Lines in the Sand: Competition and Stone Selection on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico

Abstract

Recent investigations on the Pajarito Plateau, north-central New Mexico, have established a sequential picture of changing levels of competition over resource territories. Acuity of competition is inferred through measurement of relative sizes of territories routinely exploited for wild food resources. Village-level territories are determined through an accounting of the raw materials used to make flaked stone tools, which materials are argued to have been gathered during routine food collecting activities. Three distinct raw material options were available on the Plateau, in the form of tool-grade obsidian, chert, and basalt. Because these raw material types come from mutually exclusive locations over the Plateau, it is possible to inferentially measure resource collection areas for individual sites through assessment of raw material diversity. Chronological differences among sites allow for reconstruction of differing levels in the acuity of prehistoric competition. It is found that Classic Period (A. D. 1325-historic period) aggregation on the Plateau was preceded by several generations of escalating territorial competition. This finding represents a subtle but important departure form the current characterization of the Pajarito Classic Period as a “competition stage”, and suggests instead that aggregation fundamentally alleviated resource competition from the perspective of the individual or individual household.