scholarly journals Contextualizing Ancestral Pueblo Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) Management

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyler Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Meleagris Gallopavo ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Human Management ◽  
Human Animal

AbstractPenning turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo spp.) in the Ancestral Pueblo American Southwest/Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) involved the creation or use of a variety of spaces and contexts throughout AD 1–1600 and into the post-contact era. Turkey pens, or captivity, occur through simple tethering, reuse of abandoned pit houses or surface rooms, or creation of pens within villages, plazas, and elsewhere. Turkey dung, droppings, and eggshells are fundamental for determining the presence or absence of pens at archaeological sites. In this paper, I review the archaeological record for turkey pens and focus on three main questions: (1) how are turkey pens identified in the SW/NW, (2) if turkey pen construction or evidence for turkey captivity shifts through time, and (3) what the record of turkey penning informs us regarding the long-term human management of these birds and global perspectives on human–bird/human–animal management. Ancestral Pueblo peoples created an adaptive and flexible strategy for turkey penning, which successfully integrated these birds into ceremonial and socioeconomic processes for approximately 1600 years.

Testing for Mississippian Period Turkey Management in the Archaeological Record of the Southeastern United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Erin Kennedy Thornton ◽  
Tanya Peres ◽  
Kelly Ledford Chase ◽  
Brian M. Kemp ◽  
Ryan Frome ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Meleagris Gallopavo ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Intensive Management ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Dna Analyses ◽  
Combined Data

People living in Mesoamerica and what is now the eastern and southwestern United States used turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) as sources of meat, eggs, bones, and feathers. Turkey husbandry and domestication are confirmed in two of these regions (Mesoamerica and the American Southwest), but human-turkey interactions in Eastern North American (eastern United States and Canada) are not fully explored. We apply stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) and ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses to archaeofaunal samples from seven sites in the southeastern United States to test whether turkeys were managed or captively reared. These combined data do not support prolonged or intensive captive rearing of turkeys, and evidence for less intensive management is ambiguous. More research is warranted to determine whether people managed turkeys in these areas, and whether this is generalizable. Determining whether turkeys were managed or reared in the southeastern United States helps define cultural and environmental factors related to turkey management or husbandry throughout North America. This inquiry contributes to discussion of the roles of intensified human-animal interactions in animal domestication.

Late Archaic Totemism in the Greater American Southwest

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy J. Coulam ◽  
Alan R. Schroedl
Keyword(s):  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Green River

Split-twig figurines, willow branches bent to resemble miniature animals and dating between 2900 B.C. and 1250 B.C., have been found at 30 Late Archaic period archaeological sites in the Greater American Southwest. Two different and geographically distinct construction styles, Grand Canyon and Green River, have been identified for split-twig figurines. Application of ethnographic analogy to the current split-twig figurine archaeological record supports the postulate that the two different styles of split-twig figurines served two different functions. The Grand Canyon-style figurines generally functioned as increase totems whereas the Green River-style functioned as social totems. This is the first example of increase totemism reported for the region. Ritual and social attitudes toward the animal and totem eventually ended and the last split-twig figurine was discarded around 1250 B.C.

scholarly journals Hydroclimate Variability Influenced Social Interaction in the Prehistoric American Southwest

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hydroclimate Variability ◽  
Droughts And Floods ◽  
Agrarian Societies

When droughts and floods struck ancient agrarian societies, complex networks of exchange and interaction channeled resources into affected settlements and migrant flows away from them. Did these networks evolve in part to connect populations living in differing climate regimes? Here, I examine this relationship with a long-term archaeological case study in the pre-Hispanic North American Southwest, analyzing 4.3 million artifacts from a 250-year period at nearly 500 archaeological sites. I use these artifacts to estimate how the flow of social information changed over time, and to measure how the intensity of social interaction between sites varied as a function of distance and several regional drought patterns. Social interaction decayed with distance, but ties between sites in differing oceanic and continental climate regimes were often stronger than expected by distance alone. Accounting for these different regional drivers of local climate variability will be crucial for understanding the social impacts of droughts and floods in the past and present.

scholarly journals POR UMA HISTÓRIA INDáGENA DE LONGA DURAÇÃO: cronologia das ocupações humanas pré-coloniais na Ilha de São Luá­s ”“ MA

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (25) ◽  
pp. 24-50
Author(s):  
ARKLEY MARQUES BANDEIRA
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Indigenous History ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Sobre Todo

