The Baller biface cache: A possible Clovis site in Hitchcock County, Nebraska

Twenty-six Clovis implement caches are known from western North America. In cases where time-sensitive artifacts (e.g., Clovis projectile points or mammoth ivory rods) or adequate information about their provenience and geological context are absent, assigning temporal and cultural affiliation has been challenging. Such is the case with a cache of eight large bifaces, four of which were donated by Albert E. Baller in the early 1900s to the University of Nebraska State Museum. The cache was discovered along with debitage within a small tributary of the Republican River in south-central Nebraska. The four donated Baller bifaces have been curated since the early 1900s. This study compared the physical properties, metrical attributes, and lithic reduction strategies exhibited by the bifaces with 119 similar large bifaces recovered from 10 Clovis caches. These comparisons suggest that the Baller bifaces may represent yet unreported Clovis cache from western North America

Scientific Research Programmes: Toward a Synthesis and Evaluation of CRM Archaeology

Archaeologists involved in conservation archaeology and/or cultural resource management have frequently been confronted with the dilemma described by Fowler (1982). Cultural resource management projects most generally have to be conducted within a restricted geographical area within a specified period of time. Many archaeologists have chosen to deal with the resource management dilemma in one of three ways. First, there are those that have chosen to view cultural resource management primarily as a professional service. Practitioners of service archaeology conduct archaeological surveys and excavations in order to determine the frequency, location, and extent of cultural remains within a specified area. Investigations conducted by service-oriented archaeologists are primarily designed to satisfy the inventory, mitigation, and clearance requirements of federal agencies and private industry. Second, a number of archaeologists have managed to develop creative research designs within which they have been able to address scientific questions about the past while fulfilling their contractual agreements with the federal government and/or private industry. And, third, many other professional archaeologists particularly those affiliated with universities have chosen not to become involved in CRM projects at all

Scientific Research Programmes: Toward a Synthesis and Evaluation of CRM Archaeology

Archaeologists involved in conservation archaeology and/or cultural resource management have frequently been confronted with the dilemma described by Fowler (1982). Cultural resource management projects most generally have to be conducted within a restricted geographical area within a specified period of time. Many archaeologists have chosen to deal with the resource management dilemma in one of three ways. First, there are those that have chosen to view cultural resource management primarily as a professional service. Practitioners of service archaeology conduct archaeological surveys and excavations in order to determine the frequency, location, and extent of cultural remains within a specified area. Investigations conducted by service-oriented archaeologists are primarily designed to satisfy the inventory, mitigation, and clearance requirements of federal agencies and private industry. Second, a number of archaeologists have managed to develop creative research designs within which they have been able to address scientific questions about the past while fulfilling their contractual agreements with the federal government and/or private industry. And, third, many other professional archaeologists particularly those affiliated with universities have chosen not to become involved in CRM projects at all

Paleoindians, Proboscideans, and Phytotoxins: Exploring the Feasibility of Poison Hunting during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition

Archaeologists have long envisioned direct encounters between Paleoindians and megafauna of the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT, 15–11.5 cal BP). Debate continues regarding the role that these Paleoindian hunters played in the extinction event(s). Archaeologists, paleontologists, and paleobiologists have proposed that Paleoindians proved to be very effective hunters who employed darts and spears tipped with razorsharp, chipped-stone projectile points. These weapons are assumed to have been capable of inflicting mortal wounds and death as a result of massive blood loss. Few archaeologists, however, have considered the possible use of hunting poisons, as well as the implications of poison use for past procurement tactics and present-day archaeological research. This paper explores the feasibility of poison hunting by Paleoindians—specifically those derived from Aconitum spp. or monkshood—as well as the possible material correlates of this technology that might be observed in the archaeological record

Poison Hunting Strategies and the Organization of Technology in the Circumpolar Region

