This article investigates the context, dating, and character of Ancestral Pueblo building murals ... more This article investigates the context, dating, and character of Ancestral Pueblo building murals at multiple scales in one of the least-studied areas of the northern US Southwest. The study focuses on developing a diachronic seriation of Ancestral Pueblo mural styles in the Cedar Mesa area of the Bears Ears and Natural Bridges National Monuments in southeastern Utah. In this process, I evaluate prior discussions of the function and dating of murals in the region during the recent and ancient past. This seriation is built using a combination of newly developed methods for dating mural creation and use with dendrochronology and augmented with previously published data. Using the Cedar Mesa area as a case study, I demonstrate the methods used to create the mural seriation, using aspects of technological style to identify communities of building mural practice shared at the site and subregional scales over the 12th and 13th centuries A.D.
Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 2023
The depopulation of ancestral Pueblo people from the northern Southwest has been a fascination of... more The depopulation of ancestral Pueblo people from the northern Southwest has been a fascination of archaeologists for decades. Using a suite of social and environmental models, scholars have attempted to explain the processes that led tens of thousands of people in the greater San Juan River drainage (figure 18.r) to vacate thousands of communities at the end of the thirteenth century AD. Beyond a purely academic exercise, understanding how and why this large-scale depopulation occurred can help scientists understand how human populations respond to both climatic and social turmoil and specify the impetus for local and large-scale migrations. We focus on the overlooked, but highly valuable, perishable wood resources used at sites. Dendroarchaeological studies provide insight into the dating of construction and remodeling of structures, the local ( or non-local) tree resources that were harvested and used for distinct purposes, harvesting strategies, preparation and treatment of wood, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and the condition of the forest. In this chapter, we review previous depopulation discussions for the northern Southwest and summarize prior dendrochronological assessments of the timing of the depopulation in the western portion of the northern San Juan region and the greater San Juan River Basin, from the point of view of the Cedar Mesa area (figure 18.1) in the southern portion of the recently established Bears Ears National Monument. We begin by providing a synthesis of new tree-ring data from over two dozen previously unrecorded cliff dwellings from the greater Cedar Mesa area (figure 18.2). We use these data to reassess the nature and timing of the depopulation locally and the effect these data have on the depopulation of the larger region.
Pushing Boundaries, Proceedings of the 16th Biennial Southwest Symposium, 2023
Social identity and concepts of self are fashioned out of continuous interactions between people ... more Social identity and concepts of self are fashioned out of continuous interactions between people and the things they use. Identity is flexible and situational, can take many forms, and is actively and constantly negotiated in social and political spheres. Identities are materialized through practices that often leave traces in the archaeological record, such as clothing, which can signal diverse aspects of identities simultaneously. Thus, reconstructing these aspects of the ancient material world can help anthropologists understand how people used clothing to communicate important messages about identities and ideologies in the past. Of all types of textile remains from the ancient Southwest, woven yucca sandals are the most durable and the most commonly recovered. Several thousand sandals of distinctive styles have been described from across the region (Bellorado 2020) (figure 8.1.A-E). As such, sandals are the ideal subject for an investigation of local and regional clothing practices in the Chaco and post-Chaco eras.
Building Murals, Ritual Clothing, and Stages for Religious Performance in the Greater Cedar Mesa Area, 2022
Hidden within the snaking sandstone canyons of southeastern Utah are many well-preserved cliff dw... more Hidden within the snaking sandstone canyons of southeastern Utah are many well-preserved cliff dwellings in alcoves and on sandstone ledges. Although archaeological research has been conducted in the area for over one hundred years, most of these sites have never been comprehensively studied. Recent research, however, continues to make new and important discoveries about the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the region. In the greater Cedar Mesa area (fig. 12.1), remarkable preservation conditions have allowed a unique class of materials, namely building murals, to survive in the area's many cliff dwellings. A better understanding of these murals can greatly inform us about many important aspects of Ancestral Pueblo worldviews, community organization, religious practices, and even clothing fashions that are otherwise invisible in the archaeological record.
Bellorado, Benjamin A., and Barbara J. Mills
2022 Building Murals, Ritual Clothing, and Stages for Religious Performance in the Greater Cedar Mesa Area. In Linda Cordell: Detail, Passion, and Innovation in Archaeology and Beyond, edited by Maxine McBrinn and Debora Huntley, pp. 111–122. Museum of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to exp... more Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.
This dissertation investigates how people in the northern US Southwest used clothing and represen... more This dissertation investigates how people in the northern US Southwest used clothing and representations of clothing in other media to signal aspects of social identities in the Chaco and post-Chaco eras (AD 850–1300). This was a time when communities were first organized into a large regional system and later fractured into smaller organizational entities focused at the site cluster and village levels. In the aftermath of the Chaco reorganization, social inequalities appear to have burgeoned across the greater San Juan River drainage, and not long after these developments, the entire region was depopulated. Understanding the development and transformation of identity during this pivotal period is critical for explaining the social mechanisms that contributed to the major reorganization of communities in the post-Chaco era. To better understand identity expression during these tumultuous times, I perform technological and stylistic design analyses of attributes used to create and decorate ornately woven, twined yucca sandals, in addition to cross-media and proxemic analyses of sandal representations in building murals, rock art, and portable media. Technological and stylistic analyses show that some communities consistently made and used sandals with specific sets of attributes that expressed shared village-level identities. At the same time, other communities favored more diverse repertoires of design attributes that signaled aspects of identities shared across a much larger area. During the Chaco era, twined-sandal styles became highly variable and appear to have indicated positions in social hierarchies. During the following post-Chaco era, the stylistic variability of the sandals declined across the region and may have come to signal a leveling of the social hierarchies. In both time periods, ornate geometric designs woven into the soles of the sandals indicated the home communities or sodality groups to which their wearers belonged. Sandal imagery in rock art was placed to mark major travel routes and boundaries 19 between communities that expressed shared identities. Depictions of sandals in other media closely matched their woven counterparts and show that these images were potent symbols of group affiliations and identity politics in the post-Chaco era. Although this research focuses on clothing, it also addresses broader issues of adaptation and identity, providing new information about societal disruption and reformation in the ancient US Southwest.
In this paper we present evidence through a cross-media and contextual comparison approach that c... more In this paper we present evidence through a cross-media and contextual comparison approach that cotton textile production had major economic and ideological importance to Ancestral Pueblo peoples living in the greater Cedar Mesa area during the Woodenshoe and Redhouse Phases (A.D. 1165–1270). First, we present the current data available for direct evidence of cotton textile production from archaeological contexts. Then, we use a cross-media approach to look for evidence of cotton textile production in the media of pottery and kiva mural design motifs. Given the extensive nature of cotton textile production at several sites in the area and the pervasive cotton-textile-based designs on pottery and in kiva murals in the area, we argue that the greater Cedar Mesa area was an important gateway for cotton technologies and imagery between the Kayenta and Mesa Verde areas that afforded the peoples greater access and control over cotton textile production and distribution.
Migration was a key social process contributing to the creation of the 'Chaco World' betw... more Migration was a key social process contributing to the creation of the 'Chaco World' between AD 800 and 1200. Dynamic social network analysis allows for evaluation of several migration scenarios, and demonstrates that Chaco's earliest ninth-century networks show interaction with areas to the west and south, rather than migration to the Canyon from the Northern San Juan. By the late eleventh century, Chaco Canyon was tied strongly to the Middle and Northern San Juan, while a twelfth-century retraction of networks separated the Northern and Southern San Juan areas prior to regional depopulation. Understanding Chaco migration is important for comprehending both its uniqueness in U.S. Southwest archaeology and for comparison with other case studies worldwide.
