La Jicarilla

La Jicarilla was a distinct sub-region of eastern Apacheria, that seemingly limitless area northeast of early 18th century New Mexico in which various, usually friendly, Apaches lived. It was probably named after one or more of the igneous landforms found in northeastern New Mexico and was situated on the western Great Plains, adjacent to the Rocky Mountains. It was also situated astride the "Taos Trail" the most important transmountain road in northeastern New Mexico, and was of substantial strategic importance to the Spaniards of New Mexico. As Comanche, Ute and French pressure mounted in northeastern New Mexico, both the Spaniards of New Mexico and the Apaches of La Jicarilla saw advantages in the annexation of La Jicarilla by New Mexico and the placement of a presidio, mission and pueblo(s) there. Plans for these settlements were made, but before they could be implemented attitudes and priorities changed and they were never established. Instead, with decreased New Mexican concern for northeastern frontier defenses, the Apaches of eastern Apacheria were displaced by the Comanches, and La Jicarilla as an Apache settlement region ceased to exist. The use of "La Jicarilla" as a place name continued until the late 18th century.     

Agricultural potential and actualized development in Hawai’i: an airborne LiDAR survey of the leeward Kohala field system (Hawai’i Island)

Archaeological investigations of Hawaiian agriculture have relied on relatively coarse-grained data to investigate archipelago-wide processes, or on fine-grained data to examine patterning within localized zones of agricultural production. These trade-offs between spatial coverage and data resolution have inhibited understanding of both spatial patterns and temporal trends. Our analysis of 173 km² of high-resolution airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for leeward Kohala, Hawai’i Island identifies spatial and temporal patterning in regional agricultural development. Differential densities of alignments suggest variable levels of agricultural intensity. Agricultural processes of expansion, segmentation, and intensification can also be discriminated, with distinct zones of the field system having undergone different mixes of development. Areas within the field system with moderate to high levels of both average production and variability in production (determined using a climate-driven productivity model) were utilized relatively early in a highly intensified manner; these areas often underwent processes of segmentation and intensification. Less productive areas were developed later and exhibit evidence of expansion with lower amounts of segmentation and intensification, at set levels of intensity. The spatial and temporal variability in agricultural activities was influenced by the diverse environmental conditions across the landscape as well as variation in cultivars and cultivation techniques. Combining the high-resolution LiDAR data from a large area with potential productivity modeling allows for a more fine-grained understanding of agricultural development in this region of the Hawaiian archipelago.     

Inca and colonial settlement,coca cultivation and endemic disease in the tropical forest

A configuration unfolds from early colonial chronicles, the archaeological record and epidemiological evidence that infectious disease was a critical factor in constraining durable pre-Hispanic settlement in the Amazon forest. The Incas' main interest in the wet tropical valleys beyond the mountain front, particularly those northeast of Cuzco the capital, was to grow coca. Quest for the sacred leaf justified intrusions into a hyperendemic zone of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, a complex protoxoal disease carried by sand flies that results in dermal lesions and grotesque necrosis of the face. In an effort to avoid this disfiguring disease, the Incas carried on trade relations with forest tribes, subjugated some of these tribes to clear the forest for them, and shifted people from analogous climates elsewhere. The most important mechanism was to control the length of the work period of coca labourers from the highlands. Traditional vertical migration of Andean natives and siting of pre-Conquest dwelling sites largely above the zone of leishmaniasis contraction suggest an ancient geographical pattern of disease avoidance. After the Conquest, disease mortality was very high, as Spaniards expanded coca cultivation but disregarded many of the indigenous safeguards. Adjustments to an insalubrious yet compelling environment are more persuasive than agricultural limitations in understanding the deep-seated past aversion of highland Indians to sustained occupance of the selva.     

Microfossil evidence of land-use intensification in north Thailand

Palaeo-environmental data from accumulated lake sediments at Phayao, northwest Thailand, provide a record of vegetation and environmental change from approximately 20,000 years Before Present. This is an important region archaeologically, with claims in the 1970s for an ‘early’ transition to domestication having arisen from a number of cave sites. Multiple indices are used to determine if people had an observable impact on the natural environment, and to determine the timing and magnitude of impacts associated with the development of agricultural land use in the region. An initial increase in sedimentation rate is apparent from ca. mid-2nd C AD. Changes in phytoplankton concentrations are apparent from the late 3rd C AD, and evidence for initial forest disturbance is apparent from the 5th or 6th C AD, with impacts becoming more severe over time to reach a pre-modern maximum in the 11th to the 13th C AD. Changes in agricultural practices are apparent during the 14th C AD, with an increased emphasis on rice agriculture and incipient management of the regenerating forests. Based on these data we suggest that agricultural intensification in the early part of the 1st millennium AD destabilised catchment slopes, through clearance of dryland vegetation and swidden agriculture. There is no direct evidence for the impacts of earlier peoples on the vegetation of the area, which we take to indicate that agricultural intensification was later here than in the lowlands to the east and south.     

Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) Teeth from a Female Burial in Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov,Northwestern Russia (c. 6200 cal BC) – Local Rarities or Transported Goods?

Tooth pendants of European elk, Eurasian beaver and brown bear are the most common artefact type in graves at Late Mesolithic Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov on Lake Onega, northwestern Russia. In one burial of a 20-35-year-old woman, 18 fragments of wild boar tooth pendants from at least five individuals were found. Wild boar was not a regular part of local fauna in the Mesolithic, and if these wild boars were hunted locally, they were very unusual game. These wild boar tooth pendants may also represent imported goods that came to Onega from a more southern area via exchange. It is also possible that the woman was not local but came from a region where wild boars were abundant and common game for Mesolithic people.     

Length of the Cubit

Abstract

From excavations of Bronze Age Levantine sites only rarely has there been archaeobotanical evidence of a specific dietary event which may be seen to reflect the daily life of the people against the background of their farming economy. Even more rare is one that may be examined scientifically for evidence of dried or preserved foodstuffs. An Early Bronze Age archaeobotanical assemblage at Tell es-Sa'idryeh in the Jordan valley has provided an opportunity for such an investigation on food remains burnt by the sudden conflagration of the room in which they were found. Scanning electron microscopic examination and experimental replication of the charred remains have provided new and vital information regarding the role of pickled and stored plant foods within the diet at the site during the period. The results have also contributed towards a revised interpretation of the room containing the plant remains as well as a wider understanding of agricultural practices at the site.     

The EB IA tombs and burials of Bâb edh‐Dhrâ, Jordan: a bioarchaeological perspective on the people

The transition from a hunting/gathering economy to an agricultural economy, beginning about 10,000 years ago, was accompanied by the development of specialised innovations including nomadic pastoralism. It was also associated with the emergence of increasingly sedentary human societies in which relatively large numbers of people lived in a crowded urban environment. The dynamic relationship between agriculture and urbanisation undoubtedly had a profound effect on evolutionary dynamics in developing complex human societies. By the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (EB IA, ca. 3300 BCE) an agricultural economy was well established in the region surrounding Bâb edh‐Dhrâ, located in the southeastern plain adjacent to the Dead Sea in Jordan. However, the site apparently did not begin to develop as an urban centre until EB IB. The objective of this paper is to explore what is known about the EB IA people of Bâb edh‐Dhrâ. The presence of infectious and metabolic diseases coupled with high infant mortality and low life‐expectancy at birth suggest a society at risk. Nevertheless the people were robust and give evidence of at least a moderately successful adaptation to the environment in which they lived. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age determination of Petra's engineered landscape – optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon ages of runoff terrace systems in the Eastern Highlands of Jordan

The unfavourable mountainous environment of the Petra region in southern Jordan was modified by ancient engineers to supply the Nabataean/Roman city of Petra with food and water. The area was reclaimed by installing extended runoff terrace systems and hydraulic structures. The agricultural terrace systems have so far been dated based on surface pottery, and the chronology of the systems is under debate. In this study, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating techniques were successfully applied to date these terrace systems. Samples were taken from the fills of agricultural terraces and underneath their walls to determine the chronology of the construction, use and abandonment of the agricultural terraces. The results suggest that runoff farming in the Petra region started around the beginning of the Common Era, and construction, use and maintenance lasted at least until 800 AD.     

