Anthony P. Graesch, David M. Schaepe, Nathan Goodale, Hector Salazar, Moriah McKenna, Sarah Harris, Andrew Prunk, Annette Davis, Roy James Walton, John Rissmiller
{"title":"Making kw’éts’tel: A materialization of household food-focused labor","authors":"Anthony P. Graesch, David M. Schaepe, Nathan Goodale, Hector Salazar, Moriah McKenna, Sarah Harris, Andrew Prunk, Annette Davis, Roy James Walton, John Rissmiller","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101654","url":null,"abstract":"Salmon fishing and storage have been integral elements of Stó:lō-Coast Salish household life, economy, and identity in the Fraser Valley and lower Fraser Canyon of southwestern British Columbia for millennia. However, taphonomic factors affecting salmon remains make it difficult to directly study variability in food-related labor allocations, prompting us to focus instead on fish processing tools. This study employs experimental archaeology, archaeological collections analyses, and geochemistry to investigate the production of kw’éts’tel—ground slate fish knives essential to the precontact Stó:lō-Coast Salish salmon economy. Our objectives are to examine the forms and attributes of finished kw’éts’tel blades, explore potential slate sources, and assess decisions, techniques, and labor involved in blade production. Using an integrated methodological framework, our analyses offer nuanced insights into kw’éts’tel production and its role in Stó:lō-Coast Salish social organization. We argue that this approach enhances our ability to interpret the kw’éts’tel-focused archaeological record, shedding light on social change over time. This is particularly significant in a region where the emergence of a high-ranking social elite was partly driven by positioning and placement within the means and mode of production in the salmon-focused fishing economy.","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142929218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karen D. Lupo, Nicolette M. Edwards, Dave N. Schmitt
{"title":"Forager and food producer interrelationships in the zooarchaeological record: Lessons from Central Africa","authors":"Karen D. Lupo, Nicolette M. Edwards, Dave N. Schmitt","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101655","url":null,"abstract":"Faunal taxonomic abundances and composition are often used as one line of evidence to measure different dimensions of prehistoric population interaction between food producers and foragers. This paper presents a comparative analysis of ethnoarchaeological faunas created by neighboring foragers and farmers in Central Africa who maintain on-going interactions based partly on the exchange of wild resources for domesticated plant products. Analysis of these assemblages is centered on whether faunal characteristics can be used to: 1) distinguish assemblages produced by neighboring forager and food producer populations; 2) identify interaction between these populations and; 3) reflect information about the nature of these interactions. In this sample, measures of bone abundances, taxonomic richness and the presence of rare species can distinguish food producer from forager-created assemblages. High levels of compositional similarity and exploitation intensity associated with forager and farmer assemblages indicate consistent economic activity focused on dominant marketable animals. Differences in richness, bone abundances and, especially, skeletal part representation of common marketable prey reflect economic interactions marked by socioeconomic disparities. These results provide an important guide to the use of ethnoarchaeological data in identifying prehistoric population interactions in the zooarchaeological record defined by sustained exchange and/or market activity and where socioeconomic disparities persisted.","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142901762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jared Carballo-Pérez, Uroš Matić, Rachael Hall, Stuart T. Smith, Sarah A. Schrader
{"title":"Tumplines, baskets, and heavy burden? Interdisciplinary approach to load carrying in Bronze Age Abu Fatima, Sudan","authors":"Jared Carballo-Pérez, Uroš Matić, Rachael Hall, Stuart T. Smith, Sarah A. Schrader","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101652","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates different body techniques for carrying heavy loads by individuals buried at Abu Fatima, a Nubian Bronze Age cemetery in Sudan. Drawing on iconographic evidence from ancient Egypt and Nubia, as well as African and other ethnographic records, the paper aims to understand gendered patterns behind load-carrying practices and their traces on skeletal remains. A multi-proxy approach was employed, using various skeletal modifications associated with mechanical loading. Examination of entheseal changes, osteoarthritis-related alterations, and degenerative vertebral changes was conducted to investigate the impacts of muscle loading, joint stress, and spinal adaptations. Additionally, unintentional cranial modifications, specifically changes caused by tumpline use, were also considered. The results indicate gender-specific load-carrying techniques among the individuals buried at Abu Fatima. Men displayed evidence of unilateral entheseal changes and humeroscapular osteoarthritis, indicating involvement in activities that necessitated bearing load on one shoulder. Women displayed distinct degenerative changes to the cervical vertebrae indicating frequent musculoskeletal use of the upper neck.","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142874796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond Subsistence: Toxic burrfishes and non-food-based economies among the Calusa complex fisher-hunter-gatherers of the American Southeast","authors":"Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101653","url":null,"abstract":"Many animal species exploited by humans play important roles beyond simply consumption. While disentangling the diverse roles of animals and animal resources from the archaeological record can be difficult, it is especially important for establishing holistic perspectives of past lifeways and economies. Recent zooarchaeological investigations at the Mound Key site in southwestern Florida have identified unique assemblages containing unprecedented numbers of burrfishes (<ce:italic>Diodon</ce:italic> spp. and <ce:italic>Chilomycterus schoepfii</ce:italic>) remains, represented only by their maxillae and dentaries. Through this case study, I evaluate the potential use of burrfishes by the Calusa of southwestern Florida to explore non-food-based economies in a complex fisher-hunter-gatherer society. The lethal toxicity of burrfishes, combined with the unique composition of elements represented in the assemblages, point towards a non-food use for these species. Here I suggest the deposits at Mound Key likely represent past specialized production and possible use of a toxic resource not often theorized, especially in the US Southeast.","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142790049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luiz Phellipe de Lima, Daniela Klokler, MaDu Gaspar
