Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Preserving Fields Of Conflict: Papers From The 2014 Fields Of Conflict Conference And Preservation Workshop, Steven D. Smith

Faculty Publications

From 12 through 15 March 2014 conflict archaeologists and preservationists met in Columbia, South Carolina, to present 54 papers and 14 posters at the 8^th Biennial Fields of Conflict Conference. In conjunction with the conference, a workshop was held on the preservation of battlefields across the globe entitled “Call to Action: National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program Battlefield Preservation Workshop.” The 33 papers in this volume are extended abstracts of those papers presented in a popular format. The goal of this volume is to make conflict archaeology assessable to the public and raise the awareness of the critical …

3d Tool Evaluation And Workflow For An Ecological Approach To Visualizing Ancient Socio-Environmental Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Shona Sanford-Long, Jack Kerby-Miller

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Architectural reconstructions are the centerpieces of ancient landscape visualization. When present, vegetation is relegated to the background, resulting in underutilized plant data—an integral data source for archaeological interpretation—thus limiting the capacity to take advantage of 3D visualization for studying ancient socio-environmental dynamics. Our long-term objective is to develop methods of 3D landscape visualization that have value for examining changes in land use and settlement patterns. To begin to work toward this objective, we have (1) identified 3D tools and techniques for vegetation modeling and landscape visualization, (2) evaluated the pros and cons of these tools, (3) investigated biological and ecological …

Maritime Alpine Cairns In Southeast Alaska: A Multidisciplinary Exploratory Study, William J. Hunt Jr., Ralph J. Hartley, Bruce Mccune, Nijmah Ali, Thomas F. Thornton

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This report describes the goals, data recovery methods, data analysis, and conclusions of a pilot project “A Multidisciplinary Exploratory Study of Alpine Cairns, Baranof Island, Southeast Alaska,” funded by the National Science Foundation under Project No. 1230132. The project brought together experts in the disciplines of archaeology (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), lichenology (Oregon State University), and Tlingit oral history (Oxford University) to address questions regarding artificial prehistoric, high altitude cairns. Data were collected in 2013 and 2014. Pedestrian archaeological inventory recorded 50 cairns at 5 sites. Archaeological data includes cairn dimensions, GPS positions, still photographic images, and video documentation. Four cairns …

Excavating The Catacomb Of Santa Lucia, Gabby Coggin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 733 B.C., Archias (a Corinthian) founded the city of Syracuse in Sicily. This began Syracuse’ history as a Greek colony, and also a history of cultural influences and changes produced by different occupations. The catacomb of St. Lucy is located in Syracuse, and contains evidence for the Greek, Roman Christian and Byzantine cultures. Excavations have been occurring here since 1916, beginning with Paolo Orsi, and most recently occurring in 2015 with Dr. Davide Tanasi. St. Lucy is an excellent case study for examining how different cultures have used this site as a burial location for centuries. The research done …

Species Identification Of The Stylohyoid Bone For North American Artiodactyls, Thomas A. Hale

All Master's Theses

Zooarchaeologists cannot identify mammal species by their stylohyoid bones. Current trends in zooarchaeological research stress the need for rigorous and accessible identification methodology. I examined the stylohyoids of 15 hooved mammals: cattle, bison, domestic sheep, bighorn sheep, Dall sheep, mountain goat, domestic goat, elk, caribou, white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, pronghorn antelope, domestic pig, and horse. Objectives included documenting how to side the stylohyoid (left or right), and producing species identification criteria based on large samples. A total of 325 samples were measured from eight repositories. Written descriptions, photographs, and success ratios for metrics and distinct traits are included for …

Mapping And Radiocarbon Dating Archaic Period Monuments: La Alberca Structure Complex, Highland Michoacán, Mexico, Mark F. Steinkraus

All Master's Theses

Ongoing collaborations with the Comunidad Indígena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro hold great potential for exploring the origins of sedentary ranked communities that predate others in Mesoamerica by as much as one thousand years. Three carbon samples from the lower buried portions of the Central Structure at La Alberca Complex yield a date range of 7245-6470 cal B.P. The carbon sample laying on an upper tier of the feature yields a date of 4780 cal B.P. These dates suggest that the feature is 7000 to 6000 years old and may have been in use as recently as 5000 to 4000 …

Alternatives To Charcoal For Improving Chronometric Dating Of Puget Sound Archaeological Sites, James W. Brown

All Master's Theses

Radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites in the Puget Lowlands can be problematic. Dating specific cultural events associated with features and sites is difficult due to the ubiquity of charcoal in forest soils and poor preservation of bone in acidic soils. These conditions have impeded the development of regional cultural chronologies. The lack of dates for critical time periods also inhibits testing processual models of cultural change. Evidence for the timing and rate of ecological, economic, and political change is critical for testing evolutionary models in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Radiocarbon dating highly burned bone (calcined bone) and luminescence dating fire-modified …

