Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Wampum Diplomacy: The Historical And Archaeological Evidence For Wampum At Fort Niagara, Elizabeth S. Peña

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The 18th-century French and British post at Fort Niagara was the site of numerous conferences and meetings in which wampum beads were exchanged between European powers and Native Americans. Considering the distance from shell sources and wampum production sites, this article explores the presence of wampum at Fort Niagara through an examination of the archaeological and documentary evidence. It is suggested that, via several intermediaries, the Fort Niagara wampum beads originated in Albany, an 18th-century hub of wampum production.

"Articles Too Tedious To Enumerate": The Appreciation Of Ceramics In Mid-18th-Century Newport, Rhode Island, Christina Hodge

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Ceramic possession in mid-18th-century Newport, Rhode Island is contextualized through an analysis of newspapers and probate lists, providing background for the interpretation of archaeological remains from a mid-18th-century house lot in Newport that is now part of the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard site. The interpretation of ceramic evidence is approached through notions of tediousness, taste, and distinction. The language of contemporary documents highlights differences in the perception of different ware types and forms over time; references to stoneware and creamware, for example, did not meet expectations. The relationship between levels of ceramic marking in texts and ceramics’ perceived social significance is not always …

Editor's Introduction, David B. Langdon

Northeast Historical Archaeology

David Langdon highlights the articles present in the 40th anniversary issue of the Journal of Northeast Historical Archaeology.

Award For Excellence, Sherene Baugher

Northeast Historical Archaeology

For the 40th anniversary year of CNEHA, Pierre Beaudet, once Chair of the Board for 9 years, recieves an Award for Excellence in Service.

The Contact Period Of Central Peten, Guatemala In Color, Timothy W. Pugh, Leslie G. Cecil

Faculty Publications

When Bernal Díaz del Castillo passed by Nojpeten with Hernán Cortés in 1525, he remarked upon the Itza capital’s brilliant whiteness, even from a great distance (Jones 1998:69). However had he stood in the central plaza, he would have discerned that the sun’s reflection eclipsed artifacts and architecture of a variety of colors. The archaeological record is frequently similarly whitewashed by our focus upon form, weight, and distribution. Nevertheless, color helped imbue the Contact period (AD 1525-1697) world of the Maya of the Petén lakes region of Guatemala with significance. This paper investigates the colors of ritual paraphernalia encountered in …

Issue 61, Autumn 2012, Society Of Bead Researchers

The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers

Bead Classification Methods: An Archaeological Case Study from a Shipwreck in Elmina, Ghana: Part I in a series of II articles, by Lisa Hopwood. • 2012 International Iroquois Beadwork Conference, by Karlis Karklins.

Jaqueline Eng, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

Evidence of what might be an ancient funerary defleshing ritual found in human-made caves in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal has been discovered by WMU bio-archaeologist Dr. Jacqueline Eng as a member of a research team that is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

Jaqueline Eng's website

Hawaiian Presence At Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fort Vancouver, as the colonial "Capital" of the Pacific Northwest in the 1820s-1840s, supported a multiethnic village of 600-1,000 occupants. A number of the villagers were Hawaiian men who worked in the agricultural fields and sawmills of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) operations. Identification of Hawaiian residences and activities has been an important element of studies of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver, Washington, since the 1960s.

Kauanui calls for a "broad research agenda that accounts for Hawaiian movements in their respective contexts of conditions, periods, reasons, and desires, to allow us to better account for Hawaiian presence on the …

Southern Nevada Agency Partnership Cultural Site Stewardship Program – Program Expansion And Steward Retention: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending September 30, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

• Stewardship transfers site information and personal data to State database
• Regional areas and sites are introduced to state volunteer coordinators
• Core stewardship class will be held October 6 at UNLV

Choosing The Best Plant For The Job: A Cost-Effective Assay To Prescreen Ancient Plant Remains Destined For Shotgun Sequencing, Nathan Wales, J. Alberto Romero-Navarro, Enrico Cappellini, M. Thomas P. Gilbert

Anthropology Articles

DNA extracted from ancient plant remains almost always contains a mixture of endogenous (that is, derived from the plant) and exogenous (derived from other sources) DNA. The exogenous ‘contaminant’ DNA, chiefly derived from microorganisms, presents significant problems for shotgun sequencing. In some samples, more than 90% of the recovered sequences are exogenous, providing limited data relevant to the sample. However, other samples have far less contamination and subsequently yield much more useful data via shotgun sequencing. Given the investment required for high-throughput sequencing, whenever multiple samples are available, it is most economical to sequence the least contaminated sample. We present …

Reconstructing Ohio's Ancient Past One Pot Sherd At A Time, Mack Cline, Caitlin Jones, Anthony Magnone

Undergraduate Research Posters 2012

The primary focus of our research was to analyze, conserve, and reconstruct ancient prehistoric pottery from the Cramer Village Site, a Fort Ancient-era (AD 900-1200) site located on the west bank of the Scioto River in Union Township, Ross County, Ohio.

