BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SUBSISTENCE AND HEALTH AT THE LAKE GEORGE SITE,MISSISSIPPI (22YZ557)

Abstract

Bioarchaeological investigations of subsistence and health were conducted on a skeletal population from the Lake George site (22YZ557), a large prehistoric settlement in the lower Yazoo basin of west-central Mississippi. Subsistence is inferred from oral health indicators (including dental caries, calculus, periodontal disease, abscesses, antemortem tooth loss, and macrowear) and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from bone collagen and apatite. Health is inferred from nonspecific indicators (including cranial porous lesions, enamel hypoplasias, and Harris lines). The sample includes 25 adults and 25 subadults, all of which date to the Coles Creek period (A.D. 700–1200). Frequencies of all pathological conditions are reported for the entire sample and divided by sex and age for adults. Results indicate a heavy pathology load at Lake George, but one that is not dissimilar to other Coles Creek populations. Isotope values indicate a diet that included primarily C3 plants (δ¹³C_Col = ?21.03‰, δ¹³C_Ap-Diet = ?22.06) and terrestrial protein (δ¹⁵N = 9.72‰). The sources of nonspecific pathologies are attributed to stressors associated with increasing population density and cultural complexity that occurred during the Coles Creek period.     

Standing Posts and Special Substances: Gathering and Ritual Deposition at Feltus (22Je500), Jefferson County,Mississippi

Because it immediately precedes the Mississippi period, Coles Creek (A.D. 700–1200) culture is often viewed through the lens of Mississippian social organization. In particular, early platform mound-and-plaza complexes have long been understood as elite compounds due to their physical similarities with later sites. However, evidence regarding the construction and use of the monumental landscape at the Feltus site (22JE500) in Jefferson County, MS, suggests that platform mound construction was but one aspect of a broader ritual sequence aimed at gathering the dispersed Coles Creek community. In addition to mound building, this sequence included the setting and removal of freestanding posts, ritual feasting, and burial of the dead and focused on explicit deposition of meaningful objects and substances. Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic analyses of the objects and substances included in the ritual deposits at Feltus suggest that they helped forge relationships between an extended kin network, including non-human fictive kin and non-living human kin. In this context, we find a metaphor of gathering to be useful in understanding the archaeological remains of a ritual sequence focused on bringing together social, cosmological, and temporal domains. This provides a distinctly different take on the meaning and use of platform mounds based on a review of Native beliefs and practices that looks beyond the traditionally relied upon sources.     

Stable isotope analysis of prehistoric populations from the cemeteries of the Middle and Lower Dnieper Basin,Ukraine

This paper presents the results of new stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) analysis of human, faunal and fish remains from thirteen cemeteries from the Middle and Lower Dnieper Basin, Ukraine. The results are integrated with earlier analyses, undertaken solely on human samples, in order to provide a comprehensive overview of subsistence across the Upper Palaeolithic through to Eneolithic periods in this region. This is the first time that a combined sample of human, faunal and fish remains has been studied in order to interpret subsistence strategies across these periods in Ukraine. The total dataset comprises 113 samples of human, faunal and fish remains, 59 of which include new analyses of faunal and fish remains that have not previously been made available for study (Table 1). The analysis of the faunal and fish remains allows for a consideration of trophic levels which indicates that the consumption of freshwater fish occurs from the Epipalaeolithic period onwards. Whilst the majority of the cemeteries and the individuals therein cluster in relatively tight groups, there is a significant offset between the human and faunal samples due to the consumption of freshwater resources. The fish samples analysed in the study appear to exhibit a relatively random distribution when compared to the other samples analysed. In general, freshwater resources remain significant through until the end of the Neolithic period and into the Eneolithic period at the sites investigated.     

Of Buffalo and Butchers: Coupling Traditional Procurement Studies with Taphonomic Analyses to Explore Intensive Wild Animal Processing Patterns at Two Early Iron Age Sites in the Kruger National Park

Located in northeastern South Africa in the Kruger National Park, the wild-dominated faunal assemblages at Le6 and Le7 allow for a site-level examination of the treatment of wild species within the highly variable spectra of Early Iron Age animal use. Looking at hunting beyond pure subsistence choices, this paper couples traditional morphological analysis with taphonomic analysis and theoretical frameworks of intensification to ask new socially focussed zooarchaeological questions of these assemblages. Through this, both the procurement and processing methods utilized at Le6 and Le7 are identified and the significance of these choices is discussed. In so doing, the paper addresses possible specialization in both the hunting and the processing of large wild mammals. The socio-economic implications and potential drivers of these faunal choices are then considered within the broader context of the southern African Early Iron Age, and a potentially new faunal use strategy and site type are introduced.     

