Pithouse Villages Research Articles

A song of earth and water: Burial caves as sacred and animated Southern Jê deathscapes in Brazil

In this article, we examine existing data on Southern Jê burial caves (SJBCs) in the Southern Brazilian Highlands to discuss their spatiality, chronology, symbolic aspects, and relation to mound and enclosure complexes (MECs), another Southern Jê burial practice. Through map creation and temporal analysis, we explore chronological and hierarchical hypotheses previously used to explain the dynamic relationship between these funerary practices. Our findings suggest that SJBCs are older than MECs. Additionally, around 1000 CE—coinciding with the emergence of MECs—the expansion of the Araucaria forest and the intensification of interethnic contacts influenced changes in SJBCs, such as the incorporation of hearths and pottery. Ethnographic analysis of the Kaingang and Laklãnõ peoples (modern Southern Jê) indicates that burial caves were integral parts of deathscapes, representing cosmogonic myths, serving as interaction points between humans and non-humans, and boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead. Finally, visibility analysis of the Perau das Cabeças burial cave suggests that MECs and SJBCs represent opposing strategies for managing the dangers of the liminal phase: MECs are situated in prominent landscape positions, while Perau das Cabeças remains hidden from surrounding pit house villages.

Food Processing and Cooking Technology during the Late Pithouse Period in the Mimbres Mogollon Region

Food processing and cooking were critical aspects of daily life in all past societies and the technologies associated with these practices can provide important information on domestic and economic activities. In this paper, we explore food processing and cooking technology during the Late Pithouse period (AD 550-1000) in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico using data from the Harris site, a large pithouse village located in the north-central portion of the Mimbres River Valley. The goal of this study is to document developments in food-related technology, determine if and how they changed through time, and examine how these technologies can inform domestic activities and household organization.

Great Kivas and Community Integration at the Harris Site, Southwestern New Mexico

Great kivas served as important ritual spaces and played significant roles in community integration throughout the Pithouse period (AD 550–1000) occupation of the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. This article uses data from excavations at the Harris site, a large pithouse village located in the Mimbres Valley, to explore the role of great kivas and an associated plaza in community integration as the village grew, extended family households formed, and social distinctions developed. Data from excavations of sequentially used great kivas surrounding the plaza along with household data from domestic structures are used to examine the role of ritual space during the Pithouse period.

Obsidian procurement and social interaction at the Harris site, Mimbres River Valley, New Mexico

In this paper, we use obsidian sourcing and lithic analysis data to explore obsidian use and its relationship to social interaction at the Harris site, a large pithouse village located in the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico. We also use the data to examine whether differences in obsidian procurement strategies and access to obsidian were present between households at the Harris site. The sourced assemblage is one of the largest from a single site in the American Southwest and many of the artifacts are from dated contexts that allow the examination of patterns of obsidian procurement through time as well as within and between households.

Understanding the Chronology and Occupation Dynamics of Oversized Pit Houses in the Southern Brazilian Highlands

A long held view about the occupation of southern proto-Jê pit house villages of the southern Brazilian highlands is that these sites represent cycles of long-term abandonment and reoccupation. However, this assumption is based on an insufficient number of radiocarbon dates for individual pit houses. To address this problem, we conducted a programme of comprehensive AMS radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling at the deeply stratified oversized pit House 1, Baggio I site (Cal. A.D. 1395–1650), Campo Belo do Sul, Santa Catarina state, Brazil. The stratigraphy of House 1 revealed an unparalleled sequence of twelve well preserved floors evidencing a major change in occupation dynamics including five completely burnt collapsed roofs. The results of the radiocarbon dating allowed us to understand for the first time the occupation dynamics of an oversized pit house in the southern Brazilian highlands. The Bayesian model demonstrates that House 1 was occupied for over two centuries with no evidence of major periods of abandonment, calling into question previous models of long-term abandonment. In addition, the House 1 sequence allowed us to tie transformations in ceramic style and lithic technology to an absolute chronology. Finally, we can provide new evidence that the emergence of oversized domestic structures is a relatively recent phenomenon among the southern proto-Jê. As monumental pit houses start to be built, small pit houses continue to be inhabited, evidencing emerging disparities in domestic architecture after AD 1000. Our research shows the importance of programmes of intensive dating of individual structures to understand occupation dynamics and site permanence, and challenges long held assumptions that the southern Brazilian highlands were home to marginal cultures in the context of lowland South America.

