Recent Wildfires and Pueblo I Villages on Mesa Verde

Recent wildfires in Mesa Verde National Park enabled researchers to more accurately survey surface sites in the burned areas. The fires removed all vegetation from five Pueblo I villages on Wetherill, Park, and Moccasin mesas and in More- field Canyon. I examined these villages, plus three on Chapin Mesa, in a follow-up of a study done by Richard Wilshusen and Eric Blinman in 1992. In addition to the tree-ring dates from three of these villages, their dates of occupation were estimated by use of a linear multiple regression equation that analyzed the percentages of three well-dated types of Mesa Verde Gray Ware. Estimated populations of the eight villages range from 66 to 262 with a mean of 137. The presence of Bluff Black-on-red, an intrusive ceramic type, in relatively high percentages indicates a period of active contact with peoples in other areas of the northern San Juan. Although smaller and at higher elevations than the villages studied by Wilshusen and Blinman, six of the villages fit their pattern of a large village that grew rapidly and, after a short occupation, declined. The other two villages, Badger House Village, and Morefield Village were occupied later and had longer occupations. In the past, the Pueblo I period has been viewed as having small communities that were primarily a bridge between the Basketmaker III and Pueblo II periods, but these eight villages show that this was a period of large aggregated communities, rapid population growth, and frequent contact with people outside the area

Archaeology · Geography · National park · Period (music) · Population · Archaeology and Natural History · Demography · Fire effects on ecosystems · Forestry · Rangeland and Wildlife Management

• Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology

  Open Access•Gregson Schachner•Journal of Archaeological Research•2014

  Incluir item

• Reevaluating Regional Migration in the Northern San Juan During the Late Pueblo I Period

  Grant Coffey•KIVA•2006

  Incluir item

• Seeking The Center Place

  Mark D Varien, Mark Varien et al.•Seeking the Center Place•2011

  Incluir item

• Rethinking the Pueblo I Period in the San Juan Drainage

  Richard H Wilshusen, G Ortman et al.•KIVA•1999

  Incluir item

• How Fast is a Kiva? The Dendroarchaeology of Long House, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

  David Street, David J Street•KIVA•2001

  Incluir item

• Pueblo I Village Formation

  Richard H Wilshusen, Eric Blinman•KIVA•1992

  Incluir item

• Seeking the Red Ware Potters of the Northern San Juan

  Norman T Oppelt•KIVA•2001

  Incluir item