河西在汉代以前的文明形式

文章首先从地理的角度论证了河西的农业形式的文明只能从乌鞘岭东边传播过去。在这基础上,结合乌鞘岭东边农业形式的文明的发展历史,从新石器时期遗址分布的地理位置、气候变化的影响和地理环境对文化传播的影响等角度分析了河西新石器时期文化的可能性质,认为虽然有挟有那样生产技能的文化曾经传播到河西,但由于游牧社会生产方式的排斥影响,农业并没有得到发展,更没有进入农业社会。整个河西在汉代以前一直处于游牧社会,并发展着游牧文明。     

The hoset Project. An interdisciplinary study of a marginal settlement

On the western border of the Stj?rdal region in the province of Nord‐Tr?ndelag, Norway, at the Hoset farm in Lånke, the Department of History at the University of Trondheim, Norway, has been carrying out a detailed study of a single farm area, in cooperation with the Nordic Deserted Farms Project This study is particularly interesting since it was planned as an interdisciplinary approach, involving archaeological, pollen‐analytical, pedological and geological specialists, in addition to historians, all of which have contributed their own evidence on the cultural and natural environment and agricultural settlement history of the area from the Iron Age onward. In this way it was hoped that answers would be found to questions which have been neglected in the past by Norwegian historians, such as settlement continuity or discontinuity, farm structure, farming methods and settlement patterns in more remote areas. It was also hoped to gain more experience in the different scientific techniques, their potentialities and limitations (e.g. radiocarbon dating, pollen analysis, phospate analysis) and to foster a spirit of mutual co‐operations between the various departments within the university.     

Reconstructing subsistence at the Yingpanshan and Gaoshan sites in Sichuan province,China: Insights from isotope analysis on bone samples and charred crop remains

During the Neolithic period, the Chengdu Plain was a key region where two important crops, rice and millet, were cultivated together. Millet was probably introduced from north-western China c.3500–3300 cal. bce , and rice came from the Middle Yangtze River c.2600 cal. bce . In this study, human and faunal remains, as well as charred crop grains, were collected from the Yingpanshan (3300–2600 cal. bce ) and Gaoshan (2500–2000 cal. bce ) sites where the dominant crop was millet and rice, respectively. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses were conducted on human bones and the ecofact samples in order to reconstruct the subsistence at the sites. The results indicate that the diets of two individuals recovered from the Yingpanshan site consisted of both C₃- and C₄-based foods, predominantly the former. By contrast, Yingpanshan pigs consumed a large quantity of C₄ fodder. This result, combined with the ecofact evidence, suggests that millet was the main crop at the Yingpanshan site. It also highlights the fact that the two Yingpanshan individuals might be non-locals and/or belonged to later periods. On the other hand, the diet of the Gaoshan community was dominated by C₃-based foods. When considering the archaeobotanical evidence at Baodun, a site contemporaneous with and near to the Gaoshan site, it can be stated that rice was an important food resource for the Gaoshan community. This study also suggests how crops were managed at the two sites. The Yingpanshan people might have used manure for growing millet. Both manuring and irrigation might have also been practised by Gaoshan's rice farmers. However, more studies are required to understand the extent of manuring and irrigation in their agricultural economies.     

