Ben A Nelson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3646887 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ben A Nelson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ben A |
| FAMILY NAME | Nelson |
| SIGNATURE | NELSON B A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8051-3847 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 162 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Local variants or imports? Defining petrographic fabrics among regional ceramic traditions at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
Ceramic Frequency and Use-Life: A Highland Mayan Case in Cross-Cultural Perspective
The Social Use and Value of Blue-Green Stone Mosaics at Sites within Canal System 2, Phoenix Basin, Hohokam Regional System
The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and tradi…
Investigating pre-Hispanic scarlet macaw origins through radiogenic strontium isotope analysis at Paquimé in Chihuahua, Mexico
Refinement of the Chronology of La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico, Using Ceramic Seriation
During the Epiclassic period (AD 600-900), the northern frontier of Mesoamerica consisted of a regional network of polities focused on large, hilltop centers, including the site of La Quemada in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico. Although extensive archaeological research has been conducted at the site, the refinement of its chronology is essential for two reasons: (1) to establish the chronological control necessary to characterize social …
Rabbit bone stable isotope values distinguish desert ecoregions of North America: Data from the archaeological sites of Pueblo Grande, La Ferreria, and La Quemada
Applications of Dendrochronology in Northwestern Mexico
Although dendrochronological methods have the potential to provide precise calendar dates, they are virtually absent in Mesoamerican archaeological research. This absence is due to several long-standing, but erroneous, assumptions: that tree rings in this region do not reflect annual growth and environmental variability, that an adequate number of samples do not exist, and that tree-ring measurements cannot be useful without modern trees to link …
Mesoamerican Connections
This chapter reviews the evidence for Mesoamerican presence or influence in the U.S. Southwest. Objects, symbols, and practices of apparent Mesoamerican origin, especially in the Hohokam region, include copper bells, macaws, shell trumpets, and other similar objects. The explanations that archaeologists have proposed for such presence come down to agricultural displacement, trade, and coercive domination. The review shows that Mesoamerican connec…
Prehispanic Northwest and Adjacent West Mexico, 1200 B.C.–A.D. 1400: An Inter-Regional Perspective
Northwest Mexico and West Mexico include four to five times as many named cultural areas equivalent to those known in the US Southwest, all with independent yet also connected histories. Together these changing cultures formed the bridge that connected the US Southwest with Mesoamerica. We review some aspects of regional diversity and moments of inter-regional relations, beginning with early agriculture and sedentism in the north. We trace the no…
Transformative Relocation in the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica
A comparative perspective, drawing from cases in the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico, is used to illuminate the iconic Classic Maya “collapse,” and to define the concept of transformative relocation . In some of the cases we discuss—including La Quemada and Classic Mimbres, as well as Maya—the end of a social configuration is not the end of a people. Rather, a broad temporal and regional perspective demonstrates that the dramatic change we see…
Crop Specialization, Exchange and Robustness in a Semi-arid Environment
Climate, agriculture, and cycles of human occupation over the last 4000 yr in southern Zacatecas, Mexico
Scholars attribute the growth and decline of Classic period (AD 200–900) settlements in the semi-arid northern frontier zone of Mesoamerica to rainfall cycles that controlled the extent of arable land. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. We present phytolith, organic carbon, and magnetic susceptibility analyses of a 4000-yr alluvial record of climate and human land use from the Malpaso Valley, the site of one such C…
Isotopic investigation of pre-Hispanic macaw breeding in Northwest Mexico
Analyzing the Impact of Agave Cultivation on Famine Risk in Arid Pre-Hispanic Northern Mexico
Chronology and Stratigraphy at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
La Quemada (A.C. 500–900) is a key site for understanding the processes involved in fluctuations of the northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have constructed scenarios about its founders and political relationships in the absence of adequate information about dating. This paper summarizes the historical and theoretical issues that hinge on the dating of La Quemada, reports the stratigraphic contexts of 39 radiocarbon samples obtained …
