The American Southwest

Question 1

Paleo-Indian Period

Answer 1

• Earliest human occupation 10-12 ka
• initially hunter-gatherers following megafauna, but focus switched to bison and deer when those went extinct
• Largely stayed close to water sources, using nets for fishing
• Hunted using the atlatl (spear launcher)

Question 2

Archaic Period

Answer 2

• Transition from hunter-gatherers to agriculture and a seasonal cycle of areas to live in
• New subsistence strategies like grindstones for making flour, and bows and arrows
• Several distinct material culture groups
• basket makers made distinct baskets which act as evidence of their migration across the US and shift to sedentary life with permanent agriculture
• Maize was introduced during this period
• 3 main pre-Columbian cultures formed

Question 3

Ancestral Puebloans

Answer 3

• Name given because of their ancestral relationship to a modern Indigenous group named the Puebloans by the Spanish
• Best known for their stone and earth settlements along cliff walls
• Large multi-residential buildings made of stone, adobe, or carved into cliff walls
  Buildings included viewsheds of the natural landscape
• Communities of hundreds or thousands
• Extensive trade network
• Intensive water management was required because of the arid conditions
• Irrigation techniques such as canals, check dams, terraces, and water storage systems
• Most famous for their coil pottery. It was usually black on white with geometric designs and animals
• Culture ended when they migrated Southwest to areas with more reliable water
• Possible deliberate abandonment of ceremonial structures - oral tradition states that their practices threw nature out of balance so they wanted to forget them

Question 4

Chaco Canyon

Answer 4

• 12 km canyon with a periodic stream called the Chaco Wash
• Capital of the Ancestral Puebloans was here
• Centre of the canyon has the largest complexes in Pueblo Bonito
• Great house on 2 acres with 650 rooms, divided by a wall with a kiva on either side. Scale rivals the colosseum and it was built with stone tools
• A kiva is an area for political meetings and ceremonial rituals

Question 5

Mesa Verde

Answer 5

• Famous settlement on top of a mesa
• Sustained by seasonal snowmelt, summer rain, seeps, and springs
• Most famous site is a cliff palace made of mudbrick

Question 6

Hohokam

Answer 6

• Associated with the Gila and Salt river drainage basins
• No unified political entity, instead they were loosely held together by economics
• Best known for their large scale irrigation using dug-earth canals and weirs
• Their advanced canal system resulted in large-scale agriculture production that could support an extensive settlement for up to 1500 years

Question 7

Snaketown

Answer 7

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