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1. Fluctuat nec Mergitur: Seven Centuries of Pueblo Crisis and Resilience

   Kohler, Timothy A.; Bocinsky, R. Kyle; Bird, Darcy (January 2023, How Worlds Collapse: What History, Systems, and Complexity can teach us about our modern world and fragile future)

   Centeno, Miguel A.; Callahan, Peter W.; Larcey, Paul A.; Patterson, Thayer S. (Ed.)
2. Loss of resilience preceded transformations of pre-Hispanic Pueblo societies

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024397118  

   Scheffer, Marten; van Nes, Egbert H.; Bird, Darcy; Bocinsky, R. Kyle; Kohler, Timothy A. (April 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   Climate extremes are thought to have triggered large-scale transformations of various ancient societies, but they rarely seem to be the sole cause. It has been hypothesized that slow internal developments often made societies less resilient over time, setting them up for collapse. Here, we provide quantitative evidence for this idea. We use annual-resolution time series of building activity to demonstrate that repeated dramatic transformations of Pueblo cultures in the pre-Hispanic US Southwest were preceded by signals of critical slowing down, a dynamic hallmark of fragility. Declining stability of the status quo is consistent with archaeological evidence for increasing violence and in some cases, increasing wealth inequality toward the end of these periods. Our work thus supports the view that the cumulative impact of gradual processes may make societies more vulnerable through time, elevating the likelihood that a perturbation will trigger a large-scale transformation that includes radically rejecting the status quo and seeking alternative pathways. 

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3. Uranium mobility and accumulation along the Rio Paguate, Jackpile Mine in Laguna Pueblo, NM

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C6EM00612D  

   Blake, Johanna M.; De Vore, Cherie L.; Avasarala, Sumant; Ali, Abdul-Mehdi; Roldan, Claudia; Bowers, Fenton; Spilde, Michael N.; Artyushkova, Kateryna; Kirk, Matthew F.; Peterson, Eric; et al (January 2017, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts)

   The mobility and accumulation of uranium (U) along the Rio Paguate, adjacent to the Jackpile Mine, in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico was investigated using aqueous chemistry, electron microprobe, X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy analyses. Given that it is not common to identify elevated concentrations of U in surface water sources, the Rio Paguate is a unique site that concerns the Laguna Pueblo community. This study aims to better understand the solid chemistry of abandoned mine waste sediments from the Jackpile Mine and identify key hydrogeological and geochemical processes that affect the fate of U along the Rio Paguate. Solid analyses using X-ray fluorescence determined that sediments located in the Jackpile Mine contain ranges of 320 to 9200 mg kg −1 U. The presence of coffinite, a U( iv )-bearing mineral, was identified by X-ray diffraction analyses in abandoned mine waste solids exposed to several decades of weathering and oxidation. The dissolution of these U-bearing minerals from abandoned mine wastes could contribute to U mobility during rain events. The U concentration in surface waters sampled closest to mine wastes are highest during the southwestern monsoon season. Samples collected from September 2014 to August 2016 showed higher U concentrations in surface water adjacent to the Jackpile Mine (35.3 to 772 μg L −1 ) compared with those at a wetland 4.5 kilometers downstream of the mine (5.77 to 110 μg L −1 ). Sediments co-located in the stream bed and bank along the reach between the mine and wetland had low U concentrations (range 1–5 mg kg −1 ) compared to concentrations in wetland sediments with higher organic matter (14–15%) and U concentrations (2–21 mg kg −1 ). Approximately 10% of the total U in wetland sediments was amenable to complexation with 1 mM sodium bicarbonate in batch experiments; a decrease of U concentration in solution was observed over time in these experiments likely due to re-association with sediments in the reactor. The findings from this study provide new insights about how hydrologic events may affect the reactivity of U present in mine waste solids exposed to surface oxidizing conditions, and the influence of organic-rich sediments on U accumulation in the Rio Paguate. 

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4. Color and Chaco Performance: Spatial Histories of Blue–Green Paint Production at Pueblo Bonito

   https://doi.org/10.1080/00231940.2023.2204044  

   Hanson, Kelsey E. (April 2023, KIVA)
5. How far from Chaco to Orayvi? Quantifying inequality among Pueblo households

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2019.101073  

   Ellyson, Laura J.; Kohler, Timothy A.; Cameron, Catherine M. (September 2019, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology)