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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Colonial Prehistories Of Indigenous North America, Mark A. Mattes Jan 2022

Colonial Prehistories Of Indigenous North America, Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most common inquiries received by Filson Historical Society librarians concerns the myth of Prince Madoc and the Welsh Indians. Of the myth’s many versions, the one most familiar to Ohio Valley History readers goes like this: Madoc, a Welsh prince escaping an internecine conflict over political rule at home, supposedly sailed to North America in the twelfth century. His force either landed at the Falls of the Ohio or made it there after landing further south and being driven north by hostile locals, possibly Cherokee people. Madoc and his contingent intermixed with Indigenous populations, whose fair-haired, blue-eyed, …


The Economic Rationality Of Consumption In The Mycenaean Political Economy And Its Role In The Reproduction Of Social Personae: Modeling Prestige Networks., Devin Alexander Stephens Dec 2021

The Economic Rationality Of Consumption In The Mycenaean Political Economy And Its Role In The Reproduction Of Social Personae: Modeling Prestige Networks., Devin Alexander Stephens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a theoretical examination of the economic rationality of consumption as it existed within the Mycenaean political economy. Using a modified paradigm of social network analysis, a semiotic approach is used in the study of identity expression and economic stratification present at three Late Helladic cemeteries. In doing so, the claim that exchange strategies which existed outside of palatial redistribution were present in the Late Helladic was substantiated as a similar logic of mortuary stratification which existed during the palatial era was also found to have existed after the shift to the post-palatial era and the collapse of …


Gis Predictive Modelling In The Daniel Boone National Forest: Settlement Patterns During The Intensification Or Horticulture., Jacob Max Ray Aug 2021

Gis Predictive Modelling In The Daniel Boone National Forest: Settlement Patterns During The Intensification Or Horticulture., Jacob Max Ray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I explore the Late Archaic and Woodland settlement patterns (3,000 BC – 1,000 AD) in the Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky, and surrounding region within the context of the intensification of horticulture. GIS predictive modelling via automated learning algorithms are employed to explore various environmental variables that may have influenced where and why horticultural intensification occurred. Predictive models using random forest and maximum entropy are created and compared for the Late Archaic and Woodland periods. Results show only minimal variance between the Late Archaic and Woodland settlement patterns within the study area with slope and elevation identified …


Results Of A Second Season Of Paleolithic Survey In The Agig Area: The Red Sea Region Of The Sudan, Amanuel Beyin, Abubakr Abdelrahman Adam, Ahmed Alhaj O. Balela, Boshra Abdella Adem Jan 2020

Results Of A Second Season Of Paleolithic Survey In The Agig Area: The Red Sea Region Of The Sudan, Amanuel Beyin, Abubakr Abdelrahman Adam, Ahmed Alhaj O. Balela, Boshra Abdella Adem

Faculty Scholarship

One of the contentious issues in paleoanthropology today concerns the geographic route/routes through which hominins (early humans) left Africa. The Nile corridor and the Strait of Bab al-Mandab (the southern Red Sea) are commonly cited as the likely routes by which hominins dispersed out of East Africa (Van Peer 1998; Derricourt 2005; Beyin 2006). However, the extent to which hominin movements remained confned to these regions is unclear. The western periphery of the Red Sea (WPRS) occupies a critical geographic location to be considered as an ideal region to assess the role of coastal habitats in hominin survival, and the …


A Great Hunter Needs A Great Spear: Experimental Study Of Technological Considerations That Determine The Efficacy Of A Hunting Spear, Elizabeth M Hagan, Jordan Durham Jan 2020

A Great Hunter Needs A Great Spear: Experimental Study Of Technological Considerations That Determine The Efficacy Of A Hunting Spear, Elizabeth M Hagan, Jordan Durham

Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase

This research project investigates prehistoric hunting practices, involving a hand-thrown spears, henceforth referred to as “Projectile Technology”. It aims to assess the influence of spear shaft size in the efficacy of spears as a whole during hunting pursuit. Moreover, we will evaluate how the hunter’s distance from the target may affect the efficacy of varying spear-sizes. The broader theoretical question we seek to address is what specific spear-size and throwing-location considerations determined the success of hunting with projectile weaponry. Projectile point technology has marked a major cultural innovation in human history in Africa around 200,000 years ago (Shea 2006; Milks …


