Matching Items (5)
Description
Understanding agricultural land use requires the integration of natural factors, such as climate and nutrients, as well as human factors, such as agricultural intensification. Employing an agroecological framework, I use the Perry Mesa landscape, located in central Arizona, as a case study to explore the intersection of these factors to investigate prehistoric agriculture from A.D. 1275-1450. Ancient Perry Mesa farmers used a runoff agricultural strategy and constructed extensive alignments, or terraces, on gentle hillslopes to slow and capture nutrient rich surface runoff generated from intense rainfall. I investigate how the construction of agricultural terraces altered key parameters (water and nutrients) necessary for successful agriculture in this arid region. Building upon past work focused on agricultural terraces in general, I gathered empirical data pertaining to nutrient renewal and water retention from one ancient runoff field. I developed a long-term model of maize growth and soil nutrient dynamics parameterized using nutrient analyses of runoff collected from the sample prehistoric field. This model resulted in an estimate of ideal field use and fallow periods for maintaining long-term soil fertility under different climatic regimes. The results of the model were integrated with estimates of prehistoric population distribution and geographical characterizations of the arable lands to evaluate the places and periods when sufficient arable land was available for the type of cropping and fallowing systems suggested by the model (given the known climatic trends and land use requirements). Results indicate that not only do dry climatic periods put stress on crops due to reduced precipitation but that a reduction in expected runoff events results in a reduction in the amount of nutrient renewal due to fewer runoff events. This reduction lengthens estimated fallow cycles, and probably would have increased the amount of land necessary to maintain sustainable agricultural production. While the overall Perry Mesa area was not limited in terms of arable land, this analysis demonstrates the likely presence of arable land pressures in the immediate vicinity of some communities. Anthropological understandings of agricultural land use combined with ecological tools for investigating nutrient dynamics provides a comprehensive understanding of ancient land use in arid regions.
ContributorsKruse-Peeples, Melissa R (Author) / Spielmann, Katherine A. (Thesis advisor) / Abbott, David R. (Committee member) / Hall, Sharon J. (Committee member) / Kintigh, Keith W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
My dissertation contributes to a body of knowledge useful for understanding the evolution of subsistence economies based on agriculture from those based on hunting and gathering, as well as the development of formal rules and norms of territorial ownership in hunter-gatherer societies. My research specifically combines simple formal and conceptual models with the empirical analysis of large ethnographic and environmental data sets to study feedback processes in coupled forager-resource systems. I use the formal and conceptual models of forager-resource systems as tools that aid in the development of two alternative arguments that may explain the adoption of food production and formal territorial ownership among hunter-gatherers. I call these arguments the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis and the Social Opportunity Hypothesis. Based on the logic of these arguments, I develop expectations for patterns of food production and formal territorial ownership documented in the ethnographic record of hunter-gatherer societies and evaluate these expectations with large ethnographic and environmental data sets. My analysis suggests that the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis is more consistent with the data than the Social Opportunity Hypothesis. Overall, my approach combines the intellectual frameworks of evolutionary ecology and resilience thinking. The result is a theory of subsistence change that integrates elements of three classic models of economic development with deep intellectual roots in human ecology: The Malthusian, Boserupian and Weberian models. A final take home message of my study is that evolutionary ecology and resilience thinking are complementary frameworks for archaeologists who study the transition from hunting and gathering to farming.
ContributorsFreeman, Jacob (Author) / Anderies, John M (Thesis advisor) / Nelson, Margaret C. (Thesis advisor) / Barton, C Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This dissertation examines the various factors and processes that have been proposed as explanations for the spread of agriculture in the west Mediterranean. The expansion of the Neolithic in the west Mediterranean (the Impresso-Cardial Neolithic) is characterized by a rapid spread of agricultural subsistence and material culture from the southern portion of the Italian peninsula to the western coast of the Iberian peninsula. To address this unique case, four conceptual models of Neolithic spread have been proposed: the Wave of Advance, the Capillary Spread Model, the Maritime Pioneer Colonization Model and the Dual Model. An agent-based model, the Cardial Spread Model, was built to simulate each conceptual spread model in a spatially explicit environment for comparison with evidence from the archaeological record. Chronological information detailing the arrival of the Neolithic was used to create a map of the initial arrival of the Neolithic (a chronosurface) throughout the study area. The results of each conceptual spread model were then compared to the chronosurface in order to evaluate the relative performance of each conceptual model of spread. These experiments suggest that both the Dual and Maritime Pioneer Colonization models best fit the available chronological and spatial distribution of the Impresso-Cardial Neolithic.
