Archaeology of North America

1. Archaeology of North America Agriculture, Villages and Pueblos of the Southwest

2. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosIntroduction • There is no single moment when domestication of plants begins in North America • Instead it is a rather a long continuum of human interaction with the natural vegetation • Agriculture distinguishes this area from all others in NA

4. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosTending, Cultivation and Domestication • For 1000s of years the population of NA was foraging for vegetal foods • At times they may have used fire to encourage the regeneration of grasses and edible plants • When they begin to deliberately care for the plants this began the cultivation stage, but does not yet equal full domestication • They have likely altered the natural growth of the plant however

5. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosTending, Cultivation and Domestication • Cultivation includes, weeding pruning, tilling the soil with digging sticks or simple hoes, and other forms of tending, which is a casual activity • This normally will increase the yield of the plant • Transplanting can also be included under cultivation although it is taking it a step further • It is done to promote better growth and thus yield, and perhaps location • Sowing seeds can be seen as a form of transplanting, and may involve the selection of particular seeds over others

6. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosTending, Cultivation and Domestication • Tending and Cultivating continued for 1000s of years • These plants were mostly a substitute for what they were gathering, rather than a dependent relationship • Domestication is the final stage in the process of food production • Domesticated plants cannot survive without human intervention

7. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosTending, Cultivation and Domestication • As time goes on these plants become more of a staple in the diet • Field agriculture is reached when land is cleared and only a few species are grown, such as the maize, bean and squash combination • This combination is called the North American Triad

8. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosOrigins of Agriculture • We now know that domestication began in many parts of the world independent of other areas • It was a long process of change from hunting and gathering to domestication • North America was difficult in that the seasons are extreme and many months of the year are too cold or dry to grow crops

9. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosOrigins of Agriculture • Maize, beans and squash were domesticated somewhere in Mesoamerica sometime before 5000 BC; this is long before they arrive in NA • In the southwest the triad is linked with the Upper Sonoran Agricultural Complex • These crops came here from Northern Mexico after years of development there

10. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosOrigins of Agriculture • Due to the fact that maize requires tending for most of the year it seems likely to suppose that the slow adoption of the new crop was linked with the need to become sedentary • Through trade the southwest people learned about maize and how to grow it themselves • Only after some time did they themselves decide it was worth doing

11. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosWhy Adopt Agriculture? • The major advantage of domesticated crops is that they are predictable, which is a definite advantage in the southwest • It is also possible that population increase stimulated the adoption of crops due to food shortages • Or environmental degradation due to climate changes in the Archaic was a stimulant to crop domestication • Or it is a combination of the two forces – with agriculturalists from Northern Mexico moving into the southwest creating pressure on the hunter and gathers

12. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosAdopting Agriculture • It is clear that the people of the southwest were pre-adapted to agriculture with their advanced system of seed processing • However they did not make the switch when it was first exposed to them from the south • Instead they traded for maize and continued their own way of life • Only centuries later did they themselves adopt agriculture

13. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosMaize • Maize (Zea mays – Indian corn) began in Mesoamerica likely from a wild grass into a maize cob over a relatively short time span of about a century • When it entered the southwest is certain, but over 1000s of years hundreds of species developed, each linked with a different environment and stage of the evolution • These early forms of corn were genetically diverse

14. Evolution of maize over about 5000 years. The cob on the right dates to c. AD 1500 Maize diversity Over the centuries the cobs became larger and more yielding

15. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosMaize • It has been suggested that maize appears around 1750 BC in NA • The lowlands seem to adopt the crop before the uplands do, but many more dates and sites are needed to confirm this • Moreover, the spread of maize is not uniform or linear • For example, floodplain maize agriculture is the staple of the pithouse villages in Arizona around 500 BC, but already by 1150 BC is the staple of villages in New Mexico

16. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosMaize • Maize lacks fundamental amino acids so it must be combined with another protein source (like squash or beans) to create a balanced diet • Since most southwest groups continued to gather other plants when maize was first introduce this was not a problem • Maize was planted and then left unattended; other plants would be gathered throughout the year • Only later did maize and the triad become a true staple

17. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosThe Upper Sonoran Agricultural Complex • In addition to Maize, squashes and beans were also part of the agricultural complex • Squashes appear in the southwest after 1000 BC, and were all the same variety until 900 BC when new forms began to diverge • The meat and seeds of squash were eaten and the plant was also used as a container

