Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

"That Charm Of Remoteness": A Study Of Landscape Stability In Little Compton, Rhode Island, Katharine M. Johnson

Graduate Masters Theses

Little Compton, Rhode Island has long been considered a stable, isolated and rural location relative to surrounding towns and cities. A geophysical and archaeological examination in the front yards of the Wilbor house and Brownell farm was undertaken in order to gain a better understanding about how residents of the town maintained stable, rural lifeways during the period of industrialization and urbanization that characterized the rest of the state in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The results from these examinations revealed that there was a distinct lack of features and landscaping changes in the archaeological record in the …

Ocosta-By-The-Sea: A Boomtown In Three Narratives, Katherine L. Arntzen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the Washington State 1890s railroad boomtown, Ocosta-by-the-Sea through place, microhistory, and narrative theories. Place theory focuses analysis on the townsite. A microhistory is created by the presentation of three narratives on Ocosta: the city-as-imagined, the city-as-built, and the city-as-remembered. The city-as-imagined narrative recounts the city that Ocosta was projected to become by its founders through analysis of historic maps, advertisements, and financial investments of the city's founders. The city-as-built uncovers information about the built environment of the site. The city-as-remembered reveals the city that has and is remembered by the local community. Site memory is explored through …

Energetic Path Finding Across Massive Terrain Data, Andrew N. Tsui

Master's Theses

Before there were airplanes, cars, trains, boats, or bicycles, the primary means of transportation was on foot. Unfortunately, many of the trails used by ancient travelers have long since been abandoned. We present a software tool which can help visualize and predict where these forgotten trails might lie through the use of a human-centered cost metric. By comparing the paths generated by our software with known historical trails, we demonstrate how the tool can indicate likely trails used by ancient travelers. In addition, this new tool provides novel visualizations to better help the user understand alternate paths, effect of terrain, …

Using Ground-Penetrating Radar To Study The Bluff Great House: History And Regional Interactions From A.D. 200 To 1300, Sarah M. Lowry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Bluff Great House is a Chaco-era monumental building, located in southeastern Utah. This site was inhabited from A.D. 700 to 1300, before and after the time when Chaco Canyon was widely considered a regional “capital”. To map the Bluff site’s architecture throughout its’ occupations, ground-penetrating radar data were collected for the site’s encircling berm, plaza, terrace, and a pithouse. Excavation data were combined with ground-penetrating radar maps, which together allowed for a spatially extensive and more temporally complete understanding of the Bluff site’s architecture. The findings of this research show that site had a series of long-term habitations, which …

Hilltop Archaeology: Ceremony And Ritual At The Site Of Cerro Santa Rita, Chao Valley, Peru, Richard A. Busch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Site of Cerro Santa Rita is located in the mid-valley region of the Chao Valley on the North Cast of Peru. Occupied by people during the Gallinazo, Moche and Chimú time periods, Cerro Santa Rita fulfilled a role similar to that of a huaca, or temple. The people of pre-Hispanic Peru were deep set in their traditions, many of these traditions are still practiced by Peruvians today. The traditions of ancestor veneration and feasting are no exceptions to this. Cerro Santa Rita was a burial complex that had plazas and courtyards associated with the tombs of ancestors. Not …

The Archaeology And Mobility At 10-Cn-05, An Archaeological Site, Middle Snake River, Idaho, Tedd D. Jacobs

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Excavations during 2007 and 2008 at site 10-CN-05, an archaeological site located on the Middle Snake River, five miles south of Melba, Idaho, uncovered material culture remains dating to the Late Archaic (2,500, years ago). An analysis of the archaeological remains, consisting of artifacts, lithic debris, and faunal remains, has provided insights into activities that occurred along the Western Snake River corridor. These activities include maintenance of lithic tools and procurement of medium and small sized mammals. The archaeology of 10-CN-05 suggests a pattern of sparsely populated, highly mobile hunter-gatherers making infrequent use of the area with relatively few repeat …

A Moment In Archaeology: A Reflexive Examination Of The Culture Of Meaning-Making In Archaeological Fieldwork, Jonathan W. Irons

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

To many, archaeology is a science. It is not, however, a traditional laboratory science with controls and variables. Its experiments cannot be repeated and its variables cannot be controlled so much as managed and standardized. This regulation in archaeology has, until recently, attempted to eliminate human error, indeed, the human experience from fieldwork. Though the experiences I had in Indiana and Kenya could not have been more different, the control and regulation in archaeological fieldwork attempts to minimize the importance of those differences.

Arctic Network Builders : The Arctic Coal Company's Operations On Spitsbergen And Its Relationship With The Environment, Cameron C. Hartnell

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In 1906, two American industrialists, John Munroe Longyear and Frederick Ayer, formed the Arctic Coal Company to make the first large scale attempt at mining in the high-Arctic location of Spitsbergen, north of the Norwegian mainland. In doing so, they encountered numerous obstacles and built an organization that attempted to overcome them. The Americans sold out in 1916 but others followed, eventually culminating in the transformation of a largely underdeveloped landscape into a mining region.

