All posts ; Tags Include "archaeology"
- September 5, 2010
- 11:10 PM
- 33 views
Do the Chaco Effigy Vessels Portray Kachinas?
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One noteworthy thing about George Pepper’s interpretations of the effigy vessels found at Pueblo Bonito is his attempt to link them to specific Hopi kachinas. He does find a general similarity in facial and body decoration between one of the partial vessels, found in Room 38, and one kachina and notes at the end of [...]... Read more »
Lekson, S., & Cameron, C. (1995) The abandonment of Chaco Canyon, the Mesa Verde migrations, and the reorganization of the Pueblo world. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 184-202. DOI: 10.1006/jaar.1995.1010
- September 5, 2010
- 01:34 PM
- 35 views
About Those Effigy Vessels
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Okay, I said I would say more about George Pepper’s description of the effigy vessels from Chaco, so here goes. One interesting thing that he notes is that these are the northernmost examples of human effigy vessels found in the Southwest. I believe this is still the case over a hundred years later; in general, [...]... Read more »
VanPool, C. (2003) The Shaman-Priests of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico. American Antiquity, 68(4), 696-717. DOI: 10.2307/3557068
VanPool, C., & VanPool, T. (2006) Gender in Middle Range Societies: A Case Study in Casas Grandes Iconography. American Antiquity, 71(1), 53-75. DOI: 10.2307/40035321
- August 30, 2010
- 07:03 PM
- 83 views
Human Effigy Vases
by teofilo in Gambler's House
George Pepper’s article on the excavation of Room 33 at Pueblo Bonito is fairly well-known and frequently cited, but he also published a few other articles on specific finds by the Hyde Exploring Expedition that have remained more obscure. Among these is a chapter in a Festschrift for Franz Boas, similar to the Festschrift for [...]... Read more »
Fewkes, J. (1898) An Ancient Human Effigy Vase from Arizona. American Anthropologist, 11(6), 165-170. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1898.11.6.02a00000
Pepper, G. (1905) Ceremonial Objects and Ornaments from Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico. American Anthropologist, 7(2), 183-197. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1905.7.2.02a00010
- August 19, 2010
- 04:32 PM
- 71 views
About Those Chaco Burials
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In discussing a recent paper using stable-isotope techniques to evaluate subsistence in the Southwest during the Basketmaker period, I mentioned that one of the control samples used for contextual comparisons of the Basketmaker results came from Chaco Canyon great house burials. I don’t know how on earth the Utah-based researchers managed to get permission to [...]... Read more »
Coltrain, J., Janetski, J., & Carlyle, S. (2007) The Stable- and Radio-Isotope Chemistry of Western Basketmaker Burials: Implications for Early Puebloan Diets and Origins. American Antiquity, 72(2), 301. DOI: 10.2307/40035815
- August 17, 2010
- 08:41 PM
- 44 views
The Dental Evidence for Agriculture
by teofilo in Gambler's House
I’ve recently been discussing stable isotope analysis as a way to directly determine dietary practices from skeletal evidence, and that is certainly a powerful tool in learning about past societies, but there are some drawbacks to it. Like all complicated laboratory procedures, it’s expensive, and it has the additional problem of being destructive. If it’s [...]... Read more »
Schollmeyer, K., & II, C. (2004) Dental Caries, Prehistoric Diet, and the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in Southwestern Colorado. American Antiquity, 69(3), 569. DOI: 10.2307/4128407
- August 17, 2010
- 04:24 PM
- 38 views
So What Did the Turkeys Eat?
