bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Was Agriculture Impossible during the Pleistocene but Mandatory during the Holocene? A Climate Change Hypothesis
Authors: Richerson Peter J. , Boyd Robert , Bettinger Robert L.
Published: April 2006

Several independent trajectories of subsistence intensification, often leading to agriculture, began during the Holocene. No plant-rich intensifications are known from the Pleistocene, even from the late Pleistocene when human populations were otherwise quite sophisticated. Recent data from ice and ocean-core climate proxies show that last glacial climates were extremely hostile to agriculture—dry, low in atmospheric CO2, and extremely variable on quite short time scales. We hypothesize that agriculture was impossible under last-glacial conditions. The quite abrupt final amelioration of the climate was followed immediately by the beginnings of plant-intensive resource-use strategies in some areas, although the turn to plants was much later elsewhere. Almost all trajectories of subsistence intensification in the Holocene are progressive, and eventually agriculture became the dominant strategy in all but marginal environments. We hypothesize that, in the Holocene, agriculture was, in the long run, compulsory. We use a mathematical analysis to argue that the rate-limiting process for intensification trajectories must generally be the rate of innovation of subsistence technology or subsistence-related social organization. At the observed rates of innovation, population growth will always be rapid enough to sustain a high level of population pressure. Several processes appear to retard rates of cultural evolution below the maxima we observe in the most favorable cases.
Paleoindian Interaction and Mating Networks: Reply to Moore and Moseley
Authors: Anderson David G. , Gillam J. Christopher
Published: April 2006

How early human populations in North America maintained reproductive viability is a question that has shaped our research for over a decade. The concept of staging areas, mechanisms for band-macroband interaction, and an examination of how interaction networks could have formed and evolved over the course of the Paleoindian era are all solutions that we have presented.
The Flote-Tech Flotation Machine: Messiah or Mixed Blessing?
Authors: Rossen Jack
Published: April 2006

In their review of the Flote-Tech machine-assisted flotation system, Hunter and Gassner (1998) depict the machine as nearly perfect and present it as a technical marvel. I attempt to present a more balanced view of the Flote-Tech machine, based on four years of direct experience. Rather than being a perfected machine for flotation recovery of archaeological plant remains, the Flote-Tech is a prototype with important design and use problems. It can only be recommended with major caveats and system modifications.
Household Production in Chaco Canyon Society
Authors: Hagstrum Melissa
Published: April 2006

The household is the most basic and flexible component of human social organization. It is through the household that we can understand the Chaco phenomenon from the point of view of agriculture and craft production. Households strive for autonomy and self-sufficiency and they spread themselves thin to meet basic subsistence requirements. As a result, scheduling of agricultural and craft activities is critical to the success of the household. Craft technologies must be complementary with agricultural activities; for example, pottery may be made during the heat of the day when agricultural tasks are at a lull. The concept of intersecting technologies suggests that technical knowledge, resources, and labor may be shared among crafts and other activities. Chacoan households probably specialized in the production of different crafts including pottery, jewelry, basketry, and other woven goods. Within the context of the Chaco regional system the mobilization of labor would have been through obligatory work assignments that complemented domestic autonomy in agricultural production and, as a result, would have been organized seasonally.
Going against the Grain: Wood Production in Chacoan Society
Authors: Windes Thomás C. , McKenna Peter J.
Published: April 2006

Wood used in the construction of Chacoan great houses represents a class of bulk artifact collected and prepared for use in buildings that can be reasonably argued to be public structures. The organization of production is generally held to be within the framework of a corporate chiefdom, as defined by cross-culturally inspired position papers for the "Organization of Production" symposium on the Chaco phenomenon. The organizational requirements for the acquisition, processing, and transport of construction elements are discussed through the examination of harvest schedule, the description and comparison of beam treatments, and labor investment for the processing, transport, and stockpile management of the beams. The timing of harvest and the labor effort invested in construction wood is found to be different and more intense than in a sample of comparable-scale non-Chacoan buildings but within the means of self-paced, corporately motivated task groups operating under the parameters of seasonal household schedules. Because of the consistency of handling, and quality of treatment, we envision the development of skilled task groups, perhaps at the level of a formal fraternal society, under the guidance and organizing skill of a limited number of leaders or specialists. More centralized corporate direction may have been an aspect of organization for only a brief period after A.D. 1070.
The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism
Authors: VanPool Christine S. , VanPool Todd L.
Published: April 2006

The compatibility of processual and postprocessual archaeology has been heavily debated. This discussion is frequently phrased in terms of scientific vs. nonscientific/humanistic archaeology. We suggest that the "postprocessual debate" is based on a mischaracterization of science that is pervasive in archaeology, and is largely unnecessary when a more reasonable view of the nature of science is considered. To demonstrate this point, we begin our discussion by identifying several commonalities within most postprocessual approaches to provide a foundation for our discussion. We then consider the two classic criteria used to differentiate science and nonscience, Baconian inductivism and falsification, and demonstrate why these views lead to an incomplete and inaccurate understanding of science. We next examine seven attributes that are commonly accepted as characteristics of science in order to provide a more accurate view of the nature and workings of science. Based on this discussion, we argue that much postprocessual research is in fact scientific, and we ultimately conclude that postprocessual approaches as currently applied can contribute to a scientific understanding of the archaeological record.
Older Than We Thought: Implications of Corrected Dates for Paleoindians
Authors: Fiedel Stuart J.
Published: April 2006

