bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Origins of the Village Revisited: From Nuclear to Extended Households
Authors: Flannery Kent V.
Published: April 2006

In Mesoamerica and the Near East, the emergence of the village seems to have involved two stages. In the first stage, individuals were distributed through a series of small circular-to-oval structures, accompanied by communal or “shared” storage features. In the second stage, nuclear families occupied substantial rectangular houses with private storage rooms. Over the last 30 years a wealth of data from the Near East, Egypt, the Trans-Caucasus, India, Africa, and the Southwest U.S. have enriched our understanding of this phenomenon. And in Mesoamerica and the Near East, evidence suggests that nuclear family households eventually gave way to a third stage, one featuring extended family households whose greater labor force made possible extensive multifaceted economies.
Measuring Sedentariness and Settlement Population: Accumulations Research in the Middle Atlantic Region
Authors: Gallivan Martin D.
Published: April 2006

Archaeologists have long sought to understand the relationships between the quantity and diversity of material that accumulates at a site and the variables of community size and occupation duration. This paper examines these relationships through an analysis of mobility and settlement population in the late precontact and early colonial Chesapeake region of the eastern U.S. Drawing on previous accumulations research and two “strong” archaeological cases that provide critical values, the study develops measures of relative sedentariness and ceramic-discard behavior that can be used to model behavior at sites without stratified deposits or well-preserved architecture. Application of this model to the James River Valley of Virginia produces more reliable dates for the inception of village communities, several centuries following the adoption of maize-based horticulture in the region. The analysis also suggests that the fundamental nature of residential settlement changed dramatically in the study area after A.D. 1200 with the emergence of a settlement hierarchy including relatively large communities with lengthy occupation durations. The creation of a new cultural landscape containing substantial villages, combined with related changes in household and community organization, is central to the origins and development of the Powhatan paramountcy, one of North America's archetypal complex chiefdoms.
Archaeological Explorations in Southwestern Idaho
Authors: Swanson Earl H.
Published: April 2006

Field work in southwestern Idaho in 1959 has led to definition of a boundary zone between the Great Basin and Plateau culture areas. Around A.D. 1300, this boundary lay along the Snake River in southwestern Idaho, but in the 19th century it lay nearly 100 miles to the north of the Snake River. It is suggested that the contemporary environment of southwestern Idaho was established about 1000 B.C.
Spring Creek Cave, Wyoming
Authors: Frison George C.
Published: April 2006

Spring Creek Cave, a single-component, habitation site in the Big Horn Basin near Ten Sleep, Wyoming, yielded an assemblage of stone artifacts diagnostic of the Late Middle Prehistoric period in context with a considerable variety of hitherto undescribed perishable items. Charcoal produced a radiocarbon date of A.D. 225 ± 200. The Spring Creek material considerably amplifies present knowledge of Late Middle period technology and economy in the Northwestern Plains and provides opportunities for comparison of Late Middle period perishable items with similar items in Basketmaker assemblages of the Southwest and in other assemblages from various parts of the Basin-Plateau region.
Notes on Colossal Head No. 2 from Tres Zapotes
Authors: Heizer Robert F. , Smith Tillie , Williams Howel
Published: April 2006

One of the eleven known colossal stone heads attributed to the Olmec culture of southeastern Mexico has not been previously published. It is now in the town of Santiago Tuxtla, Veracruz, and was brought there in 1951 from a locality about 2 mi. north of the village of Tres Zapotes. It is designated as Tres Zapotes Colossal Head No. 2, even though it is probably not associated directly with the Tres Zapotes site which produced Tres Zapotes Colossal Head No. 1. The sculpture weighs about 8.5 short tons and is made of a distinctive olivine-and augite-rich basalt from the Cerro el Vigia not more than 5 mi. away.
Solutrean Settlement of North America? A Review of Reality
Authors: Straus Lawrence Guy
Published: April 2006

The Solutrean techno-complex of southern France and the Iberian Peninsula is an impossible candidate as the “source” for either pre-Clovis or Clovis traditions in North America. Primarily this is because the Solutrean ended ca. 16,500-18,000 B.P. (at least 5,000 years before Clovis appeared) and was separated from the U.S. eastern seaboard by 5,000 km of ocean. In addition, there are major differences between the Solutrean and Clovis (and even more between it and “pre-Clovis”) in terms of the composition of lithic and osseous technologies and with regard to evidence of artistic activity. Nor is there any evidence that Solutrean people had navigation, deep-sea fishing, or marine mammal hunting capacities which could have made a transatlantic crossing even conceivable. Furthermore, there is no evidence that people lived above about 48° N latitude in western Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum, making a “jumping-off” point from the (then largely glaciated) area of the current British Isles unlikely. The peopling of the Americas, even if the result of several “migrations,” was from Asia.
The Bluegrass Fauna and Changes in Middle Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Foraging in the Southern Midwest
Authors: Stafford C. Russell , Richards Ronald L. , Anslinger C. Michael
Published: April 2006