Charting A Course Through Confusion: Mapping Pathological Cranial Lesions In An Archaic Population From Kentucky., Austin Warren Dec 2019

Charting A Course Through Confusion: Mapping Pathological Cranial Lesions In An Archaic Population From Kentucky., Austin Warren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Osteological observations interpreted as evidence for anemia (porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia) have been used to interpret health and diet of past populations. These observations have contributed significantly to arguments that a deterioration of human health over time can be attributed to the adoption of agricultural subsistence practices and increased settlement aggregation. This study utilized a sample (n=110) from the Ward site (15Mcl11), a pre-agricultural, fisher-hunter-gatherer cemetery site dated to the Archaic Period in Kentucky, a part of the Shell Midden Archaic cultural complex. The impact of porotic alteration on differential mortality was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The Ward …


Anthropogenic Landscapes Of Amazonia : A Spatial Analysis Of Landscape Modification And Settlement Organization At Macurany, Brazil., M. Grace Ellis May 2019

Anthropogenic Landscapes Of Amazonia : A Spatial Analysis Of Landscape Modification And Settlement Organization At Macurany, Brazil., M. Grace Ellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic landscapes are the product of complex human-environment processes that form distinct features in the landscape, which materially preserve and reflect human behavior. Anthropogenic landscapes in Amazonia likely date back to human colonization of the region around 16,000 BP. Since colonization, humans have been marking, modifying, managing, and engineering the landscape resulting in a mosaic of anthropogenic landscape features across Amazonia. The diversity of ancient landscapes documented in Amazonia reflects the cultural heterogeneity that existed in the past. This research explores the complex human-environmental processes that form distinct, identifiable, lasting features on the landscape and what these features can illuminate …


Malaria In The Prehistoric Caribbean : The Hunt For Hemozoin., Mallory D. Cox May 2018

Malaria In The Prehistoric Caribbean : The Hunt For Hemozoin., Mallory D. Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the increase in resistance to anti-malarials and global warming trends expanding the habitation range of the mosquito vector, research highlighting the biogeographical contexts of infected populations is critical to understanding epidemiological patterns. A bioarchaeological approach to epidemiology can shed light on previous disease patterns and aid in the prediction of future outbreaks of diseases like malaria. Currently, there is no direct evidence of malaria in the Americas prior to European contact; however, skeletal, archaeological, paleoenvironmental, historic, and ethnohistorical evidence strongly suggest the presence of Plasmodium spp. malaria in indigenous Caribbean skeletal remains held in the Yale Peabody Museum of …


Spatial Patterning And Human Behavior In Level "F" At Lapa Do Picareiro., Brandon K Zinsious May 2017

Spatial Patterning And Human Behavior In Level "F" At Lapa Do Picareiro., Brandon K Zinsious

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spatial analysis at the site level offers unique perspectives and has become increasingly more accessible as advances in technology allow rapid 3-dimensional mapping and rigorous statistical analysis. This project focused on the geological stratigraphic level “F”, at Lapa do Picareiro; a shallow cave in the Estremadura region of Portugal. This level, dated to 14,000 years ago calibrated BP, experienced multiple human occupations between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Younger Dryas. This work examines the recovered material from a period of Upper Magdalenian occupations and sheds light on how enclosed space was used in Estremadura Portugal. Distinct distributions of lithic …


Late Magdalenian Lithic Technological Organization At Lapa Do Picareiro, Central Portugal., Melissa Jean Holst May 2017

Late Magdalenian Lithic Technological Organization At Lapa Do Picareiro, Central Portugal., Melissa Jean Holst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lapa do Picareiro, a cave located in Portuguese Estremadura, contains continuous deposits dated to the Late Pleistocene. As one of the highest elevation Upper Paleolithic sites currently known in Portugal, questions are raised about the function of the site during this time. This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the lithic assemblage recovered from the Late Magdalenian layer of F/G (13,442 to 14,011 cal BP). The data generated from this study, when looked at in conjunction with the previously analyzed faunal assemblage, helps to provide a broader understanding of the site’s function during the Late Magdalenian. The analysis focuses on …