Common Ground: Uniting Archaeology And Secondary Social Studies Curricula, Jeremy Allen Haas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Archaeologists have been attempting to establish stronger connections with communities for several decades. Concepts such as stewardship can be presented to a larger audience, and archaeology can be a valuable tool for public education. Public schools across the nation are struggling to improve with limited resources. Archaeology can provide teachers with inexpensive resources that improve student learning while simultaneously helping teachers meet more rigorous standards. Using historical, archaeological, and cultural resources from the World War II Japanese American internment camp, Amache, I created a new supplementary curriculum that focused on the experience of Japanese and Japanese Americans during that era. …

Landscapes Of Interaction: Understanding Social Landscapes Through Quantitative Models Of Artifact Distributions, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Exchange of material goods is one of the most basic forms of human interactions. By tracing the distribution of ceramics, stone tools, and other materials archaeologists are often able to make inferences about the nature of interactions, and about the economic and social relationships of the people involved. These artefact distributions are a fundamental feature of social landscapes, with the potential to reveal much about the structure of social life. But artefact distributions are often complex and difficult to describe, especially at large spatial scales, and they often require some form of abstraction to make them comprehensible. Archaeologists have therefore …

The Early Pottery Of San Antonio, Department Of Chinandega, Nicaragua, Kelsey I. Willis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I analyzed the potsherds (n=732) recovered from the 2009 archaeological excavations at the site of San Antonio in Chinandega, Nicaragua. I classified the pottery in accordance with the Type: Variety-Mode system that is used almost exclusively in Mesoamerica and the Greater Nicoya Sub-Region. Identifications of known ceramic wares, groups, types, and varieties were made through comparisons with reference specimens from type collections housed at several institutions. New taxa were defined as needed in accordance with the established protocols of the Type: Variety system (e.g., Smith et al. 1960) and as subsequently amended (e.g., Rice 1976). In the thesis, I describe …

Excavations At Vista Del Valle, A Viejo Period Site Of The Casas Grandes Cultural Tradition In Chihuahua, Mexico, Michael T. Searcy, Todd Pitezel

Faculty Publications

In the summer of 2015 we conducted excavations at a site located along the Palanganas River, just south of the Casas Grandes River Valley in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. This represents the first excavation of a Viejo Period site (A.D. 700–1200) in this vicinity since the 1960s. We discovered remnants of at least five structures, and fully excavated three. This paper reports our findings and compares them to previous work carried out in the region.

Dietary Patterns Of Paquimé: New Evidence From Dental Calculus And Microfossils, Daniel King, Michael T. Searcy, Kyle Waller

Faculty Publications

As part of a larger multinational project, we gathered and analyzed 112 samples of dental calculus (fossilized plaque) from human remains discovered at Paquimé and other sites in the Casas Grandes river valley to identify various microfossils still present in the silica matrix. Once identified, we used the prehistoric plant remains to reconstruct human/plant relationships present during the Viejo and Medio periods in and around Paquimé. Our data suggest that maize was used throughout both time periods, which supports current theories regarding Paquimean diet. Various types of grasses were also found, as were unspecified types of algae. Using our data, …

Archaeological Investigations And Historical Survey, Fort Wilkins Historic State Park: Keweenaw County, Michigan, Eric T. Pomber

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Michigan Technological University has been performing archaeological and historical surveys at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park as part of a multi-year contract since 2013 with each year’s work focused on different properties held by the Park. The 2015 field season focused on the 6 acre Copper Harbor Range Lighthouse (20KE33) property immediately west of Fanny Hooe Creek resulting in the identification of eight archaeological features through a combination of pedestrian survey, shovel pit testing, and excavation. Among the features identified are the Astor House (20KE83), an early hotel in the region which was noted in the writings of travelers visiting …

Legacy - December 2015, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

UofSC Archaeologists Raise Trio of Civil War Cannons.....p. 1
Archaeologists Pluck 3 Civil War Cannons from River Site.....p. 1
Director's Notes.....p. 2
Arkhaios Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival.....p. 2
Recovery of CSS Pee Dee Armament from the Great Pee Dee River.....p. 4
Parris Island Canoe and Exhibit Reconstruction.....p. 10
In Search of Yamasee Indian Villages in Upper Port Royal Waters.....p. 12
Chicasa: Searching for de Soto in Mississippi, June 2015.....p. 15
Fort Motte Research-2015 Update.....p. 18
Trench Maps: Military Cartography on the Western Front, 1914-1918.....p. 21
Santa Elena Foundation Opens History Center.....p. 22
Early Archaic Settlement Along the …

“Men Of Good Timber”: An Archaeological Investigation Of Labor In Michigan’S Upper Peninsula, Aaron Howe

