This chapter describes the cycles of aggregation and dissolution of the largest villages in the V... more This chapter describes the cycles of aggregation and dissolution of the largest villages in the VEP study area. Because these villages were often central nodes among a number of smaller settlements and contained civic-ceremonial architecture used for large gatherings, these villages have been termed “community centers.” We assess how the location, types of civic-ceremonial architecture, and association with agricultural land changed over time for these villages. A detailed history of the development and abandonment of community centers provides important context for understanding the differences between the two periods of out-migration that occurred during the occupation of the study area.
The use of instrumental neutron analysis (INAA) in ceramic research in the American Southwest has... more The use of instrumental neutron analysis (INAA) in ceramic research in the American Southwest has become widespread over the last ten years. This volume presents case studies of Southwestern ceramic production and distribution in which INAA is used as the primary analytical technique. These studies use provenance determination to explore such issues as exchange, migration, social identity, and economic organisation. Case studies from the Southwestern periphery provide a comparative perspective from which to view the range of variation in Southwestern ceramic circulation patterns. Several of the case studies use mineralogical approaches to supplement chemical sourcing data. And, a case study using petrographic analyses provides a counterpoint to the emphasis on chemical approaches (INAA) in this volume. This volume documents the cumulative contribution of INAA-based ceramic characterisation to knowledge of the prehistory of Southwest.
This article systematically and quantitatively characterizes interaction dynamics and community f... more This article systematically and quantitatively characterizes interaction dynamics and community formation based on changes in spatial patterns of contemporaneous households. We develop and apply a geospatial routine to measure changing extents of household interaction and community formation from AD 600 to 1280 on the Mesa Verde cuesta in southwestern Colorado. Results suggest that household spatial organization was shaped simultaneously by the maintenance of regular social interaction that sustained communities and the need for physical space among households. Between AD 600 and 1200, households balanced these factors by forming an increased number of dispersed communities in response to population growth and variable environmental stressors. However, as population rebounded after the megadrought of the mid-1100s, communities became increasingly compact, disrupting a long-standing equilibrium between household interaction and subsistence space within each community. The vulnerabili...
The Mesa Verde region—extending from southeastern Utah to southwestern Colorado and northwestern ... more The Mesa Verde region—extending from southeastern Utah to southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico—is the heartland of the earliest pueblos and an ancestral home for at least three of the four Pueblo language groups. Over the last two millennia, there were three periods in which Ancestral Pueblo population peaked and declined, with the last abandonment of the late thirteenth century the most well known. The combination of excellent material preservation, detailed tree-ring and ceramic chronologies, and the ability to integrate extensive archaeological, linguistic, sociocultural, and biological data provides a unique opportunity to research the Neolithic demographic transition, the ethnogenesis of historically known groups, the formation and abandonment of villages, and the role of historical contingency in making sense of the past.
... KRISTIN A. KUCKELMAN Crow Canyon Archaeological Center 23390 CR K Cortez, CO 81321 ABSTRACT C... more ... KRISTIN A. KUCKELMAN Crow Canyon Archaeological Center 23390 CR K Cortez, CO 81321 ABSTRACT Crow Canyon's early excavations in the Sand Canyon locality suggested that late Pueblo III canyon-rim villages formed rapidly and according to a consistent pattern. ...
We review some of the most significant research trends as well as emerging issues in the archaeol... more We review some of the most significant research trends as well as emerging issues in the archaeology of the American Southwest and Northwest Mexico. Among the many topics being studied that we could discuss, we have chosen to focus on engaged archaeology, “big data”, the research potential of museum collections, agriculture, social organization, regional connectivity, and culture history.
This chapter describes the cycles of aggregation and dissolution of the largest villages in the V... more This chapter describes the cycles of aggregation and dissolution of the largest villages in the VEP study area. Because these villages were often central nodes among a number of smaller settlements and contained civic-ceremonial architecture used for large gatherings, these villages have been termed “community centers.” We assess how the location, types of civic-ceremonial architecture, and association with agricultural land changed over time for these villages. A detailed history of the development and abandonment of community centers provides important context for understanding the differences between the two periods of out-migration that occurred during the occupation of the study area.
The use of instrumental neutron analysis (INAA) in ceramic research in the American Southwest has... more The use of instrumental neutron analysis (INAA) in ceramic research in the American Southwest has become widespread over the last ten years. This volume presents case studies of Southwestern ceramic production and distribution in which INAA is used as the primary analytical technique. These studies use provenance determination to explore such issues as exchange, migration, social identity, and economic organisation. Case studies from the Southwestern periphery provide a comparative perspective from which to view the range of variation in Southwestern ceramic circulation patterns. Several of the case studies use mineralogical approaches to supplement chemical sourcing data. And, a case study using petrographic analyses provides a counterpoint to the emphasis on chemical approaches (INAA) in this volume. This volume documents the cumulative contribution of INAA-based ceramic characterisation to knowledge of the prehistory of Southwest.
This article systematically and quantitatively characterizes interaction dynamics and community f... more This article systematically and quantitatively characterizes interaction dynamics and community formation based on changes in spatial patterns of contemporaneous households. We develop and apply a geospatial routine to measure changing extents of household interaction and community formation from AD 600 to 1280 on the Mesa Verde cuesta in southwestern Colorado. Results suggest that household spatial organization was shaped simultaneously by the maintenance of regular social interaction that sustained communities and the need for physical space among households. Between AD 600 and 1200, households balanced these factors by forming an increased number of dispersed communities in response to population growth and variable environmental stressors. However, as population rebounded after the megadrought of the mid-1100s, communities became increasingly compact, disrupting a long-standing equilibrium between household interaction and subsistence space within each community. The vulnerabili...
The Mesa Verde region—extending from southeastern Utah to southwestern Colorado and northwestern ... more The Mesa Verde region—extending from southeastern Utah to southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico—is the heartland of the earliest pueblos and an ancestral home for at least three of the four Pueblo language groups. Over the last two millennia, there were three periods in which Ancestral Pueblo population peaked and declined, with the last abandonment of the late thirteenth century the most well known. The combination of excellent material preservation, detailed tree-ring and ceramic chronologies, and the ability to integrate extensive archaeological, linguistic, sociocultural, and biological data provides a unique opportunity to research the Neolithic demographic transition, the ethnogenesis of historically known groups, the formation and abandonment of villages, and the role of historical contingency in making sense of the past.
... KRISTIN A. KUCKELMAN Crow Canyon Archaeological Center 23390 CR K Cortez, CO 81321 ABSTRACT C... more ... KRISTIN A. KUCKELMAN Crow Canyon Archaeological Center 23390 CR K Cortez, CO 81321 ABSTRACT Crow Canyon's early excavations in the Sand Canyon locality suggested that late Pueblo III canyon-rim villages formed rapidly and according to a consistent pattern. ...
We review some of the most significant research trends as well as emerging issues in the archaeol... more We review some of the most significant research trends as well as emerging issues in the archaeology of the American Southwest and Northwest Mexico. Among the many topics being studied that we could discuss, we have chosen to focus on engaged archaeology, “big data”, the research potential of museum collections, agriculture, social organization, regional connectivity, and culture history.
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Papers by Donna Glowacki