INUPIAT ESKIMO WHALERS are allowed to kill up to 50 bowhead whales every year in the arctic waters off Barrow, Alaska. Some of the older bowheads are more than 20 m in length and weigh more than 50 tons. Since 1981 the Inupiat have found at least six lance and harpoon end blades embedded within the thick blubber that insulates these magnificent mammals (Raloff 2(00). These archaeological weapon points included projectiles fashioned from chipped stone, ground slate, ivory, and iron. Wildlife biologists have suspected that whales may live to be quite old. One can only imagine their surprise, however, once they determined the ages of the whales based upon aspartic acid levels and amino acid racemization dating of the whales\u27 eyes. Two of the adult bowheads were between 135 and 172 years old and the third whale was 211 years old. These bowheads had escaped the lethal hunting weapons of Eskimo whalers sometime during the past two centuries. Technology has frequently been the focus of archaeological and ethnological studies of hunter-gatherer societies throughout the arctic and subarctic regions. This technological emphasis is readily understandable given the unusual archaeological preservation conditions, the numerous ethnohistorical descriptions and collections of material items, and the diversity and complexity of implements and facilities in this region. Technology has long been regarded as an essential facilitator of hunter-gatherer adaptations to harsh biophysical environments. Balikci (1964:1) states, for example, This highly specialized technology was considered as the central factor explaining the secret of Eskimo adaptation to the Arctic environment. The primary purpose of this chapter is to examine the systemic interrelationships between hunting weapon technology and the exploitation of aquatic food resources throughout the high latitude settings of the Northern Hemisphere or the circumpolar region (see Gjessing 1944). Artifact assemblages from numerous locations throughout the circumpolar region contain a diverse array of hunting weapons, implements, facilities, and tools to make tools. This chapter focuses primarily upon slate projectile points (flaked, ground, and/or polished) as well as animal processing implements, such as ulus from high-latitude coastal areas. An explanatory argument will be proposed that will address the following questions: (1) What functional role did ground slate implements serve in prehistoric and historic adaptations? (2) Why did ground slate implements appear, persist, and disappear during a 6,000-year period? (3) How might archaeologists account for their variable geographical distribution? (4) How were ground slate implements integrated into a larger technological component of human adaptations involving marine resource exploitation? Given the systemic nature of technology and its central role in human adaptation, this model must briefly allude to a number of seemingly diverse topics, such as circumpolar archaeology, hunter-gatherer technology, botany, phytotoxicology, marine ecology, paleoenvironments, and ethnohistory. As Levins (1966:430) states, however, All models leave out a lot and are in that sense false, incomplete, inadequate. [Its] validation ... is not that it is \u27true\u27 but that it generates good testable hypotheses relevant to important problems. This chapter offers a general explanation of the archaeological record in the circumpolar region that reflects aboriginal poison hunting strategies. It also challenges other investigators to evaluate this argument and to replace it with more robust, empirically testable interpretations of circumpolar technology and past human adaptations in maritime environments in this region

Paleo-Indians

First paragraph: Paleo-Indians were the earliest people to inhabit the Americas. Between thirty and eleven thousand years ago, small, highly mobile groups of huntergatherers extended their hunting areas throughout Beringia (the landmass that joined Siberia and Alaska) and into the Western Hemisphere. This “bridging landmass” emerged slowly from beneath the Bering Sea as more than nine million cubic miles of glacial ice accumulated over southern Alaska, Canada, Labrador, and Greenland. About twenty to eighteen thousand years ago an immense “ice dome” (the Laurentide glacier) towered more than one mile over present-day Hudson Bay. Two lobes of ice spread southward over the eastern edge of the Dakotas and deeper into the Midwest. The Central and Southern Great Plains remained unglaciated at this time, yet the mountains of glacial ice to the north exerted pronounced influences upon the everyday lives of the Paleo-Indians throughout the region

Review of \u3ci\u3eBuffalo\u3c/i\u3e by John Foster, Dick Harrison, and I. S. MacLaren, Edmonton, Alberta, 1992, University of Alberta Press

This volume contains 12 contributions that deal with North American bison in relation to paleontology, archaeology and cultural resource management, the fur trade, portrayal in art and literature, disease and population ecology, and Native American land tenure. There are two general themes that dominate this book. First, two articles by Jack Brink and Ed Sponholz discuss the role of Native Americans in the interpretation and preservation of cultural resources. Both authors focus on the spectacular prehistoric Head-Smashed-In bison jump in southwestern Alberta. Head-Smashed-In is a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage site that has been developed in cooperation with the Peigan tribe of the Blackfoot Nation. Sponholz devotes much of his article to a description of the $10 million Interpretive Centre and the broad range of multicultural events and educational activities that take place at this very innovative multiple use facility

