SMALL ANCESTRAL PUEBLO SITES IN THE MESA VERDE REGION: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Open Access
- Author:
- Messer, A'ndrea Elyse
- Graduate Program:
- Anthropology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 29, 2009
- Committee Members:
- George Robert Milner, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
George Robert Milner, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
David Lee Webster, Committee Member
Dean R. Snow, Committee Member
Christopher J Duffy, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Colorado Archaeology
Ancestral Puebloan
southwestern archaeology
Mesa Verde - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT A basic theoretical issue in settlement archaeology is the effect that environment on the one hand, or large centers on the other, have on the placement of small habitations. A key methodological issue is whether old survey data, collected at a time when today’s questions had not yet been formed, can still prove useful. This dissertation investigates the viability of old survey data, some of the environmental influences – landform, elevation, temperature, precipitation – and settlement population density, on site location choice in the Mesa Verde Southwest. I also investigated the effects of large sites on small site location and looked at all these factors with respect to reinhabited sites versus pristine sites. My results suggest a method to determine which old surveys can be used, and which cannot. The site populations in the mesa surveys are similar but differ from the site populations of the non-mesa surveys, indicating a possible difference in settlement pattern between mesas and other areas. Site population in general increased through time. Wetherill Mesa is the only location where Late Pueblo III site population dipped dramatically, probably due to movement into aggregated cliff locations. Mesa-top sites remained the majority through time, but population pressure caused people to move sites to the talus slopes. No large site influence pushes sites up or down in elevation, but population pressure does expand the range of elevations inhabited. Distances to large sites from small sites do not change the appearance of large sites. Small sites move away from or toward large sites without pattern. The environment appears to influence small site locations far more than proximity to large sites. While large sites might have influenced the myriad small-site inhabitants by altering their social and political life, they did not seem to alter the locations people chose for their homes. Population pressure seems to be the largest influence on the settlement patterns in the Mesa Verde area.