Archaic (Other Keyword)
151-175 (574 Records)
In comparison to the Late Paleoindian Period (10,000-8,000 rcybp), the Early Archaic (8,000-6,500 rcybp) in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado is a poorly understood time because of its relatively light archaeological signature. Not only is the archaeological record more ephemeral, but we also see a change in technologies, such as projectile points types, in this transitional period. Some archaeologists explain these observations as a result of changing environments and shifting settlement processes...
Early Holocene Earth Oven Cooking in Southwest Texas (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Eagle Cave (41VV167) is a dry rockshelter in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas containing a 13,000-year record of hunter-gatherer lifeways. Beginning around 10,500 cal BP, Lower Pecos foragers began constructing earth...
Early Occupations of the Mountainous Interior of Puerto Rico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations conducted in three cave sites in north-central Puerto Rico have revealed that human occupation of the mountainous interior of the island took place much earlier than previously thought. The available evidence, recovered from Cueva del Abono, Cueva Matos,...
Early Settlement on the Island of Grenada: Ecological Evidence for the Extinction of Rodents and Palms (2018)
Evidence of Archaic age settlement with possible rodent harvesting is apparent in two well-dated sediment cores collected in northeastern Grenada. At around 3600 BC, large scale burning on the island coincides with severe forest modification including the total elimination of at least two species of palms. The selective, though possibly unintentional, removal of economically valuable palms suggests the influence of a non-human variable into the equation. I propose that the removal of a...
Early to Late Archaic Cultural Traditions in Southeast Massachusetts (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Changes in the Land: Archaeological Data from the Northeast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Gulf of Maine Archaic Tradition is poorly represented in Southeastern Massachusetts. Following recent excavations in Somerset, hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of quartz chipping debris, cores, and expedient edge tools were recovered from a relatively small area of distribution. This large amount of non-diagnostic...
Earth Oven Experiments in Texas and Wyoming (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Experimental Pedagogies: Teaching through Experimental Archaeology Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The durable remains of earth oven construction—namely, fire-cracked rock (FCR)—lack the same tactile connection to the past as lithic or ceramic artifacts. However, constructing experimental earth ovens provides an immersive experience where students, researchers, and the general public can gain a better...
The Effect of Sex on Diet: Isotopic Variation among North and South American Foragers (2024)
This is an abstract from the "American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The extent to which subsistence labor was divided among archaeological forager populations of the Americas is currently debated. This analysis uses bone isotope chemistry and Bayesian mixing models to examine trophic variation between female and male individuals from North and South American forager populations....
The Effects of Climate Change and Risk on the Foraging-Farming Transition in North America (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology I (QUANTARCH I)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The evolution of the Homo lineage is characterized by the emergence of numerous biological and cultural traits. One behavioral trait is the transition from foraging to farming. Some scholars suggest that climate change contributed to the emergence of agriculture while others hypothesize that continually increasing foraging risk...
The Effects of Regional Climate Change on the Foraging-Farming Transition in Eastern North America (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For a century, scholars studying prehistoric subsistence have questioned why humans began farming. A common hypothesis is that climate change contributed to the emergence of agriculture. One area where climate change may have influenced early agriculture is the Interior Eastern Woodlands of North America, where the independent domestication of native plants...
El Niño and Trans-Holocene Trends in Eastern Pacific Fishes: Preliminary Data from Abrigo de los Escorpiones, Baja California (2018)
Many questions surround trends in prehistoric fisheries dynamics and fish use along the Pacific Coast of North America. Marine fish are particularly sensitive to changes in their environment, including variation in sea surface temperature that changes cyclically with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Trans-Holocene paleontological or archaeological sites with large faunal assemblages are the ideal tool for use in reconstructing these paleoenvironmental records. Here, I report preliminary data...
El Sitio Arcaico Temprano de las Estacas (Morelos) y Su Tecnología de Hogares (2018)
Se analizan y discuten las evidencias arqueológicas relativas a tres distintas modalidades de hogares del Arcaico, todos ellos documentados en una secuencia deposicional en el margen poniente del río Yautepec, diferenciados éstos por sus sistema constructivo, requerimientos de inversión de trabajo, potencial térmico y funcional, registrado uno en 2000 por el Proyecto Arqueobotánico Ticumán, y varios más en 2015 por el Proyecto Arqueológico Las Estacas (municipio de Tlaltizapán, Morelos, México)....
Elko Litter: Analyses of an Elko Series Point Manufacturing Site in Central Nevada (2018)
While Great Basin archaeologists use projectile points as time-sensitive markers, these typologies are based on the morphological characteristics of the finished artifacts. In most cases, points were produced elsewhere and curated to their final destination or they are found within a palimpsest containing a mixed bag of flaked stone tools and debitage. Seldom are archaeologists able to analyze debitage specific to the production of points. In 2016, Logan Simpson archaeologists recorded a small...
