bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Style or Isochrestic Variation? A Reply to Sackett
Authors: Wiessner Polly
Published: April 2006

Isochrestic behavior as Sackett describes it is recognized to be one of the important sources of variation in material culture. The behavioral bases for isochrestic variation and for what I describe as stylistic variation are contrasted and some of their implications for variation in material culture are discussed. Kalahari San projectile points are then reexamined within the framework of isochrestic and stylistic behavior using both historical and contextual data. It is concluded that variation in San projectile points better fits the expectations of stylistic than isochrestic behavior, at least with our current understanding of isochrestic behavior.
Calculating Population and Agricultural Intensity Levels from Field Remains: A Comment on Coe's Review of “Maya Subsistence”
Authors: Denevan William M. , Turner II B. L.
Published: April 2006

The calculation of populations supported by relic raised fields in Mexico and the role of intensive agriculture by the Classic lowland Maya are clarified.
Preceramic Maize in the Central Andes: A Necessary Clarification
Authors: Bonavia Duccio , Grobman Alexander
Published: April 2006

In a series of articles Robert McK. Bird systematically has denied that preceramic maize has been discovered in the central Andes. The authors consider Bird's methodology to be unscientific and illustrate this by demonstrating the value of a significant body of archaeological evidence in support of preceramic maize.
Effects of Temper on Strength of Ceramics: Response to Bronitsky and Hamer
Authors: Feathers James K.
Published: April 2006

Results of strength tests on sand- and shell-tempered ceramics reported by Bronitsky and Hamer (1986) are difficult to interpret because of flawed experimental procedures and have questionable relevance to the archaeological record. Results from an improved procedure suggest shell-tempered ceramics as produced in prehistoric southeastern Missouri were stronger and tougher than sand-tempered counterparts.
Inferring Fertility from Relative Mortality in Historically Controlled Cemetery Remains from Barbados
Authors: Corruccini Robert S. , Brandon Elizabeth M. , Handler Jerome S.
Published: April 2006

Fertility (crude birth rate) was estimated from skeletal and corresponding historical relative mortality ratios for a seventeenth- to eighteenth-century Barbados slave population. The estimates varied widely among themselves according to which data source and mortality ratio was used; they also varied from the actual historical fertility rate. In addition, we have raised logical objections to the use of stable model life tables for inferring nonstable vital rates in archaeological populations. These points are problematic for the broad use of relative mortality to infer relative fertility.
The Exotic Origins of Fishes Depicted on Prehistoric Mimbres Pottery from New Mexico
Authors: Jett Stephen C. , Moyle Peter B.
Published: April 2006

A variety of fishes is depicted on Classic Mimbres figurative pottery of ca. A.D. 950-1150. Bowl paintings show fishing scenes and equipment. We have tentatively identified depictions of 20 fish taxa, 18 of which are of marine origin. The suite of species suggests a provenience in the Gulf of California, near Guaymas, Sonora. Mimbres traders apparently traveled 1,500 km from New Mexico's Mimbres Valley to the Gulf and back, probably to obtain shells and other materials for home use and for commerce.
The Agricultural Foundations of the Tiwanaku State: A View from the Heartland
Authors: Kolata Alan L.
Published: April 2006

In this essay I explore the nature, role, and significance of intensive agriculture in the ancient state of Tiwanaku, which was centered in the high plateau of southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. Significant primary evidence that the state of Tiwanaku systematically reclaimed immense tracts of now abandoned agricultural land around the borders of Lake Titicaca is adduced and evaluated.

I conclude that Tiwanaku was a dynamic, expansive state based squarely on an effective, surplus-producing system of intensive agriculture, that the intensification agricultural production through large scale reclamation of flat, seasonally inundated land along the margins of Lake Titicaca was a prime economic strategy of the Tiwanaku state, and that this strategy was devised and managed by a hierarchically organized, central government.
Radiocarbon Dating of Corn
Authors: Creel Darrell , Long Austin
Published: April 2006

Nine samples from well-dated prehistoric sites in the southwestern United States have been radiocarbon dated in order to determine the accuracy of14C dates on corn. The results indicate that a normalized and calibrated14C date on corn is as accurate an estimate of the sample's age as is a14C date for any other material. This accuracy has implications not only for future selection of14C samples but also for interpretation of existing dates on corn and on other kinds of materials.
AMS Radiocarbon Dating of Preclassic Maya Burials at Cuello, Belize
Authors: Housley Rupert A. , Hammond Norman , Law Ian A.
Published: April 2006

The use of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) on human bone from early Maya burials at Cuello, Belize provides direct dating of the Preclassic population, and assists resolution of the chronological problems discussed by Andrews and Hammond (1990).
Mortuary Display and Status in a Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Cemetery in Manassas, Virginia
Authors: Little Barbara J. , Lanphear Kim M. , Owsley Douglas W.
Published: April 2006

In this study of an Anglo-American cemetery used between the 1830s and 1907, contemporary mortuary trends and cultural attitudes toward death provide the historical context necessary to interpret variation in mortuary display. Analysis of skeletal remains provides information on dental caries, dental care, and enamel hypoplasia and allows comparison of the relatively high-status Weir family"s health with that of other population samples. Analysis of artifacts reveals four styles of grave decoration attributed not to intrasite status variability but to the appearance, peak, and decline of Victorian era cultural expressions of the "beautification" of death. Within this wider cultural trend, intersite comparisons may be made of status display. The rise and decline of the nineteenth-century ideal of the beautification of death adds vital cultural content for understanding the material expression of an observed process that is a cycle of display.
Energetic Efficiency and Lithic Technology: An Upper Mississippian Example
Authors: Jeske Robert J.
Published: April 2006

Optimal-foraging theory and the concept of energetic efficiency have been used in archaeology for over a decade, usually to explore subsistence behavior. People, however, made choices for energy expenditure in other areas of culture, including lithic technology. It is suggested that a shift in the allocation of energy as an adaptive response to changes in social organization caused the widely noted decline in formal tool types and stone-tool refinement in the late prehistoric periods in eastern North America. Data from an Upper Mississippian village are used to demonstrate the economic use of poor-quality lithic raw material. A bipolar technique was used to produce flake blanks for triangular projectile points as well as a peculiar but common Upper Mississippian tool, the humpback biface. It is suggested that bipolar reduction and other lithic efficiency and economizing strategies are indicators of stress on the energy budgets of human populations.
The Pleistocene to Holocene Transition and Human Economy in Southwest Asia: The Impact of the Younger Dryas
Authors: Moore A. M. T. , Hillman G. C.
Published: April 2006

We present new evidence suggesting that the Late Glacial worldwide episode of cooling known as the Younger Dryas (ca. 11,000-10,000 B.P.) had a significant impact on climate, vegetation, and human economy in southwest Asia. In the Levant a new pollen core extracted from Lake Huleh and plant remains from the early village of Abu Hureyra 1 indicate that forest gave way to steppe in response to the onset of drier climatic conditions contemporary with the Younger Dryas. Similar effects may be seen in pollen cores from elsewhere in southwest Asia. This alteration in climate and vegetation obliged the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra to modify their plant gathering, and led to significant disruptions in culture and settlement over a wide area. We argue that the stresses induced by these events were a contributing factor in the subsequent development of agriculture in southwest Asia.
Phosphate Fractionation of Soils at Agroal, Portugal
Authors: Lillios Katina T.
Published: April 2006

Eidt (1973, 1977, 1984a) suggested that the analysis of soil phosphate fractions (I-III) could be used to identify land-use areas on archaeological sites as well as serve as a relative-dating technique. He noted that the total inorganic phosphate value (I + II + III) reflects the type and intensity of land-use practice, and he hypothesized that the ratio of Fraction II/I correlates with the time elapsed since soil enrichment. A test of these propositions was carried out in conjunction with the excavations at the settlement of Agroal (Portugal), which was occupied during the Bronze Age (2000-1000 B.C.) and Middle Ages (A.D. 1300-1640). Samples were taken from all archaeological levels of the site as well from soils with known land-use histories in the area of Agroal. Results of this study support Eidt"s two principal hypotheses. First, there was a strong correspondence in the control soils between total phosphate values and the nature of land-use activities. Second, the ratio of Fraction II/I in the archaeological samples did, in fact, correlate with the relative age of the associated artifacts. A model of the site"s land-use history, based on the total inorganic phosphate and the Fraction II/I values, suggests a significant alteration and degradation of the soil landscape during the Bronze Age, as a consequence of agriculture, herding, and refuse disposal, followed by less-intensive use during the Middle Ages.
Interpretive Archaeology and Its Role
Authors: Hodder Ian
Published: April 2006

This paper seeks further to define the processes of the interpretation of meaning in archaeology and to explore the public role such interpretation might play. In contrast to postmodern and poststructuralist perspectives, a hermeneutic debate is described that takes account of a critical perspective. An interpretive postprocessual archaeology needs to incorporate three components: a guarded objectivity of the data, hermeneutic procedures for inferring internal meanings, and reflexivity. The call for an interpretive position is related closely to new, more active roles that the archaeological past is filling in a multicultural world.
Prehistoric Cultural Collapse in the Lillooet Area
Authors: Hayden Brian , Ryder June M.
Published: April 2006

A series of unusually large hunter-gatherer winter villages emerged along the Fraser River in the Lillooet region of British Columbia during the last 3,000 years. Population estimates for these villages range from 500-1,000. Salmon heavily dominated the subsistence economy of these groups. We believe that these groups were socially and economically more complex than subsequent inhabitants. Village size and complexity seem to achieve maximum development from 1000-2000 B.P. About 1,000 years ago it appears that all of the large villages in the Lillooet region were abandoned and never reoccupied to any significant degree. Numerous causes for this apparent cultural collapse have been considered. Recent geomorphological research on landslides and terraces in the Lillooet region make failure of salmon runs due to catastrophic landslides that dammed the Fraser River the most likely explanation for the apparently abrupt abandonment of the large Lillooet villages.
Direct Dating of Prehistoric Canal Sediments Using Archaeomagnetism
Authors: Eighmy Jeffrey L. , Howard Jerry B.
Published: April 2006