A shift in Archaic foraging to a largely logistic collector strategy by the middle Holocene is indicated by the presence of rock-filled middens in the U.S. southern Midwest. This change has usually been attributed to the development of super-rich wetland habitats in large river valleys. Analysis of a well-preserved faunal assemblage from the Bluegrass site, a late Middle Archaic base camp/mortuary occupation, located in an interior upland drainage basin of southwestern Indiana, suggests that small-bodied terrestrial mammals and reptiles were substituted for aquatic animal foods. Comparisons with faunal assemblages from other base camps in a diverse set of habitats in the southern Midwest indicates that white-tailed deer and hickory nuts were the basis for the logistical foraging strategy rather than aquatic resources. It is proposed that a change in forest composition from a mesic closed canopy to an open oak-hickory association by the middle Holocene increased the abundance of deer and nut mast leading to a coarse-grain use of the landscape.
Cremated Human Remains from Point of Pines, Arizona: A New Approach
Authors: Merbs Charles F.
Published: April 2006

The traditional approaches of comparative human osteology have proven largely unsatisfactory in attempts to determine biological relationships among human populations which cremated their dead. However, one category of information, that of discrete traits or skeletal anomalies, has been largely ignored. Cremations from Point of Pines, Arizona, were analyzed to determine if this kind of information, along with that usually sought from skeletal material, could be obtained in sufficient quantity to make comparative biological studies feasible. The results were encouraging, but they indicate that extraordinary care will be required in the future excavation and storage of cremated material.
The First New World Cereal
Authors: Callen E. O.
Published: April 2006

Setaria, foxtail millet, was eaten in quantity in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 4000-3500 B.C., with selection for grain size during the following 1,500 years, before maize was introduced to the valley. Setaria was eaten in quantity in Tehuacan, southern Puebla, Mexico, in 5500 B.C., but maize was being cultivated there by 4500 B.C., and there is no increase in Setaria grain size. Grinding techniques with Setaria are shown to have changed between 5200 B.C. and 900 B.C.
Power and Community: The Archaeology of Slavery at the Hermitage Plantation
Authors: Thomas Brian W.
Published: April 2006

The social and material lives of African Americans on antebellum plantations in the southern United States were heavily influenced by power relations inherent to the institution of slavery. Although planters exerted immense control over slaves, plantation slavery involved constant negotiation between master and slave. This give-and-take was part of the lived experience of enslaved African Americans, and one way to approach the study of this experience is by adopting a dialectical view of power. I illustrate how such a theoretical approach can be employed by examining the archaeology of slavery at the Hermitage plantation, located near Nashville, Tennessee. By examining material culture from former slave cabins located on different parts of the plantation, I explore how various categories of material culture reflected and participated in planters’ efforts to control slaves, as well as how those efforts were contested.
Floodwater Farming, Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams, and Puebloan Abandonment in Southwestern Colorado
Authors: Huckleberry Gary A. , Billman Brian R.
Published: April 2006

Geoarchaeological study on the southern piedmont of Sleeping Ute Mountain in southwestern Colorado indicates the presence of discontinuous ephemeral streams that were the foci of episodic Puebloan occupation between A.D. 600s and 1280. Characterized by arroyos, discontinuous ephemeral streams contain alternating aggrading and degrading reaches and are well suited for ak chin floodwater agriculture. Episodic Puebloan abandonment of the southern piedmont correlates with periods of drought but does not appear to be linked to stream entrenchment. We question a priori assumptions of droughts correlated to stream entrenchment and urge caution in the use of drought-arroyo models for settlement shifts in alluvial flood plains without supporting stratigraphic or geomorphic evidence.
AMS Radiocarbon Dating of the Type Plainview and Firstview (Paleoindian) Assemblages: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Authors: Holliday Vance T. , Johnson Eileen , Stafford Thomas W.
Published: April 2006

Plainview and Firstview are two of the principal post-Folsom Paleoindian artifact assemblages on the Great Plains, but good radiometric age control for these artifact styles is relatively poor, due in part to lack of reliable age control on the type collections. This study reports the results of AMS-radiocarbon dating of specific amino acids from Bison antiquus bone associated with the type Plainview and Firstview assemblages from the Plainview and Olsen-Chubbuck sites, respectively. Seven samples of bone and teeth from Plainview produced a surprisingly wide array of ages. As a result, the age of the bone bed and the type Plainview collection remain uncertain, but it is most likely ≥ 10,000 B.P. (but late or post-Folsom) given the dating and stratigraphic relationships at Plainview and other sites. Seven samples of bone from Olsen-Chubbuck yielded a tight cluster of ages averaging ca 9400 B.P., fitting well with other dated Firstview features on the Southern Plains. These results show that much better age control from more sites is needed in order to understand the Paleoindian record. AMS-radiocarbon dating of specific amino acids from bone has revolutionized such issues of chronology in archaeology, but like any other method, it can provide confusing results and must be used in conjunction with other chronometric data.
Ceramic Style Change and Neutral Evolution: A Case Study from Neolithic Europe
Authors: Shennan S. J. , Wilkinson J. R.
Published: April 2006