Seeing Is Evolving: Biocultural Evolution Of Refractive Error And Stone Tool Industries, Erin Mcquillan-Hicks

Anthropology Undergraduate Senior Theses

While previous studies have examined different aspects of hominin Biocultural evolution and stone tools, this project will consider the role which vision might have had in tool production. Paralleling Key and Lycett's line of argument, we believe that vision would have played just as integral a role in producing an ideal cutting tool as precision gripping. If a certain type of vision was "adaptive" to stone tool synthesis, then this would explain its frequency in modern human populations. Consequently, this study will attempt to answer why there is such a significant number of individuals possessing seemingly maladaptive visual errors in …

Genetic Characteristics Of An Ancient Nomadic Group In Northern China, Haijing Wang, Lu Chen, Binwen Ge, Ye Zhang, Hong Zhu, Hui Zhou

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Nomadic populations have played a significant role in the history of not only China but also in many nations worldwide. Because they had no written language, an important aspect in the study of these people is the discovery of their tombs. It has been generally accepted that Xiongnu was the first empire created by nomadic tribe in the 3rd century B.C. However, little population genetic information is available concerning the Donghu, another flourishing nomadic tribe at the same period because of the restriction of materials until Jinggouzi site was excavated. In order to test the genetic characteristics of ancient people …

An Analysis Of Personal Adornment At Fort St. Joseph (20be23), An Eighteenth-Century French Trading Post In Southwest Michigan, Ian B. Kerr

Masters Theses

Since 1998 Western Michigan University archaeologists have investigated Fort St. Joseph (20BE23), an 18th century mission, garrison and trading post located in present day Niles, Michigan. The project’s research directive focuses on exploring notions of identity formation and its material expression in light of the prolonged and persistent cultural contact between Native Americans and Europeans at the site.

This thesis seeks to further this directive by exploring how personal adornment materiality both structures and broadcasts individuals’ social identities. By employing an intrasite spatial analysis of the assemblage of adornment artifacts from recognized domestic contexts at Fort St. Joseph this thesis …

Sheep And Wool In Nineteenth-Century Falmouth, Ma: Examining The Collapse Of A Cape Cod Industry, Leo Patrick Ledwell

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines the collapse of the sheep industry in Falmouth, Massachusetts in the 1830s. The documentary evidence for the collapse is examined through both the lens of microhistory and that of the traditional model for the collapse, one set forth by the American Geographical Society. The traditional model suggests that the importation of cheap agricultural goods from western states like Ohio caused the collapse of commercial farming in New England. An examination of the local evidence, however, suggests that the real reasons for the collapse of the sheep industry in Falmouth are much more complex, leaving open the possibility …

Bones In The Landfill: A Zooarchaeological Study From Faneuil Hall, Linda M. Santoro

Graduate Masters Theses

Using data from recent archaeological excavations at Faneuil Hall in Boston, this thesis examines how an 18th-century urban landfill context can be used towards understanding the broader foodways of a city community. Much of today's urban landscape has been artificially created over time, often through the efforts of communities to fill land and dispose of their garbage, and it is important for archaeologists to utilize these contexts in meaningful ways. The Town Dock was gradually filled in with the daily trash of the merchants, shop-keepers, and other residents of the nearby community, and the faunal assemblage gives us a glimpse …

Kites For Low Cost Near Earth Aerial Archaeological Photography, Robert Joseph Brandon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an overview of kite aerial photography (KAP) as a platform for archaeologists to acquire time sensitive unmanned near earth aerial photography for archaeological research. The methods and tools reviewed in this thesis are limited to those that make this technology accessible to the typical poorly funded archaeologists working in remote locations. The KAP methods detailed here have a low start up cost, are easy to transport, and a can be easily learned by archaeologists. The goal of this thesis is to promote KAP as a significant and regularly utilized tool for archaeological projects.

Shenshi 紳士 Atau Gentry Cina: Sekilas Sejarah Dan Profil Kaum Aristokrat Cina Pada Zaman Kekaisaran, Adrianus L.G Waworuntu

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

In order to comprehend the many aspects of social and cultural historiography of traditional China, it is imperative to recognize who are the main actors. In traditional Chinese society, there is a significant category known as the Chinese gentry, or the shenshi 紳士 in Mandarin. They were known as the Chinese scholar-official class who administered the traditional Chinese dynastic government system since more than two-thousand years ago until the abolishment of the system in 1911. The Chinese gentry emerged from the intellectuals who became officials by going through a special, open-recruited, educational system; a system that enabled every person from …

Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry Analysis Of Lower Pecos Rock Paints And Possible Pigment Sources, Jon Russ, Kaixuan Bu, Jeff Hamrick, James V. Cizdziel

Master of Science in Analytics (MSAN) Faculty Research

Chemical analyses of prehistoric rock paints from the Lower Pecos Region of southwestern Texas were undertaken using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. This technique allowed us to measure the chemical composition of the paint pigments with minimal interference from a natural rock coating that completely covers the ancient paints. We also analyzed samples representing potential sources of paint pigments, including iron-rich sandstones and quartzite from the study area and ten ochre samples from Arizona. Cluster analysis, principle component analysis and bivariate plots were used to compare the chemical compositions of the paint and pigment sources. The results indicate that limonite …

Archeological Site Assesments And Survey At Aquilla Lake, Hill County, Texas, Aaron R. Norment, Karl W. Kibler, Amy E. Dase

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Personnel from Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted archeological site assessments and survey at Aquilla Lake from November to December 2010 in preparation for a pool raise planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. The proposed pool raise could potentially raise the conservation pool level of the lake by 6.5 ft. Field investigations revisited and reevaluated 41 previously recorded sites and surveyed 10 previously unsurveyed areas (180 total acres) within the confines of the proposed 6.5-ft conservation pool raise. The investigations consolidated 8 of the 41 previously recorded sites into 3, therefore reassessments are given for 36 …