A Hard Time to Date: The Scott County Pueblo (14sc1) and Puebloan Residents of the High Plains
Document Type
Review
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Description
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Puebloan women (if not entire families) were incorporated into Apache Dismal River communities in western Kansas. In at least one site (14SC1), Puebloan people lived in a small masonry pueblo. We evaluate the timing and nature of the Puebloan occupation at 14SC1 and its relationship to the Dismal River population at the site. We use a Bayesian analytical framework to evaluate different models of the pueblo's use history, constraining 12 radiocarbon dates by their stratigraphic data and then comparing this framework with different temporal models based on the historical record. We conclude that Dismal River people lived at 14SC1 prior to the appearance of Pueblo migrants, sometime between cal AD 1490 and 1650. Construction and early use of the pueblo by migrants from the Rio Grande valley occurred between cal AD 1630 and 1660, and the pueblo was closed by burning sometime between cal AD 1640 and 1690. Site 14SC1 lacks Rio Grande Glaze Ware, and its residents seem rarely to have engaged with the groups in the Southern Plains Macroeconomy. Our results contribute to studies of indigenous community formation and Puebloan residential mobility during the Spanish colonial period.
Citation Information
Hill, Matthew E.; Beck, Margaret E.; Lengyel, Stacey; Trabert, Sarah J.; and Adair, Mary J.. 2018. A Hard Time to Date: The Scott County Pueblo (14sc1) and Puebloan Residents of the High Plains. American Antiquity. Vol.83(1). 54-74. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2017.60 ISSN: 0002-7316