Breaking Down the Models: Reconstructing Prehistoric Subsistence Agriculture in the Durango District of Southwestern Colorado , 2007
This thesis investigates the interrelationships between settlement distributions, maize agricultu... more This thesis investigates the interrelationships between settlement distributions, maize agricultural subsistence, and fluctuations in prehistoric climate in the Durango District of southwestern Colorado between A.D. 650-840, also known as the Basketmaker-III/Pueblo-I period. Previous research in the area indicates that large groups of people migrated into the Durango area around A.D. 760, altering age old settlement patterns and establishing some of the earliest villages in the northern Southwest. My focus is to further understandings of the complex interrelationships between settlement patterns and maize agricultural systems and to determine what role agriculture played in the development of these early villages. Throughout this thesis, I investigate why Basketmaker-III/Pueblo-I peoples chose to live in dispersed or clustered settlement patterns from approximately A.D. 650-840 in the Durango area. This thesis integrates experimentation with dry land and ak’chin farming techniques, excavation and survey data, analysis of Basketmaker-III and Pueblo-I site distributions, modern and paleoclimatic reconstructions, prime agricultural soil and cold air drainage distributions, and aerial photography. I conducted fine-scale research of the agricultural potential around two prehistoric case study communities in the Durango District and then extrapolated my findings onto other communities in the larger area. Finally, I integrate these data into a conceptual model that can aid and direct future research into the prehistoric agroecological and anthropogenic landscapes of the Durango area.
Maize agriculture is dependent on two primary environmental factors, precipitation and temperatur... more Maize agriculture is dependent on two primary environmental factors, precipitation and temperature. Throughout the Eastern Mesa Verde region, fluctuations of these factors dramatically influenced demographic shifts, land use patterns, and social and religious transformations of farming populations during several key points in prehistory. While many studies have looked at the influence climate played in the depopulation of the northern Southwest after A.D. 1000, the role that climate played in the late Basketmaker III through the Pueblo I period remains unclear. This article demonstrates how fluctuations in precipitation patterns interlaced with micro- and macro- regional temperature fluctuations may have pushed and pulled human settlement and subsistence patterns across the region. Specifically, we infer that preferences for certain types of farmlands dictated whether a community used alluvial fan verses dryland farming practices, with the variable success of each type determined by shifting climate patterns. We further investigate how dramatic responses to environmental stress, such as migration and massacres, may be the result of inherited social structures of land tenure and leadership, and that such responses persist in the Eastern Mesa Verde area throughout the Pueblo I period.
Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and
ceremonial buildings to exp... more Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.
Following the initial introduction of maize farming to the northern Southwest, farming techniques... more Following the initial introduction of maize farming to the northern Southwest, farming techniques and corn varieties diversified in many areas of the region during the Basketmaker II period, but appear to have remained relatively unchanged in the Upper San Juan and Durango areas until much later. Throughout the area occupied by Eastern Basketmaker groups, populations appear to have shared a similar suite of agricultural land use practices focusing primarily on utilization of alluvial fan ecological niches. Patterns of periodic demographic shifts by farmers in the area appear to have been spurred in part by climatic fluctuation that changed the ecology of these alluvial fan settings at various times in prehistory. I present new data from analyses of ancient agricultural systems used by early farming peoples throughout the Durango and Upper San Juan areas, and experimentation with the limitations of these systems. These data provide new insights into prehistoric cultural variability and new methods to better test archaeological interpretations of the relationships between climate change and human subsistence through time.
Anasazi Archaeology at the Millennium: Proceedings of the Sixth Occasional Anasazi Symposium, edited by Paul F. Reed, 2003
During the summer excavations of 1998 and 1999 at the Darkmold site, the Fort Lewis College archa... more During the summer excavations of 1998 and 1999 at the Darkmold site, the Fort Lewis College archaeological Field School was confronted with a mystery. At Darkmold, a Basketmaker II occupation site, excavations recovered the remains of several dome-collared, slab-lined pits that were burned internally. These pits often had a thick layer of burned corn kernels and charcoal lining the bottom. Their precise function was not known, but several people speculated that the could have been used for roasting food or preparing yucca for cordage.
The Animas–La Plata (ALP) project supported research
to develop a synthetic model of the relation... more The Animas–La Plata (ALP) project supported research to develop a synthetic model of the relationships between environmental variables relevant to maize agriculture and the social processes of village development and dissolution in the Durango district of southwestern Colorado (Bellorado 2007). This chapter is a synthesis of that research. Support and funding were provided by SWCA Environmental Consultants and several independent parties, and additional data were made available by the San Juan Public Lands Office, Fort Lewis College, the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office, Northern Arizona University, and private land owners Deb Powell and Jesse Scott.