Taphonomy and zooarchaeology of the Upper Palaeolithic cave of Dzudzuana,Republic of Georgia

We present the results of a detailed taphonomic and zooarchaeological study of the faunal remains from the Upper Palaeolithic layers of Dzudzuana Cave, Republic of Georgia. This study presents the first carefully analysed Upper Palaeolithic faunal assemblage from the southern Caucasus and thus serves as a significant point of reference for inter‐regional studies of Upper Palaeolithic subsistence in Eurasia. A series of intra‐site taphonomic comparisons are employed to reconstruct the depositional history of the bone assemblages within the different occupational phases at the site and to investigate subsistence, meat procurement and bone‐processing strategies. Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica), aurochs (Bos primigenius) and steppe bison (Bison priscus) were the major prey species throughout the Upper Palaeolithic. Their frequencies do not change significantly over time, and nor does bone preservation vary by layer. The assemblage is characterised by significant density‐mediated biases, caused by both human bone‐processing behaviours and in situ post‐burial bone attrition. Bone marrow extraction produced large numbers of unidentified bone fragments, many exhibiting green bone fractures. The density and size of bone assemblages and the extent of fragmentation indicate that Dzudzuana Cave was repeatedly occupied by Upper Palaeolithic foragers over many years. Skeletal part representation and butchery marks from all stages of carcass processing suggest that prey occasionally underwent field butchery. Intra‐site taphonomic comparisons highlight uniform patterns of cultural and economic behaviours related to food procurement and processing strategies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)

Archaeological samples of human and faunal remains dating from the Viking (9–11th century AD) and Early Christian (11–12th century AD) periods of Gotland, Sweden were assayed through stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in order to investigate whether changes in subsistence occurred between these periods, particularly regarding the importance of seafood. The study was concerned with how the dietary regime of the Baltic trading port and farming settlement at Ridanäs, Gotland was affected by the widespread environmental and sociocultural transformations that characterized the end of the Viking Age. More generally, the research considers how changes in both food procurement and preference may account for observed differences in the dietary regimes of individuals from the Viking Age and the Early Christian period.     

LOOKING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS: IDENTIFYING PATTERNS IN COLES CREEK MORTUARY DATA

Abstract

While the lack of grave goods has been the focus of most scholarly discussion of Coles Creek burial practices, the mortuary analyses presented here focus on recognizing correspondences among sex, age, and burial position. Using assemblages from three Coles Creek sites (Greenhouse, Lake George, and Mount Nebo), I find that while there is significant intersite variability among Coles Creek mortuary programs, certain age groups are consistently treated differently from each other and from everyone else. Thus interments were being made with deliberate care and consideration for those involved and are not nearly as haphazard and disorderly as previously thought.     

Consumer Strategy and Household Consumption in the Cripple Creek Mining District, Colorado, USA

The Cripple Creek Mining District of Colorado (USA) was billed as “the World’s Greatest Gold Camp” in the 1890s and was home to a multitude of men, women, and children who left behind a record of past consumer behavior. Examination of fourteen household archaeological assemblages provides insight into aspects of household consumption strategies and the negotiation of socioeconomic class relationships within the late nineteenth and early twentieth century mining communities in the American West. An analytical approach that combines the quantitative economic scaling of ceramics and faunal remains is used in combination with the qualitative analysis of entire assemblages to understand consumer strategies and the negotiation of class relationships between households in the district.     

Continuity Amidst Change: Village Organization and Fishing Subsistence at the Dionisio Point Locality in Coastal Southern British Columbia

Shifts over time in faunal representation in Northwest Coast archaeological sites have been viewed as reflecting changes in economic organization and social complexity. We use fish faunal data from the Parry Lagoon Midden (site DgRv-006) in the Salish Sea region of coastal southwestern British Columbia, Canada, to evaluate the relationship between change in subsistence strategies and community organization. We describe and compare fish assemblages recovered from a shell midden generated by habitation at two sequentially occupied village sites. The lower midden layers include faunal remains derived from the Marpole Period plankhouse village occupation at site DgRv-003 (1500 to 1300 cal BP), while the upper layers were generated during the occupation of a Late Period plankhouse within site DgRv-006 (1000 to 600 cal BP). We compare the two faunal records to ascertain if subsistence re-organization accompanied the social change associated with abandonment and later re-establishment of a village in the Dionisio Point Locality. Results indicate continuity of a diverse fishing economy for the two occupations, and therefore across the Marpole to Late Period transition. This study adds to the recent trend in Northwest Coast archaeology to reconsider the long-standing view that social and subsistence change necessarily occurred in tandem.     

