Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

Prehistoric Humans And Elk (Cervus Canadensis) In The Western Great Lakes: A Zooarchaeological Perspective, Rebekah Ann Ernat

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between humans and elk (Cervus canadensis) in the western Great Lakes region from prehistoric through early historic times, with a focus on Wisconsin archaeological sites. It takes a social zooarchaeological perspective, drawing from archaeological, ecological, biological, historical, and ethnographic sources. I also use optimal foraging theory to examine subsistence-related decisions. Based on my review of 34 Wisconsin archaeological sites or site components, elk diminished in relative dietary importance in prehistoric times as subsistence strategies shifted. The use of their bones, especially scapulae and antlers, in tool production increased. Other roles, as markers of group and …

Impacts Of Invasive Rats On Hawaiian Cave Resources, Francis G. Howarth, Fred D. Stone

International Journal of Speleology

Although there are no published studies and limited data documenting damage by rodents in Hawaiian caves, our incidental observations during more than 40 years of surveying caves indicate that introduced rodents, especially the roof rat, Rattus rattus, pose significant threats to vulnerable cave resources. Caves, with their nearly constant and predictable physical environment often house important natural and cultural features including biological, paleontological, geological, climatic, mineralogical, cultural, and archaeological resources. All four invasive rodents in Hawai‘i commonly nest in cave entrances and rock shelters, but only the roof rat (Rattus rattus) habitually enters caves and utilizes areas …

Sexual Dimorphism And The Shape Of The Proximal Tibia In A Radiographic Sample, Emily Eiseman

Theses and Dissertations

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND THE SHAPE OF THE PROXIMAL TIBIA IN A RADIOGRAPHIC SAMPLE

This study investigates the use of radiographs to determine sexual dimorphism in the shape of the tibia. The goal of the research was to identify a small set of markers that would allow researchers to efficiently and accurately determine a person’s sex from a radiograph of the proximal tibia.

The sample consisted of radiographs including 75 females and 46 males ranging in age from 21 to 81. Measurements were taken on 27 points around the area of the knee including the tibia, patella, and femur. The measurements …

Confusing A Pollen Grain With A Parasite Egg: An Appraisal Of “Paleoparasitological Evidence Of Pinworm (Enterobius Vermicularis) Infection In A Female Adolescent Residing In Ancient Tehran”, Morgana Camacho, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

There is often the risk of confusing pollen grains with helminth eggs from archaeological sites. Thousands to millions of pollen grains can be recovered from archaeological burial sediments that represent past ritual, medication and environment. Some pollen grain types can be similar to parasite eggs. Such a confusion is represented by the diagnosis of enterobiasis in ancient Iran. The authors of this study confused a joint-pine (Ephedra spp.) pollen grain with a pinworm egg. This paper describes the specific Ephedra pollen morphology that can be confused with pinworm eggs.

Growing Up In Tell El-Amarna: An Examination Of Growth And Non-Specific Stress Indicators In New Kingdom Children., Ashley Elizabeth Shidner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The health status of the subadult skeletal remains from the South Tombs Cemetery at Tell el-Amarna were assessed by examining fluctuations in childhood growth and rates of skeletal indicators of physiological stress within a biocultural framework. The long bone standardization method outlined by Goode et al. (1993) was used to compare the South Tombs cemetery’s cross-sectional growth data to subadult samples from other cemeteries during which major social, political, and economic changes were taking place. The comparative subadult samples included the HK43 cemetery from Hierakonpolis (Egypt), the African American Cemetery from Cedar Grove (Arkansas), and the St. Martin’s Churchyard from …

A Realization Of Modernity: Case Studies In Connectivity And Time, Mari Gorman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My stated goal in applying to The Graduate Center was to explore my previous research in diverse fields of study. This research, the result of a formal investigation of acting, was and still is centrally focused on the subject of relationship itself, relationships being what actors create. In pursuit of a greater understanding of the essential nature of relationship in practical terms, a self-organizing complex system that constitutes universal relationship was unexpectedly discovered. As such, this system has been shown to offer solutions to many outstanding problems in diverse areas of study. The Liberal Studies program track, Approaches to Modernity …

The Diet And Subsistence Methods Of The Maya: Their Health And Cultural Consequences From The Pre-Classic Era To Today, Rachel E. Watson

Honors Undergraduate

The Maya, a once great civilization, seemingly vanished without an obvious reason, before the Spanish landed in the region. Some say that their downfall was a result of famine and inadequate nutrition. Surprisingly, most of the archaeological evidence surrounding the Classic Maya diet and subsistence methods indicates that they both adequately sustained the population to the point where there has been practically no change over hundreds of years. Change did not occur to the Maya diet or the classic subsistence methods until the late twentieth century when the tourism industry exploded in the area of the former Maya empire. The …

The Prehistoric Economics Of The Kautz Site: A Late Archaic And Woodland Site In Northeastern Illinois, Peter John Geraci

Theses and Dissertations

The Kautz Site (11DU1) is a multi-component archaeological site located in the DuPage River Valley in northeastern Illinois. It was inhabited at least six different times between the Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods ca. 6000-1000 B.P. The site was excavated over the course of three field seasons between 1958 and 1961, but the results were never made public. This thesis seeks to document the archaeology of the Kautz Site in order to better understand the site’s economic history. An environmental catchment analysis was conducted to evaluate the level of time and energy needed to acquire important resources like water, …

Species Identification Of Golden And Bald Eagle Talons Using Morphometrics, Avery J. Appleton, R. Christopher O'Brien, Pepper W. Trail

Forensic Science Publications

The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are the largest avian predators in North America, and are thus species of great ecological importance and cultural significance. There is a long history of human use of eagle body parts, and this use continues today: Bald and Golden eagles are among the North American birds most affected by the illegal wildlife trade. Detached eagle talons are often recovered in both law enforcement and archaeological contexts, but data to allow morphological identification of these talons have been lacking. This study documents measureable differences in the morphology of Bald Eagle and …

Animals As Neighbours: The Past And Present Of Commensal Animals By Terry O'Connor, Derek Woods

The Goose

Review of Terry O'Connor's Animals as Neighbours: The Past and Present of Commensal Animals.

Times Of Sand: Sedimentary History And Archaeology At The Sigatoka Dunes, Fiji, Richard Roberts, Geoffrey Hope, Antoine De Biran, Patrick Nunn, Atholl Anderson, William Dickinson, David Burley, Geoffrey Clark

Richard G Roberts

No abstract provided.

New Excavations Of Middle Stone Age Deposits At Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia: Stratigraphy, Archaeology, Chronology And Past Environments, Ralf Vogelsang, Jurgen Richter, Zenobia Jacobs, Barbara Eichhorn, Veerle Linseele, Richard Roberts

Richard G Roberts

This paper presents new information obtained from a recent excavation and reassessment of the stratigraphy, chronology, archaeological assemblages and environmental context of the Apollo 11 rockshelter, which contains the longest late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sequence in Namibia. The Middle Stone Age (MSA) industries represented at the site include an early MSA, Still Bay, Howieson's Poort and late MSA. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of individual quartz grains yielded numerical ages for the Still Bay and Howieson's Poort, and indicated the presence of a post-Howieson's Poort phase. OSL dating also verified conventional and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages for a …

Dating In Landscape, Archaeology, Richard Roberts, Zenobia Jacobs

Richard G Roberts

A common need in archaeology is for objects and events of interest to be dated, so that they can be arranged in the correct temporal sequence. Here we briefly review several methods available to the archaeologist to assist in age determination of the "target" object or event-comprehensive treatments of the subject are given by Aitken 0990, 1999), Wagner (998), and Walker (2005).

The Archaeology Of Linaminan, Central Palawan: A Preliminary Report On Excavations, Eusebio Dizon, Katherine Szabo

Katherine A Szabo

No abstract provided.

Chenopodium Berlandieri And The Cultural Origins Of Agriculture In The Eastern Woodlands, Daniel Shelton Robinson

Masters Theses

The development of agriculture in the New World has been a topic of prominent historic interest, but one that has ignored some regions in favor of others. The woodlands of Eastern North America have felt this bias in the investigation of agricultural origins, but this has not prevented the development of theories to explain the emergence of a complex of indigenous agricultural plants in the region. Data collection and technological advances have in large part validated these theories, creating a model for domestication. By emphasizing farming over other cultural practices, however, these theories lack explanatory power with regards to the …

Comparison Of Aquatic Life Depicted In Illustrations And Plaster Casts Of The Punt Relief From The Temple Of Hatshepsut At Deir El-Bahari, Emily Lord, Eugene G. Maurakis

Virginia Journal of Science

The primary objective of this study is to document differences between image characteristics of two sources (illustrations in Naville, 1898; and images in the cast of the relief at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) of the Punt relief from the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir El-Bahri. Our second is to compare cast images to photographs of the original relief. Characteristics of 30 species in the illustrations were described and compared to descriptions of the corresponding 30 species photographed from the cast at VMFA. The number of differences and similarities were recorded for each pair of corresponding icons and used …

Daily Life In The Shadow Of Empire: A Food Systems Approach To The Archaeology Of The Ottoman Period, Oystein S. Labianca

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Charles Rueben Keyes And The History Of Iowa Archaeology, William Green

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Charles Reuben Keyes (1871-1951) achieved recognition during his lifetime as the "founding father" of Iowa archaeology, and later assessments confirmed and reemphasized Keyes' stature as Iowa's pioneer archaeologist. The collections and documents Keyes compiled, his interpretive publications, and the records of field work he coordinated have proven more valuable to Midwest and Plains archaeology every year. This article emphasizes Keyes' involvement in the development of professionalism in American archaeology and Iowa’s position in the growth of the discipline from 1920 to 1950. Keyes' contacts with the principal archaeologists of his era ensured Iowa’s involvement in the development of survey methods …

Some Interactions In The Evolution Of Man And Tools, Gary W. Weston

All Master's Theses

This paper looks at some of the interactions between the development of tools and the evolution of man and his ancestors. It begins with a brief history of life up to the primates as a foundation. Next the use of tools by other animals is examined followed by the coverage of the period of time from Australopithecus to Modern Man showing the interweaving of physical and mental evolution of man and the development and refinement in his physical tools. Lastly, a look at possible future interactions in the physical and mental evolutionary developments in man as influenced by his tools …