Michael Pool
Austin Community College

Poster presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology March 31-April 4, 2004.

Abstract

    Why the Mimbres culture collapsed around A.D. 1150 has been a continuing research problem in Southwestern archaeology. Most researchers have attributed this collapse to either overpopulation or to a deteriorating climatic situation. In either case, the assertion is that agricultural production could not sustain the population level. This paper examines this problem, using a crop production model (DSSAT 3.5), GIS, and dendroclimatological data to estimate maize production from A.D. 950 to 1200 and compare this production to the estimated population of the study area (the San Lorenzo segment of the Mimbres valley).

Problem

    One of the more intriguing problems in southwestern archaeology is the collapse of the Mimbres culture of southwestern New Mexico around A.D. 1150. The beginning of the Mimbres Classic period is marked by the abandonment of pithouse architecture and its replacement with cobble masonry surface pueblos and the presence of Mimbres classic (style III) black-on-white ceramics and Mimbres corrugated ceramics (Lekson 1992). During the Classic Mimbres period (A.D. 1000 through the early A.D 1100s), the Mimbres people lived in a number of large masonry villages that were surrounded by many smaller, secondary villages and even smaller, special use field houses (Lekson 1992). There are at least 650 known Mimbres architectural sites, ranging in size from one to 200 rooms in size in southwestern New Mexico (Lekson 1992:15). At least 20-25 of these sites have more than 100 rooms, and half of these sites are found in the Mimbres valley (Lekson 1992).

    About A.D. 1130-1150, the northern part of the Mimbres valley was depopulated, and the settlement system and culture in the southern part of the Mimbres valley were reorganized with at least some of the population moving into the Black Mountain Range, where Mimbres culture continued (A.D. 1200) (Hegmon et al. 1999).

Explanations of Collapse

Demographic Collapse

• Due to over-population and/or stress/overexploitation of environment (Minnis 1985, Shafer 1982)
  
  
• Due to lack of agricultural production as a result of bad environmental conditions, specifically precipitation (Creel and Anyon 2003, Minnis 1985)

Realignment of Regional Population along New Economic /Social Lines

• Collapse of Chaco Canyon and/or absorption by Casas Grandes in Northern Chihuahua (Anyon and LeBlanc 1984, Blake et al 1986, LeBlanc 1976, LeBlanc et al 1983,)
  
  
• Moved to Mimbres Mountains/Black Range to east (Nelson 1999)