Eye of the Needle: Cold Stress, Clothing, and Sewing Technology during the Younger Dryas Cold Event in North America

This paper examines the possible underlying systemic context(s) for spurred flake gravers and eyed bone needles recovered from Paleoindian sites in North America. The idea that spurred flake gravers and eyed bone needles were closely associated is not new. Archaeologists in both Eurasia and North America have also proposed that eyed bone and ivory needles were used for manufacturing tailored skin clothing. It is suggested here that spurred flake gravers and eyed bone needles may, in fact, be the material correlates of critical non-subsistence related work carried out by women to meet the challenges of very severe winters and cold stress of the Younger Dryas Cold Event (YDCE) between 12,900-11,600 cal. B.P. It is argued here that such expediently produced flake implements and curated sewing technology including eyed needles ultimately reflect the significant ecological bottlenecks) posed by the YDCE for Paleoindian populations. Metric attributes of both spurred flake gravers and eyed bone needles, their spatial co-occurrence in archaeological contexts, and their temporal co-occurrence within the YDCE lend empirical support for this causal argument. Este articulo examina el contexto sistemico subyacente posible (s) de buriles escamas estimulado y agujas de hueso ojos recuperados de sitios paleoindios de America del Norte. La idea de que los buriles escamas estimulado y agujas de hueso ojos estaban estrechamente asociados no es nueva. Los arqueologos tambien han propuesto tanto en Eurasia y America del Norte, que las agujas de hueso y marfil ojos fueron utilizados para la fabrication de prendas de vestir de piel a medida. Se sugiere aqui que buriles escamas estimulado y agujas de hueso ojos pueden, de hecho, el material se correlaciona de trabajo critico no relacionado con la subsistencia que realizan las mujeres para afrontar los retos de inviernos muy severos y el estresfrio del Younger Dryas eventofrio (YDCE) entre 12,900-11,600 cal aap. Aqui se argumenta que tales implementos escamas convenientemente producidos y la tecnologia, incluyendo agujas de coser comisariada ojos reflejan en ultima instancia, el cuello de botella ecoldgica significativa (s) formulada por el YDCE para las poblaciones paleoindios. Atributos metricos de dos buriles estimulado escamas y agujas de hueso, sus ojos espaciales co-ocurrencia en contextos arqueologicos, y su co-ocurrencia de temporales en el YDCE prestan apoyo empirico a este argumento causal

Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Prehistoric Pueblo World A.D. 1150-1350\u3c/i\u3e, edited by Michael A. Adler. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1996. 279 pages

Excerpt: This volume provides the reader with very useful summaries and overviews of the archaeological record for the prehistoric Pueblo III period. It also introduces the reader to a broad range of research topics-models of demographic change, population aggregation, local and regional “abandonment,” architectural variation, settlement layout(s), living space, aspects of community integration, ceramic assemblages, land-use practices, carrying capacity, conflict, exchange, and macro regional interaction-that have been addressed recently in this area. In addition, this volume contains data about settlement numbers, sizes, and distributions for seventy-the districts within twelve regions. Districts were delineated on the basis of archeological patterns, established cultural chronologies, and/or environmental factors. Data regarding 800 large sites (\u3e 50 rooms) including site name, ID number, total rooms, total kivas, Pueblo III occupation span, and architectural layout is presented in an appendix and is also available on computer diskettes for archaeologists upon request from Crow Canyon Archaeological Center

Review of \u3ci\u3eSkeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration, Warfare, Health, and Subsistence\u3c/i\u3e, edited by Douglas W. Owsley and Richard L. Jantz. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. 415 pages.

First paragraph: The editors and contributors to this large, impressive volume present thirty-two chapters that deal with Great Plains skeletal biology. The goal of these diverse investigations was to derive critical information from human skeletal remains about past inhabitants of the Plains, including prehistoric and historic Indians, as well as Euro-Americans. These contributions are organized topically into five parts: (1) archaeology; (2) demography and paleopathology; (3) biological distance measures and skeletal morphology; (4) diet and subsistence strategies; and (5) warfare. The studies represent the collaborative efforts of archaeologists, physical anthropologists, ethnologists, ethnohistorians, and physical scientists. A major impetus for these analyses was the pending reinterment in 1986 of Plains Indian remains belonging to the W.H. Over Museum collection in South Dakota