Following on the work of Dunnell, the evolutionary archaeology school has made a sharp distinction between functional and stylistic variation in archaeological artifacts. Variation is defined as functional if it is affected by selection processes and as stylistic if it is a result of processes of random drift. The argument has been further developed by Neiman (1995), who showed by simulation that processes of cultural mutation and drift could produce the kinds of "battleship curves" that generally characterize artifact-style frequency distributions through time, and also demonstrated that they could account for patterns of stylistic variation through time in Woodland-period ceramic assemblages from Illinois. In this paper we present a case study of change in the decoration of pottery from early Neolithic Central Europe. We show that the actual diachronic frequency distributions and those expected under the neutral model do not coincide and conclude that in this case the neutral model does not provide an adequate description of change in ceramic decoration. A model involving selection, in the form of a bias in favor of novelty in the later phases of the period studied, seems likely to be more appropriate, and we note the social interpretation of the original investigator of the data. In conclusion, it is suggested that neutral models provide an important heuristic tool but that there is not a radical break between functional and stylistic variation.
Wetlands and Emergent Horticultural Economies in the Upper Great Lakes: A New Perspective from the Schultz Site
Authors: Lovis William A. , Egan-Bruhy Kathryn C. , Smith Beverley A. , Monaghan G. William
Published: April 2006

The Schultz site (20SA2) is a benchmark site for understanding the Woodland adaptations of the Upper Great Lakes, although its older excavation data is not comparable with recent Eastern Woodlands research, which consistently uses fine-grained recovery techniques. The 1991 Schultz-site research collected supplementary and upgraded subsistence and environmental data to address questions about regional transformations from hunting and gathering to horticulture. In addition, questions regarding the role of aquatic and wetland resources, and how environmental change affected the availability and productivity of these alternative resources, were addressed. Results of faunal, floral, and geoarchaeological research reveal that Woodland economies in the Saginaw region of the Upper Great Lakes were keyed to environmental changes affecting wetland availability and productivity. The Early Woodland presence of cucurbits does not appear economically important until later when it is combined with more reliable supplementary food sources. Although chenopod is present during the Middle Woodland and early Late Woodland, wetland plant and animal resources act as surrogates for other starchy and oily seeded annuals common in other portions of the Midwest and in the Mid-South. Maize apparently does not achieve economic significance until the Late Woodland period. A model of this combined northern and southern strategy is developed.
Research Problems R Us
Authors: Odell George H.
Published: April 2006

In the preceding paper, Binford distinguishes between scholars who derive theory from within archaeological datasets and do science, and those who borrow theory from elsewhere and engage in the humanities. I agree that archaeological datasets constitute one fruitful area for the origin of research questions but not the only one, and suggest other ways that he could have considered the matter. I provide concrete examples of Binford"s preferred research strategy and mine, and discern significant differences between the two. What Binford considered the importation of theory was really the formulation of models that were ultimately tested on archaeological datasets.
Grief and Burial in the American Southwest: The Role of Evolutionary Theory in the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains
Authors: MacDonald Douglas H.
Published: April 2006

Evolutionary theory, in consort with Marxism and processualism, provides new insights into the interpretation of grave-good variation. Processual interpretations of burial sites in the American Southwest cite age, sex, or social rank as the main determinants of burial-good variation. Marxist theorists suggest that mortuary ritual mediates social tension between an egalitarian mindset and an existing social inequality. Evolutionary theory provides a supplementary explanatory framework. Recent studies guided by kin-selection theory suggest that humans grieve more for individuals of high reproductive value and genetic relatedness. Ethnographic examples also show that individuals mourn more intensively and, thus, place more social emphasis on burials of individuals of highest reproductive value (young adults). Analysis of grave goods from La Ciudad, a Hohokam site in the American Southwest, supports the hypothesis that labor value, reproductive value, and grief contributed to grave-good differentiation. At La Ciudad, individuals between the ages of 10 and 20 possessed more and higher-quality grave goods on average than any other age group. Grief at the loss of a young adult of high reproductive and labor value may facilitate explanation of mortuary variation at La Ciudad, as well as other sites in the greater Southwest and beyond.
Methodological Issues in the Study of Assemblage Diversity
Authors: Baxter M. J.
Published: April 2006

