Changing Settlement and Population in the Mimbres Valley, SW New Mexico

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the prehistoric settlement patterns and population change in the Mimbres Valley of New Mexico. The first part of the paper describes a judgmental survey methodology used to survey the Mimbres Valley. It was specifically tailored to conditions where neither complete nor probabilistic survey was possible. The methodology involves disproportionate sampling of strata defined during and after the completion of survey, judgmental sample placement, and variable survey-plot sizes and shapes. The second part of the paper introduces a series of adjustments to the settlement data that allow calculation of changes in population size, village size, and settlement location for a 1200-year cultural sequence. Population increased many-fold from the Early Pithouse period to the Classic Mimbres period and then rapidly declined. There were two subsequent occupations, but neither reached the same levels of population size attained during the Classic Mimbres period.