Changes in regional organization and mobility in the Zuni region of the American Southwest during the Pueblo III and IV periods: insights from INAA studies

The transition from the late Pueblo III (AD 1200–1275) to Pueblo IV (AD 1275–1400) period marks one of the most dramatic eras of demographic and social upheaval in the American Southwest. At this time, much of the northern Southwest was depopulated as thousands of ancestral Pueblo people moved to new homelands. In the Zuni region, this transition included a residential shift from dispersed, largely household-scale settlements to massive, multi-storied pueblos housing hundreds of people and a simultaneous contraction of regional settlement to a central core along the Zuni River and its major tributaries. This article presents a synthesis of our recent independent efforts to utilize instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to investigate changes in social interaction in the Zuni region before and after this transition. We suggest that in addition to significant local and regional settlement shifts, the Pueblo III–IV transition in the Zuni region was accompanied by a major reorganization of pottery distribution networks as clear social boundaries began to emerge between village clusters. More generally, our combined study also highlights the iterative nature of INAA data analysis, the benefits of large sample sizes, and the utility of a diachronic interpretative approach.

► INAA of prehistoric Zuni pottery identifies 13 compositional groups.
► Diachronic comparison documents shift in social interaction circa AD 1300.
► Synthesis of existing data illustrates iterative nature of INAA data analysis