Uploaded February 2015 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago
Many scholars have depicted the period between A.D. 1450 and Coronado's arrival in 1540 as a "lost century" in the Southwest. During this period, populations declined substantially throughout the region, and groups of people moved over vast distances. Remaining communities rapidly changed how they organized themselves. The Zuni region of west-central New Mexico is one of only a few places in the northern Southwest where people continued to live in centuries-old large agricultural villages through the "lost century" and into the historic period. In this talk, Dr. Matthew Peeples summarizes several lines of archaeological and biological evidence to explore the origins, timing and consequences of immigration into the Zuni region and the establishment of the communities de Niza and Coronado encountered.
Many scholars have depicted the period between A.D. 1450 and Coronado's arrival in 1540 as a "lost century" in the Southwest. During this period, populations declined substantially throughout the region, and groups of people moved over vast distances. Remaining communities rapidly changed how they organized themselves. The Zuni region of west-central New Mexico is one of only a few places in the northern Southwest where people continued to live in centuries-old large agricultural villages through the "lost century" and into the historic period. In this talk, Dr. Matthew Peeples summarizes several lines of archaeological and biological evidence to explore the origins, timing and consequences of immigration into the Zuni region and the establishment of the communities de Niza and Coronado encountered.
