PREFACE

Once site types are defined, the second task is to examine the mix and spatial distribution of site types foreach temporal period. The preliminary temporal periods defined here are too coarse to permit anymeaningful analysis. Ideally, the analysis should examine sites known to be contemporaneous, butpractically the time scales used for this analysis are likely to be limited to something like the revisedtemporal divisions suggested in the chronology and culture history section of this chapter. The spatialrelationships among the different site types can provide a general impression of land use patterns and themix of site types associated with each period provides some indication of the mobility strategies beingemployed. Data on the season and relative duration of the occupations are needed to begin reconstructingannual rounds, however.The third task in the settlement pattern analysis is analysis of the association of site locations with variousenvironmental variables. The summaries of site types by temporal period and physiographic/drainagebasin units presented in Chapter 3 provide a first-level approximation of such an analysis, but moredetailed environmental stratification is needed before any meaningful patterning is likely to bediscernible. The models formulated for the Loco Hills and Azotea Mesa areas during the Pump III projectillustrate the level of environmental stratification needed, but those models were intended to predict sitelocation. They do not provide the break-down of sites by temporal period and type needed for settlementpattern analysis, however.A final requirement for settlement pattern analysis is a representative sample of sites from the area beinganalyzed. Ideally, that sample would consist of excavated sites, and the sampling strategy proposed forthe selection of sites for data recovery is directed toward that long-term objective. Initial analyses willhave to rely on survey data, however, which requires completion of a minimum representative samplesurvey of the area being modeled. As discussed in Chapter 3, none of the regional sampling units nowdefined have the survey coverage generally considered necessary for initial modeling. In the short-term,excavation to recover chronological, subsistence, and site structure data is more likely to significantlyadvance our understanding of adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric and protohistoric sites in NewMexico. As research moves beyond the area/generalization level, however, additional survey will need tobe completed to provide the data needed to reconstruct settlement systems in the region.Given the semi-arid to arid climatic conditions prevailing in the region, water is expected to be a criticalfactor conditioning the location of residential sites and field camps. Both perennial and ephemeralsources need to be considered including perennial and intermittent streams, springs and seeps, playabasins, and tanks. Vegetation and land forms channeling the movement of game will probably beimportant factors conditioning the locations of sites associated with the procurement of wild foodresources. The strength or scale of those associations is expected to vary with site type, however.Locations and stations should be most closely associated with environmental variables reflecting thedistribution of the wild resources being procured. Field camps and the residential camps of foraginggroups should also be generally associated with those environmental variables, but other contributingfactors such as the availability of water, shelter, and firewood will also come into play. Collectorbasecamps may be only indirectly associated with resource distribution, as these sites tend to bepositioned to minimize travel and transport costs for task groups and/or in locations where mobilityoptions are limited by stored food resources. The settlement locations of horticulturalists are expected tobe in proximity to the primary agricultural fields but again other contributing factors will affect the actualsite locations. The locations of agricultural fields, in turn, are likely to be conditioned by factors directlyaffecting crop growth – temperature and the length of the growing season, which is a function of climate,elevation, and landforms; moisture, which is a function of direct precipitation, indirect precipitation(runoff, drainage, proximity to streams and springs); and soils.4-48