Assertions, Assumptions, and Early Horizon (Oak Grove) Settlement Patterns in Southern California: A Rejoinder

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger C. Owen

AbstractC. N. Warren makes six criticisms of a paper by Owen (Owen 1964), each of which can easily be rejected. The six comments, accompanied briefly by the grounds for their rebuttal, are: 1) that “Early horizon” cannot be used to label the period, when in reality “Early horizon” is as appropriate as any other term, and more so than many that are in use; 2) that a negligent comment is directed at a paper by W. J. Wallace, which though unimportant, is temperate and accurate in the estimation of the author; 3) that a reference to a paper by Warren and True is groundless and misleading when it indeed is pertinent and direct; 4) that an analogy used is weak, although the argument does not proceed by analogy; 5) that suggestions regarding the utility of radiocarbon are optimistic when in fact insight in the use of radiocarbon dates can provide information on duration of habitation on any site; 6) that comparisons between the probable settlement pattern of Early horizon California coastal populations and some of the Fuegian Canoe Indians are inappropriate, an opinion which indicates that Warren’s knowledge of the basis of the comparison is faulty. It is suggested that despite Warren’s criticism, the Glen Annie Canyon site report and the associated paper may stand unamended and lead to a better understanding of the settlement patterns of early Southern California coastal populations during the so-called Milling Stone horizon.

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude N. Warren

AbstractOwen’s (1964) brief comments on the Glen Annie Canyon site include some comments and criticisms that are in error, and the validity of his interpretation of the archaeology and archaeologists of the Southern California Coast may be challenged. Owen uses the term “Early horizon” where he should use “Milling Stone horizon”; his criticisms of Wallace’s 1955 paper are unjustified; what he claims to be the archaeologists’ description of the Oak Grove culture is inaccurate. His argument for a nomadic population during the Milling Stone horizon is based on a weak analogy, and his notion that the interpretation of a “more or less sedentary” settlement pattern for the Milling Stone horizon is a “convenient fiction agreed upon by some southern California archaeologists to facilitate the construction of artifact typologies” is in error. Data are presented to support the interpretation that the population of the Milling Stone horizon was a Central-Based Wandering people.


TERRITORIO ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 21-27
Author(s):  
Alvaro Domingues

- The article explores megastructures in relation to their impact on local transport networks and nodes. The area examined is Portugal, where the recent construction of giant shopping malls, industrial estates and logistics centres has in turn led to large-scale infrastructures that have been superimposed on a settlement pattern consisting, in many cases, of urban agglomerations serviced by rural roads. The resulting landscape reveals a juxtaposition of completely different elements in terms of both scale and impact, often the outcome of urban zoning projects intruding on fragmented urbanisation. The resulting image is one of scattered settlement patterns. Behind these phenomena one can see the effects of splintering urbanism. The difficulty in coordinating, in time and space, the decisions made and actions taken by a wide variety of individuals and institutions is becoming increasingly more complex.


1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 534-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madonna L. Moss ◽  
Jon M. Erlandson ◽  
Robert Stuckenrath

A series of 29 radiocarbon dates from 11 sites on Admiralty Island span the last 3,200 calendar years. Although our research corroborates many of the results of de Laguna's (1960) earlier work in the area, we find the Tlingit settlement pattern to be at least 1,600 years old, significantly older than previously believed. Dating of a wooden fish weir demonstrates that mass harvesting of salmon has an antiquity of at least 3,000 years.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy A. Sabloff

This article presents an autobiographical perspective on the changing nature of Maya archaeology, focusing on the role of settlement pattern studies in illuminating the lives of commoners as well as on the traditional emphasis on the ruling elite. Advances in understanding the nature of nonelite peoples in ancient Maya society are discussed, as are the many current gaps in scholarly understandings of pre-Columbian Maya civilization, especially with regard to the diversity of ancient “commoners” and the difficulty in analyzing them as a single group.


2018 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 77-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mithen ◽  
Karen Wicks ◽  

The number of Mesolithic structures known in Britain has significantly increased since 2000, providing new opportunities for economic and social interpretations of this period. We describe a further structure, represented by features from the Mesolithic site of Criet Dubh, Isle of Mull. We compare the inferred Criet Dubh structure to other Mesolithic structures from Britain, notably those described as ‘pit-houses’. We then consider the implications of the radiocarbon dates from such structures for the tempo of occupation and past settlement patterns. While the use of Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates has encouraged interpretations of prolonged occupation and sedentism, we propose alternative interpretations with patterns of intermittent occupation for Criet Dubh and the pit-houses, involving their re-use after extended periods of abandonment within a sparsely populated landscape. The ability to debate such interpretations reflects the transformation in Mesolithic research made possible by the discovery of such structures, the use of multiple radiocarbon determinations, the application of Bayesian analysis, and the exploration of associations between cultural and environmental change. These developments have made the Mesolithic a particularly innovative period of study.


1964 ◽  
Vol 30 (2Part1) ◽  
pp. 210-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger C. Owen

AbstractRadiocarbon dates of 6880, 6980, 7270, and 6380 B.P. have been obtained for an Early Horizon site (Oak Grove) in the region of Santa Barbara, California. These dates permit the definite association of many cultural features which have previously been denied for the Oak Grove complex: a partial maritime economy, a core-and-flake industry, bone and shell technology, the use of asphaltum, and flexed burials. It is unlikely that the Early Horizon in Santa Barbara was sedentary to any degree.


