Paleoindian and Paleoamerican (Other Keyword)
351-375 (497 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Roadcut site (35WS8) near The Dalles, Oregon was first excavated by Luther Cressman in the late 1950’s. It contained some of the earliest evidence of salmon fishing in the Columbia Plateau and a record of human occupations spanning at least 9,000 years-making it one of the most important sites in the region. The Roadcut site is often cited as containing...
Prearchaic Land Use in Grass Valley, NV: A Novel Statistical Implementation of Optimal Distribution Models (2018)
Despite decades of work, debate persists regarding the nature and extent of Prearchaic land use patterns in the North American Great Basin. While some archaeologists argue that Prearchaic hunter-gatherers favored a broad diet and, therefore, relied on a generalist land use strategy, others insist that they favored a narrow diet, thus relying instead on a specialist land use strategy. To help resolve these debates, here we ask the simple question: what environmental parameters drive variation in...
Prearchaic Settlement Decisions in the Great Basin (2018)
Researchers propose that the first people to occupy the Great Basin preferentially settled near pluvial lakes to exploit highly profitable wetland habitats. However, a systematic evaluation of this hypothesis has yet to be undertaken. Here we test predictions from an ideal free distribution model to determine if the settlement decisions of Prearchaic foragers were indeed biased toward pluvial ecosystems. The results not only elucidate Prearchaic settlement patterns, but also establish...
Prearchaic Settlement Distribution in the Central Great Basin (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The first occupants of the Great Basin settled the region when highly profitable wetland environments were abundant, but their spatial distribution was highly variable. Results of our earlier work identified an interesting pattern driven by this variation: Prearchaic (>8000 BP) settlements in the Lahontan and Bonneville Basins were closer to pluvial lakes than...
Predictive Modeling of Paleoindian and Archaic Sites across Florida with GIS (2018)
Florida’s terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites form interesting settlement patterns when projected upon various geographic representations. Probably many unknown Paleoindian and Early Archaic sites still remain hidden and unstudied, as more than half of Florida’s landmass was inundated during these cultural periods. Due to constraints in visibility and access, the practical limits of traditional survey hinder progress in discovering additional sites around the state. With...
The Prehistoric Diet: Genomic Analysis of Bonneville Estates Paleofeces, Nevada (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The genetic composition of paleofeces from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter (BER) can aid environmental and dietary reconstruction, as the genomic content of coprolites change as environmental conditions shifted from cool and moist in the Pleistocene to hot and dry in the Holocene and as new food sources appeared locally. In order to analyse the potential shift...
Prehistoric Hookworm and the Peopling of the Americas: Enhancing Theories Based on Paleoclimate Models and Pathogens (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Humans brought many things with them when they came to the Americas. This study focuses on hookworms and domesticated dogs to revise, constrain, or enhance theoretical models of when and how humans first came to the Americas. The hookworm life cycle is critically dependent upon the environmental conditions and proximity to suitable hosts. Its eggs leave...
Preliminary Assessment of Recent Research at the Old Vero Site (8IR009), Vero Beach, Florida (2018)
Intensive excavations and attendant analyses conducted at the Old Vero Site (8IR009) from 2014-2017 have revealed a long and complex stratigraphic succession which dates from ca. 30,000 B.P. to the present. The excavations have documented not only 195 species of plants and animals but also a human presence which extends back to at least 11,000 B.P. and, perhaps, earlier. Terminal Pleistocene extinction dates are provided on several taxa as well as observations about the environments within which...
A Preliminary Spatial Analysis of the Late Pleistocene Components at the McDonald Creek Site, Interior Alaska (2021)
This is an abstract from the "McDonald Creek and Blair Lakes: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Human Activity in the Tanana Flats of Central Alaska" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The McDonald Creek site (FAI-2043) is located about 30 miles south of Fairbanks, Alaska, in the Tanana Flats. Results of archaeological testing and excavations between 2013 and 2019 identified three distinct archaeological components, Components 1, 2, and 3 dating to about 13.8...
Prey and Predators on the Late Pleistocene Llano Estacado (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Humans are among the major predators on the Llano Estacado (Southern High Plains, USA) during the late Pleistocene in competition with a diverse carnivore guild that included the now-extinct giant short-faced bear, saber-tooth cat, American lion, and dire wolf. Direct evidence on bone in the form of cut marks and bone fracture patterns are used in...
Proboscideans, Drought, and Cyanobacteria: Natural Death Events both Present and Past (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lawrence Todd has made substantial contributions to the studies of taphonomy, Paleoindians, and megafauna, among other topics. His foundational research provides the basis for important questions to be asked about megafaunal extinctions. Drawing first on data on elephant deaths in northern Botswana in 2020 that...
Projectiles or Pikes? Clovis Point Attributes and Braced Weapon Use (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fluted point weaponry types and the expansion of Indigenous people across North American megafauna habitats 13,050–12,650 cal BP are considered in light of historical polearm use. Confronting megaherbivores such as Proboscidea and Bison or megacarnivores such as Arctodus, Panthera, and Smilodon with thrust or thrown spears was likely less effective than...
Quantifying Intra-site Spatial Patterns at Early Paleoindian Sites (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding intra-site spatial patterning has long been a focus in archaeology. This poster focuses on patterns observed through a detailed analysis of an Early Paleoindian site. The models developed from these analyses provide testable hypothesis to compare to other mobile hunter-gatherer sites. In total, over 18,000 artifacts with exact spatial coordinates...
