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In 2015, the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division (NSNSD) received a request to collect baseline acoustical data at Mesa Verde National Park (MEVE). Between July and August 2015, as well as February and March 2016, three acoustical monitoring systems were deployed throughout the park, however one site (MEVE002) stopped recording after a couple days during the summer due to wildlife interference. The goal of the study was to establish a baseline soundscape inventory of backcountry and frontcountry sites within the park. This inventory will be used to establish indicators and thresholds of soundscape quality that will support the park and NSNSD in developing a comprehensive approach to protecting the acoustic environment through soundscape management planning. Additionally, results of this study will help the park identify major sources of noise within the park, as well as provide a baseline understanding of the acoustical environment as a whole for use in potential future comparative studies. In this deployment, sound pressure level (SPL) was measured continuously every second by a calibrated sound level meter. Other equipment included an anemometer to collect wind speed and a digital audio recorder collecting continuous recordings to document sound sources. In this document, “sound pressure level” refers to broadband (12.5 Hz–20 kHz), A-weighted, 1-second time averaged sound level (LAeq, 1s), and hereafter referred to as “sound level.” Sound levels are measured on a logarithmic scale relative to the reference sound pressure for atmospheric sources, 20 μPa. The logarithmic scale is a useful way to express the wide range of sound pressures perceived by the human ear. Sound levels are reported in decibels (dB). A-weighting is applied to sound levels in order to account for the response of the human ear (Harris, 1998). To approximate human hearing sensitivity, A-weighting discounts sounds below 1 kHz and above 6 kHz. Trained technicians calculated time audible metrics after monitoring was complete. See Methods section for protocol details, equipment specifications, and metric calculations. Median existing (LA50) and natural ambient (LAnat) metrics are also reported for daytime (7:00–19:00) and nighttime (19:00–7:00). Prominent noise sources at the two backcountry sites (MEVE001 and MEVE002) included vehicles and aircraft, while building and vehicle predominated at the frontcountry site (MEVE003). Table 1 displays time audible values for each of these noise sources during the monitoring period, as well as ambient sound levels. In determining the current conditions of an acoustical environment, it is informative to examine how often sound levels exceed certain values. Table 2 reports the percent of time that measured levels at the three monitoring locations were above four key values.

The paper presents the results of the research and initial analysis of the rock art from the Castle Rock Community, a cluster of Ancestral Pueblo sites, dated to the thirteenth century A.D. and located in southwestern Colorado, in the heart of the Mesa Verde region. The rock art in the area is represented by anthropomorphic figures (shamans or warriors) from the Basketmaker II period, but most of the rock art is from the Pueblo III period (1150-1280/1300 A.D.) and encompasses geometric designs as well as fighting scenes. The interpretation of the meaning and function of the rock art is rather difficult, but some depictions might be interpreted as clan symbols, watermarks, or as solar/lunar markers connected with astronomical observations. On almost every panel of rock art or close to it, historic inscriptions, initials, names and dates are also present. Most of the ancient rock art is located within the site’s (cliff dwellings) boundaries or very close to them, but certainly some paintings and petroglyphs are much older than the thirteenth century A.D. settlements. Este artículo presenta los resultados de la investigación y un análisis inicial del arte rupestre y murales del grupo de sitios del Pueblos Ancestrales, la llamada Comunidad de Castle Rock, fechada en el siglo XIII dC (período Pueblo III Tardío) y ubicada en la localización de Lower Sand Canyon (Sand Canyon Bajo) en el corazón de la región Mesa Verde central, Colorado (USA). El arte rupestre de esta área está representado en los petroglifos y pinturas de la cultura del Antiguo Pueblo y las representaciones más antiguas son de las figuras antropomórficas (posiblemente chamanes o guerreros) del período Basketmaker III; otros motivos incluyen en mayoría diseños geométricos, las huellas de pájaros, círculos concéntricos, espirales y huellas de manos o pies. La investigación abarca también un panel con escena de lucha y otros ejemplos del arte rupestre ubicados en el centro de la comunidad de Castle Rock Pueblo. La mayoría del arte rupestre esta ubicada dentro de los límites del sitio o muy cerca de ellos, pero algunas de las pinturas y petroglifos casi seguro son más antiguos que los edificios del siglo XIII del período Pueblo III Tardío.

