A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Population Dynamics at the Margins of Maize Agriculture in the American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Innovation and Population Dynamics in Drylands" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Utah’s northern Uinta Basin represents the maximum biophysical extent of maize agriculture in the American Southwest. The adoption of maize agriculture between AD 200–300, as well as the subsequent development of early agricultural villages, occurred within well-defined multidecadal precipitation parameters. Here we focus on the intersection of climatic, geomorphic, and population dynamics in the period between AD 1040–1100 with a particular focus on technological innovation involving pithouse storage features and pottery between AD 840–1080 and population reorganization between AD 1080–1100. Our analysis is based on ~175 high-precision AMS radiocarbon ages from dryland agricultural landscapes, pithouse villages, and perishable material culture assemblages to show that the dynamics of early agricultural populations on the margins of Southwestern maize agriculture operated on decadal/generational timescales. Precipitation variability and geomorphic thresholds exerted strong controls on the stability of human populations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Innovation and Population Dynamics in Drylands

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53306