Radiocarbon dates for the terminal Pleistocene are about 2,000 years too young. Furthermore, because of significant carbon perturbations that are manifest as plateaus or abrupt jumps in age, radiocarbon dates of ca. 12,500 to 10,000 B.P. [14C] must be critically evaluated. The first successful human colonization of the Americas occurred not 11,500 but about 13,500 years ago. This basic chronological revision has important implications for models of Paleoindian colonization, population expansion, and genetic and linguistic divergence.
The Distribution and Implications of Fluted Points in Saskatchewan
Authors: Kehoe Thomas F.
Published: April 2006

Classic Clovis, classic Folsom, and atypical fluted points from southern Saskatchewan are described. The variations in the atypical fluted points, which include three fluted Piano points, suggest that the parallel-flaked tradition was developed out of the fluted tradition in the centuries of rapid climatic shift following the retreat of the Valders ice. This development may have taken place in the region that included southern Saskatchewan.
The Manufacture and Use of Bone Defleshing Tools
Authors: Steinbring Jack
Published: April 2006

Ethnographic data on bone defleshing tools were collected in 1964 from the Black River Band of Ojibwa who now live along the southeastern shore of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. The information presented is especially pertinent to archaeological interpretation of these specialized tools.
The Postglacial “Readaptation” as Viewed from Mesoamerica
Authors: Flannery Kent V.
Published: April 2006

Faunal analysis suggests that before the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciers from North America, the occupants of the Valley of Tehuacan, Puebla, engaged in communal drives of jackrabbit (and possibly pronghorn antelope as well). With the arrival of the present (warmer) climatic regime, antelope and jackrabbit were replaced by whitetailed deer and cottontail, and all evidence of communal drives ceased. This change, which has interesting implications from the standpoint of interband cooperation, is not reflected in either artifacts or settlement patterns as presently rscoverable by archaeologists. It also suggests that the nature of the post-Pleistocene "readaptation" in semi-tropical America differed from that postulated for the northern temperate regions.
Man in Association with Extinct
Fauna in the Great Basin
Authors: Cressman L. S.
Published: April 2006

A recently published statement by Baumhoff and Heizer that the "large herbivores disappeared in the Great Basin before man’s entry into the area" is contrary to the facts in the case. The correct data are supplied.

BAUMHOFF AND HEIZER (1965: 699) in their discussion of "Climate and Archaeology in the Desert West" state:

Alleged associations of man and Equus in some Nevada and Oregon cave deposits are not adequately demonstrated. In brief, if uncertain associations of man and extinct Pleistocene mammals are ignored, evidence is still lacking that man knew or hunted or ate such animals in the western desert region other than in southern Arizona (italics ours). The simplest conclusion is that the large herbivores disappeared in the Great Basin before man's entry into the area.
Notes on Projectile Points in Oaxaca, Mexico
Authors: Jewell Donald P.
Published: April 2006

A study of some projectile points collected in the region of Oaxaca, Mexico, was recently concluded. It was possible to relate most of the specimens to the typology employed at nearby Tehuacan. The earliest points date from the El Riego phase, beginning ca. 6800 B.C. Limited evidence suggests that, possibly because of pluvial conditions, the early folk of Oaxaca kept to the foothills rather than the valley floors. This may have effected cultural differences with Tehuacan. Oaxaca may also have had an important part to play in the migration of early man to South America.
The Inca Bridges in the Huánuco Region
Authors: Thompson Donald E. , Murra John V.
Published: April 2006

Ethnohistorical, archaeological, and ethnological data are combined in a discussion of Inca bridges in the Huanuco area. A colonial document provides the details of how a major bridge on the Inca highway was constructed by placing a series of logs over projecting canes. The division of labor in providing the logs was described as being divided among neighboring communities, with the river itself as a significant dividing line. The section of the Inca highway in question is still in use today and the bridge still exists, apparently much the same as it was in the Colonial Period and probably in the Inca Period. Other bridges in the area are discussed from the point of view of function and maintenance and as an example of the persistence of an ancient tradition of bridge building.
On Ch'arki Consumption in the Ancient Central Andes: A Cautionary Note
Authors: Valdez Lidio M.
Published: April 2006

