Earth-Oven Plant Processing in Archaic Period Economies: An Example from a Semi-Arid Savannah in South-Central North America

1999 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Dering
Keyword(s):  
Residential Mobility ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
South Central ◽  
River Region ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Earth Ovens ◽  
Earth Oven

AbstractModels of Archaic period economy in the Lower Pecos River region of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, are based primarily on coprolite, faunal, and macroplant analysis of materials recovered from rockshelters. The models maintain that during the Middle Archaic period residential mobility is reduced and tethered to rockshelters in canyons near water, and diet dominated by the plant resources lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla), sotol (Dasylirion texanum), and prickly pear (Opuntia spp.). I use archaeobotanical analysis and actualistic studies to determine the contents of earth-oven features, the number of plant food calories produced by ovens, and the quantity of refuse they generate. Considered within the framework of a diet-breadth model, the data demonstrate that return rates and caloric yields for lechuguilla and sotol processed in earth ovens are typical of a broad spectrum, low-return economy. Intensive use of these low-ranked resources indicates periods of subsistence stress beginning in the Early Archaic period and continuing through the Late Archaic. Use of low-ranked, high-cost resources in canyon zones indicates that food and fuel resources were quickly depleted forcing high residential mobility. Depletion of local resources, not the distribution of water sources governed residential mobility.

scholarly journals Hunter-Gatherer Earth Ovens in the Archaeological Record: Fundamental Concepts

2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Black ◽  
Alston V. Thorns
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Edwards Plateau ◽  
South Central ◽  
Technological Concepts ◽  
The World ◽  
Earth Ovens ◽  
Earth Oven

AbstractRemains of earth ovens with rock heating elements of various sizes and configurations are common at hunter-gatherer sites around the world. They span the last 30,000 years in the Old World and some 10,000 years in the New World. Although various foods were baked in these ovens, plants predominate. Earth ovens are ethnographically well documented as family-size and bulk cooking facilities, but related technology and its archaeological signatures remain poorly understood and understudied. These ubiquitous features are often mischaracterized as generic cooking facilities termed hearths. It is proposed that, in fact, most rock “hearths” are heating elements of earth ovens. Reliable identification and interpretation of earth ovens requires documentation of heating elements, pit structure, rock linings, and various remnants thereof. Fundamental technological concepts for investigating their archaeological signatures include thermodynamics, construction designs, and life cycles in systemic context, as informed by ethnographic, archaeological, and experimental data. Earth oven technology explains well the primary purpose of labor-intensive thermal storage for long-term cooking and conserving fuel. Information from the extensive archaeological record of earth ovens on the Edwards Plateau of south-central North America illustrates these points.

scholarly journals A Preliminary Temporal Analysis of the East Texas Archaic

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Z. Selden
Keyword(s):  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Temporal Position ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Combination Process ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
Middle Archaic

This article presents preliminary findings of a temporal analysis of the East Texas Archaic based upon the examination of radiocarbon 14C dates from sites that have deposits that date to the period. All assays employed in this effort were collected from research and cultural resource management reports and publications, synthesized, then recalibrated in version 4.1.7 of OxCal using IntCal09. The date combination process is used herein to refine site-specific summed probability distributions, illustrating— for the first time—the temporal position of each dated archaeological site with an assay that falls within the Archaic. Seventy-three radiocarbon dates from 34 sites serve as the foundation for this analysis of the East Texas Archaic period (ca. 8000-500 B.C.) (Table 1). All dates used in this analysis come directly from the East Texas Radiocarbon Database (ETRD). Within the sample, there are 19 sites with a single radiocarbon sample that dates to the Archaic, eight sites with two dated samples, one site with three dated samples, three sites with four dated samples, one site with five dated samples, and one site with 14 dated samples. Of the 73 14C dates from the ETRD used in this analysis, one dates to the Early Archaic period (ca. 8000-5000 B.C.), eight date to the Middle Archaic period (ca. 5000-3000 B.C.), and the remaining 64 date to the Late Archaic period (ca. 3000-500 B.C.) (temporal divisions follow Perttula and Young).

Dietary Responses to Mid-Holocene Climatic Change

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Sheehan
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Successful Completion ◽  
Limited Sample ◽  
Faunal Assemblages ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
The North ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Site Function

Faunal assemblages from Paleoindian, Early Archaic, and Middle Archaic sites are compared to evaluate changes in diet related to hot and dry Altithermal conditions in the North American Great Plains. Successful completion of this comparison requires that site function and seasonality be controlled. These criteria place serious restrictions on the number of site assemblages suitable for analysis, consequently the site sample is relatively limited. Notwithstanding the limited sample, provocative results are obtained. Preliminary statistical analysis suggests significant changes in diet breadth associated with increased emphasis on medium-sized terrestrial fauna and nonmammalian fauna such as fish, amphibians, and birds during the Altithermal. Although these results are based on a limited sample of sites, and must therefore be regarded as preliminary, they do suggest that hunter-gatherer responses to major climatic shifts may be accomplished by minor adjustments in faunal resource use.

Sinclair Site: Use of Space at an Early Archaic Period Housepit Site, South-Central Wyoming

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig S. Smith ◽  
Thomas P. Reust
Keyword(s):  
Late Summer ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Radiocarbon Age ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
South Central ◽  
Site Use ◽  
Different Seasons ◽  
Residential Camp ◽  
Age Estimates

Block excavations at the Sinclair site yielded the remains of a housepit and exterior features with radiocarbon age estimates of 5770 and 5540 years ago. The housepit is a shallow, unprepared basin that is approximately 5.6 m in diameter. It has five interior pits with oxidized sides, a posthole, a fire-affected rock concentration, and an alignment of sandstone rocks. The examination of site structure indicates that the excavated portion of the site contains two domestic work areas; one within the housepit and another outside. The site probably represents a short-term residential camp of foragers occupied during the late summer and fall. Comparisons with other Early Archaic period housepit sites in Wyoming suggest that these sites may be divided into two groups which may represent different seasons of occupation.

Archaic Funerary Pattern or Postdepositional Alteration? The Patapatane Burial in the Highlands of South Central Andes

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calogero M. Santoro ◽  
Vivien G. Standen ◽  
Bernardo T. Arriaza ◽  
Tom D. Dillehay
Keyword(s):  
Cervical Vertebrae ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
The Body ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Semiarid Environment ◽  
South Central ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Simultaneous Existence ◽  
Taphonomic Processes

AbstractThe burial found at Patapatane Cave in the highlands of Arica, northern Chile, yielded an incomplete skeleton of a 20-to-23-year-old female, dating to the end of the Middle Archaic period at 5910 ± 90 B.P. The site is located in a semiarid environment on the eastern side of Sierra de Huaylillas at 3800 m. in the hinterland of Arica, northern Chile. We argue that the missing bones, position of the cranium, and breakage of some elements resulted from both postdepositional human intervention and taphonomic processes. The body was laid to rest in a supine position and after it became skeletonized hunters revisited the inhumation and removed some bone elements. However, the other bones present in situ were not displaced and remained in proper anatomical position, with the exception of the cranium, which was placed vertically on top of the cervical vertebrae. The observed breakage of vertebrae, long bones, and skull seems to have been the result of taphonomic, nonanthropogenic, postburial actions. In reporting on the Patapatane burial, Archaic period funerary patterns from western South America are reviewed to support the notion that early hunters and gatherers systematically manipulated their dead through perimortem and postmortem alterations. These included several processes: (1) processes of body reduction and transformation by removal of body sections or removal of bone elements, cremation, and human remains discarded in domestic middens; and (2) processes of artificial preservation of the dead that included roasting, salting, and artificial mummification. In addition, we recognize the simultaneous existence of intact primary burial and that other skeletons were possibly altered accidentally by postdepositional natural or cultural agents.

Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context, c.800-146 BC

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Orthodox View

The orthodox view of ancient Mediterranean slavery holds that Greece and Rome were the only ‘genuine slave societies’ of the ancient world, that is, societies in which slave labour contributed significantly to the economy and underpinned the wealth of elites. Other societies, labelled as ‘societies with slaves’, apparently made little use of slave labour, and have therefore been largely ignored in recent work. Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context, c.800–146 BC presents a radically different view. Slavery was indeed particularly highly developed in Greece and Rome; but it was also highly developed in Carthage and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, and played a not insignificant role in the affairs of elites in Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. This new study portrays the Eastern Mediterranean world as a patchwork of regional slave systems. In Greece, diversity was the rule: from the early archaic period onwards, differing historical trajectories in various regions shaped the institution of slavery in manifold ways, producing very different slave systems in regions such as Sparta, Crete, and Attica. In the wider Eastern Mediterranean world, we find a similar level of diversity. Slavery was exploited to different degrees across all of these regions, and was the outcome of a complex interplay between cultural, economic, political, geographic, and demographic variables.

