Estimating population size, density and dynamics of Pre-Pottery Neolithic villages in the central and southern Levant: an analysis of Beidha, southern Jordan

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) of the central and southern Levant played an integral role in the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT) from mobile hunter-gatherer to village-based, agro-pastoralist societies. An understanding of population dynamics is essential for reconstructing the trajectories of these early village societies. However, few investigations have produced absolute estimates of population parameters for these villages and those which have base estimates on a limited methodological framework. This research examines the methodological and theoretical basis for existing estimates, and explores a range of methodologies in order to derive more empirically-robust demographic data. Results reveal that commonly utilized methodologies and population density coefficients employed for estimating PPN village populations require re-evaluation. This article presents the application of methodologies to the PPNB site of Beidha in southern Jordan

Sedentism and Mobility in a Social Landscape

Research on hunting and gathering peoples has given anthropologists a long-standing conceptual framework of sedentism and mobility based on seasonality and ecological constraints. This work challenges that position by arguing that mobility is a socially negotiated activity and that neither mobility nor sedentism can be understood outside of its social context. Drawing on research in the Mesa Verde region that focuses on communities and households, Mark Varien expands the social, spatial, and temporal scales of archaeological analysis to propose a new model for population movement. Rather than viewing sedentism and mobility as opposing concepts, he demonstrates that they were separate strategies that were simultaneously employed. Households moved relatively frequently--every one or two generations--but communities persisted in the same location for much longer. Varien shows that individuals and households negotiated their movements in a social landscape structured by these permanent communities. Varien's research clearly demonstrates the need to view agriculturalists from a perspective that differs from the hunter-gatherer model. This innovative study shows why current explanations for site abandonment cannot by themselves account for residential mobility and offers valuable insights into the archaeology of small-scale agriculture

Emergence of the Neolithic in the Southwest United States: A Case Study from the Mesa Verde Region

We examine the emergence of the Neolithic in the Southwest United States by focusing on the Mesa Verde region and the research we have conducted there as a part of the Village Ecodynamics Project. The Mesa Verde region has many characteristics that make it an ideal place to study the emergence of the Neolithic. The region has about 20.000 recorded archaeological sites. These sites are highly visible because there has been relatively little erosion or deposition. The arid climate has resulted in remarkable preservation, and tree-ring dating provides precise chronological resolution. Tree rings also allow annual reconstructions of temperature and precipitation. Finally, Pueblo Indians continue to live in New Mexico and Arizona today, and their oral traditions can be combined with archaeological information to provide a more complete and inclusive reconstruction of the Pueblo past. We examine the lengthy occupation of the Mesa Verde region to better understand the relationship between the following key elements of the Neolithic: the introduction of domesticated food production, the causes and consequences of population growth, the effects of climate change, the intensification of the warfare, the degree of sedentism and frequency of population movement, the formation of villages, and the emergence of complex social and political organization.En el presente trabajo se analiza el surgimiento del Neolítico en el Suroeste de los Estados Unidos sobre la base de la región de Mesa Verde y las investigaciones que los autores han dirigido como parte del Village Ecodynamics Project (VEP). Esta región tiene muchas características que la hacen ideal para estudiar el surgimiento del Neolítico. Tiene cerca de 20.000 sitios arqueológicos registrados que son bastante visibles debido a la relativamente poca erosión y los escasos procesos de deposición. El clima árido ha motivado una conservación notable y el fechado dendrocronológico ha proporcionado una definición cronológica precisa. Las series de anillos de los árboles también han permitido reconstrucciones anuales de la temperatura y las precipitaciones. Por último, los indios pueblo aún viven en New Mexico y Arizona en la actualidad, y sus tradiciones orales pueden ser combinadas con información arqueológica para brindar una reconstrucción más completa, inclusive, del pasado de estos grupos humanos. Se examina la larga ocupación de la región de Mesa Verde para entender mejor la relación entre los siguientes elementos clave del Neolítico: la introducción de una producción de alimentos domesticados, las causas y consecuencias del crecimiento poblacional, los efectos del cambio climático, la intensificación de la guerra, el grado de sedentarismo y la frecuencia del movimiento de poblaciones, la formación de aldeas y, por último, el surgimiento de la organización social y política compleja

The social consequences of climate change in the Central Mesa Verde region

The consequences of climate change vary over space and time. Effective studies of human responses to climatically induced environmental change must therefore sample the environmental diversity experienced by specific societies. We reconstruct population histories from A.D. 600 to 1280 in six environmentally distinct portions of the central Mesa Verde region in southwestern Colorado, relating these to climate-driven changes in agricultural potential. In all but one subregion, increases in maize-niche size led to increases in population size. Maize-niche size is also positively correlated with regional estimates of birth rates. High birth rates continued to accompany high population levels even as productive conditions declined in the A.D. 1200s. We reconstruct prominent imbalances between the maize-niche size and population densities in two subregions from A.D. 1140 to 1180 and from A.D. 1225 to 1260. We propose that human responses in those subregions, beginning by the mid-A.D. 1200s, contributed to violence and social collapse across the entire society. Our findings are relevant to discussions of how climate change will affect contemporary societies.Schwindt, D.M., Bocinsky, R.K., Ortman, S.G., Glowacki, D.M., Varien, M.D., & Kohler, T. (2016). The social consequences of climate change in the Central Mesa Verde region. American Antiquity, 81(1): 74-96