Rules Are Made to Be Broken: Reassessing Use-Life of Basketmaker III Structures

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.

Basketmaker III earthen architecture in the northern Southwest is commonly understood to have a use-life of one, maybe two generations. This understanding comes in part from experimental studies combined with the recent modeling of momentary populations. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center identified and tested over 40 Basketmaker III pit structures during the Basketmaker Communities Project (BCP) and found enough variation to suggest that the generalization of use-life and even function of these structures may be premature. As an example, ancestral Pueblo peoples repeatedly remodeled Mueller Little House (5MT10631), a "typical habitation site" tested during the BCP, suggesting a longer commitment to a singular structure than usually accepted. This study will reassess the applicability of generalized pit structure use-life in the northern Southwest with detailed architectural data and dating from the BCP.

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): 25707