The archaeological landscape of Late Prehispanic mixed foraging and cultivation economy (Sierras of Córdoba, Argentina)

A short review of current data regarding the landscape use in the Sierras of Córdoba Late Prehispanic Period (ca. 1500–300BP) is presented in this article. Resulting expectation about residential mobility and subsistence are analyzed in light of new evidence and interpretative framework. The lack of substantial middens, few evidences of year-round residence and the low investment in farming fields support the inadequacies of the assumption that the agriculture led to the sudden dependence of crops and to the sedentary way of life in pit-house villages. Other archaeological indicators as the intensity of landscape use, the taxonomic richness of food residues, the abundance of projectile point-types and isotopic evidence reinforce these arguments. However, the evidence suggests that the Late Prehispanic peoples showed flexible subsistence and mobility patterns as one of their defining traits, where nuclear families moved around the landscape to take advantage of both agricultural and wild resources as available. Thus, farming was a fluctuating component in a mixed foraging and cultivation economy where wild animals and plants were intensively exploited through seasonal co-residential group fission–fusion mechanisms that follow the pre-existing Middle Holocene forager lifeways. Nevertheless, many variables can affect this equation, including regional population densities, social boundaries or annual variation in foraging opportunities and a mosaic of strategies combination is also predicted.

Revisiting the economy and mobility of southern proto-Jê (Taquara-Itararé) groups in the southern Brazilian highlands: starch grain and phytoliths analyses from the Bonin site, Urubici, Brazil

This article presents the results of starch grain and phytolith residue analyses from 14 ceramic fragments recovered in two domestic cooking structures from a southern proto-Jê pit house at the Bonin site (Urubici, Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil) dating to 1300–1439 and 1297–1414 cal yr. A.D. The novel application of plant microfossil techniques in this region revealed, for the first time, the consumption of manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz), beans (Phaseolus sp.), and possibly yams (cf. Dioscorea sp.) in addition to maize (Zea mays L.) and squash (Cucurbita sp.). These findings show that southern proto-Jê people had a subsistence economy based on a variety of plant foods and practiced food production more than one century before European Conquest. Contrary to traditional models of southern proto-Jê mobility, our data suggest that food production may have allowed populations to settle in the southern Brazilian highland plateau year-round without the need for seasonal movements to the Atlantic forest escarpment and the Atlantic coast environments to procure food. Our data complement archaeological evidence for increased sedentism and social complexity among southern proto-Jê groups from A.D. 300–1700, including the construction of large, well-planned pit-house villages, and the creation of a highly structured landscape revolving around funerary/ceremonial structures.

“Es gente fazil de moverse de una parte a otra”. Diversidad en las estrategias de subsistencia y movilidad prehispánicas tardías (Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina)

The archaeological study of Sierras of Córdoba Late Pre-Hispanic Period (1100-360 BP, Argentina) assumed during decades that the development of agriculture led to the sudden dependence of crops –mainly maize (Zea mays)– and to the sedentary way of life in pit-house villages. The current information questions this assumption by suggesting that the late pre-Hispanic peoples showed flexible subsistence and mobility patterns where the strategies were switched according to seasonal wild resource availability. Thus, farming was one component in a mixed foraging and cultivation economy where wild animals and plants were intensively exploited. The wide economic niche was accompanied by high residential mobility, co-residential group fission-fusion mechanism and the seasonal switch from farming to foraging wild resources. The model presents an archaeological example where the introduction of crops was followed by a flexible subsistence pattern and not by a full-time farming economy, which serves as a potential comparison to other cases in the world during the food producing transition.

CERAMIC VARIABILITY, SUBSISTENCE ECONOMIES, AND SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE JORNADA MOGOLLON

This paper examines the contrast in subsistence and settlement adaptations in early pithouse villages between the highland and lowland regions of southern New Mexico and trans-Pecos Texas, notably more substantial pithouses and an earlier increase in agricultural dependence in the highlands than the lowlands, from the point of view of ceramic variability. Since subsistence and settlement patterns influence ceramic manufacture, we test for differences between highland and lowland utilitarian wares (brown wares) that parallel the region’s subsistencesettlement contrast. Evaluating ceramic mineralogy, we demonstrate that our highland sample brown wares were locally made and therefore distinct from adjacent lowland brown wares. We then compare the ceramic technology from the two elevation zones, hypothesizing that technological characteristics of highland pottery should foreshadow changes in lowland ceramics by several hundred years since agricultural dependence increased this much earlier in the highlands. We do not find significant technological differences between contemporary highland and lowland brown wares and suggest that assumptions linking ceramic technology and agricultural dependence may need to be refined.

