This is the point recording form we'll be using for projectile points, knives, and other pointed ... more This is the point recording form we'll be using for projectile points, knives, and other pointed hafted tools from the Americas.
Page 1. 70 Lithic Technology, volume 22, no. END SCRAPER MORPHOLOGY AND USE-LIFE: AN APPROACH FOR... more Page 1. 70 Lithic Technology, volume 22, no. END SCRAPER MORPHOLOGY AND USE-LIFE: AN APPROACH FOR STUDYING PALEOINDIAN LITHIC TECHNOLOGY AND MOBILITY Juliet E. Morrow ABSTRACT Kelly and ...
Abstract Gradiometry survey at the Old Town Ridge (3CG41) site, a stockaded Middle Mississippian ... more Abstract Gradiometry survey at the Old Town Ridge (3CG41) site, a stockaded Middle Mississippian period town in the central Mississippi River Valley of Arkansas, demonstrates the efficacy of a broad-coverage, site-encompassing remote sensing methodology for initial interpretation of intrasite organization and complexity. Site access, time constraints, deep plow furrows, and cotton plant “stubble” associated with ongoing agriculture at the site defer the efficient use of a site-wide multisensor prospection methodology. However, a gradiometry survey identified multiple anomalies consistent with prehistoric structures, earthworks, earthquake liquefaction, and other interpreted features encompassed within the remains of a 7-ha, rectangular enclosure. Aerial photography, topography, and preliminary archaeological ground truthing provided additional information for analysis and interpretation.
Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Apr 7, 2014
Abstract Several researchers have suggested use of watercraft during the Early Paleoindian period... more Abstract Several researchers have suggested use of watercraft during the Early Paleoindian period 11,500 and 10,800 rcybp (13,400–12,700 cal B.P.), but none have brought empirical data to bear on this possibility. This paper addresses the potential for fluted point-making groups to have made and used boats circa 11,000 rcybp (13,000–12,800 cal B.P.). Fluted point data from a large region of the upper and central Mississippi River valley strongly suggest that the Mississippi River was a barrier to movement and that Early Paleoindians in the midcontinent did not routinely use watercraft.
This paper examines geographic variation in fluted point morphology across North and South Americ... more This paper examines geographic variation in fluted point morphology across North and South America. Metric data on 449 North American points, 31 Central American points, and 61 South American points were entered into a database. Ratios calculated from these metric attributes are used to quantify aspects of point shape across the two continents. The results of this analysis indicate gradual, progressive changes in fluted point outline shape from the Great Plains of western North America into adjacent parts of North America as well as into Central and South America. The South American “Fishtail” form of fluted point is seen as the culmination of incremental changes in point shape that began well into North America. A geographically gradual decline in fluting frequency also is consistent with the stylistic evolution of the stemmed “Fishtail” points. Although few in number, the available radiocarbon dates do suggest that “Fishtail” fluted points in southern South America are younger than the earliest dates associated with Clovis points in western North America. All of these data converge on the conclusion that South American “Fishtail” points evolved from North American fluted points.
Field Notes Bulletin of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, 2008
This article summarizes fieldwork and research conducted until 2008 on Middle Mississippian perio... more This article summarizes fieldwork and research conducted until 2008 on Middle Mississippian period cultural sites in the Western Lowlands of Arkansas and mentions five avenues for future research.
This is the point recording form we'll be using for projectile points, knives, and other pointed ... more This is the point recording form we'll be using for projectile points, knives, and other pointed hafted tools from the Americas.
Page 1. 70 Lithic Technology, volume 22, no. END SCRAPER MORPHOLOGY AND USE-LIFE: AN APPROACH FOR... more Page 1. 70 Lithic Technology, volume 22, no. END SCRAPER MORPHOLOGY AND USE-LIFE: AN APPROACH FOR STUDYING PALEOINDIAN LITHIC TECHNOLOGY AND MOBILITY Juliet E. Morrow ABSTRACT Kelly and ...