 O artigo sintetiza parte dos resultados obtidos na tese de doutorado do autor, que versou sobre os processos pré-coloniais relacionados á  ocupação humana na Ilha de São Luá­s ”“ MA, em sua longa duração. Será abordada a cronologia obtida na pesquisa, sobretudo as datas relacionadas com os diferentes momentos de ocupação dos sá­tios arqueológicos, a partir de uma perspectiva regional, diacrônica e inter sá­tio. A pesquisa centrou-se em métodos da Arqueologia para investigar cinco sá­tios arqueológicos, a saber: os sambaquis do Bacanga, Panaquatira e Paço do Lumiar e os sá­tios cerá¢micos Vinhais Velho e Maiobinha I. Os resultados permitiram reconhecer os processos de formação do registro arqueológico, a espacialidade dos sá­tios e o contexto deposicional dos antigos assentamentos de diversos povos que ocuparam a Ilha de São Luá­s, desde 6.600 anos atrás, estendendo-se até os primeiros séculos do Brasil colonial.Palavras-chave: Arqueologia. Cronologia. Ocupações humanas. Longa duração.FOR A LONG-TERM INDIGENOUS HISTORY:  chronology of pre-colonial human occupations on the Island of São Luá­s ”“ MA    Abstract: The article synthesizes part of the results obtained in the doctoral thesis of the author, which dealt with the pre - colonial processes related to human occupation in the Island of São Luá­s ”“ MA, in its long duration. It will be approached the chronology obtained in the research, especially the dates related to the different moments of occupation of the archaeological sites, from a regional, diachronic and inter-site perspective. The research focused on methods of Archeology to investigate five archaeological sites, namely the Bacanga”™s, Panaquatira”™s and Paço do Lumiar”™s shellmounds and the Vinhais Velho”™s and Maiobinha I”™s ceramic sites. The results allowed to recognize the processes of formation of the archaeological record, the spatiality of the sites and the depositional context of the ancient settlements of several peoples who occupied the Island of São Luá­s, from 6,600 years ago, extending to the first centuries of colonial Brazil.Keywords: Archeology. Chronology. Human occupations. Long-term.  POR UNA HISTORIA INDáGENA DE LARGA DURACIÓN:  cronologá­a de las ocupaciones humanas precoloniales en la Isla de São Luá­s - MAResumen: El artá­culo sintetiza parte de los resultados obtenidos en la tesis de doctorado del autor, que versó sobre los procesos precoloniales relacionados a la ocupación humana en la Isla de São Luá­s - MA, en su larga duración. Se abordará la cronologá­a obtenida en la investigación, sobre todo las fechas relacionadas con los diferentes momentos de ocupación de los sitios arqueológicos, a partir de una perspectiva regional, diacrónica e inter local. La investigación se centró en métodos de la Arqueologá­a para investigar cinco sitios arqueológicos, a saber: los concheros del Bacanga, Panaquatira y Paço do Lumiar y los sitios cerámicos Vinhais Velho y Maiobinha I. Los resultados permitieron reconocer los procesos de formación del registro arqueológico, la espacialidad de los sitios y el contexto deposicional de los antiguos asentamientos de diversos pueblos que ocuparon la Isla de São Luá­s, desde 6.600 años atrás, extendiéndose hasta los primeros siglos del Brasil colonial.Palabras clave: Arqueologá­a. Cronologá­a. Ocupaciones humanas. Larga duración.  

scholarly journals Hydroclimate variability influenced social interaction in the prehistoric American Southwest

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hydroclimate Variability ◽  
Droughts And Floods ◽  
Agrarian Societies

When droughts and floods struck ancient agrarian societies, complex networks of exchange and interaction channeled resources into affected settlements and migrant flows away from them. Did these networks evolve in part to connect populations living in differing climate regimes? Here, I examine this relationship with a long-term archaeological case study in the pre-Hispanic North American Southwest, analyzing 7.5 million artifacts from a 250-year period at nearly 500 archaeological sites. I use these artifacts to estimate how the flow of social information changed over time, and to measure how the intensity of social interaction between sites varied as a function of distance and several regional drought patterns. Social interaction decayed with distance, but ties between sites in differing oceanic and continental climate regimes were often stronger than expected. Accounting for these different regional drivers of local climate variability will be crucial for understanding the social impacts of droughts and floods in the past and present.

Preparation And elemental analysis of ancient fibers

1987 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 410-411
Author(s):  
Allen Angel ◽  
Kathryn A. Jakes
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Physical Structure ◽  
Energy Dispersive ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Backscattered Electron ◽  
Electron Imaging

Fabrics recovered from archaeological sites often are so badly degraded that fiber identification based on physical morphology is difficult. Although diagenetic changes may be viewed as destructive to factors necessary for the discernment of fiber information, changes occurring during any stage of a fiber's lifetime leave a record within the fiber's chemical and physical structure. These alterations may offer valuable clues to understanding the conditions of the fiber's growth, fiber preparation and fabric processing technology and conditions of burial or long term storage (1).Energy dispersive spectrometry has been reported to be suitable for determination of mordant treatment on historic fibers (2,3) and has been used to characterize metal wrapping of combination yarns (4,5). In this study, a technique is developed which provides fractured cross sections of fibers for x-ray analysis and elemental mapping. In addition, backscattered electron imaging (BSI) and energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis (EDS) are utilized to correlate elements to their distribution in fibers.

