Late pleistocene human adaptations in eastern North America

Eastern North America in late Pleistocene times was characterized by two major environmental regions: a periglacial tundra or open spruce parkland and an extensive complex boreal/deciduous forest in the unglaciated, lower latitudes. These environments selected for different adaptive strategies on the part of human foraging groups—known archaeologically as Paleoindians. Those in the tundra and tundra-forest region were highly mobile, possibly specialized hunters, exploiting caribou; those in the forest were generalists, exploiting a variety of subsistence resources with a less mobile settlement system. There is little evidence in either area for hunting of Pleistocene megafauna. These differences in adaptive strategies are reflected in the record of sites and isolated fluted points scattered throughout the region, as well as aspects of tool technology, function, and patterns of stone use.     

Archaeological associations with extinct pleistocene mammals in North America

It has often been argued that there are insufficient associations between extinct Pleistocene mammalian genera and cultural materials to support the argument that human predation played a major role in causing the extinctions. This argument assumes that there are many records for most or all of the extinct mammals that date to the very end of the Pleistocene. An analysis of a sample of radiocarbon dated sites with extinct mammals and younger than 12,000 BP suggests that this criticism of the overkill hypothesis is weakly based.     

Forty-Two Degrees South: The Archaeology of Late Pleistocene Tasmania

Over the past 18 years the results of archaeological field research in many parts of Australia have challenged the view of late Pleistocene archaeological unity and homogeneity. Debates are increasingly focused on issues of identifying regional behavioral variability and away from a normalization of Australia's prehistory. Prior notions of cultural transformations from simple (late Pleistocene) to complex (late Holocene) social behaviors, technological homogeneity, and the timing of colonization are being increasingly scrutinized. One such area that has become a spearhead of this challenge is Tasmania, which continues to demonstrate its ability to confront preconceptions about the nature of past human behaviors.     

Warfare in Prehistoric and Early Historic Eastern North America

Recent criticisms of the use of historically and ethnographically recorded conflicts as models for warfare in prehistoric times force archaeologists to reexamine assumptions about the frequency, severity, and effects of intergroup fighting. In eastern North America, skeletons of victims and palisaded settlements—the only information consistently available on intergroup hostilities—indicate that the prevalence of conflicts varied greatly over time and space. Occasionally the attacks, typically ambushes of small numbers of people, cumulatively resulted in numerous casualties.Variation in palisade strength is consistent with the organizational structure and warrior mobilization potential of late prehistoric societies in different parts of the Eastern Woodlands.     

Of Dice and Women: Gambling and Exchange in Native North America

Although archaeologists have had success in documenting the movement and distribution of trade goods, they often fail to specify the actual social mechanisms by which such goods are shunted across archaeological landscapes. A thesis is developed that in Native North America gambling was one common mechanism for intergroup exchange. Particular attention is paid to dice games that, according to ethnographic accounts, were often played primarily by women. Building upon the pioneering compilation by Stewart Culin, game paraphernalia, playing rules, as well as odds and payoffs associated with wagering are described and mapped. The social and mythological contexts of dice games are also reviewed. Results indicate that making hitherto neglected links among exchange, gender, and gambling promises novel and more culturally informed ways of approaching the archaeological record.     

Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence

The North American archaeological phenomenon known as Clovis is famous for the fact that a number of sites that contain diagnostic Clovis artifacts also contain the remains of mammoth and perhaps other extinct genera. In the past, this has led many to assume that Clovis subsistence adaptations were organized around large, now-extinct mammals. It has also seemed to support the argument that the colonization of the Americas by hunters about 11,500 years ago caused the extinction, either directly or indirectly, of some 35 genera of primarily large mammals. Here, we review all sites known to us that have been suggested to provide evidence for the association of Clovis-age archaeological material with the remains of now-extinct Pleistocene mammals. Of the 76 sites reviewed, only 14 provide strong evidence that Clovis-aged people hunted such mammals. Of these sites, 12 contain the remains of mammoth, while two contain the remains of mastodon. Although the prime focus of the analysis we present is on Clovis-age archaeological associations with now-extinct mammals, we conclude that there is no evidence provided by the North American archaeological record to support the argument that people played a significant role in causing Pleistocene extinctions here.     

