A Darwinian evolutionary approach to archaeology naturally leads to a focus on cultural transmission. Theoretical models of cultural evolution indicate that individual-level details of cultural transmission can have specific and significant population-level effects, implying that differences in transmission may be detectable in the archaeological record. Here we present an experimental simulation of the cultural transmission of prehistoric projectile-point technology, simulating the two transmission modes-indirect bias and guided variation-that Bettinger and Eerkens (1999) suggested were responsible for differences in Nevada and California point-attribute correlations. Groups of participants designed “virtual projectile points” and tested them in “virtual hunting environments,” with different phases of learning simulating, alternately, indirectly biased cultural transmission and independent individual learning. As predicted, periods of cultural transmission were associated with significantly stronger attribute correlations than were periods of individual learning. We also found that participants who could engage in indirectly biased horizontal cultural transmission outperformed individual-learning controls, especially when individual learning was costly and the selective environment was multimodal. The study demonstrates that experimental simulations of cultural transmission, used alongside archaeological data, mathematical models and computer simulations, constitute a useful tool for studying cultural change.

Two processes characterize the later precontact history (twelfth-fourteenth centuries) of the northern part of the American Southwest: aggregation of people into large towns and depopulation of large regions. These processes have been explained as the result of environmental, economic, and social factors, including drought and warfare. Using a theoretical perspective based on Pauketat’s “historical processualism,” we argue that aggregation and depopulation are partly the result of historical developments surrounding the expansion and collapse of the Chaco regional system. We present our understanding of the Chaco regional system from the perspective of historical processualism; then, historical developments in the northern San Juan and Cibola regions-northern and southern frontiers of the Chaco world-are compared. The northern San Juan"s historically close ties with Chaco Canyon, the post-Chaco regional center at Aztec, and other factors ultimately resulted in the region’s depopulation. In the Cibola region, ties with Chaco were more tenuous and use of Chacoan ideology appears to have been strongest in the post-Chaco era, though no post-Chaco regional center emerged. Instead, large towns developed. Built on novel combinations of independent histories, ritual, and experience with Chaco, large towns enhanced stability. They were encountered by early Spanish explorers and some persist to the present day.

A common issue for archaeologists who study intermediate-scale societies is defining scale and complexity of occupations across entire villages or towns. This can be a major problem since an understanding of site-wide inter-household occupation patterns can be crucial for accurate reconstruction of village demographics and socio-economic organization. In this paper we present new research at the Bridge River site, a large complex hunter-gatherer village in British Columbia, designed to develop a site-wide history of household occupation patterns. We accomplish this through broad-scale geophysical investigations, test excavations and an extensive program of radiocarbon dating. Results of the study suggest that the village grew rapidly between ca. 1800 and 1250 cal. B.P. expanding from 7 to at least 29 simultaneously occupied houses. Variability in household spacing and size indicate that social organization may have grown increasingly complex parallel with rising numbers of households.

Despite ranking at the low end of the continuum in net caloric benefit relative to other foods, small seeds assumed great dietary importance in many parts of the world, including western North America. In a series of publications, Adovasio (1970a, 1974, 1980, 1986) argued that coiled basketry technology was invented in the eastern Great Basin during the early Holocene as a specialized food-processing technique. Coiled baskets are indeed useful for collecting and processing seeds, but it does not necessarily follow that they were originally designed for this purpose. A whole basket recently discovered at Cowboy Cave in southeastern Utah returned an AMS radiocarbon assay of 7960 ± 50 B.P., making it currently the earliest directly dated coiled basket from the Americas. This basket is not a parching tray and likely had nothing to do with harvesting seeds. We discuss the implications of this find with regard to tracking the temporal spread of coiled basketry technology in western North America and the role of coiled and twined forms in the initiation of small seed exploitation. Coiled and twined baskets for small seed processing may result from reconfiguration of existing technologies to create novel forms suited to a new food exploitation strategy.

Arctic Alaskan ceramics offer several interpretive challenges for the archaeologist. In contrast to most cross-cultural patterns, these cooking vessels were produced by hunter-gatherers living in a cool and humid environment and were used to cook meat rather than starchy seeds. Additionally, when compared to cooking vessels and techniques from other areas of the world, their shapes and textures are atypical and appear poorly suited for their intended use. At first impression, these vessels might appear to reflect simply a lack of technological expertise. However, we argue that when considered in relation to the local social and environmental context under which these vessels were produced and used, these apparent contradictions can be understood.

A broad examination of the synthetic results of ceramic ethnoarchaeology reveals that research has centered on the factors that influence variation in the production, use, and discard of whole pottery vessels. Far less common are ceramic ethnoarchaeological studies that investigate the various ways that broken vessels become incorporated into the archaeological record. Archaeologists who would like to apply the findings of ceramic ethnoarchaeology, therefore, are faced with the daunting prospect of determining the relevance of those findings for archaeological phenomena. In this paper, I first examine the relationship between ceramic ethnoarchaeological research on whole vessels and archaeological methods for determining annual accumulation rates of sherds for sites in southwestern Colorado. I then present an alternative method that analyzes contextual variation between use and discard assemblages at two sites in the Grand Canyon area and explore the consequences of all these studies for evaluating assumptions about vessel use-life, systemic inventories, and annual accumulation rates. I conclude with some archaeologically led suggestions about how ceramic ethnoarchaeologists might expand their research designs to make the results of their studies resonate more strongly with, and hence be more useful to, archaeologists who analyze bucketfuls of potsherds.

Floods and droughts and their effects on Hohokam canal systems and irrigation agriculture play a prominent role in many cultural-historical interpretations of the Hohokam trajectory in the lower Salt River valley (modern-day Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area). Catastrophic floods and associated geomorphic stream channel changes may have contributed to settlement and population changes and the substantial depopulation of the lower Salt River valley ca. A.D. 1450 or later. In this study, archaeological data on Hohokam domestic architecture is used to infer changes in prehistoric population growth rates from ca. A.D. 775 through 1450 in the most thoroughly documented canal system in the Salt River valley. Changes in growth rates are compared to the retrodictions of annual streamflow discharge volumes derived from tree-ring records. Contrary to expectations, population growth rates increased as the frequency, magnitude, and duration of inferred flooding, drought, and variability increased. These results challenge existing assumptions regarding the relationship among floods and droughts, conditions for irrigation agriculture, and population change in the lower Salt River valley.