Research on the Pueblo culture settlement system from the North American Southwest: Results of the Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project

Abstract

Investigating ancient Pueblo culture from the North American Southwest is challenging task involving cooperationof scientists from different disciplines, mainly archaeology, history, anthropology, and linguistics. There isalso a large body of information in native oral tradition that has enormous potential for enriching our knowledgeof the past and our understanding of how Pueblo societies functioned. The paper focuses on one of the mostintriguing periods of Pueblo Indians culture, the thirteenth century A.D., in the central Mesa Verde region onpresent Utah-Colorado border. It was the time of great development of Pueblo societies and close to the centuryfall of the settlement system and total migration from the area to what is present-day Arizona and New Mexico.One of the projects in the area is Sand Canyon-Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project. The projectfocuses on analysis and reconstruction of the settlement structure and socio-cultural changes that took placein Pueblo culture during the thirteenth century A.D. in Sand Canyon, Rock Creek Canyon and several othersmall canyons located in one subarea within the Mesa Verde region, Colorado.

Keywords

• Pueblo culture
• Mesa Verde region
• Sand Canyon
• Castle Rock Pueblo
• defensive architecture
• settlement structure