Lakeside View: Sociocultural Responses To Changing Water Levels Of Lake Turkana, Kenya, David K. Wright, Steven L. Forman, Purity Kiura, Christopher Bloszies, Amanuel Beyin Jun 2015

Lakeside View: Sociocultural Responses To Changing Water Levels Of Lake Turkana, Kenya, David K. Wright, Steven L. Forman, Purity Kiura, Christopher Bloszies, Amanuel Beyin

Faculty Scholarship

Throughout the Holocene, Lake Turkana has been subject to drastic changes in lake levels and the subsistence strategies people employ to survive in this hot and arid region. In this paper, we reconstruct the position of the lake during the Holocene within a paleoclimatic context. Atmospheric forcing mechanisms are discussed in order to contextualize the broader landscape changes occurring in eastern Africa over the last 12,000 years. The Holocene is divided into five primary phases according to changes in the strand-plain evolution, paleoclimate, and human subsistence strategies practiced within the basin. Early Holocene fishing settlements occurred adjacent to high and …


Kentucky Mineral Spring Resorts : An Archaeological Reconnaissance Of Medical Trends And Land Use., Sara Marian Deurell May 2015

Kentucky Mineral Spring Resorts : An Archaeological Reconnaissance Of Medical Trends And Land Use., Sara Marian Deurell

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This project is an archaeological reconnaissance survey of 12 historic mineral spring resorts of Kentucky. The objective of this research is to assess the archaeological potential of these sites, and to provide an archaeological perspective on 19th and early 20th century Kentucky health care in relation to the use of opiates, as well as the evolution of land use in relation to preservation of features and artifacts associated with the resort hotel era. Compared to the number of sites in the state (71), very little archaeological investigation of mineral spring resorts has been conducted. The importance of these sites to …


Human Origins, Dispersal And Associated Environments: An African Perspective, Amanuel Beyin Jan 2015

Human Origins, Dispersal And Associated Environments: An African Perspective, Amanuel Beyin

Faculty Scholarship

Africa’s position as the cradle of humanity is widely accepted, supported by rich fossil and archaeological discoveries from different parts of the continent. Drawing on the Out-of-Africa theory of human origins, this article provides a condensed narrative of the major milestones in human evolution and associated environmental settings. The underlying hypothesis is that changes in global climate played an important role in fueling early modern human origins and dispersals within and outside of Africa. As one will discover in this article, the history of humanity is a tale of small events that merged together into major milestones over a long …


Recent Archaeological Survey And Excavation Around The Greater Kalokol Area, West Side Of Lake Turkana: Preliminary Findings, Amanuel Beyin Jun 2011

Recent Archaeological Survey And Excavation Around The Greater Kalokol Area, West Side Of Lake Turkana: Preliminary Findings, Amanuel Beyin

Faculty Scholarship

After the long period of arid conditions in the terminal Pleistocene, the global climate turned to wet and humid at the onset of the Holocene Interglacial ~10 ka BP (Gasse 2000; Hassan 1997). Under the wet and intermittently dry conditions of the early Holocene (10-6 ka BP), lakeshores, seashores and rivers became attractive for human exploitation in many parts of the world (Erlandson 2001). In Africa, sites associated with aquatic intensification have been reported in the Sahelian-Saharan belt, dating roughly from 9500-5000 years BP (Holl 2005). The Turkana Basin in northern Kenya became a mega-lake in the early Holocene, with …


X-Ray Fluorescence And Neutron Activation Analysis Of Obsidian From The Red Sea Coast Of Eritrea, Michael D. Glascock, Amanuel Beyin, Magen E. Coleman Jan 2008

X-Ray Fluorescence And Neutron Activation Analysis Of Obsidian From The Red Sea Coast Of Eritrea, Michael D. Glascock, Amanuel Beyin, Magen E. Coleman

Faculty Scholarship

The strategic location of Eritrea along the Red Sea coast and the Horn of Africa makes it an important place to study human prehistory over a long span of time. However, recurrent political instability and the environmental adversity in the region have hindered comprehensive archaeological investigation. Paleolithic research in Eritrea began after the country obtained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. Geological survey in the Abdur area, along the Gulf of Zula coast (Figure 1), identified Paleolithic artifacts embedded in reef limestone dating to ~ 125 Ka BP (Walter et al., 2000). Based on this evidence, human coastal adaptation during the …