Grants
Program
Two archaeologists were awarded Arroyo Hondo Grants during 1999
which enabled them to come to the SAR campus and access the Arroyo Hondo
collection:
Ann Palkovich
George Mason University
"Bioarchaeology of Prehistoric
Southwestern Pueblos"
Dr. Palkovich was in residence at SAR in late June/early July, and
was re-examining portions of the Arroyo Hondo collection as part of a
larger project to use current approaches in bioarchaeology to compile a
regional synthesis of Pueblo populations. A major component of this
research was the development of models to assess variation in the
specificity and reliability of data generated in different eras of work.
Jason S. Shapiro
University of
Maryland
"Fingerprints on the Landscape: Space Syntax
Analysis and Cultural Evolution"
This study uses space syntax analysis to infer changes in social organization from changes in the spatial organization of prehistoric settlements. Although prehistoric architecture has been studied in the Southwest for over 100 years, most approaches have focused upon descriptions, measurements, and room counts without explaining fundamental relationships between the built and social environments. Space syntax analysis provides a set of techniques for isolating, explaining, and giving meaning to those relationships. The subject of the analysis is Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, located near Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the 14th century, Arroyo Hondo had well over 1,000 rooms built in a series of orthogonal roomblock-plaza arrangements. This pueblo was selected for study because it is representative of northern Rio Grande settlements in terms of time, place, and cultural sequences, and is distinguished by having a well-developed and accessible archaeological record.
Studies investigating social organization among prehistoric pueblos have traditionally focused upon material traits such as settlement size, differential mortuary treatment, long-distance trade, and public construction. Space syntax analysis does not eschew, but complements, these approaches by considering the spatial correlates to other material changes while providing a degree of sensitivity to spatial behavior that is not otherwise available. Numerical values derived from space syntax formulae suggest that the arrangement of space within the roomblocks at Arroyo Hondo changed over time from being relatively more accessible and integrated to being more inaccessible and segregated. In addition, over the course of a few generations, plazas became increasingly important as public community spaces. Most importantly, the data reveal the change in spatial organization despite the absence of a concomitant material phase change. Comparative analyses were conducted using data from the pueblos of Tijeras, Puy, and Acoma, all of which support the assertion that a particular "model" of pueblo spatial arrangement developed by the 14th century and survived into the historic period.
Read more about the Arroyo Hondo Grants
program.
