A Comparative Study of the Preceramic Occupations of North America

1953 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley R. Hurt
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
North American ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
North American Archaeology ◽  
Relative Chronology ◽  
Good Guess

In view of the present turmoil in North American archaeology caused by the continuing release of radiocarbon dates, it is most difficult to maintain an understanding of the preceramic occupations. What seems like a good guess today is tomorrow relegated to the realm of unwarranted speculation. The continual excavation of preceramic sites in North America and the constant revision in geological and climatological theories also force us to be cautious in making interpretations and to be willing to change any of them. Yet the evidence now available for reconstructing the preceramic traditions in some instances appears to be sufficient and reliable enough to justify certain interpretations, even though reservations must be kept in mind. In particular the relative chronology of several cultural complexes is slowly taking form.

The Watercraft of Isla Cedros, Baja California: Variability and Capabilities of Indigenous Seafaring Technology along the Pacific Coast of North America

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Des Lauriers
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Baja California ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
North American Archaeology ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
Northwestern Mexico

Many of the discussions addressing the issue of the capabilities and significance of early watercraft forms or a regionally specific evolutionary sequence for craft such as the Southern California plank canoe have limited their range of analogies to those forms present among the ethnohistorically documented groups of Southern California. However, this article attempts to demonstrate the existence of at least one additional form of watercraft present on the Pacific coast of Baja California, as well as call attention to the greatly underrepresented capabilities of some long-recognized forms of watercraft. Inference, historic documents, contemporary environmental conditions, and archaeological data are used in an attempt to reconstruct a meaningful picture of Isla Cedros watercraft and their place within the repertoire of indigenous maritime culture and society. It is suggested that modern political boundaries have resulted in the exclusion of Baja California from discussions of North American archaeology. This discussion attempts to be a contribution to concepts of indigenous watercraft along the Pacific coast of North America and a vehicle to expand the research horizons of North American archaeology to include the underinvestigated regions of Baja California and northwestern Mexico.

The 1990s: North American archaeology with a human face?

Antiquity ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (245) ◽  
pp. 778-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Trigger
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Standard Account ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
The Past ◽  
North American Archaeology ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

The English reviewer for Nature (Renfrew 1990) declared that Bruce Trigger's new history of archaeology will become the standard account of our subject's history, and the French reviewer for ANTIQUITY also has a warm view (this issue, page 960). Having looked to the past, what does Trigger see for the future of archaeology in North America, as the reaction comes to the view of archaeology as, primarily, science that has dominated these last decades?

scholarly journals Refined Radiocarbon Chronologies for Northern Iroquoian Site Sequences: Implications for Coalescence, Conflict, and the Reception of European Goods

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Birch ◽  
Sturt W. Manning ◽  
Samantha Sanft ◽  
Megan Anne Conger
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
High Precision ◽  
North American ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
Cultural Process ◽  
North American Archaeology ◽  
European Trade

This article presents results to date of the Dating Iroquoia project. Our objective is to develop high-precision radiocarbon chronologies for northeastern North American archaeology. Here, we employ Bayesian chronological modeling of 184 AMS radiocarbon dates derived from 42 Northern Iroquoian village sites in five regional sequences in order to construct new date estimates. The resulting revised chronology demands a rethinking of key assumptions about cultural process in the region regarding the directionality and timing of processes of coalescence and conflict and the introduction of European trade goods. The results suggest that internal conflict may have preceded confederacy formation among the Haudenosaunee but not the Wendat, as has been previously assumed. External conflict, previously thought to have begun in the early seventeenth century, began more than a century earlier. New data also indicate that the timing and distribution of European materials were more variable between communities than acknowledged by the logic underlying traditional trade-good chronologies. This enhanced chronological resolution permits the development and application of archaeological theories that center the lived experiences and relational histories of Iroquoian communities, as opposed to the generalized thinking that has dominated past explanatory frameworks.

scholarly journals The Digital Index of North American Archaeology: networking government data to navigate an uncertain future for the past

Antiquity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (362) ◽  
pp. 490-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric C. Kansa ◽  
Sarah W. Kansa ◽  
Josh J. Wells ◽  
Stephen J. Yerka ◽  
Kelsey N. Myers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
The Past ◽  
North American Archaeology ◽  
Government Data ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Image Position

Abstract

The 1990s: North American Archaeology with a Human Face?

2017 ◽  
pp. 195-207
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Trigger
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Human Face ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
North American Archaeology

Transformations of the Past: Teachers' Knowledge of North American Archaeology

1999 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 266-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary S. Black
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
The Past ◽  
North American Archaeology

NORTH AMERICAN ARCHÆOLOGY

2011 ◽  
pp. 198-236
Author(s):  
John Lubbock
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
American Archaeology ◽  
North American Archaeology
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