Emergence and collapse of early villages : models of central mesa verde archaeology / edited by Timothy A. Kohler and Mark D. Varien.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kohler, Timothy A.

Varien, Mark.

Series:

Origins of human behavior and culture ; 6.

Origins of human behavior and culture v.6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pueblo Indians--Colorado--Mesa Verde National Park--History.

Pueblo Indians.

Pueblo Indians--Agricuture--Colorado--Mesa Verde National Park.

Pueblo Indians--Colorado--Mesa Verde National Park--Antiquities.

Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.)--Antiquities.

Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (373 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ancestral Pueblo farmers encountered the deep, well watered, and productive soils of the central Mesa Verde region of Southwest Colorado around A.D. 600, and within two centuries built some of the largest villages known up to that time in the U.S. Southwest. But one hundred years later, those villages were empty, and most people had gone. This cycle repeated itself from the mid-A.D. 1000's until 1280, when Puebloan farmers permanently abandoned the entire northern Southwest. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines how climate change, population size, interpersonal conflict, resource depression, and changing social organization contribute to explaining these dramatic shifts. Comparing the simulations from agent-based models with the precisely dated archaeological record from this area, this text will interest archaeologists working in the Southwest and in Neolithic societies around the world as well as anyone applying modeling techniques to understanding how human societies shape, and are shaped by the environments we inhabit.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Contributors

1. EMERGENCE AND COLLAPSE OF EARLY VILLAGES IN THE CENTRAL MESA VERDE: AN INTRODUCTION

2. THE STUDY AREA AND THE ANCESTRAL PUEBLO OCCUPATION

3. LOW- FREQUENCY CLIMATE IN THE MESA VERDE REGION: BEEF PASTURE REVISITED

4. SIMULATION MODEL OVERVIEW

5. MODELING PALEOHYDROLOGICAL SYSTEM STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

6. MODELING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND FARMING EFFORT

7. MODELING PLANT AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIVITY AND FUEL USE

8. SUPPLY, DEMAND, RETURN RATES, AND RESOURCE DEPRESSION: HUNTING IN THE VILLAGE ECODYNAMICS WORLD

9. HOW HUNTING CHANGES THE VEP WORLD, AND HOW THE VEP WORLD CHANGES HUNTING

10. EXERCISING THE MODEL: ASSESSING CHANGES IN SETTLEMENT LOCATION AND EFFICIENCY

11. SIMULATING HOUSE HOLD EXCHANGE WITH CULTURAL ALGORITHMS

12. TOOL-STONE PROCUREMENT IN THE MESA VERDE CORE REGION THROUGH TIME

13. POPULATION DYNAMICS AND WARFARE IN THE CENTRAL MESA VERDE REGION

14. CHARACTERIZING COMMUNITY- CENTER (VILLAGE) FORMATION IN THE VEP STUDY AREA, A.D. 600-1280

15. THE RISE AND COLLAPSE OF VILLAGES IN THE CENTRAL MESA VERDE REGION

Appendix A

Appendix B

Notes on Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613520845

9781280116551

1280116552

9780520951990

0520951999

OCLC:

779828587