Settlement Patterns, Scheduling Conflicts, and Climate Variability: An Explanation for the Collapse of the Shivwits Ware Distribution Network

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-21-2019

Publication Title

KIVA: Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History

Volume

85

Issue

4

First page number:

331

Last page number:

344

Abstract

During the middle Pueblo II period, a thriving ceramic distribution network linked the upland areas of northwestern Arizona with the lowland areas of southern Nevada. One kind of pottery transported through this network was Shivwits Ware, made on the southern end of the Shivwits Plateau, Arizona. Despite being located some 115 kilometers (70 mi) from the latter area, middle Pueblo II inhabitants of the Moapa Valley, Nevada, regularly acquired and used Shivwits Ware jars. By the late Pueblo II period, however, this ceramic distribution network had collapsed. This paper explores possible causes of the collapse by investigating changes in settlement patterns and landscape usage on the Shivwits Plateau. These data suggest that the collapse of the ceramic distribution network coincided with a shift in subsistence strategies triggered by climatic changes.

Keywords

Virgin Branch Puebloan culture; Exchange networks; Settlement patterns; Shivwits Ware; Subsistence strategies; Adaptation to risk; GIS; Archaeology of the Grand Canyon

Disciplines

Anthropology | Archaeological Anthropology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language

English

Subtitles

true

Subtitle Language

Spanish

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