This article investigates the context, dating, and character of Ancestral Pueblo building murals ... more This article investigates the context, dating, and character of Ancestral Pueblo building murals at multiple scales in one of the least-studied areas of the northern US Southwest. The study focuses on developing a diachronic seriation of Ancestral Pueblo mural styles in the Cedar Mesa area of the Bears Ears and Natural Bridges National Monuments in southeastern Utah. In this process, I evaluate prior discussions of the function and dating of murals in the region during the recent and ancient past. This seriation is built using a combination of newly developed methods for dating mural creation and use with dendrochronology and augmented with previously published data. Using the Cedar Mesa area as a case study, I demonstrate the methods used to create the mural seriation, using aspects of technological style to identify communities of building mural practice shared at the site and subregional scales over the 12th and 13th centuries A.D.
Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 2023
The depopulation of ancestral Pueblo people from the northern Southwest has been a fascination of... more The depopulation of ancestral Pueblo people from the northern Southwest has been a fascination of archaeologists for decades. Using a suite of social and environmental models, scholars have attempted to explain the processes that led tens of thousands of people in the greater San Juan River drainage (figure 18.r) to vacate thousands of communities at the end of the thirteenth century AD. Beyond a purely academic exercise, understanding how and why this large-scale depopulation occurred can help scientists understand how human populations respond to both climatic and social turmoil and specify the impetus for local and large-scale migrations. We focus on the overlooked, but highly valuable, perishable wood resources used at sites. Dendroarchaeological studies provide insight into the dating of construction and remodeling of structures, the local ( or non-local) tree resources that were harvested and used for distinct purposes, harvesting strategies, preparation and treatment of wood, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, and the condition of the forest. In this chapter, we review previous depopulation discussions for the northern Southwest and summarize prior dendrochronological assessments of the timing of the depopulation in the western portion of the northern San Juan region and the greater San Juan River Basin, from the point of view of the Cedar Mesa area (figure 18.1) in the southern portion of the recently established Bears Ears National Monument. We begin by providing a synthesis of new tree-ring data from over two dozen previously unrecorded cliff dwellings from the greater Cedar Mesa area (figure 18.2). We use these data to reassess the nature and timing of the depopulation locally and the effect these data have on the depopulation of the larger region.
Pushing Boundaries, Proceedings of the 16th Biennial Southwest Symposium, 2023
Social identity and concepts of self are fashioned out of continuous interactions between people ... more Social identity and concepts of self are fashioned out of continuous interactions between people and the things they use. Identity is flexible and situational, can take many forms, and is actively and constantly negotiated in social and political spheres. Identities are materialized through practices that often leave traces in the archaeological record, such as clothing, which can signal diverse aspects of identities simultaneously. Thus, reconstructing these aspects of the ancient material world can help anthropologists understand how people used clothing to communicate important messages about identities and ideologies in the past. Of all types of textile remains from the ancient Southwest, woven yucca sandals are the most durable and the most commonly recovered. Several thousand sandals of distinctive styles have been described from across the region (Bellorado 2020) (figure 8.1.A-E). As such, sandals are the ideal subject for an investigation of local and regional clothing practices in the Chaco and post-Chaco eras.
Building Murals, Ritual Clothing, and Stages for Religious Performance in the Greater Cedar Mesa Area, 2022
Hidden within the snaking sandstone canyons of southeastern Utah are many well-preserved cliff dw... more Hidden within the snaking sandstone canyons of southeastern Utah are many well-preserved cliff dwellings in alcoves and on sandstone ledges. Although archaeological research has been conducted in the area for over one hundred years, most of these sites have never been comprehensively studied. Recent research, however, continues to make new and important discoveries about the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived in the region. In the greater Cedar Mesa area (fig. 12.1), remarkable preservation conditions have allowed a unique class of materials, namely building murals, to survive in the area's many cliff dwellings. A better understanding of these murals can greatly inform us about many important aspects of Ancestral Pueblo worldviews, community organization, religious practices, and even clothing fashions that are otherwise invisible in the archaeological record.