This work uses John Law’s network approach of the Actor Network Theory (ANT) framework to explain how the Arctic Coal Company built a mining network …

Winning Coal At 78° North : Mining, Contingency And The Chaîne Opératoire In Old Longyear City, Seth C. Depasqual

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of an early 20^th century mining system in Spitsbergen as applied by Boston-based Arctic Coal Company (ACC). This analysis will address the following questions: Did the system evolve in a linear, technological-based fashion? Or was the progression more a product of interactions and negotiations with the natural and human landscapes present during the time of occupation? Answers to these questions will be sought through review of historical records and material residues identified during the 2008 field examination on Spitsbergen. The Arctic Coal Company’s flagship mine, ACC Mine No. 1, …

Reflection, Refraction, And Rejection : Copper Smelting Heritage And The Execution Of Environmental Policy, Bode J. Morin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This dissertation examines the global technological and environmental history of copper smelting and the conflict that developed between historic preservation and environmental remediation at major copper smelting sites in the United States after their productive periods ended. Part I of the dissertation is a synthetic overview of the history of copper smelting and its environmental impact. After reviewing the basic metallurgy of copper ores, the dissertation contains successive chapters on the history of copper smelting to 1640, culminating in the so-called German, or Continental, processing system; on the emergence of the rival Welsh system during the British industrial revolution; and …

When Did The Ancestors Of Polynesia Begin To Migrate To Polynesia? The Mtdna Evidence, David Lesniewski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The timing and nature of the migration of the ancestors of the Polynesian people is debated by two competing theories. The "Express Train" and "Slow Boat" theories assert that the migration of the Proto-Polynesian people began around 6,000 years before present (BP) or around 10,000 years BP respectively. Through the use of haplogroups and specific genetic mutations a direct relationship between the Proto-Polynesians and modern Polynesians was attempted to test which of these theories was correct. The ancient skeletal remains from the island of Borneo currently housed at UNLV were used in this study as their dates fall within both …

Analysis Of Flaked Stone Lithics From Virgin Anasazi Sites Near Mt. Trumbull, Arizona Strip, Cheryl Marie Martin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines flaked stone tools that were used by the Virgin Anasazi and the debitage resulting from their manufacture at six sites in the Mt. Trumbull region in order to infer past human behavior. The behaviors being examined include activities carried out at sites, the processing and use of raw stone materials, and patterns of regional exchange. I have applied obsidian sourcing technology and an analysis of flaked stone attributes. The research indicates a range of activities occurred at habitation sites at Mt. Trumbull, and toolmakers did not need to expend large amounts of time and energy on acquiring …

New Yarmouth, Eastern Neck, Maryland: Resistance To Town Building From The Colonial Period To The Present, Brynn Torelli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The work presented in this thesis is an attempt to shed light on the early colonial development of Maryland's Eastern Shore and its possible relationship with current settlement patterns in the region, with particular interest in Kent County. Traditional interpretations of the lack of urban development on the Eastern Shore, both in the Colonial era and the present, have tended to focus on environmental and geographical factors. This research seeks to examine this trend toward rural living in newer and broader ways by incorporating human agency and investigating the possibility that the lack of town development during the Colonial era …

An Analysis Of Primary Resources Used As Tools For Discovery And Research At Archaeological Sites: Nomini Hall Case Study, Jamie Elizabeth Mesrobian

Theses & Honors Papers

Primary documentation is of great help to archaeologists, no matter the site nor the circumstance. At places like Colonial Williamsburg, Belle Grove, Carter’s Grove and Nomini Hall, help has come through primary documentation in many different ways from journals to paintings, from maps to oral histories. It is true that the archaeological excavations at Nomini Hall for Philip Vickers Fithian’s schoolhouse have been confusing.

Detecting Buried Metallic Weapons In A Controlled Setting Using A Conductivity Meter And A Ground-Penetrating Radar, Charles Dionne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Searching for buried metallic evidence at crime scenes or at potential disposal sites can be a daunting task for forensic personnel. In particular, it is common to search for a small firearm that was discarded or buried by the perpetrator. When performing forensic searches, it is recommended to first use non-invasive methods such as geophysical instruments to minimize damage to evidence and to the crime scene. Geophysical tools are used to pinpoint small areas of interest across a scene that will be invasively tested later. Prior to this project, there was no published research that tested the utility of the …

Puebloan Plain-Weave Pointed/Rounded-Toe Sandals, David Toy Yoder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An assemblage of 226 Puebloan pointed/rounded-toe sandals from sites throughout the northern Southwest was examined to answer the following questions: how were these sandals constructed, when where they used, and where were they distributed. The answers to these questions were then used to investigate cultural boundaries, communities of practice, and interaction among the Anasazi. Methods of analysis included a technical analysis, soft X-ray radiography, microscopic fiber identification, spatial analysis, AMS radiocarbon dating, and experimental reconstruction.

Based on these analyses it appears that pointed/rounded-toe sandals were used as early as A.D. 631 to as late as A.D. 1178. Spatially, this sandal …