Paleoseismicity, Ecological Change, and Prehistoric Exploitation of Anadromous Fishes in the Salmon River Basin, Western Idaho, USA

By the middle Holocene, Native American groups developed semi-sedentary villages in the Columbia River basin of the Pacific Northwest. The economic basis for these villages is thought to have been predicated on the acquisition of bulk food resources, such as salmon and camas, for delayed consumption during the winter. In Idaho's lower Salmon River canyon, semi-sedentary pit house villages are absent until after 2000 14C yr BP. Floodplain geochronology shows channel incision and terrace formation occurred at ca. 2000 14C yr BP, caused by fluvial response to neotectonic displacement along a normal fault. The delayed appearance of pit house sites and other markers of the Winter Village Pattern in the canyon is argued to be directly related to neotectonically-induced changes in fluvial conditions after 2000 14C yr BP, which significantly improved aquatic habitats for anadromous fishes and led to the development of a predictable, productive salmon fishery.

Ancient DNA investigation of prehistoric salmon resource utilization at Keatley Creek, British Columbia, Canada

This study applied ancient DNA techniques to achieve accurate species identifications for the archaeological salmon remains recovered from the prehistoric pithouse village of Keatley Creek in British Columbia, Canada. Previous archaeological studies indicate that economic stratification within the community might have resulted in differential access to some preferred salmon species, such as sockeye and chinook. Unambiguous ancient DNA species identification now makes it possible to more accurately address the issue of early salmon resource utilization in the region. This study analyzed 60 salmon remains from two specialized structures and two residential structures in order to identify any species differences among bony salmon remains found within the structure. Although high success rates (over 90%) were obtained for ancient DNA tests, only three species (chinook, sockeye and coho salmon) were identified from the remains. Pink salmon was not identified among the tested sample, despite the fact that it was originally assumed to be a staple species for the site's native inhabitants. The absence of pink salmon in our sample significantly altered the picture of early salmon fishing activities in the region. As a result, the effects of economic stratification on differential access to the remaining so-called preferred species of sockeye and chinook within the four structures studied were not as dramatic as previously thought, although differences among the structures could still be observed.

Early Pithouse Villages of the Mimbres Valley and beyond: The McAnally and Thompson Sites in Their Cultural and Ecological Contexts. Michael W. Diehl , Steven A. LeBlanc

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsEarly Pithouse Villages of the Mimbres Valley and beyond: The McAnally and Thompson Sites in Their Cultural and Ecological Contexts. Michael W. Diehl , Steven A. LeBlanc Patricia A. GilmanPatricia A. Gilman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 58, Number 4Winter, 2002 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/jar.58.4.3630692 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 2002 The University of New MexicoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Reconsidering the Cause of Cultural Collapse in the Lillooet Area of British Columbia, Canada: A Geoarchaeological Perspective

The potential interconnections between human settlement systems, subsistence practices, and rapid, high-magnitude transformation of the physical landscape (e.g., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides) is an important issue of discussion in archaeology. This paper critically examines the argument that prehistoric abandonment of Classic Lillooet pithouse villages of south-central British Columbia, Canada, at approximately 1200-1000 B.P., was linked to one or more catastrophic landslides at Texas Creek that blocked the Fraser River, destroyed salmon resources, and caused the abandonment of this area. Examination of the location and depositional condition of several excavated archaeological sites within the Fraser Valley, as well as reflection on the expected environmental and cultural responses to a catastrophic landslide, challenge previous interpretations of the existence, location, and magnitude of such a landslide event, and indicate that archaeologists need to reconsider deterministic environmental explanations for the abandonment of pithouse villages in the interior of British Columbia.

Political Hierarchies and Organizational Strategies in the Puebloan Southwest

This paper offers a new perspective for the study of prehistoric Pueblo political organization in the American Southwest. In reviewing salient developments in Puebloan archaeology over the last 20 years, we discuss shortcomings in previous studies that argued for either “simple” or “complex” societies without recognizing the potential for hierarchy and equality to coexist simultaneously in all human societies. An alternative approach is outlined that considers corporate and network strategies of political action as a continuum for examining the organizational structure of Southwestern societies. Consideration of the corporate-network dimension is not seen as a replacement for the dimension of hierarchy, but as an analog to it. We consider the utility of this approach in analyzing the community organization of historic Pueblos and argue that the corporate-network continuum may have “deep” time depth in the broader region of the Desert West. Our findings suggest that a diverse range of corporate and network strategies were employed among residents of pithouse villages (A.D. 200-900) and that the pithouse-to-pueblo transition (ca. A.D. 700-1000) marked a significant organizational shift to more corporate forms of political action that also characterize historic and modern Pueblos.

