The Middle Columbia Cremation Complex

1952 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Garth
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Development ◽  
Snake River ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
John Day ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
New Evidence

Cremation pits were discovered in the Yakima and Snake River valleys and on the Columbia at Wahluke and at The Dalles before 1927. Recently one has been described from the John Day region in Oregon by Cressman (1950). The cremation complex which the pits represent appears in the late prehistoric period and was undoubtedly widespread and important in the cultural development of the region. In the Dalles-Arlington area, at least, it lasted into historic times. Recent evidence associates the cremation complex with Sahaptin groups inhabiting the region above The Dalles until late historic times. This new evidence controverts an earlier theory, largely based on ethnological traditions, that the Salish were the early inhabitants of the area. The finding of burials below the cremation level at Sheep Island (i.e., a stratified burial site) has particular bearing on the problem.

scholarly journals Ceramic Types from Late Prehistoric Sites along the East Fork of the Trinity River

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson Crook ◽  
Mark Houghston
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Red River ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Ceramic Assemblage ◽  
Trinity River ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Prehistoric Culture ◽  
The Trinity

Ceramics are one of the key diagnostic artifacts that define the Late Prehistoric culture of the peoples that lived along the East Fork of the Trinity and its tributaries. We are completing a 42 year re evaluation of the Late Prehistoric period of the area and have st udied nearly 32,000 artifacts, of which over 10,200 are ceramic sherds. From this study, 20 distinct ceramic types have been recognized. Plain ware, both shell tempered and sandy paste/grog tempered, are the predominant ceramic types present, comprising ov er 90 percent of the total ceramic assemblage. While there is little direct evidence for indigenous manufacture, the abundance of these types suggests they were produced locally. Lesser quantities of decorated ware of distinct Caddo ceramic types from the Red River and East Texas suggest they are likely the product of exchange. There is also a small amount of Puebloan material indicative of a longer distance exchange.

Population Aggregation and the Emergence of Circular Villages in Southwest Virginia

2018 ◽  
pp. 140-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Jefferies
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Settlement Structure ◽  
Southern Appalachian ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Population Aggregation

Archaeological evidence from throughout much of eastern North America documents a transition from small, scattered settlements to nucleated, often circular, villages during the Late Woodland/Late Prehistoric period (ca. A.D. 1000-1600). In southwestern Virginia's Appalachian Highlands, this transition is marked by the appearance of large circular palisaded villages associated with what Howard MacCord called the Intermontane Culture. This paper investigates the origin, structure, and spatial distribution of Late Woodland circular villages across the southern Appalachian landscape and compares their emergence to similar trends in settlement structure and organization witnessed in other parts of the Appalachian Highlands and beyond.

Problems of Ceramic Chronology in the Southeast: Does Shell-Tempered Pottery Appear Earlier than We Think?

2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Feathers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Dating Methods ◽  
Ceramic Chronology ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages

The chronology of shell-tempered pottery in the eastern United States is poorly understood, preventing any resolution to the question of how this pottery came to dominate ceramic assemblages in the late prehistoric period. Part of the problem lies in traditional dating methods that either provide only average dates that suppress variation or address depositional rather than manufacturing events. Better resolution can be obtained by dating individual artifacts. Luminescence dates for 67 ceramics from several sites in the mid-South show variation in age of ceramics from a single assemblage, strong chronological overlap between shell- and grog-tempered pottery, and suggest that shell-tempered pottery may have been present in low frequencies earlier than generally assumed and before it rose in frequency sometime after A.D. 900.

Tepimans, Yumans, and Other Hohokam

1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Leedom Shaul ◽  
Jane H. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Tohono O'odham ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Akimel O'odham

The Proto-Tepiman speech community—that is, the community that spoke the language ancestral to all the contemporary Tepiman languages—can be located at the northern end of the present-day Tepiman range, perhaps as far north and west as the Gila-Colorado confluence, and probably within the Hohokam region, during the Hohokam time period in the first millennium A.D. Evidence for the northern location of Proto-Tepiman includes, first, attestation of language contact with Proto-River Yuman, including data from phonology, syntax, and lexicon. This evidence suggests that the Hohokam were a multi-ethnic community; we present evidence that by the fourteenth century this multi-ethnic system probably included speakers of Zuni. Second, the greatest internal diversity in Tepiman is among the northernmost varieties. Third, we can reconstruct a word meaning “saguaro cactus,” a plant not found south of Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, for Proto-Tepiman. While the linguistic evidence strongly suggests the involvement of the Proto-Tepiman speech community in the Hohokam system, the evidence provided by contemporary Upper Piman languages (Akimel O’odham [Pima] and Tohono O’odham [Papago]) neither confirms nor excludes the involvement of speakers of these languages in the core Hohokam complex in the late prehistoric period.

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