Measuring Time, Population, and Residential Mobility from the Surface at San Marcos Pueblo, North Central New Mexico

Abstract

To understand the effects of European contact on the organization, size, and mobility of Pueblo populations in the Southwest requires detailed knowledge of the occupational histories of the aggregated settlements that typify the late prehistoric and early historic record. Unfortunately, such understanding is generally lacking because the methods used to document occupational histories of settlements tend to either obscure fine-grained temporal distinctions or necessitate costly, and politically objectionable, large-scale excavations. To overcome these difficulties, we use surface expressions to analyze the occupational and population history of San Marcos Pueblo (LA98), an aggregated, late prehistoric site in the Galisteo Basin of New Mexico that persisted to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Field methods include detailed mapping of the settlement and systematic surface collections of middens. Frequency seriation, correspondence analysis, and mean ceramic dates of decorated ceramic rims comprise our principal analytic methods and demonstrate that the pueblo was abandoned four times before 1680. Causes of abandonment are discussed. Relative scale measures of population show demographic fluctuations with maximum aggregation during the fifteenth century. Despite demographic pulses, the pueblo remained vital until the terminal abandonment.

Epitope mapping of the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and mixed connective tissue disease

“…The statistic then transforms the data to capture the next highest amount of variance in the next principal component, and so on. 19 This results in reduction of noise and clustering of data points that share similar properties. 19 …”

“…19 This results in reduction of noise and clustering of data points that share similar properties. 19 …”

Refining correspondence analysis-based ceramic seriation of regional data sets

“…As is the case for traditional frequency seriation, the direction of temporal change within the CA space is arbitrary. In areas where the production span of ceramic types is reasonably well known, the success of the CA in producing a temporal ordering can be evaluated by comparing the order of points along the first axis of the CA to the order of mean ceramic dates (MCD) calculated for each site assemblage (see also Ramenofsky et al, 2009). The MCD of an assemblage is calculated by multiplying the number of sherds of a given type by the mid-point of the date range for that type, summing those values for all types, and then dividing by the total ceramic count (South, 1977).…”

Uniform Probability Density Analysis and Population History in the Northern Rio Grande

“…In the absence of such information, researchers have often assumed that the deposition histories of pottery types follow normal or Gaussian distributions and have used this model to assess the relative intensity of occupation through time following an approach known as mean ceramic dating (Christenson 1994;Duwe 2011;Ramenofsky et al 2009;South 1972;Steponaitis and Kintigh 1993). Recent studies have developed methods for testing whether the Gaussian assumption is reasonable in a given situation (Bellanger and Husi 2012), and in some cases it clearly is.…”

“…However, instead of using empirical probability density distributions derived from calibration data, or theoretical distributions as in mean ceramic dating (Christenson 1994;Peeples and Schachner 2012;Ramenofsky et al 2009), this method begins by apportioning the probability of deposition of a potsherd of a given type uniformly over the entire production span of that type, with the production span being defined by absolute dates and stratigraphic evidence from a given region. In statistical jargon, such distributions are referred to as uniform distributions.…”