Archaic (Other Keyword)
526-550 (574 Records)
Despite numerous investigations leveraging both genetic and archaeological evidence, the geographic origins of dogs remain unknown. On the basis of an ancient Irish dog genome and an assessment of the spatiotemporal appearance of dogs in the archaeological record, a recent paper suggested that dogs may have been domesticated independently in Eastern and Western Eurasia from distinct wolf populations. Following those independent origins, a mitochondrial assessment suggested that the Mesolithic...
Thirty Years On, Considering Kelly’s 1988 "Three Sides of A Biface", and Why It Matters for Great Basin Archaeology (2018)
We argue that it is time to reconsider the use of the term biface in Great Basin archaeology and implement more heuristic terms in its place. In most instances, there is only one role or "one side of a biface" and that was to become a projectile point. It is time we recognize bifaces as such and acknowledge that preform morphology can be an indicator of temporal association and of social agents including children. Stage classification alone is limiting in terms of allowing us to broaden our...
Toolstone Acquisition in the Interior of California’s South-Central Coast: Raw Material Extraction in the Mid- to Late Holocene (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of local vs. nonlocal toolstone sources can reveal much about past hunter-gatherer behavior. Toolstone-acquisition-related decisions reflect past people’s settlement strategy—“mapping on” or logistically exploiting a stone resource, raw material quality, and environmental productivity. Our sample of nine sites is an optimal geographic context...
Trade And Production of Steatite Vessels in New England (2018)
This research examines the trade and production of steatite vessels during the Archaic Period in New England. The study focuses specifically on a quarry Located in Barkhamsted, Connecticut where recent excavation has supplemented prior investigations from 1949 to 1951. The material from this site is located at Yale’s Peabody Museum and the archaeology lab at Central Connecticut State University. We also examine the artifact assemblages from other sites in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Along...
Transformation by fire: Human cremation, metalworking, and the transmogrification of bodies by flame in the Late Archaic American Southeast (2015)
A copper band recovered from a Late Archaic burial located on St. Catherines Island, Georgia, demonstrates the earliest use of metal objects in the region. This discovery shows that copper usage in the American Southeast, largely thought to relate to Hopewellian and Mississippian influences, has a greater antiquity and distribution than previously assumed. A reassessment of the copper found within the burial dates to the Archaic throughout the Eastern Woodlands; chemical analysis shows the...
Transitional Archaic – "Mu Awsami Saqiwe’k" in the Maritime Provinces, Canada. (2015)
The Transitional Archaic (4,100 -2,700 BP) is an often overlooked and underrepresented period in the Northeast; especially in the Maritime Provinces. To explain the origins of these "broadpoint using" cultures, archaeologists over the past few decades have embraced either a cultural diffusion or migration model. In this paper, I reopen the debate by examining existing collections from Maine and the Maritime Provinces, including the newly discovered Transitional Archaic component at the Boswell...
Tree Island Life: Late Archaic Adaptations of a Northern Everglades Community (2018)
The Wedgworth Midden (8PB16175), a Late Archaic tree island site near Belle Glade, Florida, produced large quantities of faunal remains during excavations undertaken by Florida Gulf Coast University in May of 2016. Analysis of these remains allows insight into patterns of resource acquisition and reveals ways in which people adapted to the local environment. Comparison of proportions of taxa from different occupational periods allows us to trace changes in resource use and sheds light on...
Trends, Traditions, Interregnums, and Continuities: An Examination of the Cultures of the Early Holocene of the Far Northeast (2018)
This paper will examine several early Holocene archaeological complexes producing Late Paleoindian St. Anne/Varney bifaces, quartz unifaces (Early Maritime Archaic), and bifurcate-based Early Archaic bifaces across the Far Northeast. Recent examinations by the authors have raised questions about the timing and spatial extent of some of these complexes and what the patterns or lack thereof suggest about the cultural and technological origins of the Native Americans producing them, their lifeways,...
Tryon Creek (35-WA-288) Projectile Point/Base Comparisons through Strata/Levels (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research was conducted based on artifacts in the Tryon Creek (35-WA-288) collection. It began as a study of intact projectile points (n=126) found within House 2. This enabled comparisons of points based on width, length, thickness, and base type. Material types were analyzed. The research was then expanded to include lithic artifacts that were intact...
Tuners Falls Gorge Geoarchaeological Investigations: Modeling Landscape and Archaeological Developments within the Connecticut River Valley. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Tuners Falls Gorge region of the Connecticut River Valley is composed of a dynamic post-glacial alluvial landscape which contains extensive Pleistocene and Holocene deposits as well as an abundance of Pre-Contact archaeological sites spanning the last 12,000 years before present. This paper presents a new...
The Tunna’ Nosi’ Kaiva’ Gwaa Archaeological District: Prehistoric Communal Hunting and Pine Nut Harvesting (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Set in a mid-elevation pinyon-juniper woodland, Tunna’ Nosi’ Kaiva’ Gwaa (TNKG) archaeological district is located in the north Bodie Hills, Mineral County, Nevada, USA. The prehistoric component includes seven game corrals, 12 drivelines, over 170 rock rings, nine rock art sites, individual and grouped hunting blinds, and concentrations of shattered...
Two Paleoarchaic Sites along Wind Creek in Riley County, Kansas (2016)
CEMML archaeologists recently identified and tested two closely related Paleoarchaic sites, 14RY8129 and 14RY8130, on the Fort Riley Installation. These sites are positioned on the south side of Wind Creek, which is a minor perennial tributary of Wildcat Creek, and part of the larger Kansas River watershed. Survey and testing at the two sites recovered several fragmentary projectile points diagnostic of the Paleoindian and Early Archaic periods, including a unifacially fluted Clovis point; a...