Bellorado, Benjamin A., and Barbara J. Mills
2022 Building Murals, Ritual Clothing, and Stages for Religious Performance in the Greater Cedar Mesa Area. In Linda Cordell: Detail, Passion, and Innovation in Archaeology and Beyond, edited by Maxine McBrinn and Debora Huntley, pp. 111–122. Museum of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to exp... more Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.
This dissertation investigates how people in the northern US Southwest used clothing and represen... more This dissertation investigates how people in the northern US Southwest used clothing and representations of clothing in other media to signal aspects of social identities in the Chaco and post-Chaco eras (AD 850–1300). This was a time when communities were first organized into a large regional system and later fractured into smaller organizational entities focused at the site cluster and village levels. In the aftermath of the Chaco reorganization, social inequalities appear to have burgeoned across the greater San Juan River drainage, and not long after these developments, the entire region was depopulated. Understanding the development and transformation of identity during this pivotal period is critical for explaining the social mechanisms that contributed to the major reorganization of communities in the post-Chaco era. To better understand identity expression during these tumultuous times, I perform technological and stylistic design analyses of attributes used to create and decorate ornately woven, twined yucca sandals, in addition to cross-media and proxemic analyses of sandal representations in building murals, rock art, and portable media. Technological and stylistic analyses show that some communities consistently made and used sandals with specific sets of attributes that expressed shared village-level identities. At the same time, other communities favored more diverse repertoires of design attributes that signaled aspects of identities shared across a much larger area. During the Chaco era, twined-sandal styles became highly variable and appear to have indicated positions in social hierarchies. During the following post-Chaco era, the stylistic variability of the sandals declined across the region and may have come to signal a leveling of the social hierarchies. In both time periods, ornate geometric designs woven into the soles of the sandals indicated the home communities or sodality groups to which their wearers belonged. Sandal imagery in rock art was placed to mark major travel routes and boundaries 19 between communities that expressed shared identities. Depictions of sandals in other media closely matched their woven counterparts and show that these images were potent symbols of group affiliations and identity politics in the post-Chaco era. Although this research focuses on clothing, it also addresses broader issues of adaptation and identity, providing new information about societal disruption and reformation in the ancient US Southwest.
In this paper we present evidence through a cross-media and contextual comparison approach that c... more In this paper we present evidence through a cross-media and contextual comparison approach that cotton textile production had major economic and ideological importance to Ancestral Pueblo peoples living in the greater Cedar Mesa area during the Woodenshoe and Redhouse Phases (A.D. 1165–1270). First, we present the current data available for direct evidence of cotton textile production from archaeological contexts. Then, we use a cross-media approach to look for evidence of cotton textile production in the media of pottery and kiva mural design motifs. Given the extensive nature of cotton textile production at several sites in the area and the pervasive cotton-textile-based designs on pottery and in kiva murals in the area, we argue that the greater Cedar Mesa area was an important gateway for cotton technologies and imagery between the Kayenta and Mesa Verde areas that afforded the peoples greater access and control over cotton textile production and distribution.
Migration was a key social process contributing to the creation of the 'Chaco World' betw... more Migration was a key social process contributing to the creation of the 'Chaco World' between AD 800 and 1200. Dynamic social network analysis allows for evaluation of several migration scenarios, and demonstrates that Chaco's earliest ninth-century networks show interaction with areas to the west and south, rather than migration to the Canyon from the Northern San Juan. By the late eleventh century, Chaco Canyon was tied strongly to the Middle and Northern San Juan, while a twelfth-century retraction of networks separated the Northern and Southern San Juan areas prior to regional depopulation. Understanding Chaco migration is important for comprehending both its uniqueness in U.S. Southwest archaeology and for comparison with other case studies worldwide.
