Determining Provenance of Shell-Tempered Pottery from the Central Plains Using Petrography and Oxidation Analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna C. Roper ◽  
Richard L. Josephs ◽  
Margaret E. Beck
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Provenance Analysis ◽  
Central Plains ◽  
North Central ◽  
Oxidation Analysis

Late prehistoric sites on the Central Plains contain both grit/grog- (mineral-) tempered pottery and shell-tempered pottery. This appearance of shell-tempered pottery around cal A.D. 1000 has traditionally been explained as a colonization from the Mississippi River valley with further dispersal via trade. As a result, very little is known about the role of this material in the region. We report the results of a provenance analysis of shell-tempered pottery from seven sites extending from the Missouri River valley to north-central Kansas. We use petrography and oxidation analysis to compare the shell-tempered pottery across these localities and the shell-tempered to the mineral-tempered pottery from each locality, and we compare mineral inclusions and clay characteristics in all pottery with published geological and pedological information for each locality. The results demonstrate that shell-tempered pottery was locally produced throughout at least a portion of the Central Plains. Differences in firing technology are apparent across the study area and may play a role in the distribution of shell-tempered pottery. Two other results are the identification of composite temper in a notable proportion of the sherds studied, and indications of from where on the landscape Central Plains potters were procuring their raw materials.

WORKING WITH CLAY

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary A. Joyce ◽  
Julia A. Hendon ◽  
Jeanne Lopiparo
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Craft Production ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
North Central ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractEvidence from sites in the lower Ulua valley of north-central Honduras, occupied betweena.d.500 and 1000, provides new insight into the connections between households, craft production, and the role of objects in maintaining social relations within and across households. Production of pottery vessels, figurines, and other items in a household context has been documented at several sites in the valley, including Cerro Palenque, Travesía, Campo Dos, and Campo Pineda. Differences in raw materials, in what was made, and in the size and design of firing facilities allow us to explore how crafting with clay created communities of practice made up of people with varying levels of knowledge, experience, and skill. We argue that focusing on the specific features of a particular craft and the crafter's perspective gives us insight into the ways that crafting contributed to the reproduction of social identities, local histories, and connections among members of communities of practice who comprised multicrafting households.

Temporal Data Requirements, Luminescence Dates, and the Resolution of Chronological Structure of Late Prehistoric Deposits in the Central Mississippi River Valley

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl P. Lipo ◽  
James K. Feathers ◽  
Robert C. Dunnell
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Temporal Data ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Single Culture ◽  
Data Requirements ◽  
Evolutionary Explanations

Our ability to order chronologically the archaeological record has long been linked to our capacity to generate explanations. Evolutionary explanations make even greater demands on chronological data requirements than most other approaches. Single date characterizations of deposits are wholly inadequate. Rather, we require distributions of dates that can be used to estimate duration and rates of assemblage formation. In addition, the events dated must have direct archaeological relevance such as artifact manufacture or deposition. In a study of the evolution of social complexity in the late prehistoric record of the central Mississippi River valley, luminescence dates of sherds that have been assigned to a single culture historical type provide a means of determining the chronological character of assemblages derived from large village deposits. In this way, the temporal data requirements for evolutionary accounts can be met reliably.

scholarly journals NORTHERN PECAN CULTURE IN NEBRASKA

HortScience ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1135e-1135
Author(s):  
W.A. (Bill) Gustafson ◽  
Todd M. Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Shade Tree ◽  
Excellent Quality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Native Trees ◽  
Food Value

The Northern Pecan Research Program was established in 1979 and designed to determine the potential of growing the northern pecan as both an ornamental shade tree and as a possible crop in Nebraska. In 1983, 2 year old seedlings planted in 1981 were grafted to 54 superior pecan clones/cultivars (total of 324 trees) in a two-acre orchard in Lincoln, NE. Most of these clones were selected from native trees growing in and along the Mississippi River Valley in Northeast Iowa/Northwest Illinois, and the Missouri River Valley in Northwest Missouri/Northeast Kansas. These pecans were specifically selected for having the potential to survive winter temps to -35° F and produce crops in a 130-180 day growing season. There is now a need to research the production of pecans in a commercial orchard situation. The past 9 years of research has demonstrated that pecans will survive and produce an edible crop with excellent quality and food value.

The Effect of Exogenous Fluoride on the Calcium PUMP, Ciliary Activity, and Shell Formation of the Fingernail Clam, Musculium Transversum

1982 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 58-59
Author(s):  
Anthony Paparo ◽  
Judy A. Murphy ◽  
Robert Dean
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Calcium Pump ◽  
Bottom Fauna ◽  
Ciliary Activity ◽  
Shell Formation ◽  
Middle Reach ◽  
Shell Matrix ◽  
Fingernail Clams ◽  
Ca Carbonate

In the mid-1950's, fingernail clams virtually disappeared from a 100-mile section of the IL River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, due to unknown causes. A survey of the bottom fauna of the IL River in 1979, revealed that the clams were still absent from the middle reach of the River, where they had been abundant prior to the die-off in the 1950's. Some factor(s) in the River currently prevent the clams from recolonizing areas where they were formerly abundant. Recently, clams exposed to fluoride developed abnormal grooves in the shell matrix. Fluorides are known to be protoplasmic poisons removing essential body calcium by precipitation. Since the shell consists primarily of Ca carbonate, this investigation examines the possible role of fluoride on shell formation and the poisoning of the Ca pump which can directly inhibit lateral ciliary activity on the gill.

The use of scanning electron microscopy in interpreting chenopodium remains from three archaeological sites in northwestern Iowa

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 1112-1113
Author(s):  
Douglas William Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Chenopodium Berlandieri ◽  
Seed Identification ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Scanning Electron

Within the past 20 years, archaeobotanical research in the Eastern United States has documented an early agricultural complex before the dominance of the Mesoamerican domesticates (corn, beans, and squash) in late prehistoric and historic agricultural systems. This early agricultural complex consisted of domesticated plants such as Iva annua var.macrocarpa (Sumpweed or Marshelder), Hellanthus annuus (Sunflower) and Chenopodium berlandieri, (Goosefoot or Lasbsquarters), and heavily utilized plants such as Polygonum erectum (Erect Knotweed), Phalaris caroliniana (May grass), and Hordeum pusillum (Little Barley).Recent research involving the use of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) specifically on Chenopodium has established diagnostic traits of wild and domesticated species seeds. This is important because carbonized or uncarbonized seeds are the most commonly recovered Chenopodium material from archaeological sites. The diagnostic seed traits assist archaeobotanists in identification of Chenopodium remains and provide a basis for evaluation of Chenopodium utilization in a culture's subsistence patterns. With the aid of SEM, an analysis of Chenopodium remains from three Late Prehistoric sites in Northwest Iowa (Blood Run [Oneota culture], Brewster [Mill Creek culture], and Chan-Ya-Ta [Mill Creek culture]) has been conducted to: 1) attempt seed identification to a species level, 2) evaluate the traits of the seeds for classification as either wild or domesticated, and 3) evaluate the role of Chenopodium utilization in both the Oneota and Mill Creek cultures.

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