Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Inter-Community Sociopolitical Relations Among Pueblo IV Settlements: A Case Study from the Jumanos Pueblo Cluster, Central New Mexico

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Under the direction of Dr. Katherine Spielmann, Mr. William Graves will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological excavation at Pueblo Blanco, a late prehistoric site located in the Rio Grande region of New Mexico. Because of extensive prior research in this and comparable areas within the Southwest the general outline of the prehistory is well known. From ca. 1300 to 1450 AD ancestors of the present day Hopi peoples lived in small dispersed settlements. At the end of this time people aggregated into larger sites which formed village clusters. Series of villages, located within kilometers of each other appear to have interacted extensively among themselves and were separated from similar clusters by considerable distance. While this pattern is well described the reasons for it are not well understood. Mr. Graves will concentrate on relationships not between clusters but rather between villages in one individual group. He is interested in the processes which underlie the growth of social complexity and the factors which lead to and maintain centralized control. Such clusters provide an excellent context to examine this issue. Several conflicting models ranging from essential intervillage parity to a hierarchy based on ritual control have been proposed.The Jumanos pueblo cluster consists of four villages of which Pueblo Blanco is one. Under Dr. Spielmann's direction student participants in the Arizona State University summer field school program have excavated two other sites which partially overlap in time and Mr. Graves has conducted a preliminary analysis of the material collected to determine the relationships between them. Excavation of Pueblo Blanco will provide a large enough data base to determine whether a status hierarchy was present and whether control was vested in a single site. Evidence to date, including ritual objects as well as pottery and bison meat imported from considerable distance suggests that such was the case. With National Science Foundation support Mr. Graves will conduct one season of excavation in the extensive trash middens which are widely distributed across the site and analyze the lithic, ceramic and faunal materials recovered.This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on the prehistory of the United States and provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase understanding of how social complexity develops and assist in training a promising young scientist.