bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Obsidian Industry of Teotihuacán
Authors: Spence Michael W.
Published: April 2006

Several areas with extensive obsidian-working debris on the surface have been found in Teotihuacán. These date from the Late Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods there seems to have been a continuous expansion of the city's obsidian industry, accompanied by an increasing trend toward specialization in certain of its aspects. It is probable that the introduction of some new markets, for example the Mayan area, into the Teotihuacán economy was one factor involved in this expansion. Another probable factor was the growth of population within the Valley of Teotihuacán itself, which in these periods depended upon the city"s workshops for its supply of obsidian.
Miniature “Thin Stone Heads” and Other Pre-Columbian Miniature Stone Objects from Mesoamerica
Authors: Borhegyi Stephan F. de
Published: April 2006

A unique, miniature, anthropomorphic stonehachafrom the Gulf Coast of Mexico is described and illustrated. The author also discusses other miniature stone objects from Mesoamerica, such as mushroom stones, yokes, “toad altars,” “doughnut-stones,”metates, spherical stone balls, and star-shaped maceheads, and suggests that some of these Mesoamerican miniature stone objects may have been used in connection with the various forms of the pre-Columbian ball game.
Lines in the Sand: Competition and Stone Selection on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico
Authors: Walsh Michael R.
Published: April 2006

Recent investigations on the Pajarito Plateau, north-central New Mexico, have established a sequential picture of changing levels of competition over resource territories. Acuity of competition is inferred through measurement of relative sizes of territories routinely exploited for wild food resources. Village-level territories are determined through an accounting of the raw materials used to make flaked stone tools, which materials are argued to have been gathered during routine food collecting activities. Three distinct raw material options were available on the Plateau, in the form of tool-grade obsidian, chert, and basalt. Because these raw material types come from mutually exclusive locations over the Plateau, it is possible to inferentially measure resource collection areas for individual sites through assessment of raw material diversity. Chronological differences among sites allow for reconstruction of differing levels in the acuity of prehistoric competition. It is found that Classic Period (A. D. 1325-historic period) aggregation on the Plateau was preceded by several generations of escalating territorial competition. This finding represents a subtle but important departure form the current characterization of the Pajarito Classic Period as a “competition stage”, and suggests instead that aggregation fundamentally alleviated resource competition from the perspective of the individual or individual household.
Space Syntax Analysis at the Chacoan Outlier of Guadalupe
Authors: Dyke Ruth M. Van
Published: April 2006

Space syntax analysis is a popular method for investigating social processes by quantifying the relationships among architectural spaces. Identification of spatial patterns is straightforward, but interpretation is less so. In this study, segregated spatial patterns were assumed to indicate the presence of social inequality. A space syntax analysis was conducted for Guadalupe Ruin, an excavated, outlying Chacoan great house with three well-dated construction episodes. The study investigated great house function and social context. Results seemed contradictory until room function and pueblo layout were incorporated into the interpretation. The great house can be understood as an group of separate but equal household units accessible primarily through the roof and plaza. Analyzed as a discrete entity, Guadalupe Ruin appears to have been a domestic building rather than an administrative or ceremonial facility. However, topographic restrictions and other differences with the surrounding community of small sites need to be explored through an expanded study at the community level. Comparison of the Guadalupe study with other great house space syntax analyses supports the recognition that Chacoan great houses varied considerably across time and space.
Modeling Paleoshorelines and Locating Early Holocene Coastal Sites in Haida Gwaii
Authors: Fedje Daryl W. , Christensen Tina
Published: April 2006

The integration of archaeology and paleoecology has allowed a fuller understanding of the history of southern Haida Gwaii and provided insights into the regional history of coastal occupation in northwestern North America. Of particular consequence is the history of sea-level fluctuations during the late-glacial and early Holocene. The modern shore holds only part of the history of coastal occupation. Much is flooded or hidden in the rainforest. In southern Haida Gwaii, shorelines dating from 13,000 to 9,500 B.P. are deeply drowned while those dating from 9,200 to 3,000 B.P. are stranded in the rainforest up to 15 meters above modern levels. Shorelines have been approximately coincident with the current position for only the last two to three millennia and for a century or two centered around 9,400 B.P. Modeling these paleoshorelines has led to discovery and investigation of a number of early Holocene archaeological sites.
On Methods of Measuring Ceramic Uselife: A Revision of the Uselife Estimates of Cooking Vessels among the Kalinga, Philippines
Authors: Tani Masakazu , Longacre William A.
Published: April 2006

The longevity of ceramic vessels in ethnographic contexts has been reported from several ceramic-using groups. Several methods have been used to derive estimates of the mean uselives of ceramic classes. Among them, the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project employed a method based on a series of ceramic inventories since 1975. This inventory method recorded large number of pots, much more than any other previous studies, to ensure the representativeness of uselife estimates. Another data set of ceramic breakage collected by the project reveals that biases against short-lived pots were introduced by the inventory method. As a result, ceramic uselife estimated by the inventory method appears to be too long, and the revised estimates are similar to those observed in other contexts. This paper identifies the biases intrinsic to the inventory method and suggests revised uselife figures.
Analysis of Slips and Other Inorganic Surface Materials on Woodland and Early Fort Ancient Ceramics, South-Central Ohio
Authors: Cotkin Spencer J. , Carr Christopher , Cotkin Mary Louise , Dittert Alfred E. , Kremser Daniel T.
Published: April 2006

Petrographic analyses were made of 386 utilitarian pottery vessels from 23 dated components of 18 Early Woodland through early Fort Ancient period sites (ca. 1150 B.C.–A.D. 1300) in south-central Ohio. The analyses reveal that a significant percentage ( 11.6 percent) of the 386 vessels bear uncolored (i.e., unpigmented) pottery slips and washes, that these surface materials were common (>56 percent) among the 23 sampled components, and that they were produced throughout most of the examined prehistoric sequence, including the earliest Early Woodland, when pottery making began in the Midwest. In contrast, a literature review indicates that uncolored slips and washes are unrecorded for utilitarian wares in the prehistoric Eastern Woodlands, that both colored and uncolored slips are unknown for any ceramics of the Early Woodland period, and that colored slips or washes in the pre-Mississippian Midwest have been observed in only low frequencies. Electron microprobe analysis of seven sherds show the compositional similarity of the clays of slips to the clays of their associated vessel bodies, indicating that the slips were made from the same raw clays as the bodies, but with no or little added rock temper and/or with the sieving of the slip clay. Contextual analyses give further insights, including the possible uses of slips and washes for decoration and to decrease vessel wall permeability. Calcite and apatite coatings on the vessel surfaces also were observed and are interpreted. Results indicate greater continuity between and Midwestern and Southeastern United States in ceramic technology than previously thought, and suggest a need for caution in electron microprobe and INAA chemical studies of Midwestern ceramics.
Deciphering the Organization of Production in Chaco Canyon
Authors: Cameron Catherine M. , Toll H. Wolcott
Published: April 2006

This special section of American Antiquity contains 9 papers that address the organization of production in Chaco Canyon during the height of the "Chaco Phenomenon," a regional system that covered the northern part of the American Southwest between A.D. 900 and 1150. These papers are part of an effort to synthesize the National Park Service's Chaco Project, a large-scale research project undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s. Our introductory paper provides a brief history of research in Chaco Canyon, an overview of the Chaco phenomenon, a summary of the Chaco synthesis project, and a synopsis of the other papers. The first four papers in this issue were written by experts on prehistoric economic systems who developed models of the operation of production and distribution in Chaco Canyon. The following four papers, by Chaco scholars, use data from the Chaco Project to evaluate the models presented in the initial papers. There is general agreement that Chaco was a place where people from the surrounding region gathered for participation in communal ceremonial events, including the building of the most striking element of the Chaco phenomenon--great houses. Production is seen as household-based, serving to finance these communal gatherings.
Matrilocality, Corporate Strategy, and the Organization of Production in the Chacoan World
Authors: Peregrine Peter N.
Published: April 2006

Kinship is central to an understanding of sociopolitical organization and the organization of production in Chaco Canyon. Between A.D. 700 and 900, lifeways in the Chacoan world underwent a transformation that reflects the evolution of matrilocal residence. Matrilocal groups became the foundation of a polity based on a corporate political strategy. Matrilocality provided the peoples of the Chaco region a social structure in which women were able to form stable agricultural communities while men were freed to take part in long-distance resource procurement and trade. Leaders mobilized goods from across the polity for corporate-affirming activities, such as construction of great houses. This corporate strategy is evident in an examination of turquoise production. The production of turquoise ornaments was diffuse and uncontrolled, but the consumption of turquoise, at least in Chaco Canyon, was highly centralized. This is what we would expect to see in a polity operating within a corporate strategy.
One Person's Food: How and Why Fish Avoidance May Affect the Settlement and Subsistence Patterns of Hunter-Gatherers
Authors: Malainey M. E. , Przybylski R. , Sherriff B. L.
Published: April 2006

Foraging strategies of modern hunter-gatherers may not accurately model resource use of specialized big-game hunters. Historic accounts from the Northern Plains of North America indicate that utilization of spring-spawning fish when large mammals were fat-depleted was not universally beneficial. Three independent reports from Europeans and Americans show that a sudden switch from a prolonged diet of lean red meat to fish produces symptoms consistent with lipid (fat) malabsorption. It is hypothesized that plains-adapted hunter-gatherers formed their camps in grassland environments and hunted big game throughout the winter The effects of eating lean meat alone were avoided by utilizing fetal and newborn animals and through the use of stored carbohydrate-rich foods. Groups associated with wooded environments wintered along the margins of the winter grazing range. They followed a diverse strategy with opportunistic use of big game and were able to exploit spring-spawning fish. Archaeological remains from 18 sites from the plains, parkland, and forests of Western Canada were used to test these hypotheses. The faunal assemblages, tools, and identifications of lipid residues from pottery vessels were consistent with the proposed strategies.
Facilities and Hunter-Gatherer Long-Term Land Use Patterns: An Example from Southwest Wyoming
Authors: Smith Craig S. , McNees Lance M.
Published: April 2006