Breaking Down the Models: Reconstructing Prehistoric Subsistence Agriculture in the Durango District of Southwestern Colorado , 2007
This thesis investigates the interrelationships between settlement distributions, maize agricultu... more This thesis investigates the interrelationships between settlement distributions, maize agricultural subsistence, and fluctuations in prehistoric climate in the Durango District of southwestern Colorado between A.D. 650-840, also known as the Basketmaker-III/Pueblo-I period. Previous research in the area indicates that large groups of people migrated into the Durango area around A.D. 760, altering age old settlement patterns and establishing some of the earliest villages in the northern Southwest. My focus is to further understandings of the complex interrelationships between settlement patterns and maize agricultural systems and to determine what role agriculture played in the development of these early villages. Throughout this thesis, I investigate why Basketmaker-III/Pueblo-I peoples chose to live in dispersed or clustered settlement patterns from approximately A.D. 650-840 in the Durango area. This thesis integrates experimentation with dry land and ak’chin farming techniques, excavation and survey data, analysis of Basketmaker-III and Pueblo-I site distributions, modern and paleoclimatic reconstructions, prime agricultural soil and cold air drainage distributions, and aerial photography. I conducted fine-scale research of the agricultural potential around two prehistoric case study communities in the Durango District and then extrapolated my findings onto other communities in the larger area. Finally, I integrate these data into a conceptual model that can aid and direct future research into the prehistoric agroecological and anthropogenic landscapes of the Durango area.
Maize agriculture is dependent on two primary environmental factors, precipitation and temperatur... more Maize agriculture is dependent on two primary environmental factors, precipitation and temperature. Throughout the Eastern Mesa Verde region, fluctuations of these factors dramatically influenced demographic shifts, land use patterns, and social and religious transformations of farming populations during several key points in prehistory. While many studies have looked at the influence climate played in the depopulation of the northern Southwest after A.D. 1000, the role that climate played in the late Basketmaker III through the Pueblo I period remains unclear. This article demonstrates how fluctuations in precipitation patterns interlaced with micro- and macro- regional temperature fluctuations may have pushed and pulled human settlement and subsistence patterns across the region. Specifically, we infer that preferences for certain types of farmlands dictated whether a community used alluvial fan verses dryland farming practices, with the variable success of each type determined by shifting climate patterns. We further investigate how dramatic responses to environmental stress, such as migration and massacres, may be the result of inherited social structures of land tenure and leadership, and that such responses persist in the Eastern Mesa Verde area throughout the Pueblo I period.
Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and
ceremonial buildings to exp... more Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.
Following the initial introduction of maize farming to the northern Southwest, farming techniques... more Following the initial introduction of maize farming to the northern Southwest, farming techniques and corn varieties diversified in many areas of the region during the Basketmaker II period, but appear to have remained relatively unchanged in the Upper San Juan and Durango areas until much later. Throughout the area occupied by Eastern Basketmaker groups, populations appear to have shared a similar suite of agricultural land use practices focusing primarily on utilization of alluvial fan ecological niches. Patterns of periodic demographic shifts by farmers in the area appear to have been spurred in part by climatic fluctuation that changed the ecology of these alluvial fan settings at various times in prehistory. I present new data from analyses of ancient agricultural systems used by early farming peoples throughout the Durango and Upper San Juan areas, and experimentation with the limitations of these systems. These data provide new insights into prehistoric cultural variability and new methods to better test archaeological interpretations of the relationships between climate change and human subsistence through time.
Anasazi Archaeology at the Millennium: Proceedings of the Sixth Occasional Anasazi Symposium, edited by Paul F. Reed, 2003
During the summer excavations of 1998 and 1999 at the Darkmold site, the Fort Lewis College archa... more During the summer excavations of 1998 and 1999 at the Darkmold site, the Fort Lewis College archaeological Field School was confronted with a mystery. At Darkmold, a Basketmaker II occupation site, excavations recovered the remains of several dome-collared, slab-lined pits that were burned internally. These pits often had a thick layer of burned corn kernels and charcoal lining the bottom. Their precise function was not known, but several people speculated that the could have been used for roasting food or preparing yucca for cordage.
