Comparative Histories of Community Depopulation in the Mesa Verde and Northern Rio Grande Regions of the American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Architecture, artifact deposition patterning, and oral traditional information are brought to bear on questions of settlement depopulation, migration and relocation, and social conditions surrounding the depopulation of two large Ancestral Pueblo settlements. One large village, Sand Canyon Pueblo, was depopulated in the late thirteenth century as part of the out-migration of Ancestral Pueblo peoples from the central Mesa Verde region, while Pot Creek Pueblo, located in the northern Rio Grande region, was depopulated in the early fourteenth century. Contrasting patterns of artifact deposition, treatment of architectural spaces, and levels of social conflict all point to different modes of settlement depopulation and subsequent migration to other regions of the American Southwest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36007.0