bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Preclassic Ceramics from Chalchuapa, El Salvador, and Their Relationships with the Maya Lowlands
Authors: Sharer Robert J. , Gifford James C. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractApplication of the type-variety analytical procedure to Preclassic ceramic material excavated from mound-fill deposits at Chalchuapa, El Salvador, has provided important indications of possible ceramic relationships between this site-zone and the Maya Lowlands. Of the five ceramic complexes, the earliest (the Tok ceramic complex) seems related to the Early Preclassic (Cuadros phase) of south coastal Guatemala and Mexico. Pottery of the early Middle Preclassic (the Colos and Kal ceramic complexes) appears to involve certain direct type-variety relationships with the Lowland Maya Xe and Mamom ceramic spheres. Late Middle Preclassic pottery (the Chul ceramic complex) is evidently almost exclusively affiliated with Highland Guatemala (the Providencia phase at Kaminaljuyu). Pottery of the Late Preclassic and "Protoclassic" (the Caynac ceramic complex) at Chalchuapa continues to reflect these ties (now with the Miraflores, Arenal, and Santa Clara phases at Kaminaljuyu). Apart from such ties, however, there are also significant indications of renewed ceramic connections with the Maya Lowlands during this time interval that we believe might have been of some consequence for the development of the Classic Lowland Maya. The implications of these ceramic relationships for the problem of the initial occupation of the east-central Maya Lowlands and the later intrusive Floral Park ceramic sphere at Barton Ramie are discussed. The paper also considers the implications of this evidence for the type-variety analytic procedure and proposes a tentative outline of Preclassic ceramic relationships in the Maya area.
Notes on Uniface Retouch Technology
Authors: Shafer Harry J. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractThe repeated occurrence of flakes possessing remnants of unifacially trimmed edges was noted in the analysis of chipping refuse from two late prehistoric sites in west central Texas. Attributes on these flakes suggest three techniques of removal–by a burin technique, by striking the uniface on the ventral surface near the edge, and by striking the uniface on the dorsal surface near the edge. Examples of these retouch techniques were evident on certain unifacially chipped scrapers from the two sites, and, together with wear patterns and edge angle values, support inferences that the flakes are by-products of uniface retouch.
The Aboriginal Southwestern Indian Dog
Authors: Colton Harold S. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractSince a large number of dog remains have been unearthed in the last few years in the Southwest, a review of the material is important. An attempt has been made to record dogs as to time and space as well as noting anatomical deviations such as the presence or absence of the first premolar on the lower jaw, and the presence or absence of large dogs and their distribution.
Archaeological Pollen Studies of the Colorado Plateau
Authors: Schoenwetter James 
Published: April 2006

AbstractThe proposition is advanced that archaeologists are not justified in considering pollen analysis a technique of investigation restricted to the biological or earth scientist. This is shown not to be true in theory because of the nature of the technique itself. Comparison of pollen studies of samples from archaeological proveniences on the Colorado Plateau serves to illustrate the fact that research designs in pollen analysis do actually allow collection of cultural data and directly serve the purposes of cultural reconstruction. The comparison also serves to summarize the nature of the archaeological and nonarchaeological pollen research carried on to date in this region. A second portion of the paper synthesizes much of the available information for the presentation of a reconstruction of effective moisture variation on the Colorado Plateau over the past 1,500 years. This reconstruction was designed to serve the purposes of archaeological chronology and cultural ecology in the region. It also illustrates the flexibility of pollen analytic research as a technique of archaeology.
Monument Thievery in Mesoamerica
Authors: Robertson Merle Greene 
Published: April 2006