18. Gourd Containers Beans Squash

19. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosThe Upper Sonoran Agricultural Complex • Beans were common in the southwest by 500 BC and quickly became widespread • There were a very important crop in that the complimented the maize, both nutritionally for the needed protein, but added nitrogen to the soil that the maize uses • Therefore maize and beans were often grown in the same gardens • This could be a major reason for the lag in the adoption of sedentism when maize was first introduced

20. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosThe Lower Sonoran Agricultural Complex • Another set of crops came from Mexico considerably later than maize, sometime between AD 300 and 500 • This is called the Lower Sonoran Complex • These plants all require irrigation • The new crops include: sieve beans and other bean varieties, cushaw squashes, pigweed and cotton • The Hohokam were likely the first to take on these new crops as they were already using irrigation on their crops

21. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosThe Consequences of Agriculture • It is clear that the appearance of maize did not trigger a revolution in the southwest • Eventually the maize grown in the southwest was adapted to a wide range of environments and some were drought resistant • Then some groups became experts in irrigation and these foods became more of a staple • This required a greater investment in time and energy and as a result the adoption of more sedentary lifestyles

22. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosThe Consequences of Agriculture • As people began to settle, their food gathering territory also shrunk • The shortage of their wild food diet in turn forced an increase in domesticate production • There were periods of abandonment and re-adoption of the crops over a variable amount of time, but once agriculture took hold in the southwest hunting and gathering was no longer a viable option

23. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • By the end of the Archaic c. 200 BC, groups had become less mobile as they adopted part-time agriculture • However only around AD 600 – 800 did permanent villages begin to appear • The sedentary way of life was slow to be adopted due to the instability of the domesticated plants • People had to store large amounts of plants to guard against shortage and with this permanent settlements began to appear

24. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • These new sites varied in size but all contained individual oval to circular houses that were occupied for a length of time • Interesting in that in other parts of NA settlements appear before the adoption of agriculture • Thus in the southwest agriculture was the trigger to abandon a mobile way of life • However, no where in the southwest did the villagers rely on domesticates alone • Wild plants remained important

25. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • The early villages (sometimes grouped under Basketmaker) are strongly linked to their Archaic predecessors • The Basketmaker people used manos and metates to grind their wild and domesticate seeds • Eventually they developed more sophisticated grinding stones to process the maize more efficiently • Stone technology remained similar except for the introduction of the bow and arrow, which may have coincided with the adoption of agriculture

26. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • Around AD 200 pottery appears • The ceramic containers were fundamental • They could boil and then store maize and beans in them • The villages were highly involved with other groups, as they had been throughout the Archaic, and traded objects remained common: • Obsidian, chert and other raw materials were commonly traded over distances • Ceramics were exchanged • Buffalo hides, red ocher and feathers • Luxury items like turquoise, copper bells and sea shells were traded over enormous distances • And groups would trade for seeds as well

27. Imported Artefacts Hohokam etched shell Copper bells at Mimbers

28. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • Many of the earliest villagers lived in pithouses • These houses were thermally efficient to decrease the loss of heat in the winter and required less energy to heat • Most were round or oval up to 5 m across, and were dug about 0.5 m below ground • They often contained storage pits and hearths • The superstructure is mud-covered over a frame of vertical poles site into the pit

29. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • Mogollon houses varied from rectangular to round with a sloping entrance • Anasazi pithouses had adobe walls that subdivided the structure • Ventilators, air deflectors, sleeping platforms, benches and roof hatches were common • The Lower Sonoran desert houses were quite different in that they were rectangular or square structures erected from a shallow up to 21 cm pit • The roof was made of poles, reeds, grass and mud • Small hearths lay just outside the entrance

30. The Mogollon Harris site, New Mexico, with the earlier round pithouse and the later square pithouse (above)

31. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • In the north the number of structures at a site varied greatly, from a few to + 35 • This seems to have depended on the environmental conditions for the crops • At many sites there is one structure that seems to have a special function in the village • Some experts believe this may be the beginning of the kiva (ceremonial room) • By AD 700 – 900 the kiva-like structures, with surrounding benches and a very large floor area, were a regular feature at sites

32. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • Some kivas may have played a central role in the exchange of goods • Groups remained in close contact with each other • It is believed that trade relationships played an important role in village social organization • Exchange equalized resources and established social ties • Eventually the trading became very formalized

33. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • By AD 1100 settlements increased significantly in size, and storage space was expanded • Most sites remained engaged in basic subsistence with trading partners, however some communities formed structured alliances • Why some do and others don’t is unclear, but it may have to do with more favorable environmental conditions and better trade networks

34. Agriculture, Villages and PueblosBeginnings of Village Life AD 200 - 900 • These sites all shared the following characteristics: • One or more central site(s) or zone of clustered sites • Basically uniform architecture • Relatively homogeneous ceramic styles • Some signs of specialized craftsmanship • Regular trade and exchange • Some degree of social ranking or stratification • Many of these sites lead to the more advanced villages and pueblos

35. Villages and PueblosIntroduction • After the emergence of village life in the southwest around 1 AD a number of complex processes took hold in the area • Pit houses remained in general use in the northern southwest until about AD 700 • The next three centuries saw a change from the pithouse village, to sites with multi-room buildings made of adobe or masonry

36. Villages and PueblosIntroduction • Some areas the change was gradual • They would first construct storage rooms next to the pithouse • and eventually move into surface rooms and use the pithouse for kivas • Other sites saw a rapid shift • Domestic activities took up much more space than before (for storage etc.) • To connect the storage rooms together was too difficult with the pithouse design, therefore above ground structures were built

37. Villages and PueblosIntroduction • In order to thermal insulate these new rooms many were built abutting each other, thus forming the pueblo style of architecture • Between AD 750 and 900 the village settlement expanded greatly throughout the northern southwest

38. Village and Pueblo sites

39. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • Chaco Canyon is an area with large cliffs, sand, sage and the rare cottonwood tree • Archaic hunters and gathers lived in Chaco Canyon and by 1000 BC began to cultivate maize and squash occasionally • By about AD 490 they developed a local variety of maize and the first villages began to appear • Eventually great pueblos were built by the Anasazi against the high cliffs

40. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

41. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • In the beginning the Chaco sites saw a dramatic increase in population density and cultural complexity • These early villages had pithouses with stone huts behind them to store the foods • The largest sites housed as many as 20 pithouses clustered together • At this time the population was still small • Eventually the Chaco sites spread through-out the San Juan Basin and adjacent uplands to encompass 64 750 sq. km • More than 2400 sites make up the Chaco sites

42. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • By AD 700 – 900 the Anasazi Pueblo Indians moved into surface dwellings often facing southeast to take advantage of the winter sun • There was a center circular pithouse (or a few pithouses) that the pueblos were built around, with each at an equal distance from the other • These pithouses eventually became kivas • At this time the population was still small, with maybe 1000 – 1500 people

43. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • Eventually the towns were well planned, with extensive road and water systems, and outlying sites were linked by roads and visual communication systems, as many farmers still lived in small villages • The Great Houses were built by the Anasazi between AD 900 – 1000 • The three Great Houses include: • Penasco Blanco • Pueblo Bonito (the largest) • Una Vida • These sites are all located at the junctions of major drainages

44. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • Pueblo Bonito stood 5 stories high and remained in use for more than 200 years • At its peak it had at least 600 rooms and could house 1000 people • Chaco architecture was based on rectangular rooms built in adjoining blocks with some round chambers

45. Pueblo Bonito

46. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • Construction was simple, with a foundation and continuous long parallel walls • Cross walls were added later and then the roof put on over each individual room • This roof then served as the foundation for the next story • The walls were made of local sandstone that was easily carved • Alluvium mixed with water served as mortar • The lower story walls were wide and solid and as the stories rose the walls thinned to decrease the weight

47. Idealized Pueblo architecture

48. Pueblo architecture Reconstruction

49. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • Some believe the Anasazi built the great houses to avoid living on rich alluvial sediment, but not everyone lived in a great house (there were many small sites with farmers) • The great houses were not likely built according to a master plan but rather an agglomeration of households • The nine larger settlements in Chaco Canyon all seem to have at least one great kiva • The kivas were carefully built • They were roofed with pine beams (from distances)

50. Villages and PueblosChaco Phenomenon AD 900 – 1150 • Some kivas are at least 19 m in diameter • There are subterranean and would have involved a great deal of work to construct • They are entered by a ladder or via a stone staircase, often through an antechamber • Many had wall niches were offerings of beads and pendants were placed • They had circular benches around the walls and a raised hearth in the centre