To fully understand prehistoric land use patterns, we must define how prehistoric peoples used particular places on the landscape over longer periods of time. Factors influencing the multi-year use of particular places include human modifications to the landscape as a result of previous occupations. The construction of relatively elaborate and costly facilities for anticipated reuse is one type of modification associated with the repeated occupation of specific locations. Slab-lined cylindrical basins of southwest Wyoming are an example of that type of facility. The archaeological evidence indicates that prehistoric hunter-gatherers repeatedly reused some of these basins on a periodic basis over periods as long as 500 years and reoccupied some locales containing such facilities over a period of more than 2,000 years. The construction of such facilities and the repeated occupation of those locales were apparently related to the procurement and processing of a stable, predictable resource. Biscuitroot was the most likely target resource procured and processed at these locales.
Understanding Observer Variation When Recording Stone Artifacts
Authors: Gnaden Denis , Holdaway Simon
Published: April 2006

Variation in artifact recording introduced through the use of multiple observers is common in many archaeological projects. We report a study designed to assess random and systematic errors in nominal and ratio data recorded by observers on stone artifacts as part of a distributional study. A random sample of artifacts was selected and double analyzed, once by the regular observers and once by the project director. Random and systematic differences between the two sets of observations are assessed statistically. Analysis of these errors either permits corrections to be applied or indicates where care must be taken in analyzing artifact variation as a reflection of past human behavior.
Archaeological and Paleoethnobotanical Investigations in Salts Cave, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
Authors: Watson Patty Jo , Yarnell Richard A.
Published: April 2006

Reconnaissance, surface collecting, and test excavation were carried on in Salts Cave in August, 1963, by a joint Illinois State Museum-Cave Research Foundation expedition in cooperation with the National Park Service. Various analyses and secondary investigations have continued since then. The main upper passages of the cave were extensively visited during the last millennium B.C. by a prehistoric people who are probably to be assigned to the Early Woodland culture grouping. They were exploiting the mineral resources of the cave, primarily sulfate crystalline deposits, at least one of which is cathartic. Some individuals penetrated nearly two miles into the cave, using cane torches. Quantities of prehistoric, dried human feces are available and are yielding important dietary information. The people were apparently cultivating some plant species, including sunflower (Heliarn thus annus) and two members of the classic tropical horticultural complex, squash and gourd (Cucurbita pepo and Lagenarid siceraria). There is as yet no evidence that they grew or used maize (Zea mays).
New Radiocarbon Dates for Southeastern Fiber-Tempered Pottery
Authors: Stoltman James B.
Published: April 2006

Excavations in the Savannah River swamp in southeastern South Carolina have uncovered a shell midden believed to represent the accumulation of a single occupation by Savannah River Archaic peoples. Two radiocarbon dates from the basal portions of this shell midden suggest an age for the associated Stallings Plain pottery of 2505 B.C. and 2515 B.C. A third radiocarbon date — A.D. 1450 — from the upper levels of the shell midden clearly reflects contamination derived from later occupations of the site. Nothing in the field evidence provides a sound basis for refuting the two early dates, but in view of their antiquity, firm acceptance must await independent corroborative evidence from other Southeastern sites.
Certain Crescentic Stone Objects as a Time Marker
in the Western United States
Authors: Lewis Tadlock W.
Published: April 2006

A class of pressure-flaked stone objects of crescentic shape made to an easily recognizable pattern is usually associated with surface sites adjacent to continuous or discontinuous bodies of water or playas. The crescent has a distribution from the Southern California Channel Islands to western Utah and the Columbia Basin in Washington. Even though its function is not yet known, it nevertheless is — because of a unique and consistent association of attributes — a useful material culture trait that may serve as a marker for a particular cultural complex. The trait is not known to be associated with the small-game hunting and food-gathering based cultures of the Archaic stage. Archaeological evidence indicates that the crescent is contemporaneous with big-game hunting cultures of the techno-economic level associated with the upper Lithic stage.
Pattern Diffusion From Mexico into the Southwest after A.D. 600
Authors: Schroeder Albert H.
Published: April 2006

The introduction of the Colonial period culture of the Hohokam of southern Arizona derived from northern Mexico, and its diffusion in one form or another is traced north and east through Arizona. On the basis of changes in settlement patterns, architectural structures, and other material traits, a tentative reconstruction of sociological, ceremonial, and other intangible aspects of the early cultural developments in southern Arizona is attempted.
Petroglyphs of the South Mountains of Arizona
Authors: Snyder Ernest E.
Published: April 2006

This was an intensive study of a single mountain range rich in petroglyph sites. One hundred nineteen sites with over 2,000 designs were recorded. Unsuccessful attempts were made to find significant positive correlations between such factors as design associations, site locations and concentrations, and environmental influences. The study produced some evidence that the probable originators of the petroglyphs were the Hohokam farmers who occupied the area for approximately the first 1500 years A.D.
Radiocarbon Dating the Younge Tradition
Authors: Fitting James E.
Published: April 2006

A series of radiocarbon dates from Younge Tradition sites in southwestern Michigan indicates that previous age estimates for the four suggested phases were too conservative. Corn agriculture was practiced throughout the Younge Tradition time range as indicated by an A.D. 700 date for the Sissung site (20 MR 5).
Burins from Louisiana
Authors: Gibson Jon L.
Published: April 2006

Recently, four burins have been found at three sites near Catahoula Lake in southern LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. Burin types present include the polyhedral-dihedral burin, dihedral-angle burin, and a burin on a break. These burins are different in form and in associations from burins from Texas. They appear to be associated with Archaic Period material.
Early Paleoindian Women, Children, Mobility, and Fertility
Authors: Surovell Todd A.
Published: April 2006

If we take the archaeological record at face value, the colonization of unglaciated North America appears to have been very rapid. The highly consistent dating of Clovis archaeological sites (11,500-10,800 B.P.) suggests that this continent was populated within a matter of centuries. To explain the spatial and temporal scales of this phenomenon, it is necessary to invoke both high mobility and high fertility rates during the initial colonization process. However, it is widely believed that it is maladaptive for mobile foragers to have large numbers of offspring due to the costs of transporting those children. Thus, the archaeological record presents us with a paradox. Using a mathematical model that estimates the costs of raising children for mobile hunter-gatherers, this paper asks the question-is high mobility compatible with high fertility? It is concluded that high mobility, if defined as the frequent movement of residential base camps, is quite compatible with high fertility, and that early Paleoindians could indeed have been characterized by high reproductive rates. Therefore, it is quite possible that the Americas were populated very rapidly by highly mobile hunter-gatherers.
Fluoride Dating of Faunal Materials by Ion-Selective Electrode: High Resolution Relative Dating at an Early Agricultural Period Site in the Tucson Basin
Authors: Schurr Mark R. , Gregory David A.
Published: April 2006

When the fluoride content of bone is measured with an ion-selective electrode, and when the technique is correctly applied, fluoride dating is a very economical method for developing fine-scale relative chronologies. It has been successfully used to develop relative chronologies for prehistoric human burials and fossilized bones throughout the world, but its much greater potential for the dating of unfossilized faunal materials has been neglected. The fluoride contents of 889 lagomorph and 16 artiodactyl bones from 183 contexts at Los Pozos, an Early Agricultural period site in Arizona, illustrate how fluoride measurements can be used to date features. Fluoride dating offers a temporal resolution capable of distinguishing between features separated by as little as 20 to 40 years.
The Archaeology of Interaction: Views from Artifact Style and Material Exchange in Dorset Society
Authors: Odess Daniel
Published: April 2006

This paper discusses the role of interaction in prehistory, and the ways archaeologists have traditionally approached its study. Using two distinct data sets—artifact style and material exchange—derived from analysis of 11 Dorset (late Paleoeskimo) collections from Frobisher Bay in the Canadian Arctic, it explores the strengths and weaknesses of these methodologically distinct investigatory techniques. Each appears inadequate when used separately and in isolation, but when used in tandem they demonstrate considerable potential to yield epistemologically grounded insights into prehistoric interaction and, perhaps, changing dimensions in the symbolic use of style over time.
The Buhl Burial: A Paleoindian Woman from Southern Idaho
Authors: Green Thomas J. , Cochran Bruce , Fenton Todd W. , Woods James C. , Titmus Gene L. , Tieszen Larry , Davis Mary Anne , Miller Susanne J.
Published: April 2006

In January 1989 highway workers encountered human skeletal remains in a gravel quarry in south-central Idaho near the town of Buhl. Excavation revealed the remains of a young Paleoindian woman, 17–21 years of age at the time of death, with craniofacial attributes similar to other North American Indian and East Asian populations. She was buried in windblown and colluvial sediments immediately overlying Bonneville flood gravel. Grave goods include a large stemmed biface, an eyed needle, and a bone implement of unknown function. Isotopic analysis suggests a diet of meat and fish, including anadromous fish. Radiographs show numerous periods of dietary stress throughout the woman's childhood. AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) dating indicates an age of 10,675±95 B.P., and geomorphological studies verify this single radiocarbon date suggesting it is the burial's minimum age. Following Idaho State law, the skeleton was claimed by the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of Idaho and reburied.
The Donnelly Ridge Site and the Definition of an Early Core and Blade Complex in Central Alaska
Authors: Hadleigh-West Frederick
Published: April 2006

Excavations carried out at the site of Donnelly Ridge in central Alaska have led to the delineation of an early core and blade culture which includes the Campus site and two sites previously excavated on the Teklanika River to the west. Sites of the Denali complex are linked by distinctive microblade cores, core tablets and microblades derived from the latter, large blades, biconvex bifacial knives, certain end-scraper forms, a distinctive burin type, and other traits. The clearest affiliations of the Denali complex are with a series of late Upper Palaeolithic sites west of Lake Baikal, but relationships may be seen with sites in Hokkaido and Kamchatka as well. The bearers of this culture probably entered Alaska prior to the final submergence of the Bering land bridge.
Revised Dates for Navajo Hogans Near Canyon de Chelly
Authors: Brugge David M.
Published: April 2006

Seven tree-ring specimens from two Navajo archaeological sites in Arizona, reported by Gila Pueblo in 1941 to date from 1758 to 1770, have recently been reported by the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research to date from 1794 to 1864. These new dates are more compatible with the structural remains at one of the sites.
Seriation, Superposition, and Interdigitation: A History of Americanist Graphic Depictions of Culture Change
Authors: Lyman R. Lee , Wolverton Steve , O’Brien Michael J.
Published: April 2006

Histories of Americanist archaeology regularly confuse frequency seriation with a technique for measuring the passage of time based on superposition—percentage stratigraphy—and fail to mention interdigitation as an important component of some percentage-stratigraphic studies. Frequency seriation involves the arrangement of collections so that each artifact type displays a unimodal frequency distribution, but the direction of time's flow must be determined from independent evidence. Percentage stratigraphy plots the fluctuating frequencies of types, but the order of collections is based on their superposition, which in turn illustrates the direction of time's flow. Interdigitation involves the integration of sets of percentage-stratigraphy data from different horizontal proveniences under the rules that (1) the order of superposed collections cannot be reversed and (2) each type must display a unimodal frequency distribution. Ceramic stratigraphy is similar to occurrence seriation, as both focus on the presence-absence of types with limited temporal distributions—index fossils—but the former uses the superposed positions of types to indicate the direction of time"s flow, whereas occurrence seriation does not.
Weighing vs. Counting: Measurement Reliability and the California School of Midden Analysis
Authors: Mason Roger D. , Peterson Mark L. , Tiffany Joseph A.
Published: April 2006

The California School of Midden Analysis represents a long-standing tradition of using weight, rather than minimum number of individuals (MNI), to analyze shell recovered from archaeological sites in California. This method originated at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early twentieth century and continues to the present, in spite of the advent of counting measures such as MNI and NISP (number of identified specimens) in faunal studies. We argue that MNI estimates are more reliable than weight as a measure of taxonomic abundance for most research issues being addressed with California shell data. Examples using both weight and MNI measures for shell from California coastal sites produced divergent results. This disparity shows that weight measures produce potentially misleading interpretations regarding the importance of marine habitats exploited and the diet of the site’s occupants.
Analysis of Shell-Tempered Pottery Replicates: Implications for Provenance Studies
Authors: Cogswell James W. , Neff Hector , Glascock Michael D.
Published: April 2006

Archaeometric methods such as provenance studies must be predicated on understanding the processes that underlie the production of this information. This study focuses on element-based provenance studies of Mississippian-period pottery, which are complicated by the fact that this pottery generally was tempered with crushed shell in different amounts and of unknown species composition. Experiments conducted at the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR) have documented elemental dilution and enhancement effects of adding shell temper to clay. Mathematical corrections previously have been employed to correct for shell-temper effects. Results of physical, chemical, and mathematical approaches to eliminating the effects of shell tempering indicate that mathematical methods, based on a firm knowledge of shell composition, provide the most efficient correction.
Cluster Analysis of Paleofecal Data Sets: A Test of Late Prehistoric Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in the Northern Coachella Valley, California
Authors: Sutton Mark Q.
Published: April 2006

Data from human paleofecal samples can be used to address a variety of questions, primarily the reconstruction of diet, but also the analysis of nutrition, health, technology, and behavior Statistical analyses of constituents can be used to broaden the potential of paleofecal data, as well as to detail cuisine and to address larger issues of settlement/subsistence models. This potential is illustrated with a cluster analysis of paleofecal constituents from three late prehistoric period sites along the northern shore of ancient Lake Cahuilla, located in the Coachella Valley of southern California. These data were used to test competing settlement/subsistence models: one of large permanent lakeside villages dependent on lacustrine resources, and the other of seasonal, rather than permanent, lakeshore occupation. In addition, the analysis revealed additional details of diet and cuisine in the late prehistoric period.
Evaluation of the Flote-Tech Machine-Assisted Flotation System
Authors: Hunter Andrea A. , Gassner Brian R.
Published: April 2006

Recently, the Flote-Tech machine-assisted flotation system was introduced as a new technique for processing soil samples in arid environments and areas with limited or no access to water resources. This system uses water recirculation in a closed loop between a water reservoir and a flotation tank, aided by diffused air, to extract archaeological botanical remains from soil samples. The paper presents two experiments conducted to assess macroremain recovery rate, flotation rate, and the potential for cross-contamination between soil samples. In addition, Flote-Tech recovery and flotation rates are compared with rates achieved using IDOT manual and SMAP machine-assisted systems. The first set of experiments using the original 1-mm screen in the flotation box received high ratings for large, medium, and small seeds, but rated poorly for very small seeds. After installing a .5-mm screen, a higher percentage of small and very small seeds was recovered. Flotation rates for the customized Flote-Tech system ranked high, matching flotation rates for SMAP systems and out-performing manual IDOT systems by a factor of four to eight. In addition, a distinct advantage of the Flote-Tech system over other machine-assisted and manual systems is the elimination of cross-contamination between samples.
Social Formations, Modo de Vida, and Conflict in Archaeology
Authors: Ensor Bradley E.
Published: April 2006

The focus of archaeological investigation is shifting from generalizations about societies for comparative theory-building to the internal dynamics of societies. The generalizations made in processual archaeology have been attacked for ignoring conflict and the modo de vida: the concrete rhythms of daily life. As a result, the increased attention to internal dynamics is beginning to paint complex pictures of social relationships. A structural marxist approach that was associated with functionalism is reappraised and argued to be suitable for understanding the complexities of individual's daily lives and power relations. Rather than viewing social formations as systems comprised of multiple modes of production that influence one another, individuals are argued to have crossed between modes. The sets of social relations comprise the totality of people's daily experiences. Furthermore, within each mode of production are different recognizable variations that produce dynamic sets of relations. An application to the U.S. Southwest illustrates this social formations approach to modo de vida and conflict.
Sex, Gender, and Status: Human Images from the Classic Mimbres
Authors: Munson Marit K.
Published: April 2006

Prehistoric imagery is a valuable source of information on relations between people of different social identities. Analysis of a large sample of human figures depicted on Classic period Mimbres ceramics illustrates facets of that society's gender system, including the traits individuals used to indicate their gender and the possible presence of third or fourth genders. The imagery indicates that hunting large game and participating in ceremonies were considered men's activities. Men also are portrayed in a wide range of activities and in active postures. This suggests that men had the potential for achieving high status through their activities. Images of women are more static and show fewer activities than men. Women are associated with activities that are low in prestige cross-culturally: child care and carrying burdens. At the same time, women are depicted more often with valuables, such as jewelry, and constitute the majority of people handling parrots, which were used in ritual. This, combined with other evidence, suggests that some women may have achieved relatively high status through their membership in certain families, their association with ritually important parrots, and their possession of esoteric knowledge.
Quarter-Inch Screening: Understanding Biases in Recovery of Vertebrate Faunal Remains
Authors: Shaffer Brian S.
Published: April 2006

Fine screening of archaeological materials is often too expensive or too time-consuming for large assemblages. Consequently, 1/4" has become a standard size of mesh used among North American archaeologists. Unfortunately, the effects of 1/4" screening on bone recovery and the biases in interpretations are poorly documented. One-quarter-inch screening biases faunal recovery towards "larger" bone specimens, but previous studies fail to document biases in the recovery of specific taxa or elements. To better understand these biases, screening tests were conducted on 26 modern, comparative specimens. Results of these tests indicate that recovery and loss of specific elements for each taxon can be predicted. Mammals with live weights of less than 140 g are almost completely lost by 1/4" screening. Specimens weighing from 71 to 340 g are poorly represented, while specimens weighing from 340 to 3,100 g are represented by most elements except foot bones. Taxa greater than 4,500 g are represented by most elements.
Kautantouwit's Legacy: Calibrated Dates on Prehistoric Maize in New England
Authors: Little Elizabeth A.
Published: April 2006

This paper (1) presents four new AMS dates taken directly on prehistoric maize found in New England; (2) collects in one place and in a common format the 16 currently available dates directly on maize from the region; (3) shows, by comparing dates on charcoal or shell associated with 10 of these maize samples, that charcoal and shell are not reliable proxies for dating maize; and (4) draws several archaeological inferences from the dataset. First, a cluster of dates between about cal A.D. 1250 and 1450 that are temporally concentrated but spatially widespread suggests a relatively sudden increase in the archaeological visibility of maize in New England at this time. The increase in visibility roughly coincides with an increase in maize consumption in the midcontinent, although further studies are needed to clarify the timing of the latter. Second and even more striking is the simultaneous increase in the archaeological visibility of beans as well as maize in New England during the same period. Finally, preliminary evidence suggests that these increases may be related to the use of soils fertilized by alluvial limestone or old shell midden material.
A Note on Certain Mochica (Early Chimu) Textiles
Authors: O'Nealé Lila M.
Published: April 2006

Dr. Max Uhle's excavations at Moche in 1899 for the University of California yielded a collection of pottery and associated non-ceramic objects that remains the touchstone for Early-period finds from the Northern Peruvian coast.

Moche pottery has been published by Kroeber.The Mochica were imaginative as well as skilled craftsmen, and their ceramics is proof of an ability to express ideas and to handle tools with precision.
Two Lenape Rock Shelters near Philadelphia
Authors: Butler Mary
Published: April 2006

In 1941–42 J. Frank Sterling, Paul Delgrego, and W. W. Yenney, amateurs who had become interested in collecting local Indian artifacts, excavated a rock .shelter on a stream flowing into Langford Run, near the town of Broomall in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Langford Run is a tributary of Darby Creek, which in turn flows into the Delaware River from the west at Eddystone, about ten miles southwest of Philadelphia. Further excavation, in a second shelter about 100 yards away from the first, on Langford Run proper, soon uncovered a burial, and contact was established with the University Museum in the fall of 1943 through the good offices of Dr. and Mrs. H. O. Albrecht, members of the Society for American Archaeology.
North American Cooking Pots
Authors: Linton Ralph
Published: April 2006

It seems to be a general rule that sciences begin their development with the study of the unusual. They have to develop considerable sophistication before they interest themselves in the commonplace. American archaeology has been no exception. It began with digging in mounds and the collecting of choice objects and has now progressed to the excavation of camp sites and the delimitation of culture complexes as wholes. Nevertheless, there is still a tendency to underrate the importance of simple utilitarian artifacts of types which are widely distributed in space and time. This may be justifiable as long as the archaeologist's interest is centered on foci and aspects, but such types become of extreme importance as soon as one attempts to broaden the frame of reference. Thus the fact that certain stone artifact types seem to be present throughout most of the area east of the Rockies, from Folsom on, becomes highly significant when we contrast this area with others in the New and Old Worlds.
The Physical Properties of Stone Tool Materials
Authors: Goodman Mary Ellen
Published: April 2006

The diversity of types of stone tools, as of any other class of artifacts, may be regarded as due to differences in the nature and functional relations of the relevant variables existing in the given situations in which these artifacts were produced. These relevant variables may be conceived as of three major kinds: those associated primarily with the individuality of the given artisan, those arising primarily from the cultural matrix in which the artisan lived and worked, and those directly or indirectly due to the resources and nature of the physical environment in which the artisan and his culture existed. In setting up such categories, a corresponding functional dissociation must not be assumed. Each recognizable element in each category is of course functionally related to every other. But the archae6logist must, in attempting to evaluate his material, schematize in some such fashion. He must evaluate, as well as he can, each of the variables involved.
Baby Cradles of the Ozark Bluff Dwellers
Authors: Dellinger S. C.
Published: April 2006

Mason begins his classical paper on the Cradles of the American Aborigines by stating that many questions in anthropology, depend for their answers on a correct knowledge of the manner in which the child passes the first year of its life. He points out that the cradle might modify the shape of the child's head and, indeed, of its whole frame. Apparently, then, the study of cradles should contribute equally as much to our knowledge of culture relations as it would to that of physical anthropology, especially since tradition is supposed to linger long in customs affecting the child. Again, the study should increase our understanding of the ecology of the cradle maker. In this connection, I fear, we often fail to consider the fact that the art of the particular people being studied reflects their attempts to make a living within their own environment. The cradle-board, as Mason also shows, is the child of geography and meteorology.
Recent Developments in the Functional Interpretation of Archaeological Data
Authors: Bennett John W.
Published: April 2006

In 1938 Steward and Setzler published a brief plea for a more enlightened interpretation of archaeological materials, calling attention to the necessity for ecological and configurational considerations of material culture complexes. Since that time a number of studies touching upon these features have appeared–enough to constitute a trend. It is the purpose of this paper to analyze these contributions and suggest further possibilities along functional lines.
Archaeological Work in Mancos Canyon, Colorado
Authors: Reed Erik K.
Published: April 2006

