The Southwest II: Early Agricultural Villages North

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The Southwest II Early Agricultural
Villages(North)

• North American Archaeology
• Lecture 13
• Fall 2007
• UCSC

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500 BC AD 800

• Transitional Period in No. Southwest
• Between Archaic and Regional Pueblo Traditions
• Anasazi and Mogollon
• Gradual spread of farming settlements throughout
  highlands

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Major Trends

• Increasing dependence on agriculture
• Increasing sedentism (villages?)
• New social systems and community organization

Interpretations of these trends highly varied and
controversial
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The Basketmakers

• Anasazi Area Colorado Plateau
• Basketmakers (1890s)
• Agriculture, Baskets, little Pottery
• Pecos Classification
• Kidder (1927)
• Earliest known site-- 1AD--termed Basketmaker II
• Basketmaker I Late Archaic (term never used)

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Basketmaker II 500 BC to AD 500

• Thin scatter of sites in So. Colorado Plateau
• Site Diversity
• E/W Variation in
• Cultural Antecedents
• Environmental Adaptation

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Subsistence

• Maize and squash cultivated--beans rare
• Hunting and gathering still important
• Carbon isotope analysis shows that maize was
  stable of diet

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Settlements

• Rockshelters and open sites
• Simple circular houses in pits
• Settlements rare and small
• Slab-lined cists
• Utah base camps near springs seasonal activity
  sites
• White Dog Cave, Talus Village

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Burials and Perishable Artifacts
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Archaic Style Grinding Stones
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Pottery Generally Absent except crude brownware
in Mogollon area
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Domesticated Dogs and Dog Burials
Sashes woven from dog hair
White Dog Cave, AZ, excavated by Kidder and
Guernsey (1921)
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Basketmaker III

• AD 500 - 750

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Agriculture More Important
Two Handed Manos More intensive processing
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Domesticated Turkey
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Bow and Arrow
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Basketmaker IIIPottery
Early B/W with basketry design
Lino Plain Gray Ware
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La Plata Black-on-white with simple geometric
designs that resemble basketry designs and rock
art
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Rock Art
Butler Wash, Utah
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Pithouses
--Thermally efficient --Bi-seasonal site use
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Step House, Mesa Verde
Most settlements average 2-3 houses
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Increased Storage
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Settlements

• 2-12 houses, ave. 3 per site
• Some larger aggregation sites
• Larger communal structure (kiva, lineage house??)

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Shabikeshchee Village, NM
Frank H.H. Roberts 1926 Houses (19) Storage Bins
(45) Large Circular Structure 2 Distinct
Occupations
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Recent Re-Analysis of Settlement

• Wills and Windes 1989
• Episodes of house construction and rebuilding
• Est. max population 70
• Based on floor space
• Sedentism?
• Debris in room fill
• Tree-ring dates
• Private vs. public storage
• Two Groups
• Sedentary Core Group
• Aggregating Group
• Pinon collecting

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Interpretations of Social Organization at
Shabikeschee

• Upham, Feinman and Lightfoot in Fagan
• Large settlements Central Places
• Internal structure reflects supra-household
  decision-making
• Trade
• Essential
• Constant
• Highly organized and conducted by local leaders
  Big Men
• Kivas Where trading occurs
• Wills and Windes (1989) in Reader
• Large Communities scalar stress
• harder to make consensus decision
• more potential conflict
• may be aided by development of lineage system
• communal rituals may reinforce this communal
  structure (Great Kiva)
• individual leaders may emerge
• Lineage heads form ad hoc ruling group
• BUT power episodic and situational not
  institutionalized

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Basketmaker to Pueblo Transition

• After AD 700
• Surface Architecture
• Sites cluster in higher elevations good ag.
  land
• Some large sites
• Alkali Ridge gt200 structures
• Great Kivas
• Regional Integration
• Cotton Textiles
• Pottery
• Lots of local diversity

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Pattern of small, scattered farmsteads linked by
ceremonial networks and trade dominated SW for
next 500 years