Three approaches that have been used to investigate assemblage diversity in the archaeological literature-two established and one new-are studied, with a particular emphasis on assemblage richness. It is argued that the established regression and simulation approaches, as often used, are only strictly valid if they assume what they are supposed to test-namely that assemblages are sampled from populations with the same richness or structure. Rarefaction methodology provides an alternative to the simulation approach and suggests that even if the latter is used, sampling without rather than with replacement is preferable. Some potential limitations of a recently proposed approach using jackknife methods are noted, and it is suggested that bootstrapping may be a more natural resampling method to use.
We Have Met the Selectionist and It Is Us: Some Comments on Loney's “Critical Review of Models of Technological Change in Ceramic Studies”
Authors: Neff Hector
Published: April 2006

Loney's (2000) recent paper in American Antiquity contains a critique of evolutionary archaeology that is based on fundamental misconceptions. Perhaps most seriously, she confounds the evolutionary archaeologist's conception of culture as an inheritance system based on social learning with an extreme claim about genetic control over cultural traits.
Shellfish Feeders, Carrion Eaters, and the Archaeology of Aquatic Adaptations
Authors: Erlandson Jon M. , Moss Madonna L.
Published: April 2006

Numerous taphonomic studies show that archaeologists should carefully evaluate the origins of faunal remains found in archaeological sites. Although extensive research has been done on natural sources of terrestrial faunal remains in archaeological sites, much less has been devoted to potential sources of aquatic fauna. Hundreds of animal species feed on shellfish, fish, and other aquatic fauna, and many transport food to terrestrial landforms where they may be mixed or confused with faunal remains left by humans. In this paper, we illustrate the problem by summarizing the habits of a number of animals known to feed on and transport shellfish and other aquatic animals. We also discuss examples where the remains of aquatic animals of non-human origin may have been confused with archaeological materials. Such biological imprints may be most pronounced on early sites, where questions about the antiquity of aquatic adaptations are paramount.
Ritual and Mound Formation during the Bonito Phase in Chaco Canyon
Authors: Wills W. H.
Published: April 2006

Recent socioeconomic models for the Bonito phase (ca. A.D. 850–1150) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, rely heavily on the inference that ritual activity was a causal factor in the design and construction of architectural features. A particular example of this inferential argument concerns earthen mounds, which are widely viewed as evidence for ceremonial gatherings and the intentional creation of sacred architecture. However, a critical evaluation of the physical attributes of Chacoan mounds indicates that these features do not offer clear evidence for either periodic ceremonies or intentional design.
Mass Spectrometric Radiocarbon Dates from Three Rock Paintings of Known Age
Authors: Armitage Ruth A. , Brady James E. , Cobb Allan , Southon John R. , Rowe Marvin W.
Published: April 2006

Radiocarbon age determinations are presented on three hieroglyphic texts from Naj Tunich cave in Guatemala containing Maya calendar dates. The ages obtained are on average 110–140 years older than the calendar dates. Several possible reasons are discussed for this discrepancy: one that is applicable to all radiocarbon dates on charcoal, one that applies to rock paintings, and one that is specific for the tropics. Possible problems with the ages ascribed to the Maya calendar dates are also discussed. Even with the potential problems that may exist, these dates still fall within 110–140 years of the ascribed calendar dates. Caution is urged in the interpretation of dates on charcoal pigments from rock paintings; consideration of the “old wood” and “old charcoal” factors is important.
AMS Radiocarbon Dates for Charcoal from Three Missouri Pictographs and Their Associated Iconography
Authors: Diaz-Granάdos Carol , Rowe Marvin W. , Hyman Marian , Duncan James R. , Southon John R.
Published: April 2006

This report presents four radiocarbon dates of charcoal pigments from Picture Cave, a site located in a remote wooded area in east-central Missouri. Carbon from charcoal pigments was extracted from three rock drawings on the wall of this cave. The four pigment samples contained sufficient carbon for accelerator mass spectrometric radiocarbon analysis. These black pigment samples (red and white paints are also present in the cave) yielded dates that place their affiliated motifs in a time-frame associated with Cahokia ca. 950 years ago. The dates are somewhat earlier than expected. We discuss the dates in connection with the iconography of the three motif panels tested.
Culture and Agriculture: A Comment on Sissel Schroeder, Maize Productivity in the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains of North America
Authors: Baden William W. , Beekman Christopher S.
Published: April 2006

Using selective maize yield data from ethnohistoric and government sources dating between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, Schroeder (1999) argues that Mississippian average yield potential fell within a 9-10 bu/acre range. We evaluate her argument in terms of well-established climatic, environmental, varietal, and behavioral constraints on maize agriculture and conclude that reconstructing prehistoric agricultural potential requires a more precise methodology that incorporates these factors.
How Many Frogs Does It Take to Leap around the Americas? Comments on Anderson and Gillam
Authors: Moore John H. , Moseley Michael E.
Published: April 2006

