Digital Commons Network^™

Rock Art Management And Landscape Change: Mixed Field Assessment Techniques For Cultural Stone Decay, Kaelin M. Groom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As tourism continues to grow as one of the world’s most ubiquitous markets, the development and promotion of non-invasive techniques for cultural stone decay analysis and landscape change are vital to establishing conditional base-lines to best aid cultural heritage management (CRM) efficacy. Using rock art as a medium, this dissertation presents three independent case studies employing the Rock Art Stability Index (RASI) and repeat photography to explore the merits of mixed rapid field assessment techniques in relation to CRM and heritage tourism. While rock art is only one example of irreplaceable world heritage resources, examining how they decay and what …

Gastrointestinal Health As A Stimulus For Native American Attraction To Medicinal Asteraceae And Further Implications For Human Evolution, Christopher David Stiegler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Asteraceae, or the daisy family, is the largest family of flowering plants in the world, and its ethnobotanical, medical, and economic value is readily apparent cross-culturally. The aim of this thesis is to examine why constituent genera of the Aster family have remained such an integral part of human medicinal plant knowledge, and thereby to reveal any potential physiological, biological, or evolutionary mechanisms underlining human patterns of use regarding the Asteraceae. The present study focuses specifically on Native American plant knowledge made available by the expansive database in the works Daniel Moerman (Moerman 2003). Frequencies of plant use and …

The Dirt On The Collins Mounds Site, Carmelita Angeles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Building monumental architecture has been one method used by humans to rise above an earthbound existence. In the United States, large earthen mounds were constructed from the Archaic period to the Mississippian period. The Collins Mound Site in Arkansas was recently dated to the Late Woodland period. For this study, soil samples were extracted from the northern section of the site for description and particle-size analysis. Erosion from plowing, wind, water, and gravity is the most likely process causing a decreased mound height and increased basal diameter. Mound fill likely originated near the river for two of the mounds and …

Place(Ment), Ashley Lynn Byers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout her time at the University of Arkansas Master of Fine Arts program, Ashley Byers has been creating work about the folklore, landscape, and people of the Ozarks. Though she continues to create work with the Ozarks in mind, it became a motif used for a broader conversation about the ad hoc, holiness, painting, landscape, the figure, and intimacy.

In many ways, the concepts within her work are born out of the Ozarks.

When can remnants come together to become more than the sum of their parts? Derelict, easily dismissed objects, when set in the right context or viewed through …

Trade And Transport In Late Roman Syria, Christopher Wade Fletcher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the relative notoriety and miraculous level of preservation of the Dead Cities of Syria, fundamental questions of economic and subsistence viability remain unanswered. In the 1950s Georges Tchalenko theorized that these sites relied on intensive olive monoculture to mass export olive oil to urban centers. Later excavations discovered widespread cultivation of grains, fruit, and beans which directly contradicted Tchalenko’s assertion of sole reliance on oleoculture. However, innumerable olive presses in and around the Dead Cities still speak to a strong tradition of olive production. This thesis tests the logistical viability of olive oil transportation from the Dead Cities to …

A Gnawing Problem: Does Rodent Incisor Microwear Record Diet Or Habitat?, Salvatore Samuel Caporale

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dental microwear has been shown to reflect food preferences and habitat in extant vertebrates, and its analysis has been applied to fossil assemblages to infer paleodiet and paleoenvironment. Such reconstructions are, of course, only as good as the extant baseline used to infer relationships between wear pattern and diet/habitat. This study tests, through dental microwear texture analysis, the potential of modern rodent lower incisors to reveal those relationships, and evaluates the extent to which effects of diet and habitat can be parsed from the signal. Microwear texture profiles were created for individual lower rodent incisors (n=430) using confocal profilometry and …

An Architectural Analysis Of Caddo Structures At The Ferguson Site (3he63), Kelsey Ann Taormina

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the earliest excavations in Arkansas and the Southeast, prehistoric architecture related to mound building societies has been of particular interest. The Caddo of the Trans-Mississippi South are a Mississippian period mound building culture that emerged as early as A.D. 1000 and persisted to and beyond European contact. Many Caddo structures are found under and on mounds. Some of these structures, identified as special-purpose or non-domestic in function, were burned and buried. Often structures were purposefully burned and buried forming a conical or platform mound. The Ferguson site (3HE63), located in the Little Missouri River basin of Southwest Arkansas, contains …

The Temporary Permanence Of Syrian Refugees In Jordan, Charles Edward Davidson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of the 2011 Syrian Civil War, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to neighboring Jordan. The government of Jordan received them and along with NGOs from around the world, provided for some of their most basic needs including food, education and healthcare. In the summer of 2014 I travelled to Amman and Mafraq, Jordan in order to learn more about the work being done among the Syrians by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). What I found was a variety of short-term aid projects designed by the NGOs to meet the various needs of the refugees. I learned of no …

