Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Technology Then And Now 1: Technology Then And Now, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Archaeologists employ technology to learn how goods were made and used at Fort St. Joseph in the eighteenth century.

Technology Then and Now was developed by the students (Nicole Aquino, John Campbell, Patrick Dwyer, Abby Floyd, Jacob Kowalczyk, Allie Lewis, Amanda Owens, Brendan Sapato, and Callisto Wojcikowski) in the Museum Studies class (HIST 4080) at Western Michigan University under the direction of Professor Michael Nassaney. The research, contents, and design of the exhibit were made possible through the support and assistance of Christina Arseneau, David Brose, Mary Ellen Drolet, Joe Hines, Larry Horrigan, Cori Ivens, Erika Loveland, Meghan Williams and …

Moving Pictures: Context Of Use And Iconography Of Chariots In The New Kingdom, Lisa Sabbahy Dr.

Faculty Book Chapters

Chariots, the racing cars of the ancient world, first appeared in Egypt about 1600 BC, and quickly became not only the preferred mode of transport for royalty and the elite, but also revolutionised military tactics and warfare. Remains of chariots have been found in Egyptian tombs –Tutankhamun’s tomb contained six chariots, which tripled the number of ancient Egyptian chariots known before the discovery of his tomb. However, none of the chariots was complete, as all lacked their leather casings, which were only known from images on tomb and temple walls.

In 2008, the Ancient Egyptian Leatherwork Project (AELP) working in …

Pvn Drw Subop 21ac, 21ad Sections Str Ah-18, Edward Mark Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Constructing Rock Cairns: Modifying And Signifying The Alpine Landscape Of Southeast Alaska, Ralph J. Hartley, Amanda Renner, William J. Hunt Jr.

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The existence and variability of human-made rock cairns in subalpine and alpine settings of Southeast Alaska is increasingly well documented. Whete these features were constructed prehistorically and prorohistorically is a fundamental component to assessing the socioecological role of these modifications to a landscape that is, for the most patt, devoid of other physical manifestations of past human activities. Based on information compiled from investigations in the northern portion of Baranof Island and vicinity, we explore the physical and social environmental conditions that may underlie decisions to create the cairns, some of which are estimated to have been built approximately 500 …

A Method For Determining Damage Within Historic Cemeteries: A First Step For Digital Heritage, Justin E. Malcolm

Honors Undergraduate Theses

While it is true that historic cemeteries are places that contain a wealth of knowledge about the history of a community they are sometimes not well maintained. The information within can be lost as grave-markers are damaged either by natural causes or human interaction. In larger cemeteries preserving these significant places can sometimes be difficult due to a number of different factors. Therefore focusing preservation efforts on specific locations where damage is more likely to occur is crucial to ensure that the monuments that are the most at risk are preserved. One possible way of accomplishing this is through the …

Mobility And Collapse: Stable Isotope Analysis Of Oxygen-18 Isotopes From Ancient Mexico, Melanie L. St. Pierre

Honors Undergraduate Theses

When a society experiences a collapse, political authority becomes decentralized, large settlements often become abandoned, economic specialization decreases; and monumental building projects, artistic, and literary achievements slow drastically. The Rio Verde Valley, a coastal floodplain located in the region of Oaxaca in Southwest Mexico, experienced such a collapse at the end of the Terminal Formative period (150 BC to 250 AD). A period of decentralization followed, with regional centers becoming the main seats of authority throughout the region. My aim is to understand how this collapse affected residential population mobility in the lower Rio Verde Valley between the pre-collapse Terminal …

Feeding The Children: A Paleodietary Reconstruction Of Juveniles From Kuelap, Peru, Marley Denierio

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Before reaching adulthood, every individual experiences a period of dependency, the juvenile period, during which they rely on the older, more experienced members of their society for their security, subsistence and care. This juvenile period is an important stage of life for human physical and physiological development. In bioarchaeology, there has been limited research conducted on juveniles, particularly, the development of their own social identity and influences. The research method of stable carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotope analysis is used to reconstruct the paleodiet of juveniles to determine their dietary composition. Specifically, this research is focused on Kuelap, located …

New Courland, Tobago: A Gis Analysis Of A 17th-Century Settlement, Amanda Sumner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Caribbean island of Tobago was contested by several European powers. Among them was an unlikely colonizer, the small Duchy of Courland, located in the western part of modern-day Latvia, which established the New Courland colony on the west coast of Tobago, in May 1654. The aim of this study was to determine the exact geographic location of this settlement through examination of historical texts, maps, and geographic information systems (GIS) data. Remote sensing and GIS methods were used to map the Courlander Fort Jacob on the site of an earlier Dutch fortification, Nieuw …

Among The Ancestors At Aidonia: Accessing The Past In Mycenaean Mortuary Contexts, Lynne Kvapil, Kim Shelton

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Ancient China And Its Eurasian Neighbors: Artifacts, Identity, And Death In The Frontier, 3000-700 Bce, Katheryn M. Linduff, Yan Sun, Wei Cao, Yuanqing Liu