The consequences of climate change vary over space and time. Effective studies of human responses to climatically induced environmental change must therefore sample the environmental diversity experienced by specific societies. We reconstruct population histories from A.D. 600 to 1280 in six environmentally distinct portions of the central Mesa Verde region in southwestern Colorado, relating these to climate-driven changes in agricultural potential. In all but one subregion, increases in maize-niche size led to increases in population size. Maize-niche size is also positively correlated with regional estimates of birth rates. High birth rates continued to accompany high population levels even as productive conditions declined in the A.D. 1200s. We reconstruct prominent imbalances between the maize-niche size and population densities in two subregions from A.D. 1140 to 1180 and from A.D. 1225-1260. We propose that human responses in those subregions, beginning by the mid-A.D. 1200s, contributed to violence and social collapse across the entire society. Our findings are relevant to discussions of how climate change will affect contemporary societies.Las consecuencias del cambio climático varían a través del tiempo y espacio. Por lo tanto, estudios efectivos de las respuestas humanas al cambio ambiental climáticamente inducido tienen que muestrear la diversidad ambiental experimentada por sociedades específicas. Nosotros reconstruimos historias poblacionales desde 600 hasta 1.200 d.C. en seis porciones ambientalmente distintas de la región central de Mesa Verde, en el suroeste de Colorado, relacionándolas con cambios climáticamente inducidos en el potencial agrícola. En todas menos una de las subregiones, aumentos en la extensión del nicho del maíz llevaron a incrementos en el tamaño poblacional. La extensión del nichodel maíz también está positivamente correlacionada con estimaciones regionales de tasas de natalidad. Las altas tasas de natalidad continuaron acompañando altos niveles poblacionales aún cuando las condiciones productivas declinaron en el 1.200 d.C. Nosotros reconstruimos desbalances destacados entre el tamaño del nicho del maíz y las densidades poblacionales en dos subregiones desde 1.140 a 1.180 años d.C. y desde 1.225 a 1.260 años d.C. Proponemos que, comenzando a mediados del 1.200 d.C., las respuestas humanas en estas subregiones contribuyeron a la violencia y al colapso social a través de toda la sociedad. Nuestros hallazgos son relevantes para las discusiones acerca de cómo el cambio climático afectará a las sociedades contemporáneas.

Major research projects and significant publications over the last two decades have fundamentally reframed our understanding of the Basketmaker III and Pueblo I periods in the Mesa Verde region. Whereas the last state historic context summaries for these periods, which were published in 1999, focused on the specifics of chronology building, site type definitions, settlement patterning, and other nuts and bolts issues, recent advances in database software and an increasing emphasis on regional research have turned our attention to the larger issues of how agriculture took hold and thereafter transformed the landscape north of the San Juan River. The relatively low populations and small-scale horticultural economies of the Basketmaker II period virtually disappeared between A.D. 500 and 600, to be replaced by a more intensive maize-dependent agricultural economy centered on large communities. The rapid expansion of early Pueblo agricultural settlements across the Mesa Verde region and the subsequent formation of large villages were in part fueled by the accelerating population growth that came with agricultural dependence. In turn, the late ninth-century breakup of these large villages contributed to population migration to the south of the San Juan River and the tenth-century emergence of what ultimately became the Chaco great house system. This review updates the 1999 Basketmaker III and Pueblo I overviews.

This article introduces artificial neural networks as a computational tool to utilize legacy archaeological data for precisely and accurately estimating dates of residential site occupation. The implementation of this deep learning algorithm can provide high-resolution demographic reconstructions of a study area from non-collection, non-invasive, and non-destructive data collection methods that only record frequencies of artifact types on the contemporary ground surface. The utility of this deep learning algorithm is presented through an example from the central Mesa Verde region in the northern US Southwest. Results show a properly trained artificial neural network predicts annual residential occupation with an average 92.8% accuracy from AD 450–1300. An annual demographic reconstruction of the central Mesa Verde region using occupation predictions from the artificial neural network is also presented.

This paper reports on the first and highly effective use of Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) technology to document Chaco roads, monumental linear surface constructions of the precolumbian culture that occupied the Four Corners region of the American Southwest between approximately AD 600 and 1300. Analysis of aerial photographs supplemented by ground survey has been the traditional methodology employed to identify Chaco roads, but their traces have become increasingly subtle and difficult to detect in recent years due to the impacts of natural weathering, erosion, and land development. Roads that were easily visible in aerial photography and on the ground in the 1980s are now virtually invisible, underscoring the need for new, cutting-edge techniques to detect and document them. Using three case studies of the Aztec Airport Mesa Road, the Great North Road, and the Pueblo Alto Landscape, we demonstrate lidar's unprecedented ability to document known Chaco roads, discover previously undetected road segments, and produce a precise quantitative record of these rapidly vanishing features.