Loom weights in Archaic South Italy and Sicily: Fice case studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 123-155
Author(s):  
Hedvig Landenius Enegren
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Experimental Archaeology ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Specificity ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
Tool Technology

Textiles are perishables in the archaeological record unless specific environmental conditions are met. Fortunately, the textile tools used in their manufacture can provide a wealth of information and via experimental archaeology make visible to an extent what has been lost. The article presents and discusses the results obtained in a research project focused on textile tool technologies and identities in the context of settler and indigenous peoples, at select archaeological sites in South Italy and Sicily in the Archaic and Early Classical periods, with an emphasis on loom weights. Despite a common functional tool technology, the examined loom weights reveal an intriguing inter-site specificity, which, it is argued, is the result of hybrid expressions embedded in local traditions. Experimental archaeology testing is applied in the interpretation of the functional qualities of this common artefact.

Colour and Directional Symbolism in Ancestral Pueblo Radial Offerings from Chaco Canyon

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Hannah V. Mattson
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Regional System ◽  
Roof Support

Dedicatory offerings of small colourful objects are often found in pre-Hispanic architectural contexts in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest. These deposits are particularly numerous in the roof support pillars of circular ritual structures (kivas) at the site of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, which served as the ceremonial hub of the Chacoan regional system between the tenth and twelfth centuries ce. Based on the importance of directionality and colour in traditional Pueblo worldviews, archaeologists speculate that the contents of these radial offerings may likewise reference significant Chacoan cosmographic elements. In this paper, I explore this idea by examining the distribution of colours and materials in kiva pilaster repositories in relation to directional quadrants, prominent landscape features, and raw material sources. I discuss the results in the context of Pueblo cosmology and assemblage theory, arguing that particular colours were polyvalent and relational, deriving their meanings from their positions within interacting and heterogenous assemblages.

scholarly journals Past megadroughts in central Europe were longer, more severe and less warm than modern droughts

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ionita ◽  
M. Dima ◽  
V. Nagavciuc ◽  
P. Scholz ◽  
G. Lohmann
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Explosive Volcanism ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
The North ◽  
European Climate ◽  
Blocking Activity ◽  
Meteorological Observations ◽  
Dalton Minimum

AbstractMegadroughts are notable manifestations of the American Southwest, but not so much of the European climate. By using long-term hydrological and meteorological observations, as well as paleoclimate reconstructions, here we show that central Europe has experienced much longer and severe droughts during the Spörer Minimum (~AD 1400–1480) and Dalton Minimum (~AD 1770–1840), than the ones observed during the 21st century. These two megadroughts appear to be linked with a cold state of the North Atlantic Ocean and enhanced winter atmospheric blocking activity over the British Isles and western part of Europe, concurrent with reduced solar forcing and explosive volcanism. Moreover, we show that the recent drought events (e.g., 2003, 2015, and 2018), are within the range of natural variability and they are not unprecedented over the last millennium.

scholarly journals Predicting wildfire impacts on the prehistoric archaeological record of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA

Fire Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan M. Friggens ◽  
Rachel A. Loehman ◽  
Connie I. Constan ◽  
Rebekah R. Kneifel
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Jemez Mountains ◽  
Archaeological Materials

Abstract Background Wildfires of uncharacteristic severity, a consequence of climate changes and accumulated fuels, can cause amplified or novel impacts to archaeological resources. The archaeological record includes physical features associated with human activity; these exist within ecological landscapes and provide a unique long-term perspective on human–environment interactions. The potential for fire-caused damage to archaeological materials is of major concern because these resources are irreplaceable and non-renewable, have social or religious significance for living peoples, and are protected by an extensive body of legislation. Although previous studies have modeled ecological burn severity as a function of environmental setting and climate, the fidelity of these variables as predictors of archaeological fire effects has not been evaluated. This study, focused on prehistoric archaeological sites in a fire-prone and archaeologically rich landscape in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, USA, identified the environmental and climate variables that best predict observed fire severity and fire effects to archaeological features and artifacts. Results Machine learning models (Random Forest) indicate that topography and variables related to pre-fire weather and fuel condition are important predictors of fire effects and severity at archaeological sites. Fire effects were more likely to be present when fire-season weather was warmer and drier than average and within sites located in sloped, treed settings. Topographic predictors were highly important for distinguishing unburned, moderate, and high site burn severity as classified in post-fire archaeological assessments. High-severity impacts were more likely at archaeological sites with southern orientation or on warmer, steeper, slopes with less accumulated surface moisture, likely associated with lower fuel moistures and high potential for spreading fire. Conclusions Models for predicting where and when fires may negatively affect the archaeological record can be used to prioritize fuel treatments, inform fire management plans, and guide post-fire rehabilitation efforts, thus aiding in cultural resource preservation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document