Single-Grain Optically Stimulated Luminescence Ages of Brownware Pottery in the Central Rocky Mountains and the Spread of Numic Ceramic Technology

This study presents the results of a single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG-OSL) analysis of brownware pottery from four Late Prehistoric-period sites in the Middle Rocky Mountains, Wyoming, USA. SG-OSL of quartz ceramic temper provides improved age control for sites where radiocarbon dating has proven problematic due to old wood, recent wildfires, and calibration uncertainties. SG-OSL results are compared to fine-grain infrared stimulated luminescence (FG-IRSL) results from the same sherds and associated radiocarbon ages. We find that the single-grain technique applied to quartz sand temper provides improved accuracy and precision over both FG-IRSL and radiocarbon. We compare our results to directly dated brownwares from the southern and eastern Great Basin based largely on thermoluminescence analysis. While brownware ceramics appear earliest in the southwestern Great Basin, our data show that the technology spread quickly to the northeastern margin of the Numic homelands. We suggest that knowledge of ceramic technology in Formative (i.e., Ancestral Pueblo and Fremont) societies was important in the adoption of pottery by Numic hunter-gatherers and that, like in the southwestern Great Basin, this technological adaptation in the Middle Rocky Mountains may have occurred within a context of resource intensification during the last 800 years. Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un análisis de luminiscencia ópticamente estimulada de grano único (SG-OSL) de la cerámica café procedente de cuatro sitios del período prehistórico tardío en las Montañas Rocosas centrales, Wyoming, Estados Unidos. El análisis SG-OSL de cuarzo usado como desgrasante en la cerámica proporciona un mejor control cronológico para sitios donde la datación por radiocarbono ha resultado problemática debido a madera vieja, incendios recientes e incertidumbres de calibración. Se comparan los resultados del análisis SG-OSL con los de la luminiscencia estimulada por infrarrojo de grano fino (FG-IRSL) de los mismos tiestos y con las edades de radiocarbono asociadas. Encontramos que la técnica de grano único aplicada al desgrasante de arena de cuarzo proporciona mayor precisión y exactitud que el FG-IRSL y el radiocarbono. Comparamos nuestros resultados con muestras directamente datadas de cerámica café procedentes de la Gran Cuenca meridional y oriental principalmente con base en el análisis por termoluminiscencia. Mientras que la cerámica café aparece antes en el suroeste de la Gran Cuenca, nuestros datos muestran que la tecnología se extendió rápidamente al margen noreste del territorio de origen de la gente de habla Numic. Sugerimos que el conocimiento de la tecnología cerámica en las sociedades formativas (es decir, Pueblo ancestral y Fremont) fue importante en la adopción de cerámica por los cazadores-recolectores númicos y que, al igual que en la Gran Cuenca del suroeste, esta adaptación tecnológica en las Montañas Rocosas centrales podría haber ocurrido en un contexto de intensificación de recursos durante los últimos 800 años

Tribal consultation and collaborative governance: environmental and cultural justice through the lens of the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) and the National Historic Preservation Act (1966)

Presented at the Environmental justice in the Anthropocene symposium held on April 24-25, 2017 at the Lory Student Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Colorado. This symposium aims to bring together academics (faculty and graduate students), independent researchers, community and movement activists, and regulatory and policy practitioners from across disciplines, research areas, perspectives, and different countries. Our overarching goal is to build on several decades of EJ research and practice to address the seemingly intractable environmental and ecological problems of this unfolding era. How can we explore EJ amongst humans and between nature and humans, within and across generations, in an age when humans dominate the landscape? How can we better understand collective human dominance without obscuring continuing power differentials and inequities within and between human societies? What institutional and governance innovations can we adopt to address existing challenges and to promote just transitions and futures

Synchronization of Energy Consumption By Human Societies Throughout the Holocene

We conduct a global comparison of the consumption of energy by human populations throughout the Holocene and statistically quantify coincident changes in the consumption of energy over space and time—an ecological phenomenon known as synchrony. When populations synchronize, adverse changes in ecosystems and social systems may cascade from society to society. Thus, to develop policies that favor the sustained use of resources, we must understand the processes that cause the synchrony of human populations. To date, it is not clear whether human societies display long-term synchrony or, if they do, the potential causes. Our analysis begins to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the long-term synchrony of human societies, and we hypothesize that the synchrony of human populations results from (i) the creation of social ties that couple populations over smaller scales and (ii) much larger scale, globally convergent trajectories of cultural evolution toward more energy-consuming political economies with higher carrying capacities. Our results suggest that the process of globalization is a natural consequence of evolutionary trajectories that increase the carrying capacities of human societies