Među brojnim svojstvima koje povezujemo s kakvoćom konjskog mesa, jedno od najkompleksnijih je svakako njegova mekoća. Iako svojstvo mekoće ima važnu ulogu u sveukupnoj prihvaćenosti i kakvoći konjskog mesa percipiranoj od strane potrošača ono je još uvijek nedovoljno istraženo. Pri tome svakako treba uzeti u obzir da je mekoća mesa pod utjecajem odvijanja brojnih strukturnih i biokemijskih promjena koje se ugrubo mogu podijeliti na one vezane uz sadržaj i svojstva vezivnog tkiva, sadržaj intramuskularne masti, dužinu sarkomere i degradaciju miofibrilarnih proteina. Njihove interakcije su kompleksne i dodatno ovisne o hlađenju, električnoj stimulaciji, načinu vješanja polovica, mehaničkom omekšavanju mesa, zrenju, korištenju različitih marinada te uvjetima tijekom termičke obrade. Izuzev toga, svakako treba uzeti u obzir sustav uzgoja, pasminu, spol, dob i anatomsku lokaciju. Istraživanja bi svakako trebala uzeti u obzir prethodno navedeno te se intenzivnije usmjeriti prema novim spoznajama i popularizaciji kakvoće konjskog mesa, Tenderness is, without doubt, one of the most complex among the numerous traits associated with horsemeat quality. Even though tenderness is an important factor in the overall acceptance and quality of horsemeat perceived by consumers, it requires further investigation. It should be taken into account that meat tenderness is influenced by numerous structural and biochemical changes that can be classified as those related to the amount and quality of connective tissue, intramuscular lipid content (marbling), sarcomere length, and myofibrillar protein degradation. Their interactions are complex and additionally dependent on cooling, electrical stimulation, carcass hanging, mechanical tenderisation of meat, aging, use of different marinades, and conditions during the thermal treatment. The tenderness of meat is additionally influenced by livestock production system, breed, gender, age, and anatomic location. Further research should take into account all of the above mentioned factors and more intensely focus on new insights and the promotion of horsemeat quality., Von den vielen Eigenschaften, die mit der Qualität von Pferdefleisch in Verbindung gebracht werden, ist eines der komplexesten mit Sicherheit seine Zartheit. Obwohl die Zartheit eine bedeutende Rolle für die allgemeine Akzeptanz und die Qualität von Pferdefleisch unter den Verbrauchern hat, ist diese Eigenschaft immer noch nicht ausreichend untersucht. Hier sollte jedoch bedacht werden, dass die Zartheit von Fleisch durch zahlreiche strukturelle und biochemische Veränderungen beeinflusst wird, die in Verbindung mit dem Inhalt und den Eigenschaften des Bindegewebes, der Zusammensetzung des intramuskulären Fettes, der Sarkomerlänge und der Degradierung der myofibrillären Proteine in Verbindung gebracht werden können. Ihre Wechselwirkungen sind komplex und hängen zusätzlich von der Kühlung, der elektrischen Stimulation, der Hängemethode der Hälften, der mechanischen Verbesserung der Zartheit von Fleisch, der Reifung, der Verwendung diverser Marinaden und den Bedingungen während der thermischen Behandlung ab. Außerdem sollten das Zuchtsystem, die Rasse, das Geschlecht, Alter und die anatomische Position berücksichtigt werden. Die Untersuchungen sollten in jedem Fall die erwähnten Parameter berücksichtigen und sich stärker auf neue Erkenntnisse und die Popularisierung der Qualität von Pferdefleisch konzentrieren., Tra le numerose proprietà che associamo alla qualità della carne equina, una delle più complesse è senz’altro la sua morbidezza. Sebbene essa svolga un ruolo importante nella generale accettazione e nella qualità della carne equina percepita dai consumatori, questa proprietà non è ancora sufficientemente analizzata. A questo proposito occorre considerare che la morbidezza della carne è certamente condizionata dallo svolgersi di tutta una serie di processi strutturali e biochimici che possono essere grosso modo suddivisi tra quelli legati al contenuto e alle proprietà del tessuto connettivo, quelli legati al contenuto dei grassi intramuscolari, quelli legati alla lunghezza del sarcomero e quelli legati alla degradazione delle proteine miofibrillari. Le loro interazioni sono complesse e dipendono, inoltre, dal raffreddamento, dalla stimolazione elettrica, dal modo di appendere le mezzane, dall’ammorbidimento meccanico della carne, dalla maturazione, dall’uso di varie marinature e dalle condizioni esistenti durante il trattamento termico. A parte ciò, va certamente considerato anche il sistema d’allevamento, la razza, il sesso, l’età e la locazione anatomica. Le ricerche dovrebbero prendere in considerazione quando detto e rivolgersi con maggiore intensità verso le nuove conoscenze e verso la popolarizzazione della qualità della carne equina., Entre las numerosas características en relación con la calidad de la carne de caballo, una de las más complejas es su ternura. Aunque la ternura tiene un papel importante en la aceptación general y en la calidad de la carne de caballo percibida por parte del consumidor, todavía está insuficientemente investigada. Hay que tomar en cuenta que la ternura de la carne está bajo la influencia de numerosos cambios estructurales y bioquímicos, divididos en los relacionados con el contenido y las características del tejido conectivo, el contenido en grasa intramuscular, la longitud del sarcómero y la degradación de proteínas miofibrilares. Sus interacciones son complejas y además dependientes de la refrigeración, estimulación eléctrica, de la manera de colgar las canales, el ablandamiento mecánico, la maduración, el uso de diferentes adobos y de diferentes condiciones durante el procesamiento térmico. Además, hay que considerar el sistema de cría, la raza, el sexo, la edad y la posición anatómica. Las investigaciones deberían estudiar lo antedicho y dar un enfoque más intensivo a los nuevos conocimientos y a la popularización de la calidad de la carne de caballo.

