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Prehistoric Reservoirs and Water Basins in the Mesa Verde Region: Intensification of Water Collection Strategies during the Great Pueblo Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Richard H. Wilshusen ,
Melissa J. Churchill  and
James M. Potter
Richard H. Wilshusen
Affiliation:
La Plata Archaeological Consultants, 26851 C.R. P, Dolores, CO 81323 and Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 23390 C.R.K, Cortez, CO 81321
Melissa J. Churchill
Affiliation:
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 23390 C.R.K, Cortez, CO 81321
James M. Potter
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
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Abstract

More than 20 examples of probable prehistoric water basins with minimum storage capacities of 10,000–25,000 gallons of water are known in the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest. The temporal placement of these artificially constructed basins, their exact uses, and their importance as public architecture have been poorly understood. We summarize the general literature on these features, give a detailed account of the excavation results of a dam and basin that we tested and dated, and then synthesize all available data from the gray literature on prehistoric water basins in our area. We argue that water basins and reservoirs in the northern Southwest typically stored domestic water for particular communities and that the first evidence of these public features is probably associated with Chaco-era communities. These features represent early experiments with large-scale water conservation and suggest a long-term commitment to locales by specific communities. Their locations along the canyon edges foreshadow shifts in settlement and increased water conservation strategies that become more pronounced in the later Great Pueblo-period villages-the last villages in this area before the migration of Puebloan people to the south after A.D. 1280.

En la región de Mesa Verde en el suroeste norteamericano hay más de 20 ejemplos conocidos de depresiones prehistóricas de agua (probables reservas) con capacidades mínimas de 38,000–95,000 litres de agua. La localizatión temporal de estas reservas, sus usos exactes, y su importancia como arquitectura pública han sido mal entendidos. Nosotros resumimos la literatura general acerca de estos rasgos, damos un resumen detallado de los resultados de la excavatión de una presa y una reserva. También presentames una síntesis de todos los datos disponibles en la literatura inédita acerca de reservas de agua prehistóricas en nuestra área. Razonamos que las reservas en el norte del suroeste contenlan tipicamente agua doméstica para comunidades especificas y que las primeras reservas grandes fueron rasgos públicos asociados con las comunidades de Chaco. Estas reservas representan los expérimentes de la primeras etapas de conservation de agua en gran scala y sugieren un compromise a largo plazo de comunidades específicas. Los sitios de estos rasgos al borde de los cañones presagian el movimiento de la población y el incremento de estrategias de conservatión de agua que se volvieron más marcadas en la época de los Pueblos Grandes—los últimos pueblos en esta área antes de la emigration hacia el sur ocurrida después de 1280 d.C.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 664 - 681
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1997

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