Ethnoarchaeology has, from its inception, suffered from the lack of a clear theoretical framework to productively link its two constituent parts: ethnography and archaeology. In this paper, I propose a framework that allows the integration of ethnographic and archaeological datasets at various levels of abstraction. I argue that it is only through innovative combinations of ethnography and archaeology, applied with proper caution and disclosure and at explicit levels of abstraction, that ethnoarchaeologists can hope to construct an ethnoarchaeology that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Radiocarbon dates on marine shell and other materials of marine origin appear significantly older than contemporaneous samples of terrestrial/atmospheric origin. Misunderstandings regarding the mechanisms that give rise to this “marine reservoir effect” (MRE), the terminology used to define it, and the mathematics used to describe it cause many coastal archaeologists to distrust or misinterpret marine shell dates. The recent release of a reformulated 14C calibration curve for marine samples (Marine20), which necessitates recalculation of all local reservoir age corrections, may add to the confusion. Here, we review the benefits of dating shell; provide a plain-language explanation of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and cultural processes that give rise to age disparities associated with the MRE; and offer advice to archaeologists intending to date marine shell. Our hope is that these comments will not only aid archaeologists in the planning and interpretive stages of research but also assist in assessing the reliability of legacy chronologies based on marine materials. More broadly, we encourage careful evaluation of all sources of uncertainty in all 14C chronologies, whether based on terrestrial or marine materials.

Paleoindian archaeology on the Great Plains is often characterized by the investigation of large mammal kill/butchery bonebeds with relatively high archaeological visibility. Extensively documented aspects of Paleoindian behavioral variability include the form and composition of weaponry systems, hunting strategies, carcass exploitation, and hunter mobility. Non-hunting oriented aspects of settlement and subsistence behavior are less documented. Information from Component 2 at the O.V. Clary site, in Ash Hollow, western Nebraska, lessens this imbalance of knowledge. It provides a fine-grained, spatially extensive record of Late Paleoindian (Allen Complex) activities at a winter base camp occupied for 5-7 months. This paper highlights elements of site structure and activity organization, emphasizing domestic behaviors including hearth use, site maintenance, and hide working. ArcGIS 9.3.1 (ESRI) and GeoDa 0.9.5-1 (Anselin 2003; Anselin et al. 2006) are employed in conjunction with middle-range observations and expectations to document and interpret spatial patterning in the distribution of over 57,000 artifacts, ecofacts, and red ochre nodules. More broadly, results are related to two models of Paleoindian residential mobility: the place-oriented model and the high-tech forager model. Rather than mutually exclusive scenarios, Component 2 indicates that these models reflect complementary structural poses within the overall behavioral system.

In presenting a case for the viability of llamas on the desert coast of northern Peru in prehispanic times, Shimada and Shimada (1985) suggest that alpacas might also have been adapted to the coastal environment. Alpacas are primarily wool producers however, best adapted to the high altitude pasturelands of central and southern Peru. Wool yarn used in coastal textiles, it is argued, was imported from the highlands. While coastal llama herding is an aspect of regional self-sufficiency, alpaca wool yarn was important in the long distance exchange networks which, in later Andean prehistory, distributed rare materials and products for elite consumption.

The style-function dichotomy lies at the heart of the evolutionary archaeology research program. It also is the source of much disagreement about how we should conceive of the processes of culture change. Evolutionary archaeologists tend to view archaeological attributes as either functional, if they respond to selection, or stylistic, if they do not. Others tend to see style and function as operating simultaneously. A resolution to this problem is proposed through development of a formal mathematical model of style- and function-based evolution using a hypothetical example of temporal patterns of ceramic decoration within a community of household-based potters. Simple replicator equations are proposed to describe the household-scale dynamics of change in the relative frequency of ceramic decoration. These low-level dynamics can be distinguished on the basis of whether or not change is correlated with some measure of performance, utility, or payoff. The replicator equations are then used to derive several versions of the Price Equation (Price 1970), a very general and powerful statement about total evolutionary change in any system. At this scale of analysis, total change is similarly partitioned into payoff-correlated (functional) and payoff-independent (stylistic) contributions and it is shown that these processes are likely to operate simultaneously. Tests of the model against simulated data show that it is possible to estimate with considerable accuracy the strength of functional and stylistic contributions to culture change under ideal conditions of site preservation. Further theoretical work is needed, however, to understand how diverse site formation and disturbance processes might impact application of the model in real archaeological settings.