The Cult of Menelaus and Helen at Therapne

2020 ◽  
pp. 258-284
Author(s):  
Anna R. Stelow
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Hero Cult ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
British School

This chapter studies the cult of Menelaus and Helen at Therapne. A ‘happy congruence’ of evidence, from the seventh century BC onward, indicates that Menelaus and Helen were honoured at a place known in antiquity as Therapne. Indeed, authors from the early archaic period through the end of the era attest to the presence of a shrine to Menelaus and/or Menelaus and Helen on the hills across the Eurotas River from modern Sparta. The site, comprising an archaic shrine built next to and atop an extensive Mycenaean site, was well-studied by the British School early and late in the twentieth century. Moreover, inscriptional evidence corresponds with the ancient testimonia to indicate that Menelaus and Helen were worshiped at the place already known in antiquity as the Menelaion. Dedications to Helen and Menelaus dated to the seventh and sixth centuries BC are among the earliest reported inscriptional evidence for the worship of any Homeric hero in Greece. The archaic cult at the Menelaion is frequently discussed both for the study of hero cult in itself and for the question as to how early Greek cult did intersect with the proliferation of epic poetry.

Period and Development of Attached-Rim Vessels in Northeast China

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-78
Author(s):  
Kang Won Oh
Keyword(s):  
Inner Mongolia ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Jilin Province ◽  
Liaoning Province ◽  
Exchange Relationship ◽  
The Third ◽  
South Central ◽  
River Region ◽  
Triangular Area

In the case of attached-rim vessels in Northeast China, the scale of the pottery vessel type was reduced to meet a demand for minimal living of the people at that time due to a way for groups living in low hills of Aohan Qi located in the EastSouth inner Mongolia, and it has emerged from the process of improving the existing double-rimmed deep bowl pottery while focusing on its practicality. Attached-rim vessels that have emerged from Shuiquan Type for the first time spread to regions adjacent to the EastSouth inner Mongolia and the Liaoxi region, attached-rim vessels in the Lioaxi region spread again to the Zhengjiawazi Type located in the midstream of Liao River, and other surrounding areas spread the relevant vessels through the exchange relationship with Zhengjiawazi Type. The attached-rim vessels in Northeast China were distributed only in the Shuiquan Type at the first period(the fifth century B.C.), but in the Zhengjiawazi Type centered in Shenyang at the second period(the fourth century B.C.) as it spread to the triangular area connecting Aohanqi, Kalaqinzuoyi and Ningcheng as well as the Liao River region. At the third stage(the third century B.C.), it became widely distributed mainly in the middle and upper stream regions of Taizi River at Liaoxi and Benxi centered in Chaoyang of Liaoning province and Jilin province, in the middle and upper stream regions from Gou river to Dongliao river, and in the lower and middle stream region of Huifa river). However, at the fourth stage(the first and second centuries B.C.), it was only partially distributed at some sites in the Eastern part of Liaodong and in the South Central of Jilin province, but it finally disappeared.

Clay Figurines from the Lower Pecos Region, Texas

1975 ◽  
Vol 40 (2Part1) ◽  
pp. 148-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry J. Shafer
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Cultural System ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
And Function ◽  
Lower Pecos

All reported findings of anthropomorphic clay figurines from the lower Pecos region of Texas are synthesized. Considerations are given to figurine chronology, technology, morphology, and function. The finds made with adequate chronological control occur in the Middle Archaic period, from about 2000 B.C. to 200 B.C. A brief description of the Lower Pecos Archaic cultural system is presented in order to place the figurines in a context for functional analysis.The figurines are hand-shaped, usually unfired, and represent both males and females. Painted or incised decorations are restricted to female forms; socio-cultural explanations for this pattern are explored. The specific uses of the figurines remain indefinite.

scholarly journals Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic Dart Points from the Wolfshead Site (41SA117) in the Angelina River Basin in East Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula ◽  
Mark Walters
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Southern Plains ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Early Archaic ◽  
South Central ◽  
Petrified Wood ◽  
Late Paleoindian ◽  
The University ◽  
Plow Zone

The Wolfshead site (41SA117) was excavated by the Texas Archeological Salvage Project at The University of Texas in 1960 prior to the inundation of the site by the waters of Lake Sam Rayburn in the Angelina River basin in East Texas. The site was located on a sandy terrace and covered ca. 1 acre in size; the sandy deposits were a maximum of ca. 60 cm in thickness below an historic plow zone. The excavations in the northern and southern parts of the site indicated that the Wolfshead site had an extensive Late Paleoindian–Early Archaic San Patrice culture occupation estimated to date between ca. 10,500–9800 years B.P. based on the radiocarbon dating of archaeological deposits with San Patrice points in sites in the Woodland and Southern Plains in south central North America. San Patrice components cluster “in the eastern half of Texas, where prairies and woodlands would have predominated." The component at the Wolfshead site is marked by a number of distinctive dart points, as discussed in the next section, as well as scraping tools, and Albany scrapers. The Albany scrapers were made on local petrified wood, while the unifacial side and end scrapers were manufactured on both petrified wood and pebble cherts.

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