The problems with dating prehistoric canals are renowned, due to the fact they seldom contain material appropriate for traditional dating methods. However, the application of archaeomagnetic techniques may offer a method of dating canals in those regions where master curves of polar wandering already exist. Detrital remanent magnetism in Hohokam canal sediments seems to produce accurate dates with ranges of ca. 200 years, twice the resolution of previous canal-dating attempts. However, at least some of the sediments seem to record inclinations that are less accurate than the declinations. In these cases, the declination values for the sediments can be compared to master declinations curves as a method of dating the sediments.
Coring in CRM and Archaeology: A Reminder
Authors: Stein Julie K.
Published: April 2006

Corers and augers have become increasingly useful in archaeological investigations, but more in cultural-resource management (CRM) than in research archaeology. Although this increase is evident, coring and augering were used in the earliest CRM projects in the 1970s and merely have gained in popularity in the last five years. Schuldenrein (1991) points out that of all the coring and augering equipment described, the manual bucket auger with a large-diameter barrel is of special value. However, one major disadvantage is that sediment is disturbed during extraction, making observations about soil structure and stratification difficult. The disadvantages have to be balanced against the fact that bucket augers are more versatile than corers and penetrate many more types of substrate. Because of these differences between augers and corers, the terms should not be used interchangeably.
Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility
Authors: Kelly Robert L. , Todd Lawrence C.
Published: April 2006

Hunter-gatherer adaptations to long-term fluctuations in regional resource structure require mechanisms to cope with periodic subsistence stresses. Among documented groups, a common response to such stress is temporary movement into adjacent occupied areas-moving in with "relatives" when things go wrong. However, in the case of early (ca. 12,000-10,000 B.P.) Paleoindian groups in the Americas, the availability of neighboring groups with a detailed knowledge of local resource geography could not be relied upon. Post-Pleistocene environmental changes and the low initial population of the New World are important factors conditioning a lifeway characterized by a dependence on hunting (though not exclusively of megafauna), and by high residential, logistical, and range (territorial) mobility. Early Paleoindian groups had to adopt a subsistence technology that could be employed regardless of the specific resource microstructure. In some regards, Paleoindians seem to have behaved like tropical foragers while in others like arctic collectors. Use of high quality lithic raw materials from large quarry sources, reliance on a bifacial technology, limited use of caves and rockshelters, and a low level of processing of food products for storage all may be indicative of such a subsistence technology, which would have been unlike that of any modern hunter-gatherers.
Myth, Environment, and the Orientation of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan
Authors: Aveni A. F. , Calnek E. E. , Hartung H.
Published: April 2006

In the light of the recent excavations of the Templo Mayor in downtown Mexico City, we explore the problem of the role of astronomy, calendar, and the landscape in the design and orientation of the building and of the city in general. We employ ethnohistoric data relating to the foundation myth of Tenochtitlan as a means of generating hypotheses concerning astronomical orientation that can be tested by reference to the archaeological record. We find that eastward-looking observations (implied in dismantling and reconstructing the myth) that took place around the time of the equinox may have been related to an attempt to transform a true east orientation from the natural environment into the architecture via a line that passed through the center of the Temple of Huitzilopochtli (the more southerly temple of the pair constituting the top of the Templo Mayor). It also is possible that the notch between the twin temples served a calendrical/orientational function. Evidence is presented to support the view that the mountain cult of Tlaloc, represented in the environment on the periphery of the Valley of Mexico by Mount Tlaloc, also may have directly influenced the orientation of the building and that it was part of a scheme for marking out days of the calendar by reference to the position of the rising sun at intervals of 20 days from the spring equinox. In this regard, we discuss the connection between the Templo Mayor and an enclosure containing offertory chambers atop Mount Tlaloc, which is located on a line extended to the visible horizon 44 km east of the ceremonial center. The ethnohistoric record implies that this place had been used for sacrifices to the rain god after whom the other of the twin temples of the Templo Mayor was named.
Stable Carbon- and Nitrogen-Isotope Ratios of Bone Collagen Used to Study Coral-Reef and Terrestrial Components of Prehistoric Bahamian Diet
Authors: Keegan William F. , DeNiro Michael J.
Published: April 2006

