Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers (Other Keyword)
126-150 (352 Records)
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. The development of hunting technology is a key aspect of human behavioral evolution. Many efforts have therefore been made to identify prehistoric projectiles and propulsion modes, especially to determine when long-range...
Further Understanding of Subsistence and Settlement in the Later Mesolithic of Northern England (2018)
We present the results of an integrated study of lithic microwear analysis and lithic sourcing at the large Mesolithic site of Stainton West. Microwear analysis helped to understand why the site was so large and how the occupants supported themselves while at the site. Microwear analysis of 700 artifacts led to 49% identification of use. There is much diversity in tool use: hide working, butchery (meat/fish), impact, antler/bone working, wood working, and plant working. Various patterns were...
Genetic Change in South Patagonia over Seven Millennia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Increasing the Accessibility of Ancient DNA within Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. South Patagonia, the austral extreme of South America, has been inhabited for at least 12,600 years. Following European contact, five ethnic groups of hunter-gatherers (Yámana, Kawéskar, Selk’nam, Haush, and Aónikenk) were documented. They based their subsistence on two broad strategies optimized for maritime or terrestrial...
A Geoarchaeological Approach to Site Formation and Structures of Inter-zonal Paleoindian Sites in Southern Peru (2018)
A key question in the settlement of the Americas is how early forager groups adapted to different ecological settings while maintaining social connections. Quebrada Jaguay (QJ-280) on the Pacific Coast and Cuncaicha Rockshelter in the Andean highlands of southern Peru, exhibit very different subsistence adaptations, yet these sites were linked within a common settlement system in the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Here, we present the results of multidisciplinary geoarchaeological...
Geoarchaeology, Geochemical and Spatial Distributions of the Obsidian Source in Southern Mendoza (Argentina): The Case of Coche Quemado Source (2018)
During the last twenty years, four primary obsidian sources have been recorded in southern Mendoza province. The archaeological record indicates that all were used from the Holocene until pre-hispanic times, however many obsidian artifacts still are assigned to unknown sources. Recent surveys allowed discovery a new obsidian source called Coche Quemado. It is located in the western margin of the lower basin of the Rio Grande, in the Mendoza Andean piedmont. The obsidian from the source appears...
Geographic Distribution Analysis of Elko Series Projectile Points Across the Great Basin (2018)
The Elko projectile point series is diagnostic of the early Archaic period throughout the Great Basin. Within the Elko series, two identified subtypes exist: Elko Eared (EE) and Elko Corner-notched (ECN). While morphologically distinct, both subtypes occur within the same chronological and geographic extents. In this study, I gathered a sample of 37 sites throughout the Great Basin with identified EE and/or ECN points, then developed an index representing the proportion of EE to ECN points in...
Geographically Broad Social Networks in Southwest Europe during the Solutrean: The Origin of Siliceous Rocks Exploited at Peña Capón (Central Spain) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Local and/or Exotic Interactions: Symbols, Materials, and Societies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Solutrean of southwest Europe (∼25,000–20,000 cal BP) is an outstanding case for studying human mobility and social networks within harsh environmental conditions, given its coincidence with the Last Glacial Maximum. However, little is known about these topics in the inland territories of the Iberian Peninsula....
Geophysics in the Hyperarid Atacama: Assessing Features among Fossil Channels, Paleosols, and Lithic Dispersions at Quebrada Mani, Chile (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, dozens of Terminal Pleistocene archaeological sites have been identified in an area that previously held seasonal surface water channels and a riparian landscape. These sites shed light on the early peopling of western South America because the sites have had little disturbance or conflation...
A Gomphothere Kill and a Clovis Campsite: The Clovis Faunal and Lithic Assemblages from El Fin del Mundo, Sonora, Mexico (2018)
El Fin del Mundo is a Clovis site with multiple activity areas located in the Sonoran Desert of Northwest Mexico. The site contains the only gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.)-Clovis association yet known in North America and has produced one of the largest assemblages of diagnostic Clovis stone tools south of the US-Mexico border. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses indicate that Locality 1 preserves the remains of two gomphotheres, aged to approximately 2 years and 8-19 years old, and that...
A Greasy Mess: Reconsidering Prehistoric Bone Grease Extraction and its Implications for Site Interpretation (2018)
Ethnohistoric accounts and archaeological evidence show that North American Indigenous hunter gatherers utilized fats and oils rendered from smashing and boiling faunal bone for dietary and other uses. In the archaeological record, evidence of bone grease extraction is interpreted from fractured faunal remains recovered from midden deposits and thermal features. However, most archaeological studies of bone grease extraction tend to focus on subsistence to the exclusion of other uses. This...
Greathouse Springs, Arkansas: Structure and Social Organization of an Archaic Base Camp in the Ozarks (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses recent investigations at a hunter-gatherer base camp in northwest Arkansas. Excavations at the Greathouse Springs site (3WA569), near Fayetteville in Washington County produced unusual remains of Archaic structures. Included are two elongated rectangular structures, interpreted as communal cookhouses, and at least four smaller...
Hasketts and Crescents: An Analysis of the Lithic Tools from Weed Lake Ditch, Oregon (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. Several open-air sites with buried stemmed point technology have been discovered in the Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon. These sites provide a unique way to expand our current understanding of Western Stemmed lithic technology and subsistence practices from the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The research presented...
Hearth Features in High-Latitude Environments (2018)
The depositional context of many high-latitude archaeological sites often inhibits preservation of hearth features and associated organic remains. When preserved, subsurface hearth features provide insight into the role of plant resources in prehistoric hunter-gatherer economies. This research addresses questions of taphonomy, paleoecology, and prehistoric plant use with archaeobotanical analysis of hearth features from sites located in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve and Gates of the...
High Elevation Land Use in the Cougar Pass Region of the Absaroka Mountains of Northwest Wyoming (2018)
Historically, high elevations have been considered as peripheral to past human cultures. Indeed, high elevation areas are somewhat marginal given their increased energy demands and generally low productivity; yet, archaeological evidence shows that human use of high altitudes reaches far into prehistory. Here I present an analysis of human land use through time and its relationship to major environmental and climatic shifts to determine the conditions under which humans make more or less...
Home Is Where the Plants Are: Spatial Analysis of Land Use during the Archaic Occupation of Coronado National Memorial (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Coronado National Memorial in the Huachuca Mountains is best known as a possible entry point into the American Southwest by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. While Coronado’s historic presence remains a mystery, this small park on the border of Mexico has a rich prehispanic archaeological heritage ranging from Early to Late Archaic period....
Hopewellian Meteoric Iron Use: An Experimental Approach for Exploring Production and Function (2023)
This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hopewell artisans were innovative and highly skilled craftspeople, demonstrating proficiency with a wide variety of exotic materials, including meteoric iron. Here we explore the material properties of this unique raw material in terms of production and possible function. In this...
Hot Rock Cooking of Desert Lily and Winding Mariposa (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We describe Late Holocene hot rock roasting of desert lily (Hesperocallis undulata) in the Salton Basin of southeastern California, and winding mariposa (Calochortus flexuosus) near the Virgin and Muddy rivers confluence in southern Nevada. We briefly note differences but focus...
How Much Force Does It Take to Break a Flaked Stone Tool? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Endscrapers are a common flaked stone tool found at Late Pleistocene sites around the world. Microwear evidence has demonstrated that these implements are predominantly used for hide-scraping. However, these small, round, often bullet-like specimens are also found broken. Here, using controlled and actualistic experiments we explore the forces necessary to...
Huayacocotla’s Early Holocene and Middle Archaic Human Occupations (2018)
The Hunter-gatherer Phase in Veracruz and Mexico project has studied the Huayacocotla region, located in the state's northern highlands. Until a few years ago the richness of evidence that these archaeological sites contain were unknown and today they make up part of the little we know about the state's earliest people. Here we review the relative chronology and different occupations for the Early Holocene and Middle Archaic sites by interpreting the alteration, refunctionalization and...
Human Adaptation to Middle Holocene Aridity in the Northwestern Great Basin: Coprolites and Season of Occupation at the Paisley Caves, Oregon (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The middle Holocene (9000–6000 cal BP) in the northwestern Great Basin is marked by warmer and drier conditions resulting in significant ecological change. There is archaeological evidence for population decline, highly mobile groups occupying temporary camps, and a focus on seasonally productive resources. Most sites are located on dunes or lake margins...
Human-Environment Interactions: The Role of Foragers in the Development of Mobile Pastoralism in Mongolia's Desert-Steppe (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Fifty Years of Fretwell and Lucas: Archaeological Applications of Ideal Distribution Models" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents a research design to investigate the role of foragers in the evolution of pastoralism in Mongolia’s desert-steppe. Past efforts to understand the origins of herding have been stymied by the "steppe and sown" dichotomy that perpetuates long held stereotypes of farmers and...
Hunted Deer and Buried Foxes: Fauna from the Middle Epipaleolithic Site of ‘Uyun al-Hammam (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Levantine Epipaleolithic (ca. 23,000—11,500 cal BP) saw an explosion of behavioral innovation and diversification in hunter-gatherer groups. One of these new behaviors was the development and spread of repetitively used and reused burial grounds or cemeteries. The Middle Epipaleolithic site of ‘Uyun al-Hammam in the Wadi Ziqlab area of Northern Jordan...
Hunter-Gatherer Fission-Fusion in Ethnographic and Archaeological Records: From the Mbuti to Paleoindians (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ephemeral Aggregated Settlements: Fluidity, Failure or Resilience?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeology views hunter-gatherers as nature’s children or launching pads to complex society. Ethnographic hunter-gatherers exhibit fission-fusion cycles that we explain variously, including modular organization of group sizes (e.g., "scalar-stress"). However well models explain ethnographic pattern, archaeological tests...
Hunter-Gatherer Responses to the "Early" African Humid Period ~15-12 ka (2018)
Recent paleoclimate studies indicate rainfall increased dramatically over many parts of northeastern and eastern Africa at the end of MIS 2 and the hyper-arid LGM ~14.7 ka, thereby marking the beginning of MIS 1 and the "African Humid Period" (AHP). These studies also suggest that not only should the "early" AHP be decoupled from the start of the Holocene some 3000 years later, it should also encompass the cooler, more arid Younger Dryas (12.9-11.7 ka). This paper explores two key questions: 1)...
Hunting Activities of Upper Paleolithic Humans in the Japanese Archipelago (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Much of the Japanese archipelago is covered with layers of acidic loam originating from volcanic eruptions. For this reason, there are very few Paleolithic sites that contain well-preserved faunal remains. In fact, there are only six known sites on the four main islands of Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu Islands) which have seen the excavation of...