Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A 14,100 Cal B. P. Rocky Mountain Locust Cache From Winnemucca Lake, Pershing County, Nevada, Evan J. Pellegrini, Eugene M. Hattori, Larry Benson, John Southon, Hojun Song, Derek A. Woller

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The remains of approximately 1000 (MNI) Rocky Mountain locusts (Melanoplus spretus) from an archaeological cache pit in Crypt Cave, Winnemucca (dry) Lake, Nevada, date to between 14,305–14,067 calendar years before present (95.4 % confidence; 12,238 ± 18 ¹⁴C yrs. B.P.). The age of this western Great Basin occupation along the shoreline of Lake Lahontan is consistent with occupation of several other Western North American terminal Pleistocene sites dating prior to 14,000 cal. B.P., including distinctive petroglyphs on the western shore of Winnemucca Lake dating as early as 14,800–13,200 cal. B.P.

Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis And Kernel Density Models, Environments, And Urban Scale, Amy E. Thompson, John P. Walden, Adrian Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Damien Marken, Bernadette Cap, Eric Fries, M. Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Timothy S. Hare, Sherman W. Horn Iii, George J. Micheletti, Shane M. Montgomery, Jessica Munson, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Traci Ardren, Jaime J. Awe, M. Kathryn Brown, Michael Callaghan, Claire E. Ebert, Anabel Ford, Rafael A. Guerra, Julie A. Hoggarth, Brigitte Kovacevich, John M. Morris, Holley Moyes, Terry G. Powis, Jason Yaeger, Brett A. Houk, Keith M. Prufer, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) …

Learning By Trowel And Error, Kayla Alvarado-Hogan

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In this essay, I speak on how my time at Western Washington University allowed me the space to explore how my many interests interconnected with my Archaeology Major. From choosing Latin America as my preferred area of study to focusing on the methods of Indigenous and Community Archaeology, my experiences at Western helped me find the career goal of working towards an archaeology that won't repeat the wrongs of the past.

Creación De Un Seminario Basado En La Equidad De Contenido Y Formato: Un Estudio De Caso Y Un Llamado A La Acción, Elizabeth L. Leclerc, Emily Blackwood, Kit M. Hamley, Frankie St. Amand, Heather A. Landázuri, Madeleine Landrum, Jordi A. Rivera Prince, Monica Barnes, Kristina Douglass, Maria Gutiérrez, Sarah Herr, Kirk A. Maasch, Daniel H. Sandweiss

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Creación de un seminario basado en la equidad de contenido y formato: Un estudio de caso y un llamado a la acción

Creating a Seminar Based on Content and Format Equity: A Case Study and Call to Action

A Fusion Of Microscopy Technique In Human Coprolite Analysis: The Dyck Cliff Dwelling And The Arid West Cave, William Darwin Hertzel

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the two papers that comprise this thesis, I will discuss the dietary complexes of two separate Southwestern archaeological sites excavated in the 20th century through the medium of coprolite analysis. The fusion of microscopy techniques in this project expands the capability of observation and identification of microremains and their use in reconstructing the dietary habits of past peoples. I intend to highlight the value of integrating three separate methods of microscopy for the identification of diet and any practices for using that information to narrow down a coprologically unstudied site location for samples of lost provenience. Additionally, this project …

Learning By Doing: The Archaeology Education Program For Middle School, Tara D. Noel

Student Publications

Approached through the disciplinary and theoretical frameworks of public archaeology, the Archaeology Education Program for Middle School was created to better understand how an archaeology education program might be integrated into an existing curriculum and become nationally applicable to middle school settings. Research was conducted at St. Teresa of Calcutta Catholic School, where seventh grade students, teachers, and administration were involved in the investigation of the program's feasibility and design. It was determined that the objectives of this archaeology education program are to inform students about archaeology through educational tools and exercises that are tailored to different classroom settings, in …

Understanding The Microbial Biogeography Of Ancient Human Dentitions To Guide Study Design And Interpretation, Zandra Fagernäs, Domingo C. Salazar-Garcia, Maria Hadar Uriarte, Azucena Avilés Fernández, Amanda G. Henry, Joaquín Lomba Maurandi, Andrew T. Ozga, Irina M. Velsko, Christina Warinner

Biology Faculty Articles

The oral cavity is a heterogeneous environment, varying in factors such as pH, oxygen levels, and salivary flow. These factors affect the microbial community composition and distribution of species in dental plaque, but it is not known how well these patterns are reflected in archaeological dental calculus. In most archaeological studies, a single sample of dental calculus is studied per individual and is assumed to represent the entire oral cavity. However, it is not known if this sampling strategy introduces biases into studies of the ancient oral microbiome. Here, we present the results of a shotgun metagenomic study of a …

