Southwest Archaeology (Other Keyword)
1-11 (11 Records)
The Black Mesa Archaeological Project (1967-1987) was undertaken to clear archaeological sites to mine coal for the Navajo Generating Station to provide power for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Arizona Project. The original permit for this work expires in 2019. The Bureau of Reclamation is in the process of re-permitting (from 2019-2044) all of the connected features of the project that include the Kayenta Mine on Black Mesa, a railroad, and two large powerlines. This paper will present...
Corridors of Interaction: Using Chuskan Ceramics and Lithics to Reveal the Larger Sociopolitical Hierarchy of Chaco Canyon (2017)
Unraveling the complex relationships that existed between Chaco Canyon and outlier communities is essential to understanding how and why Chaco rose to prominence and the nature of its sociopolitical authority. Key to this debate is evaluating the interactions between Chaco Canyon and the great house communities of the eastern slope of the Chuska Mountains. This region produced substantial quantities of the lithics, ceramics, timber, and food found within Chaco Canyon. The social conditions that...
The Distribution of Articulated Animal Remains: An Analysis of Household and Community Ritual in Chaco Canyon (2015)
Chaco Canyon is thought to have been a regional center during the Pueblo II period. Its identity as such makes it a particularly interesting locale at which to compare the relationship between public community-based and more exclusive household-based rituals. In this paper, the nature of articulated animal remains and their deposition are examined in order to elucidate social relationships at both the community and household scale, particularly at the largest and most well-studied site, Pueblo...
Experimental Archaeology: Insights from the Construction of an Adobe Room (2015)
Experimental archaeology is a useful tool for improving our understanding of prehistoric technologies and testing archaeological interpretations. The "Hands On Archaeology" project at the 2014 Archaeology Southwest / University of Arizona Upper Gila Preservation Archaeology Field School focused on the experimental construction of a single-story adobe pueblo room in the style of the Cliff phase (AD 1300-1450+). This project was done in conjunction with limited excavation in three Cliff phase...
Frontiers in Center Places (2017)
Borders often imply two-dimensional lines on a map, a naturalized "over here" and "over there". This is reified in places where political boundaries appear to follow ecological ones. But the nature of these lines, even apparently clear environmental ones, is always arbitrary, and the recognition of these lines is always dependent on subject position. The word "frontier" highlights this politics of definition and recognition; frontiers are defined in history and anthropology as the edges of...
Groundtruthing from the Air: Reconstructing Tribal Agricultural and Landscape Systems in the Lower Chama Valley, New Mexico Using Low Elevation UAV Technology. (2015)
Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are changing the way that archaeologists conduct fieldwork with Native American Tribes. We present an application of UAV mapping and visualization technology in a combined boots-on-the-ground and satellite reconnaissance of Classic period (A.D. 1350-1600) ancestral Pueblo sites and agricultural systems. This approach reduced field time and enhanced efficiency in the identification and recordation of regionally extensive prehistoric features at a level of...
Kayenta Mine on Black Mesa (2016)
The Black Mesa Archaeological Project (1967-1987) was undertaken to clear archaeological sites to mine coal for the Navajo Generating Station. The original permit for this work expires in 2019. Working with project proponents, tribes, and other groups/individuals, Federal agencies are in the process of re-permitting (2019-2044) project features; these include the Kayenta Mine, Navajo Generating Station, a railroad, and two large powerlines. This poster summarizes the on-going cultural...
NAVAJO LANDSCAPE CONSTRUCTION AT CANYON DE CHELLY: A QUINTESSENTIAL PLACE (2017)
My paper will discuss how the Navajo construct Canyon de Chelly as a quintessential place on the reservation. The canyon has been occupied at least since Basketmaker times in the first centuries A.D.. Archaeological investigations have identified Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings from roughly 700 to 1300A.D. followed by a brief Hopi presence. Navajo people began to settle Canyon de Chelly in the late 1700s. Unlike the Ancestral Pueblos, the Navajo lived on the canyon bottom and reused some of...
Shifting North: Social Network Analysis and the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in the Mogollon Highlands (2015)
This poster examines the changes in the social networks of the Mogollon Highlands that accompanied the transition to pueblo architecture around A.D. 1000 using Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA offers a set of formal methods in which ties and relations between sites can are examined. Using the proportions of decorated ceramics within a site’s assemblage, social networks are created for 50-year intervals, allowing for changes in the networks to be observed before and after the pithouse-to-pueblo...
Shifting Social Networks and Identity along the Southeastern Edge of the Cibola World (2017)
The work reported here represents the initial results of recent NSF supported field research near Mariana and Cebolleta mesas in west-central New Mexico. These investigations targeted previously known Pueblo II and Pueblo III communities on both public and private lands for detailed mapping and in-field artifact analysis. While the ware-level diversity of ceramic assemblages in the region has long been known, our work employed new methods of analysis of corrugated vessel forming techniques,...
Site analysis and excavation of the Gila River Farm Site in Cliff, New Mexico (2017)
Archaeology Southwest and the University of Arizona’s Upper Gila Preservation Archaeology (UGPA) field school excavations at the Gila River Farm Site (LA 39315) produced interesting results from the 2016 field season. The Gila River Farm Site is a Cliff Phase (A.D. 1300 – 1450) Salado site located on the first terrace of the Gila River, in southwestern New Mexico. It was recorded by archaeologists in the 1980s but had never been excavated. Although now protected on land owned by the New Mexico...