Recently, Andeanist zooarchaeologists have introduced the so-called "ch'arki effect": a taphonomic factor to explain the disproportional occurrence of some camelid skeletal parts at archaeological sites. Briefly, it has been argued that the lower frequency of head and foot bones is the by-product of ch'arki (dried meat) exchange and therefore indicative of ch'arki consumption. This generalization, however, is problematic. When fresh meat is distributed (by trade) and consumed, exactly the same pattern as with ch'arki distribution is produced. To infer ch'arki consumption on the basis of the absence of head and lower limb bones is therefore misleading.
Ch’arki at Chavín: Ethnographic Models and Archaeological Data
Authors: Miller George R. , Burger Richard L.
Published: April 2006

We welcome Valdez"s recent contributions to the developing corpus of ethnographic observations concerning the production and use of Ch’arki in the Andes and to our understanding of the interpretative value of differential camelid bone concentrations in Andean archaeological sites. The numerous issues raised by Valdez would require more space than is available in this forum to adequately address them. What we will present here can only hope to outline the most salient points of contention and encourage further investigations into these problems.
Archaeological Evidence for the Origin of the Plank Canoe in North America
Authors: Gamble Lynn H.
Published: April 2006

Advanced maritime technology associated with long-distance exchange and intensified resource acquisition has been linked to the development of stratification and greater sociopolitical complexity in the Pacific Rim region. One such example is the emergence of hereditary chiefs among the Chumash Indians of southern California. Plank boats owned by an elite group of wealthy individuals and chiefs were an integral part of an elaborate economic system that was based on maritime exchange. An artifact assemblage associated with the construction, maintenance, and use of this watercraft was identified and analyzed. It included wooden planks, asphaltum plugs, asphaltum caulking, and chipped stone drills. Radiocarbon dates and other relative-dating techniques provide strong evidence that the plank canoe originated at least 1,300 years ago in southern California. This represents the earliest use of this type of watercraft in North America and probably in the New World. The timing of this innovation provides evidence that sociopolitical complexity developed in the region at least 500 years earlier than previously proposed.
Taphonomic Agents and Taphonomic Signatures
Authors: Lyman R. Lee
Published: April 2006

Erlandson and Moss (2001) indicate one step to deciphering the taphonomic history of a deposit comprising numerous remains of aquatic organisms involves building a list of the nonhuman local carnivores. Such lists indicate potential, not actual, taphonomic agents, and the list they provide does not include one of the more significant potential accumulators of aquatic faunal remains—pinnipeds. Nor do they discuss the critical second step of taphonomic analysis that involves the writing of taphonomic histories based on signature criteria manifest as modifications to faunal remains.
A New Approach to Dating the League of the Iroquois
Authors: Kuhn Robert D. , Sempowski Martha L.
Published: April 2006

When did the League of the Five Nations Iroquois originate? This study presents a new approach to answering this age-old question. Compositional data were collected on ceramics (pottery and smoking pipes) from Seneca and Mohawk sites in an attempt to identify and reconstruct exchange and interaction patterns between these two widely separated League members. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) spectrometry were employed to collect data on 15 elements. Using pottery as a baseline for each area, pipe data were utilized in a discriminant-function analysis to identify exotic pipes in Seneca assemblages from different time periods. The investigation focused on pipes because they were a probable item of exchange and because the symbolism of pipes and tobacco made smoking an important part of Iroquoian political protocol. Results showed that Mohawk pipes first occurred in Seneca assemblages sometime between A.D. 1590 and A.D. 1605. This is considered likely to reflect the inception of peaceful political relations between these two groups brought about by the final coalescence of the Iroquois Five Nations Confederacy. The approach developed for this study employed nondestructive analytical techniques applied to common classes of ceramic artifacts. As such, the methodology should be broadly applicable to other studies of interaction and exchange in this and other regions.
New Evidence for Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic Subsistence Behavior in the Western Great Lakes
Authors: Kuehn Steven R.
Published: April 2006

Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic subsistence behavior in the Western Great Lakes is an important research issue that has been hindered by a lack of zooarchaeological remains, as well as disagreements over the nature of the paleoenvironmental record and human foraging behavior. Prior reconstructions of early subsistence behavior have centered on a focused, big-game hunting strategy, despite very little solid evidence. Recently, two archaeological sites in northern Wisconsin containing Late Paleoindian faunal material have been excavated, the Deadman Slough site (47PR46) and the Sucices site (47DG11). The data from these sites, and similar recently discovered sites in northeastern North America, suggest that Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic peoples employed a generalized foraging strategy, utilizing a broad range of animal species from a wide array of environmental settings. This new archaeological evidence is utilized in conjunction with detailed paleoenvironmental data and information from cultural ecological studies to develop a model of Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic subsistence behavior for the Western Great Lakes.
Basic Incompatibilities between Evolutionary and Behavioral Archaeology
Authors: O'Brien Michael J. , Lyman R. Lee , Leonard Robert D.
Published: April 2006