Cowhead Mesa is located along the eastern escarpment of the Southern High Plains near Post, Texas. Survey and excavation on top of the mesa have uncovered evidence for multiple occupations that spa...

In this paper we present evidence through a cross-media and contextual comparison approach that cotton textile production had major economic and ideological importance to Ancestral Pueblo peoples living in the greater Cedar Mesa area during the Woodenshoe and Redhouse Phases (A.D. 1165–1270). First, we present the current data available for direct evidence of cotton textile production from archaeological contexts. Then, we use a cross-media approach to look for evidence of cotton textile production in the media of pottery and kiva mural design motifs. Given the extensive nature of cotton textile production at several sites in the area and the pervasive cotton-textile-based designs on pottery and in kiva murals in the area, we argue that the greater Cedar Mesa area was an important gateway for cotton technologies and imagery between the Kayenta and Mesa Verde areas that afforded the peoples greater access and control over cotton textile production and distribution.

Old Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees and remnant “subfossil” logs have been found on the outcrop of a mafic igneous intrusion above the Mancos River Valley near Mesa Verde National Park. These trees and logs have been used to develop earlywood (EW), latewood (LW), and total ring width (TRW) chronologies dating from AD 722–2011. The new chronologies include good series replication during the former chronological “gap” from AD 1250 to 1400, which was so problematic for the initial development of the “Central Pueblo” chronology by A. E. Douglass. Discrete reconstructions of the cool-season (September-May) and early warm-season (June-July) moisture balance for Mesa Verde have been derived from the EW and adjusted LW width chronologies from the Mancos Valley. Cool-season drought is estimated to have been more severe and sustained than early warm-season conditions during the “Great Drought” of the late-13th Century when southwestern Colorado was depopulated. The combined archaeo...

The Mesa Verde region—extending from southeastern Utah to southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico—is the heartland of the earliest pueblos and an ancestral home for at least three of the four Pueblo language groups. Over the last two millennia, there were three periods in which Ancestral Pueblo population peaked and declined, with the last abandonment of the late thirteenth century the most well known. The combination of excellent material preservation, detailed tree-ring and ceramic chronologies, and the ability to integrate extensive archaeological, linguistic, sociocultural, and biological data provides a unique opportunity to research the Neolithic demographic transition, the ethnogenesis of historically known groups, the formation and abandonment of villages, and the role of historical contingency in making sense of the past.

