Avifaunal remains from archaeological sites have a largely unrecognized explanatory potential. Ar... more Avifaunal remains from archaeological sites have a largely unrecognized explanatory potential. Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic records have shown that, especially in Mesoamerica, birds and their products have served a wide range of utilitarian, decorative, and symbolic purposes. Despite their ability to inform research on many aspects of prehistoric life, avifaunal remains from archaeological contexts remain under-studied. This paper demonstrates how a holistic approach to their analysis—one that explores several types of human-bird interaction—can move beyond studies of subsistence. A previously reported and newly updated avifaunal collection was reanalyzed to shed light on the relationship between the many uses of birds and the establishment of hereditary inequality at Paso de la Amada, an Early Formative period ceremonial center on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Results indicate that Early Formative people used birds as a source of food, feathers, and bone,...
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 2004
... Archaeological Perspectives on Native American Fisheries of California, with Emphasis on Stee... more ... Archaeological Perspectives on Native American Fisheries of California, with Emphasis on Steelhead and Salmon KENNETH W. GOBALET* Department of Biology, California State University, Bakersfield, California 93311, USA ...
... was filled by the Colorado River, forming the huge freshwater Lake Cahuilla. Over 99% of the ... more ... was filled by the Colorado River, forming the huge freshwater Lake Cahuilla. Over 99% of the remains are from bonytail, Gila elegans, and razorback sucker, Xyrauchen texanus. The remaining fishes represented are striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, and machete, Elops affinis. ...
ABSTRACT Investigations of two inland sites on western Santa Cruz Island containing red abalone (... more ABSTRACT Investigations of two inland sites on western Santa Cruz Island containing red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) midden strata provides insight into aspects of settlement systems between 4,700 and 3,200 B.P. Oxygen isotope analysis of mussel (Mytilus californianus) shells revealed that both sites were occupied during the summer and fall. Artifacts and floral and faunal remains indicate that CA-SCRI-796 probably was a residential base whereas CA-SCRI-758 was a camp. The red abalone midden at CA-SCRI-758 is distinctive, given the site’s high-elevation location, its location more than 6 km from a source of red abalone, and its thoroughly burned shell within an ashy matrix. The site may have been occupied by separate residential groups for social and ritual purposes. The analysis reveals that settlement systems of the time period during which red abalone middens were created were complex and that larger samples from sites are necessary for a greater understanding of this complexity.
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 2015
Author(s): Broughton, Jack M.; Martin, Erik P.; Mc Eneaney, Brian; Wake, Thomas; Simons, Dwight D... more Author(s): Broughton, Jack M.; Martin, Erik P.; Mc Eneaney, Brian; Wake, Thomas; Simons, Dwight D. | Abstract: Prehistoric resource depression has been widely documented in many late Holocene contexts characterized by expanding human population densities, and has been causally linked to a wide range of other significant changes in human behavior and biology. Some of the more detailed records of this phenomenon have been derived from the San Francisco Bay area of California, including a possible case of anthropogenic sturgeon depression, but evidence for the latter was derived from limited fish-bone samples. We synthesize and analyze a massive ichthyoarchaeological data set here, including over 83,000 identified fish specimens from 30 site components in the central San Francisco Bay, to further test this hypothesis. Allometric live weight relationships from selected elements are established to reconstruct size change in white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) through time, and—colle...
This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic t... more This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America (“the Southwest”). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticates, they had distinctive demographic and social consequences. The first phase of the ADT occurred only in a scattering of favorable regions, between 1900 and 1000 BC in Mesoamerica and 1200 BC–AD 400 in the Southwest. Its demographic consequences were modest because it was underwritten by still rather unproductive maize. During this phase, increased population was confined mainly to a few agricultural heartlands, whereas surrounding regions remained sparsely populated. The second phase of the ADT was more dramatic in the spatial scale of its...
Avifaunal remains from archaeological sites have a largely unrecognized explanatory potential. Ar... more Avifaunal remains from archaeological sites have a largely unrecognized explanatory potential. Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic records have shown that, especially in Mesoamerica, birds and their products have served a wide range of utilitarian, decorative, and symbolic purposes. Despite their ability to inform research on many aspects of prehistoric life, avifaunal remains from archaeological contexts remain under-studied. This paper demonstrates how a holistic approach to their analysis—one that explores several types of human-bird interaction—can move beyond studies of subsistence. A previously reported and newly updated avifaunal collection was reanalyzed to shed light on the relationship between the many uses of birds and the establishment of hereditary inequality at Paso de la Amada, an Early Formative period ceremonial center on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Results indicate that Early Formative people used birds as a source of food, feathers, and bone,...
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 2004
... Archaeological Perspectives on Native American Fisheries of California, with Emphasis on Stee... more ... Archaeological Perspectives on Native American Fisheries of California, with Emphasis on Steelhead and Salmon KENNETH W. GOBALET* Department of Biology, California State University, Bakersfield, California 93311, USA ...
... was filled by the Colorado River, forming the huge freshwater Lake Cahuilla. Over 99% of the ... more ... was filled by the Colorado River, forming the huge freshwater Lake Cahuilla. Over 99% of the remains are from bonytail, Gila elegans, and razorback sucker, Xyrauchen texanus. The remaining fishes represented are striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, and machete, Elops affinis. ...
ABSTRACT Investigations of two inland sites on western Santa Cruz Island containing red abalone (... more ABSTRACT Investigations of two inland sites on western Santa Cruz Island containing red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) midden strata provides insight into aspects of settlement systems between 4,700 and 3,200 B.P. Oxygen isotope analysis of mussel (Mytilus californianus) shells revealed that both sites were occupied during the summer and fall. Artifacts and floral and faunal remains indicate that CA-SCRI-796 probably was a residential base whereas CA-SCRI-758 was a camp. The red abalone midden at CA-SCRI-758 is distinctive, given the site’s high-elevation location, its location more than 6 km from a source of red abalone, and its thoroughly burned shell within an ashy matrix. The site may have been occupied by separate residential groups for social and ritual purposes. The analysis reveals that settlement systems of the time period during which red abalone middens were created were complex and that larger samples from sites are necessary for a greater understanding of this complexity.
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 2015
Author(s): Broughton, Jack M.; Martin, Erik P.; Mc Eneaney, Brian; Wake, Thomas; Simons, Dwight D... more Author(s): Broughton, Jack M.; Martin, Erik P.; Mc Eneaney, Brian; Wake, Thomas; Simons, Dwight D. | Abstract: Prehistoric resource depression has been widely documented in many late Holocene contexts characterized by expanding human population densities, and has been causally linked to a wide range of other significant changes in human behavior and biology. Some of the more detailed records of this phenomenon have been derived from the San Francisco Bay area of California, including a possible case of anthropogenic sturgeon depression, but evidence for the latter was derived from limited fish-bone samples. We synthesize and analyze a massive ichthyoarchaeological data set here, including over 83,000 identified fish specimens from 30 site components in the central San Francisco Bay, to further test this hypothesis. Allometric live weight relationships from selected elements are established to reconstruct size change in white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) through time, and—colle...
This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic t... more This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America (“the Southwest”). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticates, they had distinctive demographic and social consequences. The first phase of the ADT occurred only in a scattering of favorable regions, between 1900 and 1000 BC in Mesoamerica and 1200 BC–AD 400 in the Southwest. Its demographic consequences were modest because it was underwritten by still rather unproductive maize. During this phase, increased population was confined mainly to a few agricultural heartlands, whereas surrounding regions remained sparsely populated. The second phase of the ADT was more dramatic in the spatial scale of its...
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