Schiffer (1996) recently proposed that, despite some incompatibilities, considerable common ground exists between behavioral archaeology and evolutionary, or selectionist, archaeology. He concludes that there is no fundamental reason why the two approaches cannot work in concert to explain human behavioral change. There are, however, several important reasons why the two programs, at least as currently conceived, cannot work together in any thoroughly integrated fashion. Although both programs employ inference, behavioral archaeology conflates the distinct roles of configurational and immanent properties, searches for nomothetic answers to questions about human behavior, overlooks historical contingency when inferring and explaining the nature of past behavior, and in some cases seems to fall back on vitalism as the mechanism of change. Evolutionary archaeology employs immanent properties inferentially, explicitly acknowledges the importance of the historical contingencies of configurational properties, explains human behavior as being time- and spacebound, and calls upon selection and drift (transmission) as the mechanisms of change. Any attempt to integrate the two approaches must begin by addressing these basic differences.
Man and Water at Pleistocene Lake Mohave
Authors: Davis Emma Lou
Published: April 2006

Also, Heizer questions the existence of a period of climate moister than that of today at the time when makers of the Lake Mohave lithic complex camped about high shorelines.

The following article attempts to do two things:

(1) Distinguish descriptively between sand-wear and wave-wear so that other archaeologists can use these criteria.

(2) Show that a widespread cultural co-tradition existed in the Inter-Montane West about 7000 B.C. during a period of moister climate. Artifact inventories are submitted. This co-tradition was characterized by sparsity or lack of stone-on-stone milling, by a number of unique implements, and by a practice of frequenting the shores of now-dry water sources. This widely distributed orientation toward fossil water implies a generally wetter climate at that time.

This co-tradition was characterized by sparsity or lack of stone-on-stone milling, by a number of unique implements, and by a practice of frequenting the shores of now-dry water sources. This widely distributed orientation toward fossil water implies a generally wetter climate at that time.
Perspectives in the Prehistory of Kodiak Island, Alaska
Authors: Clark Donald W.
Published: April 2006

Archaeological material from Kodiak Island, Alaska, is described in terms of five phases which, from oldest to youngest, are Ocean Bay I, Ocean Bay II, Old Kiavak, Three Saints, and Koniag. Ocean Bay I and II, components of a single site, are characterized by flaked-stone and ground-slate industries, respectively. Old Kiavak and Three Saints appear to be developmental stages within a single tradition, possibly different from the traditions of the antecedent Ocean Bay phases and the succeeding Koniag. In Old Kiavak there is a partial return to flaking of stone artifacts, and two characteristic artifacts are small notched stones and plummet-type grooved stones. In the Three Saints phase, "plummets" went out of use, and by the beginning of the Koniag phase, which continued into the contact period, so did small notched stones. Among the new elements that characterized the Koniag phase are the steam sweat bath, the splitting adz, and, locally, pottery. A pottery-using variant of this phase has been emphasized. When compared with Three Saints material, Koniag archaeological remains usually show style changes or degeneration in workmanship. These units do not outline a complete sequence because the periods between Ocean Bay II and Old Kiavak and, locally, between Three Saints and the pottery-using Koniag variant do not appear to be represented. It is estimated that their time range is 2500 B.C. to shortly after A.D. 1800.
Blank Form and Reduction as Determinants of Mousterian Scraper Morphology
Authors: Kuhn Steven L.
Published: April 2006

Variation in the forms of Mousterian tools has been attributed to a number of factors, including style, function, and more recently, differential reduction. This study compares the influences of two factors, reduction and the shapes of tool blanks, on the forms of scrapers from a Mousterian site in Italy. In the subject assemblages, the shapes of the tool blanks had a much stronger influence on scraper forms than had reduction. To the extent that blank form affects typology in other cases, explanations of contrasts among Mousterian assemblages would need to account for the use of alternative techniques of flake production. Since typological variation is multicausal, it would also appear more profitable to focus directly on variables pertinent to current research issues, rather than on reinterpreting the typology.
Evaluation of Painted Pottery from the Mesa Verde Region Using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)
Authors: Speakman Robert J. , Neff Hector
Published: April 2006

For decades archaeologists have struggled with the problem of accurately determining organic and mineral-based paints in pottery from the American Southwest. Using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), we have developed a simple and cost-effective method that permits classification of painted surfaces into mineral and organic-based categories. By applying this method to Mesa Verde and Mancos Black-on-white pottery from the Mesa Verde Region, we were able to distinguish easily between mineral and organic-based paints. Preliminary data also suggest that multiple sub-groups of mineral-based paints exist within these ceramic types, indicating that multiple recipes for manufacturing paint may have been employed by prehistoric potters from this region.
Symposium on River Valley Archaeology
Authors: Brew J. O.
Published: April 2006

On December 28, 1946, during the forty-fifth annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, a symposium on River Valley Archaeology in the United States was conducted under the auspices of the Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains. The Committee was organized in 1945 to represent American Archaeology and Anthropology in the emergency brought about by the extensive Government program for floodcontrol and irrigation. Plans for hundreds of dams in the major and minor river systems of the country are completed.
Evidences of Early Woodland Culture at Chalk Bluff Rock Shelter
Authors: Peithman Irvin
Published: April 2006

Chalk Bluff Rock Shelter is located on the southern end of Chalk Bluff in Section 2, Township 10 South, Range 3 West, nine miles southwest of Murphysboro, Jackson County, Illinois. The bluff in which the shelter is located is an unbroken sandstone escarpment nearly one mile long and having an almost uniform height of 250 feet. This escarpment, lying in a north-south direction and paralleling the Mississippi flood-plain, has a westerly exposure. Here, where the shelter is located, is a conspicuous overhanging cliff offering the shelter ideal protection from the elements. The shelter itself is about sixty feet long and about forty feet wide. This rock shelter is situated about thirty feet above the flood plain. At no time during our work was there any evidence found of stratification suggesting water deposit in the dirt fill. This would substantiate the idea that the shelter was above highwater at all times.
Corn Goddesses or Phalli?
Authors: Bullen Ripley P.
Published: April 2006

While attending the 1941 summer field session of the University of New Mexico at Chaco Canyon, the author hired four Navahos and partially excavated a small pueblo site on the talus about one-third of a mile up the valley from Chetro Ketl and on the same side of the wash. A small unit of at least four rooms and two kivas of middle Pueblo III time was indicated.

Standing upright on the bottom of the ventilator opening in one of the kivas was found a sandstone phallus measuring 9J inches in height. It was oval in cross-section and measured 8X7 inches at the base. The bottom was irregular, but the rest had been carefully carved and smoothed to represent most realistically the end of a phallus when erect. The specimen is now at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
A Crystal Arrow Point
Authors: Ray J. Henry
Published: April 2006

Approximately eighteen miles north of Vernon, Wilbarger County, Texas, is Cedar Bluff. It is not as imposing as the word “bluff” may imply, but, in comparison with the low hills and level farm lands of this area, it deserves the name. It is a terrace, about two miles in length, which forms the west bank of Red River at a bend in that stream. The approach to Cedar Bluff is of sandy soil which is of good quality for farming and is mostly under cultivation. Crops are grown in most places to the very edge of the bluff. The face of the cliff shows some water erosion. The general formation consists of an upper layer of sand on gravel; underneath this are horizontal layers of limestone bedded in shale which are underlain in turn by a deep formation of sandstone and red bed material of Wichita Permian.
The Importance of Textiles in the Archaeology of the Eastern United States
Authors: Miner Horace
Published: April 2006

Evidences of prehistoric textiles are sporadically encountered in the course of archaeological investigations in the Mississippi drainage area. Because of their paucity, they have been given little or no place in the consideration of the archaeological problems of this region. Distinctions in weaving techniques have already proven of value in indicating the cultural connections of ethnic groups. Enough scattered textile materials have been accumulated to merit a study of their distinctive value in the complexes of traits of which they are a part. With this the major objective of the study, the development of terminology becomes a basic necessity, making the function of this work twofold.
Contribution to Montana Archaeology
Authors: Nelson N. C.
Published: April 2006

The summer of 1941 saw the American Museum in possession of a permit to excavate two caves on the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana. Those caves were selected from other possibilities the year before by my colleague, Junius Bird; but, owing to his absence, the permit, originally issued to him, was changed in my favor. August and September were chosen as the most favorable time, and five weeks were devoted to actual field operations.
Eskimo Sites of the Dorset Culture in Newfoundland
Authors: Wintemberg W. J.
Published: April 2006

The artifacts of rough stone consist of a crude lamp and some stone hammers, the latter unmodified by chipping or any other process.

Stone lamp. A. S. Darby found at Old Port au Choix a fragment of a lamp roughly made by hollowing out an ovoid or oblong boulder of sandstone (Plate XV, Figure 2, Number 1). The cavity is about 1¼ inches deep and is rounded from end to end and side to side. There is no wick ledge. The thickest part of the base is 1⅛ inches, but the walls decrease in thickness toward the rounded edges at the top. The hollow is slightly discolored by the blubber and there is an incrustation of burnt blubber on both sides of the intact wall. There is a large natural hollow in the base.

Another crudestone lampwas found by Israel Hutchings at the Cow Head site; it consisted of a hollow stone, judging from his description.
Archaeological Reconnaissance of Lakes Mistassini and Albanel, Province of Quebec, 1947
Authors: Rogers Edward , Rogers Murray H.
Published: April 2006

As a result of possibilities seen during a canoe trip from the Ottawa River through Grand Lake Victoria and down the Harricanaw River during the season of 1946, the authors, in 1947, completed a second trip to James Bay by way of Lakes Mistassini and Albanel and the Rupert River (Fig. 11). This trip would not have been possible and certainly we would have missed many pleasures if it had not been for the cooperation of the Hudson's Bay Company. We remember with pleasure our contacts with Messrs. McLeod, Jeffreys, and Duncan and we are particularly grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Parson, Mr. Glenn Speers, and Mr. and Mrs. Archy Michiel for their unparalleled hospitality. Space does not permit acknowledgment of the assistance of many who took an interest in our journey but we must mention Mr. Carrier, the personnel of the Department of Transport, and Dr. Watson of the Dome Exploration Limited.
Observations on the Present Status and Problems of Middle American Archaeology, Part I
Authors: Mason J. Alden
Published: April 2006

The archaeological knowledge of practically every large area suffers from unevenness. The lure of the spectacular and the overemphasis on the higher aspects result in concentration of interests on a few regions, while other parts remain practically unknown scientifically. In few regions is this more true than in Middle America. To the average person without special interests all Mexican archaeological phenomena are Aztec, just as all South American ones are Inca. Even many sites in the United States have been popularly ascribed to the Aztecs, as for instance the site of Aztec in New Mexico and Aztalan in Wisconsin. Contritely we must confess that similarly some professional archaeologists seem to see little in Middle America but the Maya and their influences.
Rock Paintings in Central Alaska
Authors: Giddings J. L.
Published: April 2006

Rock paintings in red pigment were discovered in June, 1940, on a bluff where Moose Creek flows into a slough of the Tanana River, eighteen miles above Fairbanks, Alaska. The find was made by engineers of the Army Flood Control Project after trees and brush had been cleared from the face of the bluff in process of obtaining dam material from the hillside. The paintings, some of them destroyed by weathering, others obscured by lichens, represented human figures in various attitudes, and covered most of a comparatively smooth, slightly underhung rock face approximately twenty feet high and fifty feet long. A smaller group of paintings occurred on a vertical rock face higher on the slope.
The Leake Mounds, Bartow County, Georgia
Authors: Fairbanks Charles H. , Kelly Arthur R. , Willey Gordon R. , Wofford Pat
Published: April 2006

The Leake mounds are located 1½ miles west of Cartersville, Georgia, on the north side of the Dallas-Rockmart road. They lie a short distance back from the left bank of the Etowah River but are still in the river bottom. They were briefly mentioned by Moorehead in Etowah Papers, but he did not discuss the type of material there. The group consists of three mounds, of which one was flattopped and the others domed, at least in recent years. The mounds lie directly across the Etowah River from Ladd's Mountain, where Waring recently reported the destruction of a tomb of Hopewellian type. In 1940 the Leake mounds were also sold to road builders and the greater part of them now forms the fill for the new bridge at that point. Pat Wofford, Jr., of Atco, Georgia, observed the destruction of the mounds and salvaged as much material as possible. The other authors are indebted to him for calling to their attention the significance of the remains.
Function and Configuration in Archaeology
Authors: Steward Julian H. , Setzler Frank M.
Published: April 2006

Cultural anthropology is generally considered to be a distinctive discipline which seeks an understanding of the fundamental nature of culture and of culture change. The nature of its ultimate objectives, however, is rarely made explicit, and a lack of agreement exists concerning even the more immediate objectives. There is reason to believe that within the last few years archaeology and ethnology are, in many respects, growing rapidly apart instead of contributing to mutual problems. It seems timely, therefore, to inquire whether there really exists a general, basic problem of culture and to what extent archaeological research may be brought to bear upon it.
The Pre-Pottery Faulkner Site of Southern Illinois
Authors: MacNeish Richard S.
Published: April 2006

As an introduction to the problem of pre-pottery culture in Illinois, it seems best to review briefly discoveries made previous to the excavation at the Faulkner site. The first such manifestation was reported by Langford at the Fisher site. The burials in the gravel deposits, lower level, were noted by him to have been without pottery and of a physical type different than that in pottery-bearing sites. In 1931 it was mentioned that Kelly had unearthed fire basins of considerable geological antiquity at Plum Island. Simpson and Shoenbeck have excavated similar fire basins in a shell mound in Woodford County. Both finds are considered to be earlier than the use of pottery. The Folsom points found in Illinois are also thought to be of considerable age. In a surface survey of the Carbondale area, Moreau Maxwell located sites which produced large flint knives, bannerstones, straight-stemmed points, quantities of flint chips, but no pottery.
On “An Interpretation of the Prehistory of the Eastern United States”
Authors: Kroeber A. L.
Published: April 2006

The article, “An Interpretation of the Prehistory of the Eastern United States,” by J. A. Ford and G. R. Willey in the 1941 American Anthropologist inauguratesan epoch. At last we have an interpretation of the archaeology of most of our East which is definite, evidential, and sequential.

Eastern archaeology has developed its generalized findings very slowly. It is almost a century since Squier and Davis published. The cultures are undoubtedly hard to interpret. Their remains are such as to call both for quantities of finds and for fine discriminations in relatively low-quality material. Nevertheless, venture at broader but substantiated understanding has been less than the difficulties warranted. The systematic or McKern classification has been extremely valuable; but at its rate of progress, a quarter century or more might have elapsed before classification was converted into chronology.
Taxonomy and the Direct Historical Approach
Authors: McKern W. C.
Published: April 2006