Abstract"Stela Stealing" has reached such momentous proportions that if something is not done immediately it will be too late to save remaining monuments. Of the 50 archaeological sites in Guatemala and Mexico at which I have recorded monuments in the past 7 years, 18 have either had stelae removed by thieves just prior to my arrival, or "in-process sawing" was taking place at the time of my investigations. Monuments are being stolen in jungle areas. Two important effects will be felt. First, archaeological investigations will be hindered, and second, a source of tourist income for affected countries will be jeopardized. Lives of archaeologists are already in jeopardy, as indicated by incidents in the Peten during the past several years. Part of this paper was read at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Norman, Oklahoma, 6 May 1971.
Archaeological Context and Systemic Context
Authors: Schiffer Michael B. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractThe cultural aspect of the processes responsible for forming the archaeological record is argued to be an underdeveloped branch of archaeological theory. A flow model is presented by which to view the "life history" or processes of systemic context of any material element. This model accounts for the production of a substantial portion of the archaeological record. The basic processes of this model are: procurement, manufacture, use, maintenance, and discard. Refuse labels the state of an element in archaeological context. The spatial implications of the model suggest a largely untapped source of behavioral information. Differential refuse disposal patterns are examined as they affect artifact location and association. The meaning of element relative frequencies in refuse is discussed.
Ridged Fields and Associated Features in Southern Campeche: New Perspectives on the Lowland Maya
Authors: Siemens Alfred H. , Puleston Dennis E. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractPrehistoric ridged fields and canals were recognized from the air in 1968 along the Candelaria River of Campeche, Mexico, in the vicinity of sites described by E. Willys Andrews in 1943. These remains were subsequently identified by Scholes and Roys as the settlements of Acalan, a native province along the route of the journey by Cortes to Honduras. Ground exploration in 1969 and 1970 has suggested that the fields were used over a considerable period of time under a system of diversified horticulture. The extensive canal system apparently provided access from the rivers to firm ground and allowed shortcuts and bypasses alongside the rivers themselves. The landscape suggests a considerable prehistoric population, vigorously engaged in major public works projects over a large area. It invites further integrated investigation of its past human ecology, particularly for information on variants of basic Lowland Maya subsistence patterns and the new perspectives this may give on the structure, success and demise of this civilization. An earlier version of this paper was read at the 39th International Congress of Americanists in Lima, 1970.
A Training Program for Salvage Archaeology
Authors: Hester James J. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractThe archaeological profession is currently faced with a shortage of trained personnel, primarily field archaeologists with experience in salvage archaeology. A training program is outlined whereby this shortage can be alleviated. The program recommended consists of a series of courses on the undergraduate level which specifically train the student to meet the demands of a professional position in salvage archaeology. It is anticipated that such a program will attract more students to consider archaeology as a career.
Testing Stratigraphy and Artifact Reuse through Obsidian Hydration Dating
Authors: Michels Joseph W. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractDating a moderately large sample of obsidian artifacts from a site can contribute highly accurate knowledge about three basic unknowns for site deposits: (1) the presence or absence of a statistically significant tendency towards superposition in the deposit; (2) the nature and degree of disturbance inhibiting the full expression of the superpositional tendency; and (3) the directional bias associated with the disturbance.Deposits of the following three sites are analyzed: Mammoth Junction site, California; La Victoria site, Guatemala; and the Chorrera R-B-1 site, Ecuador. A test for artifact reuse is described and is applied to the three sites.
The Archaeological Record of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp.) and the Sequence of Plant Domestication in Peru
Authors: Pickersgill Barbara 
Published: April 2006

AbstractStudy of archaeological material of chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) from the sites of Huaca Prieta and Punta Grande on the coast of Peru has shown that the first species to be cultivated was C. baccatum, which was probably domesticated in Bolivia. This pepper reached the Peruvian coast during the same period as four other crop plants of probably southern Peruvian or Bolivian origin, which suggests that southern contacts were important during the late Preceramic stage. During the Initial period, maize (probably of Mexican origin) and peanuts (possibly domesticated in Bolivia) spread along the coast. Another pepper, Capsicum chinense, which is thought to have been domesticated in the lowlands of the Amazon Basin, apparently also reached the coast at about the same time as pottery. Manioc likewise arrived on the coast during this period, and there may have been an introduction of new varieties of maize from Mexico. These crops suggest a mixture of tropical forest and Middle American contacts during the Initial period and the Early horizon.
Design Structure and Social Interaction: Archaeological Implications of an Ethnographic Analysis
Authors: Friedrich Margaret Hardin 
Published: April 2006

