North America - Southwest (Geographic Keyword)
151-175 (899 Records)
This paper summarizes archaeological data that show a substantial decrease in population occurred between the Sedentary (ca. 950-1150AD) and Classic Periods (ca. 1150-1500) along the middle Gila River in the Phoenix Basin. This decrease coincides with well documented increases along the lower Salt River. Extensive data suggest this pattern subsequently reversed in the Historic period, when people were again concentrated along the middle Gila, and the lower Salt River was extensively depopulated....
Clay Reconnaissance and Suitability Testing within Petrified Forest National Park (2015)
The likelihood of endemic clays both suitable and used for local ceramic production within the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona is disputed. Researchers imply clays within the park are unsuitable for ceramic production. Ethno-archaeological studies, though, document that most traditional potting communities procure clay for ceramic production within a three to five kilometer radius of their residence (Arnold 1985). In this case, past individuals residing within the current park boundaries...
Climate Change Challenges at Bandelier National Monument: Adapting Conservation and Monitoring Responses for Cultural Sites in the Desert Southwest (2016)
The Ancestral Puebloan sites at Bandelier National Monument include both masonry pueblos and man-made cave sites. The dry climate of Northern New Mexico in conjunction with the environmental awareness and architectural ingenuity of the builders have played an important role in the preservation of these sites, which continue to yield valuable archaeological information. Changes in the semi-arid climate in which the monument is located have begun to threaten the equilibrium between these...
Closing the Gap at Aztec Ruins: Refining the Dating Sequence Using Corn and Pottery (2017)
Excavation of a recent test unit at Aztec West revealed stratigraphic deposits yielding corn samples that were well distributed throughout. The primary research objective was to use Accelerator Mass Spectometry (AMS) Radiocarbon dating to date charred corn from the test unit and compare the results with date ranges for pottery from the same levels. A tree-ring date of AD 1130 was also obtained from charred wood in a pit feature below the levels yielding corn, suggesting that the deposits, corn,...
Clothing the World in a Social Skin: Recognizing the Role of Materialities of Dressing and Metaphor in the Ancient North American Southwest (2016)
Scholars have suggested that the process of dressing both animates and ascribes identities to inanimate things. During the thirteenth century, people in the Mesa Verde region of the North American Southwest conceptually dressed special structures, pottery, baskets, and even cotton garments in similar ways. These diverse media were often adorned with clothing depictions and woven textile designs, painted on a white clay-coated background. Grounded both physically and conceptually in bodily...
Clovis knapping behaviors: What were they thinking!? (2016)
Clovis biface manufacturing represents a complex flaked stone reduction technology (Bradley, et al. 2010:64) where extant evidence has established that Clovis knappers possessed a high degree of skill in their craft. Most Clovis behaviors have been gleaned from data-rich Clovis caches and kill-sites. However, quantitative data is limited on Clovis flaked stone debris, and thus, remains an open research issue. One issue raised is the careful preparation of striking platforms during biface and...
The Clovis Lithic Component of Fin del Mundo, Sonora, Mexico. (2016)
Fin del Mundo is a Clovis site located in the north-central portion of the state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico. The site comprises multiple localities including a buried kill of two gomphotheres (cuvieronius sp.), a Clovis camp and raw material procurement areas. The Clovis lithic component at the site consists of Clovis points, Clovis point preforms, bifaces, unifacial tools and a blade industry. The tool types suggest that Fin del Mundo was occupied for a long time span, possibly during...
The Clovis Lithic Technology at El Fin del Mundo: Early Paleoindian Mobility and Land Use Patterns in North-Central Sonora, Mexico (2017)
Clovis populations are thought to have been wide ranging, highly mobile foragers, as reflected in stone tool raw material procurement patterns and technological features of associated lithic assemblages. Intense utilization of high quality non-local cryptocrystalline raw materials, heavy stone tool refurbishing and repair strategies, and a lithic industry based on bifacial reduction are main features of the Clovis lithic technological organization suggestive of high mobility. In north-central...
Clovis to San Pedro: Projectile Points and Land Use in the Southern Colorado Plateau (2017)
Recent research done by the University of Arizona at Rock Art Ranch, located on the southern Colorado Plateau near Winslow, Arizona, yielded a wealth of information on preceramic land use in an area where prior research had not been conducted. Survey of a six square mile area recovered more than 140 projectile points ranging from Clovis to San Pedro, 50 bifaces, and 88 sites. Multiple canyons crosscutting the ranch carry water that results in a diverse range of flora and attracted animals to the...
Collapse in the North American Southwest: A Comparative Study (2016)
This presentation reports the results of a preliminary cross-cultural comparative study of collapse (depopulation) in the late precontact Southwest. Key descriptive characteristics and trends in possible contributing factors to collapse (e.g., population levels, social conflict, natural disasters, environmental impacts, etc.) within eight archaeological cultures will be considered. Generalizable and systematic description rather than explanation is the emphasis. The purpose of this trial study...
Color and Technology: A Legacy of Painted Burial Objects at Nuvakwewtaqa (Chavez Pass, Northern Arizona) (2015)
Known to the Hopi as Nuvakwewtaqa, the Chavez Pass pueblo complex (13th-15th CAD) was excavated in part by researchers from Arizona State University from 1976 through 1982. Before these excavations, the site had been subjected to decades of looting, especially in burial contexts. A recently completed Forest Service sponsored NAGPRA project provided the opportunity to photograph and analyze the exceptional artifacts found in burial contexts prior to repatriation. This poster discusses new...
Color Symbolism of U.S. Southwest Jewelry (2015)
The colors of turquoise and shell jewelry in the prehistoric U.S. Southwest were imbued with a diversity of inter-related symbolic meanings. To begin to understand these embedded messages, we must consider the results of cultural anthropologists’ different approaches to color perception and archaeologists’ reliance on ethnographic analogy. Stephen Plog’s seminal publication on the color symbolism of Pueblo pottery describes the religious significance of blue/green, the color of turquoise, and...
A colorful past: assessing motivations for the acquisition of turquoise in the ancient U.S. Southwest (2017)
Turquoise is an icon of the U.S. Southwest, long drawing value as a metaphor for moisture in the arid region. As color and material, turquoise is fundamental to the worldviews of many indigenous groups. For the Hopi and Zuni people, the importance and use of turquoise dates back countless generations, to "time immemorial." Continuities in use (e.g., ornamental style and placement in offerings) suggest deep epistemological and ideological affinities; contemporary values are clearly visible in the...
Combatting the Erosion Menace: The Enduring Legacy of the CCC Within the Silver City Watershed (2015)
By the summer of 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) had constructed over 3000 checkdams within the Silver City Watershed. Men working in Little Walnut CCC Camp located a few miles outside of Silver City, New Mexico were focused on rehabilitating the Silver City Watershed from 1933-1940. Many of these features are still visible and functioning on the lands administered by Gila National Forest, Silver City Ranger District. These water and erosion control features are not only a...
Common Goods in Uncommon Times: Water, Droughts, and the Sustainability of Ancestral Puebloan Communities in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico (AD 1100-1700) (2017)
The Jemez and Pajarito Plateaus of the Jemez Mountains share similar cultural, environmental, and climatic contexts, yet large Ancestral Puebloan communities of the Pajarito abandoned mesa-tops for lowlands of the Rio Grande during the 16th century while occupations of the Jemez Plateau persisted until the 17th century. Droughts are hypothesized as a driver of depopulation of the Pajarito Plateau, but if so why wasn’t the Jemez abandoned as well? Prehistoric communities built water storage...
Communities of Practice and Corrugated Pottery at Chevelon Ruin (2015)
During the A.D. 1200s and 1300s, the Colorado Plateau experienced widespread, large-scale migration and the subsequent aggregation of groups into large Pueblo communities. During this period, people migrated to the Homol'ovi area, aggregating into seven large pueblo settlements. The demographic upheaval resulting from this large-scale population movement brought diverse individual and group identities into contact and, potentially, conflict. Chevelon Ruin, one of the aggregated settlements that...
A Community Approach to Data Recovery Investigations at the Dimond Knoll Site, Harris County, Texas (2015)
The Dimond Knoll Screening Project has been one of the most successful Public Outreach efforts undertaken to date by the Texas Department of Transportation’s Archeological Studies Branch. Excavation of this small floodplain mound in northwestern Harris County was completed 2012, revealing a record of regular visitation by mobile foraging groups across nearly ten millennia. Once the upper sediments of the knoll were extensively sampled through meticulous hand excavation, the remaining sandy...
