Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Intraregional Interaction in the Mesa Verde Region, A.D. 1150-1300: Placing Emigration in its Social Context

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

A century of research has focused on understanding the complete abandonment of the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest by A.D. 1300. Enormous efforts have been devoted to reconstructing the prevailing environmental conditions and to understanding where the Mesa Verde people went. However, a full understanding of this dramatic abandonment requires knowledge of the relationships among villages prior to and during the depopulation of this region. Existing data are inadequate to assess these interactions. For this critical period (A.D. 1150-1300), this project investigates social interaction among villages using evidence for economic cooperation, indicated by the exchange of pottery among villages and the locations of communal and defensive buildings signifying cooperation and conflict. The combination of ceramic exchange data and the distribution of communal and defensive architecture provides a powerful means for understanding the social processes at work during this otherwise well-documented abandonment. NSF funding will permit the chemical composition analysis of an additional 490 ceramic and clay samples from nine sites using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. With these samples, it will be possible to reconstruct patterns of ceramic production and exchange using a regional database comprising 1,041 ceramic and 60 clay samples from 18 sites. The grant would also fund the compilation of a regional database documenting the geographic distribution of communal and defensive architecture necessary for the assessment of the degree of cooperation and conflict among villages. Both of these databases will provide critical data that will be made accessible for and can be expanded by future research to further test anthropological arguments about social dynamics. This study, conducted by Ms. Donna Glowacki under the supervision of Dr. Keith Kintigh, will contribute to understanding the effects of stress, such as drought and violence, on social relationships prior to and during periods of large-scale emigration.