AbstractEthnographic study of painting patterns in a small Tarascan village showed that some variables reflected variation in the intensity of communication between painters while others did not. An analysis of the pottery painting style as a complex, multi-dimensional, hierarchically organized structure facilitated the selection of variables that were good indicators of communication patterns. Patterns of stylistic variation included 1) a distinct variant of the village style that was used only by members of one family painting group and 2) individual style in painting, which characterized the work of every painter. The concepts used in this analysis could be adapted to the study of similar archaeologically known styles so that the patterning of interaction between artisans might be established.
Prehistoric Cultural Development in the Southern Californian Deserts
Authors: Wallace William J. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractArchaeological remains from the southern Californian desert region, spanning a period from 7000 B.C. to historic times, are segregated into four broad cultural horizons. The earliest certain evidences of human occupation consist of stone tools and weapons from the shore line of ancient Lake Mohave. The Lake Mohave artifacts comprise types designed primarily for hunting and related activities. Next in sequence are the lithic materials from Pinto Basin and other localities that demonstrate a mixed hunting-gathering economy. The third or Amargosa period is inadequately known. Triangular arrowpoints, pottery, and numerous seed-grinding implements distinguish the closing aboriginal phase. The major research needs are indicated.
The Machalilla Culture: An Early Formative Complex on the Ecuadorian Coast
Authors: Meggers Betty J. , Evans Clifford 
Published: April 2006

AbstractExcavations at the site of G-110: La Cabuya provide significant new data on the content and chronological position of the Machalilla culture. Trade pottery establishes its contemporaneity with the late period of the Valdivia culture, estimated at between 1800 and 1500 B.C. While seafood appears to have provided the main subsistence in both cultures, the ceramics and other artifacts are distinct. Machalilla pottery is well made, with thin walls and a high frequency of polished surfaces. Vessel shapes include carinated bowls and stirrup-spout jars. Typical decoration is by incision or thick red painting, separately or in combination, in simple but distinctive patterns. The Machalilla culture cannot be related to any of the known Formative complexes in Mesoamerica or South America, so that its origin cannot be suggested. Its termination was brought about by Mesoamerican contact, which added new traits to the Machalilla complex, producing the combination of elements characterizing the Chorrera culture.
Late Quaternary Climates in Arizona
Authors: Antevs Ernst 
Published: April 2006

