The Bluff –Twin Rocks community: Community formation, persistence and evolution in the northwestern San Juan region

Summary

The valley of Bluff, Utah, is one of many localities in southeast Utah where the archaeological record may show evidence of a succession of Puebloan community centers from the AD 500s through the 1200s (Basketmaker III – Pueblo III periods). These remains can be (1) the formation and dissolution of successive, independent, econocentric communities that came and went in a location with economically advantageous qualities (water and arable land); or (2) a single, persistent, sociocentric community whose configuration and community center shifted through time across the valley. We briefly discuss the archaeological implications of these alternative scenarios, and suggest that Puebloan cultural tradition might favor the latter over the former.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Communities through Time: Societal Continuity and Transformation in the Northern San Juan Region

Keywords

Spatial Coverage