Synchronization of Energy Consumption By Human Societies Throughout the Holocene

We conduct a global comparison of the consumption of energy by human populations throughout the Holocene and statistically quantify coincident changes in the consumption of energy over space and time—an ecological phenomenon known as synchrony. When populations synchronize, adverse changes in ecosystems and social systems may cascade from society to society. Thus, to develop policies that favor the sustained use of resources, we must understand the processes that cause the synchrony of human populations. To date, it is not clear whether human societies display long-term synchrony or, if they do, the potential causes. Our analysis begins to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the long-term synchrony of human societies, and we hypothesize that the synchrony of human populations results from (i) the creation of social ties that couple populations over smaller scales and (ii) much larger scale, globally convergent trajectories of cultural evolution toward more energy-consuming political economies with higher carrying capacities. Our results suggest that the process of globalization is a natural consequence of evolutionary trajectories that increase the carrying capacities of human societies

Return to Fort Rock Cave: Assessing the Site\u27s Potential to Contribute to Ongoing Debates about how and when Humans Colonized the Great Basin

Oregon’s Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dismissed as unreasonably old by most researchers. Now, with evidence of a nearly 15,000-year-old occupation at the nearby Paisley Five Mile Point Caves, we returned to Fort Rock Cave to evaluate the validity of Bedwell’s claim, assess the stratigraphic integrity of remaining deposits, and determine the potential for future work at the site. Here, we report the results of additional fieldwork at Fort Rock Cave undertaken in 2015 and 2016, which supports the early Holocene occupation, but does not confirm a pre–10,500 cal B.P. human presence

Multidecadal Climate Variability and the Florescence of Fremont Societies in Eastern Utah

Fremont societies of the Uinta Basin incorporated domesticates into a foraging lifeway over a 1,000-year period from AD 300 to 1300. Fremont research provides a unique opportunity to critically examine the social and ecological processes behind the adoption and abandonment of domesticates by hunter-gatherers. We develop and integrate a 2,115-year precipitation reconstruction with a Bayesian chronological model for the growth of Fremont societies in the Cub Creek reach of Dinosaur National Monument. Comparison of the archaeological chronology with the precipitation record suggests that the florescence of Fremont societies was an adaptation to multidecadal precipitation variability with an approximately 30-plus-year periodicity over most, but not all, of the last 2,115 years. Fremont societies adopted domesticates to enhance their resilience to periodic droughts. We propose that reduced precipitation variability from AD 750 to AD 1050, superimposed over consistent mean precipitation availability, was the tipping point that increased maize production, initiated agricultural intensification, and resulted in increased population and development of pithouse communities. Our study develops a multidecadal/multigenerational model within which to evaluate the strategies underwriting the adoption of domesticates by foragers, the formation of Fremont communities, and the inherent vulnerabilities to resource intensification that implicate the eventual dissolution of those communities. Las sociedades de Fremont de la cuenca de Uinta incorporaron a los domesticados en una forma de vida de alimentación durante un período de 1.000 años desde 300–1300 dC. La investigación de Fremont brinda una oportunidad única para examinar críticamente los procesos sociales y ecológicos detrás de la adopción y el abandono de los domésticos por parte de los cazadores-recolectores. Desarrollamos e integramos una reconstrucción de precipitación de 2.115 años con un modelo cronológico Bayesiano para el crecimiento de las sociedades de Fremont en el alcance de Cub Creek del Dinosaur National Monument. La comparación de la cronología arqueológica con el registro de precipitación sugiere que la floración de las sociedades de Fremont fue una adaptación a la variabilidad de precipitación multidecadal con una periodicidad de aproximadamente 30 años en la mayoría, pero no en todos, de los últimos 2.115 años. Las sociedades de Fremont adoptaron domesticados para mejorar su resistencia a las sequías periódicas. Proponemos que la variabilidad reducida de la precipitación desde 750–1050 dC, superpuesta sobre la disponibilidad de precipitación media constante, fue el punto de inflexión que aumentó la producción de maíz, inició la intensificación agrícola y dio como resultado un aumento de la población y el desarrollo de las comunidades de médulas. Nuestro estudio desarrolla un modelo multidecadal/multigeneracional dentro del cual evaluar las estrategias que sustentan la adopción de domesticados por parte de los recolectores, la formación de comunidades de Fremont y las vulnerabilidades inherentes a la intensificación de recursos que implican la eventual disolución de esas comunidades

p3k14c, a synthetic global database of archaeological radiocarbon dates.