Fallow Valleys: Asynchronous Occupations in Southwestern New Mexico
This article suggests that archaeologists have underestimated both the mobility ranges of agriculturalists and the length of time required to complete a full cycle of mobility. A large part of the problem is that individual valleys have been regarded as regions, so that when occupation ceases in a valley, the whole region is said to be abandoned. Models of collapse, abandonment, and ethnic replacement are constructed to account for these illusory…
Complexity, Hierarchy, and Scale: A Controlled Comparison between Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and La Quemada, Zacatecas
Archaeologists have held a lengthy debate around the question of complex sociopolitical organización in the prehistoric American Southwest. Recent theory, though, urges scholars to 'unpack' the properties of complexity. In this paper a southwestern regional center is compared with one on the northern Mesoamerican periphery in terms of properties generally associated with sociopolitical complexity: population size, labor investment in monumental c…
The Sand Canyon Archaeological Project: A Progress Report . William D. Lipe
Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings and functions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were …
Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics
Short-term sedentism in the American Southwest: The Mimbres Valley Salado
Ethnoarchaeology and Paleodemography: A Test of Turner and Lofgren's Hypothesis
Ethnographic data from a contemporary Highland Mayan village are used to test Turner and Lofgren's (1966) proposition that the capacities of cooking vessels reflect the size of households. Some variation in the volumes of cooking jars in the present sample probably is due to differences in household size. However, it appears that significant amounts of variation also can be explained by reference to conditions that are indirectly related to socia…
The Salado in Southwestern New Mexico
The late prehistory of southwest New Mexico is outlined. The long Mogollon-Mimbres sequence is seen as having no significant relationship to the Salado. The Animas phase, which immediately follows the Mimbres sequence, contains Gila Polychrome, but this phase is seen as related to Casas Grandes and not to the Arizona Salado. The last occupation in the area at about A.D. 1400 is the Cliff phase. Gila Polychrome is the dominant painted ware and is …
Complexity, Hierarchy, and Scale: A Controlled Comparison between Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and La Quemada, Zacatecas
Archaeologists have held a lengthy debate around the question of complex sociopolitical organización in the prehistoric American Southwest. Recent theory, though, urges scholars to 'unpack' the properties of complexity. In this paper a southwestern regional center is compared with one on the northern Mesoamerican periphery in terms of properties generally associated with sociopolitical complexity: population size, labor investment in monumental c…
Short-term sedentism in the American Southwest: The Mimbres Valley Salado
Ethnoarchaeology and Paleodemography: A Test of Turner and Lofgren's Hypothesis
Ethnographic data from a contemporary Highland Mayan village are used to test Turner and Lofgren's (1966) proposition that the capacities of cooking vessels reflect the size of households. Some variation in the volumes of cooking jars in the present sample probably is due to differences in household size. However, it appears that significant amounts of variation also can be explained by reference to conditions that are indirectly related to socia…
Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings and functions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were …
Analyzing the Impact of Agave Cultivation on Famine Risk in Arid Pre-Hispanic Northern Mexico
Fallow Valleys: Asynchronous Occupations in Southwestern New Mexico
This article suggests that archaeologists have underestimated both the mobility ranges of agriculturalists and the length of time required to complete a full cycle of mobility. A large part of the problem is that individual valleys have been regarded as regions, so that when occupation ceases in a valley, the whole region is said to be abandoned. Models of collapse, abandonment, and ethnic replacement are constructed to account for these illusory…
Applications of Dendrochronology in Northwestern Mexico
Although dendrochronological methods have the potential to provide precise calendar dates, they are virtually absent in Mesoamerican archaeological research. This absence is due to several long-standing, but erroneous, assumptions: that tree rings in this region do not reflect annual growth and environmental variability, that an adequate number of samples do not exist, and that tree-ring measurements cannot be useful without modern trees to link …
Rabbit bone stable isotope values distinguish desert ecoregions of North America: Data from the archaeological sites of Pueblo Grande, La Ferreria, and La Quemada
