Catherine M. Cameron

Archaeology and Migration: Approaches to an Archaeological Proof of Migration

A clear deficit in the theoretical and methodological development of archaeological research exists with regard to migration ; attributing archaeological distribution patterns to migration as opposed to diffusion or trade is still a major problem. This article uses the example of North American colonization to develop an approach that distinguishes the changes brought about by migration from those produced by other forms of cultural transfer. Because methods for gathering evidence do not sufficiently explore migration processes in their complexity, a model based on the study of historic and modern migrations is developed, and its practicability is demonstrated using the example of Anglo-Saxon migration.

Ground-penetrating Radar Techniques and Three-dimensional Computer Mapping in the American Southwest

New techniques of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) acquisition and computer processing were tested at archaeological sites in the American Southwest and found to be highly effective in producing images of buried archaeological features. These new methods, especially amplitude slice-maps, were combined with more standard data processing and interpretation techniques and tested at sites with little or no surface expression. In southern Arizona, numerous pit structures buried in terrace alluvium were discovered and mapped. In the Four Corners region, a Chaco period great kiva and other pit structures and features were mapped by GPR and later confirmed through excavation. At some sites, GPR surveys did not successfully identify buried archaeological features. These failed surveys highlight both geological and methodological problems including soil conditions, surface disturbance, and equipment calibration that may be avoided or ameliorated in future GPR surveys.

Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System

The most unusual aspect of chipped stone in Chaco Canyon is that materials were imported from a considerable distance but used almost exclusively as informal flake tools. Narbona Pass chert from the Chuska Mountains, 75 km away, is the most common nonlocal material found during the Chacoan Era (A.D. 900-1150). There are relatively few number of formal tools found in the Canyon, primarily projectile points, and a significant number of these do not seem to have been made in Chaco. New models of the organization of production offered by Earle, Hagstrum, Peregrine, and Renfrew (this issue) are evaluated using chipped-stone data collected by the Chaco Project during the 1970s. Chipped-stone data support the suggestion made by these scholars that great houses in Chaco Canyon were the focus of periodic communal gatherings. Deposition of quantities of Narbona Pass chert debitage in great house trash middens was apparently a ceremonial aspect of these gatherings, perhaps related to Puebloan concepts of renewal. Some projectile points appear to have been deposited in great house rooms or kivas as ritual offerings.

History and process in village formation: Context and contrasts from the Northern Southwest

Two processes characterize the later precontact history (twelfth-fourteenth centuries) of the northern part of the American Southwest: aggregation of people into large towns and depopulation of large regions. These processes have been explained as the result of environmental, economic, and social factors, including drought and warfare. Using a theoretical perspective based on Pauketat’s “historical processualism,” we argue that aggregation and depopulation are partly the result of historical developments surrounding the expansion and collapse of the Chaco regional system. We present our understanding of the Chaco regional system from the perspective of historical processualism; then, historical developments in the northern San Juan and Cibola regions-northern and southern frontiers of the Chaco world-are compared. The northern San Juans historically close ties with Chaco Canyon, the post-Chaco regional center at Aztec, and other factors ultimately resulted in the region’s depopulation. In the Cibola region, ties with Chaco were more tenuous and use of Chacoan ideology appears to have been strongest in the post-Chaco era, though no post-Chaco regional center emerged. Instead, large towns developed. Built on novel combinations of independent histories, ritual, and experience with Chaco, large towns enhanced stability. They were encountered by early Spanish explorers and some persist to the present day.

Captives and Culture Change Implications for Archaeology

Captives were found in societies of all social levels throughout much of history and prehistory. They were frequently women, and they could be potent agents of culture change. In some societies they entered a highly stigmatized slave class, while in others they might be fully incorporated into the society of their captors. Regardless of their social position, captives played an important role in the transmission of cultural practices and ultimately in culture change, but few studies have explored the role of captives in culture change, especially in nonstate societies. I begin that process, using ethnohistoric, historic, ethnographic, archaeological, and other data. I document the prevalence and antiquity of captive-taking around the world, its gender selectivity, and the rights of social personhood that captives were accorded in captor societies and assess factors that affected captives’ ability to effect culture change. The focus is especially on craft activities, because captive influence is likely to be most evident to archaeologists in the production of craft goods.

Sacred earthen architecture in the northern southwest: The bluff great house berm

This article reports on the excavation of a “berm”—an earthen mound that surrounds the Bluff Great House in southeastern Utah. Comparisons are made to Chacoan-era (A.D. 850–1150) great house mounds in Chaco Canyon and to other berms and mounds at great houses throughout the Chacoan region. Great house mounds in Chaco Canyon and berms outside Chaco Canyon are assumed to have been ritual architecture, and continuity in the use of mounded earth and trash as a sacred place of deposit is traced through time from the Pueblo 1 period to modern Pueblos. The Bluff berm does not seem to have been constructed as the result of ceremonial gatherings (as has been suggested for the great house mounds in Chaco Canyon), but there is intriguing evidence that it continued to be used into the post-Chacoan era (A.D. 1150–1300), perhaps as a result of a restructuring or revival of Chacoan ideas in the northern San Juan region. Examination of the spatial distribution of berms suggests that they are most common at great houses south and west of Chaco Canyon; the northern San Juan region, where Bluff is located, has far fewer such features, possibly because the revival of Chacoan ideas in this region was short-lived.