Community Spaces at Pueblo III Pithouse Villages in Northeastern Arizona (2015)
Southwestern archaeologists identify the pithouse-to-pueblo transition as a fundamental change in the social and economic organization of small-scale farming communities. This interpretation implies that pithouse villages were organized differently than pueblos. In northeastern Arizona, pithouses were used after this transition and were the preferred form of housing in certain areas, such as Homol’ovi during the A.D. 1100s. However, systematic research on these "out of phase" pithouse villages...
Comparative Analysis of Petroglyphs at the Crack-in-Rock Community (2017)
Recent archaeological research in Wupatki National Monument has led to a complete baseline documentation of a suite of petroglyph assemblages located at the Crack-in-Rock community in Northern Arizona. Through collaborative efforts between the Museum of Northern Arizona, the National Park Service, and Northern Arizona University, this paper details a comparative analysis approach to understanding the use and placement of rock art within the region. The Crack-in-Rock community boasts numerous...
Comparative Approaches to Casas Grandes Taphonomy and Violence (2015)
Recent bioarchaeological analyses of human skeletal remains from the Medio Period Casas Grandes region (AD 1200-1450) have demonstrated taphonomic indicators variously interpreted as massacre, violent persecution of witches, or anthropophagy. In this presentation, we re-examine taphonomic data from Paquime and within a larger southwestern perspective. We combine new approaches to demography and individual well-being with taphonomic and mortuary datasets from Paquime to evaluate the causes,...
Comparing and Contrasting Community Structure across the Northwest/Southwest (2017)
One of the most enduring contributions made by Suzy and Paul Fish was their elucidation of the role played by multi-settlement communities in structuring socio-political organization. The community concept, initially elaborated in the Hohokam region, now fulfills a central interpretive role in many regions of Northwest Mexico. In this paper, I compare characteristics of communities across several regions of the Northwest/Southwest to demonstrate qualitatively different organizational precepts....
Comparing Traditional and Photogrammetric 3D Model Based Measurements of Lithic Artifacts (2017)
We assess how photogrammetry and three dimensional (3D) model-based measurement approaches compare to traditional approaches of lithic analysis. Photogrammetry is a novel, inexpensive and accessible method of producing models of lithics. However, it is unclear how the rate of inter-observer measurement errors of 3D models produced through photogrammetry compares to that of traditional approaches. Here we analyze flakes from Salado period archaeological sites in the Tonto Basin, where...
A Comparison of Ceramic Function between the Virgin Branch and Kayenta Ancestral Puebloan Cultures (2016)
The Virgin Branch culture is the least understood of the Ancestral Puebloan branches. It is considered most similar to the Kayenta branch; however, there are significant differences between the two, particularly for the Virgin Branch settlements located in the lowland region of southern Nevada. Compared to the Kayenta people, who lived primarily in small settlements and relied on dry farming techniques, the lowland Virgin people occupied more aggregated settlements and relied on irrigation...
A Comparison of Lithic Types from a Multi-stratified Site in West Central Colorado (13,000-3,000 BP) (2017)
This presentation will focus on the analysis of Projectile Points recovered in excavation at Eagle Rock Shelter that date from 13,000 to 3,000 BP. Eagle Rock Shelter is located in west central Colorado on the east side of the Gunnison Gorge. Eagle Rock contains occupation horizons dating from 13,000 to 150 BP. The shelter contains a full range of projectile points dating from the Paleo to Proto-Historic Period. In this presentation we will examine some of the size, shape, and structural traits...
A Comparison of Miniature Pottery Vessels from the Reserve and Mimbres Branches of the Mogollon of Southwestern New Mexico (2017)
This study will compare the attributes of Miniature Pottery Vessels in the Mimbres and Reserve Branches of the Mogollon Cultural Area. I will focus on their types, forms, decorative elements, traces of use, and depositional context. The vessels will be no more than 10 cm (4") or less in any dimension. This long-term comparison compares the similarities and differences of the vessel’s characteristics in the two regions in the years between A.D. 450 and 1450. This study may yield important data...