The Early Agricultural Period

Continuing research on the Early Agricultural period has bolstered our understanding of early farming technology, community structure, and chronology. Environmental factors clearly affected the pace of agriculture’s spread, as did social interaction and population movement. Recent projects have contributed new information on how irrigation communities were organized, and how early farmers worked on the landscape. Much of the research conducted over the past thirty years has been conducted under the aegis of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Methodological and theoretical advances have broadened the scope of study, but international and interdisciplinary cooperation remain goals to further this research.