My theme is MESA and the American university. It is a worthy topic because MESA, and MESA’s membership, occupy distinctive places in the American academy. We are, as academic organizations and academic fields go, relatively small; but our membership constitutes, collectively and often individually, a deep reservoir of knowledge about a part of the world that has become of central importance to our country over the past several decades, and is likely long so to remain. The diverse and detailed understanding we hold about our region of special interest-the Middle East-is, or at least should be, a resource of immense value for those in our country, and beyond, who are also concerned with it-whether they are ordinary citizens, or business leaders, or political leaders and others who shape policy.MESA exists, of course, in the context of the North American university system. MESA was founded in 1966 by a small group of American academicians-at a meeting in Chicago, no less, that quintessentially American city in which I am so fortunate to live. It offers a unique forum for the unfettered exchange of information and ideas on the Middle East, especially the contemporary and recent Middle East, free of any political or economic or cultural or religious orthodoxies; and it serves as a vehicle for encouraging scholarship on every aspect of the region from the perspective of all disciplines, and for encouraging and sustaining the intellectual development of the scholars who undertake such work. While MESA is autonomous and independent of any particular university, we all realize that it simply could not function effectively in the absence of the hundreds of universities and colleges in which most MESA members serve as faculty, academic staff, or students. Without our university or college paychecks most of us would hardly be able to pursue research on the Middle East. It is, I think, no mere coincidence that MESA was born in the 1960s and grew rapidly in the subsequent three decades, the period when the American university system itself reached perhaps its apogee in size and sophistication. MESA can be seen in some sense as a reflection of that period of educational flourishing.

Publisher Summary East Mesa is a ‘hidden’ geothermal resource, lacking any surface thermal manifestations. Interest in this area began in 1968 with the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Colorado River Basin Project Act. The idea was to desalinate the geothermal brines that were known to exist in aquifers beneath sections of the Imperial Valley. The energy contained in the hot brines could be used to generate electricity that in turn could be used to pump water from the Salton Sea for reinjection into the geothermal reservoir and thereby provide replenishment of the extracted fluids and lower the level of the Salton Sea. Concurrent with the desalination research, other tests were conducted on corrosion of materials exposed to the brines, on heat exchangers, and on a tiny mobile power plant—a helical rotor expander built by the Hydrothermal Power Company. Eventually the plant was taken over by Ormat as part of their other holdings in the East Mesa area and decommissioned and dismantled. The technology that was brought to life by Magma in 1979 is now flourishing in the desert of East Mesa, generating about 90 MW in a reliable and environmentally friendly fashion.

In this study, models of cultural evolution are used to examine one of most intensively studied archaeological areas in world: the central Mesa Verde region of southern Colorado (USA). I work back and forth between models in this case study to tease out new insights into culture change in the Mesa Verde region and to suggest ways that models of culture change can be improved. The results of a new research program, the Village Ecodynamics Project, are presented here and provide the most recent and refined account of settlement in the central Mesa Verde region. The study concludes that many factors contributed to culture change in the region, and it suggests that one factor has been overlooked in previous studies: the development of incipient social hierarchy. This study argues that the development of social inequality needs to be added to the mix of factors that produced culture change, especially immigration from the region during the tenth and thirteenth centuries. This study suggests that evolut...

This study presents a revision of Dean E. Arnold’s (1985, 1993) Exploitable Threshold Model, which attempts to explain the selection of raw materials for pottery production. Arnold’s model posits that potters’ preferences for materials are largely determined by the linear distance to individual resources. We argue, however, that potters’ choices are, at least in part, determined by spatial relationships among the necessary resources rather than the distances to them. This study of 14th century pottery production on Perry Mesa, Arizona demonstrates that potters selected materials based on the co-occurrence of readily available sources of temper, clay, and fuel. Lack of water and fuel sources on the mesa top compelled local residents to eschew the use of readily available basaltic sands to temper their plainware pottery. Instead, Perry Mesa potters selected granitic sands from the river valley nearly 300 vertical meters below their settlements.

The use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in the study of lithic procurement patterns provides crucial information about energy expenditure and territoriality of prehistoric communities. Cost-weight analyses calculate proxy energetic expenditures of agents who transport lithic materials from a quarry to the nearest habitation site. Illustrating energy expenditure values onto maps helps us understand changes in toolstone procurement patterns through time. Comparing energy expenditure values from one time period to another also demonstrates when agents developed the sense of territoriality. This research investigates how the central Mesa Verde Puebloans utilised resources on their landscape from A.D. 600 to 1280.