Paleoindian and Paleoamerican (Other Keyword)
126-150 (497 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Bayesian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Approximately 13,000 years ago, 37 genera of North American megafauna went extinct. Proboscideans, mammoths, and mastodons, specifically, were among the megafauna affected. Today, researchers continue to debate between three hypotheses to explain these North American Pleistocene mass extinctions: (1) human over-hunting, (2) climate change leading to a reduced niche,...
The Effect of Climate Change on the Niche Space of North American Proboscideans (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. Most researchers agree that the extinction events of North American megafauna, including proboscideans, occurred approximately 13,000 years ago. The reason for the demise of these creatures, in particular proboscideans such as mammoth and mastodon, is a matter of debate. There are three accepted general hypotheses explaining...
Elephant-Hunting with D. Stanford (2018)
Dennis Stanford’s work at the Dutton, Selby, Lamb Spring, and Inglewood sites was a major part of his lifelong search for breakthrough evidence about North America’s earliest human encounters with mammoths. He encouraged me to study the megafaunal bones from those sites, and gave me room to disagree with him. His support allowed me to start looking into new ways to understand how the bones were modified and how such sites came to be. This presentation ties together data from those fossil sites...
Elko Chronology: Connelly Caves Lithic Analysis and Great Basin Implications (2018)
Consistent Elko chronology in the Northern Great Basin remains elusive to the archeological community. Numerous symptoms can be determined to be the cause of this absence of information, including a lack of in depth analysis in the region, extensive sediment disturbance leading to non-conclusive stratigraphic dating where studies have taken place, and a shortage of differential site comparisons. Connelly Caves provides an amazing opportunity to combat this archeological affliction through the...
The Emerging Picture of Human Occupation at the Cooper's Ferry Site During the Bølling-Allerød Interstadial (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological excavations conducted from 2009-2018 at the Cooper's Ferry site in west-central Idaho revealed a long record of repeated human occupation encompassing the late Pleistocene to early Holocene periods. Lithostratigraphic unit 3 (LU3) is a loess deposit found near the bottom of the site that...
Environmental Change and Human Ecology in Central Alaska during the Early Holocene: Hollembaek’s Hill (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dramatic environmental changes occurred in central Alaska during the Early Holocene as mixed woodlands and grasslands transitioned to boreal forest ecosystems. Despite 80 years of research in this region, we are just beginning to understand how interior Alaskan populations coped with the extinction of the large grazers (bison and elk) that constituted their...
The Esperanza to Middle Marcala Phase Subsistence Practices at El Gigante Rockshelter (11,000–7400 cal B.P.) (2018)
The earliest human occupation of the El Gigante Rockshelter in the highlands of western Honduras dates to the Early Esperanza phase at 11,010 cal B.P. This paper examines the perishable and imperishable remains from the Early Esperanza through Middle Marcala phase occupation from 11,010-7,430 cal B.P. and what they inform about human adaptation and forager subsistence practices in the highlands during this early period of Honduran prehistory.
Establishing Provenance of Ochre from the La Prele Mammoth Site: A Geochemical Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Red ochre is a ferrous iron oxide mineral used for cultural expression and utilitarian tasks by hominins beginning 250,000 years ago. The use of ochre continued into the New World. While its use by Paleoindians has been noted, the function and significance of ochre for these groups is not well understood. To conceive the importance of ochre to Paleoindians, it...
Evaluating "Folsom" Points in the Blackwater Draw Museum’s Calvin Smith Collection (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Folsom projectile points are housed and displayed by museums around the country, but many are donated by collectors without the accompaniment of information documenting their original archaeological context. As a result, questions surrounding their authenticity hamper their ability to contribute to collections-based archaeological research of the Folsom time...
Evaluating a Stratified, Prearchaic, Open-Air Site in Grass Valley, Nevada (2018)
Current views of the Prearchaic draw heavily from investigations of sites near pluvial lakes in the eastern and western Great Basin. The record from the Central Great Basin remains impoverished, largely due to the limited number of stratified archaeological sites containing well preserved material suitable for faunal analysis and radiocarbon dating. Recent investigations of an open-air site (26La4434) along the northern shore of Pleistocene Lake Gilbert in Grass Valley, revealed a buried deposit...
Evaluating Chronological Hypotheses by Simulating Radiocarbon Datasets (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. Evaluating chronological hypotheses using complex radiocarbon datasets is challenging. Sources of variability, including measurement error, interlab variability, uncertainty associated with the radiocarbon calibration curve, the inherent randomness of the physical processes of radiocarbon formation and decay, and potential...
Evaluating Differential Animal Carcass Transport Decisions at Regional Scales using Bayesian Mixed-Effects Models (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology II (QUANTARCH II)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeologists frequently face the problem of explaining uneven skeletal element representation, with explanations involving either non-human taphonomic agents or differential carcass transport decisions made by humans. Existing statistical methods for evaluating these explanations are generally applicable at the...
Evaluating Late Holocene Stone Tool Production at Delta Creek, Alaska (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This project aims to better understand the lifestyles of nomadic hunter-gatherers in Alaska by analyzing early Holocene lithic material from the multicomponent Delta Creek site (XBD-110). This was achieved by conducting a functional lithic analysis of the tools and lithic debitage found within the rich early Holocene component, dated to 9,435±100 calibrated...