Cleft palate: a case study of disability and survival in prehistoric North America

This study presents an analysis of an adult male that demonstrates diagnostic markers of cleft palate. The burial is associated with the Grider Site, Late Woodland context (AD 500 to 1000), located in Pike County, Indiana, USA. The analysis draws on clinical and palaeopathology literature to consider other possible conditions responsible for the skeletal anomalies. Cleft palate occurs in about one in 1000 live births, and is one of the most common defects of the face. Despite the high frequency of cleft palate, few cases are reported from the archaeological record. It is possible that, in the past, few infants survived extreme forms of cleft palate, and such cases are not present to be recorded. Or, it is possible that the lesion simply goes undocumented. This analysis outlines the markers of cleft palate in this individual and demonstrates that a prehistoric culture could overcome the health issues experienced by an infant with the condition (full communication between the oral and nasal cavities) and survive to adulthood. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regulatory Cooperation in North America: Diplomacy Navigating Asymmetries

This article examines the processes, outcomes, and prospects for regulatory cooperation in North America based on the activity of the US–Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council. It explores regulatory cooperation as a series of two-level games embedded within broader multilevel governance processes of participating countries. It examines political, economic, and bureaucratic factors contributing to the development and evolution of cross-border and broader international regulatory cooperation and the practical limits of centralized political and regulatory oversight in these processes. Major requirements for success include shared or substantially overlapping national objectives (including those of relevant regulatory agencies), complementary coalitions of domestic interests in each country, and regulators’ capacity to work with (or around) potential veto holders within domestic institutions. Regulatory changes are often filtered and mitigated through national processes of bureaucratic politics and related institutional dynamics. In practice, effective regulatory cooperation depends on regulators’ perspectives of the national interest.     

“The Glorified Municipality”: State formation and the urban process in North America

This article revisits the debate over whether and to what extent the cities of the United States and Canada can be understood as a common ‘North American city’ by reconsidering the role of the their common federal system of government. Drawing on a Marxist theory of the capitalist state and the municipal histories of New York State and the Province of Ontario, the article traces the institutions and patterns of urbanization in the two countries to a dialectic of political conflict between the sub-national states and the industrializing cities, conditioned by federal divisions of sovereignty and grounded in the expanding social property relations of capital. The final section connects this dialectic to historically new conditions for the expanded reproduction of capital, specifically in the constitution of land as a commodity form. It also speculates briefly on the implications of this analysis for a more spatially informed theory of the capitalist state.     

Hunter-gatherer cultural dynamics: Long- and short-term trends in Australian prehistory

Recent evidence indicates that a wide range of environmental sectors of Greater Australia had been peopled between ca. 30,000 and ca. 40,000 B.P. Differences in regional Pleistocene patterns of settlement, subsistence, and demography are becoming increasingly evident—such as those between central arid Australia and sub-Antarctic Tasmania. It now remains to model and explain the extremely long-term Pleistocene cultural sequences (spanning tens of thousands of years), in contrast to the more short-term cultural sequences that characterize, for example, the mid-late Holocene period of mainland Australia. While explanations remain unresolved, the latter period indicates the widest range of regional sociocultural and demographic changes.     

Lagostomus maximus (Desmarest) (Rodentia,Chinchillidae), the extant plains vizcacha in the Late Pleistocene of Uruguay

Ubilla, M. & Rinderknecht, A., April 2016. Lagostomus maximus (Desmarest) (Rodentia, Chinchillidae), the extant plains vizcacha in the Late Pleistocene of Uruguay. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

The extant plains vizcacha, Lagostomus maximus, is described from the Late Pleistocene (Dolores Formation) of Uruguay based on an almost complete articulated skeleton. It is compared with the nominally extinct Pleistocene species of the genus. An AMS ¹⁴C taxon-age is determined for L. maximus at 11 879 ± 95 years BP (cal. BP 13 898–13 941). Lagostomus maximus is absent from modern mammal communities in Uruguay, and no Holocene evidence is available. Because L. maximus exhibits remarkable sexual and ontogenetic dimorphism, we examined a range of juvenile, sub-adult and adult male and female specimens. It is not possible to differentiate the articulated Pleistocene fossil from sub-adult specimens of L. maximus based on this sample. Moreover, the skull characteristics, including a broad vertical ramus of the zygomatic arch, semi-circular temporal crest and short robust sagittal crest, most closely resemble extant female individuals. Molar size is non-predictive for ontogenetic stage or body mass because it reaches stability during early adulthood. Other fragmentary skull remains are herein assigned to L. sp. cf. L. maximus. Lagostomus cavifrons from the Pleistocene of Argentina is considered synonymous with L. maximus. Its character states concur with the range of intraspecific variability and it has been established on a young adult or adult male individual. Likewise, the other Argentinean Pleistocene species based on incomplete mandibles, L. angustidens, L. striatus, L. heterogenidens, L. egenus, L. minimus and L. debilis, concur with ontogenetic morphs and are here assigned to Lagostomus sp. The ecological preferences of extant L. maximus infer open arid or semi-arid landscapes for the latest Pleistocene of southern Uruguay. This hypothesis is reinforced by the coeval presence of Microcavia, Galea and small camelids in the same strata. The Last Glacial Maximum likely promoted this environmental setting. Latest Pleistocene or early Holocene climatic change might have facilitated local extinctions and/or range shifts among this mammal fauna.