Prehistoric Molluscan Faunas of the Yazoo River,Mississippi, USA: Archaeological Perspectives for Modern Conservation

Archaeological faunal assemblages can provide data valuable to modern conservation ecology. For example, while freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae, Margaritiferidae) are common constituents in the archaeological record of North America, today they are one of the world’s most imperiled faunal groups. Efforts to aid habitat restoration, population growth, and species reintroduction can be informed by studies of prehistoric mussel assemblages. These data can provide a historical perspective, cataloging communities as they existed prior to extensive modern impacts, thus representing an ecological baseline to be compared with modern populations. This study focuses on two late prehistoric (ca. 300–600 AD) sites on the Yazoo River, where nearly 24,000 freshwater mussel valves were recovered. Though modern data are extremely limited for the river, analysis revealed it once supported a diverse mussel community containing numerous species currently considered rare, endangered, or extinct in Mississippi. In total, the combined shell assemblages yielded 23 new river records for the Yazoo River. One species in particular, Quadrula fragosa, represents the second such occurrence in Mississippi, and bolsters its candidate status as a new state record, as argued in a recent report from a neighbouring river in the Yazoo Basin.     

“To Put into Complete Practice Those Hallowed Principles”: Edward Coles and the Crafting of Antislavery Nationalism in Early Nineteenth‐Century America

Edward Coles is famous for his decision to liberate his enslaved property and his political activities in Illinois during the 1820s. Few scholars, however, have recognized that this was merely the opening chapter in a life‐long struggle against slavery. His career in Illinois and his subsequent effort to promote emancipation in Virginia are arguably more significant because those struggles led him to construct an antislavery argument that united principle, prejudice, and the recognition of a shared antislavery past. Cast under the banner of antislavery nationalism, Coles’ approach to the problem of slavery was uniquely designed to appeal to Northerners and the Southerners alike.     

“Measure for measure”: a taphonomic reconsideration of the Kebaran site of Ein Gev I,Israel

We present the results of a detailed taphonomic study of the faunal remains from Ein Gev I, a Kebaran open-air site near the Sea of Galilee, Israel. In an earlier study faunal remains were assigned to bone element and species using a rapid method technique based on the identification of teeth and epiphyses only (Davis, 1974). In this study we identified the maximum number of skeletal elements, including fragments of long bone shafts. We also employed a series of taphonomic analyses to reconstruct the depositional history of the bone assemblage and to investigate subsistence, meat procurement and bone processing strategies. We compared the results obtained by a complete bone sampling method with those derived using a rapid method. The bone assemblage is dominated by mountain gazelle (Gazella gazelle), Mesopotamian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) and bezoar goat (Capra aegagrus). The assemblage is characterized by significant density-mediated biases, caused by both human bone processing behaviours and in situ post-burial bone attrition. Our attempts to compare species abundance derived from the two different identification protocols revealed no significant difference between the two sampling methods, both in terms of species diversity (richness and evenness) and skeletal element abundance (SEA). These comparisons contrast previous studies that expected to find ubiquitous head-and-foot dominated SEA profiles in zooarchaeological studies that were based on the incomplete identification of faunal remains.     

Identifying palaeo-environments and changes in Aboriginal subsistence from dual-patterned faunal assemblages,south-western Australia

