Maize agriculture was practiced in the U.S. Southwest slightly before 2000 B.C., but had a negligible impact on population growth rates until the development or introduction of more productive landraces; the ability to successfully cultivate maize under a greater variety of conditions, with dry farming especially important; the addition of beans, squash, and eventually turkey to the diet; increased sedentism; and what we infer to be the remapping of exchange networks and the development of efficient exchange strategies in first-millenium-A.D. villages. Our estimates of birthrates and growth rates are derived from the proportions of immature individuals among human remains. These proportions are somewhat affected by warfare in our region, and perhaps also by climate. Nevertheless, there is a strong identifiable Neolithic Demographic Transition signal in the U.S. Southwest in about the mid-first-millennium A.D. in most subregions, visible a few hundred years after the introduction of well-fired ceramic containers, and more or less contemporaneous with the first appearance of villages. Independent genetic data derived from the mitochondrial genomes of present-day indigenous populations of the Southwest are also consistent with the hypothesis that a major demographic expansion occurred 1,500-2000 years ago in the Southwest.

During the identification of the osteological material from two archaeological sites (39FA23 and 39FA83) in the Angostura Reservoir basin, South Dakota, the distribution of the various elements began to assume a pattern which invited closer examination on the chance that inferences might be drawn concerning the method of preparing the carcass for food.

Although the numerical count of the elements is subject to the accidents of preservation and the size of the excavation, the distribution of the various elements from an excavation which meets the archaeological requirements is probably a reasonably accurate reflection of the parts brought into camp, since one element has as good a chance of being preserved as another.

We present an agent-based computer simulation that extends a previous experimental simulation (Mesoudi and O"Brien 2008) of the cultural transmission of projectile-point technology in the prehistoric Great Basin, with participants replaced with computer-generated agents. As in the experiment, individual learning is found to generate low correlations between artifact attributes, whereas indirectly biased cultural transmission (copying the point design of the most successful hunter) generates high correlations between artifact attributes. These results support the hypothesis that low attribute correlations in prehistoric California resulted from individual learning, and high attribute correlations in prehistoric Nevada resulted from indirectly biased cultural transmission. However, alternative modes of cultural transmission, including conformist transmission and random copying, generated similarly high attribute correlations as indirect bias, suggesting that it may be difficult to infer which transmission rule generated this archaeological pattern. On the other hand, indirect bias out-performed all other cultural-transmission rules, lending plausibility to the original hypothesis. Importantly, this advantage depends on the assumption of a multimodal adaptive landscape in which there are multiple locally optimal artifact designs. Indeed, in unimodal fitness environments no cultural transmission rule outperformed individual learning, highlighting how the shape of the adaptive landscape within which cultural evolution occurs can strongly influence the dynamics of cultural transmission. Generally, experimental and computer simulations can be useful in answering questions that are difficult to address with archaeological data, such as identifying the consequences of different modes of cultural transmission or exploring the effect of different selective environments.

Microscopic identification and chemical reagents are used to identify organic use residues on stone tools. A basic distinction is made between plant and animal residues on stone tools from prehistoric sites in east central Arizona. Morphological identification undertaken in a crime lab independently supports the chemical technique. Other possible techniques and controls are discussed, as well as the implications for further research.

Skeletal remains from the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, California were analyzed to evaluate the health consequences of an economic shift from a generalized maritime hunting-and-gathering adaptation to one focused increasingly on fishing. Changes in stature and in the frequency of inflammatory bone lesions suggest that health generally declined during this economic shift. This occurred despite an increase in the protein content of the diet. These data provide a basis for evaluating the significance of protein deficiency as a cause of the deterioration in health seen with the development of intensive agriculture.

The typological schemes constructed by many archaeologists to explain the rise and fall of civilizations have neither accounted for the processual changes involved in the evolution of social complexity nor contributed to the development of a comparative method for considering regularities and variation in social behavior. This paper begins with a review of the foundations on which archaeologists have based their conceptions of social evolution. A critical test of the assumptions of “evolutionism” is then provided by case studies in Mesopotamian civilization in which materials from both preliterate and literate times are examined. Using ancient, emic documentation that is recovered as part of the archaeological record, such studies may logically be termed ethnoarchaeological. It is suggested that the customary analogy between social change and biological evolution is inappropriate and that a new problem orientation will facilitate more productive research into the dynamics of social evolution.

