Archaeological Landscape Studies in Alkali Ridge and Montezuma Canyon during the Pueblo II and III Periods

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Transcending Modern Boundaries: Recent Investigations of Cultural Landscapes in Southeastern Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Montezuma Canyon and Alkali Ridge areas occupy a cultural and ecological boundary between the Great Sage Plain of the central Mesa Verde region and the canyon lands of the western Mesa Verde region. However, physiological and ecological differences are apparent between the two localities despite their proximity; most of the Montezuma Canyon sites lie along the floodplain, while Alkali Ridge populations cluster along the mesa top. As such, the evaluation of ancestral Pueblo populations among these two variable yet proximal areas has great potential for modeling long-term social and environmental changes, particularly the emergence of village aggregation and regional depopulation between A.D. 1150 and 1280. An intensive remapping project from 2014-2018 in conjunction with on-site pottery analysis and the recording of potential agricultural and water management features provides us with a better understanding of how ancestral Pueblo people utilized and conceived their landscapes in these areas. Based on the results of the project, this presentation highlights "cooperative and competitive" aspects of landscape use by ancestral Pueblo people in the Montezuma Canyon and Alkali Ridge during the Pueblo II and III periods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Transcending Modern Boundaries: Recent Investigations of Cultural Landscapes in Southeastern Utah   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23087