Specialized Production Sites among the Virgin Branch Puebloan People? New Findings in Shivwits Plateau Archaeology on the Parashant National Monument

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the summer of 2018, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Shivwits Research Project conducted an archaeological survey and documentation project on the remote southern end of the Shivwits Plateau. This region has seen little anthropological research since it was first explored by archaeologists in the early to mid-20th century. Our study specifically focuses on settlement patterns and landscape usage in hopes of better understanding the role and function of small one to two room sites in the area. Traditionally these sites have been referred to in the survey literature as "field houses;" however, whether they are or not is currently unknown. While many of the locations for these small sites documented during this survey were in areas adjacent to land suitable for agriculture, many others were found in locations where agriculture would not have been optimal. Furthermore, evidence for specialized activities, such as hide processing and rituals, has been found at several of these small sites. Our paper presents the variation in the assemblages documented at these sites and discusses their implications for Virgin Branch archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23851