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Water systems lie at the interface between nature and culture and in that perspective are a rich but under-explored research object. Their temporalities (construction, maintenance, abandonment) represent an image of a social, cultural, economic and political context as well as changing environmental conditions. This socio-environmental signature recorded in the spatial organization, sedimentary fill and profile of hydraulic structures can be reconstructed by means of a systemic cross-disciplinary approach (geoarchaeology, chronology and paleoenvironment). The principle and limits of the methods applied to this research object are presented and discussed in this paper. While they can be applied to different environmental contexts, they will be presented through the example of Hohokam irrigation systems in the semi-arid Phoenix basin, Arizona, where this approach has been applied as a whole. As water systems are structural elements of the spatial and socio-political organization of societies, this approach will provide elements to discuss the relative impact of human and/or environmental factors on landscape change and cultural shifts, and measure the long-term vulnerability and resilience of agricultural communities to regional environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper, Benson and Grimstead (2019) determined that only minimal amounts of maize could have been grown in Chaco Canyon due to its aridity, short growing season, and frequent summer flooding of the valley floor. In this paper it is shown that deer and rabbit densities within semiarid regions such as the Canyon are such that 2300 Canyon residents would eliminate essentially all small and large mammals within a year. This implies that food (meat and maize) must have been imported from one or more outlying areas to feed the Canyon's residential population. This would have entailed ~18,000 annual trips to the Canyon by porters carrying 45 kg. Although some Sr-isotope data on archaeofauna and maize recovered from Chaco match Sr-isotope values of soil extracts collected in the Canyon (Benson, 2010, 2012; Grimstead et al., 2016), the Canyon's low mammal densities and poor agricultural potential led to a search for other food-source areas with matching Sr-isotope ranges. New isotopic data indicated that the Chuska mountain region appears to be a primary source of these materials. However, there are also a number of other high-elevation relatively wet regions on the periphery of the San Juan Basin with soils having Sr-isotope values that match Chaco Canyon archaeofaunal values, especially values obtained on deer. • Low mammal densities in Chaco could not supply enough meat to feed 2300 residents. • 87Sr/86Sr data suggest archaeofauna came mainly but not only from the Chuskas. • In order to feed 2300 Chaco residents, porters carrying 44 kg must make 18,000 annual trips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]