by teofilo in Gambler's House
As if on cue, given that I’ve been talking about turkey husbandry and stable isotope testing of human remains, a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science combines the two, using similar stable isotope techniques on turkey remains from sites in southwestern Colorado to determine what the turkeys were eating. The [...]... Read more »
Rawlings, T., & Driver, J. (2010) Paleodiet of domestic turkey, Shields Pueblo (5MT3807), Colorado: isotopic analysis and its implications for care of a household domesticate. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37(10), 2433-2441. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2010.05.004
- August 16, 2010
- 08:05 PM
- 53 views
Basketmaker Subsistence
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One of the important questions in understanding the spread of agriculture into the Southwest from Mexico is when Southwestern peoples became dependent on it for their subsistence. It is generally accepted that this dependence was in place by the Pueblo I period, which is defined as starting around AD 750 in most areas, but there [...]... Read more »
Coltrain, J., Janetski, J., & Carlyle, S. (2007) The Stable- and Radio-Isotope Chemistry of Western Basketmaker Burials: Implications for Early Puebloan Diets and Origins. American Antiquity, 72(2), 301. DOI: 10.2307/40035815
Matson, R., & Chisholm, B. (1991) Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah. American Antiquity, 56(3), 444. DOI: 10.2307/280894
- August 13, 2010
- 02:56 PM
- 63 views
More Turkey Stuff
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In looking into recent research on Southwestern turkeys, I found an interesting paper from 2007 by E. Bradley Beacham and Stephen R. Durand about turkey eggshell. Specifically, they came up with a new technique for analyzing archaeological eggshell to determine whether or not the egg had hatched. The idea behind it, confirmed by an experiment [...]... Read more »
BEACHAM, E., & DURAND, S. (2007) Eggshell and the archaeological record: new insights into turkey husbandry in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34(10), 1610-1621. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2006.11.015
- August 10, 2010
- 11:30 PM
- 49 views
The Turkey Connection
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In a comment to the previous post, Alan Reed Bishop brings up an issue closely related to the recent evidence for early maize cultivation in Chaco Canyon: the introduction of domesticated turkeys to the Southwest. A recent study of archaeological turkey remains found that the majority of the turkeys found in Southwestern archaeological sites are [...]... Read more »
Matson, R., & Chisholm, B. (1991) Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar Mesa, Utah. American Antiquity, 56(3), 444. DOI: 10.2307/280894
Speller, C., Kemp, B., Wyatt, S., Monroe, C., Lipe, W., Arndt, U., & Yang, D. (2010) Ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals complexity of indigenous North American turkey domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(7), 2807-2812. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0909724107
- August 10, 2010
- 08:31 AM
- 113 views
Amateur Impact Hypothesis Makes It Into Major Archaeology Journal
by Martin Rundkvist in Aardvarchaeology
Shortly after my buddy Jeff Medkeff died in 2008, a joint book review of ours was published in Skeptic Magazine. Here we criticised a book by Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell, two aeronautics engineers, where they claimed that a 7th century BC cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia described an asteroid striking the Austrian Alps in 3123 BC. Their argument was in our opinion extremely speculative or pseudoscientific, regardless of whether you saw it from an astronomical, geological or archaeological poin........ Read more »
Barbara Rappenglück, Michael A. Rappenglück, Kord Ernstson, Werner Mayer, Andreas Neumair, Dirk Sudhaus, & Ioannis Liritzis. (2010) The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria (south-east Germany). Antiquity, 428-439. info:/
- August 5, 2010
- 03:51 PM
- 80 views
The Context for Early Maize at Chaco
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In my earlier post about Stephen Hall‘s recent paper reporting on maize pollen at Chaco Canyon dating as early as 2500 BC, I said briefly that this really shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s been following this kind of research closely, and also that I would discuss the context for it later. Basically, the context [...]... Read more »
Merrill, W., Hard, R., Mabry, J., Fritz, G., Adams, K., Roney, J., & MacWilliams, A. (2009) The diffusion of maize to the southwestern United States and its impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(50), 21019-21026. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0906075106
Simmons, A. (1986) New Evidence for the Early Use of Cultigens in the American Southwest. American Antiquity, 51(1), 73. DOI: 10.2307/280395
- August 3, 2010
- 02:19 AM
- 66 views
Old Corn
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One important line of evidence in understanding the climatic history of Chaco Canyon, a subject of considerable interest given the harsh aridity of the current climate and the incongruous grandeur of the archaeological remains, has been the study of packrat middens. These are collections made by packrats of materials found near their nesting locations, which [...]... Read more »
Hall, Stephen A. (2010) Early maize pollen from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA. Palynology, 34(1), 125-137. info:/10.1080/01916121003675746
- July 28, 2010
- 09:36 AM
- 82 views
Past lives caught in the dust of trees
I’m currently working at the Annals of Botany to help out with their social media side. There’s a bit more to it than subtly dropping links to their site, like this one. At the moment I’m struggling with the Facebook integration, but there’s a fun side too. I wouldn’t have browsed AoB if I’d not... Read more »
Mercader, J., Bennett, T., Esselmont, C., Simpson, S., & Walde, D. (2009) Phytoliths in woody plants from the Miombo woodlands of Mozambique. Annals of Botany, 104(1), 91-113. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcp097
- July 16, 2010
- 02:32 AM
- 73 views
Woof!