In modeling the colonization of the Americas, Anderson and Gillam (2000) employ size estimates for vanguard forager bands that are of dubious reproductive viability in light of human incest prohibitions and variable sex ratios at birth.
Replicas, Fakes, and Art: The Twentieth Century Stone Age and Its Effects on Archaeology
Authors: Whittaker John C. , Stafford Michael
Published: April 2006

In addition to archaeologists who make stone tools for experimental purposes, there is a growing number of flintknappers who make lithic artifacts for fun and for profit. The scale of non-academic knapping is little known to archaeologists, and is connected to a flourishing market for antiquities, fakes, replicas, and modern lithic art. Modern stone tools are being produced in vast numbers, and are inevitably muddling the prehistoric record. Modern knappers exploit some material sources heavily, and their debitage creates new sites and contaminates old quarry areas. Modern knapping is, however, a potential source of archaeological insights, and a bridge between the professional community and the interested public. Modern knapping also is creating a “twentieth-century stone age,” and archaeologists working with lithic artifacts need to be aware of the problems and potentials.
Geographic Variation in Fluted Projectile Points: A Hemispheric Perspective
Authors: Morrow Juliet E. , Morrow Toby A.
Published: April 2006

This paper examines geographic variation in fluted point morphology across North and South America. Metric data on 449 North American points, 31 Central American points, and 61 South American points were entered into a database. Ratios calculated from these metric attributes are used to quantify aspects of point shape across the two continents. The results of this analysis indicate gradual, progressive changes in fluted point outline shape from the Great Plains of western North America into adjacent parts of North America as well as into Central and South America. The South American “Fishtail” form of fluted point is seen as the culmination of incremental changes in point shape that began well into North America. A geographically gradual decline in fluting frequency also is consistent with the stylistic evolution of the stemmed “Fishtail” points. Although few in number, the available radiocarbon dates do suggest that “Fishtail” fluted points in southern South America are younger than the earliest dates associated with Clovis points in western North America. All of these data converge on the conclusion that South American “Fishtail” points evolved from North American fluted points.
Point Typologies, Cultural Transmission, and the Spread of Bow-and-Arrow Technology in the Prehistoric Great Basin
Authors: Bettinger Robert L. , Eerkens Jelmer
Published: April 2006

Decrease in projectile point size around 1350 B.P. is commonly regarded as marking the replacement of the atlatl by the bow and arrow across the Great Basin. The point typology most widely employed in the Great Basin before about 1980 (the Berkeley typology) uses weight to distinguish larger dart points from smaller, but similarly shaped, arrow points. The typology commonly used today (the Monitor typology) uses basal width to distinguish wide-based dart points from narrow-based arrow points. The two typologies are in general agreement except in central Nevada, where some dart points are light, hence incorrectly typed by the Berkeley typology, and in eastern California, where some arrow points are wide-based, hence incorrectly typed by the Monitor typology. Scarce raw materials and resharpening may explain why dart points are sometimes light in central Nevada. That arrow point basal width is more variable in eastern California than central Nevada likely reflects differences in the cultural processes attending the spread and subsequent maintenance of bow-and-arrow technology in these two localities.
Discovering Childhood: Using Fingerprints to Find Children in the Archaeological Record
Authors: Kamp Kathryn A. , Timmerman Nichole , Lind Gregg , Graybill Jules , Natowsky Ian
Published: April 2006

Experimental replications show that ridge breadth measurements from fingerprints on archaeological artifacts can be used to estimate the age of the individual who produced the prints. While the greatest amount of variability in human ridge breadth is due to the growth during development from birth to adulthood, there is also variability due to hand and body size, sex, and ethnicity. Despite these confounding variables, the variability due to age is great enough to allow the separation of children’s prints from those of adults using ridge breadths. The utility of this measurement is illustrated with a short case study using ceramic vessels and figurines from northern Arizona. This discovery has great potential for illuminating some of the roles that children played in prehistory.
Making and Breaking Pots in the Chaco World
Authors: Toll H. Wolcott
Published: April 2006

Manufacture and movement of pottery has a complex and changing history in the ancestral pueblo region. By the time great houses were being built in the Chaco sphere, four wares were in use and some areas were supplying large quantities of pots to the sites in Chaco Canyon. Widespread stylistic trends indicate mechanisms of communication and shared ideals over a huge area. Ceramics are an index of how large quantities of everyday items were transported more than 60 km to Chaco. The similarity of source and form assemblages at small sites and great houses demonstrates the close link between the two kinds of sites. The scale and layout of great houses and layering in great mounds associated with them are suggestive of periodic events that are components of Renfrew"s model of central Chaco as the location of devotional events. Scrutiny of layer contents indicates that such events were variable, and that lithics and ceramics from a single geographic source seem to be independently transported. Different areas may have been represented differently at different events, but layers always retain some of their complex composition of sources.
The Identification of Granitic Fire-Cracked Rocks Using Luminescence of Alkali Feldspars
Authors: Rapp George (Rip) , Balescu Sanda , Lamothe Michel
Published: April 2006

