Abandonment is not as it seems: An approach to the relationship between site and regional abandonment

Abandonments of residential sites by prehistoric farmers ale most often exp lained as failures or responses to poor social or environmental conditions. These perspectives ignore the role of residential mobility among farmers a s a regionally sustainable approach ro land use. To understand the various reasons for abandonment of residential residential sires, movement patterns at both sire and regional scales must be empirically linked. In this study of the eastern Mimbres al en of southwestern New Mexico, we examine the re lationship between site and regional occupation patterns. Rather than assum e that site abandonment implies regional depopulation and that site abandon ments ale responses to stress or crisis, we use multiple lines of evidence to document the occupational histories of sites in an effort to evaluate wh ether the abandonment of villages correlates with regional abandonment. Arc hitectural, ceramic, and chronometric data provide evidence for occupationa l continuity and growth of small residential sites during the twelfth centu ry in the eastern Mimbres area in the context of the depopulation of large villages. This regional reorganization in settlement suggests a strategy fo r maintaining regional occupational continuity.