P3k14c, A Synthetic Global Database Of Archaeological Radiocarbon Dates, Erick Robinson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Archaeologists increasingly use large radiocarbon databases to model prehistoric human demography (also termed paleo-demography). Numerous independent projects, funded over the past decade, have assembled such databases from multiple regions of the world. These data provide unprecedented potential for comparative research on human population ecology and the evolution of social-ecological systems across the Earth. However, these databases have been developed using different sample selection criteria, which has resulted in interoperability issues for global-scale, comparative paleo-demographic research and integration with paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. We present a synthetic, global-scale archaeological radiocarbon database composed of 180,070 radiocarbon dates that have been cleaned according …

Final Report Inventory And Monitoring Endangered Sites, Great Island, Cape Cod National Seashore Wellfleet, Ma, John M. Steinberg, Christa M. Beranek, Stephen Mrozowski, Dennis Piechota

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

As part of a cooperative agreement with the NPS Cape Cod National Seashore, the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston conducted digital elevation modeling, geophysical survey, and excavations at the locations of several known archeological sites on Great Island in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Coastal erosion is a serious threat to many of these sites, which can be deeply buried under aeolian sand. These deeply buried, eroding sites are difficult to identify, let alone assess and characterize. The Fiske Center’s project had multiple goals, including developing methods for efficiently assessing sites in this environment, gathering …

Preliminary Report 2021: Coring And Excavations At Hof In Hjaltadalur, John M. Steinberg, Zachary N. Guttman, Guðný Zoëga

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report outlines the 2021 work at Hof as part of the Hjaltadalur Archaeological Survey Project (HASP). The results of soil coring suggest that the site of Hof is relatively small compared to other settlement farms. The footprint of the farmstead expands substantially after the 11^th Century. The midden from the 11^th and 12^th centuries appears to be located just north of the main farmhouse (Hof 1). Cores from this area show an abundance of midden on either side of the white AD 1104 tephra. There is a notable absence of post-1300 midden deposits. The excavation unit …

Final Thoughts And Observations, James R. Allison, Heidi Roberts, Jerry D. Spangler

Faculty Publications

This chapter addresses three topics inspired by the discoveries made during Jackson Flat’s archaeological investigations. The first topic examines the implications of the discovery of early maize agriculture in the Far Western region. Our data suggest that the Far Western Basketmaker tradition developed on a trajectory separate from the Western Basketmaker groups associated with the White Dog Phase in the Four Corners region.

Book Review Of Early Farming And Warfare In Northwest Mexico (Robert Jarratt Hard And John R. Roney), Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

Like many archaeologists working in northern Mexico and the US Southwest, I have eagerly anticipated this volume and its reporting of the Early Agricultural (Middle-Late Archaic) occupation in northwestern Chihuahua. Primarily, it documents the research conducted by the coauthors over several years at sites known as cerros de trincheras, or terraced hills. These were massive construction projects resulting in habitational terraces built by early maize farmers who began to settle in the Casas Grandes River Valley and surrounding areas more than 3,000 years ago.

Sr. Ciencia And El Mago: A Legacy Of Archaeological Discovery And Lifelong Learning, Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

As partners in the pursuit of archaeological discovery, Paul Minnis and Michael Whalen developed an enduring professional relationship that resulted in productive careers marked by multiple field projects and numerous scholarly publications. While engaged in academic archaeology, they also fostered a new generation of archaeologists along the way. An integral part of their pedagogy was carried out in the field where students worked alongside Mike and Paul, learning not only how to carry out an archaeological project from beginning to end, but also how to collaborate in a field of study that has become increasingly interdisciplinary. This paper presents my …

A Reanalysis Of Population Dynamics In The Casas Grandes Region Of Northern Mexico Using Mitochondrial Dna, Meradeth Snow, Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

The Casas Grades region in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, is ideally situated to explore the notion of contact between the Southwest/Northwest and Mesoamerica, as it lies geographically in the borderlands where traditions of both culture areas were practiced. In order to explain these ties, past researchers have suggested the flourishing Casas Grandes population in the thirteenth century AD was caused by migrants from Mesoamerica, as first suggested by Di Peso in his pochteca hypothesis. Others, such as Lekson and his Chaco Meridian hypothesis, suggest migration from the north. Mitochondrial genetic data from earlier and later time periods provides the ability to …