Martín Ubilla [martinubilla@gmail.com], Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la Republica, Iguá 4225, 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay; Andrés Rinderknecht [apaleorinder@yahoo.com], Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Paleontología, 11000, Montevideo, Uruguay.     

Carnivores and their prey in the Wezmeh Cave (Kermanshah,Iran): a Late Pleistocene refuge in the Zagros

Wezmeh Cave is located on the northeastern edge of the Islamabad plain, a high intermontane valley in the western‐central Zagros. In 1999 a disturbed but large faunal assemblage was recovered from this site. The abundant and extremely diverse faunal spectra present at Wezmeh Cave has highlighted the importance of this assemblage. Carnivore remains constitute the bulk of the assemblage; red fox (Vulpes vulpes) has the highest number of identified specimens followed by spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), brown bear (Ursus arctos), wolf (Canis lupus), felids (lion, leopard, lynx/caracal and wildcat), mustelids (badger, polecat, marten) and viverrids (mongoose). Artiodactyls (bovid, cervid, suid), equids, rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sp.) and small animals (Cape hare, porcupine, tortoise, snake, birds) are also present. According to U‐series dating, the site was occupied from around 70 ka BP through to sub‐recent periods by carnivores. Amongst this rich assemblage, a human fossil tooth was also found and dated by non‐invasive spectrometry gamma dating to 20–25 ka BP. A preliminary zooarchaeological and taphonomic study shows that Wezmeh Cave was used by multiple carnivore species, a unique phenomenon in the Zagros Mountains in particular and southwest Asia in general. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cambrian Hyolitha of Siberian,Baltican and Avalonian aspect in east Laurentian North America: taxonomy and palaeobiogeography

Malinky, J.M. & Geyer, G., 6 March 2019. Cambrian Hyolitha of Siberian, Baltican and Avalonian aspect in east Laurentian North America: taxonomy and palaeobiogeography. Alcheringa 43, 171–203. ISSN 0311-5518.

Newly identified hyoliths from early Cambrian ‘Small Shelly Fossil’ assemblages in New York State and Quebec extend the geographical ranges of hyolith taxa, otherwise known only from Baltica and Siberia, into eastern Laurentian North America, and in some cases, are accompanied by significant stratigraphical range extensions. The newly recognized taxa from this region include the hyolithids Hexitheca washingtonensis sp. nov., Aimitus sp., A. sp. cf. A. communis, Anabaricornus sp., Similotheca americana, Grantitheca glenisteri, and the orthothecids Decoritheca sp., Contitheca sp., two species of Holmitheca, and two hyolith species that can not be confidently assigned to an order at this time. Early Cambrian limestone clasts within the Lower Ordovician of Quebec have produced the hyolithids Similotheca americana and Nevadotheca princeps. The occurrences of Aimitus, Anabaricornus, and Holmitheca provide a palaeobiogeographical link with hyolith assemblages in Siberia, and Hexitheca to Baltica. Contitheca not only is known from these areas, but also has been found in west Laurentia, Morocco, Korea and Antarctica. A review of previously named species demonstrates that none of their type materials can be confidently referred to genus or species level because of poor preservation.

John M. Malinky [jmalinky@sbcglobal.net], Department of Physical Science, San Diego City College, 1313 Park Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101, USA; Gerd Geyer* [gerd.geyer@uni-wuerzburg.de], Institut für Geographie und Geologie, Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.     

Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene seafaring in the Aegean: new obsidian hydration dates with the SIMS-SS method

Archaeological evidence regarding the presence of obsidian in levels that antedate the food production stage could have been the result of usage or intrusion of small obsidian artifacts from overlying Neolithic layers. The new obsidian hydration dates presented below employing the novel SIMS-SS method, offers new results of absolute dating concordant with the excavation data. Our contribution sheds new light on the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene exploitation of obsidian sources on the island of Melos in the Cyclades reporting dates c. 13th millennium - end of 10th millennium B.P.     

Muricid boreholes in Pleistocene acorn barnacles from the Beagle Channel: trophic interactions during the Last Interglacial in southern South America

Gordillo, S., 2013. Muricid boreholes in Pleistocene acorn barnacles from the Beagle Channel: trophic interactions during the Last Interglacial in southern South America. Alcheringa 37, 1–8. ISSN 0311-5518.

Acorn barnacles with boreholes were recovered from a Pleistocene marine deposit on Navarino Island, on the southern coast of the Beagle Channel. Balanomorph shells were identified as Balanus laevis (Bruguière, 1789 Bruguière, J.G., 1789. Encyclopédie méthodique. Histoire naturelle des vers 1, 158–173, pis. Paris, 164–166. [Google Scholar]), and a few bear small round holes located generally on the middle or apical part of the parietal plates, thus suggesting that they represent the work of small muricid predators. If so, this study is the first record of drilling predation on fossil barnacles reported in southern South America.