Previous studies have demonstrated that stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope ratios of bone collagen can be used to distinguish marine and terrestrial components of prehistoric human diet. However, when this method was first applied to prehistoric Bahamians, their bone-collagen nitrogen-isotope ratios were found to be outside the ranges observed for other coastal populations that ate substantial quantities of marine foods. This study examines in detail the distributions of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in Bahamian food chains. Our results indicate that the unique isotopic signature in bone collagen of prehistoric Bahamians reflects the enrichment of 13C and the depletion of 15N in seagrass and coral-reef communities relative to other oceanic environments. The results also demonstrate that bone-collagen 13C/12C ratios can be used to distinguish marine from terrestrial contributions in the prehistoric Lucayan Taino diet, and that 15N/14N ratios serve to identify the use of certain marine food groups. This approach should prove useful for the study of consumption practices in other tropical coral-reef environments and as a method for evaluating theoretically predicted optimal diets.
Tenam Rosario—A Political Microcosm
Authors: Montmollin Olivier de
Published: April 2006

Civic-ceremonial plaza planning is analyzed at Tenam Rosario, the capital center of a small Late/Terminal Classic period (A.D. 700-950) Maya polity, to shed light on political organization. When the capital's civic-ceremonial layout is compared with settlement patterns in its hinterland, the polity's hierarchical and territorial political arrangements appear to be reproduced in microcosm within the capital"s civic-ceremonial zone. Possible political microcosms of this kind at other mesoamerican capital sites are discussed, along with correlates of this variant of political organization.
Response to Coggins and Bricker
Authors: Closs Michael P.
Published: April 2006

Coggins and Bricker have accepted my phonetic reading of one version of the north glyph as xaman, "north." Nevertheless, they maintain that the traditional north-south axis in Maya directional symbolism pertains more properly to a zenith-nadir axis. In my response I argue against that position and provide evidence that the cardinal directions played a fundamental role in mesoamerican cosmology. These directions are interpreted in a relatively loose sense as sectors on the horizon and not as cardinal points. In particular, the north direction is viewed as a sector on the horizon centered at a point which is approximately 14 degrees east of north. The evidence includes three independent proofs of the cardinal direction hypothesis. These proofs specifically implicate the four Maya directional glyphs as symbols of the four cardinal directions.
The Effectiveness of Subsurface Testing: A Simulation Approach
Authors: Kintigh Keith W.
Published: April 2006

This article briefly reviews methodological issues relevant to subsurface testing and advances a general method for objectively assessing the reliability of an archaeological survey program based on subsurface survey methods such as the excavation of shovel tests or the use of auger holes. The proposed technique employs simulation to model subsurface testing strategies using simple principles of probability and assumptions that are explicit and realistic. An arbitrary layout of test units can be evaluated to yield an estimate of the proportions of sites of different sizes and artifact densities that will be found (or missed) by the testing program.
Nauyalik Fish Camp: An Ethnoarchaeological Study in Activity-Area Formation
Authors: Chang Claudia
Published: April 2006

This ethnoarchaeological study of an Inupiat Eskimo fish camp examines the formation of activity areas through time-motion studies and the analyses of activity episodes. These observations on two adults using the site during the summer of 1982 are used as examples of how spatially discrete activity areas are shaped by behavioral processes. In this case, activity-area formation is tied to the adaptive strategies of the Inupiat Eskimo cultural system. Specific subsistence-related activities such as food processing, animal butchering, and equipment maintenance leave material residues after tasks are completed. Cognitive and adaptive aspects of the Inupiat cultural system contribute to the spatial organization of this fish camp.
Seasonality of the Scottsbluff and Lipscomb Bison Bonebeds: Implications for Modeling Paleoindian Subsistence
Authors: Todd Lawrence C. , Hofman Jack L. , Schultz C. Bertrand
Published: April 2006

The Scottsbluff and Lipscomb bison bonebeds initially were excavated in the 1930s. Although only brief, preliminary reports have been published on the two sites, they since have been cited widely in discussions of Paleoindian hunting practices on the western Plains. The Scottsbluff and Lipscomb sites both represent mass deaths associated with Cody Complex and Folsom artifacts respectively. Analysis of eruption and wear of the lower dentitions indicates that the Scottsbluff bison died during late spring to summer, and those at Lipscomb died only slightly later in the year (late summer to early fall). Thus, although often cited in the “yet-another-bison-bonebed” category, these two sites exhibit a pattern of seasonal mortality that is different from the generally reported tendency for Paleoindian kills to have taken place in the late fall or winter.
What Are the Chances of Finding Maize in Peru Dating before 1000 B.C.?: Reply to Bonavia and Grobman
Authors: Bird Robert McKelvy
Published: April 2006

Maize is claimed to occur occasionally in preceramic deposits in Peru. Cobs, kernels, tassels, pollen, and plant parts have been reported to be associated with Cotton Preceramic period refuse (ca. 2500–1750 B.C., uncorrected) in several north-central coast sites. Maize has been found in some much earlier highland occupations that also have yielded a wide range of ancient dates. These samples represent many types, some with characteristics not found again until late in the first millennium A.D. This arouses suspicion. Checking of artifacts, ecofacts, and radiocarbon dates associated with the maize reveals some that are less than 100 years old and many that are less than 1,500 years old. It also reveals shallow deposits and/or much disturbed context.
Studies in Archaeological Maize I: The “Wild” Maize from San Marcos Cave Reexamined
Authors: Benz Bruce F. , Iltis Hugh H.
Published: April 2006