Masters Theses

This study approaches the material assemblage of Coalwood, a cordwood camp that operated from 1900-1912 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, with a dialectal method and a theory of internal relations in order to understand how daily life was produced and reproduced. Common sense notions often see home and work as separate entities that only relate to one another externally. My archaeological and historical research abstracts domestic labor as a set of social relations that are dialectically and internally connected to the processes of capital accumulation. My archaeological analysis concludes that both productive and reproductive labor was conducted within the home and …

Picrolite And The Cypriot Neolithic: An Experimental Study, Forrest Dayton Jarvi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Picrolite, a fibrous green stone originating in the Troodos mountains on the island of Cyprus, appears in the archaeological record almost from the very earliest sites on the island. Thus far, few publications have addressed the material from anything but a descriptive perspective. Research at the Aceramic Neolithic site of Kritou Marottou Ais Giorkis has uncovered a wide variety of picrolite artifacts since excavations began in 1997. Preliminary experimental studies have begun to explore the ease of both obtaining and manipulating the material using only local materials and unassisted manpower. This thesis presents a three-part investigation into the place of …

Patterns In Faunal Remains At Fort St. Joseph, A French Fur Trade Post In The Western Great Lakes, Joseph Hearns

Masters Theses

Faunal studies have the potential to detect a variety of patterns in animal processing activities at an archaeological site. The spatial relationships of taphonomic mechanisms observed within the animal bone assemblage illuminate the use of space on a site as well as the patterns of waste discard. Patterns within the formation processes influencing the distribution of faunal remains serve as the basis for interpretation of animal processing behaviors. This study analyzes a sample of animal bones from Fort St. Joseph (20BE23), an eighteenth-century French fur trade post in the western Great Lakes region. This post was a hub of exchange …

Settlement-Size Scaling Among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems In The New World, W. Randall Haas, Cynthia J. Klink, Greg J. Maggard, Mark S. Aldenderfer

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Settlement size predicts extreme variation in the rates and magnitudes of many social and ecological processes in human societies. Yet, the factors that drive human settlement-size variation remain poorly understood. Size variation among economically integrated settlements tends to be heavy tailed such that the smallest settlements are extremely common and the largest settlements extremely large and rare. The upper tail of this size distribution is often formalized mathematically as a power-law function. Explanations for this scaling structure in human settlement systems tend to emphasize complex socioeconomic processes including agriculture, manufacturing, and warfare-behaviors that tend to differentially nucleate and disperse populations …

The Yamasee War: 1715 - 1717, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

Archaeology Month Posters

This poster was released in conjunction with South Carolina Archaeology Month, October 2015.

Late Quaternary Speleogenesis And Landscape Evolution In A Tropical Carbonate Island: Pango La Kuumbi (Kuumbi Cave), Zanzibar, Nikos Kourampas, Ceri Shipton, William Mills, Ruth Tibesasa, Henrietta Horton, Mark Horton, Mary Prendergast, Alison Crowther, Katerina Douka, Patrick Faulkner, Llorenç Picornell, Nicole Boivin

International Journal of Speleology

Kuumbi Cave is one of a group of caves that underlie a flight of marine terraces in Pleistocene limestone in eastern Zanzibar (Indian Ocean). Drawing on the findings of geoarchaeological field survey and archaeological excavation, we discuss the formation and evolution of Kuumbi Cave and its wider littoral landscape. In the later part of the Quaternary (last ca. 250,000 years?), speleogenesis and terrace formation were driven by the interplay between glacioeustatic sea level change and crustal uplift at rates of ca. 0.10-0.20 mm/yr. Two units of backreef/reef limestone were deposited during ‘optimal’ (highest) highstands, tentatively correlated with MIS 7 and …

The Use And Application Of Photogrammetry For The In-Field Documentation Of Archaeological Features: Three Case Studies From The Great Plains And Southeastern Alaska, Michael Chodoronek

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This master’s thesis is comprised of two stand-alone technical papers united by a common theme. These papers explore the use and adaptation of a new software program, PhotoScan by Agisoft, and the use of non-traditional photogrammetry as a technique that should be incorporated into standard archaeological field practice. The PhotoScan program allows for rapid and accurate capture of photogrammatic information in a multitude of settings. The studies presented in this thesis were conducted between 2013 and 2015, over the course of which multiple advancements have brought the technology to new heights in the streamlined production of 3D representations of features …

Canning Jars And Patterns Of Canning Behavior: A Study Of Households On The Hector Backbone, New York. 1850-1940, Jayne Ann Michaels

Masters Theses

Typically, late 19^th or early 20^th century domestic sites contain fragments of a common item: canning jars. Such is the case regarding 21 sites along the Hector Backbone in New York State. These sites, investigated by the Finger Lakes National Forest Farmstead Archaeology Project, produced a rich sample of over 250,000 artifacts and thousands related to canning.

