Dendroarchaeology of the Navajo Occupation of the Southwest

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With National Science Foundation support Drs. Jeffrey Dean and Ronald Tower will conduct dendrochronological analysis on a massive collection of wood collected from both prehistoric and historic Navaho sites. Assembled in response to a court case involving land claims, this collection of great potential anthropological siginficance was only partially studied and this award will allow detailed analysis and the construction of a readily accessible data base which will be of value to a wide range of scientists.Dendrochronological information from other projects will also be standardized and included. Drs. Dean and Tower will also use the data to address a series of anthropological questions. The project will significantly refine the chronology of events and processes important for understanding the Navajo adaptation to the Southwest since dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is the most accurate and precise archaeological dating method available to scholars interested in the recent past. Although the Navajo are relative latecomers to the US Southwest and arrived after 1,200 their occupation predates Spanish arrival and thus they adapted to this major transition. They also adopted pastoralism as a major subsistence strategy. Thus archaeologists can gain insight into the processes of cultural change and adaptation through the study of their past. The dendrochronological data will allow one to address questions of Navajo social organization and change and relate shifts in settlement pattern and social organization to both environmental and social variables. Impacts of the introduction of metal tools and horses, timing and mechanisms for the incorporation of non-Navajos into Navajo culture, the consequences of the transition to pastoralism and a range of other issues can be examined. The project will also aid in calibrating other dating techniques such as radiocarbon, archaeomagnetism, ceramic seriation and obsidian hydration.