Proceedings of the Third Caldwell Conference, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, May 9-11, 2008

341 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 26 cm. "Issued June 23, 2010." Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-341).The late Archaic of the American Southeast is typically described as a time of population growth, innovative developments in subsistence strategies, and increased social complexity. Although it is difficult to generalize, many early Woodland communities are characterized as relatively small scale, fairly mobile foragers organized into unranked or minimally ranked lineages and clans. Early Woodland groups also seem to be more socially isolated than their late Archaic predecessors, with a decline in regional exchange networks. The papers in this volume were presented at a conference entitled "What Happened in the Late Archaic?" which was co-sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the St. Catherines Island Foundation and held on St. Catherines Island (Georgia), May 9-11, 2008. The Third Caldwell Conference invited the participants to engage the appropriate archaeological data from the American Southeast, specifically addressing the nature of change during the late Archaic-early Woodland transition. This volume consists of a dozen substantive papers, followed by three discussant contributions. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Trend, tradition, and transition at the end of the Archaic / Tristram R. Kidder -- "Nothing but the river's flood" : late Archaic diaspora or disengagement in the lower Mississippi Valley and southeastern North America / Jon L. Gibson -- The two rings of St. Catherines Island : some preliminary results from the St. Catherines and McQueen shell rings / Matthew C. Sanger and David Hurst Thomas -- Two late Archaic period shell rings, St. Simon's Island, Georgia / Rochelle A. Marrinan -- The Archaic above Choctawhatchee Bay : hydrodynamics, adaptation, and abandonment / Rebecca Saunders -- Prehistoric landscapes of complexity : Archaic and Woodland period shell works, shell rings, and tree islands of the Everglades, South Florida / Margo Schwadron -- Shell rings and other settlement features as indicators of cultural continuity between the late Archaic and Woodland periods of coastal Florida / Michael Russo -- "What happened to the southeastern Archaic?" : a perspective from St. Catherines Island / David Hurst Thomas -- Leaving the rings : shell ring abandonment and the end of the late Archaic / Matthew C. Sanger -- The rhythms of space-time and the making of monuments and places during the Archaic / Victor D. Thompson -- Getting from the late Archaic to early Woodland in three middle valleys (those being the Savannah, St. Johns, and Tennessee) / Kenneth E. Sassaman -- Late Archaic? : what the hell happened to the middle Archaic? / Joe Saunders -- Thoughts on the late Archaic-early Woodland transition on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts / Chester B. DePratter -- Mounds, middens, and rapid climate change during the Archaic-Woodland transition in the southeastern United States / William H. Marquardt -- The end of the southeastern Archaic : regional interaction and archaeological interpretation / David G. Anderson

Reimagining the Development of Downtown Cahokia Using Remote Sensing Visualizations from the Western Edge of the Grand Plaza

The distribution of mounds, plazas, and defensive palisades associated with Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (CMSHS) defines the core urban environment of Eastern North America’s first American Indian city. The large mounds surrounding Cahokia’s centrally located Grand Plaza, including the palisades that enclose them, are referred to as Downtown Cahokia. In this portion of the site, archaeologists have identified material culture (e.g., ceramics), earthen fills to level the plaza, and several earthen mound constructions. These findings suggest an occupational history for the area that occurred over the 9th–14th centuries CE, with the emergence of plaza delineation and earthwork construction beginning in the early 11th century CE. In sum, Downtown Cahokia and its Grand Plaza are considered by archaeologists to be a vibrant space characterized by ongoing American Indian transformations to an early metropolitan landscape. We conducted magnetometer and electromagnetic induction surveys at the western edge of the Grand Plaza. When compared with the LiDAR-derived visualizations we generated from this portion of the site, our aerial and terrestrial remote sensing data offered new information on the nature and sequence of monument construction in Downtown Cahokia, as well as architectural changes in domestic and special-use structures. These multi-scalar and complementary remote sensing datasets allowed us, without excavating, to trace important sequences of change in Downtown Cahokia’s history

Reimagining the Development of Downtown Cahokia Using Remote Sensing Visualizations from the Western Edge of the Grand Plaza

The distribution of mounds, plazas, and defensive palisades associated with Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (CMSHS) defines the core urban environment of Eastern North America’s first American Indian city. The large mounds surrounding Cahokia’s centrally located Grand Plaza, including the palisades that enclose them, are referred to as Downtown Cahokia. In this portion of the site, archaeologists have identified material culture (e.g., ceramics), earthen fills to level the plaza, and several earthen mound constructions. These findings suggest an occupational history for the area that occurred over the 9th–14th centuries CE, with the emergence of plaza delineation and earthwork construction beginning in the early 11th century CE. In sum, Downtown Cahokia and its Grand Plaza are considered by archaeologists to be a vibrant space characterized by ongoing American Indian transformations to an early metropolitan landscape. We conducted magnetometer and electromagnetic induction surveys at the western edge of the Grand Plaza. When compared with the LiDAR-derived visualizations we generated from this portion of the site, our aerial and terrestrial remote sensing data offered new information on the nature and sequence of monument construction in Downtown Cahokia, as well as architectural changes in domestic and special-use structures. These multi-scalar and complementary remote sensing datasets allowed us, without excavating, to trace important sequences of change in Downtown Cahokia’s history

Holocene fluctuations in vegetation and human population demonstrate social resilience in the prehistory of the Central Plains of China

AbstractArchaeologists and palaeoclimatologists have focused on the impact of climate on the prehistoric civilizations around the world; however, social resilience in the face of the climate change remains unclear, especially during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Central Plains of China (CPC). In this paper, we present palynological results from the Dahecun Core, Henan Province, China. Our pollen data indicate a warm and wet climate condition from 9200 to 4000 cal BP, which then switches to a cool and dry climatic condition during the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition (～4000–3600 cal BP). We analyze 14C dates from archaeological sites to demonstrate four episodes of population increase and present vegetation dynamics, determined from available pollen data, to provide evidence for the synchronous shifts in vegetation and human population during the Neolithic. Our results indicate that the aridification in the early Bronze Age did not cause population collapse, highlighting the importance of social resilience to climate change. The pollen, radiocarbon dates and archaeobotanical records from the CPC provides new evidence that supports the claim that the development of agriculture and complex societies, under the stress of a dry climate, set the stage for the dramatic increase of human population around 3800–3400 cal BP

Extreme flooding of the lower Yellow River near the Northgrippian-Meghalayan boundary: Evidence from the Shilipu archaeological site in southwestern Shandong Province, China

Understanding the societal impacts of past climate changes may deepen our insight into human adaptation and resilience against potential climate changes in the future. However, the degree and nature of climate-civilization link are still a matter of debate. Fluvial deposits preserved within a cultural stratigraphical context at archaeological sites in the lower Yellow River area may offer an exceptional framework for evaluating the role of climate changes in the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. Here we show evidence for great lower Yellow River floods during the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition about 4000-3500 years ago. Comparing with existing terrestrial and marine records suggests that they were a downstream manifestation of flooding in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, most likely triggered by excessive summer precipitation while a weak El Nino condition prevailed. The floods substantially modified the preexisting landscape and altered the agricultural conditions, thereby driving people dwelling on the higher mounds to move upward. Our results provide a past analogue of the linked climatic, environmental, and societal changes at a time when large and rapid climate changes occurred. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved