on the Fort Huachuca military reservation. Located 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico Border and 65 miles southeast of the Tucson Basin, Garden Canyon Village was located on the frontier of Hohokam, Mogollon, Casas Grandes, and Trincheras culture areas. This poster presents the final results from an analysis of Garden Canyon Village’s ground and chipped stone artifacts. In addition to providing...
Amerind Foundation Collection and Archives (2016)
The Amerind Foundation of Dragoon, Arizona, is a private anthropological research center with an 80 year history. The Amerind conducted foundational studies in southeastern Arizona, but is best known for the Joint Casas Grandes Project (JCCP) conducted in Chihuahua between 1958 and 1961. The Arizona collections consist of southeast Arizona sites dating from the Hohokam Colonial period to the Spanish Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate. The New Mexico collection includes material recovered at the...
Amity Pueblo: A Different Sort of Horror (2015)
In 2011, a portion of Amity Pueblo, located in northeastern Arizona on State land, was extensively damaged by a federally-funded development project. After heavy equipment disturbed features and burials, exposing over 40,000 cultural items, it was no surprise that Arizona permanently cancelled the project. While archaeologists previously evaluated the Pueblo as eligible for listing on the National Register under criterion d for its scientific research potential, four tribes countered that Amity...
Analysis and 3D Modeling of Pithouse Architecture during the Developmental-to-Coalition period Transition in the Albuquerque Basin (2016)
Recent archaeological investigations at LA 151618 on the west side of Albuquerque exposed an extensive residential site dating to the late Developmental-to-Coalition period transition. The site contains a wide range of subterranean architectural features, including three pithouse structures, and three storage pits/middens, some of surprising depth. In partnership with Charles Frederick, consulting geoarchaeologist, Dublin, Texas and Arlo McKee, consulting geoarchaeologist, Richardson, Texas, two...
Analysis of Human Hair Bands from Old Man Cave, Utah (2017)
In the early 1990s, excavations conducted at Old Man Cave in southeastern Utah unearthed various Basketmaker II materials, including an incredibly well-preserved bundle of burden bands made from human hair, dog hair, and yucca cordage. Radiocarbon dating places the manufacture of these textiles between 170 BC and AD 135. The bundle, when unfolded, contained a complex set of artifacts, including two smaller fragments that appear to be carrying bands, and another far more unique woven artifact....
Analysis of Perishable Artifacts from Conejo Shelter, Texas (2017)
Conejo Shelter (41VV162) is a perennially dry rockshelter in the Lower Pecos region of southwest Texas. This shelter was excavated in the late 1960s by the Texas Archeological Salvage Project, an offshoot of the joint Smithsonian and National Park Service River Basin Survey program, as part of mitigation efforts during construction and inundation of Amistad Reservoir. As is common among the rockshelter habitation sites in this region, the artifact assemblage from Conejo Shelter is largely...
Analytical Challenges Posed by the Early Holocene / Late Paleoindian Activity Areas at the Water Canyon Site, West-Central New Mexico: How Do We Know What We Think We Know? (2017)
Accuracy in the identification of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene open activity areas and the subsequent inference of human behavior requires that non-behavioral causes for differential spatial patterning be considered before approaching the question of how patterning reflects human activities. Such challenges in the interpretation of behavioral patterning are exemplified at the Water Canyon Paleoindian site. In this paper, we initially describe the lithic and bone assemblages recovered from the...
Analyzing Wood-use Behavior at Wupatki Pueblo (2017)
Wupatki Pueblo is one of the best known pre-Hispanic settlements in northern Arizona. Unfortunately, very few excavation reports exist and only a couple of successful dendrochronological analyses have been published. Through a reexamination of wooden construction elements, legacy data from previous publications, and unpublished field notes, stored at the Laboratory of Tree-ring Research, this paper presents the results of the first wood-use behavior analysis at Wupatki Pueblo. The use of a...