Palaeo-environments and past human subsistence patterns are difficult to determine from dual-patterned faunal assemblages where human and non-human predators have accumulated and intensively modified animal bones. This paper examines such records in the Leeuwin–Naturaliste Region of south-western Australia, where a thin belt of coastal limestone contains caves and rock shelters with rich faunal deposits. The Late Pleistocene and Holocene part of this record derives from four archaeological sites: Devil's Lair, Tunnel Cave, Witchcliffe Rock Shelter and Rainbow Cave. Correspondence analysis combined with cluster analysis enables a preliminary assessment of habitat changes using simple species abundances in the faunal assemblages and comparison with indices of past human activity in the sites and the species’ present habitat preferences. These inferred changes, consistent with previous analyses of faunal remains and tree charcoal, suggest that late Holocene sites document Aboriginal occupation in coastal heath, scrub and woodland. Late Pleistocene deposits record hinterland occupation at times of low sea-level when the coast was up to 30 km seawards of its present position and the surrounding vegetation was open-forest or woodland. As rainfall increased and vegetation changed in the Holocene, species foraging in open-woodland declined or became locally extinct, while species requiring closed canopy habitats increased. Rank-order correlations of taxa and archaeological remains from depositional sequences before and after the environmental change indicate that the occupiers of late Holocene sites favoured the same generalist species that occupiers of Late Pleistocene sites had favoured, which were available at all times. Prey habitats, foraging behaviours and historic records of ethnographic hunting and settlement pattern suggest that this local continuity is consistent with maintenance of a “dispersive mode” subsistence pattern in the region.     

Evaluating the Reliability of Fluoride Dating at Two Prehistoric Mound Sites in Mississippi

Abstract

Ion-selective electrode fluoride dating is used to address chronological problems at two mound sites located in Mississippi. At the Mississippian period (A.D. 900–1520) Lyon's Bluff site, 220K520, the fluoride content of deer and human bone is compared with radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic levels to evaluate the reliability of the fluoride dating method for understanding relative burial chronology. At a second site, Pocahontas Mound A (22HI500), fluoride content of deer bone is used to corroborate radiocarbon dates and to establish the proper chronology of levels associated with two distinct occupations (Archaic and Coles Creek/Plaquemine) identified in a large midden area. Fluoride analysis also is used to date a second midden area at this site. For Lyon's Bluff; fluoride dates did not correspond with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-dated burials and midden strata. In contrast, fluoride dating proved very useful in determining chronological placement of midden levels and dating other areas at Pocahontas Mound A. Sample age, site location, soil, and bone preservation are considered as possible causes for the negative results at Lyon's Bluff.     

The exploitation of marine resources at Saruq al‐Hadid: Insights into the movement of people and resources in Bronze and Iron Age south‐eastern Arabia

Marine resources were an integral and consistent component of subsistence strategies employed in south‐eastern Arabia throughout late prehistory. Of particular interest is the movement of these resources from the coast to interior sites and the implications of this movement for transhumance and trade in the region during this period. Marine species were frequently identified in the faunal assemblage from the inland site of Saruq al‐Hadid, dating from the Bronze Age to Early Iron Age (c.2000–c.800 BCE). This included marine fish species, along with two cormorant species (Phalacrocorax sp.) and several fragments of dugong (Dugong dugon). Twenty‐seven families of marine shell were also identified in the remains recovered from the site. The presence of these remains at this inland site demonstrates that resources were frequently moved from the coast to the interior throughout Saruq al‐Hadid’s occupation, indicative of their enduring significance in subsistence strategies employed at the site. This paper presents the results of zooarchaeological analysis of these remains and discusses the significance of their presence at Saruq al‐Hadid, with reference to subsistence, craft production and intra‐regional exchange during the Bronze and Iron Ages.     

Neotaphonomic measures of carnivore serial predation at Ngamo Pan as an analog for interpreting open-air faunal assemblages

Here I present a neotaphonomic account of natural bone accumulations that have resulted from carnivore serial predation at Ngamo Pan, a vast complex of seasonal water holes located in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Reconstructing the taphonomic histories of faunal assemblages from open-air archaeological sites is burdened with a host of interpretive complications, and this study is offered as a referential means for evaluating instances where stone tools and bone accumulations are associated in apparent archaeological contexts. While the presence of stone tools implies some involvement on the part of humans, open-air sites near water would also have served as prime locations for serial predation by large carnivores to ambush prey—a situation that, over time, can mimic archaeological bone accumulations. The taphonomic and zooarchaeological signatures of carnivore serial predation at Ngamo Pan show marked similarities with the open-air faunal accumulation from Kalkbank, a late Pleistocene site in Limpopo Province, South Africa, located along the margins of a relict pan. Many potential archaeological sites within the interior of southern Africa dating to the Middle Stone Age are known from open-air settings near permanent or ephemeral bodies of water, and the ability to decipher between hominin and non-hominin carnivore involvement with bone accumulations is paramount in determining the hunting and scavenging behaviors of our early ancestors. As much of our understanding of hominin subsistence during the Middle Stone Age is drawn from coastal cave locations, this study is intended to encourage a broadening of our perspective on the taphonomic histories of faunal accumulations dating to the Middle Stone Age by incorporating supplementary evidence provided by these open-air sites.     