The Animas–La Plata (ALP) project supported research
to develop a synthetic model of the relation... more The Animas–La Plata (ALP) project supported research to develop a synthetic model of the relationships between environmental variables relevant to maize agriculture and the social processes of village development and dissolution in the Durango district of southwestern Colorado (Bellorado 2007). This chapter is a synthesis of that research. Support and funding were provided by SWCA Environmental Consultants and several independent parties, and additional data were made available by the San Juan Public Lands Office, Fort Lewis College, the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office, Northern Arizona University, and private land owners Deb Powell and Jesse Scott.
This dissertation investigates how people in the northern US Southwest used clothing and represen... more This dissertation investigates how people in the northern US Southwest used clothing and representations of clothing in other media to signal aspects of social identities in the Chaco and post-Chaco eras (AD 850–1300). This was a time when communities were first organized into a large regional system and later fractured into smaller organizational entities focused at the site cluster and village levels. In the aftermath of the Chaco reorganization, social inequalities appear to have burgeoned across the greater San Juan River drainage, and not long after these developments, the entire region was depopulated. Understanding the development and transformation of identity during this pivotal period is critical for explaining the social mechanisms that contributed to the major reorganization of communities in the post-Chaco era. To better understand identity expression during these tumultuous times, I perform technological and stylistic design analyses of attributes used to create and decorate ornately woven, twined yucca sandals, in addition to cross-media and proxemic analyses of sandal representations in building murals, rock art, and portable media. Technological and stylistic analyses show that some communities consistently made and used sandals with specific sets of attributes that expressed shared village-level identities. At the same time, other communities favored more diverse repertoires of design attributes that signaled aspects of identities shared across a much larger area. During the Chaco era, twined-sandal styles became highly variable and appear to have indicated positions in social hierarchies. During the following post-Chaco era, the stylistic variability of the sandals declined across the region and may have come to signal a leveling of the social hierarchies. In both time periods, ornate geometric designs woven into the soles of the sandals indicated the home communities or sodality groups to which their wearers belonged. Sandal imagery in rock art was placed to mark major travel routes and boundaries 19 between communities that expressed shared identities. Depictions of sandals in other media closely matched their woven counterparts and show that these images were potent symbols of group affiliations and identity politics in the post-Chaco era. Although this research focuses on clothing, it also addresses broader issues of adaptation and identity, providing new information about societal disruption and reformation in the ancient US Southwest.
Uploads
Papers by Benjamin Aaron Bellorado
Bellorado, Benjamin A., and Barbara J. Mills
2022 Building Murals, Ritual Clothing, and Stages for Religious Performance in the Greater Cedar Mesa Area. In Linda Cordell: Detail, Passion, and Innovation in Archaeology and Beyond, edited by Maxine McBrinn and Debora Huntley, pp. 111–122. Museum of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Throughout this thesis, I investigate why Basketmaker-III/Pueblo-I peoples chose to live in dispersed or clustered settlement patterns from approximately A.D. 650-840 in the Durango area. This thesis integrates experimentation with dry land and ak’chin farming techniques, excavation and survey data, analysis of Basketmaker-III and Pueblo-I site distributions, modern and paleoclimatic reconstructions, prime agricultural soil and cold air drainage distributions, and aerial photography. I conducted fine-scale research of the agricultural potential around two prehistoric case study communities in the Durango District and then extrapolated my findings onto other communities in the larger area. Finally, I integrate these data into a conceptual model that can aid and direct future research into the prehistoric agroecological and anthropogenic landscapes of the Durango area.
played in the depopulation of the northern Southwest after A.D. 1000, the role that climate played in the late Basketmaker III through the Pueblo I period remains unclear. This article demonstrates how fluctuations in precipitation patterns interlaced with micro- and macro- regional temperature fluctuations may have pushed and pulled human settlement and subsistence patterns across the region. Specifically, we infer that preferences for certain types of farmlands dictated whether a community used alluvial fan verses dryland farming practices, with the variable success of each type determined by shifting climate patterns.
