The general architectural transition from semi-subterranean pithouses to surface pueblos that occurred across the prehistoric North American Southwest has been attributed to increased agricultural dependence. In this study macrobotanical ubiquity scores, percentages, diversity, and richness were compared between pithouse and pueblo assemblages from the NAN Ranch Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico, to assess whether or not the macrobotanical evidence supported a link between increased agricultural dependence and the pithouse to pueblo transition at the site. Rarely were differences between values of relative macrobotanical abundance from the two periods found to be significant. Ubiquity analyses provided some evidence for greater agricultural dependence in the pueblo period. Ubiquity scores declined between the pithouse and pueblo periods for all taxa recovered from both periods, except maize (Zea mays L.) and goosefoot (Chenopodium spp.), an aggressive agricultural weed, probably because the puebloan occupants of the NAN Ranch Ruin relied more on maize agriculture than did the pithouse occupants at the site. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was recovered only from pueblo deposits, perhaps indicating that this crop was not grown during the earlier pithouse period. Significant differences that were detected between pithouse and pueblo values of relative macrobotanical abundance were most likely due to the effect of variable sample sizes, when all samples were combined for analysis, regardless of their recovery contexts. Although the effect of variable sample volume was controlled by analysis of sub-samples representing five liters of excavated soil, the sub-samples varied in the number of specimens present. This finding illustrates the effect of variable numbers of specimens per sample on measures of relative abundance and the importance of comparing similar contexts in quantitative studies.

Diss.--graduate college--university of Oklahoma, Norman, 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 210-232.

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This reappraisal of archaeology conducted at the Saige-McFarland site presents for the first time a substantial body of comparative data from a Mimbres period site in the Gila drainage. Lekson offers a new and controversial interpretation of the Mimbres sequence, reintroducing the concept of the Mangas phase first proposed by the Gila Pueblo investigations of the 1930s and demonstrating a more gradual shift from pithouse to pueblo occupance than has been suggested previously.

Climate-sensitive tree ring chronologies and modern climate data are used to produce prehistoric estimates of summer drought for the Mimbres and Pinelawn-Reserve areas in New Mexico. The nature of these estimates are evaluated using tenets of the Anasazi behavioral model. It is concluded that many of the behavioral processes associated with prehistoric populations on the southern Colorado Plateaus can be seen operating within the two Mogollon areas selected for study. As they have on the plateaus, processes in past human behavior can be linked to three factors: prehistoric efforts to intensify agricultural production, fluctuations in population group size, and increases (or decreases) in summer drought.

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This paper presents research on isolated human remains from Grasshopper Pueblo and analyzes the processes by which bone becomes displaced from burials. Isolated human bone has never been systematically examined, which represents a significant gap in the study of the prehistoric American Southwest. This research is important because it is the first determination of the pattern of isolated bone found at an archaeological site and the formation processes that are responsible. It is also relevant for the creation of a standard isolated bone methodology and because it enables a better understanding of burial assemblages and anomalous assemblages of culturally modified bone.Subadults dominate the assemblage and larger elements are better represented than smaller elements. Most of the modifications present are postmortem but perimortem breakage and toolmarks are also present. This research produced a baseline of detailed data on isolated human bone in which patterns and anomalies can be inferred; the results suggest multiple causes of the isolation of the specimens, including prehistoric cultural disturbance, rodent disturbance, and the process of excavation.