Paget's disease in pre‐contact Florida? Revisiting the Briarwoods site in Gulf coast Florida

This report presents results of a reanalysis addressing the presence of Paget's disease (Osteitis deformans) in the pre‐contact Safety Harbour Briarwoods site (8PA66), a burial mound in Pasco County along Gulf coast Florida, dating around 1000–1500 AD. Due to the paucity of published histological and radiological analyses as well as the suspect nature of this Paget's disease report, a new study was conducted. The diagnosis was suspect for three reasons. First, the original diagnosis was based on five skeletal fragments from five different burials making the results questionable. Secondly, Paget's disease is very similar to treponemal disease and can possibly be misdiagnosed. The characteristic histological mosaic pattern found in Paget's disease provides the most definitive differential diagnosis. Thirdly, Paget's disease is found primarily in European populations and this is a pre‐contact site. Histological sections from the suspected Pagetic bones were analysed for the presence of the mosaic pattern. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses were unable to support or deny the presence of Paget's disease due to the fragmentary nature of the skeletal elements as well as extensive diagenesis resulting from exposure to the environment. The presence of Paget's disease could not be confirmed or refuted at Briarwoods due to extensive taphonomic damage. However, it is suggested that the presence of treponemal disease should be investigated because although not originally reported, the presence of saber‐shin tibiae consistent with this disease are present at this site. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using hearths for temper: petrographic analysis of Middle Woodland charcoal-tempered pottery in Northeast Florida

Charcoal-tempered pottery is uncommon in North America, but was produced with notable frequency in Northeast Florida from ca. AD 300–600. Thirty-six thin sections of pottery were analyzed by petrographic analysis and compared to 10 clay samples in order to characterize the paste of charcoal-tempered wares in terms of charcoal and mineralogical composition and abundance, assess the number of clay sources used to make the pottery, identify the species of wood represented in charcoal inclusions, and infer techniques of ceramic production. This analysis identified four temper categories, three texture groups, and three distinct clay resources used to make charcoal-tempered pottery, all of which were likely local to Northeast Florida. Identified wood taxa include pine (Pinus sp.), cedar (cf. Juniperus sp.), cypress (cf. Taxodium sp.), and sassafras (Sassafras albidum), with pine suspected to be the most common. These genera of charred wood, which exhibit minimal shrinkage in the samples, along with the prevalence of bone and grog inclusions, indicate that hearth contents were processed as temper, sometimes in combination with quartz sand. Potential reasons for the use of hearth contents as temper are considered.     

The role of black Barbudans in the establishment of open-range cattle herding in the colonial Caribbean and South Carolina

Some significant problems remain in understanding the establishment of open-range cattle herding in the Caribbean and North America, especially regarding the role of blacks in that process. Research to date has identified the Greater Antilles, especially Spanish Cuba and British Jamaica, as the sole Caribbean sources of settlers who established the herding systems of, respectively, Mexico and South Carolina. Yet an open-range cattle herding system also occurred in the British Lesser Antilles, which provided many of the settlers for the South Carolina colony. Archival and field research in Antigua and Barbuda provide the basis for comprehensive reconstruction of that system's material culture and herding ecology, demonstration of the role of blacks in its operation, and comparison with other relevant systems to consider whether the British Lesser Antilles might also have been involved in the process through which open-range cattle herders established themselves in South Carolina during the late seventeenth century.     

MOUND BUILDING AT LAKE JACKSON (8LE1), TALLAHASSEE,FLORIDA: NEW INSIGHTS FROM GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

Abstract

The Lake Jackson Mounds site (8LE1), located near Tallahassee, Florida, has long been considered to be a frontier Mississippian center. This assertion is primarily based on elaborate burial goods recovered during salvage excavations in the 1970s. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) on the two largest intact mounds at Lake Jackson revealed new information about their morphology and construction histories. These findings demonstrate that mound-building practices at the site were distinct from earlier, local Woodland mound-building traditions, and more similar to those of other Mississippian centers, such as Etowah and Moundville. Lake Jackson revitalized mound building in the Tallahassee area under the influence of external connections with groups in the Mississippian interaction network. These findings show how mound building was an integral practice for expressing and expanding Mississippian ideologies and rituals. This work also shows the utility of GPR in exploring mounds' morphologies and construction histories.     

豫南地区二里头时期遗存的相关问题试析

相对于河南西北部,豫南地区的二里头时期遗存发现较少,研究相对薄弱。本文以豫南地区已发掘的八处二里头时期遗存为研究对象,在与周邻地区同时期遗存作对比研究的基础上,综合分析了豫南地区二里头时期遗存的分期、分区以及传播路线等问题。     

从乡村商店到百货商店--1877年至20世纪20年代美国南方乡村的经济生活

随着收成制在战后美国南方的确立,乡村商店成为南方转型初期经济生活的重要部分。它的特点是“靠男性消费者为生,以农作物借贷制为杠杆,商品综合经营”。但是,世纪之交,由于工业化力量的推动和现代消费观念的冲击,乡村商店从南方经济生活中逐渐淡出,“以吸引女性消费者为主,采用现金支付或分期付款形式”的百货商店取而代之,并且广告在经济生活中起越来越重要的作用,南方经济生活逐步走向现代化。