{"title":"A song of earth and water: Burial caves as sacred and animated Southern Jê deathscapes in Brazil","authors":"Luiz Phellipe de Lima, Daniela Klokler, MaDu Gaspar","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101646","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine existing data on Southern Jê burial caves (SJBCs) in the Southern Brazilian Highlands to discuss their spatiality, chronology, symbolic aspects, and relation to mound and enclosure complexes (MECs), another Southern Jê burial practice. Through map creation and temporal analysis, we explore chronological and hierarchical hypotheses previously used to explain the dynamic relationship between these funerary practices. Our findings suggest that SJBCs are older than MECs. Additionally, around 1000 CE—coinciding with the emergence of MECs—the expansion of the Araucaria forest and the intensification of interethnic contacts influenced changes in SJBCs, such as the incorporation of hearths and pottery. Ethnographic analysis of the Kaingang and Laklãnõ peoples (modern Southern Jê) indicates that burial caves were integral parts of deathscapes, representing cosmogonic myths, serving as interaction points between humans and non-humans, and boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead. Finally, visibility analysis of the Perau das Cabeças burial cave suggests that MECs and SJBCs represent opposing strategies for managing the dangers of the liminal phase: MECs are situated in prominent landscape positions, while Perau das Cabeças remains hidden from surrounding pit house villages.","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"219 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142790050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Negotiating interaction during the Late Woodland-Mississippian transition in Southern Appalachia","authors":"Matthew V.C. LoBiondo","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101638","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101638","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cultural interaction has been shown to be important in the (re)organization of social relationships in pre-contact North America and an important causal factor in Mississippian origins throughout the U.S. Southeast and Midwest. Indeed, recent research has documented the significance of migration and other forms of far-flung interactions in the spread of Mississippian lifeways. The Mississippian period (CE 1000–1550) in the Southern Appalachian region of the US Southeast was a dynamic period of profound sociopolitical and ideological transformations that are associated with an increase in social complexity. Scholars have argued that interregional interactions during the 11th and 12th centuries established important relationships among Native American groups from Southern Appalachia. These connections have been poorly understood but appear to have been largely centered at the Etowah site in northwestern Georgia where engagements between potential diverse populations were instrumental in the spread of Mississippian practices and beliefs, eventually leading to the development of hierarchical regional polities. The functional and stylistic analysis of Etowah pottery (CE 1000–1100/1200) and a comparative and multivariate statistical analysis of ceramic assemblages from three adjacent regions of the interior Southeast, indicate that the earliest populations at Etowah were pluralistic and composed of disparate groups from northwestern Georgia and eastern Tennessee. However, unlike many communities, the diverse population at Etowah maintained distinct traditions of ceramic production and consumption, while simultaneously engaging in communal ceremonial activities. This unique perspective on Etowah’s origins deviates from typical Mississippian beginnings contexts and offers valuable insights into how cultural interactions occurred in pre-contact North America.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101638"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142747187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luca Lai , Ornella Fonzo , Jessica F. Beckett , Robert H. Tykot , Ethan Goddard , David Hollander , Luca Medda , Giuseppa Tanda
{"title":"Understanding the intersection of Rapid climate change and subsistence Practices: An isotopic perspective from a Mediterranean Bell Beaker case study","authors":"Luca Lai , Ornella Fonzo , Jessica F. Beckett , Robert H. Tykot , Ethan Goddard , David Hollander , Luca Medda , Giuseppa Tanda","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101637","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101637","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite a long tradition of characterizing the Bell Beaker-associated human groups as mobile herders, there has been limited evidence for their economy and diet, both key defining factors for human lifeways. Bone nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen stable isotopes from a collective burial in Sardinia provide the first data on the diet of Mediterranean Bell Beaker groups, crucial as there is the presence of different domesticated species from the same context, thus enabling inferences on management practices. The data, evaluated in comparison with other groups, show high consumption of animal products and generalized, extensive livestock management, fitting the hypothesis of a relatively mobile lifestyle. Modeling of absolute dates and oxygen isotopic values suggest that the burials cover a period of fewer than two centuries, in which the group lived through a period of Rapid Climate Change, which overlaps with the 4.2 BP kya event previously recorded elsewhere in the Mediterranean, providing new elements for the understanding of demographic and cultural dynamics in the 3rd<sup>-</sup>millennium cal BC and more broadly emphasizing the role of climate in interpreting socio-cultural change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101637"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142747186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matthew J. Edwards , Corina M. Kellner , Frank C. Ramos
