Basketmaker III in the Central Mesa Verde Region: Transitions, Social Dynamics, and Population Growth

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500 to 725) in southwestern Colorado was a time of fundamental social and demographic change. The area witnessed dramatic population growth after A.D. 600 that was due to immigration and increases in fertility. This growth was accompanied by changes in settlement patterns and social dynamics. This paper examines this dramatic demographic transition and the associated social dynamics by analyzing site distributions and the size of sites present in the area during this period. These data are then evaluated against fertility estimates, tree-ring data, and other lines of evidence to model when the initial migration took place, what numbers of people were involved, and the role migration may have played in the process of population growth. These results provide new insights into how this pivotal period shaped the broader trajectory of ancestral Pueblo cultural development.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23732