High-Precision AMS Radiocarbon Chronologies Demonstrate Short-Lived Agricultural Village Occupations on the Northern Colorado Plateau

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Socioecological Dynamics of Holocene Foragers and Farmers" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Fremont archaeological complex provides an important window into the socioecological dynamics underwriting the formation of settled pithouse communities in the western North America drylands. We developed high-precision AMS radiocarbon chronologies based on short-lived annuals for four Fremont sites (Cub Creek, Caldwell Village, Steinaker Basin, and Snake Rock), which we paired with high-resolution precipitation reconstructions using tree-ring widths. While Fremont occupations north of the Colorado River span the period AD 300–1300, pithouse communities formed between AD 840 and 1240. We test the hypothesis that multidecadal precipitation variability is directly related to the duration of village occupations where longer spans correspond to lower variability and shorter spans correspond to higher variability. Variable hydroclimate also impacts stream geomorphology and arable area. This study implicates hydroclimate as one important constraint on the sustainability and growth potential of early dryland agricultural systems at the northern margins of maize agriculture in the American Southwest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Socioecological Dynamics of Holocene Foragers and Farmers   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36910.0