AbstractThis study makes a comparative evaluation of geological and biological evidence, on the one hand, and of plant pollen data, on the other, bearing on late Quaternary climates in southeastern Arizona. The findings support the conclusions based on the former and reject the contrary claims based on pollen by Martin, Schoenwetter, and Arms. The increase of pine pollen in the Cochise-Sulphur Spring and the Cochise-Cazador beds at Double Adobe from a few per cent to 28% was much too sudden to be accounted for by the spread of pine from the mountains to Double Adobe, and does not prove a change of the climate from arid to subhumid. The beds themselves indicate a subhumid climate throughout. The low frequency of pine may be due to such causes as scanty production, decomposition, and failure of the pollen to settle in flowing water.No pollen data are at hand from the mid-postpluvial or Altithermal age of erosion. The preceding and the succeeding beds have long been referred by Antevs to the pluvial/postpluvial transition and to the relatively moist early Medithermal, respectively. The most typical features of the age, arroyo cutting and accumulation of caliche, are most competently explained by a long sharp drought. There seems to be no evidence for the view of Martin and associates that the Altithermal was an age of intense summer precipitation.The entire synthetic postpluvial pollen profile is alternately dominated by composites and chenopods-amaranths. The last shift to chenopods-amaranths occurred at times ranging from about 4000 years ago to the 19th century. The dominations are apparently controlled by unknown edaphic conditions and are therefore of little or no use for correlation, dating, or climatic conclusions. Still, because of their great numbers, these pollens together with pine pollen are used as the main basis for the division into pollen zones. This leads to incorrect dating of Medithermal deposits and to disregard of documented arroyo erosions and droughts. Schulman's finding, that the radial growth of the ponderosa (yellow) pine, which is completed by the end of July, shows best agreement with the October-July precipitation, implies that the ring width is in accord with some 75 to 80% of the annual rainfall. Thus normally a narrow ring means deficient rainfall. The Great Drought of the 1200's did exist and caused arroyo erosion.
Laurel and North Bay: Diffusional Networks in the Upper Great Lakes
Authors: Mason Ronald J. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractLaurel-North Bay ceramic affinities are briefly stated. Possible objections to a northern Minnesota Laurel source and a northwest to southeast diffusion of pseudo-scallopshell stamping and other modes to North Bay are discussed. Archaeological complexes around the Upper Great Lakes are examined for pertinent information, and data drawn from Ontario Laurel sites are used to delimit the probable direction from whence came the Laurel-ascribed elements in northeastern Wisconsin. Diffusional connections with Ontario are favored over Minnesota.
Evidence of Early Teotihucan-Lowland Maya Contact at Altun Ha
Authors: Pendergast David M. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractDiscovery of a typical Miccaotli phase offering at Altun Ha, British Honduras (Belize) indicates contact between Teotihuacan and the central Maya lowlands in the second century A.D., 2.5 to 3 centuries earlier than previously recognized.
Modern Chultun Construction in Western Campeche, Mexico
Authors: Matheny Ray T. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractTest excavations at Aguacatal, located on the Xicalango peninsula, western Campeche, revealed chultuns (water cisterns) of the Late Classic period. Modern chultun construction by Chontal Indians, as late as the 1940's, followed the Late Classic period methods and style. First hand descriptions of the construction and use of chultuns by the Chontol is an aid in archaeological interpretation.
Soil pH as a Tool in Archaeological Site Interpretation
Authors: Deetz James , Dethlefsen Edwin 
Published: April 2006