The integration of archaeology and paleoecology has allowed a fuller understanding of the history of southern Haida Gwaii and provided insights into the regional history of coastal occupation in northwestern North America. Of particular consequence is the history of sea-level fluctuations during the late-glacial and early Holocene. The modern shore holds only part of the history of coastal occupation. Much is flooded or hidden in the rainforest. In southern Haida Gwaii, shorelines dating from 13,000 to 9,500 B.P. are deeply drowned while those dating from 9,200 to 3,000 B.P. are stranded in the rainforest up to 15 meters above modern levels. Shorelines have been approximately coincident with the current position for only the last two to three millennia and for a century or two centered around 9,400 B.P. Modeling these paleoshorelines has led to discovery and investigation of a number of early Holocene archaeological sites.

Most previous screen experiments have assessed various mesh-size biases in the recovery of faunal remains from specific archaeological samples. These tests provided detailed information about recovery biases at those sites. To augment these previous tests, Shaffer (1992) conducted 1/4″-screen tests on modern comparative mammal skeletons to assess specific biases for the taxa tested. However, because 1/8″ screens are now widely used in archaeological sampling, potential biases should be assessed. Results presented here document hypothetical best recovery of the taxa tested and substantial increased recovery of mammals weighing between 18 and 340 g for 1/8″-screen tests relative to 1/4″-screen tests.

Violence and the role of violence have emerged recently as topics important to understanding the prehistory of the northern Southwest. Recent excavations at Castle Rock and Sand Canyon pueblos, two thirteenth-century sites in the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado, bring new data to bear on these subjects. Field contexts and the results of bone and myoglobin analyses indicate that nonlethal and lethal violence occurred in both of these villages and that additional modifications to bodies and bones occurred near the time of death. Around A.D. 1280, at least eight individuals at Sand Canyon Pueblo died violently, and at least 41 individuals died at Castle Rock. During or after the warfare event that ended the occupation of Castle Rock, some bodies were dismembered, bones were broken, crushed, and heat altered; a few bones were reamed, and the end of one bone was polished. Several incidents of violence and probable anthropophagy (the consumption of human flesh) have been documented in the Mesa Verde region for the mid-A.D. 1100s; however, this analysis of violent events in the late A.D. 1200s establishes a critical link between probable anthropophagy and warfare, and links both with the depopulation of the region.

Experiments were performed to determine the effectiveness of obsidian tools with different forms of edge treatment for animal processing. For most butchering tasks, primary flakes with unmodified working edges were more effective than bifacially pressure-flaked tools. The data presented indicate considerable variability among animal species in the demands placed on tools used for specific butchering tasks. It is suggested that consideration by prehistoric hunters of factors such as tool longevity and raw material availability could have resulted in the use of butchering tools with less than optimal cutting characteristics.

Topographic and image maps of archaeological landscapes can be made using airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. Such maps contain more three-dimensional data than conventional maps and may be more spatially accurate. In addition to providing a record of topography, LiDAR images may reveal surface indications of archaeological deposits unnoticed when using more conventional discovery techniques. LiDAR data and derived imagery need to be integrated with existing forms of archaeological data for their full potential to be realized.

Blood residues have been microscopically and chemically detected on fluted projectile points from eastern Beringia. From these residues a variety of large mammal species, including mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), have been identified using biochemical and molecular-biological methods. This is the first time a direct association has been made between the use of fluted projectile points and human predation of extinct fauna and other large Pleistocene mammals in arctic and subarctic North America. This suggests the northern fluted-point assemblages are part of the Paleoindian big-game hunting tradition that was widespread in North America at the close of the Pleistocene.

Analyzing historical trajectories of social interactions at varying scales can lead to complementary interpretations of relationships among archaeological settlements. We use social network analysis combined with geographic information systems at three spatial scales over time in the western U.S. Southwest to show how the same social processes affected network dynamics at each scale. The period we address, A.D. 1200–1450, was characterized by migration and demographic upheaval. The tumultuous late thirteenth-century interval was followed by population coalescence and the development of widespread religious movements in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the southern Southwest these processes resulted in a highly connected network that drew in members of different settlements within and between different valleys that had previously been distinct. In the northern Southwest networks were initially highly connected followed by a more fragmented social landscape. We examine how different network textures emerged at each scale through 50-year snapshots. The results demonstrate the usefulness of applying a multiscalar approach to complex historical trajectories and the potential for social network analysis as applied to archaeological data.

We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the method's accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a repeated pattern of the selective removal of artifacts away from their location of manufacture. These findings shed light on the role curation and mobility play in the use and eventual discard of those artifact classes for which conventional measures of curation are not applicable. The results raise new questions about Aboriginal technological organization and land use, while simultaneously highlighting the complex relationship between past human behavior and archaeological assemblage content.

Food-grinding tools in both the New World and the Old World have long been used as subsistence indicators. Previously, variations in tool size and material texture were presumed to have been related to processing differences between wild and domestic foods. However, recent research conclusions from both the U.S. Southwest and the Levant indicate that tool morphology is more closely related to differing processing strategies than to the food procurement system. Ethnographic accounts of food preparation techniques and tool design experiments provide a foundation for new methods of assessing prehistoric food processing techniques. Food-processing techniques from eight distinct cultural groups in the U.S. Southwest provide examples of how foods might have been incorporated into the prehistoric diet. Experiments with prehistoric food-grinding tool types demonstrate their effectiveness for reducing assorted seeds and maize kernels and helping to identify criteria for a technological analysis of grinding tool types. Archaeological assemblages from selected sites in the U.S. Southwest are evaluated with these criteria and used to discuss the relationship between grinding technology and the introduction of and increasing dependency on agriculture. It is proposed that developments in food-grinding technology are related to processing strategies for incorporating flour into prehistoric diets.

The role of production, exchange, and consumption in Chaco Canyon can be analyzed successfully only when the system as a whole is considered. A cognitive-processual approach is used here to develop a model of Chaco as an essentially egalitarian society, centered on the Canyon as a Location of High Devotional Expression. The production and consumption of goods is understood in the context of an ideational/devotional significance of the great houses and great kivas of Chaco and of periodic visits made to them for devotional purposes (i.e., pilgrimages). Consideration is given to the structure of regional pilgrimages and the function of the multiple great houses in Chaco Canyon. This model is compared with two others: Chaco as a secondary trading center and Chaco as an elite power base. Production and consumption in both sacred and profane contexts are examined in order to distinguish among the three models.

Macroplant remains recovered during excavation and by flotation are an ambiguous record of prehistoric human/plant interactions. This paper attempts to clarify the relationship by considering natural and cultural processes affecting the archaeological survival of seeds recovered from sites. Also outlined are some characteristics of these botanical artifacts useful in distinguishing their source. In addition, brief comments are directed toward the problem of biases in the paleoethnobotanical record.

Samples of microdrills, microblades, and microcores from the Powell Mound (11-Ms-46) and the Dunham tract (11-S-34/4) of the Cahokia site near St. Louis, and a small number of Jaketown perforators from the Poverty Point site, Louisiana, were examined for microwear traces, using the methods outlined by L. H. Keeley. Many archaeologists have assumed that the microdrills in the Cahokia microlithic industry were used by craft specialists to produce drilled disc beads and other items made from marine and freshwater shell. Microwear analysis of the Cahokia microdrills showed they were specialized tools, used almost exclusively to drill shell material, while the Jaketown perforators were used to drill a variety of materials. This alone does not establish the existence of craft specialization at Cahokia. The distribution of microdrills and shell artifacts at Cahokia and throughout the Cahokia settlement system on the American Bottom indicates shell craft production was not restricted to “guild areas.” The shell beads produced by the microdrills may have served as ritual tokens or currency as well as ornaments, but they were not necessarily produced by full-time specialists who were part of a state-level society.

Although the study of frontiers is of fundamental importance to a variety of academic fields and subdisciplines, few researchers have proposed terminology, models or conceptual frameworks that allow a cross-disciplinary supra-regional comparison of frontier dynamics. In this paper I take three steps toward rectifying this situation. First, I propose a simplified lexicon that is widely applicable across disciplinary, temporal and regional divides. This lexicon is meant to be a starting point in defining boundary situations. Second, lay out a model, called the “continuum of boundary dynamics.” This model is meant to aid researchers in characterizing various types of boundary situations. And third, propose a model, called the “borderland matrix” with which to visualize the dynamic interaction between different categories of boundaries. This model is meant to aid researchers in isolating processes that occur in borderlands. It is my position that only through systematic comparisons of boundary situations at various times and locations can we hope to understand the processes that take place in borderlands. By defining and characterizing boundary situations and then isolating the processes taking place there, I believe that we will come much closer to understanding the common and unique themes that make frontier studies a central interregional and interdisciplinary subject of study.