Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T07:29:59.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rethinking “Village” at Mogollon Village (LA 11568): Formal Chronological Modeling of a Persistent Place

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Lori Barkwill Love*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)

Abstract

In the U.S. Southwest, large pithouse sites are often referred to as “villages,” implying a continuous settlement of contemporary households. But determining pithouse contemporaneity at these sites is challenging, even when relying on radiocarbon dates. Using a Bayesian chronological framework, I examine the overall chronology and occupational histories of individual pithouses at Mogollon Village (LA 11568), a large pithouse site in western New Mexico. The results presented here suggest Mogollon Village occupation began at least by cal AD 5–130 and ended around cal AD 895–990. The modeled dates suggest only a few pithouses were inhabited at any given time throughout the site's occupation. Given these findings, Mogollon Village is best understood as a persistent place—a place of repeated, transient occupation—rather than a village. This study demonstrates that Bayesian modeling can be used to reassess an existing chronological framework, shed light on the contemporaneity of structures at a site, and change our understanding of a site's nature.

En el Suroeste de los Estados Unidos, sitios grandes de casas semi-subterráneas (“pithouses”) se suelen describir como aldeas, lo cual implica un asentamiento de viviendas contemporáneas. Sin embargo, es difícil averiguar la contemporaneidad de dichas viviendas, aun cuando se utilizen fechas de radiocarbono. Por medio de la aplicación de estadística Bayesiana a fechas de radiocarbono procedentes de Mogollon Village (LA11568), un sitio grande en New Mexico occidental, se reconstruyen la cronología general del sitio y las historias de ocupación de las viviendas que lo constituyen. Los resultados indican que la ocupación de Mogollon Village comenzó entre 5–130 dC (calibrado), a más tardar, y cesó alrededor de 895–990 dC (calibrado). Las fechas de radiocarbono sugieren que la mayoría de las viviendas no fueron contemporáneas, sino solamente unas en cualquier momento dado, lo cual indica que Mogollon Village no se debe describir como una aldea sino un lugar persistente. Un lugar persistente tiene una ocupación transitoria y repetida, en contraste a la ocupación continua y permanente de una aldea. Este caso demuestra que la estadística Bayesiana se puede utilizar para reevaluar una cronología y elucidar la contemporaneidad de estructuras en un sito.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anyon, Roger, Creel, Darrell, Gilman, Patricia A., LeBlanc, Steven A., Miller, Myles R., Nash, Stephen E., Nelson, Margaret C., Putsavage, Kathryn J., Roth, Barbara J., Schollmeyer, Karen Gust, Sedig, Jakob W., and Turnbow, Christopher A. 2017 Re-Evaluating the Mimbres Region Prehispanic Chronometric Record. Kiva 83:316343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anyon, Roger, Gilman, Patricia A., and LeBlanc, Steven A. 1981 A Reevaluation of the Mogollon-Mimbres Archaeological Sequence. Kiva 76:159176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anyon, Roger, and LeBlanc, Steven A. 1984 The Galaz Ruin: A Prehistoric Mimbres Village in Southwestern New Mexico. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Anyon, Roger, and Roth, Barbara J. 2018 Changing Perspectives on Pithouse Period Occupations in the Mimbres Region. In New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology: Three Millennia of Human Occupation in the North American Southwest, edited by Roth, Barbara J., Gilman, Patricia A., and Anyon, Roger, pp. 4863. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.10.2307/j.ctv5cg8bb.5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandy, Matthew S., and Fox, Jake R. 2010 Becoming Villagers: The Evolution of Early Village Societies. In Becoming Villagers: Comparing Early Village Societies, edited by Bandy, Matthew S. and Fox, Jake R., pp. 118. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Barkwill Love, Lori 2020 Challenging the Village Concept: Bayesian Analysis and Chemical Characterization in the Mogollon Early Pithouse Period of the US Southwest. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio.Google Scholar