{"title":"Migration and state expansion: Archaeological and biochemical evidence from Pataraya, a wari outpost in Nasca, Peru (A.D. 650–1000)","authors":"Matthew J. Edwards , Corina M. Kellner , Frank C. Ramos","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101639","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101639","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper reports on the results of archaeological excavations at the cemetery sector of the Middle Horizon (AD 650–1000) Wari site of Pataraya, located in the middle Nasca valley of southern Peru, and biochemical analyses of human skeletal remains recovered during those excavations. The findings reported here demonstrate that the sharp differences in cultural practice between Pataraya’s occupants and local traditions leading up to the Middle Horizon are echoed in noticeable isotopic differences in the biochemistry of its burial population. We explore the implications of these findings in the context of an uneven and unequal political landscape created by, and responding to, both overt Wari imperialism and the consequences of unprecedented regional interaction. We conclude that these data support previous conclusions drawn from other archaeological evidence that the site is formed from the remains of a Wari state colony. Pataraya’s inhabitants served an explicitly political function in the administration of a key transportation route between the Wari heartland and this distant province, roles that may have been filled by newcomers to the area or from elsewhere in the Nasca valley itself.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101639"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142747337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The tyranny of nomadic ethnography: Re-approaching Late Bronze Age (2100–1300 BCE) mobility in the central Eurasian steppes","authors":"Denis V. Sharapov","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101634","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101634","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For a number of years, researchers have associated Late Bronze Age (LBA) (2100 – 1300 BCE) settlements in the Trans-Ural steppe with nomadic pastoralism. This would have involved entire populations making periodic movements between pastures. To test this claim, I have synthesized eight lines of data from more than 40 archaeological sites. The analysis of settlement architecture, material culture accumulation rates, herd composition, osteological seasonality markers, stable isotopes, the degree of transportability of artifacts, haymaking activities, and symbolic behavior has allowed me to conclude the following. First, the settlements of the Sintashta, Petrovka, Alakul, and Srubnaya-Alakul cultural types were sedentary, i.e., occupied year-round by at least a portion of the population. If herder groups left their respective communities for extended periods of time, these moves were localized (within a 15 km radius). Furthermore, if separate nomadic pastoralist sub-groups were present, they were not numerous (∼10 % of the total population). The long-term tendency to see LBA communities as nomadic is rooted in the strong influence of ethnography on Eurasian steppe scholars. Based on these findings, I argue that LBA societies of the central steppes require no special approaches to account for community-level seasonal mobility in the context of settlement pattern studies. This opens up the possibility of focusing on the previously understudied theme of regional demography. Finally, this paper adds the Trans-Urals to the list of world regions where crop cultivation was not a necessary prerequisite for large-scale sedentism.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101634"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142696687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New insights from Ecuador into Inca-style pottery production in the provinces","authors":"Catherine Lara , Tamara L. Bray","doi":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101636","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101636","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Beyond military conquest, the successful consolidation of Tawantinsuyu likely depended on the exercise of soft power and ideological cooptation. The widespread distribution of Inca pottery suggests it played a key role in the imperial agenda. Archaeological evidence from across the Empire indicates that provincial potters were mobilized to generate the distinctive vessels associated with the state, which typically differed significantly from their local repertoires. How did these potters produce the new forms demanded by the Inca? Was any practicing potter capable of adapting their skills? Would new communities of practice have emerged to meet the new morphological and stylistic requirements? We address these questions in a study of Inca and local pottery from southern Ecuador via a focus on the chaînes opératoires involved in production. We incorporate analyses of archaeological materials recovered from survey and excavation work in Olleros in the parish of San Miguel de Porotos in Cañar province, as well as observations from both ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological studies from this region and elsewhere. The study reveals that the Inca-style pottery found at the site was produced locally by expert Cañari potters who combined their usual techniques in a different way to achieve the requisite Inca vessel forms. These specialists were likely mitmaqkuna resettled in this region by the Inca due to the abundance of high quality clays in the region.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47957,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anthropological Archaeology","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101636"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142696688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}