Shaping the World and Running for Corn: Monumental Agriritual Landscapes in the Dry-farm Belt of the Ancient Puebloan, Northern San Juan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Newly available USGS LiDAR imagery has confirmed the reported existence, and greatly expanded the known extent, of ancient ritual and agricultural earthworks in the northern San Juan region. These findings are transforming our understanding of early Puebloan landscape manipulation, with large implications for Puebloan community organization and food production technology. The landscape-scale earthworks include (1) extended bermed swales or “roads” extending overland between localities; (2) looping road-like features resembling racetracks; and (3) vast, agricultural field systems visible as sprawling landscapes rippled by sets of parallel low ridges separated by broad swales. The roads and loops frequently occur in association with recognized great houses (community centers) and pass through the berm-swale field landscapes. Early-stage investigations suggest a strong association with great houses and communities of the Chaco era (A.D. 1000s-1100s). We argue that the association between the bermed archaeological fields and roads reflects an ancient Puebloan ritual connection between running and agricultural productivity, and discuss them as complementary features in unitary “agriritual” landscapes. This paper focuses on the roads as ritual landscape features. A separate paper by Nials and Hurst details and discusses the ridge-swale agricultural systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38379.0