Living and Leaving: A Social History of Regional Depopulation in Thirteenth-Century Mesa Verde

Climate and community in Central Mesa Verde

“…Since then, archaeologists have also shown that the drought of the late 1200 s amplified pre‐existing imbalances between subsistence efforts and population size, thereby accelerating processes of emigration (Bocinsky and Kohler 2014; Schwindt et al, 2016). However, some areas remained agriculturally productive during the worst part of the drought (Bocinsky and Kohler 2014; Van West 1994; Van West and Dean 2000; Varien 1999; Varien et al, 2000; Wright 2010) and emigration, which began before ad 1276, was not uniform across the region (Duff and Wilshusen 2000; Glowacki 2015, 2020; Glowacki and Ortman 2012; Varien et al, 2007). Given the complex relationships among people and drought in CMV, researchers have concluded that poor precipitation conditions were just one process among many intricately related environmental, social, demographic and political processes that combined to create unstable conditions and vulnerable social groups during the 1200 s (Glowacki 2015; Schwindt et al, 2016; Van West and Dean 2000).…”

“…All three villages are among the largest, longest‐lived ancestral Pueblo villages in the region. As such, these community centers – settlements with 50 rooms or more, nine or more kivas and/or public architecture – played key roles in the social, economic and ritual networks that connected communities across the region from ad 750 to 1280 (Glowacki 2015; Glowacki and Ortman 2012; Lipe and Ortman 2000; Varien 1999). FVC, MCGHV and YJP were selected as comparative examples because they are in distinct ecological settings with specific historical and social trajectories.…”

“…Some archaeologists have suggested that people in YJP controlled a sub‐regional polity that enabled those in the community to receive benefits including trade, taxes or tribute (Crabtree et al, 2017; Kohler and Varien 2010). Given the size of the community, Yellow Jacket probably held some form of political authority in the region (Glowacki 2015; Kohler and Varien 2010) and data suggest community members participated in high degrees of local exchange (Arakawa 2012; Glowacki 2015). If the exchange and political authority held by YJP was great enough to incur subsistence support from subordinate communities, then the added benefits of trade or tribute may have been another critical component of YJP's resilience to acute stress.…”

The ‘Z-Free’ Home: A Circular Thinking and Eco-Cycle Design Practice

“…Infiltration was calculated to measure the level of airtightness of the construction using Equation (1). In this calculation, an infiltration rate of @50Pa was set to 0.3 l/s/m 2…”

“…In terms of housing, according to the World Bank, housing shortage could impact 1.6 billion people by 2025 [1]. Unaffordable prices and land shortages together with the high price and scarcity of building materials contributes to this housing crisis in many parts of the world, especially in Europe [2]. According to the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the world needs to build over 95,000 new affordable homes every day to accommodate the demand of approximately 3 billion people who are in need Energies 2023, 16, 6536 2 of 20 of decent and adequate housing [3].…”