A Preliminary Evaluation of the Verde Confederacy Model: Testing Expectations of Pottery Exchange in the Central Arizona Highlands

Regional demographic movements during the mid 13th-14th centuries signaled corresponding changes to social and economic networks throughout the American Southwest. In the high mesa country of central Arizona large, masonry pueblos were constructed around AD 1250–1300 overlooking the vertical walls of Perry Mesa, in the Bloody Basin, and along the middle Verde River valley. As these settlement clusters coalesced, a 45 km expanse of empty land opened between the upland pueblos and the densely packed Hohokam population centers in the Phoenix Basin. A current theory termed the Verde Confederacy Model contends that this gap in settlement reflected mounting social tensions between populations in the irrigated river valleys of the Phoenix Basin and people living in the rugged high country to the north (Wilcox et al., 2001). The model posits that defensive alliances formed between northern settlements to deter attacks from Hohokam invaders. A well-documented web of line-of-sight relationships across the Verde Confederacy territory enabled settlements to rapidly communicate for defensive purposes and to support social and economic networks among villages in the confederacy (Wilcox, 2005; Wilcox et al., 2001). This study evaluates two expectations of the Verde Confederacy model using ceramic provenance and exchange data from Perry Mesa plainware pottery assemblages.

13至14世纪中期的区域人口流动，预示着美国西南部全域社会与经济网络发生了相应变革。公元1250至1300年左右，亚利桑那州中部的高台地区域内，兴建了大型石砌普韦布洛（masonry pueblo）聚落，这些聚落俯瞰着血腥盆地内的佩里台地垂直崖壁与弗德河中游河谷。随着这些定居点集群逐渐聚合，高地普韦布洛聚落与菲尼克斯盆地内人口稠密的霍霍坎（Hohokam）文化聚居区之间，出现了一片宽达45公里的空置地带。当前有一套被称为弗德联盟模型（Verde Confederacy Model）的理论认为，这片定居点空白地带，反映了菲尼克斯盆地灌溉河谷人口与北部崎岖高地居民之间日益加剧的社会对立（Wilcox等人，2001）。该模型提出，北部定居点之间形成了防御同盟，以抵御霍霍坎入侵者的袭扰。弗德联盟领地内存在一套证据充分的视线通联关系网络，使得各定居点能够为防御目的快速传递信息，并维系联盟内村落间的社会与经济纽带（Wilcox，2005；Wilcox等人，2001）。本研究借助佩里台地素面陶器组合的陶瓷产地溯源与流通数据，对弗德联盟模型的两项核心预设展开验证。