For the purpose of informing agent movement and improving the fit of the conceptual spread models, a variety of paleoenvironmental maps were tested within the Cardial Spread Model. The outcome of these experiments suggests that topographic slope was an important factor in settlement location and that rivers were important vectors of transportation for early Neolithic migration. This research demonstrates the application of techniques rare to archaeological analysis, agent-based modeling and the inclusion of paleoenvironmental information, and provides a valuable tool that future researchers can utilize to further evaluate and fabricate new models of Neolithic expansion.
For the purpose of informing agent movement and improving the fit of the conceptual spread models, a variety of paleoenvironmental maps were tested within the Cardial Spread Model. The outcome of these experiments suggests that topographic slope was an important factor in settlement location and that rivers were important vectors of transportation for early Neolithic migration. This research demonstrates the application of techniques rare to archaeological analysis, agent-based modeling and the inclusion of paleoenvironmental information, and provides a valuable tool that future researchers can utilize to further evaluate and fabricate new models of Neolithic expansion.
ContributorsBergin, Sean M (Author) / Barton, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Janssen, Marco (Committee member) / Coudart, Anick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This thesis explores the independent effects of the manipulation of rocks into alignments, prehistoric farming, and season on soil properties in two areas with a history of prehistoric agriculture in central Arizona, Pueblo la Plata within the Agua Fria National Monument (AFNM), and an archaeological site north of the Phoenix basin along Cave Creek (CC). Soil properties, annual herbaceous biomass and the physical properties of alignments and surface soils were measured and compared across the landscape, specifically on: 1) agricultural rock alignments that were near the archaeological site 2) geologically formed rock alignments that were located 0.5-1 km away from settlements; and 3) areas both near and far from settlements where rock alignments were absent. At AFNM, relatively well-built rock alignments have altered soil properties and processes while less-intact alignments at CC have left few legacies.
ContributorsTrujillo, Jolene Eve (Author) / Hall, Sharon J (Thesis advisor) / Collins, Scott L. (Committee member) / Spielmann, Katherine A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Prehistoric farmers in the semi-arid American Southwest were challenged by marked spatial and temporal variation in, and overall low levels of, precipitation with which to grow their crops. One strategy they employed was to modify their landscape with rock alignments in order to concentrate surface water flow on their fields. A second challenge that has been less focused on by archaeologists is the need to maintain soil fertility by replenishing nutrients removed from the soil by agricultural crops. Numerous studies have shown that rock alignments can result in long-lasting impacts on soil properties and fertility. However, the direction and magnitude of change is highly variable. While previous work has emphasized the importance of overland flow in replenishing soil nutrient pools, none have investigated the influence of eolian deposition as a contributor of mineral-derived nutrients. This thesis explores the effects of the construction of rock alignments, agricultural harvest, and eolian deposition on soil properties and fertility on Perry Mesa within the Agua Fria National Monument. This site experienced dramatic population increase in the late 1200s and marked depopulation in the early 1400s. Since that time, although agriculture ceased, the rock alignments have remains, continuing to influence runoff and sediment deposition. In the summer of 2009, I investigated deep soil properties and mineral-derived nutrients on fields near Pueblo La Plata, one of the largest pueblos on Perry Mesa. To examine the effects of rock alignments and agricultural harvest independent of one another, I sampled soils from replicated plots behind alignments paired with nearby plots that are not bordered by an alignment in both areas of high and low prehistoric agricultural intensity. I investigated soil provenance and the influence of deposition on mineral-derived nutrients through analysis of the chemical composition of the soil, bedrock and dust. Agricultural rock alignments were significantly associated with differences in soil texture, but neither rock alignments nor agricultural history were associated with significant differences in mineral-derived nutrients. Instead, eolian deposition may explain why nutrient pools are similar across agricultural history and rock alignment presence. Eolian deposition homogenized the surface soil, reducing the spatial heterogeneity of soils. Dust is important both as a parent material to the soils on Perry Mesa, and also a source of mineral-derived nutrients. This investigation suggests that prehistoric agriculture on Perry Mesa was not likely limited by long term soil fertility, but instead could have been sustained by eolian inputs.
ContributorsNakase, Dana Kozue (Author) / Hall, Sharon (Thesis advisor) / Spielmann, Katherine (Committee member) / Hartshorn, Anthony (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012