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Surface Archaeology of the Red Knobs Site, a Southeastern Utah Great House
Abstract and Figures
Red Knobs is a large Anasazi site in southeastern Utah. It was a community center twice—first around A.D. 900, then again in the early to mid-1100s. The later occupation incorporated some of the architectural symbolism associated with Chacoan great houses, including a great kiva and a prehistoric road. Other characteristics, including having been built on top of an earlier community center, seem symbolic but are not clearly Chacoan. Also, ceramics suggest substantial local production with economic ties strongest to the southwest rather than the southeast toward Chaco or Aztec. It appears that connections to Chaco, if any, were relatively indirect. Other southeastern Utah great houses are highly variable, but share both the Chacoan architectural symbolism and the tendency to be located on the ruins of large, late Pueblo I villages. This suggests attempts to evoke connections both to the large, distant Chacoan centers and to local precursors.
RESUMEN
Red Knobs (Mesitas Rojas) es un gran pueblo Anasazi en el sureste de Utah. Fue un centro de comunidad dos veces—La primera vez, approximadamente 900 d.C, y la otra vez durante el siglo doce. La gente que vivía durante los años 1100 d.C. incorporaron simbolismo arquitectónico asociado con las casas grandes de Chaco, incluso un gran kiva y un camino prehistórico. Otras caraterísticas, incluso la construcción encima de un centro de communidad anterior, se parece simbólico pero no son Chaqueo. También, los cerámicos indican substancial producción local con conexiónes hasta el suroeste, y no al sureste y Chaco o Aztec. Se parece que los conexiónes con Chaco, si existiearon, fueron indirectos. Otros casas grandes del sureste de Utah son muy variable, pero comparte el simbolismo arquitectónico de Chaco y la inclinación de encontrarse en ruinas de un gran aldea de Pueblo I. Esto sugiere tentativas de evocar las conexiónes ambas a los centros grandes, distantes de Chaco y a los precursores locales.
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The goal of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of the diversity of settlement patterns during the Pueblo I period (ca. A.D. 750-900) of the northern San Juan drainage. The analysis of surface data from a number of sites located on the upland environment of Elk Ridge, in southeast Utah, documents a seasonal settlement pattern focused on communal agriculture and storage of surpluses. The attempt to farm this high altitude environment took place during a period of warm and dry conditions and, it is argued, was undertaken in order to supplement the produce derived from floodplain farming nearer the community centers in the adjacent lowlands of the Cottonwood-Comb region. By the latter half of the Pueblo I on Elk Ridge, there is evidence for year-round settlement, presumably as a result of increased economic productivity and associated socio-demographic changes. Despite the importance of this upland environment to a developing, regional production system, a lowland-upland (center-periphery) socio-economic relationship is maintained. It is argued that the unique environment and innovative methods of farming structured the patterns of settlement and interaction in the area, while established regional social networks prevented, to a certain extent, the development of a larger, independent community. © 2004
This article describes several roads with apparent associations with the Bluff Great House site (42Sa22674) in southeastern Utah. These descriptions underscore the similarity of these features with other such features in the northern Southwest, including roads and road-related features in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. The differing configurations and contexts of the Bluff Great House roads suggest opportunities to explore community organization and identity, Puebloan cosmology, and emergence narratives.
Archaeologists working in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest have documented variability in sociopolitical and economic complexity, landscape use, community organization, mobility, and violence at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales from AD 500–1700. Recent studies have a strong synthetic orientation, employ methods that track material culture, mobility, and social networks at macroregional scales, and benefit from a renewed engagement with indigenous peoples. Much of this research relies on integrating vast amounts of data from numerous academic and cultural resource management projects and demonstrates the promise of an archaeology that relies on the cumulative acquisition and sharing of data. Given the scale and depth of this research, Ancestral Pueblo archaeology is an exceptional comparative case for archaeologists considering similar processes, especially at fine temporal and wide geographical scales, in ancient farming societies across the globe.
Results of a surface survey of Morris Sites 9. 13, 15, 27, and 33 are presented. Based on mapped surface evidence it appears that Sites 13 (5MT2830) and 33 (5MT2831) together represent a single, nearly continuous line of Pueblo I roomblocks that stretches for over 600 m. Analysis of ceramics from the middens of these sites and other sites 700 m (5MT2829) and 1500 m (5MT2826) to the east demonstrates a primary occupation between A.D. 830–850. Roomblock length can be used to estimate a prehistoric peak momentary population of 600 people for the four sites. Based on these and other data we argue that the traditional model of Pueblo I development, a model that emphasizes small sites and gradual growth, is fundamentally flawed.
RESUMEN
En este estudio se presentan los resultados obtenidos del reconocimiento de superficie que se realizó en un grupo de sitios identificados, tiempo atras, por Morris como los Sitios 9,13,15, 27 y 33. Los mapas de supeficie dieron evidencias suficientes para afirmar que los sitios 13 (5MT2830) y 33 (5MT2831) son en realidad un conjunto de estructuras habitacionales alineadas y continuas de la etapa Pueblo I que se extienden a lo largo de 600 m. También se llevo al cabo una recolección cerámica en algunas de las concentraciones de basura de estos sitios (13 y 33) y en dos sitios mas: el SMT2829 700 metros al este y el SMT2826 a 1500 metros en la misma dirección. El análisis de la cerámica demostró que la ocupación principal ocurrió entre los años 830 y 850 d.C. El tamaño de los conjunto habitacionales se utilizó para estimar que la población máxima de los cuatro sitios durante este corto lapso de tiempo fue de 600 personas. Con base en lo anterior v en otros datos, debatimos que el modelo tradicional de desarrollo conocido para la fase Pueblo I (este modelo que hace énfasis en la existencia de sitios pequeños con crecimiento gradual) es esencialmente deficiente.
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