The Interpretation of Archaeological Floor Assemblages: A Case Study from the American Southwest

Analyses of the assemblages from the floors of Upland Mogollon pithouses show that variation in artifact frequencies may be attributed to differences in the intensity of abandonment and post-abandonment formation processes, such as caching, scavenging and trash dumping. The proportion of pithouses that contain caches or de facto assemblages is provocatively constant across sites—roughly 18 percent. This observation may be useful for refining estimates of the populations of sites or regions, for recognizing the size of social groups, or for identifying the abandonment sequences of pithouse villages. Prior studies that attribute variation in the frequencies of different classes of artifacts to functional differences in the uses of pithouses are rejected on the grounds of methodological inadequacy.

Continuities in Architectural Traditions: The Subterráneos of Prehistoric and Modern Northern Mexico

The recent discovery of a pit house village, 40 km northwest of Monterrey, challenges the conventional view of inland northeastern Mexico as the domain of purely nomadic hunters and gatherers throughout prehistory. Las Casitas consists of fifty-three subterranean rooms and forty-eight smaller depressions aligned in three slightly arcuate tiers in a small valley adjacent to Boca de Potrerillos, an extremely large open campsite and petroglyph complex that is now an archeological park. Other features of the site are some 325 hearths that surround the depressions and a very limited artifact assemblage numbering only thirty-seven items. Two hearths produced radiocarbon samples that date site occupancy to approximately a.d. 1450, just prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the New World. Las Casitas provides the first evidence of semi-sedentary, surplus producing populations in central northeastern Mexico.

The Intensity of Maize Processing and Production in Upland Mogollon Pithouse Villages A.D. 200–1000

Analyses of the size, shape, and wear on western Mogollon manos and metates reveal that the dietary importance of maize remained low and stable from the Early Pithouse period (A.D. 200–550) through the Georgetown phase (A.D. 550–700). The consumption of maize increased during the San Francisco phase (A.D. 700–825/850) and continued to increase through the Three Circle phase (A.D. 825/850–1000). Changes in the ubiquity of charred pieces of maize (Zea mays) from paleoethnobotanical samples also indicate an increase in maize consumption from the Early Pithouse period through the Three Circle phase. The onset of increased maize consumption roughly coincided with the introduction of an improved variety of eight-row maize, around A.D. 650–700 (Upham et al. 1987). The analyses presented in this study do not agree with recent suggestions (Gilman 1987; Mauldin 1991) that maize consumption in the western Mogollon region remained stable and low until the Classic Mimbres phase (A.D. 1000–1150).

Site Structure of a Village of the Late Pithouse-Early Pueblo Period in New Mexico

Abstract The period of change from pithouse to pueblo as the preferred dwelling in the American Southwest represents an architectural transition associated with greater complexity of community organization. Excavation of more than 70% of the principal residential area within a small, single component, late Mogollon pithouse village (A.C. 1150–1200) in New Mexico (but located near El Paso, Texas) helps provide behavioral definition of this period. Through an examination of trash location and artifact size, feature-fill sequence reconstruction, and overall community plan, a “coreactivity area” for Meyer Pithouse Village has been established. This activity zone is the material correlate of supra-household cooperation, a condition held necessary for the subsequent acceptance in antiquity of pueblo room-block architecture similar to that of the neighboring Anasazi area.

Chiefs without chiefdoms? Comments on prehistoric sociopolitical organization in western Melanesia

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Social Differentiation and Leadership Development in Early Pithouse Villages in the Mogollon Region of the American Southwest

This paper examines the development of social differentiation and simple decision-making organizations in the Mogollan region of the prehistoric American Southwest. We suggest that intensifying managerial problems associated with the transition to sedentism may have selected for suprahousehold sociopolitical organizations. Based on cross-cultural data, a set of theoretical expectations concerning social differentiation and leadership development is formulated which focuses on regularities in the regional settlement pattern and intrasettlement distribution of architectural features and material goods. These expectations are then used to generate a set of propositions which are evaluated archaeologically using data from early pithouse villages. On the basis of a test of these propositions it appears that simple suprahousehold decision-making organizations were present in the American Southwest by A.D. 600. The implications of this interpretation for understanding subsequent developments in Southwestern prehistoric sociopolitical organization are then discussed.