It seems apparent from Julian Steward's latest statement on The Direct Historical Approach to Archaeology that he still conceives of a basic conflict, or at least an inherent competition, between the direct historical and midwestern taxonomic methods, in spite of his initial statement to the contrary. He manifests a conviction that the latter is being overemphasized at the expense of the former. If his fears are well founded (and there are instances of malpractice which might be cited in support of his position), I should be among the first to join his crusade in defense of the direct historical “approach.” However, in that case, his criticism should be directed against the culprits who are misusing methods rather than against any given method itself. Instead, Steward adopts the tone of one who sets out to compare the respective values of two conflicting methods, to the glorification of one and the general degradation of the other.
Eighteenth Century Navaho Hogans from Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Authors: Hurt Wesley R.
Published: April 2006

Archaeological reconnaissance during the summer of 1941 at Canyon de Chelly National Monument disclosed the location of two groups of Navaho hogans built in 1758, 1766, and 1770. The significance of these dwellings lies in the fact that they definitely establish Navaho occupation of the area west of the Chuska Mountains in the middle of the eighteenth century. In addition to the early dates and the architectural details, the sites produced a large series of Navaho painted sherds and several glass trade beads.

Canyon de Chelly is located in the approximate center of the Navaho Reservation, on the West side of the Defiance Plateau, in northeastern Arizona. The first group of hogans, the Spider Rock hogans, lay at a distance of 2.7 miles from the Chinle-Defiance road, along the small spur going to the Spider Rock Overlook; the second group was situated further along this by-road at a distance of 3.3 miles from the road.
Slip in Archaeological Pottery
Authors: Fewkes Vladimir J.
Published: April 2006

It is well known that the term slip, as used among archaeologists, has no uniform connotation; nor has it been defined satisfactorily either by archaeologists or by technologists. The loose and indiscriminate practice of subjective “slip reckoning” has produced numerous fallacies and untenable “classifications” in literature. The purpose of this note is to consider the properties and functions of a slip with respect to archaeological pottery. Any concern with historical retrospects of cogent nomenclature, or with individual instances illustrating misconceptions and confusions, lies outside my present scope. Nor is it my intention to settle any “problem.”
Further Notes on the Susanville Atlatl
Authors: Fenenga Franklin , Heizer Robert F.
Published: April 2006

Shortly after the original article on the Susanville atlatl appeared in American Antiquity, Mr. M. R. Harrington, Curator of the Southwest Museum, wrote us that he had information which would probably clear up the problems presented by this unusual specimen. In the first place, it appears that Charlie Paiute was not the principal in the case, but rather his son-in-law, George Evans, husband of Charlie's daughter, Orrie Evans. Secondly, the evidence is incontrovertible that the origin of the Susanville atlatl was due to stimulation, by a professional archaeologist, of a native Indian workman. This possibility was recognized by us where we stated“ . . . Charlie Paiute may have learned the use of the atlatl in recent times from someone who was familiar with the San Juan archaeological specimens.”
Notes on Little Pecan Island, Louisiana
Authors: Wauchope Robert
Published: April 2006

On May 25, 1946 Mrs. Wauchope and I were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Vincent, Jr., of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on a picnic to Little Pecan Island in southwest Louisiana. During the day, we made a small excavation to sample a ridge which had previously yielded some human bones and fragments of pottery.

About five miles of marsh separate Little Pecan Island from Grand Chenier Ridge, not far from the town of Grand Chenier (Fig. 54). The waters of Little Pecan Lake wash its north and east shores. The island is about three miles long and is nowhere over 500 yards in width.
The Archaeological Situation at Spiro, Oklahoma; A Preliminary Report
Authors: Orr Kenneth Gordon
Published: April 2006

Since its discovery and exploitation by commercial diggers in 1933, the unusually rich ceremonial complex of the Spiro Mounds, Leflore County, Oklahoma, has engaged the interest of archaeologists. The importance of the Spiro site to Southeastern archaeology has been recognized, and the science has awaited report of the scientific excavation undertaken by the Work Projects Administration and the University of Oklahoma for a number of years. No comprehensive report on this important area has been published to date.
The Kolomoki Mound Group, Early County, Georgia
Authors: Fairbanks Charles H.
Published: April 2006

The recent revival of interest in the Kolomoki site, little known except to southeastern archaeologists, has suggested that a short description would be of value. The mound group was described by C. C. Jones in 1873 as Messier Plantation Mound. Some random digging has been done from time to time, and several large collections of flint points have been removed. Dr. A. R. Kelly, Jesse D. Jennings, Robert Wauchope, and the writer have made surface collections which are now at Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon, Georgia. Through the interest of Dr. C. C. Harrold of Macon, Georgia, the group has become a state park under the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia. Dr. Robert Wauchope and the writer excavated a series of test pits along the site of a proposed road and found evidence of scattered house sites. Jones reports burials adjacent to the large mound. During 1940 and 1941 the writer investigated two small mounds which were to be flooded by a proposed recreational development. These mounds did not yield much material, and the bulk of the information comes from the surface collections.
Ceramic Stratigraphy in a Georgia Village Site
Authors: Willey Gordon R.
Published: April 2006

