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Past Climate of the Navajo Reservoir District

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Arthur H. Harris
Arthur H. Harris*
Affiliation:
Museum of Arid Land Biology, University of Texas at EI Paso
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Abstract

The hypothesis is advanced that Yellow-bellied Marmots (Marmota flaviventris) are affected in their geographic distribution by seasonality of precipitation in such a manner that their presence in Southwestern archaeological sites indicates a minimum of about two inches of winter precipitation. Application of this hypothesis to past changes in marmot distribution in the Navajo Reservoir District (northwestern New Mexico and adjacent Colorado) indicates an early period of high effective moisture produced predominantly by summer rains. At about A.D. 700-800, there occurred a change to dominant winter precipitation which lasted until ca. A.D. 1000 or later. This model agrees with previous work based on faunal analysis but is exactly counter to that proposed on the basis of alluvial and pollen studies.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , July 1970 , pp. 374 - 377
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1970

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