Faunal Resource Depression and Intensification in the North American Southwest: Digital Data and Regional Synthesis

Faunal Resource Depression and Intensification in the North American Southwest: Digital Data and Regional Synthesis Working Title ---Faunal Resource Depression and Intensification in the North American Southwest: Digital Data and Regional Synthesis Theproposedprojectwillusearecentlydevelopeddataintegrationtooltoaddressregionalscale anthropologicalresearchquestionsatadepthandbreadththathavenotthusfarbeenpossibleusing zooarchaeologicaldata.Althoughinthepastresearchershaveundertakensyntheticanalysesatregional orsubregionalscales,thesehavebeenlimitedbywhatisavailableinthepublishedliterature.For examplezooarchaeologistsroutinelycollectdatarelevanttotaphonomicprocesses,butthesedata generallyarenotreadilyaccessibleorareonlyreportedinasummaryfashion.Analysisataregional scaleshouldevaluatecomparabilityofzooarchaeologicaldataondifferentdimensionstobecertainthat thepatternsweidentifyarenotduetobiases,andtorevealpatterningthatwedidnothavetheability todetect.ItisnowpossibletodothisandinanefficientmannerduetothedevelopmentoftDAR (www.tdar.org),whichprovidesonlineaccesstolargenumbersofdatasetsandananalyticaltoolthat canaccommodatevariablesthatarenottypicallyanalyzedorpublished. TheregionalcontextinwhichwewilladdressthisissueissouthwesternU.S.InthesouthwesternU.S. althoughtherehavebeenanumberofsubregionalsyntheses(Hohokam,EMAP,MV,Chaco,etc.),we haveyettoaccomplisharegionalscalesynthesisthataddressesthisdynamicrelationship.Current understandingoftrendsinfaunalresourceavailabilityandusesuggestthatresourcedepression occurredinthecontextofaggregated,longtermoccupationofsouthwesternlandscapes,andthat intensificationintheraisingofdomesticturkeymayhavebeenoneresponsetoresourcedepression. Theproposedprojectwillevaluatetheempiricalbasisoftheseinterpretationsandseekamorefine grainedunderstandingoflongterm,socioenvironmentalinteractioninthisregion.