The question of Fire-Cracked Rock (FCR) in Woodland contexts has become an important and controversial topic in Western Great Lakes archaeology. There are no clear and widely accepted criteria for distinguishing FCR when the rocks show no observable characteristics associated with fire (heating and cooling). To help overcome this shortcoming, we analyzed both the thermoluminescence (TL) and the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of alkali feldspar grains from a series of six samples of FCR from the Hannaford site in northern Minnesota. A geologic unheated specimen from the same geographic area was used as a control sample. A comparison of the luminescence (TL and OSL) intensities of both natural and natural plus artificial dose signals allowed us to demonstrate that the six selected samples of FCR had been effectively heated at the time of archaeological settlement. The good agreement between the TL and OSL results suggests that the OSL method is a viable alternative to TL for the identification of FCR. The OSL method requires less material, can be applied to a large number of samples, and is more cost-effective.
Mound Building and Prestige Goods Exchange: Changing Strategies in the Cahokia Chiefdom
Authors: Trubitt Mary Beth D.
Published: April 2006

I examine the shift, at about A.D. 1200 in the Mississippi River Valley Cahokia polity, from emphasizing the status and prestige of communal groups through monumental constructions to displaying and maintaining the status and prestige of individual elites using prestige goods. I interpret this transformation as a change from a “corporate” to a “network” leadership strategy. Archaeologically, these alternative strategies show up as differences in monumental construction, wealth differentiation, craft production, and exchange networks. The Moorehead phase (A.D. 1200-1275) is typically characterized as the time of Cahokia’s decline because of decreased mound building and population levels. My examination of archaeological indicators of household status and craft production reveals maximal differences between household units in status and marine shell working after A.D. 1200, with increased centralization of shell working and more intensive production by higher-status households. I argue that elite control of craft production, if present, was a late phenomenon. Rather than a decline at A.D. 1200, changes in the archaeological indicators of complexity reflect changes in the ways that power was expressed and maintained by elites in Cahokian society.
Archaeological Potential of the Atlantic Continental Shelf
Authors: Emery K.O. , Edwards R.L.
Published: April 2006

Early man lived in eastern United States 11,000 years ago when most of the now-submerged continental shelf was exposed. The shelf almost certainly was ranged by nomadic hunters and possibly by marine fish- and mollusk- eaters. As the sea level rose at the end of the latest glacial epoch, the advancing water disrupted and submerged any habitation sites.

The oldest radiocarbon dates for kitchen middens of marine refuse along the present shore appear to be younger than the oldest dates for kitchen middens of non-marine content. Older marine middens may be deeply submerged far out on the continental shelf. Greatest success in future exploration for these sites is likely in areas of the shelf which have received little or no cover of postglacial sediment and where rivers formerly crossed the shelf.
Evolutionary Theory and the Historical Development of Dry-Land Agriculture in North Kohala, Hawai'i
Authors: Ladefoged Thegn N. , Graves Michael W.
Published: April 2006

This GIS analysis of the dry-land agricultural field system in Kohala on the island of Hawai'i reveals patterning that is explained by evolutionary ecological principles set within a selectionist framework. The ca. 55 km2fixed-field system was developed through establishment, expansion, and intensification from the sixteenth until the early nineteenth century. During this time, differential growth rates and levels of intensification occurred in diverse locales. The development of the field system was characterized by changes in the size of the fields, variability infield size, the size of production communities, the level of distribution of production, and the spatial distribution of fields. The most important factors influencing the differential temporal and spatial changes included differences in the abundance of marine resources, variability in the distance between the coast and the inland fields, differences in the amount of variation of rainfall levels over a given distance, and the insurance or subsidy that chiefs could offer to residents to initiate farming in the least optimal locations. Selective pressures within the heterogeneous environment of north Kohala provided the context in which subsistence strategies shifted from a focus on optimizing energy returns to one of stabilizing returns via risk aversion.
Political Hierarchies and Organizational Strategies in the Puebloan Southwest
Authors: Feinman Gary M. , Lightfoot Kent G. , Upham Steadman
Published: April 2006

This paper offers a new perspective for the study of prehistoric Pueblo political organization in the American Southwest. In reviewing salient developments in Puebloan archaeology over the last 20 years, we discuss shortcomings in previous studies that argued for either “simple” or “complex” societies without recognizing the potential for hierarchy and equality to coexist simultaneously in all human societies. An alternative approach is outlined that considers corporate and network strategies of political action as a continuum for examining the organizational structure of Southwestern societies. Consideration of the corporate-network dimension is not seen as a replacement for the dimension of hierarchy, but as an analog to it. We consider the utility of this approach in analyzing the community organization of historic Pueblos and argue that the corporate-network continuum may have “deep” time depth in the broader region of the Desert West. Our findings suggest that a diverse range of corporate and network strategies were employed among residents of pithouse villages (A.D. 200-900) and that the pithouse-to-pueblo transition (ca. A.D. 700-1000) marked a significant organizational shift to more corporate forms of political action that also characterize historic and modern Pueblos.
Pots, Parties, and Politics: Communal Feasting in the American Southwest
Authors: Potter James M.
Published: April 2006