In April, May, and June of 1942, salvage excavations were performed under permit from the Secretary of the Interior at five ruins damaged by road construction in lower Mancos Canyon, on the Ute Indian Reservation in southwesternmost Colorado, just south of the Mesa Verde, in Montezuma County. Twenty-four other open sites in the same section of the canyon were surveyed. Cliff dwellings and other sites in side canyons or on mesas were not included, The excavations were carried out for the Indian Service under an interbureau agreement between the National Park Service and the Office of Indian Affairs for cooperation on protection and salvage of archaeological remains along Indian Service road locations. Park Service and Indian Service officials concerned were most cooperative; the four Utes who worked throughout the job, as well as most of the additional Utes and Navahos who were on the job less steadily, proved excellent workmen.
Re Archaeological Tools and Jobs
Authors: Steward Julian H.
Published: April 2006

Dr. McKern's recent remarks on “Taxonomy and the Direct Historical Approach” serve, though no doubt unintentionally, as a red herring to my plea for the importance of the direct historical approach. Since much attention has been devoted recently to the matter of research tools in anthropology and the social sciences, I should like to comment briefly on what seems to me increasing confusion of tools, methods, approaches, and theories in archaeology. For I do not conceive the direct historical approach to be a tool. And I am not wholly clear how the taxonomic method is a tool adapted to further a historical objective.

There are two general levels or types of procedure in archaeology: collecting and interpreting data. Much is said about the permanent solidity of sacred fact and the ephemeral nature of theory. But facts are totally without significance and may even be said not to exist without reference to theory.
Line Drawings from Unsatisfactory Photographs
Authors: Ives Ronald L.
Published: April 2006

Conventional methods of making line drawings from photographs not suitable for reproduction consist, in general, of inking in desired features on a large print of the photograph, usually blue, and then bleaching out the photographic image. This procedure, which gives good results in skilled hands, produces a line image consisting only of the applied ink lines, which are usually somewhat degraded because the paper fibers are displaced (“exploded“) by the chemical action of the bleaching solution. This same chemical action makes difficult additional ink work after bleaching.

High-contrast films developed during the last decade make possible several simplifications of this procedure. When the ink work on a blueprint is satisfactory (as determined by viewing through a deep blue filter), the print, as is, may be sent to the engraver, with instructions to “drop out the blue,” which he does by using a high contrast “color blind” emulsion, such as Kodalith.
A Sula-Ulúa Pottery Kiln
Authors: Stone Doris , Turnbull Conchita
Published: April 2006

On the western end of the north coast of Honduras, the outstanding river is the Ulúa, whose basin is formed by the plain of Sula. In the south, the gradually descending steps of the Cordilleras with the open avenues of the Ulúa on the west and her tributaries, the Lindo due south and the Comayagua at the east, bring contact to the wet valley of Sula from the semi-arid interior. Eastward lies the low margin of coast and the lagoons and river systems of the Pijol range. West and southwest is mountain land with an important river valley, the Chamelicon, which merges into the Sula plain. At the north is the open sea, bringing to this region varied influences from many and distant places.
Hopewell-Copena Sites near Nashville
Authors: Jennings Jesse D.
Published: April 2006

A. J. Waring, Jr. has reported certain Hopewellian elements in northern Georgia. His comments reminded me of a site, previously unreported, in the vicinity of Franklin, Tennessee.

I report from my field notes a site discovered two miles west of Franklin, atop Reid Hill, a knob 140 feet high: “Built on the flat top of the hill, the conical mound measures 18 feet high by 80 feet in diameter. The mound is built of stones and earth. (These stones are large and numerous. It is essentially a stone mound.) A deep trench had been cut into the east side of the mound but no sherds, flint, or other material were visible.” Its situation, on a high hill in the flat Harpeth Valley, is similar to that of the many stone mounds reported from Georgia. No central depression was observed, but it may have been destroyed by the trench. I was unable to learn who dug into the mound so do not know whether artifacts were recovered.
Geographical Differentiation of New Jersey Archaeological Material Inferred from Private Collections
Authors: Knowles Nathaniel
Published: April 2006

The essentially surface nature of Eastern Woodlands sites has invited the accumulation of private collections. Likewise, in densely populated areas such as New Jersey and adjacent states, many sites have either been destroyed by building operations or have been subjected to repeated cultivation. As a result, an enormous quantity of archaeological material has been lost to scientific excavation. While archaeologists have realized that intensive collecting by private individuals has always followed the plow, little has been done but deplore and ignore this activity. In consequence of this attitude, there is a tendency to assume that the contents of excavated sites represent the range of aboriginal culture, especially when cultivation has not been practiced for several decades. Furthermore, the enormous quantity of material in collections has not been utilized to supplement the archaeological data obtained from excavations.
Notes on Cultural Relations between Asia and America
Authors: Nelson N. C.
Published: April 2006

The Archaeology of Alaska has been coming to the front in recent years as the result of protracted activities chiefly on the part of the National Museum in Washington, the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, the Canadian National Museum at Ottawa, and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Some twenty years ago, through the efforts of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the American Museum of Natural History had already obtained a large archaeological collection from Pt. Barrow and vicinity, which is at least partly published and which may conceivably have helped to stimulate this new interest.