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In comments to the previous post ben asked about the use of dogs as draft animals. I replied that they were so used in conjunction with the travois, especially on the Plains, but that the dogs in the Southwest and in Mesoamerica were smaller than Plains dogs and not able to pull any substantial loads. [...]... Read more »
Colton, H. (1970) The Aboriginal Southwestern Indian Dog. American Antiquity, 35(2), 153. DOI: 10.2307/278144
- July 15, 2010
- 04:34 PM
- 108 views
Why No Wheels?
by teofilo in Gambler's House
I’m back at Chaco and giving tours again, so I’m once again being exposed to visitors’ common questions and preconceptions in a way I haven’t been in a long time. One thing that seems to surprise a lot of visitors is the fact that the Chacoans apparently had no knowledge of the wheel, or if [...]... Read more »
Ekholm, G. (1946) Wheeled Toys in Mexico. American Antiquity, 11(4), 222. DOI: 10.2307/275722
Lister, R. (1947) Additional Evidence of Wheeled Toys in Mexico. American Antiquity, 12(3), 184. DOI: 10.2307/275708
- July 8, 2010
- 03:35 PM
- 93 views
Atlatls to Bows: A Suspiciously Large Arrow
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In comments to the previous post, pato’ links to a recent press release on the discovery of an atlatl dart in a melting ice patch near Yellowstone. This type of discovery is becoming more common as global warming causes ice patches and glaciers to melt at an unprecedented rate, releasing artifacts that have been frozen [...]... Read more »
Keddie, G., & Nelson, E. (2005) An Arrow from the Tsitsutl Glacier, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 113-123. info:/
- June 22, 2010
- 08:19 AM
- 59 views
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology in Switzerland – where we stand now
by Marcel in hazelnut_relations
As usual, the 2010 Jahrbuch Archäologie Schweiz vol. 93 includes a list of newly discovered and excavated sites. It is no surprise that the number of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites discovered or investigated in 2009 is relatively low in comparison to the number of sites from most later prehistoric, roman and medieval periods. The figure [...]... Read more »
Huber, R. . (2010) Neue Territorien in Sicht! Wildbeutergesellschaften der Alt- und Mittelsteinzeit. Archäologie Schweiz, 33(2), 15-21. info:/
- June 22, 2010
- 12:39 AM
- 107 views
Wetherill Day
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One hundred years ago today, Richard Wetherill was shot and killed by Chischilly Begay near the western end of Chaco Canyon. That much is clear, but the circumstances surrounding Wetherill’s death are otherwise murky. The same could be said for his life and legacy. Wetherill was an enormously important figure to the history of archaeological [...]... Read more »
Snead, J. (1999) Science, Commerce, and Control: Patronage and the Development of Anthropological Archaeology in the Americas. American Anthropologist, 101(2), 256-271. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1999.101.2.256
- June 6, 2010
- 05:54 PM
- 136 views
Atlatls to Bows: A Serendipitous Lion Hunt
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Like atlatls, but to an even greater degree, bows are rare in the archaeological record because they were made of perishable materials. While some types of atlatls had more durable attachments such as hooks and weights, bows were almost always made of wood and various fibrous materials, except in some areas where they were made [...]... Read more »
Hibben, F. (1938) A Cache of Wooden Bows from the Mogollon Mountains. American Antiquity, 4(1), 36. DOI: 10.2307/275360
- June 4, 2010
- 12:31 AM
- 118 views
Atlatls to Bows: Enter the Bow
by teofilo in Gambler's House
I’ve said quite a lot about atlatls, so perhaps it’s time to move on to the second part of this series. The bow and arrow is a sufficiently popular weapon system even today that it doesn’t need much introduction. It’s important to note, however, that most archaeologists have concluded that the bow and arrow is [...]... Read more »
Evans, O. (1957) Probable Use of Stone Projectile Points. American Antiquity, 23(1), 83. DOI: 10.2307/277288
Farmer, M. (1994) The Origins of Weapon Systems. Current Anthropology, 35(5), 679. DOI: 10.1086/204331
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