Probabilistic models of seasonal <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bison</Emphasis> exploitation based on fetal prey osteometry and reproductive phenology

Seasonality studies are a staple of Great Plains archaeology, but obtaining evidence for seasonal food procurement is challenging. This study explores seasonality through the lens of fetal bison remains. A method is developed that produces intra-annual probability distributions for the date of fetal death. These distributions are informed by osteometric data from fetal bison in archaeological contexts, fetal skeletal growth curves, and data-driven models of bison conception dates. Probabilities can be assigned to seasonality hypotheses by examining date intervals across these intra-annual distributions. This method is implemented through an R program and applied to seasonality hypotheses at three archaeological sites containing fetal bison remains: Big Goose Creek (Wyoming), Baker Cave III (Idaho), and the Upper Tucker Site (Texas). Unlike previous efforts to infer seasonality from fetal bison remains, this method provides explicit probabilities showing the level of agreement between the osteometric data and seasonality hypotheses. This probabilistic approach could be extended to seasonality studies involving other animal taxa both within and outside of North America.     

河南舞阳贾湖遗址2001年春发掘简报

贾湖遗址 2 0世纪 80年代中期六次发掘的资料公布之后① ,引起学术界的广泛关注② 。但限于当时的发掘水平 ,发掘中忽略了不少有价值的信息 ,使有些方面的研究无法深入进行。同时 ,中国科技大学科技史与科技考古系为了使科技考古专业的学生受到田野考古的训练 ,并探索使田野考古与科技考古如何融为一体的途径 ,2 0 0 1年春 ,经国家文物局批准 ,中国科技大学科技史与科技考古系和河南省文物考古研究所合作 ,在舞阳县博物馆的配合下 ,对贾湖遗址进行了第七次发掘。 (图一 )发掘期间 ,邀请了中国社会科学院考古研究所、中国农业大学、中国科学…     

Measuring subsistence specialization: Comparing historic and prehistoric abalone middens on San Miguel Island,California

Red abalone middens, common on the Northern Channel Islands during the Middle Holocene, have often been interpreted as relatively specialized foraging camps. To test the degree of subsistence specialization of one such site, we compared faunal data from a 6400-year-old red abalone midden (CA-SMI-557) and an historic “Chinese” black abalone midden (CA-SMI-558) located along the same drainage on San Miguel Island. The historic assemblage, resulting from highly specialized abalone harvest, drying, and export activities, provides a baseline for evaluating the degree of subsistence specialization at the red abalone midden, where a wider range of economic and subsistence activities is represented. We illustrate how detailed comparative study of faunal remains, artifacts, site structure, and archival sources can help elucidate the economic function of both historic and prehistoric sites.     

Treponemal Disease,Tuberculosis and Subsistence‐settlement Pattern in the Late Woodland Period West‐central Illinois

In later pre‐Columbian prehistory (post AD 1000), the adaptation and intensification of maize agriculture and its correlate of aggregate village settlement (i.e. Mississippianization) is temporally and geographically variable. In the Midwest, consequential to the florescence of the major ceremonial centre of Cahokia (AD 1050–1300), the Mississippi River Valley alluvial plain in Illinois, known as the American Bottom, became a core area of this subsistence‐settlement change. Much archaeological research has traced aspects of this transition in the Lower and Middle Illinois River Valley, but little is known outside of these areas. A skeletal sample from the remote hinterland area of the Upper Mississippi River in west‐central Illinois was examined for arguable paleopathological correlates of sedentism (treponemal disease) and Mississippianization (tuberculosis). The Schroeder Mounds (AD 900–1100) adult skeletal sample (N = 53) exhibited a high frequency of treponemal disease (13.2–15.1%). This result is consistent with paleopathological literature linking a 9+ % pre‐Columbian North American prevalence with sedentism, challenging archaeologically based inferences that the hinterland was occupied by mobile forager‐horticulturalists. A hallmark of Mississippianization is the presence of diagnostic cases of tuberculosis. No cases were observed in the Schroeder sample, suggesting a pre‐Mississippian subsistence‐settlement pattern. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.