Pit Structure Abandonment in the Four Corners Region of the American Southwest: Late Basketmaker III and Pueblo I Periods

Abstract Anasazi pit structures dating to the Basketmaker III and Pueblo I periods (ca. A.C. 500 to 900) in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest experienced a variety of different processes at abandonment, ranging from dismantling the superstructure to intentional burning. Data from 88 pit structures are used to examine the relationship between these processes and the causes of pit structure abandonment. Results suggest that burning was not usually the result of catastrophic events, such as accident or warfare, but may be part of ritual activities or even a response to insect infestation. The incidence of burning does not seem to increase over time as a result of the postulated transition of pit structures from domestic to ceremonial uses. Dismantled and trash-filled pit structures suggest that new dwellings were often constructed near abandoned ones, perhaps because the old structure was deteriorating. A few pit structures with human bodies on the floor at the time of abandonment may signal ...

Earthen Architecture at the Bluff Great House Site in SE Utah

Abstract An earthen terrace has been identified at Bluff Great House, a Chacoan site located in SE Utah. The Bluff site was part of the Chacoan regional system that operated in the northern part of the American Southwest between about A.D. 900 and 1150 and was focused on Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico. Several types of earthen structures have been identified at great houses in Chaco Canyon and throughout its region, usually associated with the construction of ritual landscapes. The Bluff terrace is part of this tradition of earthen construction, but is unlike most other reported examples. It seems to express the same concern with creating an appropriate setting, however, and may be interpreted as part of the ritual landscape that surrounded and defined the Bluff great house, although other interpretations are considered. It dates not only to the Chaco era, but also to the first part of the post-Chaco era (A.D. 1150–1225).

An analysis of residential patterns and the Oraibi split

Abstract In 1906, a factional dispute at the Hopi Pueblo of Oraibi resulted in the emigration of over half the village population and the establishment of several new settlements nearby. As a result of this incident, many houses at Oraibi were abandoned. Historic photographs show that within a few years, the eastern part of the village was completely dismantled; only the western part remained occupied. While it would appear that most of the people who left the village had once lived together in the eastern part of the settlement, analysis of historic photographs and documents, showing the movement of individual households, demonstrated that this was not the case. After the split the remaining families, who had once been scattered throughout the village, relocated in the western end where ceremonial areas were located. Furthermore, the establishment of new settlements was not by specific spatial groups from Oraibi or by clan groups. Individual households made decisions about where to move.

EXPLORING ARCHAEOLOGICAL CULTURES IN THE NORTHERN SOUTHWEST: WHAT WERE CHACO AND MESA VERDE?

Abstract Chaco and Mesa Verde were defined as archaeological cultures by Kidder in his 1927 synthesis of Southwestern prehistory and have been used since then as if they represented geographically and temporally bounded social units. This becomes especially problematic for understanding the role of the northern San Juan region in the Chacoan regional system and the nature of social formations after the Chacoan system ended. Recent studies of the formation and maintenance of social or ethnic groups emphasize the fluidity and situational aspect such groups and demonstrate the need to move beyond our often unconscious assumptions. This paper explores problems with the definition and use of Chaco and Mesa Verde as terms for geographically distinct cultural groups. The movement of people and ideas among these culture areas through time is suggested and it is argued that both areas were part of a larger social entity that continues until the end of the occupation of the northern Southwest. Abstract Kidder, en su síntesis de 1927 de la prehistoria del suroeste definió Chaco y Mesa Verde como culturas arqueológicas y desde entonces se las han usado como si representaran unidades geográficamente y temporalmente confinadas. Esto resulta problemático al intentar entender el papel de la región norteña de San Juan en el sistema regional chacoano y la naturaleza de formaciones sociales después de que terminó el sistema chacoano. Investigaciones recientes de la formación y el mantenimiento de grupos sociales o étnicos enfatizan la fluidez y aspecto situacional de tales grupos y muestran la necesidad de sobrepasar nuestras suposiciones, a veces inconcientes. Este trabajo explora los problemas con la definición y el uso de Chaco y Mesa Verde como términos para grupos culturales geográficamente distintos. Se sugiere un movimiento de gente e ideas entre estas zonas con el paso de tiempo y se aboga que las dos zonas eran partes de una entidad social más grande que continuó hasta los finales de la ocupación del suroeste norteño.