Mind the Gap: The Mesa Verde North Escarpment

Summary

Archaeologists are inherently limited in their understanding of the past by the quality and quantity of data available. In the US Southwest, we are fortunate to work in a region with a high degree of preservation and long history of archaeological inquiry. Because we work in a region with a dense and well-known archaeological record, we sometimes take what we know for granted and do not critically examine our assumptions. In the Mesa Verde region, extensive survey and excavation have revealed high population densities between AD 600 and 1300 both on and off the Mesa Verde cuesta. We have a knowledge gap, however, on the Mesa Verde North Escarpment. With limited habitation information, we assume the North Escarpment was less densely occupied than the immediately surrounding regions, but our assumptions are the product of missing data and not necessarily a reflection of settlement patterns and landscape use. This poster synthesizes what we currently know, what we do not, and employs a predictive model using the limited available data to help us better understand how the Mesa Verde North Escarpment may have been utilized from AD 600–1300.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20971