Metabolomics-Based Analysis of Miniature Flask Contents Identifies Tobacco Mixture Use among the Ancient Maya

A particular type of miniature ceramic vessel locally known as “veneneras” is occasionally found during archaeological excavations in the Maya Area. To date, only one study of a collection of such containers successfully identified organic residues through coupled chromatography–mass spectrometry methods. That study identified traces of nicotine likely associated with tobacco. Here we present a more complete picture by analyzing a suite of possible complementary ingredients in tobacco mixtures across a collection of 14 miniature vessels. The collection includes four different vessel forms and allows for the comparison of specimens which had previously formed part of museum exhibitions with recently excavated, untreated containers. Archaeological samples were compared with fresh as well as cured reference materials from two different species of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum and N. rustica). In addition, we sampled six more plants which are linked to mind-altering practices through Mesoamerican ethnohistoric or ethnographic records. Analyses were conducted using UPLC-MS metabolomics-based analytical techniques, which significantly expand the possible detection of chemical compounds compared to previous biomarker-focused studies. Results include the detection of more than 9000 residual chemical features. We trace, for the first time, the presence of Mexican marigold (Tagetes lucida) in presumptive polydrug mixtures

Disease and Healing in Ancient Societies: Dental Calculus Residues and Skeletal Pathology Data Indicate Age and Sex-Biased Medicinal Practices among Native Californians

The health of humans is intricately linked to the substances - both food and non-dietary items -we ingest. Adverse health outcomes related to smoking of products like tobacco and other psychoactive substances are clearly established in modern populations but are less well understood for ancient communities. Grasping these dynamics is further complicated by the curative, religious, and medicinal context of many of these substances, which have often been commodified, refined, and altered in recent history. As part of a larger collaboration with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe dedicated to understanding medicinal plant use among native Californians, we present a summary of new metabolomic data from three Middle and Late-period ancestral heritage Ohlone sites: Thámien Rúmmeytak (CA-SCL-128), ’Ayttakiš ’Éete Hiramwiš Trépam-tak (CA-ALA-677/H/H), and Sii Tuupentak (CA-ALA-565/H/H). Using a UPLC-MS platform, we analyze chemical residues from 95 human dental calculus samples from 50 burials. Employing multivariate statistics, we co-analyzed demographic and skeletal pathology data with chemical residue profiles. We considered skeletal markers for a series of oral and postcranial health conditions. Results indicate sex and age biases in consumption patterns. Periodontitis stands out as the most significant local factor for changes in the oral metabolome. However, while chemical markers of oral diseases may be related to pathogen activity, associations between residues and postcranial conditions such as osteoarthritis suggest traditional curative practices and the ingestion of medicinal substances. Hence, our study yields new insights into the broader context of illness and healing in the past

Sean o’Neill: Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity among the Indians of Northwestern California

Norman: University of oklahoma Press, 2008 xix + 354 pp., 24 illustrations, $50.00 (cloth

Cultural Resource Management (ANTH 535): Public Outreach/Interpretive Project and Presentation Guidelines

This sample course assignment was developed by Dr. Shannon Tushingham for her graduate seminar in Cultural Resource Management (ANTH 535). This is one of several graded assignments that are explicitly incorporated to develop graduate student mastery in public archaeology education and dissemination skills by exposing them to creative public communication projects, activities, and discussions. This particular project tasks students with creating their own public archaeology project (completed or plans if ambitious/not possible to complete in a semester). This assignment is cited in the paper, Public Archaeology Education “Of the People, For the People, By the People”: Democratized Science Communication in Theory and Practice”, 2021 paper in press by Shannon Tushingham and Tiffany Fulkerson, in a special issue of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology entitled Do We Reach More? Essays on Sharing Cultural and Archaeological Research

Public Archaeology & Engagement in Popular Media Assignment

This sample course assignment was developed by Dr. Shannon Tushingham for her WSU undergraduate class in Archaeological Methods and Interpretation (ANTH 230). This is one of several graded assignments that are explicitly incorporated to develop graduate student mastery in public archaeology education and dissemination skills by exposing them to creative public communication projects, activities, and discussions. For this assignment, students are asked to reflect questions such as, “how is science is effectively communicated with the public?” They are also tasked with researching examples of archaeology in public media from a variety of sources. This assignment is cited in the paper, Public Archaeology Education “Of the People, For the People, By the People”: Democratized Science Communication in Theory and Practice”, 2021 paper in press by Shannon Tushingham and Tiffany Fulkerson, in a special issue of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology entitled Do We Reach More? Essays on Sharing Cultural and Archaeological Research

Cultural Resource Management (ANTH 535) Community Engagement Assignment

This sample course assignment was developed by Dr. Shannon Tushingham for her graduate seminar in Cultural Resource Management (ANTH 535). This is one of several graded assignments that are explicitly incorporated to develop graduate student mastery in public archaeology education and dissemination skills by exposing them to creative public communication projects, activities, and discussions. This particular project is given early in the course, and tasks students with defining project-specific communities and publics. This and later course assignments are designed to promote extensive group discussion and reflection about research engagement, ethics, and practices. This assignment is cited in the paper, Public Archaeology Education “Of the People, For the People, By the People”: Democratized Science Communication in Theory and Practice”, 2021 paper in press by Shannon Tushingham and Tiffany Fulkerson, in a special issue of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology entitled Do We Reach More? Essays on Sharing Cultural and Archaeological Research

