Climate Variability and Emergent Social Patterns in the Prehispanic Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study leverages state-of-the-art climate reconstructions, computational models, and archaeological data to examine the interplay between climate, demography, and social networks in the prehispanic Southwest. Here we examine whether generative simulations can reproduce key features of the archaeological record captured in the cyberSW dataset, while accounting for dynamic climate influences. We employ machine learning to downscale reconstructions of temperature and aridity, using these dynamic maps to force models of population growth, trade, and migration. This method captures nonlinear interactions and temporal changes often missed by static statistical analyses. Our approach uniquely ties social processes to specific climate patterns, such as zones of tropical Pacific versus Atlantic influence, allowing us to associate local responses with regional or global drivers. Our results allow us to assess the varying sensitivities of network signatures to specific climatic fluctuations, revealing how large-scale climate changes might impact local populations. Our findings provide insights into potential local impacts of contemporary global climate change and regional climate fluctuations. This research not only enhances our understanding of past human-environment interactions but also offers a framework for addressing complex socio-ecological questions relevant to contemporary climate-induced population growth, trade, and migration.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51188