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- Title
PUSHING THE LIMITS AND TORMENTING CORN SEEDS: CULTURAL ADAPTATIONS AND CLIMATIC CHANGE IN THE UPPER SAN JUAN DURING THE BASKETMAKER II PERIOD AND BEYOND.
- Authors
Bellorado, Benjamin A.
- Abstract
Following the initial introduction of maize farming to the northern Southwest, farming techniques and corn varieties diversified in many areas of the region during the Basketmaker II period, but appear to have remained relatively unchanged in the Upper San Juan and Durango areas until much later. Throughout the area occupied by Eastern Basketmaker groups, populations appear to have shared a similar suite of agricultural land use practices focusing primarily on utilization of alluvial fan ecological niches. Patterns of periodic demographic shifts by farmers in the area appear to have been spurred in part by climatic fluctuation that changed the ecology of these alluvial fan settings at various times in prehistory. I present new data from analyses of ancient agricultural systems used by early farming peoples throughout the Durango and Upper San Juan areas, and experimentation with the limitations of these systems. These data provide new insights into prehistoric cultural variability and new methods to better test archaeological interpretations of the relationships between climate change and human subsistence through time.
- Subjects
SAN Juan River Watershed (Colo.-Utah); COLORADO; UTAH; UNITED States; CLIMATE change; BASKETMAKER culture (Southwestern United States); CORN; AGRICULTURE; SUBSISTENCE farming; LAND use; AGRICULTURAL history
- Publication
Southwestern Lore, 2011, Vol 77, Issue 2/3, p33
- ISSN
0038-4844
- Publication type
Article