Public Outreach in Archaeology “Unessay” Final Project Guidelines

This sample course assignment was developed by Dr. Shannon Tushingham for her WSU undergraduate class in Archaeological Methods and Interpretation (ANTH 230). This is one of several graded assignments that are explicitly incorporated to develop graduate student mastery in public archaeology education and dissemination skills by exposing them to creative public communication projects, activities, and discussions. For this project, students create their public archaeology product in an “unessay” format. As an “unessay” assignment, students may select whatever topic or project they like, so long as the project is designed to reach some public audience. This assignment is cited in the paper, Public Archaeology Education “Of the People, For the People, By the People”: Democratized Science Communication in Theory and Practice”, 2021 paper in press by Shannon Tushingham and Tiffany Fulkerson, in a special issue of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology entitled Do We Reach More? Essays on Sharing Cultural and Archaeological Research

The development of intensive foraging systems in northwestern California

Salmon figures prominently in the anthropological literature as providing the economic foundation of many north Pacific hunter-gatherer social institutions. In California, acorns play a similar role. Although the central role of these dietary staples is attested to in northwestern California ethnography, how and why this may have differed in the past is poorly understood. This dissertation research asks, when and why do intensive foraging systems focused on salmon fishing and acorn processing emerge in northwestern California, what is the temporal trajectory of this development, and how do these events relate to the development of similar systems in other areas of the Pacific Northwest Coast and California? The study was designed to test the Migration and Pilot Ridge Models, which make specific predictions concerning the appearance of intensive foraging systems in the region. Resolution of these models has been impeded by the fact that most regional studies have focused on coastal or upland sites. Research is based in Tolowa ancestral territory, in the extreme northwestern corner of California, and includes (1) archival research and ethnographic interviews conducted with Tolowa consultants, which document previously unknown details about aboriginal land use of the Smith River Basin and show that historic groups persisted in pursuing traditional lifeways despite extreme population decline and displacement due to horrific massacres, disease, forced removals, and a disintegrating traditional economy, and (2) archaeological excavations, which document over 8000 years of human occupation at five sites along the Smith River in the Redwood Belt of northwestern California. Excavations revealed the longest chronological sequence, the earliest plank houses and the only semi-subterranean sweathouse recorded in northwestern California. Four chronological components are defined, with distinct assemblages, features, and patterns of raw material use and procurement. The dissertation includes an examination of data relating to subsistence (faunal and archaeobotanical analyses, site structure and assemblage correlates) and settlement and mobility (lithic reduction strategies, obsidian distribution patterns). An increase in the use of the lowland river basin is detected after 5000 cal BP. Acorn processing was important, and residential stability increased, particularly after 3100 cal BP. However, evidence for several key foraging strategies are absent until cal 1250 BP when the rise of linear plank house villages is documented, including logistical pursuit of resources, mass extractive methods, and large scale storage. The restructuring of long distance exchange relationships was clearly related to the developing insularity of social groups and increased sedentism characteristic of the time. Intensive foraging strategies developed and spread quickly throughout the region due to the competitive advantage of sedentary groups laying claim to productive resource patches. As foragers seem to have chosen to intensify acorns before salmon, a reexamination of the assumed costs and benefits of these staples is offered. The unique trajectory of intensification in northwestern California is shown to have been influenced by the tradition of small groups and emphasis on less risky plant foods, which were probably viewed as privately owned goods. The system was small, efficient, and highly resistant to freeloaders and top down labor demands. The northwestern California system achieved population densities and levels of affluence rivaling those of the classic Pacific Northwest, but more cheaply, without the costly and burdensome sociopolitical organization that mobilized intensive production there. Clearly, organizational complexity is not a necessary prerequisite for hunter-gatherer intensification

Mary Collins: WSU Pioneers Interview & Discussion

Dr. Mary Collins, Jan 30, 2023, videorecording, during Shannon Tushingham's spring 2023 graduate seminar in Cultural Resource Management (ANTH 535). Guest speaker presentation, interview, and class discussion on the history of Cultural Resource Managment (CRM) and the WSU Museum of Anthropology. Featuring Dr. Mary Collins (1997 WSU Phd ) is the retired Director of the WSU Museum of Anthropology and former Associate Director of the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies at WSU. The interview and discussion content is cited in a Wikipedia article about Dr. Collins by MA graduate student Tiffany Kite, which is an assignment for ANTH 535 and part of Tushingham and Lipe’s Pioneers in Americanist Biography Project

A Quantitative Assessment of Ethnographically Identified Activity Areas at the Point Saint George Site (CA-DNO-11) and the Validity of Ethnographic Analogy

California archaeologists routinely use ethnography as a source of analogy for interpreting the archaeological record. In the past, many have cautioned against the uncritical use of the ethnographic record. In this paper we test the validity of ethnographic descriptions of village layout collected by Gould. Specifically, we test the notion that prehistoric Tolowa villages contained distinct habitation and workshop areas as described ethnographically—a finding qualitatively demonstrated by Gould—through the quantitative analysis of archaeological assemblages from these areas at the Point St. George site (CA‑DNO-11). We find a statistically significant difference between the artifact assemblages but little difference between faunal remains recovered in the workshop versus the habitation area. We argue that while the ethnographic record should not be adopted uncritically, certain aspects of the ethnographic record, such as site structure, provide accurate analogies for behavior observable in the archaeological record