Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

It is increasingly clear that sustainable and inclusive human development is a primary challenge of our time. Most investigations of this process in sustainability science have assumed that human development began with the industrial revolution, but the archaeological record provides many examples of human development that proceeded in the absence of fossil fuel use. What does the archaeological record of the US Southwest reveal about the fundamental processes of sustainable and inclusive human development, and the specific ways Indigenous societies promoted climate adaptation? The papers in this session leverage cyberSW and SKOPE, an interoperable research infrastructure that integrates archaeological and paleoenvironmental data from across the greater US Southwest, to address these questions.

Other Keywords
digital archaeology • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Resilience and Sustainability • North America: Southwest United States

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • A Bayesian Neural Network for Indirect Dating (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kenneth Vernon.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> The two most powerful forces driving long-term development in human societies are climate change and demography, so it should come as no surprise that archaeologists have devoted considerable time and energy to estimating key climate and demographic quantities in the past. To aid in these efforts,...

  • Climate Variability and Emergent Social Patterns in the Prehispanic Southwest (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicolas Gauthier.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study leverages state-of-the-art climate reconstructions, computational models, and archaeological data to examine the interplay between climate, demography, and social networks in the prehispanic Southwest. Here we examine whether generative simulations can reproduce key features of the archaeological record...

  • Cotton Production and Regional Distribution for Western Pueblo Cultural and Ritual Sustainability, 1150-1450 CE (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Mills.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most archaeological research on sustainability focuses on how human groups maintained adequate access to food resources, especially during climatic downturns. In this paper, we look beyond food resources to examine evidence for cotton production and distribution and ritual textile production, which formed the...

  • Developing a Research Loom for Weaving Stories of Sustainability (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kyle Bocinsky.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Looms are essential tools for weaving — they provide the necessary structure to produce even, consistent fabric. By simplifying and accelerating the weaving process, looms also encourage creativity and experimentation. Often, the archaeological research process resembles the woven arts: we weave stories...

  • Enhancing Multiscalar Archaeofaunal Research using cyberSW (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Oas.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Big data projects, like cyberSW, greatly expanded the scope of archaeological research by providing insights into issues of sustainability and resilience through broad reconstructions of past interactions between societies and environments. Similarly, archaeological fauna data provide a window into...

  • More Than Maize: Modeling the Cotton, Wheat, (and Maize) Cultivation Niches beyond the Four Corners (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaitlyn Davis.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Agricultural niche reconstruction efforts in the North American Southwest have primarily focused on maize and have primarily been focused in the Four Corners region. This paper expands that work by modeling the growing niches for cotton and wheat, also important crops for Ancestral Pueblo people, and investigating...

  • Network Structure and Market Transformations in the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico, A.D. 1200–1700 (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Evan Giomi.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We apply social network analysis to the cyberSW database to help understand structural differences in the Eastern and Western Pueblo modes of social and economic organization. The distinct social organization of Pueblo communities in each region has been a perennial topic in Southwestern archaeology and ethnology,...

  • Reconstructing Regional Material, Spatial, and Demographic Networks in the US Southwest (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matt Peeples.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many recent archaeological approaches to formally reconstructing past regional networks have relied on either spatial data (travel costs or features such as roads/trails) or patterns in material culture similarities and distributions. Spatial distance and material patterns are clearly often related to each other...

  • Regional-Scale Research Sensitivity to Site Location Geomasking and Site Data Aggregation in cyberSW (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joshua Watts.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological sites, particularly habitation sites and their precise locations, are important data points in research questions about social-ecological systems or the focus of detailed descriptions of excavations documented in compliance work. But do sites or their locations actually matter in efforts to do...

  • Residential Density and Community Performance in the US Southwest (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Ortman.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the simplest and most illuminating properties of human communities is residential density, as it provides a useful summary of many other properties of the associated socio-spatial network. In contemporary societies fast and low-cost commuting make it challenging to determine community boundaries. In...

  • Social and Environmental Conditions Affecting Long-Term Human Vulnerability and Resilience to Drought (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Ingram.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Vulnerability assessments investigate the social, environmental, and economic characteristics of people and places to identify where people are expected to be the most vulnerable to a warming climate and its consequences. Identifying the sources of vulnerability to drought is an essential component of...

  • Through the Biocultural Lens: Resilience, Vulnerability, and Lived Experience in the Ancient Southwest (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Stodder.

    This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study takes a multiscalar approach to understanding human development and lived experience in the Southwest, marshalling archaeological, paleoenvironmental, bioarchaeological, and epidemiological information about populations, communities, and individuals. Well documented climatic changes are associated with...