Early 14C dates from Meadowcroft Rockshelter have engendered debate on the antiquity of human occupation in North America. Although the investigators of this important site conclude that particulate and nonparticulate contamination have not affected the radiocarbon dates, several points of confusion remain in regard to the question of coal contamination. We clarify these issues, provide comparative data from other sites, and recommend specific tests that are necessary to negate or support the issue of "dead carbon" contamination of radiocarbon samples.

An examination of the data used to support Nunley’s hypothesis (1967) that Texcoco Fabric-marked pottery vessels functioned as flowerpots to adapt chinampa agriculture to saline Lake Texcoco does not confirm his conclusions. The distribution of the ware and tlateles coincides not with chinampa agriculture but with salt-producing communities of the 16th century. Aboriginal salt-making produced large mounds of washed or leached soils which are the tlateles. Texcoco Fabric-marked ware is suited for the rapid heating of saline solutions. It is concluded that the sherds and the tlateles are the archaeological remains of Aztec salt-making activities.

Excavations at Site PV62-63 (Cerrillos) uncovered a refuse accumulation several meters deep with two major stratigraphic units, the earlier termed the Cerrillos phase, the later termed the Isla phase. Cerrillos ceramics are of a style new to the Ica sequence and the earliest known in the valley; they represent an early development in the Paracas style, but also share various specific traits with Chavinoid ceramic styles in other areas. Ceramics of the Isla phase represent a local development out of Cerrillos but with many of the Chavinoid traits lacking. The Isla ceramic style had been previously recognized as the earliest known Paracas phase, although no refuse excavations had been made. Isla refuse is associated with a series of superimposed adobe structures, representing terraced habitations arranged in a complex apartment-house-like dwelling unit. The refuse of both stratigraphic units indicates very heavy dependence on agricultural produce, beans and a primitive type of maize being the staples. Various other artifact types were recovered, the Cerrillos textiles also showing similarities with early techniques in other areas.

Recent literature on Paleoarchaic and Early Archaic strategies in the arid west of North America has characterized the shift from the earlier to later period as constituting an adaptive discontinuity. The empirical bases for this conclusion are shifts in mobility, subsistence, and technology. Paleoarchaic peoples are described as highly mobile, focused on a diversity of animal resources, including birds and small game, and using more exotic toolstone, an aspect of mobility. In contrast, Early Archaic strategies are less mobile, yet more focused on large game, using more local toolstone, and adopting grinding tools presumably to process small seeds. Accompanying this transition is the shift from stemmed to notched projectile points. Data bearing on this transition on the Colorado Plateau have been scarce. Excavations of finely stratified deposits at North Creek Shelter on the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah have yielded support for the adaptive discontinuity position, although qualitative differences between the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau are apparent in mobility and faunal use.

Prior research on the function of shoe-shaped chultuns found in the southern Yucatan peninsula has focused on their use for household level storage of dry foodstuffs. We found that inter- and intra-site distribution patterns of chultuns do not support the household storage hypothesis. At Tikal only 20-25% of the households had chultuns, and most of these households had two or more chultuns. We believe the distributional data suggest that chultuns were associated with a cottage-level industry in the context of a vending economy. Because the internal environment of chultuns appears favorable for conducting fermentations, we propose that they were used as places to process, and for limited periods to store, fermented foods such as alcoholic beverages and pickled fruits. The greatest demand for chultun products was apparently centered around large urban sites in northeastern Peten and northern Belize where frequent civic/religious festivals encouraged a small to moderate market potential.

Fertility (crude birth rate) was estimated from skeletal and corresponding historical relative mortality ratios for a seventeenth- to eighteenth-century Barbados slave population. The estimates varied widely among themselves according to which data source and mortality ratio was used; they also varied from the actual historical fertility rate. In addition, we have raised logical objections to the use of stable model life tables for inferring nonstable vital rates in archaeological populations. These points are problematic for the broad use of relative mortality to infer relative fertility.

Ever since the late Julio C. Tello gave it a prominent place in his scheme of the development of Peruvian culture the great site of Huari (or Wari, as Tello always wrote it) has been a vexing problem in Andean archaeology. As was the case with so many of his explorations, Tello never published a report on his work at Huari and his general statements about what he found there leave the reader in considerable confusion. The authors of this paper took advantage of a flying trip over the Peruvian Central Highway made in 1946 to make a brief visit to Huari and came away with the feeling that even the small amount of fresh information they could contribute to archaeological knowledge would be worth reporting.