Cobs of the earliest known archaeological maize from San Marcos Cave in the Tehuacan Valley were reexamined to estimate their morphological similarity to extant Mexican maize races. Cursory examination of these 7,000-year-old specimens aroused suspicion that they are not very closely related morphologically to any thus-far-described modern Mexican race. Statistical comparison of the Tehuacan specimens with 30 races of Mexican maize fully confirmed this suspicion. However, the inclusion in our statistical analysis of an extant race of popcorn from Argentina morphologically similar to the Tehuacan specimens indicated that the two were virtually indistinguishable. These findings imply that the earliest maize from Tehuacan already was fully domesticated, its cobs exhibiting a morphology one would expect had maize evolved from teosinte by way of catastrophic sexual transmutation (Iltis 1983).
Characteristics of Bifacial-Reduction Flake-Size Distribution
Authors: Patterson Leland W.
Published: April 2006

Bifacial-reduction experiments suggest that the characteristics of flake-size distribution can be employed to detect bifacial-reduction activities at archaeological sites. However, data on bifaces in various stages of completion as well as on by-product flakes are necessary for detailed analysis of the biface-manufacturing sequence.
Sacrifice, Death, and the Origins of Agriculture in the Codex Vienna
Authors: Monaghan John
Published: April 2006

This paper examines a poorly understood scene in the Codex Vienna and is based on linguistic and ethnographic studies carried out in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Vienna is one of the few Precolumbian manuscripts to survive the conquest, and its extensive treatment of ritual and religious subjects makes it unique among the Mixtec codices. The scene in question is interpreted in terms of a myth current among present-day Mixtec speakers, which recounts the first sacrifice made by humans, and which links this sacrifice, and all subsequent ones, to agriculture and human death.
Redefinition of the Swasey Phase at Cuello, Belize
Authors: Andrews E. Wyllys , Hammond Norman
Published: April 2006

Calibrated radiocarbon dates of 19 samples excavated since 1976 at the site of Cuello, in northern Belize, place the Swasey phase (11 dates) and Bladen phase (8 dates) in the Middle Formative period, rather than in the Early Formative, as 10 dates on charcoal excavated in 1975 and 1976 indicated. The post-1976 dates for both phases fall between about 1100 and 400 B.C., and the two sets do not appear to differ significantly. All except 3 of the 35 archaeologically acceptable dates from the later Lopez Mamom and Cocos Chicanel contexts fall within the conventionally accepted ranges for those phases. A mixture of old charcoal from the environment or from an unidentified pre-Swasey occupation with the 1975–1976 samples may explain their early radiocarbon ages, although why such mixing should have affected only the 1975–1976 samples is not known. This reassessment of the early Cuello sequence aligns it with comparable cultural developments elsewhere in the Maya area and suggests that the earliest farming communities of northern Belize perhaps derived from the highlands of Guatemala.
The Maize Tamale in Classic Maya Diet, Epigraphy, and Art
Authors: Taube Karl A.
Published: April 2006

Iconographic, epigraphic, and linguistic data provide new evidence that the tamale constituted the primary maize food of Classic Maya diet. Archaeological and ethnohistoric data pertaining to the tamale and tortilla are reviewed and discussed in terms of the widespread representation of the tamale in Classic Maya epigraphy and art. Iconographic forms of the tamale are isolated and compared with hieroglyphic signs. Glyphs T:14, 39, 86, 130, 135, 506, 507, 754, 577, 584, and 739 are identified as representations of the tamale. Affix T130 contains either of two tamale types, both possessing the phonetic value wa or wah in the ancient script. This syllable provides readings for the Postclassic water group, the action of standing, and an unusual emblem glyph possibly referring to a supernatural region. In addition, the two tamale forms of T130 provide partial readings for the Classic terms for the numbers six, eight, and the name glyph of God N. It is suggested that the tamale constituted an important offering in Classic ritual, and is a principal subject of 819-day cycle texts.
Cross-Cultural Interaction and Change in Recent Old World Research
Authors: Wells Peter S.
Published: April 2006

The aim of this review is to introduce readers of American Antiquity to some recent literature in Old World archaeology on the subject of cross-cultural interaction and its role in culture change. The coverage is not representative of Old World archaeology as a whole, but rather focuses on European research, with which this reviewer is most familiar, and primarily introduces literature published in English. It is hoped that readers of this journal may find material in this review that can be of direct use to them in their research on questions of culture change in New World contexts.
Organic-Tempered Pottery: An Experimental Study
Authors: Skibo James M. , Schiffer Michael B. , Reid Kenneth C.
Published: April 2006