Archaeologists increasingly use large radiocarbon databases to model prehistoric human demography (also termed paleo-demography). Numerous independent projects, funded over the past decade, have assembled such databases from multiple regions of the world. These data provide unprecedented potential for comparative research on human population ecology and the evolution of social-ecological systems across the Earth. However, these databases have been developed using different sample selection criteria, which has resulted in interoperability issues for global-scale, comparative paleo-demographic research and integration with paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. We present a synthetic, global-scale archaeological radiocarbon database composed of 180,070 radiocarbon dates that have been cleaned according to a standardized sample selection criteria. This database increases the reusability of archaeological radiocarbon data and streamlines quality control assessments for various types of paleo-demographic research. As part of an assessment of data quality, we conduct two analyses of sampling bias in the global database at multiple scales. This database is ideal for paleo-demographic research focused on dates-as-data, bayesian modeling, or summed probability distribution methodologies

Flake Morphology, Fluvial Dynamics, and Debitage Transport Potential

Since archaeological sites are often located in or near fluvial environments, a thorough understanding of corresponding formation processes is a critical component of archaeological research. Within this context, we address the following question: how does flake morphology condition transport potential? Specifically, do flakes behave as the idealized spheres often used to characterize geological materials and if so, how might this process modify a debitage assemblage? To address this important issue, we present the results of a fluvial transport experiment designed to evaluate the relationships between flake size, shape, weight, curvature, and transport potential. We begin with an overview of fluvial mechanics and previous archaeological fluvial transport studies and use these studies to design an experiment intended to fill gaps in our knowledge of the relationships between flake morphology and transport potential. Our experimental results suggest that all things being equal, flake weight is the most important variable in both settling velocity and transport distance, although flake shape conditions transport as well. Finally, our study demonstrates the potential structure of fluvially transported assemblages as lag deposits and suggests that fluvially transported assemblages may retain key behavioral information

Accountability or Merely “Good Words”? An Analysis of Tribal Consultation Under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) brought issues of environmental justice, energy development, and Native American sovereignty to worldwide attention. Central to this dispute was the definition of “meaningful” consultation within the context of the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) and the National Historic Preservation Act (1966). Many cases document the failure of the consultation process during NEPA and NHPA review, but this line of research does little to propose actions to mitigate these failures. This paper compares three projects involving Tribal governments that underwent NEPA and NHPA review and resulted in three different outcomes. Based on these projects, we find that a lack of transparency during the consultation process is a common factor among failed consultations. Additionally, we recognize that because the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) limits the court’s review power and provides agencies significant discretion in their interpretation of statutory consultation obligations, judicial review has not provided much satisfaction to Tribes. We propose that review mechanisms that grade levels of transparency and stakeholder participation in the review processes can improve accountability and the effectiveness of consultations. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviews Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) for the quality of the scientific research. Expanding this mechanism to include review of consultation and public participation would provide agencies with incentives to improve consultation practices. Ultimately, meaningful consultation conducted on a government-togovernment basis can balance development and preservation goals and help fulfill the noble intentions of NEPA and NHPA.This material published in Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy is made available by the James E. Rogers College of Law, the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library, and the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact the AJELP Editorial Board at https://ajelp.com/contact-us

Single-Grain Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating of Quartz Temper From Prehistoric Intermountain Ware Ceramics, Northwestern Wyoming, USA

This study applies single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG OSL) dating of quartz sand temper to Intermountain Ware ceramics recovered from four archaeological sites in northwestern Wyoming, USA. We show that SG OSL dating can strengthen and further refines existing archaeological site chronologies in certain settings. The SG OSL results are compared to multi-grain infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating of the polymineral (feldspar and quartz) silt fraction in the ceramic paste of the same sherds. Results from the two methods are statistically indistinguishable, although coarse-grained quartz SG OSL ages have consistently lower standard error terms due to higher relative sensitivity and avoidance of anomalous fading calculations. Moreover, the SG OSL results produced precision at two-sigma standard error greater than or equal to associated calibrated radiocarbon ages. SG OSL dating of quartz temper from Intermountain Ware ceramics provides more reliable site occupation timing than radiocarbon dating, which can be conditioned by incorporation of old wood and contamination from young soil carbon. This study highlights the importance of SG OSL dating on sherds from buried contexts when exposure to wildfires may have occurred, as ceramics recovered from the ground surface of one site after a high-intensity fire produced near-modern apparent ages, suggesting they were thermally reset during the fire. We suggest SG OSL should be applied to date similar ceramics with quartz temper to determine site age and bolster regional chronologies