云梦问题的新认识

自唐以来,学者虽然对先秦楚地云梦的位置、范围颇有争议,但一直都以"云梦"作为湖泊水体专名或游猎区专名。由于先秦迄汉晋时代在江汉—洞庭平原长江南北、峡江地区、黄淮平原淮河以北分布有七处以上的云梦,而汉代的"云梦官"不止一处,楚国(地)人也有"薮曰云"、"梦,泽中"、"梦,草中"之类的解释,因此早期"云梦"应不是专名,而是古夏(汉)语楚地方言对具有游赏意义的水体不大但植被繁茂之区的通称,其本来含义即为草泽或泽草。云梦分布的广泛性和云梦含义的揭破,不但可以较好解决学界关于云梦与云梦泽问题的长期争论,也使我们能够正确认识历史早期江汉—洞庭平原、华北平原、峡江等地的自然环境面貌。     

Traditions in transition: Sanskritization and Yakkhafication in East Nepal

Based on fieldwork conducted amongst the Yakkha of East Nepal from 1989–90, this article looks at the similarities and differences in how “tradition” is approached by anthropologists and historians. It focuses on reflexivity, performance and process as key intellectual traditions within both anthropology and history, but takes issue with Hobsbawm’s suggestion that “tradition” is the stuff of “modern” societies while “custom” is a feature of “traditional” ones. It also argues for the “construction” rather than “invention” of traditions, by anthropologists as well as by people they study. In the case of the Yakkha, this construction can be seen in the changes in agricultural techniques over the past 150 years, the use of pellet bows by Yakkha men, and the celebrations of the ostensibly Hindu festival of Dasain. Only with hindsight can the ‘invented’ nature of the Dasain tradition be appreciated; even so, during the research period covered by this article, the rituals that epitomized ‘Sanskritization’ were simultaneously the subject of ‘Yakkhafication’, a process reflecting the negotiation, manipulation and subversion of Yakkha identity.     

Momentarily immobile: Backpacking,farm work,and hostels in Bundaberg,Australia

The Working Holiday Maker visa encourages young people from 44 nations to live and work for up to three years in Australia, contributing immensely to the temporary migrant workforce in regional areas. However, the conditions they experience while completing 88 days of mandatory ‘farm work’ to apply for visa extensions often place them in vulnerable situations and states of immobility that are counter to the perception of backpackers as mobile. Types of accommodation specifically for temporary migrant farm workers are known as working hostels and in some cases the ways in which they are administered have perpetuated the precarious and immobile situations in which backpackers find themselves. This article explores the lived experiences of backpackers who have undertaken farm work in the Bundaberg region, a new ‘hot spot’ for seasonal migrant labour. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with 35 working holiday makers, the article advances the suggestion that recent shifts in hostelling accommodation practices and increased competition for agricultural jobs in the region place individuals in increasingly precarious states of immobility.     

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS IN SCANDINAVIA

The authors quantitatively analyze the effect of railroad construction on agricultural land values in the often overlooked, agriculturally oriented, trans-Mississippi West. This region is unique in American history in that, at the end of the nineteenth century, the railroad itself preceded widespread settlement. Using a hedonic model, they show that railroad transport increased agricultural land values in this region by more than 20 percent, which had a larger impact than recent studies have found for other regions. Moreover, the authors found that the addition of a railroad to a county significantly increased its growth in land values. This finding is contrary to that of existing studies. Finally, the authors show statistically that the railroad and land values were not endogenously determined, lending credibility to the causality of the results presented in their hedonic and growth models. These results indicate a valuable alternative approach to use in the historical analysis of transportation infrastructure and its impact on land prices.     

Google Earth, GIS and stone-walled structures in southern Gauteng, South Africa

In South Africa, air photos were used in the 1960s and 1970s to plot distribution maps of pre-colonial stone-walled structures in order to study the peopling of this landscape. Different architectural styles of stone-walled structures were attributed to different cultures, who shared a mixed agricultural and pastoralist economic base and a cattle centered world-view. New technologies such as Google Earth satellite imagery as well as Geographic Information System software justify revisiting these structures as they facilitate more complex analyses of larger databases. The spatial analysis of remotely sensed settlement data from the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve near Johannesburg shows significant changes in settlement patterns from dispersed homesteads to nucleated towns during the last two or three centuries before colonial times. These changes echo similar patterns reported in the neighboring North West Province, where they have been interpreted as a sequence of evolution in social, political and economic complexity. In the Suikerbosrand reserve climate change, conflict and other factors may have helped bring about the observed changes in settlement patterns.     

