Check dam

Check dams are common archaeological features found in ephemeral drainages throughout the American Southwest. Because of the region's environmental diversity, investigators have envisioned check dams as having served a number of functions. Interpretations of function have long been normative, based largely on ethnographic parallels that have recently been the subject of criticism. A contextual analysis involving evaluation of agri- cultural features in relation to the local environment and human-ecological conditions appears to be a more appropriate method of examining such features.