We further investigate how dramatic responses to environmental stress, such as migration and massacres, may be the result of inherited social structures of land tenure and leadership, and that such responses persist in the Eastern Mesa Verde area throughout the Pueblo I period.
ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.
to develop a synthetic model of the relationships between
environmental variables relevant to maize agriculture
and the social processes of village development and
dissolution in the Durango district of southwestern
Colorado (Bellorado 2007). This chapter is a synthesis
of that research. Support and funding were provided
by SWCA Environmental Consultants and several
independent parties, and additional data were made
available by the San Juan Public Lands Office, Fort
Lewis College, the Colorado State Historic Preservation
Office, Northern Arizona University, and private land
owners Deb Powell and Jesse Scott.
Bellorado, Benjamin A., and Barbara J. Mills
2022 Building Murals, Ritual Clothing, and Stages for Religious Performance in the Greater Cedar Mesa Area. In Linda Cordell: Detail, Passion, and Innovation in Archaeology and Beyond, edited by Maxine McBrinn and Debora Huntley, pp. 111–122. Museum of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Throughout this thesis, I investigate why Basketmaker-III/Pueblo-I peoples chose to live in dispersed or clustered settlement patterns from approximately A.D. 650-840 in the Durango area. This thesis integrates experimentation with dry land and ak’chin farming techniques, excavation and survey data, analysis of Basketmaker-III and Pueblo-I site distributions, modern and paleoclimatic reconstructions, prime agricultural soil and cold air drainage distributions, and aerial photography. I conducted fine-scale research of the agricultural potential around two prehistoric case study communities in the Durango District and then extrapolated my findings onto other communities in the larger area. Finally, I integrate these data into a conceptual model that can aid and direct future research into the prehistoric agroecological and anthropogenic landscapes of the Durango area.
played in the depopulation of the northern Southwest after A.D. 1000, the role that climate played in the late Basketmaker III through the Pueblo I period remains unclear. This article demonstrates how fluctuations in precipitation patterns interlaced with micro- and macro- regional temperature fluctuations may have pushed and pulled human settlement and subsistence patterns across the region. Specifically, we infer that preferences for certain types of farmlands dictated whether a community used alluvial fan verses dryland farming practices, with the variable success of each type determined by shifting climate patterns.
We further investigate how dramatic responses to environmental stress, such as migration and massacres, may be the result of inherited social structures of land tenure and leadership, and that such responses persist in the Eastern Mesa Verde area throughout the Pueblo I period.
ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.
to develop a synthetic model of the relationships between
environmental variables relevant to maize agriculture
and the social processes of village development and
dissolution in the Durango district of southwestern
Colorado (Bellorado 2007). This chapter is a synthesis
of that research. Support and funding were provided
by SWCA Environmental Consultants and several
independent parties, and additional data were made
available by the San Juan Public Lands Office, Fort
Lewis College, the Colorado State Historic Preservation
Office, Northern Arizona University, and private land
owners Deb Powell and Jesse Scott.
To better understand identity expression during these tumultuous times, I perform technological and stylistic design analyses of attributes used to create and decorate ornately woven, twined yucca sandals, in addition to cross-media and proxemic analyses of sandal representations in building murals, rock art, and portable media. Technological and stylistic analyses show that some communities consistently made and used sandals with specific sets of attributes that expressed shared village-level identities. At the same time, other communities favored more diverse repertoires of design attributes that signaled aspects of identities shared across a much larger area. During the Chaco era, twined-sandal styles became highly variable and appear to have indicated positions in social hierarchies. During the following post-Chaco era, the stylistic variability of the sandals declined across the region and may have come to signal a leveling of the social hierarchies. In both time periods, ornate geometric designs woven into the soles of the sandals indicated the home communities or sodality groups to which their wearers belonged. Sandal imagery in rock art was placed to mark major travel routes and boundaries
19
between communities that expressed shared identities. Depictions of sandals in other media closely matched their woven counterparts and show that these images were potent symbols of group affiliations and identity politics in the post-Chaco era. Although this research focuses on clothing, it also addresses broader issues of adaptation and identity, providing new information about societal disruption and reformation in the ancient US Southwest.