Abstract Gradiometry survey at the Old Town Ridge (3CG41) site, a stockaded Middle Mississippian ... more Abstract Gradiometry survey at the Old Town Ridge (3CG41) site, a stockaded Middle Mississippian period town in the central Mississippi River Valley of Arkansas, demonstrates the efficacy of a broad-coverage, site-encompassing remote sensing methodology for initial interpretation of intrasite organization and complexity. Site access, time constraints, deep plow furrows, and cotton plant “stubble” associated with ongoing agriculture at the site defer the efficient use of a site-wide multisensor prospection methodology. However, a gradiometry survey identified multiple anomalies consistent with prehistoric structures, earthworks, earthquake liquefaction, and other interpreted features encompassed within the remains of a 7-ha, rectangular enclosure. Aerial photography, topography, and preliminary archaeological ground truthing provided additional information for analysis and interpretation.
Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Apr 7, 2014
Abstract Several researchers have suggested use of watercraft during the Early Paleoindian period... more Abstract Several researchers have suggested use of watercraft during the Early Paleoindian period 11,500 and 10,800 rcybp (13,400–12,700 cal B.P.), but none have brought empirical data to bear on this possibility. This paper addresses the potential for fluted point-making groups to have made and used boats circa 11,000 rcybp (13,000–12,800 cal B.P.). Fluted point data from a large region of the upper and central Mississippi River valley strongly suggest that the Mississippi River was a barrier to movement and that Early Paleoindians in the midcontinent did not routinely use watercraft.
This paper examines geographic variation in fluted point morphology across North and South Americ... more This paper examines geographic variation in fluted point morphology across North and South America. Metric data on 449 North American points, 31 Central American points, and 61 South American points were entered into a database. Ratios calculated from these metric attributes are used to quantify aspects of point shape across the two continents. The results of this analysis indicate gradual, progressive changes in fluted point outline shape from the Great Plains of western North America into adjacent parts of North America as well as into Central and South America. The South American “Fishtail” form of fluted point is seen as the culmination of incremental changes in point shape that began well into North America. A geographically gradual decline in fluting frequency also is consistent with the stylistic evolution of the stemmed “Fishtail” points. Although few in number, the available radiocarbon dates do suggest that “Fishtail” fluted points in southern South America are younger than the earliest dates associated with Clovis points in western North America. All of these data converge on the conclusion that South American “Fishtail” points evolved from North American fluted points.
Field Notes Bulletin of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, 2008
This article summarizes fieldwork and research conducted until 2008 on Middle Mississippian perio... more This article summarizes fieldwork and research conducted until 2008 on Middle Mississippian period cultural sites in the Western Lowlands of Arkansas and mentions five avenues for future research.
This is an excel form I created in 1999 for recording attributes on macrodebitage from archaeolog... more This is an excel form I created in 1999 for recording attributes on macrodebitage from archaeological sites. Debitage is debris discarded by people at a place where they have conducted activities. It includes manufacturing, maintenance, and use debris. I'll provide a coding sheet to assist in the recording of attributes that allow for recognition and interpretation of human behaviors in the stone tool using eras of human existence.
ARAS-ASU Station’s Field and Lab Research at the Native American Mississippian Town known as the Greenbrier site (3IN1) on the White River in the Ozarks, 1998-2022 , 2022
The Greenbrier site is a 30+ acre agricultural town that dates to the de Soto era when there were... more The Greenbrier site is a 30+ acre agricultural town that dates to the de Soto era when there were long periods of drought. Investigations of the site began in 1998. Site wide gradiometry indicate a minimum of 127 houses, a plaza, and two double walls or wall/ditch features within about an eight acre area. One semi-subterranean house was excavated in 2000 and reinvestigated in 2023.. House #1 is tentatively interpreted as a pottery production facility. This house burned at a high temperature and was later used as a dump. House construction techniques and site formation processes will be discussed in a future paper.
