Basketmaker ( Early Puebloan ) Culture (1 gen 1500 anni a. C. – 1 gen 750 anni)

Descrizione:

The Basketmakers are early ancestors for the Puebloan Culture. There are 3 different periods for this time. 2 which stand out are...

Basketmaker II: 1-450 c.e.
The Basketmaker II period is transitional between the nomadic hunting and gathering patterns of the late Archaic period and later sedentary lifeways. Villages were small and widely spaced, with circular pit houses that were deeper in the west than in the east. Natural caves and rock shelters were favored locations for campsites and burials. Food was often stored in caves, using large, jar-shaped pits excavated into the floors and bins made of stone slabs and mud.

The most characteristic trait of Basketmaker II occupations is the absence of pottery at all but a few sites. The principal containers were coiled baskets, nets, and fiber bags. The former included a wide variety of useful containers, including large trays for winnowing grain, conical baskets for collecting seeds, and a range of serving bowls. As noted above, the atlatl, or throwing stick, was utilized during Basketmaker II times. This device improved the leverage of spears tipped with projectile points, increasing the speed, distance, and accuracy with which a spear could be thrown. Flaked projectile points of this period are typically side- or corner-notched, and they were attached to spears with hardwood foreshafts. Ground stone tools represent a continuity of Archaic technology and included a variety of milling stones, with large, basin-shaped grinding slabs and manos (handstones) made from large cobbles. At some sites, trough-shaped metates approach shapes typical of later periods.

The Basketmaker II people were the first people in the Anasazi tradition to utilize agriculture, but wild plant foods and hunting resources remained a significant part of the diet. Among the plant foods collected by Basketmaker II peoples were grass seeds, chenopodium, amaranth, and piñon nuts. There is some evidence for the cultivation of maize and squash, although beans are reportedly absent at this time. The transition to agriculture may have occurred as a response to pressures on wild resources that resulted from growing populations, periods of environmental deterioration, or a combination of the two. Experimentation with cultivated species, farming, and food storage would have provided an adaptive advantage in the face of diminished resources. As these strategies became more efficient, especially with changes in environmental conditions, agricultural populations grew in size and complexity.

Basketmaker III: 450-750
By 450, there was a noticeable preference for settlement near well-watered soils, probably because of an increased reliance on agriculture. Sites are found in both alluvial valleys and upland regions such as mesa tops. With greater utilization of cultivated foods as opposed to wild resources, there was less concern for access to a diversity of natural regions. Sedentism led to an increase in the size and density of settlements. Although some sites consist only of isolated pit houses and hamlet clusters, some villages had more than fifty structures for estimated populations of more than two hundred people. There is evidence for communal construction activities, such as an encircling stockade found at the Gilliland site in southwestern Colorado, and the building of ceremonial structures.

The typical dwellings of Basketmaker III people were pit houses with either circular or rectangular plans and antechambers or large ventilator shafts. These were often augmented with auxiliary storage units, built of jacal (poles and mud) on stone slabs. At Mesa Verde (Colorado), pit houses contained banquettes, clay-lined central hearths, wing walls, and four-post roof supports. In general, the plans of Basketmaker III villages do not indicate any type of organized arrangement. Exceptionally large pit houses, however, have been interpreted as the precursors to great kivas, used for councils and sacred rituals.

The subsistence patterns of this period differ from those of the preceding one in their emphasis on the cultivation of maize, squash, and beans. There is evidence for the keeping and possible domestication of turkeys, which would have replaced meat from hunting activities as the latter became less frequent. Bows and arrows, indicated by the use of basal-notched projectile points, replaced atlatls as the favored hunting weapon. The technology for food processing was modified by the introduction of two-handed manos and an increase in the use of trough-shaped over slab metates. The crafts of twined woven bags, nets, sandals, and coiled basketry continued, but Basketmaker III peoples also made and used pottery containers. The most common vessels were jars and bowls of a plain gray ware, although vessels decorated with simple black designs on a white base also appear during this period. In southeastern Utah, orange pottery with red designs appears toward the end of this period. The adoption of pottery use and changes in ground stone tools have been interpreted as signalling an intensification in household labor that accompanied village sedentism and an increased reliance on agricultural products.

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