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

This volume examines the role of objects in the region north of early dynastic state centers, at the intersection of Ancient China and Eurasia, a large area that stretches from Xinjiang to the China Sea, from c.3000 BCE to the mid-eighth century BCE. This area was a frontier, an ambiguous space that lay at the margins of direct political control by the metropolitan states, where local and colonial ideas and practices were reconstructed transculturally. These identities were often merged and displayed in material culture. Types of objects, styles, and iconography were often hybrids or new to the region, as were …

Reconstructing Ancient Burials At Loma Don Genaro, Alexandra M. Kulenguski

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis reconstructs and analyzes a Classic period (AD 250-800) burial collection from the archaeological site of Loma Don Genaro in Oaxaca, Mexico. This research aims to address two main questions: 1.) What information about the burial collection is available through the archaeological archives? 2.) What does this information tell us about social organization during the Classic period at Loma Don Genaro? In order to address these questions, the following objectives were explored: to reconstruct ancient burials using archival material; to describe the burial demography across the site; to describe variation in grave goods; to relatively date and order the …

Data Management In Anthropology: The Next Phase In Ethics Governance?, Igor Boog, J. Henrike Florusbosch, Zane Kripe, Tessa Minter, Peter Pels, Metje Postma, Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner, Bob Simpson, Hansjörg Dilger, Michael Schönhuth, Anita Von Poser, Rena Lederman, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Recent demands for accountability in ‘data management’ by funding agencies, universities, international journals and other academic institutions have worried many anthropologists and ethnographers. While their demands for transparency and integrity in opening up data for scrutiny seem to enhance scientific integrity, such principles do not always consider the way the social relationships of research are properly maintained. As a springboard, the present Forum, triggered by such recent demands to account for the use of ‘data’, discusses the present state of anthropological research and academic ethics/integrity in a broader perspective. It specifically gives voice to our disciplinary concerns and leads to …

Using Virtual Reality And Photogrammetry To Enrich 3d Object Identity, Cole Juckette, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Hector Eluid Guerra Aldana, Norman Martinez

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The creation of digital 3D models for cultural heritage is commonplace. With the advent of efficient and cost effective technologies archaeologists are making a plethora of digital assets. This paper evaluates the identity of 3D digital assets and explores how to enhance or expand that identity by integrating photogrammetric models into VR. We propose that when a digital object acquires spatial context from its virtual surroundings, it gains an identity in relation to that virtual space, the same way that embedding the object with metadata gives it a specific identity through its relationship to other information. We explore this concept …

The Origin Of Dark Mats At The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45pi408) Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, Sean Stcherbinine

All Master's Theses

The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site is a precontact archaeological site located in the upland forest soils of Mount Rainier National Park. Site stratigraphy is complicated, consisting of tephra deposits from mostly known origins that are intercalated with dark sediments of unknown origin, referred to here as dark mats. Precontact occupation has been split previously into two components based on the ambiguous depositional history of the dark mats, notably their unknown parent material, depositional environment, and relationship with adjacent tephra strata. Stratigraphic samples from excavation units, features, and one off-site excavation unit was used to investigate these data gaps. Grain …

Solar Alignment And The Irish Passage Tomb Tradition, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

A succinct and very useful, illustrated, explanatory guide to the phenomenon of solar alignment in the irish Passage Tomb tradition. Includes a listing of where to visit the 15 known astronomically aligned passage tombs in the 32 counties.

Written by Dr Frank Prendergast who is now Emeritus at the Dublin Institute of Technology, where he researches Irish prehistoric monuments and their landscapes from a cultural astronomy perspective. His current interests and publications are on the meaning of the dark sky in the prehistoric past and on the conservation of archaeological landscapes from light pollution.

Heritage Guides are included free with …

Archaeological Investigations At The Old Manse, 2016-2017, Concord, Massachusetts, Alexandra Crowder, John M. Steinberg, Brian N. Damiata, Christa M. Beranek

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Two phases of archaeological investigations were conducted at the Old Manse in Concord, MA, in advance of a proposed visitor center and other construction activity at the property. In 2016, a geophysical survey was carried out over the parking lot and in the area east of the historic barn location. Although subsequent test excavations had been proposed for the same areas, these were not carried out because the construction project was put on hold. In 2017, five shovel test pits and one excavation unit were excavated in an area west of the current garden in an area that was proposed …

Respect The Land - It’S Like Part Of Us: A Traditional Use Study Of Inland Dena’Ina Ties To The Chulitna River & Sixmile Lake Basins, Lake Clark National Park And Preserve, Douglas Deur, Karen Evanoff, Jamie Hebert

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

For countless generations, Lake Clark has been home to the inland Dena’ina people. This unique and vast fresh-water lake complex sits at the intersection of sprawling tundra, taiga, and jagged cordillera, dotted with villages. Here, village life has been sustained by herds of caribou, shorelines populated by moose and beaver, vast runs of salmon ascending from Bristol Bay, and other natural assets. But the area’s uniqueness extends beyond its abundant natural resources. Also unique is the National Park Service (NPS) unit that has occupied the region known as Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (LACL) in recent decades.

The study …

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 …

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

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 …