[Sandra Gordillo [sgordillo@cicterra-conicet.gov.ar], Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CICTERRA, CONICET-UNC); Centro de Investigaciones Paleobiológicas (CIPAL), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Av. Vélez Sársfield 1611 X5016GCA Córdoba, Argentina. Received 8.1.2013; revised 26.3.2013; accepted 2.4.2013     

皮毛：清代北美对华贸易的重要货品

北美皮毛对华商路的开拓者是英国人,美国随后介入。美、英皮毛输华量在1801年达到顶点;两相比较,早期,英国占有优势地位,略后,美国反超。中国人原先穿用皮种多为陆地动物,而北美输华的主要是海洋动物皮毛。在工业革命完成之前,一般的国际贸易多为资源性经营,但人类的过量捕杀势必造成珍贵动物资源濒于灭绝。这是18和19世纪之交的国际皮毛贸易由盛转衰留下的深刻教训。     

Rocks of ages: propagation of hot-rock cookery in western North America

Cook-stone technology's Old-World roots were established by 30,000 B.P. and reappeared in the New World by 10,000 B.P., after millennia of direct-fire cooking. Hot-rock cookery, which is necessary for foods that require prolonged cooking, facilitated land-use intensification by affording greater utilization of nutrients in available foods on a given landscape. This technology gradually diversified during the early Holocene in western North America. By 4000 B.P. its initial intensification was underway; final intensification began by 2000 B.P. and typically peaked during the last 1500 years. Propagation of hot-rock cookery exemplifies pre-Columbian food crises and signals carbohydrate revolutions wherein more high-cost foods feed growing populations. As modeled, cook-stone griddles, earth ovens and steaming pits with rock heating elements are more costly facilities, insofar as fuel is used to heat rocks that, in turn, extend cooking time and temperature. More expensive still is stone boiling, given that fuel heats rocks that, in turn, heat water that cooks the food. Even more expensive in terms of energy expended is the manufacture of heating elements in the form of stone, ceramic, and metal cooking containers, all of which afford further evidence of land-use intensification.     

Ackia and Ogoula Tchetoka: Defining Two Battlefields of the 1736 French and Chickasaw War in Southeastern North America

Investigations into the location of two battles related to the Chickasaw and French Wars of the 1700s in Mississippi, USA, show the value of a multi-pronged strategy for identifying and delineating military sites. We used metal detecting, shovel test pits, surface collections, local informant interviews, historical maps, LiDAR-based topography, and air photographs to locate Ogoula Tchetoka and Ackia, two Chickasaw towns where French forces were defeated in 1736. Despite the ambiguity introduced by overlapping domestic occupations and other complicating factors, the weight of our complementary approaches demonstrates that Ogoula Tchetoka and surrounding battle features have been modestly impacted by modern developments, whereas Ackia has been largely obliterated by the construction of a residential neighborhood. Our ability to identify major landscape features related to the military history of these sites contributes to our understanding of the tactics and consequences of warfare between European powers and Native Americans in the Colonial era.     

The Almshouse in Dutch and English Colonial North America and its Precedent in the Old World: Historical and Archaeological Evidence

To establish historical and archaeological contexts for the case studies presented in this volume, this paper presents a review of the literature on the history and archaeology of almshouses. Because both English and Dutch colonial almshouses were based on European precedents, this paper examines historical research and archaeological work conducted in The Netherlands and England, as well as their North American colonies.     

Population growth,climatic cooling,and the development of collector strategies on the Southern Plateau,western North America

A change in human adaptations on the Southern Plateau during the fourth millennium B.P offers the opportunity to investigate the process by which immediate-consumption strategies are replaced by delayed consumption strategies among hunter-gatherers. Assemblage structure and settlement pattern are used to infer the nature of resource acquisition strategies between 2000 and 6000 radiocarbon years B.P., and the results are compared with a proxy record of population and a detailed reconstruction of terrestrial and riverine paleoenvironments. Results show that a strategy of mobile and later occasionally sedentary foraging with little use of storage technology persisted until as late as 3500 B.P and was abruptly and without detectable gradation replaced by a strictly scheduled, semisedentary, logistically organized, storage-dependent collector strategy. The change took place at a time of depressed population and 400 years after a period of climatic cooling had begun, thus eliminating both demographic pressure and environmental determinism as explanations. The evidence could be explained by prolonged selective pressure of an increasingly seasonal environment acting on successively attempted behavioral variants, but the widespread rise of collector-like strategies throughout the west at about the same time leaves open the question of exogenous development and highlights the importance of climatic change.