This is an archive of programs and some abstracts for the Midsouth Archaeological Conference firs... more This is an archive of programs and some abstracts for the Midsouth Archaeological Conference first held as a round table discussion in 1969 at the C.H. Nash Museum at the archaeological site of Chucalissa in Memphis, Tennessee. The second Mid-South Conference in 1971 was organized by Dan F. Morse of the Arkansas Archeological Survey and held at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. This document was compiled by Mary Kwas, Kevin Smith and sent to me by Samuel O. Brookes.
A mastodon was found in a rim swamp deposit near Jonesboro AR in 1999. Sex, stature and age were ... more A mastodon was found in a rim swamp deposit near Jonesboro AR in 1999. Sex, stature and age were estimated from the remains. Gina Billeaudeau presented this information at the Arkansas Archeological Society in Ozarks as part of a Ronald McNair Scholarship through Arkansas State University.
Mississippian Occupation of the Western Lowlands , 2013
Mississippian chronology is revised and refined from the traditional tripartite arbitrary Early, ... more Mississippian chronology is revised and refined from the traditional tripartite arbitrary Early, Middle, and Late periods to five periods (Emergent, Early, Transitional, Middle, and Late), based on radiocarbon dates and artifact analyses.
T h e A r k a n s a s K i n g Ma s t o d o n a n d a s s o c i a t e d ma s t o d o n t u ... more T h e A r k a n s a s K i n g Ma s t o d o n a n d a s s o c i a t e d ma s t o d o n t u s k a l v e o l a r p a t h o l o g i e s
New data from western North America support the traditional Ice Free Corridor (IFC) route of entr... more New data from western North America support the traditional Ice Free Corridor (IFC) route of entry into the New World. The IFC may have been open by 15,000 cal BP and several significant Clovis sites were located near its embouchure, including Anzick and Beach. The Anzick infant is now demonstrated to be unquestionably of northern Asian ancestry and represents a population ancestral to all later Central and South American natives and most native North Americans. Associated with the Anzick infant were tools made of elk antler—the oldest elk remains found south of the ice sheets, indicating that elk migrated through the IFC along with humans sometime between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. Technology of the Beach cache suggests a Clovis or possible proto-Clovis cultural affiliation and artifacts from the IFC indicate its use by Clovis and Clovis-related groups. The recent re-dating of Glacier Peak Tephra to ca. 13,500 cal BP suggests East Wenatchee may be one of the oldest known Clovis sites, and perhaps is a dedicatory cache emplaced shortly after the eruption. The near-coastal location of a comparably early Clovis kill-site in Sonora, Mexico, El Fin de Mundo, in addition to the absence of pre-YD non-Clovis sites along the Pacific coast of North America, do not support the existence of hypothetical marine-adapted pre-Clovis or non-Clovis cultures.
For the dead, cemeteries are final resting places; for the living theyare focal points for indivi... more For the dead, cemeteries are final resting places; for the living theyare focal points for individuals and communities...
Review of a popular book by D Stanford & B Bradley
This is a critical analysis of the hypothesis that Solutreans are Clovis progenitors in the New W... more This is a critical analysis of the hypothesis that Solutreans are Clovis progenitors in the New World/Western Hemisphere.
Review of James F. Cherry's book 'The Headpots of Northeast Arkansas and Southern Pemiscot County... more Review of James F. Cherry's book 'The Headpots of Northeast Arkansas and Southern Pemiscot County, Missouri"
... of the first colonizers, the DNA comparisons between Old and New World populations,historical... more ... of the first colonizers, the DNA comparisons between Old and New World populations,historical-linguistic comparisons, lithic analyses (encompassing both historical-typological studies ... I also thank David and Meg Cumming for support and a dear friendship in Zimbabwe. ...