The objective of this thesis is to explore the potential of these common artifacts to yield important information about these Backbone households. Specifically, my questions include: when did these households adopt canning and who were they?

The intentional decision to include …

Social And Ritual Dynamics At El Cholo: An Upper General Valley Funerary Village Of The Diquís Subregion, Southern Costa Rica, Roberto Alexander Herrera

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation details the results obtained from investigations conducted at an Aguas Buenas (300 BC-AD 800) to early Chiriquí phase (AD 900-1550) site known as El Cholo (SJ-59ECh), a mound complex located in the Upper General Valley of southern Costa Rica. Using data from surface collection along with horizontal and stratigraphic excavations, this investigation analyzed site formation and associated behavioral processes underlying the construction of a set of interconnected mounds comprising the architectural core of El Cholo. Previous research suggested that mounded sites in the Upper General area were likely seats of emergent elites with monumental constructions occupying a central …

Legacy - July 2015, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

Andrew White Joins the Research Archaeological Staff at the Institute.....p. 1
Director's Note.....p. 2
Won’t You Join Us For The Adventure!.....p. 3
BOEM-South Carolina Cooperative Agreement Survey Begins off Myrtle Beach.....p. 4
A Welcome to Daniel Brown.....p. 5
Recent Projects in the Applied Research Division 2015.....p. 6
Detecting the Past: Archaeology at Hobcaw Barony.....p. 8
The Santa Elena Lab Lives Again!.....p. 10
Reconstructing Santa Elena’s Fort San Felipe (I).....p. 11
The Yamasee Indians in South Carolina.....p. 14
Two Decades of Expedient Iron Conservation.....p. 17
Archaeological Testing and Paleoenvironmental Research at White Pond, Elgin, South Carolina.....p. 20
Progress in Developing …

An Architectural Analysis Of Caddo Structures At The Ferguson Site (3he63), Kelsey Ann Taormina

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the earliest excavations in Arkansas and the Southeast, prehistoric architecture related to mound building societies has been of particular interest. The Caddo of the Trans-Mississippi South are a Mississippian period mound building culture that emerged as early as A.D. 1000 and persisted to and beyond European contact. Many Caddo structures are found under and on mounds. Some of these structures, identified as special-purpose or non-domestic in function, were burned and buried. Often structures were purposefully burned and buried forming a conical or platform mound. The Ferguson site (3HE63), located in the Little Missouri River basin of Southwest Arkansas, contains …

Book Review: Archaeology Of The War Of 1812, Ed. By Michael T. Lucas And Julie M. Schablitsky, Joseph H. Last

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Archaeology of the War of 1812, ed. By Michael T. Lucas and Julie M. Schablitsky, 2014, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 337 pp., 15 chapters with bibliographies, 52 figures, 10 tables, index, $79.00 (cloth).

Book Review: Historical Archaeology Of The Delaware Valley, 1600–1850, Ed. By Richard F. Veit And David Orr, Lu Ann De Cunzo

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600–1850, ed. By Richard F. Veit and David Orr, 2014, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, $54.95 (cloth).

Book Review: The Archaeology Of American Cemeteries And Gravemarkers, By Sherene Baugher And Richard F. Veit, Timothy B. Riordan

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers, by Sherene Baugher and Richard F. Veit, 2014, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 254 pages, 40 black-and-white figures, references, $69.95 (cloth).

Gunflints And Musket Balls: Implications For The Occupational History Of The Eaton Site And The Niagara Frontier, Michael Roets, William Engelbrecht, John D. Holland

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The multicomponent Eaton site in West Seneca, New York, was the focus of a long-term archaeological project. While the major emphasis was the excavation of a mid-16th-century Iroquoian village, all artifacts are being analyzed. These include 12 gunflints and 8 musket balls deposited at some point after the abandonment of the Iroquoian village. This article describes these objects, their distribution and dating, and the implications of these artifacts for the history of the site and the region.

Continuity Of Lithic Practice From The Eighteenth To The Nineteenth Centuries At The Nipmuc Homestead Of Sarah Boston, Grafton, Massachusetts, Joseph M. Bagley, Stephen Mrozowski, Heather Law Pezzarossi, John Steinberg

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Stone tools have been found at all Nipmuc-related house sites in central Massachusetts dating from the 17th through 20th centuries. This article explores in detail the lithic assemblage recovered from the kitchen midden of the late 18th and early 19th century Sarah Burnee/Sarah Boston farmstead in Grafton, Massachusetts. Quartz and quartzite lithics were found in similar concentrations as historic ceramics within the midden suggesting that these tools were in active use within the household. Ground-stone tools of ancient origin indicate curation and reuse of older materials, and knapped glass and re-worked gunflints suggest knowledge of flintknapping. This article argues that …