Architectures For A Future South: Posthumanism And Ruin In The Novels Of Cormac Mccarthy, Joshua Ryan Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reads the novels of Cormac McCarthy as posthuman southern literature to explain why fiction from the South after World War II could no longer convey a sense of place during postmodernity: that is, because the region's culture and economy were transitioning from predominantly humanistic thinking (i.e., believing that humans [and especially southern humans] are supreme beings) to predominantly posthumanistic thinking (i.e., believing that humans are not as supreme as they think they are). It argues that we can trace this ideological change over time via structural shifts in the South’s architectural record, which we see in the ruins …

Landscape Visibility And Prehistoric Artifact Distribution At Pea Ridge National Military Park, Jake Lee Mitchael

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pea Ridge National Military Park, in the north east corner of Benton County, Arkansas, is the 4,300 acre site of a crucial Civil War Battle. Human occupation of the Ozark Highland landscape, however, extends far into pre-history. A 2005 report to the National Park Service details the findings of a four year cultural resource survey of the park. The sampling strategy employed in the research design (random sample site selection and 2.5% park coverage) provides an excellent dataset to assess prehistoric land use. This dataset is not dependent on artificially defined sites, representing singular activity in a limited geographical space. …

The Ballistics Of Archaic North American Atlatls And Darts, Devin Brent Pettigrew

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Preserved atlatls and darts, commonly of small size, have been found across North America from the Early to Late Archaic. Close replications of these systems were employed in a naturalistic experiment on a fresh hog carcass. The use of high-speed cameras, a radar gun, and a video analysis program to measure dart velocity and view impacts in slow motion allowed a detailed analysis of the results. The experiment captured several details about atlatl and dart ballistics, including killing potential, the effects of point beveling on dart flight and impact, traceable impact damage on bones and stone points, and the effectiveness …

Stand Strong, Stand Proud: Alternative And Pariah Femininities In San Diego's Punk Rock Community, Steve Moog

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception nearly 40 years ago, punk rock has often been understood as a Social space for rebellion and resistance to dominant cultural norms. As such, punk rock culture becomes fertile ground for explorations of subversive constructions of genders. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the San Diego punk rock community, this thesis unpacks the construction, embodiment and enactment of alternative and pariah forms of femininities and examines their impact on gender dynamics within the scene. Ultimately, this thesis argues that (1) the San Diego punk rock community is a space where alternative and pariah femininities can be embodied …

Aerial Thermography In Archaeological Prospection: Applications & Processing, Autumn Chrysantha Cool

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aerial thermography is one of the least utilized archaeological prospection methods, yet it has great potential for detecting anthropogenic anomalies. Thermal infrared radiation is absorbed and reemitted at varying rates by all objects on and within the ground depending upon their density, composition, and moisture content. If an area containing archaeological features is recorded at the moment when their thermal signatures most strongly contrast with that of the surrounding matrix, they can be visually identified in thermal images.

Research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s established a few basic rules for conducting thermal survey, but the expense associated with the …

Interpretation At The Controller's Edge: The Role Of Graphical User Interfaces In Virtual Archaeology, Tyler Duane Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The important role of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) as a medium of interaction with technology is well established in the world of media design, but has not received significant attention in the field of virtual archaeology. GUIs provide interactive capabilities and contextual information for 3D content such as structure-from-motion (SFM) models, and can represent the difference between "raw data" and thoughtful, skilled scholarly publications. This project explores the implications of a GUI created with the game engine Unity 3D (Unity) for a series of SFM models recorded at a structure known as the Area B House at the ancient central …

Differential Development Of Sickle Polish Due To Moisture Content Of Herbaceous Plant Material, Justin Jared Dubois

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This experiment uses four experimental sickles containing flint and novaculite blades to harvest wet, growing grass and mature, dry rye in an effort to determine the differences in the development of sickle polish and other use wear traces caused by moisture content and other plant characteristics. During harvesting, samples of harvested material averaging about two handfuls were collected. These samples were massed, dried, and massed again to determine moisture content of the plants. The sickles were each used for approximately 13 hours. Each blade was then cast using high resolution dental epoxy for microscopic inspection. An edge survey was conducted …

Toolstone Use In Ozark Prehistory: Assessing Adaptations To A Lithic Dichotomy In The Boston Mountains And Springfield Plateau, Luke Allen Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Toolstone use in the Ozark Mountains is a reactionary process reliant on how the landscape provides or constrains chipped stone for prehistoric populations. These technological adaptations are recognized at sites throughout the area, but no regional assessment of lithic assemblages provides answers as to why certain stones are used at a particular location. This thesis employs a five step mass analysis of lithic assemblages, and GIS visualizations to observe how the organization of stone technologies vary based on location within contrasting geologic contexts. The chert-bearing Springfield Plateau, and the Boston Mountains with siltstone, are two neighboring dichotomous landscapes that illustrate …