The Emergence of Pottery Use and its Interpretation: A Case Study from Huaca Negra, Virú Valley, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. “Why did people begin to use pottery vessels?” is one of the most compelling questions to archaeologists. As a site witnesses the transition from the Late Preceramic to the Initial Period occupation in the Virú Valley, north coast of Peru, Huaca Negra constitutes an ideal case study to investigate the utilitarian function, cultural traits, and possible...
Environment versus Technology: Weighing the Drivers of Western North American Holocene Intensification (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Environment and technology are the independent “givens” of Julian Steward’s model of cultural ecology wherein different techno-environmental combinations favor different subsistence, settlement, and organizational responses....
Environmental and Cultural Changes at the Late Archaic – Early Woodland Transition on the Georgia Coast, USA: A Dendrochronological and 14C-Based Approach (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present a new multimillennial tree-ring chronology derived from subfossil bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) buried at the mouth of the Altamaha River on the Georgia Coast, USA, and discuss environmental and climatic changes indicated by tree-ring proxies, including ringwidth and chemical analyses. Finally, we examine modeled new and existing radiocarbon...
Establishing a Chronology for the Fort Point Site (35CU11) along the Southern Oregon Coast (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fort Point (35-CU-11) is a pre-contact midden located on a marine terrace overlooking an important natural and historical feature known as Battle Rock along the southern Oregon Coast. Field investigation that took place in 2019 along the main promontory of the site revealed dense midden deposits that provide useful data on subsistence and residential...
Establishing a Multimillennial Dendrochronological Sequence in the Atlantic Southeast, USA (2018)
This paper discusses advances in the development of a multi-millennial ring-width chronology based on bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) from the mouth of the Altamaha River in Georgia. New insights into the environmental history of coastal Georgia are discussed, including the archaeological implications of major climatic and ecological events visible in the ancient cypress rings. Finally, we focus on environmental conditions before, during, and after the transition from the Late Archaic (ca....
Evaluating Archaic Period Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in Relation to Ecosystem Dynamics in New England (2015)
This paper summarizes preliminary data and interpretations of Archaic Period land use patterns in relation to environmental dynamics within Massachusetts. This analysis is a component of a larger NSF-funded research project intended to analyze the drivers of and responses to ecosystem dynamics in the New England region. This project aims to better understand the dialectical relationship among human activity (fire, land clearance, horticulture), vegetational dynamics, and climate. The following...
An Evaluation of Olcott Biface Production (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beginning with the introduction of the concept of an Old Cordilleran Culture, research related to early Holocene tool production in northwestern North America appears to assume commonalities of tool production throughout a huge geographic area. This assumption persists despite the recognition of unique cultural traditions, namely Olcott and Cascade....
An Evaluation of the Relations between Morphology and Thermal Properties among Poverty Point Objects (PPOs) of the American Southeast (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Poverty Point Objects (PPOs) are thought to have functions related to contexts of heating and cooking in areas where stone alternatives are not locally available. PPO morphology and composition, therefore, may potentially be explained by the efforts of prehistoric populations to manipulate thermal properties that impact performance for cooking and heating. In...
Evidence for Geophyte Exploitation in the Green River Basin of Wyoming (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Green River Basin of Wyoming, archaeological sites dating from the Early Archaic to Late Prehistoric are often found associated with or adjacent to dense patches of *Cymopterus bulbosus, a nutritious geophyte that would have been an important food source for prehistoric humans living in the region. Experimental data have shown that the caloric return...
Evidence for Winter Bear Hunting from Lava Tube Caves in Southwest Washington (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The southwestern flanks of Mt. Adams, Washington, contain numerous lava tube caves. These lava tubes can be quite complex, containing narrow passages on multiple levels. In the course of exploring these lava tubes, modern cavers have inadvertently discovered a total of sixteen projectile points and a flake tool, within twelve different lava tubes. These...
Evidence of Maritime Trade at the Bulgarian Black Sea Site of Apollonia Pontica (7th-3rd centuries BC) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will highlight the evidence for trade networks and the distribution of goods at the ancient port city of Apollonia Pontica along Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast. Founded in the 7th century BC by Milesians from western Ionia fleeing an incursion by their Lydian neighbors, Apollonia -- with its two excellent ports and easy access to the...
Evidence of Mid-Holocene Environmental Change at the Submerged Archaeological Site, Manasota Key Offshore, Florida (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Liquid Landscapes: Recent Developments in Submerged Landscape Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Manasota Key Offshore (MKO) site is submerged under the gulf of Mexico off the shore of Manasota Key, Florida. This site, which was occupied over 7,000 years ago, provides a unique opportunity to investigate the effects of early Holocene environmental change on hunter-gatherers, particularly relating to...
Evolution of the Anthropocene (2018)
Why did humans, unlike any other multicellular species in the history of the Earth, gain the capacity to shift Earth into a new epoch of geologic time, the Anthropocene? Here, a general causal theory, sociocultural niche construction, is presented to explain long-term changes in Earth’s ecology driven by societal dynamics across human generational time through sociocultural evolution of subsistence regimes based on cooperative ecosystem engineering, social specialization, non-kin exchange and...