This article presents the description, analyses, and interpretation of a single archeological fea... more This article presents the description, analyses, and interpretation of a single archeological feature also known as the Cypress Bend shell pit (3WO345) located between the White and Cache Rivers in Woodruff County, Arkansas. The single cultural feature was exposed during land-leveling south of Gregory, Arkansas during the summer of 2008. Almost 2,000 mussel shells along with fragments of Middle Mississippi period shell tempered ceramics, lithic artifacts, charred plant remains, and an abundance of faunal remains were recovered from the feature through water-screening and flotation. Decorated ceramic types include Barton incised, Parkin Punctated and Winterville Incised. One radiocarbon assay provides an estimated age of A.D. 1156 and 1278 for the large pit feature. This time frame is coincident with the shift seen from maize horticulture (growing small amounts of maize in gardens) to maize field agriculture in some Mississippian communities. Wing bones of a Great Horned owl and three marine shell beads along with the abundance of mussel shell and faunal remains suggest ritual or ceremonial activities took place, possibly associated with the pit itself during the Middle Mississippi period, however, artifacts such as daub, lithic debitage, and broken ceramic vessels indicate that Feature 1 was used to deposit refuse.
This article presents the description, analyses, and interpretation of a single archeological fea... more This article presents the description, analyses, and interpretation of a single archeological feature also known as the Cypress Bend shell pit (3WO345) located between the White and Cache Rivers in Woodruff County, Arkansas. The single cultural feature was exposed during land-leveling south of Gregory, Arkansas during the summer of 2008. Almost 2,000 mussel shells along with fragments of Middle Mississippi period shell tempered ceramics, lithic artifacts, charred plant remains, and an abundance of faunal remains were recovered from the feature through water-screening and flotation. Decorated ceramic types include Barton incised, Parkin Punctated and Winterville Incised. One radiocarbon assay provides an estimated age of A.D. 1156 and 1278 for the large pit feature. This time frame is coincident with the shift seen from maize horticulture (growing small amounts of maize in gardens) to maize field agriculture in some Mississippian communities. Wing bones of a Great Horned owl and three marine shell beads along with the abundance of mussel shell and faunal remains suggest ritual or ceremonial activities took place, possibly associated with the pit itself during the Middle Mississippi period, however, artifacts such as daub, lithic debitage, and broken ceramic vessels indicate that Feature 1 was used to deposit refuse.
A TRIBUTE TO MARY EVELYN STARR, AN ARCHAEOLOGIST FOR ALL SEASONS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 42nd MID-SOUTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE, 2024
This article presents the description, analyses, and interpretation of a single archeological fea... more This article presents the description, analyses, and interpretation of a single archeological feature also known as the Cypress Bend shell pit (3WO345) located between the White and Cache Rivers in Woodruff County, Arkansas (Figure 7.1). The single cultural feature was exposed during land-leveling south of Gregory, Arkansas during the summer of 2008. Almost 2,000 mussel shells along with fragments of Middle Mississippi period shell tempered ceramics, lithic artifacts, charred plant remains, and an abundance of faunal remains were recovered from the feature through water-screening and flotation. Decorated ceramic types include Barton incised, Parkin Punctated and Winterville Incised. One radiocarbon assay provides an estimated age of A.D. 1156 and 1278 for the large pit feature. This time frame is coincident with the shift from maize horticulture (growing small amounts of maize in gardens) to maize field agriculture in some Mississippian communities. Wing bones of a Great Horned owl and three marine shell beads suggest a ritual or ceremonial use of the pit during the Middle Mississippi period; other artifacts such as daub, lithic debitage, and broken ceramic vessels indicate that Feature 1 functioned as a refuse pit.
