Hunter-Gatherers/Foragers (Other Keyword)
226-250 (352 Records)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previously, it was thought that Amazonian Rainforests presented a barrier for the early colonists of the South American continent. Moreover, these environments were regarded as having few sources of calories and were not inhabited until food production systems were established by humans elsewhere. Recent...
Out with a Whimper or a Bang? Hunter-Gatherer Response to the End of the African Humid Period in Northern Malawi (2018)
The modern climate of the southernmost African Rift Valley is characterized by a single warm-wet season, which receives almost all annual precipitation. The other six months are arid, and surface water is confined to major river and lake features. In the northern basin of Lake Malawi, at the southern extent of the modern ITCZ, core records show a rapid increase in water surface temperatures peaking at ~5.5 ka, followed by a major expansion of grasslands. This coincides with the end of the...
Over the Hills and Far Away: Evaluating Competing Models for Early Ceramic Period Mobility in the Southern Rocky Mountains (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition from the Late Archaic (1200 B.C. to A.D. 150) to the Early Ceramic (A.D. 150 – A.D. 1150) in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming is characterized by decreasing mobility, a trend reflected by the adoption of ceramic technology, limited stone architecture, and longer site occupation. Contrasted against this shift to longer occupations is...
An Overview of Vitrophyre Use in North Central Idaho: 12,000 Years of Rock Knockin’ on the Lochsa (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations in the 1990s defined the Clearwater River region of the southern Columbia Plateau as a unique cultural and archaeological entity, though it remains poorly understood. The Nez Perce have occupied this portion of north central Idaho since time immemorial. Excavations throughout ancestral Nez Perce country have revealed...
Paleoarchaic Occupations in the Eastern Great Basin: The Beast and Paleolandscapes in West Central Utah (2018)
Within west central Utah, site locations dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (PHT) are generally associated with specific geographical features; such as, the Old River Bed (ORB), inverted stream beds/channels, and the barren playas of the Great Salt Lake Desert (Dugway). Over decades of cultural resource management inventories, numerous PHT-aged archaeological sites have been identified along the maximum extent, and subsequent shorelines and resulting feeder streams, of receding Lake...
The Paleoecology of the Mockingbird Gap Clovis site, New Mexico and Surrounding Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Paleoindian Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper I discuss recent work at the Mockingbird Gap Clovis site, New Mexico, and the surrounding region. Our goal was to understand how Clovis hunter-gatherers utilized and adapted to the regional landscape and its available resources. Focusing on lithic raw material use, I show that the Clovis occupants of Mockingbird Gap had access to a wide diversity...
Paleoindian Activity in the Washakie Wilderness, Absaroka Range, Wyoming (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New and Ongoing Research on the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 15 years of systematic surveys in the Washakie Wilderness area by the GRSLE archaeology project in the Shoshone National Forest, northwest Wyoming, has yielded a sample of over 30 Paleoindian projectile points at a mean elevation of 2885m. These specimens provide clues about early prehistoric activity at...
Paleoindian Intercept Hunting in the Bethel Locality, Western Oklahoma (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The narrow divide between the Canadian and Washita rivers in west central Oklahoma is the location of multiple historic transportation routes. The Rock Island Railroad, U.S. Highway 66 and Interstate Highway 40 all parallel the route of the early historic California Road. These routes followed a game trail which was a focus for prehistoric hunting. Prominent...
Paleoindian Osseous Barbed Weaponry in the Intermountain West: Distribution, Chronology, and Function (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some have suggested that osseous projectile weaponry preceded that of stone-that bone, antler and even ivory barbed points and sagaie (osseous rods) might have been the hunting and fishing weapons of choice for the earliest peoples. Early technology using meticulously fashioned barbed osseous materials for weaponry takes us back to Katanda, Zaire 95 kya, is...
Paleoindian Research in the Middle Atlantic Region (2018)
Paleoindian studies in the Middle Atlantic region have been at the forefront of Paleoindian research in the Eastern Woodlands. William Gardner’s research in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1980s emphasized a focus on micro-cryptocrystalline lithic sources in the settlement system; smaller territories on the order of 40 to 150 km in diameter and a flexible social organization during the seasonal round involving a pattern of changing micro- and macro-bands. These issues continue to be...
Paleoindian Settlement and Mobility in the Northern Jornada del Muerto (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Paleoindian Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Northern Jornada del Muerto in Socorro County, New Mexico has long been known for its extensive Clovis and Folsom occupations. In addition to early Paleoindian techno-complexes, the Plainview/Goshen/Belen and Cody complexes are also well represented. This is mostly due to the work of Robert H. Weber, Ph.D. geologist and avocational archaeologist. For fifty...
Paleoindian Sites and their Cultural Diversity in Southeast, Brazil: A Case Study from São Paulo State (2024)
This is an abstract from the "“The South Also Exists”: The Current State of Prehistoric Archaeology in Brazil: Dialogues across Different Theoretical Approaches and Research Agendas" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological record for the early Holocene in Brazil shows great cultural diversity, suggesting the coexistence of different groups. Recently, we have noticed that São Paulo State does not behave differently. These distinct groups...
Paleoindians from the Basin of Mexico: How do they fit in the early peopling of the Americas? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Basin of Mexico is important in the debate on the early peopling of the Americas because several well preserved Paleoindian/Preceramic individuals have been found in the lake sediments/volcanic deposits surrounding the Late Pleistocene Lake. They include: Peñon Woman III,...
