Investigating Material Culture Through Multilayer Network Analysis in Tonto Basin

Abstract

Network analysis has a strong foundation in Southwest archaeology, yet the combination of multiple types of artifacts in one analysis-multilayer network analysis-has not been formally applied except within a single artifact type. Many studies consider material culture holistically, yet network analysis has the advantage of focusing specifically on the relationships between entities (often communities) and how the structure of a network can benefit entities. This study uses architecture, ceramic, projectile point, and site location data from the Roosevelt Platform Mound Study and combines these data in a multilayer network analysis. This analysis provides a way to test the co-variance of these types of material culture with each other and with spatial variation. The results demonstrate a strong association between projectile points and spatial distance. Overall, the ceramic and projectile point networks exhibit significant differences. This indicates that the social networks that created these patterns had different social mechanisms. One potential cause of these differences is gendered spheres of interaction with men producing and exchanging projectile points and women producing and exchanging ceramics.