Two Pioneering California Women Archaeologists, 1940s–1960s: Agnes Bierman Babcock and Freddie Curtis (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Female Firsts: Celebrating Archaeology’s Pioneering Women on the 101st Anniversary of the 19th Amendment " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although this may seem surprising, there were very few women California archaeologists prior to the 1940s. This presentation discusses the lives of two pioneering women archaeologists who worked primarily in Southern California from the late 1940s to the 1960s, that of Agnes Bierman...
A Typology of Late Archaic Ceramic Evidence from Okeechobee Basin to Determine Regional Interactions (2018)
Analysis of ceramic sherds collected during excavations at the Wedgworth Midden (8PB16175) permits insight into regional interactions during the Late Archaic period. Saint John's Plain, a chalky ware associated with people to the north of the Okeechobee Basin, constitutes a significant proportion of the assemblage and suggests that Late Archaic communities in the Northern Everglades maintained social interactions with people living in the St. Johns River Valley. While preliminary, these patterns...
Under the Scope: Nondestructive Methods of Analyzing Perishable Artifacts in Legacy Collections (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research presents the macroscopic and microscopic attributes of hair and feathers from the artifact assemblage of North Fork Cave #1, better known as Mummy Cave (48PA201) in Park County, Wyoming. The results of this research enable us to better understand the mammalian and avian resources exploited during the Archaic and Prehistoric periods in the Greater...
Understanding Early Archaic Stone Tool Production Practices: A Pilot Study (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Through Funk’s (1993) research into the Upper Susquehanna Valley Region in New York, several important Early Archaic (10,000-8,000BP) archaeological sites were uncovered from Wells Bridge, New York. One of these Early Archaic sites named the Johnsen #3 site contains multiple Kirk horizon occupations in stratified deposits. Early Archaic sites are still rare in...
Unwritten Histories: The People of the Phaleron Cemetery (2018)
Ancient Athens is cited as the contentious caldron from which the western political tradition emerged. During the formative Archaic period (ca. 700-480 BC), Athenian history was marked by major political developments (e.g., early law codification, citizenship formalization), social stratification (e.g., classes), and conflict (e.g., tyrants). To date, such processes are known to us through texts, artistic representations, and elite-centered mortuary grounds. The collaborative Phaleron...
The Ups and Downs of Uploading Data to the Eastern Archaic Faunal Database with the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) (2016)
Uploading faunal data from eastern Archaic sites to the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) as members of the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG) was a very exciting prospect. We are pleased to be involved in a project that will address significant questions about animal use during the Archaic period. However, making the data comparable entailed some challenges and compromises. While most zooarchaeologists agree on taxonomic designations, developing ontologies for elements, portions,...
Use-Wear Insight into the Chipped Stone Plant-Processing Toolkit in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The focus of this research was to analyze potential plant-processing chipped stone tools from several rockshelter and terrace sites in Eagle Nest Canyon within the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas, excavated by Texas State University from 2013 to 2017. The chipped stone tool assemblages’...
Using Micro and Macrobotanical Analyses to Assess Socio-economic Strategies at 48PA551, the McKean Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming site 48PA51 is unique for its pithouse, rock pile surrounded by deer skull caps with antlers, abundant hearths and pit features, large number of dart points and groundstone, and substantial faunal assemblage. These features and the...
Using Microartifacts to Investigate Prehistoric Cooking Methods at the Archaeological Site of Dust Cave (2018)
Microartifacts - generally considered to be artifacts measuring less than 6.35 mm (¼ inch) - have traditionally received little attention in North American archaeology. We argue that microartifacts are not simply smaller versions of larger artifacts, but rather provide different and complimentary data. This study investigates microartifacts from the archaeological site of Dust Cave (10,650-3,600 BCE), located in northwest Alabama, in order to better understand prehistoric diet and cooking...
Using Technologically Diagnostic Debitage to Better Determine the Integrity of an Archaeological Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For a cultural resource to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet specific criteria. For significant archaeological sites, this usually means the resources can produce data that address important questions about the past (i.e., National Register Criterion D). The integrity of design is of...
Using the Anasazi Origins Project Faunal Remains to Determine Archaic Subsistence Patterns (2015)
The purpose of this study is to prevent the loss of important archaeological information by examining a collection of faunal remains from the Anasazi Origins Project (AOP) that have been virtually untouched since their excavation. Re-evaluation of these collections will allow us to identify their research potential, as well as possible cultural significance that was not identified during initial investigations. The collection being examined for this study is the Anasazi Origins Project....
The Utility of Public LiDAR Data for Detecting and Documenting Low-Relief Archaeological Sites: A Case Study from the Pockoy Island Shell Rings, Charleston County, South Carolina (2018)
This paper evaluates the utility of high-resolution LiDAR-derived elevation data for remotely surveying difficult-to-access coastal areas to identify possible archaeological sites, which can then be targeted for further investigation. To determine the effective limits of the elevation data to visualize low-relief structures, locations of previously-recorded Archaic and Woodland-period shell rings along the lower Atlantic coast were examined. Thirty-four rings were identified, including two...
Valle de Bonanza (Zacatecas, Mexico): Desert Varnish and Technology in a Surface Lithic Assemblage (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Valle de Bonanza (northeast of the Mexican state of Zacatecas) is a surface-only archaeological site located in a highly eroded desert landscape on the edges of a vast endorheic basin in Concepcion del Oro county. The site consists of a sand-and-dust surface affected by intensive deflation that caused the formation of a palimpsest of crudely made flaked stone...