Exchange and interaction in western Aleutian prehistory: the efficacy of geochemical analysis of lithic raw material procurement on Amchitka Island

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2007There are two main objectives of this thesis; the first is to evaluate the efficacy of geochemical techniques for the identification of lithic raw materials used to make stone tools in the Aleutian Islands. The second objective is to use the data set acquired from the analytical methods to generate hypotheses pertaining to exchange and interaction on Amchitka Island. Looking at Amchitka's geology using x-ray fluorescence will provide the basis for examining the elemental characterization for identification of basalt materials. From this analysis, I compared the elemental concentration of basalt artifacts between six archaeological sites found on Amchitka. Through the use of principal components analysis, the basalt artifacts were chemically matched with those specimens containing similar elemental properties to determine if they derived from the same geologic sources on Amchitka. The generation of hypotheses was directed towards identifying potential basalt sources locations on Amchitka Island and archaeological sites which may be appropriate candidates for further investigations of exchange and interaction.1. Introduction -- 2. Theoretical background -- 3. Aleutian Islands -- 4. Methods -- 5. Archaeological site descriptions -- 6. Statistical analysis -- 7. Archaeological significance of the data -- 8. Discussion and conclusion -- Bibliography -- Appendices

Red Sea palaeoclimate: stable isotope and element-ratio analysis of marine mollusc shells

The southern Red Sea coast is the location of more than 4,200 archaeological shell midden sites. These shell middens preserve archaeological and climatic archives of unprecedented resolution and scale. By using shells from these contexts, it is possible to link past environmental information with episodes of human occupation and resource processing. This chapter summarises current knowledge about the marine gastropod Conomurex fasciatus (Born 1778) and discusses its use in environmental and climatic reconstruction using stable isotope and elemental ratio analysis. It offers a review of the most recent studies of shell midden sites on the Farasan Islands, their regional importance during the mid-Holocene, theories about seasonal use of the coastal landscape, and preliminary results from new methods to acquire large climatic datasets from C. fasciatus shells

Filling the Gaps: CA-SMI-274, a 10,500-Year-Old Shell Midden on San Miguel Island

Despite dramatic growth in the number of Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites known from California’s Northern Channel Islands, two substantial chronological gaps have remained for which no early sites had been found—one between ~10,000 and 11,400 cal B.P. and another between ~12,200 and 12,900 cal B.P. These gaps have led some scholars to propose that the Northern Channel Islands may have been abandoned by Paleocoastal peoples for substantial periods, while others have suggested that the number of early sites is too limited San Miguel Island Santa Rosa Island to be con dent that the gaps are not due to sampling or preservation issues. Here we summarize what is known about CA-SMI-274, a San Miguel Island shell midden recently dated to ~10,500 cal B.P. The site lls a portion of the later gap and sheds some light on a previously unknown period in the deep archaeological history of the islands

Lithic Technologies from Late Holocene Anacapa California: Local Reliance on Anayapax Chert

Lithic technologies have been an important part of Native American lifeways on California’s Channel Islands for more than 12,000 years. However, little is known about stone tool technologies on Anacapa, the second smallest and closest island to California’s mainland. To broaden our understanding of stone tool technologies on the Channel Islands and assess the availability of toolstone on Anacapa, we classified 859 lithic artifacts recovered from three ~3,000-year-old shell middens. Each artifact was classified by material, artifact type, and visually inspected for thermal damage. One hundred and forty three of the larger artifacts were examined using a glossmeter. Our results suggest that prehistoric Anacapa Islanders were heat-treating and using local Anayapax polychromatic green cherts and chalcedony to manufacture a variety of core and flake tools. Some of these cherts may overlap in color and quality with polychromatic cherts documented on eastern Santa Cruz Island, but the polychromatic green cherts appear to have been of local Anacapa origin. Our study sheds light on lithic resource use on Anacapa Island, demonstrates that cherts were available and procured on all the Northern Channel Islands, and adds to the growing challenges of identifying specific sources of chipped stone artifacts

Filling the Gaps: CA-SMI-274, a 10,500-Year-Old Shell Midden on San Miguel Island

Despite dramatic growth in the number of Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites known from California’s Northern Channel Islands, two substantial chronological gaps have remained for which no early sites had been found—one between ~10,000 and 11,400 cal B.P. and another between ~12,200 and 12,900 cal B.P. These gaps have led some scholars to propose that the Northern Channel Islands may have been abandoned by Paleocoastal peoples for substantial periods, while others have suggested that the number of early sites is too limited San Miguel Island Santa Rosa Island to be con dent that the gaps are not due to sampling or preservation issues. Here we summarize what is known about CA-SMI-274, a San Miguel Island shell midden recently dated to ~10,500 cal B.P. The site lls a portion of the later gap and sheds some light on a previously unknown period in the deep archaeological history of the islands

Analyses of Household Artifacts from Rattlesnake Cave (35LK1295), A Site in the Chewaucan Basin of Southeast Oregon

Rattlesnake Cave is located on the western shore of Lake Abert in the northern Great Basin of southeast Oregon, one of hundreds of archaeological sites in the Lake Abert/Chewaucan Basin. The site was dug by collectors in the 1950s, and recovered materials were donated to the Fort Rock Valley Historical Society and Homestead Museum in the early 1990s. We analyze 77 artifacts in the assemblage, which includes cordage, basketry, moccasins, as well as wood, bone, and stone tools. We report new radiocarbon (14C) dates for the site, and the results of energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) on one basalt and nine obsidian bifaces, matching their chemical signatures to regional geologic sources. We discuss the place of Rattlesnake Cave in the broader context of the northern Great Basin while demonstrating how museum collections may contribute to addressing anthropological research questions

mGluR5 ablation in cortical glutamatergic neurons increases novelty-induced locomotion.

The group I metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) has been implicated in the pathology of various neurological disorders including schizophrenia, ADHD, and autism. mGluR5-dependent synaptic plasticity has been described at a variety of neural connections and its signaling has been implicated in several behaviors. These behaviors include locomotor reactivity to novel environment, sensorimotor gating, anxiety, and cognition. mGluR5 is expressed in glutamatergic neurons, inhibitory neurons, and glia in various brain regions. In this study, we show that deleting mGluR5 expression only in principal cortical neurons leads to defective cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) dependent synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex. These cortical glutamatergic mGluR5 knockout mice exhibit increased novelty-induced locomotion, and their locomotion can be further enhanced by treatment with the psychostimulant methylphenidate. Despite a modest reduction in repetitive behaviors, cortical glutamatergic mGluR5 knockout mice are normal in sensorimotor gating, anxiety, motor balance/learning and fear conditioning behaviors. These results show that mGluR5 signaling in cortical glutamatergic neurons is required for precisely modulating locomotor reactivity to a novel environment but not for sensorimotor gating, anxiety, motor coordination, several forms of learning or social interactions

Cx-mGlu5 mice exhibit normal sensorimotor gating and a slight reduction in repetitive behaviors.

<p>(<b>A,B</b>) Sensorimotor gating was measured by prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response in Cx-mGlu5 KO mice in C57/129 mixed (<b>A</b>) or in C57BL/6 background (<b>B</b>) and their littermate controls. Summaries of the maximum startle response to a 120 dB white noise sound burst are shown in the left panel. Summaries for the inhibition of the acoustic startle response by either one of three prepulse levels (74, 78 and 82 dB) are shown on the right. (<b>C</b>) Summaries for the number of marbles buried by Cx-mGlu5 KO and control mice in C57BL6 background.</p