This paper presents the results of testing technological and techno-functional hypotheses concerning the effects of organic temper. Behaviorally relevant tests are used to compare the performance characteristics of untempered, mineral-, and organic-tempered briquettes and vessels. The characteristics tested include impact resistance, abrasion resistance, portability, thermal shock resistance, ease of manufacture, and heating effectiveness. Organic-tempered ceramics have superior performance characteristics during manufacture, allowing for an expedient ceramic technology. This, along with reduced weight and greater portability, may explain the preference for organic-tempered vessels by groups that frequently shift their residence. Moreover, it is found that all low-fired ceramics, but especially organic-tempered ceramics, are susceptible to complete breakdown in a moist environment under freeze-thaw conditions. Frost wedging is thought to be responsible for an underestimation of Late Archaic organic-tempered ceramics in northern latitudes as well as the destruction of any low-fired pottery subject to a moist depositional environment and freeze-thaw cycles.
A Comment on John Rowzée Peyton and the Mound Builders: The Elevation of a Nineteenth-Century Fraud to a Twentieth-Century Myth
Authors: Yelton Jeffrey K.
Published: April 2006

Blakeslee (1987) has suggested that the Mound Builder myth in part can be traced to John Rowzée Peyton, who reportedly crossed the Great Plains in 1774 and probed a mound, attributing it to a past, non-Indian civilization. However, critical examination of the account, first published in 1867, indicates that John Rowzée Peyton’s adventure actually was invented by his grandson, John Lewis Peyton.
The Formation of Flakes
Authors: Cotterell Brian , Kamminga Johan
Published: April 2006

An understanding of the mechanics involved in flake formation provides an opportunity for deriving more behavioral information from flake and flake scar morphology. The mechanics of flake formation are directly relevant to the identification of prehistoric flaking techniques and stone tool use. In this paper we provide a model of flake formation that accounts for much of the variation in flake morphology. Flakes can form in a number of ways and despite popular belief they are not all of the conchoidal variety. The bending flake is common in use wear though it is often misidentified as a conchoidal flake. A third major type of flake, the compression flake, is a common product of bipolar impact. To account for the wide variation in flake morphology we follow a tripartite scheme of flake formation comprising initiation, propagation, and termination phases, within which different mechanisms can operate.
Resource Diversity in Belize and Its Implications for Models of Lowland Trade
Authors: Graham Elizabeth
Published: April 2006

The data presented here, by providing examples of resource diversity in Belize, add support to the current consensus that a basis indeed exists in the Maya Lowlands for placement of research emphasis on elucidating patterns of local or intercommunity exchange as a step toward understanding socioeconomic integration. The point also is made that any generalized model of exchange will fail to shed light on lowland integration unless patterns are defined for exchange that operated at the local or inter-community level. It is suggested that these patterns be sought against a backdrop of differential resource distribution.
A Thing of Sherds and Patches
Authors: Quimby George Irving
Published: April 2006

In this autobiographical sketch, George Irving Quimby recounts his long and happy career based on recollections of personal and academic experiences and the insights they have provided. In addition, Quimby’s career can be situated within the development of American archaeology, thus providing a contribution to the historical record of the discipline.
The Standardization Hypothesis and Ceramic Mass Production: Technological, Compositional, and Metric Indexes of Craft Specialization at Tell Leilan, Syria
Authors: Blackman M. James , Stein Gil J. , Vandiver Pamela B.
Published: April 2006

Archaeologists often use measurements of standardization in ceramics as evidence for specialized craft production. Analysis of fine-ware bowl kiln wasters from the urban center of Leilan, Syria (ca. 2300 B.C.) provides a rare opportunity to test the standardization hypothesis against the archaeological record of a single production event. Scanning-electron microscopy, xeroradiography, neutron activation, and metric analyses of the wasters show extreme uniformity in manufacturing technology, chemical composition, and vessel dimensions. However, when contrasted with sherds of the same bowl type from other contexts at Leilan, a higher degree of compositional and metric variability is observed. This "cumulative blurring" effect stems from the use of long-lived types from multiple workshops. Although "cumulative blurring" increases sample variability, it does not obscure the overall homogeneity of these ceramics. Our results suggest that standardization can be a reliable index of craft specialization only under conditions of close spatial and chronological control over the archaeological record.
Identifying Individual Vessels with X-Radiography
Authors: Carr Christopher
Published: April 2006

The individual vessel, rather than the sherd, is the relevant unit of analysis in many kinds of behavioral studies. Economical methods for assigning the sherds of multiple vessels to their vessels of origin are introduced for household-made ceramics. The methods employ visible surface indicators of vessel individuality as well as radiographically detectable ones such as temper quantity, size distribution, spatial distribution, and material type, void spaces, and fracture systems. A hierarchical, sequential sorting strategy and certain radiographic methods, which are optimal for revealing the internal features of ceramics, make this application possible.
Diagnostic Opal Phytoliths from Pods of Selected Varieties of Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)
Authors: Bozarth Steven R.
Published: April 2006