2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn H. Gamble

Advanced maritime technology associated with long-distance exchange and intensified resource acquisition has been linked to the development of stratification and greater sociopolitical complexity in the Pacific Rim region. One such example is the emergence of hereditary chiefs among the Chumash Indians of southern California. Plank boats owned by an elite group of wealthy individuals and chiefs were an integral part of an elaborate economic system that was based on maritime exchange. An artifact assemblage associated with the construction, maintenance, and use of this watercraft was identified and analyzed. It included wooden planks, asphaltum plugs, asphaltum caulking, and chipped stone drills. Radiocarbon dates and other relative-dating techniques provide strong evidence that the plank canoe originated at least 1,300 years ago in southern California. This represents the earliest use of this type of watercraft in North America and probably in the New World. The timing of this innovation provides evidence that sociopolitical complexity developed in the region at least 500 years earlier than previously proposed.


1960 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Bluhm

AbstractSettlement patterns are described for each phase of the sedentary agricultural occupation of the area from Pine Lawn phase (200 B.C.-A.D. 500) through Tularosa phase (A.D. 1100-1250), when the area was abandoned. Through time domestic structures changed from rounded to rectangular, from semi-subterranean to surface, and decreased in size. Earlier villages tended to be on higher, more defensible locations while later ones were lower, closer to water and arable land. Villages were generally random in plan, and great kivas, the only ceremonial structures identified in the area, appear to have served more than one village. From the settlement pattern data it is possible to construct a population curve for the area which may be partially explained in terms of botanical and climatological as well as cultural factors. Pine Lawn Valley Mogollon may have had some multi-village social organization which in later times may have united the entire valley. In this respect the Mogollon may have been intermediate between the well-integrated, segmented Anasazi communities in the plateau and the more politically structured Hohokam communities in the desert.


1989 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Smith ◽  
Alasdair Whittle ◽  
Edward W. Cloutman ◽  
Lorraine A. Morgan

Investigations into Mesolithic and Neolithic activity and environmental impact on the Cambridgeshire fen-edge are described, consisting of stratigraphic and pollen analytical research at Peacock's Farm, and trial excavations at Peacock's Farm and Letter F Farm. At Peacock's Farm, the bulk of archaeological occupation was found to be of Mesolithic date, around 8000 BP uncalibrated; minimal signs of Earlier Neolithic activity were recovered. At Letter F Farm there was mainly Earlier Neolithic occupation, around 5000 BP, but there had also been Mesolithic activity. Radiocarbon dating at Peacock's Farm shows that the Mesolithic black band within the peats flanking the sand ridge, first described by Clarket al.(1935), covers a surprisingly long period: over 1700 years, mainly between approximately 8500 and 6800 BP. Dates from Mesolithic occupation areas on the sand ridge coincide with the first half of this period. Consideration of the stratigraphic results, radiocarbon dates and two pollen diagrams suggests that a channel was eroded through the Mesolithic black band at an early stage of its formation, probably not long before 7500 BP. In one area infilling of the channel apparently took place in a number of stages; in another it filled progressively with shell muds. A tentative reconstruction of the sedimentary, environmental and archaeological sequence is made. Before the Mesolithic occupation the landscape appears to have been densely forested both on the wetland and the elevated sands. Minor damage to this cover took place around 8500 BP, coinciding with the beginning of the Mesolithic occupation. This was followed, at about 8250 BP, by a substantial opening of the forest cover, when the site may have been more actively used than before, possibly as part of a new settlement pattern. Relatively open local conditions persisted for some 700–1500 years before the forest cover was re-established. Regeneration may have involved alder as a colonist, coinciding with the classical Boreal-Atlantic transition of Godwin. The relative importance of human impact and the occurrence of a period of dry climate are discussed. The balance of evidence, some admittedly circumstantial, points to a pronounced human impact on the local environment in the Mesolithic period. Burning may have been connected with short-stay visits in a settlement pattern spanning both wetland and dry areas; the context for this apparent lowland change might be sought in the insulation of the British Isles in the 9th millennium BP and increased territoriality from that date as reflected in microlith styles. By contrast in the Neolithic period there is very little pollen evidence of local environmental damage at Peacock's Farm. The Neolithic archaeological evidence from Peacock's and Letter F Farms suggests small short-stay visits only, as part of a regionally now more differentiated settlement pattern.


1971 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezra B. W. Zubrow

AbstractA model of carrying capacity as a dynamic equilibrium system is generated and made operational in order to test a series of hypotheses relating population and settlement patterns. The development of populations in marginal resource zones is shown to be a function of optimal zone exploitation in the Hay Hollow Valley. MacArthur's deviation amplifying model is presented as an alternative to the model's diminishing resource curves as a possible explanation of the extinction of Hay Hollow population by A.D. 1400. Finally, the effects of population excess disequilibriums as defined by the model are examined in relationship to the settlement pattern variables of population aggregation, spatial aggregation and residential area.


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