Alternative Trajectories during the Early Pueblo Period in the Little Colorado Drainage and Beyond

Schachner, Gregson; Gilpin, Dennis; Peeples, Matthew A.

doi:10.2307/j.ctvdjrqmn.13

Cited by 4 publications

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“…First, as noted above, the Jaralosa area had a much more substantial early occupation than either of the other two areas explored here. This observation makes sense in light of other broad-scale, qualitative studies of settlement patterns, which locate the densest area of early occupation in the vicinity of the Zuni region only a few tens of kilometers to the west of the Jaralosa area Schachner et al, 2012). Second, this analysis reveals a potential decline in site numbers during the period from roughly AD 9.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Refining correspondence analysis-based ceramic seriation of regional data sets

Peeples

Schachner

2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Refining correspondence analysis-based ceramic seriation of regional data sets

Peeples

Schachner

2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…Synthetic studies of Chaco-era settlement practices and organization may shed new light on a variety of processes, from the construction and use of outlying great houses to how different parts of the Chaco region interacted and influenced one another, potentially without that interaction being channeled through Chaco itself. One area that needs greater study is how community-scale, intermediate-level social units during the Chaco era related to those of earlier eras, which are more diverse than prior models based on the San Juan Basin and Mesa Verde region have suggested Schachner et al 2012). (Adler 2002;Coffey 2010;Glowacki and Ortman 2012;Varien 1999Varien , 2000Varien and Wilshusen 2002).…”

Section: Settlement Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology: The Value of Synthesis

Schachner

2014

J Archaeol Res

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Archaeologists working in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest have documented variability in sociopolitical and economic complexity, landscape use, community organization, mobility, and violence at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales from AD 500-1700. Recent studies have a strong synthetic orientation, employ methods that track material culture, mobility, and social networks at macroregional scales, and benefit from a renewed engagement with indigenous peoples. Much of this research relies on integrating vast amounts of data from numerous academic and cultural resource management projects and demonstrates the promise of an archaeology that relies on the cumulative acquisition and sharing of data. Given the scale and depth of this research, Ancestral Pueblo archaeology is an exceptional comparative case for archaeologists considering similar processes, especially at fine temporal and wide geographical scales, in ancient farming societies across the globe.

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Comparing Near Eastern Neolithic Megasites and Southwestern Pueblos: Population Size, Exceptionalism and Historical Trajectories

Bernardini

Schachner

2018

CAJ

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AbstractÇatalhöyük and other Near Eastern Neolithic 'megasites' are commonly interpreted as exceptional because of their large size and early dates. In this paper, we question exceptional claims about the size and social organization of megasites like Çatalhöyük by comparing them to pueblos in the American Southwest. We argue that Çatalhöyük and other Near Eastern Neolithic megasites are better understood as large villages whose size, layout, and social organization compare readily to many of the late prehispanic and historic period pueblos in the American Southwest. We suggest that four factors contribute to disparate interpretations of structurally similar sites in the Near East and American Southwest: 1) surface architectural visibility; 2) different regional intellectual traditions that emphasize 'micro-' vs 'macro' scale social organization; 3) a tendency toward overestimation in archaeological population estimates, especially when the 'biggest' or the 'earliest' sites are involved; and 4) perceptions of continuity with later time periods. 1 Çatalhöyük is often described as a Neolithic "megasite" with a large, densely packed population that is puzzling because it predates by 3000 years the kind of urban settlement associated with early cities. Although no longer seen by most archaeologists as the 'first city' (e.g., Mellart 1967), Çatalhöyük is nevertheless still viewed as exceptional: a site whose size "pushes the idea of an egalitarian village to its ultimate extremes" (Hodder 2006, 98), a huge street-less mass of houses that was a '"dead end' in the evolution of human architecture and In this paper, we raise questions about exceptional claims regarding the size and social organization of Near Eastern megasites like Çatalhöyük by comparing them to pueblos in the American Southwest, in particular the pueblo of Awat'ovi ( Fig. 1). Although comparisons between Çatalhöyük and pueblo architecture are not uncommon (e.g., Hodder 2006, 25), these are often anecdotal (but see Mills 2014). Here we suggest that more systematic comparison can provide insights into key questions about Çatalhöyük population levels and social organization, and about the phenomenon of Near Eastern Neolithic megasites more generally. Awat'ovi has 2 roughly the same architectural footprint as Çatalhöyük, but is estimated to have had a population less than half the size, and is interpreted as a classic 'tribal' village rather than a proto-urban centre. We argue that four factors contribute to disparate interpretations of these structurally similar sites: 1) surface architectural visibility; 2) different regional intellectual traditions that emphasize 'micro-' vs 'macro' scale social organization; 3) a tendency toward overestimation in archaeological population estimates, especially when the 'biggest' or 'earliest' sites are involved; and 4) perceptions of continuity with later time periods.Rather than outliers requiring special explanation, we argue that Çatalhöyük and other Near Eastern Neolithic megasites are better understood as large vi...

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Alternative Trajectories during the Early Pueblo Period in the Little Colorado Drainage and Beyond

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Refining correspondence analysis-based ceramic seriation of regional data sets

Refining correspondence analysis-based ceramic seriation of regional data sets

Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology: The Value of Synthesis

Comparing Near Eastern Neolithic Megasites and Southwestern Pueblos: Population Size, Exceptionalism and Historical Trajectories

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