Communal feasting is evaluated as a political resource in the northern Southwest from A.D. 850 to present along three axes: scale of participation and finance, frequency and structure of occurrence, and the resources used. Feasting is a recurrent social practice that has consistently facilitated social integration within Southwest communities, but has shown considerable variation through time. Prior to about A.D. 1275 communal feasting appears to have been more of a source of differentiation within communities than it was after this date, when feasting became truly communal and integrative, as it is today within Puebloan communities. At the same time, feasting also became inter-communal in scale and apparently played a role in the ritual differentiation of individual communities within larger clusters. It is suggested that these changes in the role of feasting had little to do with ecological or environmental variables, but instead reflect the pervasive cultural, social, and religious changes that occurred at this time throughout the Southwest.
Sea-Level Rise and Subsidence Effects on Gulf Coast Archaeological Site Distributions
Authors: Lewis R. Barry
Published: April 2006

This article examines the archaeological effects of two major geologic factors, eustatic sea-level rise and land subsidence, on the archaeological site distributions of low-energy coastlines. It describes an inexpensive, quick approach to identify these effects, which exploits the interpretive value of state-maintained archaeological site location files. The application of this approach to the Mississippi Gulf Coast suggests that coastal sites older than roughly 3500 B.P. were submerged or destroyed by eustatic sea-level rise; more recent sites were affected little by this process. Among subsidence factors, endogenic or deep-earth subsidence has had little impact on local site distributions. Exogenic or surficial subsidence processes, however, are sufficient to explain the temporal gradient of tidally inundated marsh sites.
Archaeology under a Microscope: CRM and the Press
Authors: Kuhn Robert D.
Published: April 2006

Cultural Resource Management (CRM) archaeology receives regular press and media attention. This coverage can shape public perceptions and attitudes about the field. Furthermore, press coverage and public opinion can affect CRM project and policy decision-making. Analysis of the content of newspaper articles collected by the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) related to CRM archaeology over the five-year period between 1995 and 2000 included documenting the types of issues that received press attention and assessing the amount of positive and negative press coverage. Recommendations to encourage improved media coverage of CRM archaeology include: increased recognition of the importance of press coverage; increased efforts to encourage positive press coverage of CRM; improved skills for working with the press; greater participation from archaeologists in academia; and continued evaluation and assessment of newspaper and media coverage of CRM archaeology.
The Cross Creek Site (CA-SLO-1797) and Its Implications for New World Colonization
Authors: Jones Terry L. , Fitzgerald Richard T. , Kennett Douglas J. , Miksicek Charles H. , Fagan John L. , Sharp John , Erlandson Jon M.
Published: April 2006

Recent excavations at the Cross Creek site (CA-SLO-1797) on the central coast of California revealed a stratigraphically discrete midden component dating between ca. 8350 and 7700 cal B.C., making it the oldest mainland shell midden on the west coast of North America. A large recovery volume revealed an assemblage dominated by grinding implements (handstones and milling slabs) and crude core and flake tools typical of California's Milling Stone horizon, but the Cross Creek findings extend the antiquity of Milling Stone back to the terminal Pleistocene. The tools and associated faunal remains suggest a gathering economy profoundly different from the terminal Pleistocene big-game hunting of interior North America. This variation is difficult to reconcile as a simple adaptive outgrowth from late Pleistocene hunting and may reflect a separate coastal migration route into the New World.
A Reassessment of Matrilocality in Chacoan Culture
Authors: Schillaci Michael A. , Stojanowski Christopher M.
Published: April 2006

Recent research presented in American Antiquity (66:36-46) proposed that the prehistoric Puebloan communities of Chaco Canyon in the American Southwest conformed to a matrilocal pattern of postmarital residence. The inference of matrilocality at Chaco Canyon was based on the assumption that a number of the most likely modern descendants of the Chacoans are matrilocal, including the present-day Zuni and Hopi Indians, and that the household floor area had increased to a level indicative of female-based residence. The present study assesses these two important assumptions using biological and architectural data. Our results indicate the assumptions needed to infer matrilocal residence at Chaco Canyon might not be satisfied. The biological evidence indicates close relationships with both matrilocal and bilocal present-day populations, while the architectural evidence is more consistent with a male-based pattern of postmarital residence. Limitations to the study of postmarital residence at archaeological sites are discussed.
Evidence for Late Paleoindian Ritual from the Caradoc Site (AfHj-104), Southwestern Ontario, Canada
Authors: Deller D. Brian , Ellis Christopher J.
Published: April 2006

