Village formation during the Pueblo III to Pueblo IV period transition: Contextualizing Bryant Ranch Pueblo, Arizona

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms structuring increasing aggregation during the late-thirteenth century in the Silver Creek drainage in East-Central Arizona has been central to the Silver Creek Archaeological Project's research over the last ten years. Key questions about this pattern of increasing village size and sedentism concern the changing social and economic environment, particularly the emerging Pueblo IV craft and subsistence economies. Excavation and analysis data from a small site that immediately pre-dates the Pueblo IV-period aggregation, Bryant Ranch Pueblo, allows us to better understand the trends in this transition. This study examines evidence of craft production and circulation through compositional analyses, as well as ceramic consumption patterns through multivariate analyses of the ceramic assemblages to address the changing social and economic contexts in the Silver Creek region and its surroundings during this transition.