The Eastern Mesa Verde Region:

How Agriculture Took Hold in the Mesa Verde Region: A Review of Recent Research on the Late Basketmaker-Early Pueblo Periods (A.D. 500-920)

“…Artiodactyls (i.e., deer and elk) and jackrabbits dominated the faunal remains, but a surprising amount of turkey bone was also present (Potter 2012). Turkey typically was not a critical resource until three centuries later when other game resources were increasingly scarce and domesticated turkey was used to supplement meat protein in the diet.…”

“…Crucible of Pueblos offers a wide-ranging overview of the period, but the chapters most immediately useful for someone working in the Mesa Verde region are the summary chapters on the three Mesa Verde subregions, with the Eastern Mesa Verde covered by key ALP researchers (Potter et al 2012), the Central subregion synthesized by Wilshusen, Ortman, Diederichs, Glowacki, and Coffey (2012), and the Western subregion covered by Allison et al (2012). These chapters bring together comprehensive updates and pay even greater attention to the differences across the Mesa Verde region from the late Basketmaker through the early Pueblo period than was possible in the earlier context chapters (Wilshusen 1999a(Wilshusen , 1999b or in this update.…”

“…Accordingly, the authors tried to assemble a cross section of studies that demonstrated how certain specialties or topics have turned our understanding of the early Pueblo period upside down in the last decade. Although not comprehensive, the special studies chapters discussed current issues such as how gender roles were redefined in the period (Wilshusen and Perry 2012), how social power appears to have been expressed through cuisine (Potter 2012), how patterns of social identity can be traced through time in perishable items (Webster 2012), and how to use multiple lines of evidence from sources we often ignore (rock art, historical linguistics, and architectural variables) to make a more complete argument about changes in Pueblo leadership from A.D. 650 to after A.D. 950 (Wilshusen, Ortman, and Phillips 2012). Reviews in Colorado Archaeology 1:69-95…”

“…Wilshusen, Ortman, and Phillips (2012:208) suggest that "[t]he significant change brought about by village formation … was the unification of private and public ritual in a single built environment. " These authors and others argue that the transformation of community socioreligious institutions, feasting, the control of ritual knowledge, and securitynot overly conspicuous individual or household wealth differences-was at the heart of the political organization and the power garnered by particular households or individuals in these early villages (Potter 2012;Wilshusen, Hurst, and Chuipka 2012;Wilshusen, Ortman, and Phillips 2012;Wilshusen and Potter 2010).…”

Identity is an Infinite Now: Being Instead of Becoming Gallina

“…Groups living throughout the Four Corners that opposed the changing social situation often faced deadly consequences (Potter and Chuipka 2010). This conflict eventually led to Upper San Juan populations moving east and south while groups in the La Plata and Dolores areas within the Mesa Verde region and closest to the Upper San Juan moved west (Eddy 1966(Eddy , 1974Potter et al 2012). People eventually left the Mesa Verde villages by the late AD 800s (Wilshusen et al 2012).…”