This paper is limited to the presentation of the stratigraphic relationships of certain pottery types which are found in a pre-historic village site in central Georgia. These types are site markers of two established cultural horizons in the southeast, and it is evident that their wide distribution and relationships to the chronological framework of the area are of major archaeological importance. In a recently published report of investigations centering in and around Macon, Georgia, A. R. Kelly demonstrates that the Lamar and Swift Creek horizons are differentiated from each other and from other cultural complexes in the region by distinctive traits. Foremost among these traits, for each complex, is pottery.
A Reconsideration of Shellmounds with Respect to Population and Nutrition
Authors: Cook S. F.
Published: April 2006

A good many years ago Nelson and Gifford made a careful and extensive survey of the shellmounds of San Francisco Bay, in the course of which they utilized quantitative methods of analysis to determine the probable age of the cultures represented. In the years since their publications, new deposits have come to light in various parts of the Americas to which their methods might be applied, and a great deal more knowledge is now available which is applicable to the field of primitive dietetics.
The Finley Site: Discovery of Yuma Points, in Situ, near Eden, Wyoming
Authors: Howard Edgar B.
Published: April 2006

A preliminary report has already been made on the Finley site,2 located in Sweetwater County, southwestern Wyoming, in the southeast corner of the N.E. ¼ of Section 25, Township 24 N., Range 106 W., about four and a half miles east and a little south of the town of Eden, which itself is approximately thirty-seven miles northwest of Rock Springs. The altitude of the site is approximately 6750 feet.
The Finley Site: Antiquity of the Finley Site
Authors: Hack John T.
Published: April 2006

This report is based on two months reconnaissance in the summer of 1941 in the Eden Valley, Wyoming. The work is as yet far from complete and the conclusions presented here must be regarded as tentative. It is hoped that in the future more extensive geological work may be undertaken.

The Finley site provides a promising opportunity for a determination of the age of the Yuma culture. The points and bones described by Dr. Howard occur in a culture layer which has been found in a large dune area, here called the Killpecker dunes. The deposition of the culture layer is one of a series of events in the dune area which can be correlated with the cutting and filling of gravel terraces in the Eden Valley to the west, and these in turn may be related to the glacial chronology in the Wind River Mountains which lie to the north.
A Dated Silt Deposit in the Ocmulgee River Valley, Georgia
Authors: Schmitt Karl
Published: April 2006

During the early fall of 1941, excavations were made by the National Park Service at the Lamar site, Bibb County, Georgia, on the ground of the proposed south section of the levee which will surround the site. The area was formerly forested and is level, poorly drained, and subject to frequent flooding by the Ocmulgee River. Elevation varies little in the river valley; in the section trenched, it ranges between 276.4 feet and 278.9 feet. The occupation area of the Lamar site lies on slightly higher ground with a maximum height of 282 feet (exclusive of the mounds). The surface soil of the bottom land, including the Lamar village site, is Congaree Silty Clay Loam, a recent alluvial deposit of the Ocmulgee River.
A Note on Corner-Tang Artifacts
Authors: Fischel Hans E.
Published: April 2006

In 1936 a monograph appeared dealing with corner-tang artifacts (Bibliography, 1). Although nothing definite is known as yet about the age and associations of these peculiar artifacts, the author believed them to have developed from spear-points and to have been associated with the chase (skinning knives ?). He furthermore concluded from certain indications that these artifacts belonged to an early horizon. Typologically he distinguished six sub-types (Figure 18).
Burial Customs in the Delmarva Peninsula and the Question of Their Chronology
Authors: Davidson D. S.
Published: April 2006

As is well known, one of the most serious handicaps to archaeology along the Atlantic Seaboard is the scarcity of deep stratified
sites. Shallow sites are numerous, but if these ever contained superimposed cultures, the evidence in most cases seems to have been destroyed by the plow. Furthermore, as the result of an intense population, the most likely Indian sites are now covered by cities, towns and farms. These factors coupled with a humid climate, so destructive to all but non-perishable artifacts, have combined to present us with most difficult problems.

It must not be supposed that the case is hopeless, but it is obvious that unless some unforeseen good fortune should bring to light exceptional sites, progress toward the eventual understanding of the chronological aspects of the archaeology of the region will be made only through a most laborious process.
Notes on the Archaeology of the Utukok River, Northwestern Alaska
Authors: Thompson Raymond M.
Published: April 2006

Early in May 1947, a United States Geological Survey field party of five was flown by ski plane to the headwaters of the Utukok River in northwestern Alaska, about 200 miles southwest of Barrow. Three 18–foot canvas boats of a special folding design were taken in along with enough equipment for four months. Food caches had been flown in to six localities on the 200–mile–long river a short time before the group landed. When the “break–up” came late in May the party started down the river working out the geology of the area from a series of 18 camps which were established before reaching the Arctic Ocean in August.

During the season 17 archaeological sites were discovered. It is believed that most of these sites are of Eskimo origin and are probably fairly recent. However, an important exception is a well–made Folsom point, announcement of which has been made.