The settlement area that encompasses all the refuse-generating activities that contribute to a single midden may be referred to as a midden's "catchment." Two related issues are explored with respect to the problem of measuring midden catchment: 1) the relation between settlement density, midden size, and distribution, and midden catchment; and 2) the relation between the heterogeneity of a midden's contents and its catchment.

Fisher-hunter-gatherers built the large earthwork at Poverty Point ca. 3500 cal. B.P. Based on the massive quantities of exotic rock and construction regularities with earlier regional mound complexes, Kenneth Sassaman proposes that builders were a cosmopolitan multiethnic collective with geographically extensive origins. Close examination of Poverty Point's goods fails to support his multiethnic model and suggests that a local communal structure prevailed in Poverty Point's homeland.

Due to the kind invitation of William C. Eldridge and the Vaccaro brothers, discoverers of the site, I have had opportunities to visit and excavate in this flutedpoint site during the current spring. In part of the work I was accompanied by Theodore L. Stoddard.

In April we went to examine a possible hearth area where concentrations of charcoal had been reported in association with fragments of artifacts and chips of the stone used by the paleo-Indian occupants of the site. The surface which was exposed lay about 12 inches below ground level and well within the horizon of yellow-brown sand. Concentrations of charcoal were irregular in outline and density, and as one trowelled downwards they appeared to separate into fingers suggesting roots. Associated with some of the better preserved charcoal were bits of carbonized bark. We therefore concluded that the charcoal represented the remains of stumps which had burned out in rather recent woods fires, and that association of charcoal and fragments of paleo-Indian artifacts was purely fortuitous.

In september, 1949, while in west central Nevada for the purpose of collecting vegetal materials from the lowermost cultural levels of Lovelock cave (Loud and Harrington, 1929) to be used for radiocarbon dating, the author revisited an open rockshelter site some six miles up the valley from Lovelock cave. The site, since named Leonard rockshelter (site 26- Pe-14) after Zenas Leonard who in 1833 traversed the Humbolt Sink area as a member of the Walker expedition (Leonard, 1904), is not referred to by Loud and Harrington. It is the same site from which, in 1936, Thomas Derby mined bat guano and recovered artifacts described in a brief article (Heizer, 1938). The bat guano formed a layer two to three feet thick lying on ancient gravels of Lake Lahontan and beneath a thick accumulation of aeolian dust and rockfall.

Archaeologists have long used the prehistoric inhabitants of the Phoenix Basin in south-central Arizona as an example of a failed or collapsed society, and most prehistorians still assert that Hohokam material culture patterns ended at the close of the Classic period (circa A.D. 1150–1450). Although researchers are increasingly recognizing connections between prehistoric and modern indigenous people, little consensus exists regarding the cause or causes of the dramatic alterations in material culture patterns that occurred in the region. Most archaeologists who have studied the changes at the end of the Classic period, however, have not fully considered the implications of previous and subsequent conditions, including similar and seemingly abrupt shifts in cultural practices that occurred both before and after this time. This paper uses Akimel O'Odham (i.e., Pima) cultural knowledge to contextualize the “Hohokam Collapse.” We show that this perspective of culture history explains the relationship between prehistoric and historic populations and answers many of the long-standing questions regarding cultural variation in the Phoenix Basin.

Popular misconceptions relative to atlatl functions are identified. The manner in which an atlatl functions to increase spear impetus is explained and illustrated. Its performance is tested by experiments and resulting data are provided. These data indicate that the atlatl provides approximately 60% increased spear thrust. Experiments fail to indicate any benefit derived from the use of atlatl "weights."

This study demonstrates that gender imbalance can explain certain problematic artifact assemblages. Typical warfare refugee populations include more women than men because more men than women are killed in conflicts. This paper proposes that predominantly female warfare refugees altered the material culture of the Grasshopper region of Arizona during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This thesis is supported by the temporal congruity of multiple lines of evidence, including evidence outside of the region for the violent deaths of more men than women and evidence within the region for female- dominated burials, immigration, and gendered continuities and discontinuities in material culture.

A tendency for many precolumbian buildings to align east of north is examined for possible astronomical motives. Stellar and solar phenomena are suggested as possible influences. The importance of clearly establishing the relative positions of observer and point of reference in any archaeo-astronomical analysis is emphasized. Certain misconceptions concerning chronological correlations of alignments and a new dimension in establishing orientations are discussed.