Health, Nutrition, And Disease In Rural Northern Jordan: A Study Of Enamel Defects Related To Childhood Stress In Skeletal Samples From The Bronze Age To The Byzantine Period, Teresa Veronica Wilson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Northern Jordan has seen periods of climate change, political transformation, and economic prosperity between the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Byzantine period. This research tests the assumption that the rural agricultural communities of this region were undernourished by examining the dentition for periodic childhood stress. Canine teeth from five sites (Ya'amun, Sa'ad, Yasileh, Natfieh, and Waqqas) that covered the time periods in question were collected to study overall quality of life.

The teeth were thin-sectioned and examined under a light microscope. Digital micrographs were made of the thin-sectioned teeth in order to record the number and location …

Archaeological Geophysics, Excavation, And Ethnographic Approaches Toward A Deeper Understanding Of An Eighteenth Century Wichita Site, Michael Don Carlock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research exemplifies a multidirectional approach to an archaeological interpretation of an eighteenth century Wichita village and fortification located on the Red River bordering Oklahoma and Texas. A battle that is believed to have occurred at the Longest site (34JF1) in 1759 between Spanish colonials and a confederation of Native Americans led to several Spanish primary documents describing the people that lived there, the fortification and surrounding village, and of course the battle itself. Investigation of the Longest site (34JF1) in Oklahoma presents a remarkable opportunity to combine extensive historical research, archaeological prospecting using geophysics, and traditional excavation techniques in …

Vice In The Veil Of Justice: Embedding Race And Gender In Frontier Tourism, Daniel Richard Maher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes how "frontier" discourses in Fort Smith, Arkansas simultaneously constitute mythological narratives that elide the deleterious effects of imperialism, racism, and sexism, while they operate as marketing schemes in the wager that they will attract cultural heritage tourists. It examines material exhibits and interpretive history programs at locations including the Fort Smith National Historic Site, Fort Smith Museum of History, Miss Laura's Visitor's Center, and the Clayton House; in texts such as the 1898 book by Samuel Harman whose title forever branded Fort Smith as Hell on the Border; in the subsequent branding and marketing derived from the …

The Material Culture Of Migrant Life At The U.S./México Border, Consuelo Helen Cano Crow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Material culture is the aggregate of physical objects or artifacts used by or discarded by a past culture or society. Contemporary unauthorized migration at the U.S./México border has left thousands of pounds of migrant goods in what are referred to by United States Border Patrol as "lay-up sites". Since the late 1990's, undocumented migrants attempting to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona have been exposed to a distinctive set of material culture. This rapidly-evolving material culture is specific to the phenomenon of border-crossing, and it reflects and shapes the experience of migrants attempting the crossing. Migrants Stations, also known as …

The Children Of Amarna: Disease And Famine In The Time Of Akhenaten, Kathleen Kuckens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What is now known as Amarna, Egypt there once stood a grand city. Hastily built and quickly abandoned, this once capital city of Egypt was the brainchild of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. In 2002 the final resting place of the inhabitants who populated this ancient city were discovered. Since excavations began at the South Tombs Cemetery an unusual high number of individuals aged 3-25 have been excavated. Out of the 278 individuals excavated thus far, 45% of them fall to the adolescent and sub-adult category. Under normal circumstances this portion of the population tends to be the most robust and resilient, …

Considering Kranzhügeln: An Exploration Into The Structural Variation And Environmental/Spatial Distribution Of The Third Millennium "Kranzhügel" Sites, Elise Jakoby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

First named by von Oppenheim over a century ago, the distinctive third millennium BC kranzhügeln, or "wreath-mound," sites of the Syrian Desert remain a poorly understood phenomenon. While archaeological investigations have been undertaken at a handful of kranzhügel-like sites including Tell Chuera, Tell al-Rawda, and Tell Beydar, the overall number, geographic distribution, and morphological variation of so-called "kranzhügel" sites remains largely unexplored.

