Human Demographics, Paleoclimate, and Paleoecology of Far West Texas from the Late Pleistocene through Holocene

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Human Population Dynamics, Innovation, and Ecosystem Change" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The vast region of far west Texas remains understudied in terms of its cultural, climatic, and environmental past. Current paleoclimatological and environmental proxy data sets are few and inconsistent in time, resolution, and scope. Here, we summarize key proxy data while contextualizing human demographic variation within the cultural regions of far west Texas. Using radiocarbon dates spanning the earliest dated sites to the arrival of the Spanish, we present summed probability distributions and kernel density estimations of population variation across time and space. Current paleoclimatic and environmental proxy records such as pluvial paleolake levels, isotopic values derived from speleothems and cave sediments, packrat middens, and other proxy data are presented in conjunction with the demographic models. Together, these data set the stage for contextualizing human behavior and demographic variability from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene. Through a lens of earth’s dynamic systems, we may better understand how the earliest occupants of far west Texas responded to long-term climatological and environmental change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Global Perspectives on Human Population Dynamics, Innovation, and Ecosystem Change   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39495.0