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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Hiding In Plain Site: Late Fremont Villages In The Uinta Basin, James R. Allison Jan 2018

Hiding In Plain Site: Late Fremont Villages In The Uinta Basin, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Syntheses of Fremont archaeology in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah typically emphasize the small and ephemeral nature of Fremont settlements there. Many archaeologists have also argued that much of the Uinta Basin was abandoned by A.D. 1050. It is true that there are many small Fremont sites in the Uinta Basin, and that most of these sites predate 1050. But several large sites have been excavated in the Basin that appear to be villages, some of which appear to date after the supposed abandonment. These have not been emphasized in the syntheses because they are either poorly described or …


Aerial Imaging Using Uavs (Drones) In Chihuahua And Nayarit, Mexico, To Map And Archive Archaeological Sites, Michael T. Searcy, Scott Ure, Michael Mathiowetz, Haylie Ferguson, Jaclyn Eckersley, Mauricio Garduno Ambriz, Jose Carlos Beltran Medina, Jorge Morales Monroy Jan 2018

Aerial Imaging Using Uavs (Drones) In Chihuahua And Nayarit, Mexico, To Map And Archive Archaeological Sites, Michael T. Searcy, Scott Ure, Michael Mathiowetz, Haylie Ferguson, Jaclyn Eckersley, Mauricio Garduno Ambriz, Jose Carlos Beltran Medina, Jorge Morales Monroy

Faculty Publications

In 2017, we used UAVs (drones) to record eight archaeological sites from the air. As this type of technology becomes more refined, we have found that it is especially useful in carrying out three specific tasks: contour mapping, archiving site conditions, and identifying architecture. This paper reports our findings resulting from aerial images captured while flying archaeological sites in Nayarit and Chihuahua, Mexico.


Embedded Procurement And Exchange: Obsidian From Wolf Village Utah, Jacob Jepsen, James R. Allison, Jeffrey R. Ferguson Jan 2018

Embedded Procurement And Exchange: Obsidian From Wolf Village Utah, Jacob Jepsen, James R. Allison, Jeffrey R. Ferguson

Faculty Publications

XRF analysis of more than 1500 pieces of obsidian from Wolf Village (42UT273) in the Utah Valley, Utah, shows that the obsidian originated from areas as far north as Bear Gulch, Idaho and as far south as the Mineral Mountains in southern Utah. Most of the obsidian, however, came from two Utah sources: Black Rock, which is 130 km southwest of the site, and Topaz Mountain, about 100 km to the west. The presence or absence of cortex, and the shape of pieces with cortex, shows that procurement was different for the two sources. Cortex on Topaz Mountain artifacts is …


An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective On Ground Stone Production At The Santiago Quarry In The Casas Grandes Region Of Chihuahua, Mexico, Michael T. Searcy, Todd Pitezel Jan 2018

An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective On Ground Stone Production At The Santiago Quarry In The Casas Grandes Region Of Chihuahua, Mexico, Michael T. Searcy, Todd Pitezel

Faculty Publications

Grinding stones, and more specifically manos and metates, are ubiquitous tools found at archaeological sites throughout the Americas. These tools were important, even to foragers, and grew in importance with the spread of agriculture, especially maize cultivation. Analyses of grinding stones recovered from archaeological sites are a common aspect of site reports, but these tend to generate data that emphasize the middle and end of the use-lives of these tools (Searcy 2011:8). The prehistoric manufacture of ground stone tools has received scant attention, and we suggest this may be due to two primary factors. First, the quarries where much of …


Strontium Isotope Analysis In The Eastern Great Basin: Potential Challenges, Rewards, And A Fremont Case Study, David Yoder, Spencer Lambert, Michael T. Searcy Jan 2018

Strontium Isotope Analysis In The Eastern Great Basin: Potential Challenges, Rewards, And A Fremont Case Study, David Yoder, Spencer Lambert, Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

Over the last 20 years strontium (Sr) isotope analysis has become a powerful tool in the study of prehistoric human behavior; especially for patterns of movement, migration, and trade. While used in many other parts of the world to determine if an individual or animal was local or non-local to the area in which they were found, this technique has been under utilized in the Great Basin. In this presentation we will outline the regionally specific challenges researchers face in using Sr analysis in the eastern Great Basin; the potential insights we may gain in understanding prehistoric culture and behavior; …