1960s-era CORONA satellite imagery available through the CORONA Atlas Project (http://corona.cast.uark.edu/) now enables more systematic documentation of the kranzhügel sites and the production site-scale visual and quantitative analysis. Analysis of kranzhügel distribution and morphology …

Battle Mound: Exploring Space, Place, And History Of A Red River Caddo Community In Southwest Arkansas, Duncan Mckinnon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is a synthesis of archaeogeophysical and archaeohistorical data collected from the Battle Mound site (3LA1). Using these data, this research seeks to understand how the site is organized in terms of architectural variability and how differential use areas, such as domestic or community space, can be compared to ethnographic and archaeological data concerning Caddo community structure and landscape use. The research is formulated around three research questions related to spatial organization and settlement patterning, intrasite behavioral practices, and Caddo culture history. Results show that an examination at multiple scales of resolution can inform about the spatial organization and …

Breckenridge Shelter Geoarchaeology, Trevor John Seekamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My graduate research mainly focuses on Breckenridge Shelter (3CR002), Carroll County, Arkansas. As a geoarchaeologist, my concerns are geomorphological and geological processes affecting the shelter and surrounding hill slope. Breckenridge is one of several similar, Pine Hollow bluff shelters, about Beaver Lake, an impoundment of the White River, in northwest Arkansas.

"An Ample Provision For Our Posterity": Transportation, Ceramic Diversity, And Trade In Historic Arkansas, 1800-1930, Katherine Rose Cleek

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I present a method to study transportation using ceramic diversity and access to transportation infrastructure. Ceramic tableware richness, or the number of types present, is analyzed over time as a proxy for access to local transportation infrastructure at seven sites in Arkansas, dating from approximately 1800 to 1930. Previous efforts to look at trade in historical archaeology including Adams (1976), Riordan and Adams (1985), and Adams, Bowers, and Mills (2001) have not thoroughly assessed transportation as a means of trade. This dissertation looks at the many ways of assessing diversity in archaeology, biology, business, and economics, as …

Archaeological Prospecting Using Historic Aerial Imagery: Investigations In Northeast And Southwest Arkansas, Emily Jean Bitely

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the potential of historic aerial photographs as a tool for archaeological site prospecting. Craighead and Mississippi Counties in northeast Arkansas and areas adjacent to the Red and Little Rivers in southwest Arkansas were chosen as study areas. These regions have undergone significant changes in the past few decades and were expected to yield visible types of archaeological sites. Historic aerial images of these areas were obtained through the U.S. Geological Survey's EarthExplorer database (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). These images were processed using Agisoft PhotoScan Professional to produce extensive regional orthoimages.

Using the Arkansas Archeological Survey's Automated Management of Archeological Site …

Foodways, Families, And Festivities: Ethnobiology And Cultural Conservation In A Rural Missouri Community, Ian Carter Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food customs and traditions bind human groups together in many ways--Socially, geographically, temporally, and emotionally. This thesis describes the intricate relationships between food, ritual, and cultural identity in a rural German-Catholic community in Missouri. By drawing on the anthropological, cultural geographical and folkloric literature surrounding rural Missouri, a portrait of foodways emerges, which in turn illuminates valuable, often understated regional cultural traditions. Religion and ritual are understood as crucial to the continuity of regional identity--it is reinforced and made resilient through shared Social action. The dispersal of ritual feasts and fasts throughout the calendar year regulates collective behavior, interactions, conversations, …

Re-Examining Late Chalcolithic Cultural Collapse In South-East Europe, Harvey Benjamin Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research into the Balkan Chalcolithic often overlooks the dramatic changes in society that occurred beginning in the late Fifth Millennium BCE. Most settlements were abandoned along with changes in mortuary customs, ceramic and decorative traditions, domestic rituals, crafts, housing styles, mining, and metallurgy. These changes happened at a time when these Chalcolithic societies seemed to be at their peak. Theories as to what caused these changes include migrations/invasions, anthropogenic environmental degradation, gradual internal changes through innovation and outside contacts, and climate change. This thesis attempts to synthesize, and critique material relating to this topic, and ultimately provide my own opinions …

Agricultural Production And Stability Of Settlement Systems In Upper Mesopotamia During The Early Bronze Age (Third Millennium Bce), Tuna Kalayci

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between rainfall variation and rain-fed agricultural production in Upper Mesopotamia with a specific focus on Early Bronze Age urban settlements. In return, the variation in production is used to explore stability of urban settlement systems. The organization of the flow of agricultural goods is the key to sustaining the total settlement system.

The vulnerability of a settlement system increases due to the increased demand for more output from agricultural lands. This demand is the key for the success of urbanization project. However, without estimating how many foodstuffs were available at the end of a production …

The Adair Site: Ouachita River Valley Relations Through Ceramic Analysis, Joanne Demaio

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Adair site (3GA1), located in the Upper Ouachita River Valley in Garland CO, Arkansas is an Upper Ouachita Caddo site. The people at the site are presumed to be at the center of cultural dominance for the area and had interaction with Caddo sites in the region. This thesis explores this by studying the whole vessel collections that were excavated at the Adair site in the 1930s. Comparing the Adair collection to three other Caddo sites provides information about the Social standing of the Adair site, its relations with other sites, and how it fits into the greater fabric …