Evaluating Potential Time Signatures within Extant Microbial Communities in Stratified Soils at the La Prele Mammoth Site (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent studies of microbial communities in terrestrial environments have shown that an input of environmental "triggers" within soil substrate can activate dormant soil microorganisms. Additionally, deep within marine coal deposits, it has been discovered that forest soil microbes thrive, despite their oceanic surroundings. However, terrestrial microbial...
Evaluation of Pleistocene Mammoth Ivory Use and Radiocarbon Laboratory Results from the Holzman Site in Interior Alaska (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recently discovered Holzman site lies along the west bank of Shaw Creek, a northern tributary of the Tanana River, Interior Alaska. Excavations beginning in 2015 revealed an expedient stone technology alongside well-preserved hearths, avifauna and large mammal remains including a mammoth tusk in deeply buried deposits. Evidence of food preparation and...
Evidence for Pleistocene Horse Hunting on the Columbia Plateau from the Rock Island Overlook Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Second-Oldest Sites in the Pacific Northwest" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent reanalysis of selected artifacts from a 1974 archaeological salvage excavation at the precontact Rock Island Overlook site, 45CH204, in central Washington State indicates that cultural deposits are much older than previously reported. Projectile point chronology and obsidian hydration dating suggest the Rock Island Overlook site...
Evidence of Early Human Occupation at "Cueva de los Hacheros", Michoacán (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in South Central Michoacán México, Ongoing Studies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2016, Dr. Jose Luis Punzo-Díaz attended to a complaint from the municipality of Turicato regarding the rockshelter Cueva de los Hacheros. As part of Proyecto de Arqueología y Paisaje del Área Centro Sur de Michoacán, the site was excavated. During excavations, the project discovered evidence of multiple periods of human...
Examining Handheld XRF Inter-Instrument Variation: A Collaborative Project Using a Large Assemblage from the Great Basin (2018)
Collaborating with multiple XRF instruments enables larger than normal datasets to be analyzed in a short period. The portability of instruments is important to analysts working together in one location as groups of specimens can be analyzed simultaneously. However, certain protocols must be followed so there are no discrepancies among instruments. We present our project’s methodological controls, such as shared source library and calibration, and preliminary results. The study consists of over...
An Experimental Approach to Understanding Paleoindian Bipolar Lithic Artifacts (2018)
Bipolar lithic artifacts can be challenging for researchers to understand in the archaeological record. Although these artifacts were first noted in North American literature half a century ago, archaeologists continue to debate over terminology and considerations of morphological and functional distinctions of bipolar objects. This experimental approach aims to shed light on these disparities whilst re-examining morphological and functional characteristics attributed to manufacture and...
Explaining Paleoindian Settlement in the Intermountain West: A Regression Adjustment Approach (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Far West Paleoindian Archaeology: Papers from the Next Generation" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Identifying the ecological drivers of Paleoindian settlement has broad implications for a host of related behaviors, including colonization, mobility, and subsistence. Unfortunately, important proxies like spatial site patterning suffer from well-known sampling biases, most notably, taphonomic decay, opportunistic survey,...
Explaining Shifts in Dalton Paleoindian Adaptations at the End of the Pleistocene through Usewear and Technological Organization Analyses (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Paleoindian period in North America approximately 12,000 years ago, Dalton hunter-gatherers substantially altered their hunting technology by modifying their point blades with teeth-like serrations and bevels. The functions of these attributes have been the focus of a long-held debate. Some argue that the variation relates to use as knives and...
Exploring Inter-zonal Connections through a Constructed Projectile Point Typology from Cuncaicha Rockshelter (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cuncaicha rockshelter, Carbun-Ruan, and Pampa Colorada are parts of an early inter-zonal settlement system located in southern Peru. Cuncaicha and Carbun-Ruan are multi-component highland rockshelters, with initial occupations dating respectively to the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Early to Late Holocene sites at Pampa Colorada on the Pacific coast...
Exploring Open-Air Western Stemmed Sites in the Harney Basin, Oregon: A Technological and Chronological Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) studies in the Great Basin often emphasize results from cave or rockshelter sites; however, these sites present a very specific occupation type. Studying open-air sites provides a different line of evidence used to expand interpretations of WST lithic technology and...
Exploring the Age of Western Stemmed Points at the Nials Site, Harney Basin, Oregon (2018)
First American archaeologists are increasingly interested in the relationship between Western stemmed point technology (WST) and other Paleoindian lithic technologies, including Clovis. While there is some evidence of WST dating as early as 14,000 14C years before present, most sites lack reliable geoarchaeological and geochronological evidence. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the University of Nevada Reno excavated several stratified open-air WST sites in Oregon along the southern shoreline...
Exploring the Function and Adaptive Context of Paleo-Arctic Projectile Points (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of a large-scale experimental archaeology project investigating variability in the projectile point technologies of Upper Paleolithic Siberia and late Pleistocene/early Holocene eastern Beringia. A series of 36 projectile points (12 lanceolate bifaces; 12 composite slotted caribou antler points inset with chert microblades; 12...