Nearest Neighbor Analysis of Pueblo I-III Settlement Patterns along the Rio Puerco of the East, New Mexico

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Abstract
Nearest neighbor analysis, a method which quantifies the deviation of a body of data from a random toward either a clustered or an anticlustered distribution, was utilized to study aspects of a settlement system. Data from a surface survey of 241 Pueblo I-III sites on the middle Rio Puerco of the East, New Mexico, corroborated the hypothesis of a direct correlation between house location and presence of arable land, assuming use of akchin farming methods. A smooth curve of population growth and decline was correlated with a decrease, then increase, in site agglomeration. Presumably these changes reflected adjustment of site locations to a deteriorating environment resulting from the shift to a summer rainfall cycle. Statistical tests corroborated the validity of these observations. Arrangement of the ceramic types according to their corresponding degree of aggregation produced a tentative local ceramic chronology.