The Southern Colorado River Basin context published in 1999 offered a remarkable overview of Mesa Verde regional archaeology. It reviewed the available research for each main period of occupation and, at the end of each summary, outlined some of the most important questions for future research. For the late Basketmaker and early Pueblo periods many of those research questions have been addressed or are now outdated. Current questions are not just about research, but also about how to balance long-term heritage management goals with site-specific research. The accelerating loss of cultural landscape to irrigated fields, energy development, and the expansion of country homes requires us to both broaden the scope of our preservation planning and the scale of our research questions to the landscape level. In this review I propose changes to the extent and nature of the Southern Colorado River Basin context area, as well as offer amendments to the previous period chronologies based on what we have learned. Lastly, I suggest an array of research themes for future work. Although this is not a state-approved context, it is offered as a challenge to us—whether we represent the state, a federal agency, a university, or a CRM firm—to think big about the research we do in the greater Mesa Verde region.
{"title":"Balancing the Scales: Harmonizing Heritage Management, Site-Specific Research, and the Mitigation of Adverse Effects","authors":"Richard Wilshusen","doi":"10.32946/rca.2019.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32946/rca.2019.0002","url":null,"abstract":"The Southern Colorado River Basin context published in 1999 offered a remarkable overview of Mesa Verde regional archaeology. It reviewed the available research for each main period of occupation and, at the end of each summary, outlined some of the most important questions for future research. For the late Basketmaker and early Pueblo periods many of those research questions have been addressed or are now outdated. Current questions are not just about research, but also about how to balance long-term heritage management goals with site-specific research. The accelerating loss of cultural landscape to irrigated fields, energy development, and the expansion of country homes requires us to both broaden the scope of our preservation planning and the scale of our research questions to the landscape level. In this review I propose changes to the extent and nature of the Southern Colorado River Basin context area, as well as offer amendments to the previous period chronologies based on what we have learned. Lastly, I suggest an array of research themes for future work. Although this is not a state-approved context, it is offered as a challenge to us—whether we represent the state, a federal agency, a university, or a CRM firm—to think big about the research we do in the greater Mesa Verde region.","PeriodicalId":370890,"journal":{"name":"Reviews in Colorado Archaeology","volume":"115 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116679116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Over the last thirty years, metal detection has become an essential tool in historical archaeology, yet the majority of archaeologists still know relatively little about metal detectors. In this review we trace the increasing use of metal detectors in archaeological survey and research following several notable successes in archaeological surveys that proved their worth. To understand the differences between the two basic types of metal detectors used by archaeologists we briefly explain how they function and what their relative strengths and weaknesses are for archaeological research. Metal detectors are most commonly used in archaeological survey and after offering examples of how they have proved useful in recent Colorado research we lay out a methodology for a successful metal detection survey. In many ways the survey techniques, sampling designs, and intensive data recovery principles for metal detection work are akin to those principles and techniques used in standard archaeological research. These principles simply have been adapted to take advantage of the capabilities offered by this remote sensing device for discovering unseen historic sites and for better understanding how the patterning in metal artifacts at battle sites, historic trails, and Indian encampments sometimes can offer a totally new view of history.
{"title":"Metal Detection, An Essential Remote Sensing Approach for Historical Archaeologists","authors":"C. Haecker, D. Scott, Patrick Severts","doi":"10.32946/RCA.2019.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32946/RCA.2019.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last thirty years, metal detection has become an essential tool in historical archaeology, yet the majority of archaeologists still know relatively little about metal detectors. In this review we trace the increasing use of metal detectors in archaeological survey and research following several notable successes in archaeological surveys that proved their worth. To understand the differences between the two basic types of metal detectors used by archaeologists we briefly explain how they function and what their relative strengths and weaknesses are for archaeological research. Metal detectors are most commonly used in archaeological survey and after offering examples of how they have proved useful in recent Colorado research we lay out a methodology for a successful metal detection survey. In many ways the survey techniques, sampling designs, and intensive data recovery principles for metal detection work are akin to those principles and techniques used in standard archaeological research. These principles simply have been adapted to take advantage of the capabilities offered by this remote sensing device for discovering unseen historic sites and for better understanding how the patterning in metal artifacts at battle sites, historic trails, and Indian encampments sometimes can offer a totally new view of history.","PeriodicalId":370890,"journal":{"name":"Reviews in Colorado Archaeology","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114039752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Major research projects and significant publications over the last two decades have fundamentally reframed our understanding of the Basketmaker III and Pueblo I periods in the Mesa Verde region. Whereas the last state historic context summaries for these periods, which were published in 1999, focused on the specifics of chronology building, site type definitions, settlement patterning, and other nuts and bolts issues, recent advances in database software and an increasing emphasis on regional research have turned our attention to the larger issues of how agriculture took hold and thereafter transformed the landscape north of the San Juan River. The relatively low populations and small-scale horticultural economies of the Basketmaker II period virtually disappeared between A.D. 500 and 600, to be replaced by a more intensive maize-dependent agricultural economy centered on large communities. The rapid expansion of early Pueblo agricultural settlements across the Mesa Verde region and the subsequent formation of large villages were in part fueled by the accelerating population growth that came with agricultural dependence. In turn, the late ninth-century breakup of these large villages contributed to population migration to the south of the San Juan River and the tenth-century emergence of what ultimately became the Chaco great house system. This review updates the 1999 Basketmaker III and Pueblo I overviews.
{"title":"How Agriculture Took Hold in the Mesa Verde Region: A Review of Recent Research on the Late Basketmaker-Early Pueblo Periods (A.D. 500-920)","authors":"Richard Wilshusen","doi":"10.32946/RCA.2018.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32946/RCA.2018.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Major research projects and significant publications over the last two decades have fundamentally reframed our understanding of the Basketmaker III and Pueblo I periods in the Mesa Verde region. Whereas the last state historic context summaries for these periods, which were published in 1999, focused on the specifics of chronology building, site type definitions, settlement patterning, and other nuts and bolts issues, recent advances in database software and an increasing emphasis on regional research have turned our attention to the larger issues of how agriculture took hold and thereafter transformed the landscape north of the San Juan River. The relatively low populations and small-scale horticultural economies of the Basketmaker II period virtually disappeared between A.D. 500 and 600, to be replaced by a more intensive maize-dependent agricultural economy centered on large communities. The rapid expansion of early Pueblo agricultural settlements across the Mesa Verde region and the subsequent formation of large villages were in part fueled by the accelerating population growth that came with agricultural dependence. In turn, the late ninth-century breakup of these large villages contributed to population migration to the south of the San Juan River and the tenth-century emergence of what ultimately became the Chaco great house system. This review updates the 1999 Basketmaker III and Pueblo I overviews.","PeriodicalId":370890,"journal":{"name":"Reviews in Colorado Archaeology","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116350260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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