An extinct species of cervid or deer, slightly larger than modern day moose (Alces alces) and mod... more An extinct species of cervid or deer, slightly larger than modern day moose (Alces alces) and modern elk or wapiti (Cervus elephas), occurred far south of the ice sheets during the late Pleistocene. Known commonly as stag-moose or elk-moose, its scientific name is Cervalces scotti. This giant deer had the long snout and large palmate antlers of a moose that branched out to multiple tines like the antlers of an elk. Cervalces was evolutionarily actually closer to moose than elk. The beam portion of the antlers are found more often than other elements because they are so robust. The most striking attribute of Cervalces compared to Alces alces happens to be the lengthy beam that separates the palmations from the skull (Figures 1 and 2) (Churcher and Pinsof 1987). Our modern moose Alces alces crossed the Bering land bridge and filled the ecological niche formerly occupied by the extinct stag moose, Cervalces. Their ecological niche consisted of wetlands and forests of mixed spruce with lesser amounts of hardwoods. Their vegetarian diet was quite similar to that of mastodons and consisted of aquatic plants during summer and twigs during winter. Distribution maps indicate that mastodons and Cervalces cooccur in the fossil record (Faunmap 2000).
Mississippian Occupation of the Western Lowlands , 2022
Mississippian chronology is revised and refined from the traditional tripartite arbitrary Early, ... more Mississippian chronology is revised and refined from the traditional tripartite arbitrary Early, Middle, and Late periods to five periods (Emergent, Early, Transitional, Middle, and Late), based on radiocarbon dates and artifact analyses.
Anzick is the only known Clovis site with associated human skeletal remains.....Insights into the... more Anzick is the only known Clovis site with associated human skeletal remains.....Insights into the technology, religion, and origins of Clovis people based on recent analysis of the Anzick assemblage are discussed.
The purpose of this article is to bring awareness to fluted points of the Gainey form (see Don Si... more The purpose of this article is to bring awareness to fluted points of the Gainey form (see Don Simons et al 1984) present in the Rummells & Maske collections from an Early Paleoindian locality in eastern Iowa (see Morrow and Morrow 2002). The Rummells-Maske site was discovered by two men independently: Wayne Rummells and Richard (Dick) Maske in 1964 who never collected the site locality together but knew of each others hafted bifaces.
This is a series of images designed to teach students about the global and local problem of looti... more This is a series of images designed to teach students about the global and local problem of looting, abroad and in the state of Arkansas, and to introduce them to federal and state laws pertaining to archaeological sites, national parks and landmarks, and more recent resource cultural resource laws enacted to protect and preserve cultural resources.
This is a powerpoint designed to accompany an older edition of Raymond Scupin's Cultural Anthropo... more This is a powerpoint designed to accompany an older edition of Raymond Scupin's Cultural Anthropology: A Global Perspective in order to provide a brief overview of human communication, the written and spoken word, it's history and complexities, how linguists study language and non-verbal forms of communication such as proxemics and kinesics.
This is a powerpoint about chiefdom societies designed to accompany Raymond Scupin's Cultural An... more This is a powerpoint about chiefdom societies designed to accompany Raymond Scupin's Cultural Anthropology, A Global Perspective.
This lecture covers the concept of tribes, environment and subsistence among horticulturists, env... more This lecture covers the concept of tribes, environment and subsistence among horticulturists, environment and subsistence among pastoralists demographics and settlement technology, economics, social organization political organization, religion, art and music, globalization and its impact on tribes, and forms of resistance among tribal peoples.
Lithic Artifacts: Identification, Analysis, and Interpretation
This slide presentation was designed as an accoutrement for teaching beginners how to identify, a... more This slide presentation was designed as an accoutrement for teaching beginners how to identify, analyze, and interpret stone tools and patterns of stone tool use and discard. I used William Andrefsky's excellent textbook LITHICS: MACROSCOPIC METHODS FOR ANALYSIS as the basis for this creation. Along with hand specimens of rocks, replicas, and artifacts, I've used this ppt since 2008 or 2009 in teaching undergraduate archaeology courses and workshops for avocational archeologists.
