Settlement Patterns, Scheduling Conflicts, and Climate Variability: An Explanation for the Collapse of the Shivwits Ware Distribution Network

Abstract

During the middle Pueblo II period, a thriving ceramic distribution network linked the upland areas of northwestern Arizona with the lowland areas of southern Nevada. One kind of pottery transported through this network was Shivwits Ware, made on the southern end of the Shivwits Plateau, Arizona. Despite being located some 115 kilometers (70 mi) from the latter area, middle Pueblo II inhabitants of the Moapa Valley, Nevada, regularly acquired and used Shivwits Ware jars. By the late Pueblo II period, however, this ceramic distribution network had collapsed. This paper explores possible causes of the collapse by investigating changes in settlement patterns and landscape usage on the Shivwits Plateau. These data suggest that the collapse of the ceramic distribution network coincided with a shift in subsistence strategies triggered by climatic changes.

Durante el medio del período Pueblo II, una próspera red de distribución de cerámica vinculada las zonas altas del noroeste Arizona con las zonas bajas del sur de Nevada. Un tipo de cerámica transportada a través de esta red era Shivwits Ware, producida en el extremo sur del meseta de Shivwits, Arizona. A pesar de estar ubicado a unos 115 kilometros (70 millas) de esta última área, los habitantes del medio del período Pueblo II del valle de Moapa, Nevada, adquirido regularmente y usado frascas de Shivwits Ware. Al final del periodo Pueblo II, sin embargo, esta red de distribución de cerámica habia derrumbado. Este artículo explora posibles causas del colapso investigando cambios en los patrones de asentamiento y el uso del paisaje en la meseta de Shivwits. Estos datos sugieren que el colapso del comercio cerámica coincidió con un cambia en las estrategias de subsistencia desencadenado por los cambios climáticos.

KEYWORDS:

• Virgin Branch Puebloan culture
• exchange networks
• settlement patterns
• Shivwits Ware
• subsistence strategies
• adaptation to risk
• GIS
• Archaeology of the Grand Canyon

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the assistance of staff from the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Bureau of Land Management's Parashant National Monument. In particular, the senior author would like to thank Steve Daron for his many years of professional collaboration and personal friendship. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, which have greatly improved the article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Though Sakai (2014; this volume) suggests some Moapa Ware vessels also have been produced in the Lowlands.

2 Allison (2000:128–129) proposes that, annually during the Middle Pueblo II period, between 7 and 10 Shivwits vessels were brought into the sites recorded during the Muddy River Survey (documented by Alexander 1973) and another 10–12 vessels were brought into the Main Ridge sites (documented by Lyneis 1992). This provides a minimum estimate of 17–22 vessels entering the Moapa Valley per year. However, as Allison notes, numerous other middle Pueblo II period houses and sites exist in the valley that are not included in this estimate. As a rough guess, perhaps 75% of the middle Pueblo II households were included in this estimate; assuming this is approximately correct, we estimate that between about 23 and 29 Shivwits Ware vessels entered the Moapa Valley annually at the height of the distribution network.

3 The categories provided by SWReGAP were reclassified into fewer groupings, based on their ecological similarities (Osborne 2008).

4 In many areas of the world, ceramic production locations are identifiable by the presence of kilns, pottery production tools, and wasters. Because Shivwits Ware ceramics were fired in open fires (as indicted by their oxidized pastes and other firing characteristics), however, kilns should not be present. As well, because their surfaces were not polished, polishing stones should be rare or absent. And finally, as Sullivan (1988) has shown, wasters are rarely associated with pottery production in the North American Southwest, due to the relatively low firing temperatures used. Due to these complications, in this paper we rely on distance to resources and the relative abundance of Shivwits Ware ceramics to infer production area. Based on Arnold’s (1988:38–50) finding that potters who rely on foot transport rarely travel more than 7 kilometers to acquire clay, we assume that the Shivwits Ware ceramics were produced near areas containing basaltic clays. Additionally, based the “criterion of relative abundance” postulate (which proposes that pottery was produced where it occurs in the greatest abundance), we assume that area(s) exhibiting the highest proportions of Shivwits Ware pottery were probable production locales.

5 Data obtained from excavations of nine habitation sites on the Shivwits Plateau suggests that the inhabitants lived at those settlements for most or all of the year, and relied heavily on cultivated resources. Evidence for this conclusion derives from (a) the recovery of pollen from the spring through fall seasons; (b) a high degree of architectural investment; (c) the large amount of storage space; and (d) a high diversity in material culture (Harry and Willis 2019; Van Alstyne 2018).