The Peopling of Iceland

In recent years intensive archaeological research on the Viking Age in Iceland has produced much new evidence supporting a late 9th century colonization of the country. It can now be stated not only that people had arrived in Iceland before AD 870 but also that comprehensive occupation only took place after that date. The increased temporal resolution of the new archaeological data not only allows the characterization of different phases of the colonization but also supports assessments of the scale and rate of the immigration. In this paper we report the results of fieldwork in Mývatnssveit, NE-Iceland, where more than 30 sites have been investigated, ranging from small test trenches to large-scale open area excavations. We argue, based on the Mývatnssveit data, that a minimum of 24,000 people must have been transported to Iceland in less than 20 years to account for the dates and density of the Mývatn sites. In the absence, so far, of comparable data from other parts of the country these conclusions must remain hypothetical but if supported by further work they will have significant implications for our understanding of first peopling of Holocene farming populations in general and of Viking Age migrations in particular.     

Multi‐Domain User‐Generated Content Based Model to Enrich Road Network Data for Multi‐Criteria Route Planning

By utilizing today's web‐based technologies, people can act as sensors and share their perceptions, emotions and observations in a variety of data forms, such as images, videos, texts, Global Positioning System (GPS) trajectories and maps. These forms are collectively called user‐generated content (UGC). These data are in different domains and have a multi‐modality nature. Although recent efforts have probed the acquisition of local knowledge by using single‐domain UGC data in specific applications, such efforts have not thus far presented a model considering multi‐domain UGC specifically to enrich road network data. This article aims at presenting such a model wherein, with the help of each data domain of UGC, one aspect of people knowledge about the road segment is obtained. These different aspects of knowledge are integrated using a Skyline operator to support multi‐criteria route finding. We name this model ERSBU (enriching road segments based on UGC). In ERSBU, road segments are basic spatial units, and their subjective properties have been extracted by using available UGC. The scenic score for each road segment was computed by using geo‐tagged Panoramio photos. The accessibility level of each road segment to different facilities was calculated based on data captured from Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap. Moreover, for measuring the movement popularity of each road segment, Wikiloc and Everytrail GPS trajectories were utilized. For the implementation of the ERSBU model, Tehran region 6 was considered the case study area. The Evaluation of the results proved that road segments that achieved a high score based on knowledge extracted from UGC also mostly gained top scores by analyzing traditional maps. ERSBU allows users to accomplish more‐qualitative path finding by considering the multi‐view characteristics of road segments.     

Raised fields in the Bolivian Amazonia: a prehistoric green revolution or a flood risk mitigation strategy?

The Llanos de Moxos (LM), Beni, Bolivia, with its impressive number of pre-Columbian earthworks, is an ideal region for studying past human–environment interactions in the Amazonia. Agricultural raised fields are among the most striking of those earthworks. They can offer us valuable information about the region’s agricultural carrying capacity and the nature and extent of human occupation in pre-Columbian times and, therefore, help adopt better informed conservation and development strategies for Amazonia in the future. However, before tackling these issues we need to further our understanding of why pre-Columbian raised fields were built and how they were managed in the past. Published data on raised fields in the LM is contrasted with new data gathered from field and remote sensing images. Raised fields have been analysed in relation to the hydrology, soil, topography and paleoclimate of the areas where they are found. In light of this new data we believe that there are grounds to question the current model that suggests raised field agriculture provided high yields without the need of fallow periods, representing a kind of pre-Columbian green revolution. Our alternative proposal suggests that raised field agriculture allowed pre-Columbian peoples to mitigate the risk of more intense and frequent flooding than is experienced today in the LM. We show that raised fields were built only in those areas where there were no alternatives, which do not coincide with those areas where pre-Columbian societies seem to have flourished and reached high levels of social complexity.