This presentation briefly covers the scientific method, forces of human evolution, and hominid ev... more This presentation briefly covers the scientific method, forces of human evolution, and hominid evolution including how stone tool were made and used by different hominids.
This presentation covers non human communication, the evolution of language, the structure of lan... more This presentation covers non human communication, the evolution of language, the structure of language, how humans acquire language, how language influences culture and how culture influences language (the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis), historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and non-verbal communication.
This lecture covers biology vs. culture, the culture-personality school of thought, the influence... more This lecture covers biology vs. culture, the culture-personality school of thought, the influence of psychology and psychoanalysis on anthropology, incest taboo and incest avoidance, enculturation and sex drive, enculturation and cognition, structural anthropology, evolutionary psychology, enculturation and emotions, and looks at two examples of culturally bound mental illness.
This presentation was designed to teach the public about earthquakes in the NMSZ and how they may... more This presentation was designed to teach the public about earthquakes in the NMSZ and how they may be recognized archaeologically at sites across the Delta. Particular attention is paid to a site known as 3CG41 or Old Town Ridge, a 19-acre possibly palisaded multicomponent Late Woodland-Middle Mississippian village that was suddenly abandoned circa A.D. 1400
Second half of presentation on foragers for Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course. This pr... more Second half of presentation on foragers for Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course. This provides information and examples of social organization, and religion/world view, in brief, to introduce concepts.
This is a slide presentation created for an introductory cultural anthropology course that introd... more This is a slide presentation created for an introductory cultural anthropology course that introduces students to the concepts of forgaging, territoriality, animism, reciprocity, egalitarian, fissioning, geronticide, infanticide, matrilocal residence, partilocal residence, and optimal foraging theory and case studies of anthropological research among foragers.
Remote Sensing and Earthquake Investigations at Old Town Ridge (3CG41) a multicomponent Native American town in Northeastern Arkansas, 2023
The ASU Research Station has been investigating the Old Town Ridge site since 2008. The site is l... more The ASU Research Station has been investigating the Old Town Ridge site since 2008. The site is located in Craighead County, Arkansas on a relict stream channel of the St. Francis River system. The site is widely recognized as an important Native American Mississippi period habitation and ceremonial site since the early 1900s was formally recorded in 1967 by local avocational archeologist R.W. (Dub) Lyerly, Jr. The site consists of multiple houses and numerous ceramic and lithic artifacts have been collected from the surface and from unauthorized digging, including a ceremonial mace discovered in 1925 that is now curated at the Gilcrease Institute and a marine shell gorget displaying elements reminiscent of Braden and Craig-style iconography rendered by Native American artists during the Early and Middle Mississippi period. The iconographic images of narratives and characters link communities from geographically-distant sites together, the larger of these sites include the civic-ceremonial centers of Cahokia in Illinois, Etowah in Georgia, and Moundville in Alabama, and the ritual mound center known as Spiro in eastern Oklahoma. Middle Mississippian ceramic artifacts from the surface of 3CG41, left to right: Barton incised and Mathews Incised?, Nodedand Manly punctated? Google Earth image of Old Town Ridge (OTR) site and vicinity. Linear dark features are relict channels of the Kennett braided regime of the late glacial Mississippi River. Our investigation began when aerial photographs that Russell Henry brought to Juliet Morrow were examined for potential site boundaries and interior features. The objectives of the project were to first conduct gradiometry over the entire 18-19 acre village. For comparison, Old Town Ridge is as large or perhaps a little larger than the Parkin site. Centimeter-level spatial precision was achieved by establishing a permanent grid system
About 13,000 years of Native American Prehistory, 2022
About 13,000 years of Native American Prehistory in Northeast Arkansas presented to the White Cou... more About 13,000 years of Native American Prehistory in Northeast Arkansas presented to the White County Historical Society in 2022.
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demographics and settlement technology, economics, social organization
political organization, religion, art and music, globalization and its impact on tribes, and forms of resistance among tribal peoples.