Quantifying the Exploitation of Faunal Remains by Preceramic Societies in Southern Belize (2018)
Beyond occasional reports of Pleistocene megafauna, there is a paucity of faunal data from the Mesoamerican Paleoindian and Archaic periods. This poster presents faunal data from three rockshelters in southern Belize located in two distinct environmental regions. Tzib’te Yux, is located in the Rio Blanco Valley in the foothills of the Maya Mountains and has an intact deposits from Cal. 14,000 to 6,000 BP. In contrast, Maya Hak Cab Pek and Saki Tzul, are both located in the interior of the Maya...
Quantitative Analysis of Bone Surface Modifications on the Bowser Road Mastodon and its Implications for the Human Predation of North American Megafauna (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. Toward the end of the Pleistocene, North America experienced a mass extinction of large mammals, including Proboscideans such as mammoths and mastodons. The role of human predation in these extinctions is widely debated across several scientific disciplines, including Conservation Biology, Paleontology, and Archaeology. A...
Quebrada Jaguay-280 (QJ-280) under the Microscope: A Geoarchaeological Investigation of the Site Formation and Anthropogenic Features at a Peruvian Coastal Site (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some of the earliest evidence for human settlement of Peru comes from lowland sites along the arid Pacific coast. Localities at Huaca Prieta, Quebrada Tacahuay, and Quebrada Jaguay demonstrate that during the Terminal Pleistocene, people had settled the coast and had incorporated marine resources into their subsistence strategy. Excavations led by Daniel...
Questioning Clovis in Southeast Utah: Late in the Game or Transitional? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Paleoindian Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation provides a summary of what is currently known for the Lime Ridge Clovis site, as well as more recent data on Clovis sites, or components thereof, from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah. The data are fleeting, but suggest a trend comparable to the adjacent Nevada and Arizona regions for diminished size and boldness in blade...
Raw Material Procurement and Biface Production at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada: A Long-Term Diachronic Approach (2018)
During the decade-long excavations at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, eastern Nevada, a well-stratified sequence of cultural components spanning from Paleoindian times to the late Archaic was documented. In this poster we present the results of a comprehensive analysis of the biface and bifacial point assemblage from the shelter, exploring temporal variability in raw-material procurement and selection, production, and use of this artifact class from 13,000 years ago to the late prehistoric...
Raw Material Quality and Spatial Patterning at Shawnee-Minisink (2018)
The Shawnee-Minisink Site is one of the most spatially intact Paleoindian sites in eastern North America. Located in the Upper Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania, the site includes an occupation area spanning 60 x 95m which dates to circa 12,900 CalBP. Over 18,000 point-provenienced lithics have been excavated from a 360 meter-squared area. The lithic artifacts consist primarily of the local black flint as well as of various exotic cherts. Because it is well dated, spatially intact, and likely...
Raw Material Sourcing of Two Terminal Pleistocene Sites in Southern Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I present a raw materials analysis from two terminal Pleistocene-aged sites in southern Peru: Quebrada Jaguay 280 (QJ-280) and Cuncaicha. Each site’s debitage assemblage contains multiple lithic raw material types, including obsidian, chalcedony, petrified wood, jasper, and andesite. While the obsidian has been sourced to the highland Alca volcanic field, no...
Re-evaluating Butchery Marks from a Mastodon Assemblage Using 3D Geometric Morphometrics and Experimental Archaeology (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the end of the Pleistocene, North America experienced a mass extinction of megafauna, including proboscideans—mammoths and mastodons. Archaeologists and other scientists continue to debate the role of human predation in these extinctions. Some point to traces of human butchery, such as cut marks and other bone surface modifications (BSM), as...
Re-evaluating the Earliest Evidence for Wild Potato Use in South-Central Chile (2018)
The earliest evidence of wild potato use anywhere in the world comes from Monte Verde (southern Chile), where tuber fragments were recovered from hearths that directly date to 14,500 cal B.P. Those tubers were tentatively assigned to a wild potato species (Solanum maglia) based on their starch granule morphology, which, according to Ugent et al., could be distinguished from the granule morphology of the domesticated potato (S. tuberosum). Recently, that identification has been called into...
Re-evaluation of the Archaeology of the Pali Aike Lava Field (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Patagonian Evolutionary Archaeology and Human Paleoecology: Commending the Legacy (Still in the Making) of Luis Alberto Borrero in the Interpretation of Hunter-Gatherer Studies of the Southern Cone" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A new research project will focus on the archaeology of the Pali Aike Lava Field, Patagonia, Chile by a restudy of the collections obtained by Junius Bird between 1936 and 1970. These objects...
Re-examining Site 48PA551 in Sunlight Basin, Northwest Wyoming: The Faunal Remains from the 2018 Field Season (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. Site 48PA551, located in the Sunlight Basin of Northwest Wyoming, is widely accepted as a winter camp dated to the Middle Archaic period. In the original excavation, researchers initially identified one consistent occupation layer, dated to ca. 3800-4400 radiocarbon years B.P and...
Reconstructing a Paleoindigenous Communal Space: Living under the Trees in the Atacama Desert, Chile, 12,800–11,200 cal yrs BP (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Humans arrived in the Atacama Desert 13,000 years ago, facing one of the harshest landscapes on Earth. They settled in a rainless stretch of land with scattered patches of biotic resources fed by rainfall in the Andes. They established social networks with people from different environments, creating essential bonds to maintain viable populations. However,...