Kiln Firing Groups: Inter-Household Economic Collaboration and Social Organization in the Northern American Southwest

2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley Bernardini

AbstractRecent research on trench kilns from the Mesa Verde region of the northern American Southwest (Blinman and Swink 1997) suggests that trench kilns represent collaborative firings by groups of potters. This study presents a method for estimating the sizes of these proposed kiln firing groups. A comparative analysis between firing group sizes and the size of other contemporaneous social units provides insights into socioeconomic relationships between Mesa Verde households in both dispersed and aggregated settlement contexts. This study demonstrates that different stages of a production process may involve different production groups and highlights the utility of examining each production stage individually. It further suggests the importance of searching for archaeological evidence of production beyond residential areas to other production contexts, such as firing features, if the organization of all stages of production is to be understood.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 140-147
Author(s):  
Liudmila A. VOLKOVA ◽  
Tatyana V. LITVYAK

The article presents a comparative analysis of the main characteristics of planning elements “quarter” and “microdistrict”, identifies their significant differences; provides an analysis of the development of approaches to the construction of residential areas in Russia in terms of creating a comfortable urban environment for human life; reveals the advantages of modern quarter as a planning element of residential development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-67
Author(s):  
I. B. Teslenko

The Funa fortress is located in southern Crimea and is one of the reference architectural and archaeological complexes of the Northern Pontic Region with precise date of existence. The fortress was built by Mangup authorities near 1423 on the border with possessions of Genoese and was destroyed in a fire during the Turkish invasion of the Crimea in 1475. The detailed chronology of the site which includes three stages of its construction history — 1423, 1425—1450s and 1459—1475, has been developed so far. So it becomes possible to clarify the dating of ceramic finds in line with these periods also. Ceramic assemblages of the last stage from the layers of fire and destruction of 1475 are the most representative. There is the complex from courtyard 1 among them. The ceramic collection includes 101 and 163 fully or partially reconstructed vessels respectively. There are large and average household containers, various kitchen utensils and tableware, both of the local Crimean production and import (Miletus Ware, Spanish Luster and Blue and White Ware, Fritware). The comparative analysis of artefacts made it possible to establish the chronological changes in ceramic assemblages during 25 years. Moreover, statistical and typological studies of the pottery from the layer of fire demonstrated a set of vessels there is suitable for cooking and table setting for at least 40 people. Large number of luxury tableware for diverse using and their location in the context allow suggest that there was a large feast on the platform above the «kitchen», and the remains of this banquet were not removed. According to the archaeological evidence as well as analysis of historical events the inhabitants of the fortress could burn it themselves before Turkish invasion and retreat to the capital of the principality at Mangup. Perhaps the remains of a farewell feast arranged just before leaving was fixed archaeologically.


1965 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward P. Dozier

AbstractInterest in the nature of the socio-political and ceremonial life of prehistoric inhabitants in recent years has resulted in an exchange of information between archaeologists and ethnologists. This paper is an initial effort to furnish a list of the kinds of social units to be found among Southwestern groups in the ethnographic present. It is hoped that this list will stimulate further discussion, bring about greater exchange of information, and result in a better understanding of the nature of prehistoric and ethnographic socio-political and ceremonial units in the American Southwest.


2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Billman ◽  
Patricia M. Lambert ◽  
Banks L. Leonard

AbstractThe existence of cannibalism has emerged as one of the most controversial issues in the archaeology of the American Southwest. In this paper, we examine this issue by presenting the results of our investigation at 5MT10010, a small early Pueblo III habitation site in southwestern Colorado. Battered, broken bones from seven individuals were discovered in two adjacent pithouses at 5MT10010. Mixed and incomplete remains of four adults and an adolescent were recovered from the floor and ventilator shaft of one pithouse; the remains of two subadults were found on the floor and in various subfeatures of the second. Cut marks and percussion scars implicate humans in the disarticulation and reduction of these bodies. Evidence of heat exposure on some bone fragments and laboratory analyses of a human coprolite recovered from one of the pithouses support the interpretation that people prepared and consumed human body parts. The discovery of disarticulated human remains at 5MT10010 is one of a number of similar finds in the northern Southwest. Analysis of cases from the Mesa Verde region indicates a sharp increase in cannibalism around A.D. 1150, a time of drought and the collapse of the Chaco system. The causes, consequences, and nature of this apparent outbreak of cannibalism are examined in light of 5MT10010 and other recent finds.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Shibao Yuan ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Haiyan Jiang ◽  
Qing Xie ◽  
Shengnan Chen ◽  
...  

The complex fault block reservoir has the characteristics of small area and many layers in vertical. Due to the influence of formation heterogeneity and well pattern, the situation that “water fingering is serious with water injection, on the contrary, driving energy is low” frequently occurs in water flooding, which makes it difficult to enhance oil recovery. Asynchronous injection-production (AIP) process divides the conventional continuous injection-production process into two independent processes: injection stage and production stage. In order to study oil recovery in the fault block reservoir by AIP technology, a triangle closed block reservoir is divided into 7 subareas. The result of numerical simulation indicates that all subareas have the characteristic of fluid diverting and remaining oil in the central area is also affected by injected water at injection stage of AIP technology. Remaining oil in the central area is driven to the included angle and border area by injected water and then produced at the production stage. Finally, the oil recovery in the central area rises by 5.2% and in the noncentral area is also increased in different levels. The AIP process can realize the alternative change of reservoir pressure, change the distribution of flow field, and enlarge the swept area by injected water. To sum it up, the AIP process is an effective method to improve the oil recovery in complex fault-block reservoir by water flooding.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Szeląg-Sikora ◽  
Jakub Sikora ◽  
Marcin Niemiec ◽  
Zofia Gródek-Szostak ◽  
Joanna Kapusta-Duch ◽  
...  

Currently, the level of efficiency of an effective agricultural production process is determined by how it reduces natural environmental hazards caused by various types of technologies and means of agricultural production. Compared to conventional production, the aim of integrated agricultural cultivation on commercial farms is to maximize yields while minimizing costs resulting from the limited use of chemical and mineral means of production. As a result, the factor determining the level of obtained yield is the soil’s richness in nutrients. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of soil richness, depending on the production system appropriate for a given farm. The analysis was conducted for two comparative groups of farms with an integrated and conventional production system. The farms included in the research belonged to two groups of agricultural producers and specialized in carrot production.


1965 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 65-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur H. Rohn

AbstractExceptional preservation in a sheltered Pueblo III cliff site at Mesa Verde enables delineation of space units formerly occupied by socio-economic groups. These groups are not characterized by kinship relations but by durable remains of domestic cooperation, such as the juxtaposition of rooms with different functions, building sequences, patterns of movement indicated by doorway locations, and the placement of hearths and other domestic features. Three different groupings are recognized: household units or suites, courtyard units, and complete village-sized communities.


1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Wills ◽  
Thomas C. Windes

The appearance of pithouse settlements in the American Southwest that have multihabitation structures has been considered evidence for the emergence of "village" social organization. The interpretation that village systems are reflected in pithouse architecture rests in great part on the assumption that large sites correspond to large, temporally stable social groups. In this article we examine one of the best known pithouse settlements in the Southwest—Shabik’eschee Village in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico—and argue that the site may represent episodic aggregation of local groups rather than a sedentary occupation by a single coherent social unit.


2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Speakman ◽  
Hector Neff

For decades archaeologists have struggled with the problem of accurately determining organic and mineral-based paints in pottery from the American Southwest. Using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), we have developed a simple and cost-effective method that permits classification of painted surfaces into mineral and organic-based categories. By applying this method to Mesa Verde and Mancos Black-on-white pottery from the Mesa Verde Region, we were able to distinguish easily between mineral and organic-based paints. Preliminary data also suggest that multiple sub-groups of mineral-based paints exist within these ceramic types, indicating that multiple recipes for manufacturing paint may have been employed by prehistoric potters from this region.


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