Numerous distinctly hooked silicified hairs are produced in pods of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Similar phytoliths were found in six dicot species native to the central Great Plains in an extensive reference collection of both cultivated and wild plants. Statistical analysis demonstrates that many of the hooked hairs produced in common beans are significantly wider near the tip than those produced in the other species. Bean phytoliths were identified at a late prehistoric village in central Kansas based on this distinguishing characteristic.
Incorporating Variation in Occupation Span into Settlement-Pattern Analysis
Authors: Dewar Robert E.
Published: April 2006

Settlement patterns recovered by archaeologists differ fundamentally from synchronic settlement patterns analyzed by geographers since they are a static record of occupations that may often have had differing periods of use in the past. Many maps of the “settlement pattern” of prehistoric phases show more occupations than were ever simultaneously occupied. After discussing some of the problems this can cause, I describe a way of characterizing past settlement dynamics and a method for estimating (1) the mean number of likely simultaneous occupations for a region and (2) phase-to-phase differences in mean occupation span. The method is illustrated by the analysis of settlement data from the Ixtapalapa region in the Basin of Mexico.
Impact of Carnivore Ravaging on Zooarchaeological Measures of Element Abundance
Authors: Marean Curtis W. , Spencer Lillian M.
Published: April 2006

Most zooarchaeologists estimate limb-bone abundance from limb ends. Researchers have provided detailed documentation of the preferential destruction by carnivores of limb ends (Binford 1981; Binford et al. 1988; Blumenschine 1988; Brain 1981; Marean et al. 1990; Orloff and Marean 1990; Sutcliffe 1970). Others have observed differences between limb abundances calculated on limb shafts vs. ends, suggesting shaft pieces may provide more accurate estimates of original element abundance in carnivore-ravaged assemblages (Bunn 1986; Bunn and Kroll 1986; Blumenschine 1988; Klein 1975; Marean et al. 1990; Orloff and Marean 1990). However, the exact quantitative effect of carnivore ravaging on measures of element abundance has never been investigated. We provide an experimental test of the accuracy of different bone portions for estimating the original element abundance after carnivore ravaging. Spotted hyenas were allowed to ravage 33 simulated archaeological sites of known element abundance. Estimates of abundance calculated on limb ends differ greatly from original bone abundance, and estimates based on proximal/distal-shaft pieces are also inaccurate. Estimates from middle-shaft fragments, however, are uniquely accurate. These experimental data mandate reanalysis of assemblages where limb frequencies were calculated from limb ends and carnivore ravaging is implicated, and experimentally vindicate observations originally provided by Klein (1975).
Bone Refuse and Insect Remains: Their Potential for Temporal Resolution of the Archaeological Record
Authors: Chomko Stephen A. , Gilbert B. Miles
Published: April 2006

The contents of a bone-filled pit from a Late Prehistoric period site in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, are inferred to represent the remains of a meal originally cooked in a skin container. The residue remained in the container, outside of the pit, for at least three weeks. Subsequently, but within a few weeks of cooking, the residue was dumped upside down into a pit which was then sealed with a sandstone slab. Preparation of the food and its disposal took place between June and September. The temporal resolution made possible by the analysis of the insect remains permits the inference that the site assemblage accumulated during two separate occupations. Such an inference affects how the site assemblage may be interpreted within the context of a settlement system.
Obscuring Cultural Patterns in the Archaeological Record: A Discussion from Southwestern Archaeology
Authors: Cordell Linda S. , Upham Steadman , Brock Sharon L.
Published: April 2006

Failure to distinguish clearly between human behavior and cultural behavior, as well as inattention to procedures for evaluating inferences about the past, undermine some recent efforts in archaeological interpretation. Examples from the archaeological literature of the American Southwest show how analytical confusion may arise when research strategies obscure cultural variability. We are especially concerned about instances in which archaeologists assume that variability in archaeological assemblages derives primarily or exclusively from variability in human behavior (rather than cultural behavior) or from noncultural processes that are instrumental in forming the archaeological record. Suggestions for modifying research strategies to avoid these problems are offered.
The Meadowcroft Rockshelter Radiocarbon Chronology 1975-1990
Authors: Adovasio J. M. , Donahue J. , Stuckenrath R.
Published: April 2006

Ever since the publication of the first of more than 50 internally consistent radiocarbon dates from Meadowcroft Rockshelter (36 WH297), controversy has been generated by frequent assertions that the dates older than 11,000 B.C. have suffered particulate or nonparticulate contamination. Data bearing on these assertions are assessed in the light of accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS) dates provided by Oxford University. The weight of all data taken together suggests that this site still represents the best-dated evidence for the presence of human beings south of the glacial front in the Americas. That evidence indicates that Native Americans were present in southwestern Pennsylvania by 14,000–14,500 years ago.
Bias and Archaeological
Classification
Authors: Beck Charlotte , Jones George T.
Published: April 2006

