Description
Scientists around the world have observed grasslands turning into deserts. How do human populations respond when this happens and to what degree are they responsible? Because the process may take centuries, even millennia, it is difficult to know. Archaeologists have the potential to document the desertification of grasslands on a time scale far grander than that of written history, and the Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, is a strategic place in which to do so.
Like several other valleys in northern Mexico region, it was occupied for a few centuries by a large farming population only to be abandoned. These valleys were a zone of frontier expansion and contraction for Mesoamerican civilization; the main Malpaso Valley site, La Quemada, dates to around A.D. 500-900. Our international, interdisciplinary research group is evaluating environmental conditions before, during, and after this occupation.
We are interested to learn whether the abandonment was associated with a drying trend in the regional climate and whether there is evidence of degradation of the environment by the ancient farmers. In addition to the archaeological evidence excavated from the main site and subordinate villages, we have made backhoe trenches in the Malpaso River flood plain to collect sediments, pollen, phytoliths, paleomagnetic samples, and radiocarbon samples. We have detected changes in the streambeds indicating erosion and are using ancient pollen and phytoliths to characterize vegetative cover.
These data allow us to reconstruct environmental conditions at different points in time and evaluate hypotheses about the extent of change, the human responses, and the human role in creating disturbances that may have contributed to environmental changes.
Research Team
Principal Investigators:
- Ben A. Nelson
- Chris Fisher
Faculty Associate:
- Roberto Molina Garza
Participants:
- Michelle Elliott
- Blanca M. Mata-González
Partnerships
Kent State University
Colorado State University
Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México, Unidad de Geociencias
Funding Sources
National Science Foundation
Publications & Presentations
Elliott, Michelle (2002)
Paleoethnobotanical Perspectives on Land Use and Environment in Mesoamerica's Northern Frontier. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Elliott, Michelle, Christopher T. Fisher, Roberto S. Molina Garza, Blanca Mata and Ben A. Nelson (2003)
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Landscape Evolution in the Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, Mexico. Poster presented at the 68th Annnual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee.
Nelson, Ben A. and Vincent W. Schiavitti (2003)
Survey in Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, Mexico. Poster presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee.
Mata-González, Blanca M., Roberto S. Molina-Garza, Christopher T. Fisher, and and Ben A. Nelson Michelle Elliott (2002)
Evidencia de Cambio Climático-Ambiental Reciente en la Mesa Central, Zacatecas: Geomorfología, Estratigrafía del Cuaternario y Magnetismo de Rocas. GEOS 2(22):1100-1101.
Contact:
Ben A. Nelson
Links
• Archaeological Investigations at La Quemada, Zacatecas, northern Mexico
• Connections and Impacts of Northern and West Mexican Cultures
• Ben A. Nelson's Faculty Page
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