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Documenting Prehistoric Communication Networks: A Case Study in the Paquimé Polity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Steve Swanson
Steve Swanson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85283
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Abstract

Hilltop features reported around the site of Paquimé, the political center of a prehistoric complex polity in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, have been interpreted as a fire-signaling network by archaeologists. If these hilltop platform features functioned as such a communication system, it provides important information for our interpretation of regional integration and interaction for the Paquimé polity. This paper reports the results of a survey of hilltops in the area and a subsequent GIS-based intervisibility analysis, which determined that a series of hilltop platforms in the region were ideally situated for fire-signaling purposes. I discuss the need for implementing tests for intervisibility and tests for determining the significance of that intervisibility, and then consider some implications of the Paquimé fire-signaling system on sociopolitical organization and integration.

Résumé

Résumé

Algunos investigadores han interpretado las estructuras que se encuentran sobre las cimas de las lomas reportadas en los alrededores del sitio de Paquimé, el centro político de una compleja entidad polí tico prehispánica ubicada en el noroeste de Chihuahua, como las estaciones de una red comunicación a través de señales de fuego. Si estas estructuras en forma de plataforma que se encuentran en las cimas de los cerros realmente funcionaron como las estaciones de este sistema de comunicación, estas estructuras proporcionan importante información para interpretar la integración y la interacción de la gente de Paquimé. En este trabajo reporto los resultados de un reconocimiento de superficie de las lomas de esta á rea, así como los resultados de un análisis de visibilidad entre éstas usando GIS. Este análisis determinó que la serie de plataformas localizadas en las cimas de las lomas de esta región fueron ideales para llevar a cabo una comunicación usando señales de fuego. Discuto también la necesidad de implementar pruebas de visibilidad entre puntos y pruebas para determinar el significado de dicha visibilidad, y posteriormente considero algunas implicaciones del sistema de señales de fuego de Paquimé en lo que se refiere a su organización socio-política y su integración.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 753 - 767
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2003

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