Archaeologists increasingly have become
aware of the effects of bias and have made strides
to identify and correct for error introduced in
such areas as sampling and recovery techniques.
Much less attention has been paid to the
significance of bias introduced during artifact
analysis. The potential for analyst-induced error
is discussed in terms of: (1) the explicitness of
class definitions, (2) differences in perception
among analysts, and (3) changes in a single
analyst's perception over time. Using a
regression-based approach, sources of possible
analytic error are detected in an archaeological
data set recovered from Steens Mountain,
Oregon.
A Defense of Shovel-Test Sampling: A Reply
to Shott
Authors: Lightfoot Kent G.
Published: April 2006

Shott raises pertinent issues on the
limitations of shovel-test sampling. I agree that
alternative methods with more efficient discovery
rates should be developed and tested. I argue,
however, that shovel testing is the most efficient
discovery technique now available for detecting
buried cultural remains on a regional scale. In
survey contexts where the probability of buried
remains is high, shovel testing should remain a
primary option.
Coring Archaeological Sites
Authors: Stein Julie K.
Published: April 2006

The history of coring and augering at archaeological sites is traced to two periods in the twentieth century. In the first period, Period I (1935-1955), the technique was used primarily to correlate archaeological deposits with river sediments for dating purposes. Rarely were the deposits containing artifacts cored or augered; rather the stratigraphic relationship of cultural to non-cultural deposits was sought. Most of this work was done in the Lower Mississippi River Delta where geologists had calculated absolute dates for river deposits. This period seems to have ended with the availability of radiometric dating and was followed by Period II (1964-present). After 1964 there is a renewed interest in coring and augering, mostly following a shift in archaeological research interests from culture history toward ecological questions. This shift coincides with the availability of a new device: a mechanical corer. During Period II, coring is utilized in many different projects, including reconstructing the environment surrounding sites, collection of samples from subsurface deposits, and locating buried archaeological sites. Following the discussion of the history of coring and augering, a description of equipment, techniques, and data potential is presented.
An Alyawara Day: Making Men's Knives and beyond
Authors: Binford Lewis R.
Published: April 2006

The manufacture of men"s knives by Alyawara-speaking Australian Aborigines is described.1 The setting is a men's camp at the site of Bendaijerum near MacDonald Downs in central Australia. Obtaining the raw material, the lithic blanks, and the spinifex resin used in manufacture has already been described (Binford 1984; Binford and O'Connell 1984). This essay treats the social context and the technical process of tool production as it was observed among the Alyawara during the winter of 1974. These experiences then serve as the basis for a discussion of the concept of style and for an analysis of some common views regarding settlement typology.
Rodent Ecology and Burrowing Behavior: Predicted Effects on Archaeological Site Formation
Authors: Bocek Barbara
Published: April 2006

Studies of burrowing rodent ecology are reviewed to identify the dynamics of rodent disturbance and to predict its impact on archaeological deposits. Data from a central California site are used to evaluate the proposed effects of rodent behavior. Burrowing activity appears to segregate soil contents by size, causing artificial concentrations of small materials near the surface, and larger materials at depths between 30 and 60 cm. Despite extensive stratigraphic disturbance, rodent burrowing seems to have minimal effects on horizontal material distributions.
Morphological Projectile Point Typology: Replication Experimentation and Technological Analysis
Authors: Flenniken J. Jeffrey , Raymond Anan W.
Published: April 2006

Morphological typologies of projectile points in North America have often been employed as time-sensitive prehistoric cultural markers. This article demonstrates that the contingencies of point manufacture, hafting, use, and rejuvenation create morphological changes that may render questionable use of these morphological typologies as prehistoric cultural markers. Thirty projectile points were replicated according to the attributes of a commonly employed typological scheme for the Great Basin. Experiments with hafting, impact, and rejuvenation demonstrate that a single point-type may manifest more than one "time-sensitive" shape within its normal uselife.
Uses of the Past: Archaeology in the Service of the State
Authors: Fowler Don D.
Published: April 2006

Nation states, or partisans thereof, control and allocate symbolic resources as one means of legitimizing power and authority, and in pursuit of their perceived nationalistic goals and ideologies. A major symbolic resource is the past. In this paper I review three cases in which the past and, in particular, relevant archaeological resources were "used" for such purposes, and I refer to several other well-known instances. The three cases discussed are Mexico from ca. A.D. 900 to the present, Britain from ca. A.D. 1500 to the present, and the People’s Republic of China since 1949. The implications of such uses in relation to archaeological theories and interpretations are discussed.
Surface Collection, Sampling, and Research Design: A Retrospective
Authors: Redman Charles L.
Published: April 2006

Probability sampling, controlled surface collecting, and explicit research designs are standard working procedures for a large portion of the archaeological profession. The need for adopting these approaches and their utility in the field have been persuasively argued in the literature for 20 years. Despite their agreed-upon utility, these approaches are often poorly understood. Field strategies of four projects and their rationales are presented to provide examples of specific approaches that have had positive results. Based on these case studies and a review of the literature, I propose six basic principles as guides to the formulation of future field strategies. The researcher must define interpretive objectives, specify minimal data requirements, understand the problems of data recognition, structure the flow of research and evaluation, choose appropriate tools for each stage of research, and maintain cost effectiveness.