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The Use of Faunal Remains for Identifying Shifts in Pit Structure Function in the Mesa Verde Region: a Case Study From Goodman Point

The archaeofaunal remains left by the Ancestral Puebloan people of Goodman Point Unit provides a valuable, yet underutilized resource into pit structure function. This thesis explores temporal changes in pit structure use and evaluates if a final feast occurred during a kiva decommissioning. The results from zooarchaeological analyses of a pithouse and two great kivas suggest that changes in pit structures at Goodman Point mimic the regional trend toward specialization until late Pueblo III. Cross-cultural studies on feasts, southwest ethnographies and previous zooarchaeological work established methods for identifying a feast. The analysis of differences in faunal remains from a great kiva and multiple room block middens imply that the remains in the kiva were from a final feast prior to a decommissioning ceremony and were not fill. Spatially and temporally the great kiva appears to be a unique, specialized structure in the cultural development of the Goodman Point community.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc804909
Date08 1900
CreatorsWinstead, Christy
ContributorsWolverton, Steve, Nagaoka, Lisa Ann, Ferring, Reid
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatvi, 100 pages : illustrations (some color), 1 map, Text
CoverageUnited States - Colorado - Montezuma County
RightsPublic, Winstead, Christy, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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