The Paleolithic Archaeology of Shirak Province (Armenia) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within Shirak Province in the Republic of Armenia, the open-air site complex at Aghvorik is currently the most prominent site. The Paleolithic sites of Shirak are geomorphologically associated with the Ashotsk Plateau in the north, the Shirak Depression and northwestern slopes of Mt. Aragats in the south, and the...
Passing Through or Settling Down? Paleoindian Occupation of Colorado’s Southern Rocky Mountains, USA (2018)
Colorado is well known for dense concentrations of Paleoindian sites found within its eastern plains and in multiple high altitude basins (Middle Park, Gunnison Basin, San Luis Valley) to the west. Prominent mountain ranges separate these clusters of sites, and the question remains, when were these mountains first crossed and/or utilized? These high altitude settings (elevations routinely topping 3000-4400 m) would have presented both challenges and opportunities for the earliest inhabitants of...
Patterns of Artifact Variability and Changes in the Social Networks of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Hunter-Gatherers in the Eastern Woodlands: A Critical Appraisal and Call for a Reboot (2018)
Inferences about the social networks of Paleoindian and Early Archaic hunter-gatherer societies in the Eastern Woodlands are generally underlain by the assumption that there are simple, logical relationships between (1) patterns of social interaction within and between those societies and (2) patterns of variability in their material culture. Formalized bifacial projectile points are certainly the residues of systems of social interaction, and therefore have the potential to tell us something...
The Peninsula of Baja California, a Terra Ignota Before and Now (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The colonization process in the Baja California Peninsula began with the arrival of Hernán Cortés in Bahía de la Santa Cruz in 1535. Then, the peninsula was called Terra Ignota, a Latin term used in cartography for regions that have not been mapped or documented. Its geographical isolation from the rest of New Spain made it a territory wrapped in fantasy...
The Peopling of Southern Cone: A View from the Other Side of the Andes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dedication, Collaboration, and Vision, Part II: Papers in Honor of Tom D. Dillehay" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The discovery of Monte Verde 2 west of the Andes confirmed a pre-Clovis peopling of South America. Since then, other archeological evidence in the eastern plains of the Southern Cone showed diverse adaptive patterns and varied technologies, different from Monte Verde, between 14,000 and 12,000 cal BP. In...
Perishable Tools from Fort Rock Cave, Oregon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The dry caves of central Oregon provide exceptional preservation of Paleoindian-aged perishable artifacts. Excavations at Fort Rock Cave, Oregon by Luther Cressman, Stephen Bedwell, and, most recently, Thomas Connolly and colleagues have produced a sizeable number of perishable and rare artifacts, as well as large faunal and lithic assemblages. Notably, this...
Physics and Ballistics of the “Rabbit Stick” or Straight-Flying Boomerang (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Perishable Weaponry Studies: Developing Perspectives from Dated Contexts to Experimental Analyses" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Straight-flying boomerangs—in North America commonly referred to as rabbit sticks—were used worldwide for both hunting and combat. When properly designed and implemented, the boomerang functions as an airfoil and gyroscope, slicing through atmosphere, generating lift, and...
Plains and Mountain Settlement Systems Change During the Earliest Holocene at the Sisters Hill Paleoindian Site (48JO314) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New and Ongoing Research on the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Sisters Hill Paleoindian site is located between the Bighorn Mountains and the High Plains of the Powder River Basin in northern Wyoming, two regions with largely distinct ecologies and chipped stone raw material sources. Accordingly, the site is an ideal place to research the causes of settlement system...
Plant Use at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonneville Estates Rockshelter is a stratified multicomponent site located on the former highstand of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin. It contains well-dated and well-preserved record of human occupation through the last 13,000 years. Here I report on dietary plant remains retrieved from nearly 140 dated archaeological features...
Plants and Steppe Hunter-Gatherers in Central Patagonia: A Case Study from the Aisén region (45° S, Chile) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Histories of Human-Nature Interactions: Use, Management, and Consumption of Plants in Extreme Environments" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research on the use of plants among hunter-gathering groups has made visible the use of a predictable and ubiquitous resource that is locally and seasonally available, and that count with multiple potential uses. Recent studies at the Baño Nuevo 1 site (Aisén, Chile) have revealed...
Pleistocene Horses in the Archaeological Record: A Focus on the Great Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is a long history of horse exploitation throughout Eurasia; for instance, the Boxgrove site, England (500 kya), the Schöningen site, Germany (350 kya), and numerous Late Pleistocene sites spread across Eurasia (from the Aurignacian thru the Magdalenian 45 kya–15 kya). The evidence suggests that horses were only second in line of importance to...
Portable X-ray Fluorescence of Lower Pecos Mobiliary Art: New Insights Regarding Chaîne Opératoire, Context, and Chronology (2018)
Painted pebbles are the primary mobiliary art found in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and northern Mexico. Previous studies of these artifacts have focused on stylistic variation of the imagery and interpretation of the role these artifacts played within Lower Pecos societies. The focus of this study is the use of portable X-ray fluorescence on Lower Pecos painted pebbles to conduct elemental analyses, providing insight into the chaîne opératoire of painted pebble production....