Chronology and Stratigraphy at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
La Quemada (A.C. 500–900) is a key site for understanding the processes involved in fluctuations of the northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have constructed scenarios about its founders and political relationships in the absence of adequate information about dating. This paper summarizes the historical and theoretical issues that hinge on the dating of La Quemada, reports the stratigraphic contexts of 39 radiocarbon samples obtained …
Investigating pre-Hispanic scarlet macaw origins through radiogenic strontium isotope analysis at Paquimé in Chihuahua, Mexico
The Salado in Southwestern New Mexico
The late prehistory of southwest New Mexico is outlined. The long Mogollon-Mimbres sequence is seen as having no significant relationship to the Salado. The Animas phase, which immediately follows the Mimbres sequence, contains Gila Polychrome, but this phase is seen as related to Casas Grandes and not to the Arizona Salado. The last occupation in the area at about A.D. 1400 is the Cliff phase. Gila Polychrome is the dominant painted ware and is …
Refinement of the Chronology of La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico, Using Ceramic Seriation
During the Epiclassic period (AD 600-900), the northern frontier of Mesoamerica consisted of a regional network of polities focused on large, hilltop centers, including the site of La Quemada in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico. Although extensive archaeological research has been conducted at the site, the refinement of its chronology is essential for two reasons: (1) to establish the chronological control necessary to characterize social …
Crop Specialization, Exchange and Robustness in a Semi-arid Environment
The Social Use and Value of Blue-Green Stone Mosaics at Sites within Canal System 2, Phoenix Basin, Hohokam Regional System
The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and tradi…
Transformative Relocation in the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica
A comparative perspective, drawing from cases in the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico, is used to illuminate the iconic Classic Maya “collapse,” and to define the concept of transformative relocation . In some of the cases we discuss—including La Quemada and Classic Mimbres, as well as Maya—the end of a social configuration is not the end of a people. Rather, a broad temporal and regional perspective demonstrates that the dramatic change we see…
The Salado in Southwestern New Mexico
The late prehistory of southwest New Mexico is outlined. The long Mogollon-Mimbres sequence is seen as having no significant relationship to the Salado. The Animas phase, which immediately follows the Mimbres sequence, contains Gila Polychrome, but this phase is seen as related to Casas Grandes and not to the Arizona Salado. The last occupation in the area at about A.D. 1400 is the Cliff phase. Gila Polychrome is the dominant painted ware and is …
Ethnoarchaeology and Paleodemography: A Test of Turner and Lofgren's Hypothesis
Ethnographic data from a contemporary Highland Mayan village are used to test Turner and Lofgren's (1966) proposition that the capacities of cooking vessels reflect the size of households. Some variation in the volumes of cooking jars in the present sample probably is due to differences in household size. However, it appears that significant amounts of variation also can be explained by reference to conditions that are indirectly related to socia…
Short-term sedentism in the American Southwest: The Mimbres Valley Salado
Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics
Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings and functions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were …
The Sand Canyon Archaeological Project: A Progress Report . William D. Lipe
Complexity, Hierarchy, and Scale: A Controlled Comparison between Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and La Quemada, Zacatecas
Archaeologists have held a lengthy debate around the question of complex sociopolitical organización in the prehistoric American Southwest. Recent theory, though, urges scholars to 'unpack' the properties of complexity. In this paper a southwestern regional center is compared with one on the northern Mesoamerican periphery in terms of properties generally associated with sociopolitical complexity: population size, labor investment in monumental c…
Fallow Valleys: Asynchronous Occupations in Southwestern New Mexico
This article suggests that archaeologists have underestimated both the mobility ranges of agriculturalists and the length of time required to complete a full cycle of mobility. A large part of the problem is that individual valleys have been regarded as regions, so that when occupation ceases in a valley, the whole region is said to be abandoned. Models of collapse, abandonment, and ethnic replacement are constructed to account for these illusory…
