Mother, Laborer, Captive, and Leader: Reassessing the Various Roles that Females Held Among the Ancestral Pueblo in the American Southwest

2018 ◽  
pp. 191-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Harrod ◽  
Pamela K. Stone
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo

Colour and Directional Symbolism in Ancestral Pueblo Radial Offerings from Chaco Canyon

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Hannah V. Mattson
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Regional System ◽  
Roof Support

Dedicatory offerings of small colourful objects are often found in pre-Hispanic architectural contexts in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest. These deposits are particularly numerous in the roof support pillars of circular ritual structures (kivas) at the site of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, which served as the ceremonial hub of the Chacoan regional system between the tenth and twelfth centuries ce. Based on the importance of directionality and colour in traditional Pueblo worldviews, archaeologists speculate that the contents of these radial offerings may likewise reference significant Chacoan cosmographic elements. In this paper, I explore this idea by examining the distribution of colours and materials in kiva pilaster repositories in relation to directional quadrants, prominent landscape features, and raw material sources. I discuss the results in the context of Pueblo cosmology and assemblage theory, arguing that particular colours were polyvalent and relational, deriving their meanings from their positions within interacting and heterogenous assemblages.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF PROTO-TEWA SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE: MAKING THE CASE FOR FLOODPLAIN FARMING IN THE OHKAY OWINGEH HOMELAND, NEW MEXICO

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Sunday Eiselt ◽  
J. Andrew Darling ◽  
Samuel Duwe ◽  
Mark Willis ◽  
Chester Walker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Subsistence Agriculture ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Rio Chama ◽  
Land Farming ◽  
Scholarly Discourse

Previous research on agriculture in the American Southwest focuses overwhelmingly on archaeological survey methods to discern surface agricultural features, which, in combination with climatological, geological, and geographical variables, are used to create models about agricultural productivity in the past. However, with few exceptions, the role of floodplain irrigation and floodwater farming in ancestral Pueblo agriculture is generally downplayed in scholarly discourse. Using a variety of methods, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), satellite imagery, pedestrian survey, and supervised classification of remotely sensed imagery, we examine this issue through a consideration of how ancestral Ohkay Owingeh (Tewa) people solved the challenges of arid land farming in the lower Rio Chama watershed of New Mexico during the Classic period (A.D. 1350–1598). Based on acreage estimates, our results indicate that runoff and rainwater fields in terrace environments would have been insufficient to supply the nutritional needs of an ancestral Tewa population exceeding 10,000 individuals. Based on these observations, we present a case for the substantial role of subsistence agriculture in the floodplain of the Rio Chama and its associated tributaries.

The prehistoric drug trade: widespread consumption of cacao in Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam communities in the American Southwest

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 1634-1640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy K. Washburn ◽  
William N. Washburn ◽  
Petia A. Shipkova
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo

Ancestral pueblo population aggregation and abandonment in the North American Southwest

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Adler ◽  
Todd Van Pool ◽  
Robert D. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
The North ◽  
Population Aggregation ◽  
North American Southwest

scholarly journals Contextualizing Ancestral Pueblo Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) Management

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyler Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Meleagris Gallopavo ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Human Management ◽  
Human Animal

AbstractPenning turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) in the Ancestral Pueblo American Southwest/Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) involved the creation or use of a variety of spaces and contexts throughout AD 1–1600 and into the post-contact era. Turkey pens, or captivity, occur through simple tethering, reuse of abandoned pit houses or surface rooms, or creation of pens within villages, plazas, and elsewhere. Turkey dung, droppings, and eggshells are fundamental for determining the presence or absence of pens at archaeological sites. In this paper, I review the archaeological record for turkey pens and focus on three main questions: (1) how are turkey pens identified in the SW/NW, (2) if turkey pen construction or evidence for turkey captivity shifts through time, and (3) what the record of turkey penning informs us regarding the long-term human management of these birds and global perspectives on human–bird/human–animal management. Ancestral Pueblo peoples created an adaptive and flexible strategy for turkey penning, which successfully integrated these birds into ceremonial and socioeconomic processes for approximately 1600 years.

The Depopulation of Sand Canyon Pueblo, A Large Ancestral Pueblo Village in Southwestern Colorado

2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin A. Kuckelman
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
Hunting And Gathering ◽  
Archaeobotanical Remains ◽  
The Village ◽  
Abundant Data ◽  
Mesa Verde Region

Archaeologists in the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest have long sought the catalysts of the complete depopulation of the region by Pueblo farmers in the late thirteenth century. Ten years of excavations by the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center at Sand Canyon Pueblo, a large village that was occupied from approximately A.D. 1250 to 1280, yielded abundant data regarding the depopulation of the village and shed new light on causes of this intriguing regional emigration. Comparative analyses of faunal and archaeobotanical remains from middens vs. abandonment assemblages reveal a shift from farming to hunting and gathering that coincided with the onset of the Great Drought about A.D. 1276. Osteological and taphonomic analyses of human remains found in abandonment contexts reveal details of an attack during which many residents were killed and that ended the occupation of the village. These findings from Sand Canyon Pueblo suggest that climate-induced food stress and consequent violent conflict contributed to the depopulation of the Mesa Verde region in the late A.D. 1200s.

scholarly journals Impacted Lower First Molar and Labial Ectopic Upper Canine Eruption in an Individual from the Prehistoric American Southwest

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg C. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Ectopic Eruption ◽  
Common Etiology ◽  
Insight Into

Tooth impactions and other positional anomalies are commonly encountered in clinical situations but are much less frequently seen in, or reported from, prehistoric archaeologically derived contexts. This report examines the occurrence of two positional anomalies, lower first molar impaction and upper canine labial ectopic eruption, in a single individual from the Ancestral Pueblo Gallina Phase (1100-1275 AD) of northern New Mexico. Although outwardly dissimilar, appearing as they do in different tooth classes and both the mandible and maxilla, their underlying similarity implies a common etiology. The co-occurrence of these anomalies presents an opportunity to explore the etiological basis of positional anomalies and possibly provide some insight into the very early stages of dental morphogenesis.

scholarly journals Pinworm Infection at Salmon Ruins and Aztec Ruins: Relation to Pueblo III Regional Violence

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 627-633
Author(s):  
Karl J Reinhard ◽  
Morgana Camacho
Keyword(s):  
Colorado Plateau ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Cultural Stress ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Show Evidence

The study of coprolites has been a theme of archaeology in the American Southwest. A feature of archaeoparasitology on the Colorado Plateau is the ubiquity of pinworm infection. As a crowd parasite, this ubiquity signals varying concentrations of populations. Our recent analysis of coprolite deposits from 2 sites revealed the highest prevalence of infection ever recorded for the region. For Salmon Ruins, the deposits date from AD 1140 to 1280. For Aztec Ruins, the samples can be dated by artifact association between AD 1182-1253. Both sites can be placed in the Ancestral Pueblo III occupation (AD 1100-1300), which included a period of cultural stress associated with warfare. Although neither of these sites show evidence of warfare, they are typical of large, defensible towns that survived this time of threat by virtue of large populations in stonewalled villages with easily accessible water. We hypothesize that the concentration of large numbers of people promoted pinworm infection and, therefore, explains the phenomenal levels of infection at these sites.

Geology of the American Southwest

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Scott Baldridge
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest
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