AbstractMidden profiles encountered in archaeological excavation frequently appear homogeneous despite their known stratigraphic complexity. As an aid to definition of significant zones of deposition, soil pH profiles can be constructed to supplement visual recordings. Such a profile was constructed and shown to be of considerable value in site interpretation. Soil pH zones agreed with known artifact distributions and visual features. The method employed is simple, adaptable to field use, and of sufficient accuracy to provide useful results.
Stone Sinkers from Western Nevada
Authors: Tuohy Donald R. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractVery few stone fishing sinkers are reported in the archaeological literature pertaining to the western Great Basin. It has been apparent for quite some time, however, that stone fishing sinkers are frequently found by amateurs surface collecting in the Lahontan Basin. This paper describes 17 such specimens from a private collection of nearly 300. All 17, of which there are five major types, were collected on the shores of Pyramid Lake, a living remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, located about 30 mi. northeast of Reno, Nevada. Pending further study of excavated types, it is suggested that the five types reported in this paper are referable to either the Lovelock (ca. 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1400) or to Paiute (post-A.D. 1400) horizons in western Nevada.
Hypotheses on the Origin of Canadian Thule Culture
Authors: Taylor William E. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractJ. A. Ford has recently (1959) offered a revision of the traditional view on Canadian Thule culture origins. He suggests that Canadian Thule is not derived directly from Birnirk, but that the eastern Thule migrants were contemporaries of the post-Birnirk Nunagiak stage. The further revised hypotheses of this paper are based on data generally unavailable for Ford's analysis. These hypotheses state that: (a) byA.D.900 Birnirk existed as far east as Amundsen Gulf, (b) a Nunagiak-like culture was carried to Victoria Island, (c) the Birnirk-Nunagiak development occurred generally along these coasts, (d) a proto-Thule stage existed aboutA.D.900-1100 between Birnirk and Nunagiak, and (e) this proto-Thule, developing into Canadian Thule in transit, spread across the eastern Arctic, entering Greenland byA.D.1100.
Time Perspective within the Coalescent Tradition in South Dakota
Authors: Smith Carlyle S. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractSix sites attributable to the Coalescent tradition in the Fort Randall and Big Bend reservoir areas of South Dakota are arranged in a seriation indicative of their temporal relationships on the basis of the popularities of certain pottery types and the presence or absence of European trade goods. Three sites fall within the prehistoric segment of the continuum, ca.A.D.1500-1700, and three in the protohistoric segment, ca, 1700-1750. It is postulated that the sites were occupied by Arikara prior to their movement upriver to join others of the same tribal affiliation after invasion of the region by the Dakota. Certain ceramic types are proposed as time markers and sequences are revised in the light of new data.
Environmental Potential and the Postglacial Readaptation in Eastern North America
Authors: Fitting James E. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractIn definitions of the postglacial readaptation in eastern North America, attempts have been made to apply a single standard to the entire area. Such definitions are inadequate since a number of environmental zones existed in the region during late glacial and early postglacial times. These consisted of a periglacial zone with a fairly high carrying capacity supporting a cold-climate hunting adaptation; a zone of closed boreal forest with a relatively low carrying capacity; and a region of broadleaf and southern forests with a relatively high carrying capacity for a mixed gathering-and-hunting base. In the southeast there is a gradual transition from formally defined Paleo-Indian to Archaic culture, although both groups, if separation is possible, had potentially the same subsistence base. In the northeast there is a low population density hiatus between two periods of higher population density.
Mesoamerican Polyhedral Cores and Prismatic Blades
Authors: Crabtree Don E. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractThis paper deals with the results of the author"s attempts to replicate the obsidian polyhedral cores and prismatic blades of Mesoamerica. Blades have been produced by the direct percussion, indirect percussion, and pressure methods. The pressure method using a chest crutch and a clamp produces cores and blades which are true replicas of aboriginal specimens. The importance of preforming the core and of platform preparation is stressed, and it is pointed out that, usually, actual removal of the blade offers few problems. However, to produce exhausted cores which show the perfection of aboriginal specimens and a large series of nearly identical blades requires good muscular coordination, high quality material, the establishment of patterns or rhythms of motor habits, and the absence of distractions. The author also discusses the difficulties of recovering from mistakes in manufacture.High-speed photography of prismatic blade removal, at 5,000 frames per second, has helped illustrate the behavior of the material and of the stoneworker. These photographs also indicate that under the present experimental and photographic conditions the author (Crabtree) is able to remove a prismatic blade from a core in about 1,250th of a second.
Texcoco Fabric-Marked Pottery and Salt-Making: A Further Note
Authors: Charlton Thomas H. 
Published: April 2006

AbstractDocumentary data of the sixteenth century indicate the manufacture of ceramic vessels for salt-making and trade. Texcoco Fabric-marked pottery is the archaeological manifestation of these vessels. Use of a special ware is related to increased salt-making in the Aztec period. Implications of this for the economic integration of Central Mexico are mentioned.
Lévi-Strauss, Poverty Point, and the Misuse of Analogy
Authors: Rackerby Frank 
Published: April 2006

AbstractAn analysis is made of an argument from analogy for similarities between the structure of the Poverty Point earthworks and the social organization of the Bororo of Brazil. A valid analogy must be based on demonstrably similar entities. Since some of the data used in Levi-Strauss's argument are not demonstrable as fact, the argument must be judged invalid. Archaeologists are urged to show caution in expressing in writing their inferences and interpretations since their work ultimately may be used by other anthropologists for making cultural generalizations.