Bayliss, Alex 2009 Rolling Out Revolution: Using Radiocarbon Dating in Archaeology. Radiocarbon 51:123147.10.1017/S0033822200033750CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayliss, Alex, Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, van der Plicht, Johannes, and Whittle, Alasdair 2007 Bradshaw and Bayes: Towards a Timetable for the Neolithic. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17:128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2009a Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates. Radiocarbon 51:337360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2009b Dealing with Outliers and Offsets in Radiocarbon Dating. Radiocarbon 51:10231045.10.1017/S0033822200034093CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2017 OxCal v.4.3.2. Electronic document, http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal.html, accessed November 6, 2019.Google Scholar
Buck, Caitlin E., Kenworthy, James B., Litton, Clifford D., and Smith, Adrian F. M. 1991 Combining Archaeological and Radiocarbon Information: A Bayesian Apprach to Calibration. Antiquity 65:808821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrd, Brian F. 1994 Public and Private, Domestic and Corporate: The Emergence of the Southwest Asian Village. American Antiquity 59:639666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Catherine A. 1990 The Effect of Varying Estimates of Pit Structure Use-Life on Prehistoric Population Estimates in the American Southwest. Kiva 55:155166.10.1080/00231940.1990.11758141CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Jeffery J., and Gilman, Patricia A. 2012 Persistent and Permanent Pithouse Places in the Basin and Range Province of Southeastern Arizona. In Southern Pithouse Communities, A.D. 200–900, edited by Young, Lisa C. and Herr, Sarah A., pp. 6177. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Dean, Jeffrey S. 1978 Independent Dating in Archaeological Analysis. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1:223255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, Michael W. 1996 The Intensity of Maize Processing and Production in Upland Mogollon Pithouse Villages A.D. 200–1000. American Antiquity 61:102115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, Michael W. 2001 Competing Models of Upland Mogollon Pithouse Period Life-Styles. In Early Pithouse Villages of the Mimbres Valley and Beyond: The McAnally and Thompson Sites in Their Cultural and Ecological Contexts, edited by Diehl, Michael W. and LeBlanc, Steven A., pp. 2535. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 83. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Diehl, Michael W. 2007 Upland Mogollon Pithouse Period Group Sizes. In Exploring Variability in Mogollon Pithouses, edited by Roth, Barbara J. and Stokes, Robert J., pp. 3338. Anthropological Research Papers No. 58. Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Diehl, Michael W. 2012 Subsistence during the Pithouse Periods. In Southwestern Pithouse Communties, A.D. 200–900, edited by Young, Lisa C. and Herr, Sarah A., pp. 1433. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Duncan, Marjorie, Gilman, Patricia A., and Mauldin, Raymond 1991 The Mogollon Village Archaeological Project, 1991: Preliminary Report. Manuscript on file, USDA Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Gilman, Patricia A. 1987 Architecture as Artifact: Pit Structures and Pueblos in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 52:538564.10.2307/281598CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilman, Patricia A. 2010 Substantial Structures, Few People, and the Question of Early Villages in the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest. In Becoming Villagers: Comparing Early Village Societies, edited by Bandy, Matthew S. and Fox, Jake W., pp. 119139. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilman, Patricia A., Mauldin, Raymond, and Powell, Valli S. 1991 The Mogollon Village Archaeological Project, 1989. Manuscript on file, USDA Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Gilman, Patricia A., and Stone, Tammy 2013 The Role of Ritual Variability in Social Negotiations of Early Communities: Great Kiva Homogeneity and Heterogeneity in the Mogollon Region of the North American Southwest. American Antiquity 78:607623.10.7183/0002-7316.78.4.607CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, David A., and Diehl, Michael W. 2002 Duration, Continuity, and Intensity of Occupation at a Late Cienega Phase Settlement in the Santa Cruz River Floodplain. In Traditions, Transitions, and Technologies: Themes in Southwestern Archaeology, edited by Schlanger, Sarah H., pp. 200223. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Seren 2017 We're All Cultural Historians Now: Revolutions in Understanding Archaeological Theory and Scientific Dating. Radiocarbon 59:13471357.10.1017/RDC.2017.20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, W. Derek, and Kenney, Jane 2015 Multiple Bayesian Modelling Approaches to a Suite of Radiocarbon Dates from Ovens Excavated at Ysgol yr Hendre, Caernarfon, North Wales. Quaternary Geochronology 25:7282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haury, Emil W. 1936 The Mogollon Culture of Southwestern New Mexico. Medallion Papers 20. Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Herr, Sarah A., and Young, Lisa C. 2012 Introduction to Southwestern Pithouse Communities. In Southern Pithouse Communities, A.D. 200–900, edited by Young, Lisa C. and Herr, Sarah A., pp. 113. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, Steven A. 1982 The Advent of Pottery in the Southwest. In Southwestern Ceramics in Comparative Review, edited by Schroeder, Albert H., pp. 2751. Arizona Archaeologists No. 15. Arizona Archaeological Society, Phoenix.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, Steven A. 1989 Cultural Dynamics in the Southern Mogollon Area. In Dynamics of Southwestern Prehistory, edited by Cordell, Linda S. and Gumerman, George J., pp. 179209. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, Steven A. 2001 Population Dynamics at the McAnally and Thompson Sites and Their Valleywide Context. In Early Pithouse Villages of the Mimbres Valley and Beyond: The McAnally and Thompson Sites in their Cultural and Ecological Contexts, edited by Diehl, Michael W. and LeBlanc, Steven A., pp. 115119. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 83. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Lekson, Stephen H. 2006 Archaeology of the Mimbres Region, Southwestern New Mexico, U.S.A. BAR International Series 1466. Archaeopress, Oxford, England.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lightfoot, Kent G., and Jewett, Roberta 1986 The Shift to Sedentary Life: A Consideration of the Occupation Duration of Early Mogollon Pithouse Villages. In Mogollon Variability, edited by Benson, Charlotte and Upham, Steadman, pp. 943. Occasional Papers No. 15. New Mexico State University, University Museum, Las Cruces.Google Scholar
Linse, Angela R. 1997 Excavations at Mogollon Village and Survey of Surrounding Areas: University of Washington 1993 Archaeological Field School. Manuscript on file, USDA Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Linse, Angela R. 2007 Mogollon Village and Pithouse Period Settlement: New Perspectives Using a Structure-Scale Approach. In Exploring Variability in Mogollon Pithouses, edited by Roth, Barbara J. and Stokes, Robert J., pp. 1332. Anthropological Research Papers No. 58. Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Littleton, Judith, and Allen, Harry 2007 Hunter-Gatherer Burials and the Creation of Persistent Places in Southeastern Australia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26:283298.10.1016/j.jaa.2006.11.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauldin, Raymond, Gilman, Patricia A., and Stevenson, Christopher M. 1996 Mogollon Village Revisited: Recent Chronometric Results and Interpretations. Kiva 61:385400.10.1080/00231940.1996.11758316CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Christopher, and Thompson, Victor D. 2012 Animism and Green River Persistent Places: A Dwelling Perspective of the Shell Mound Archaic. Journal of Social Archaeology 12:264284.10.1177/1469605311431518CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Margaret C. 1999 Mimbres during the Twelfth Century: Abandonment, Continuity, and Reorganization. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Nelson, Margaret C., and Hegmon, Michelle 2001 Abandonment Is Not as It Seems: An Approach to the Relationship between Site and Regional Abandonment. American Antiquity 66:213235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Beck, J. Warren, Blackwell, Paul G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Buck, Caitlin E., Cheng, Hai, Edwards, R. Lawarence, Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M., Guiderson, Thomas P., Haflidason, Haflidi, Hajdas, Irka, Hatté, Christine, Heaton, Timothy J., Hoffmann, Dirk L., Hogg, Alan G., Hughen, Konrad A., Felix Kaiser, K., Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W., Niu, Mu, Reimer, Ron W., Richards, David A., Marian Scott, E., Southon, John R., Staff, Richard A., Turney, Christian S. M., and van der Plicht, Johannes 2013 IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:18691887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rocek, Thomas R. 2013 The Dunlap-Salazar Site (LA 51344) and the Context of Village Origins in the Jornada Highlands. In Papers from the 17th Biennial Jornada Mogollon Conference in 2011, edited by VanPool, Christine and McCarthy, Elizabeth, pp. 137150. El Paso Museum of Archaeology, El Paso, Texas.Google Scholar
Roth, Barbara J. 2016 The Significance of “Persistent Places” in Shaping Regional Settlement History: The Case of the Mimbres Mogollon. In Archaeological Variability and Interpretation in Global Perspective, edited by Sullivan, Alan P. III and Olszewski, Deborah I., pp. 5370. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.10.5876/9781607324942.c003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, Barbara J., Gilman, Patricia A., and Anyon, Roger 2018 Introduction: New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology. In New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology: Three Millennia of Human Occupation in the North American Southwest, edited by Roth, Barbara J., Gilman, Patricia A., and Anyon, Roger, pp. 323. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, Barbara J., and Stokes, Robert J. 2007 Introduction: Exploring Variability in Mogollon Pithouses. In Exploring Variability in Mogollon Pithouses, edited by Roth, Barbara J. and Stokes, Robert J., pp. 13. Anthropological Research Papers No. 58. Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Schlanger, Sarah H. 1992 Recognizing Persistent Places in Anasazi Settlement Systems. In Space, Time, and Archaeological Landscapes, edited by Rossignol, Jacqueline and Wandsnider, LuAnn, pp. 91112. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafer, Harry J., and Brewington, Robbie L. 1995 Microstylistic Changes in Mimbres Black-on-white Pottery: Examples from NAN Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico. Kiva 61:529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smiley, Terah L. 1949 Pithouse Number 1, Mesa Verde National Park. American Antiquity 14:167171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Polach, Henry A. 1977 Discussion Reporting of 14C Data. Radiocarbon 19:355363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swanson, Steve, Anyon, Roger, and Nelson, Margaret C. 2012 Southern Mogollon Pithouse Period Settlement Dynamics, Land Use, and Community Development, A.D. 200–1000. In Southern Pithouse Communities, A.D. 200–900, edited by Young, Lisa C. and Herr, Sarah A., pp. 95109. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Ruth M. 2011 Anchoring Identities: Iconic Landforms across San Juan Time and Space. In Movement, Connectivity, and Landscape Change in the Ancient Southwest, edited by Nelson, Margaret C. and Strawhacker, Colleen, pp. 403422. Unversity Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Ward, Graeme K., and Wilson, Susan R. 1978 Procedures for Comparing and Combining Radiocarbon Age Determinations: A Critique. Archaeometry 20:1931.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wills, W. H., Scott Worman, F., Dorshow, Wetherbee, and Richards-Rissetto, Heather 2012 Shabik'eschee Village in Chaco Canyon: Beyond the Archetype. American Antiquity 77:326350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilshusen, Richard H., and Perry, Elizabeth M. 2008 Evaluating the Emergence of Early Villages in the North American Southwest in Light of the Proposed Neolithic Demographic Transition. In The Neolithic Demographic Transition and Its Consequences, edited by Bocquet-Appel, Jean-Pierre and Bar-Yosef, Ofer, pp. 417439. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaeger, Jason, and Canuto, Marcello A. 2000 Introducing an Archaeology of Communities. In The Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective, edited by Canuto, Marcello A. and Yaeger, Jason, pp. 115. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Barkwill Love supplementary material

Barkwill Love supplementary material

Download Barkwill Love supplementary material(File)
File 3.1 MB