Mesa Verde Region Towers
A View from Above
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5982565 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C David Johnson, Cliff Johnson (Washington State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 68 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 323-340 |
| Publication date | 2003-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | KIVA (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-1940 • E-ISSN: 2051-6177 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00231940.2003.11758481 |
| OpenAlex | W2485204272 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 20 |
This study tests a hypothesis for the function of Pueblo III period Mesa Verde Region towers: that their construction and use enabled visual monitoring of the use of valuable resources. Geographic Information System (GIS) procedures and aerial photo interpretation are combined to develop and analyze two catchment types: 1) arbitrary 1-km-radius catchments and 2) 1-km-viewshed catchments, each type associated with both an equal sample of prehistoric tower sites and of randomly selected points. Discriminant analyses are used to determine which landscape attributes are most useful in distinguishing the catchment types. The analyses indicate that the tower viewsheds are distinguished from other catchment types by overrepresentation of those areas best suited for dry farming. This suggests that the prehistoric towers of the northern San Juan region of the U.S. Southwest were built to overlook the most valuable farmlands. Therefore, anyone entering such areas would see the towers and realize that someone considered the resources there important enough to potentially guard. The tower structures apparently served as markers of land tenure for the corporate groups who constructed them
Archaeology · Cartography · Civil engineering · Drainage basin · Geography · Geomorphology · Land use · Physical geography · Prehistory · Structural basin · Tower · Viewshed analysis · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies · Engineering · Geology
Connecting Worlds
Mountains, Shrines, and Rock Art
Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology
Research on the Pueblo culture settlement system from the North American Southwest - results of the Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project
Ancestral Pueblo settlement structure and sacred landscape at Castle Rock Community, Colorado
Great Houses, Shrines, and High Places
Chaco reloaded
Settlement ecology
Spatial Patterning in Northern San Juan Villages, a.d. 1050–1300
Prehistoric Population Dynamics in the Northern San Juan Region, a.d. 950–1300
Environmental and Chronological Factors in the Mesa Verde-Northern Rio Grande Migration
The Depopulation of the Northern San Juan
Prehistoric human impact on the environment in the upland North American Southwest
Environmental Characteristics of the a.d. 900–1300 Period in the Central Mesa Verde Region
Temperature Variability and the Northern Anasazi
Cold Air Drainage and Length of Growing Season in the Hopi Mesas Area
Competition, Cooperation, and Conflict
Flood-Water Farming
Adaptive Diversity and Southwestern Abandonment
Long-Term Anasazi Land Use and Forest Reduction
Field Houses, Villages, and the Tragedy of the Commons in the Early Northern Anasazi Southwest
Human Behavior, Demography, and Paleoenvironment on the Colorado Plateaus
Largo-Gallina Towers
The Gallina Architectural Forms
The Prehistoric Ruins of the San Juan Watershed in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,41 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2024 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |