Documenting Prehistoric Communication Networks

A Case Study in the Paquimé Polity

Bibliographic Data

ID2590569
AuthorsSteve Swanson (0000-0001-8514-8239, Arizona State University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume68
Issue4
Pages753-767
Publication date2003-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3557071
OpenAlexW2044268301
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited17

Hilltop features reported around the site of Paquimé, the political center of a prehistoric complex polity in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, have been interpreted as a fire-signaling network by archaeologists. If these hilltop platform features functioned as such a communication system, it provides important information for our interpretation of regional integration and interaction for the Paquimé polity. This paper reports the results of a survey of hilltops in the area and a subsequent GIS-based intervisibility analysis, which determined that a series of hilltop platforms in the region were ideally situated for fire-signaling purposes. I discuss the need for implementing tests for intervisibility and tests for determining the significance of that intervisibility, and then consider some implications of the Paquimé fire-signaling system on sociopolitical organization and integration

Archaeology · Geography · Interpretation (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Prehistory · Regional science · Situated · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · History · Latin American history and culture · Law

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