Chronology and Stratigraphy at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
La Quemada (A.C. 500–900) is a key site for understanding the processes involved in fluctuations of the northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have constructed scenarios about its founders and political relationships in the absence of adequate information about dating. This paper summarizes the historical and theoretical issues that hinge on the dating of La Quemada, reports the stratigraphic contexts of 39 radiocarbon samples obtained …
Analyzing the Impact of Agave Cultivation on Famine Risk in Arid Pre-Hispanic Northern Mexico
Isotopic investigation of pre-Hispanic macaw breeding in Northwest Mexico
Climate, agriculture, and cycles of human occupation over the last 4000 yr in southern Zacatecas, Mexico
Scholars attribute the growth and decline of Classic period (AD 200–900) settlements in the semi-arid northern frontier zone of Mesoamerica to rainfall cycles that controlled the extent of arable land. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. We present phytolith, organic carbon, and magnetic susceptibility analyses of a 4000-yr alluvial record of climate and human land use from the Malpaso Valley, the site of one such C…
Transformative Relocation in the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica
A comparative perspective, drawing from cases in the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico, is used to illuminate the iconic Classic Maya “collapse,” and to define the concept of transformative relocation . In some of the cases we discuss—including La Quemada and Classic Mimbres, as well as Maya—the end of a social configuration is not the end of a people. Rather, a broad temporal and regional perspective demonstrates that the dramatic change we see…
Crop Specialization, Exchange and Robustness in a Semi-arid Environment
Prehispanic Northwest and Adjacent West Mexico, 1200 B.C.–A.D. 1400: An Inter-Regional Perspective
Northwest Mexico and West Mexico include four to five times as many named cultural areas equivalent to those known in the US Southwest, all with independent yet also connected histories. Together these changing cultures formed the bridge that connected the US Southwest with Mesoamerica. We review some aspects of regional diversity and moments of inter-regional relations, beginning with early agriculture and sedentism in the north. We trace the no…
Mesoamerican Connections
This chapter reviews the evidence for Mesoamerican presence or influence in the U.S. Southwest. Objects, symbols, and practices of apparent Mesoamerican origin, especially in the Hohokam region, include copper bells, macaws, shell trumpets, and other similar objects. The explanations that archaeologists have proposed for such presence come down to agricultural displacement, trade, and coercive domination. The review shows that Mesoamerican connec…
Applications of Dendrochronology in Northwestern Mexico
Although dendrochronological methods have the potential to provide precise calendar dates, they are virtually absent in Mesoamerican archaeological research. This absence is due to several long-standing, but erroneous, assumptions: that tree rings in this region do not reflect annual growth and environmental variability, that an adequate number of samples do not exist, and that tree-ring measurements cannot be useful without modern trees to link …
Rabbit bone stable isotope values distinguish desert ecoregions of North America: Data from the archaeological sites of Pueblo Grande, La Ferreria, and La Quemada
Refinement of the Chronology of La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico, Using Ceramic Seriation
During the Epiclassic period (AD 600-900), the northern frontier of Mesoamerica consisted of a regional network of polities focused on large, hilltop centers, including the site of La Quemada in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico. Although extensive archaeological research has been conducted at the site, the refinement of its chronology is essential for two reasons: (1) to establish the chronological control necessary to characterize social …
The Social Use and Value of Blue-Green Stone Mosaics at Sites within Canal System 2, Phoenix Basin, Hohokam Regional System
The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and tradi…
Investigating pre-Hispanic scarlet macaw origins through radiogenic strontium isotope analysis at Paquimé in Chihuahua, Mexico
Ceramic Frequency and Use-Life: A Highland Mayan Case in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Local variants or imports? Defining petrographic fabrics among regional ceramic traditions at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico
Geography (20 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (17 works) · History (8 works) · Archaeology and Natural History (7 works) · Latin American history and culture (7 works) · Biology (6 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Ethnology (6 works) · Geology (6 works)