The Caradoc site, dating ca. 10,500 to 10,000 B.P., provides a rare glimpse of sacred ritual among the earliest well-documented inhabitants of the Americas. It is a kind of site never before reported, where the majority of the artifacts have been purposefully broken or sacrificed. The site yielded 302, mainly chert, lithic fragments that fit together to form at least 71 artifacts. The material includes an unfluted concave-based point, three bifacial knives, 31 unfinished bifaces, 27 unifaces and nine non-siliceous items. Distributional analyses indicate that: 1) the material was initially spread over an area of as much as 12 m2; 2) the items were constrained in their distribution and could have been in a structure; and 3) the artifacts were broken at the location where they were found.
Landscape Change and the Cultural Evolution of the Hohokam along the Middle Gila River and Other River Valleys in South-Central Arizona
Authors: Waters Michael R. , Ravesloot John C.
Published: April 2006

Changes in river floodplain morphology can have devastating consequences for irrigation agriculturalists. Channel erosion occurred in the late nineteenth century, on the flood plain of the middle Gila River, Arizona and severely impacted the native Akimel O' odham (Pima) farmers. Prior to the Akimel O' odham, the prehistoric Hohokam also pursued irrigation agriculture along this river. Geoarchaeological investigations of the Gila River flood plain document a major period of channel cutting and widening sometime between A.D. 1020 to 1160. This channel erosion is coincident with the partial abandonment of large Hohokam villages and significant population rearrangements. It also marks the beginning of a major social reorganization when ball-courts were replaced by platform mounds as the social integrative structure and the Hohokam sphere of influence contracted. Other rivers utilized by the Hohokam—the Santa Cruz River, San Pedro River, and Tonto Creek-also experienced channel cutting between A.D. 1050 and 1150. Thus, a regional episode of channel erosion appears to have been a major factor that contributed to the reorganization seen in the Hohokam archaeological record. These synchronous landscape changes would have severely impacted Hohokam irrigation systems and food production capabilities. This undoubtedly created stresses within Hohokam society which in turn may have accelerated social, political, economic, ideological, and demographic changes that were already underway.
Estimating the Minimum Number of Skeletal Elements (MNE) in Zooarchaeology: A Review and a New Image-Analysis GIS Approach
Authors: Marean Curtis W. , Abe Yoshiko , Nilssen Peter J. , Stone Elizabeth C.
Published: April 2006

Most zooarchaeologists employ some type of derived measure of skeletal element abundance in their analyses of faunal data. The minimum number of individuals (MNI) and the minimum number of animal units (MAU) are two of the most popular derived measurements, and each is based on a prior estimate of the minimum number of elements (MNE). Thus, the estimate of MNE from fragmented faunal fragments is the essential foundation for all inferences emanating from MNI and MAU estimates of skeletal element abundance. Estimating the MNE represented by a sample of faunal fragments is a complicated procedure that involves various assumptions, possible mathematical manipulations, and subjectivity. Unfortunately, the reasoning and methods underlying this procedure are unstandardized in zooarchaeology, and even worse, rarely made explicit. We review the scarce literature on this topic and identify two different approaches: the fraction summation approach and the overlap approach. We identify strengths and weaknesses in both approaches. We then present a new method that is based on using image-analysis GIS software to count overlapping fragments that have been converted to pixel images. This method maintains the strengths of the other methods while overcoming most of their weaknesses. It promises numerous powerful analytical capabilities that go far beyond the routines available in spreadsheets and databases. It also offers nearly boundless flexibility in database recoding and extremely complete information storage. Perhaps its greatest strength is that it is based on very intuitive reasoning.
Synergy through Disunity, Science as Social Practice: Comments on Vanpool and Vanpool
Authors: Hutson Scott R.
Published: April 2006

In “The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism”, VanPool and VanPool (1999) attempt to demonstrate that the sometimes hostile debate between processualist and postprocessualist archaeologies disguises substantive intellectual similarities. The most important similarity is their conformity to a refined definition of science. This definition is based on seven criteria that, as a group, demarcate science from nonscience. VanPool and VanPool pay inadequate attention to critiques of the notion that science can be clearly separated from other forms of inquiry. These critiques come from both within the literature VanPool and VanPool cite as well as from bodies of literature that they do not acknowledge, such as recent sociological, philosophical, and anthropological studies of science. Many of the demarcation criteria can be shown to suffer from overly simplistic accounts of the connections between evidence and hypothesis. Other demarcations do not recognize the social nature of scientific inquiry and the consequent incorporation of interests at various scales. Although VanPool and VanPool believe their criteria of science will promote synergy between processual and postprocessual, this paper questions the conceptualization of these schools and argues that synergy is better accomplished through the appreciation of difference among the various archaeologies and openness to alternative epistemologies.