Archaeological Agave in the Cultural Landscapes of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Across the Southwestern United States and Mesoamerica, agave has been essential as a source of food, textile, and alcoholic/nonalcoholic beverages for millennia. This study examines a sample of 153 archaeological sites with observed presence of agave in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona. This plant does not grow naturally on the northern side of the Mogollon Rim, and its presence is strongly indicative of archaeological human cultivation. This dataset was collected using Forest archaeological site records, previous cultural resource reports, and published academic research. The spatial distribution of these sites on the landscape was investigated using ArcPro 3.3. The variables examined include site type, chronology, and environmental characteristics (slope, altitude, distance to water, etc.). Landscape in archaeology, while not limited to a singular definition, can be understood as the human environment that is composed of natural and cultural components. This environment, or taskscape, is shaped by the relationship of landscape features and the communities that live within it, and the tasks that they undertake together. This research aims to discuss how humans and agave interacted with each other and shaped the landscape in east-central Arizona.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53556