Emergence and Collapse of Early Villages: Models of Central Mesa Verde Archæology

373 Pages·2012·11.48 MB·English

by  Timothy A. Kohler

EMERGENCE and COLLAPSE of EARLY VILLAGES
ORIGINS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND CULTURE
Edited by Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and Joe Henrich
1. Behavioral Ecol ogy and the Transition to Agriculture, edited by Douglas
J. Kennett and Bruce Winterhalder
2. Pattern and Pro cess in Cultural Evolution, edited by Stephen Shennan
3. The Hadza: Hunter- Gatherers of Tanzania, by Frank W. Marlowe
4. Life Histories of the Dobe !Kung: Food, Fatness, and Well- being over the Life Span,
by Nancy Howell
5. Friendship: Development, Ecol ogy, and Evolution of a Relationship, by Daniel
J. Hruschka
6. Emergence and Collapse of Early Villages: Models of Central Mesa Verde
Archaeology, edited by Timothy A. Kohler and Mark D. Varien
EMERGENCE COLLAPSE
and
EARLY VILLAGES
of
Models of Central Mesa
Verde Archaeology
Edited by
Timothy A. Kohler and Mark D. Varien
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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Origins of Human Behavior and Culture, No. 6
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, En gland
© 2012 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Emergence and collapse of early villages : models of central Mesa Verde
archaeology / edited by Timothy A. Kohler and Mark D. Varien.
p. cm. — (Origins of human behavior and culture v.6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 520- 27014- 5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Pueblo Indians— Colorado—Mesa Verde National Park—
History. 2. Pueblo Indians— Agriculture—Colorado—Mesa Verde
National Park. 3. Pueblo Indians— Colorado—Mesa Verde National
Park— Antiquities. 4. Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.) —
Antiquities. I. Kohler, Timothy A. II. Varien, Mark D., 1954–
E99.P9E435 2012
978.8'27—dc23 2011028668
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).∞
Cover illustration: Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde National Park.
Photo by Nate Crabtree.
The publishers gratefully acknowledge a production grant from the Bureau of Land Management
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and the National Landscape Conservation System.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants
BCS-0119981 and DEB-081640.

contents
Preface and Ac know ledg ments / ix 7 • MODELING PLANT AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIVITY
AND FUEL USE / 113
Contributors / xi
C. David Johnson and Timothy
1 • EMERGENCE AND COLLAPSE OF EARLY VILLAGES A. Kohler
IN THE CENTRAL MESA VERDE: AN
INTRODUCTION / 1
8 • SUPPLY, DEMAND, RETURN RATES, AND
Timothy A. Kohler and Mark D. Varien RESOURCE DEPRESSION: HUNTING IN THE
VILLAGE ECODYNAMICS WORLD / 129
Jason A. Cowan, Timothy A. Kohler,
2 • THE STUDY AREA AND THE ANCESTRAL PUEBLO
OCCUPATION / 15 C. David Johnson, Kevin Cooper,
Scott G. Ortman, Donna M. Glowacki, and R. Kyle Bocinsky
Mark D. Varien, and C. David Johnson
9 • HOW HUNTING CHANGES THE VEP WORLD,
AND HOW THE VEP WORLD CHANGES
3 • LOW- FREQUENCY CLIMATE IN THE MESA VERDE
HUNTING / 145
REGION: BEEF PASTURE REVISITED / 41
R. Kyle Bocinsky, Jason A. Cowan,
Aaron M. Wright
Timothy A. Kohler, and
C. David Johnson
4 • SIMULATION MODEL OVERVIEW / 59
Timothy A. Kohler
10 • EXERCISING THE MODEL: ASSESSING
CHANGES IN SETTLEMENT LOCATION
5 • MODELING PALEOHYDROLOGICAL SYSTEM AND EFFICIENCY / 153
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION / 73 Timothy A. Kohler, R. Kyle Bocinsky,
Kenneth E. Kolm and Schaun M. Smith Stefani Crabtree, and Ben Ford
6 • MODELING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND 11 • SIMULATING HOUSE HOLD EXCHANGE WITH
FARMING EFFORT / 85 CULTURAL ALGORITHMS / 165
Timothy A. Kohler Ziad Kobti
12 • TOOL- STONE PROCUREMENT IN THE MESA 15 • THE RISE AND COLLAPSE OF VILLAGES IN THE
VERDE CORE REGION THROUGH TIME / 175 CENTRAL MESA VERDE REGION / 247
Fumiyasu Arakawa Timothy A. Kohler
Appendix A / 263
13 • POPULATION DYNAMICS AND WARFARE IN THE
CENTRAL MESA VERDE REGION / 197 Appendix B / 275
Sarah M. Cole Bibliography / 289
Notes on Contributors / 325
14 • CHARACTERIZING COMMUNITY-C ENTER
Index / 327
(VILLAGE) FORMATION IN THE VEP STUDY AREA,
A.D. 600– 1280 / 219 Color insert follows page 84.
Donna M. Glowacki and Scott G. Ortman
preface and ac know ledg ments
When people began to domesticate plants and incurred by the sort of synthetic eff ort this
animals around 11,000 years ago, they unwit- book represents.
tingly unleashed powerful forces of human All we can do is credit those people and
population growth, the eff ects of which we are institutions whose help has been most imme-
still dealing with today. The fi rst people to do diate. Blake Edgar encouraged us to submit
so, though, w ere the village dwellers of the this book to the University of California Press
early Neolithic, whose dates depend on when and saw it through the review and acc ept ance
farming lifeways were adopted in diff erent proc ess. Mike Adler, Jim Allison, Bill Lipe, and
parts of the world. Scott Ortman read all or major parts of it at
Farming was rather late in arriving to the some stage and provided thoughtful and useful
northern portions of the U.S. Southwest, but comments. Kyle Bocinsky and Stefani Crabtree
the special characteristics of the archaeological helped with nearly all aspects of production,
record in the Four Corners allow us to view and especially the huge job of getting the fi gures
reconstruct it with a precision that cannot be and text into a standard format. Kyle helped
achieved anywhere e lse in the world. In this with coding the simulations; Kyle and Ben Ford
book we examine the fortunes and fates of pre- also helped run the simulations; and Stefani
hispanic Pueblo societies between a.d. 600 and assembled the time- allocation data for small-
a.d. 1300 in southwestern Colorado, a dramatic scale societies used in several chapters. Jeff
period marked by large swings in climate, popu- Dean and Carla Van West consulted on the
lation, and settlement size, as well as in amount use of paleoclimatic data and on generating the
and type of confl ict. paleoproduction landscapes. Matthew Salzer
What we know about these societies and allowed us to use some of his unpublished data.
the environments they inhabited is due to the Kristie Arrington, Matthew Bailey, Kay Barnett,
accumulation of a century of archaeological and George Burr, Andrew Duff , Jerry Fetterman,
other scientifi c research— notably bolstered Robert Gillson, Linda Honeycutt, Tim Hov-
by increasing collaboration with the descen- ezak, John Jones, Jim Judge, Tim Kearns, Laura
dants of these societies over the last few years Kochanski, Claire and Sander Kohler, Lee
especially. It would really be impossible to give Lyman, John E. McCray, Larry Nordby, Ken
a  full accounting of the intellectual debts Petersen, Doug Ramsey, Charles Reed, Bob
ix