Thorium-230 coral chronology of a late prehistoric Hawaiian chiefdom

Documenting the history of settlement in Hawaii during the last few centuries before European contact, is crucial to charting the evolution of the most complex chiefdom in Polynesia. It is precisely this period that Hawaii, and many Polynesian societies, underwent their most rapid changes in political, economic and social organisation. The last ∼500 to 300 years in the ¹⁴C calibration curve is problematic with wide fluctuations often rendering large age spans that do not precisely date single events, especially troubling with a culture-historical record of ∼1000 years duration. Here we present an extremely high precision ²³⁰Th chronology for archaeologically constrained coral samples from a range of occupancy sites. Our high precision dates allow the time of site use to be clearly demonstrated. They also provide the first dates for habitation sites in Hawaii that clearly show contemporaneous occupation—the major problem in settlement pattern archaeology. We demonstrate that two sites were occupied within the same year. Our refined chronology, provides new and exciting opportunities for tracking sociopolitical and economic developments during the last few centuries—the crucial period in the evolution and transformation of Polynesian societies.     

Considering gender analogies in southeastern prehistoric archaeology

Prehistoric archaeologists have done very little yet to explore how gender “works” within the historical processes of social construction during the long prehistory of the Southeast. As we undertake examinations of gender ideologies, roles, and relationships, applications of analogs play an important role. This is despite a distinctly unsettled agreement on uses of analogy in archaeology. In this piece, I explore archaeologists’ continued unease with the use of analogy in archaeological interpretation, assigning part of the blame to underlying and unresolved epistemological issues. A disciplined and studied use of formal analogies is suggested.     

The Farasan Islands,Saudi Arabia: towards a chronology of settlement

An archaeological survey of Saudi Arabia's Farasan Islands in May 2010 recorded a broad range of sites that have not previously been documented. The survey concentrated on Greater Farasan and Segid islands, and comprised a rapid recording of sites shown to the authors by representatives of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. The sites were photographed, their positions logged, sketch drawings made of the principal features and surface pottery drawn and photographed. Detailed drawings were made of a stone anchor and a well with possible Ancient South Arabian carved decoration. The sites visited included settlements, wells, cemeteries and a cave. Several sites included the remains of buildings made of massive ashlar blocks, as well as others of rubble‐stone construction. Datable material at the sites points to several periods of occupation, from the early first millennium BC to early modern times. Some locations were characterised by long periods of settlement. Apart from the findings of this survey, most of the sites remain largely uninvestigated, and suggest significant potential for future research into settlement on the archipelago, as well as into past maritime activity and technology in the southern Red Sea region and beyond.     

The settlement patterns of north-eastern and south-eastern Arabia in late antiquity

The east Arabian settlements in antiquity were never large urban sites. However, they were the main centres of the communities that inhabited that area, interfacing between the nomadic and sedentary societies. A study of the distribution and characteristics of these sites reveals different, complementary functions. They were organized in local networks forming the essential structure of the settlement pattern and delineating the territories of communities having their own political identity.     

The settlement patterns of north-eastern and south-eastern Arabia in late antiquity

The east Arabian settlements in antiquity were never large urban sites. However, they were the main centres of the communities that inhabited that area, interfacing between the nomadic and sedentary societies. A study of the distribution and characteristics of these sites reveals different, complementary functions. They were organized in local networks forming the essential structure of the settlement pattern and delineating the territories of communities having their own political identity.     

Two tests of the prehistoric cultural chronology of Varanger,North Norway

The Younger Stone Age of the Varanger fjord area is tested by means of the altitudinal relationship between archaeological sites and shorelines, and by C‐14 dates on cultural material from North Norway and Finland. The test indicates that the sites from different cultural phases cluster differently in relation to different shorelines with the exception of the sites from phase III, which overlap considerably with sites from phases II and IV. Altogether the altitudinal overlapping suggest that there is greater temporal overlapping between different phases than hitherto believed. The C‐14 dates on cultural material suggest that the temporal periods corresponding with these phases cover different time spans and are approximately 1000 C‐14 years older than previously estimated.     

The study of spatiotemporal patterns integrating temporal uncertainty in late prehistoric settlements in northeastern Spain

This paper explores the integration of two variables that are typically difficult to use in spatial analysis: time and uncertainty. A framework is constructed to analyse mid- and long-term variation in settlement dynamics during late prehistory in northeastern Spain. Following previous proposals, an aoristic model is built with ceramic dating to feed a Monte Carlo simulation that explores the case study using a discrete time-step approach. At the same time, available radiometric dating is used to validate the accuracy of the simulation results. Departing from the static analysis of spatial variables, the model proposes a new approach by which researchers can address temporal uncertainty. The results show that patterns detected by classical spatial analysis can be produced by artefacts derived from the division of time in chronological units instead of discrete time periods. The model is also used to compare a priori identical variations whose rate of change, when analysed with this approach, is revealed to be completely different.     

Managing the risk of climatic variability in late prehistoric northern Chile

The concept of risk management encompasses the diverse strategies employed in preventing and mitigating losses associated with social and environmental calamities. Building on the growing literature on risk, we use archaeological data from the Tarapacá Valley, located in northern Chile, to document the risk-reduction tactics mobilized by the valley’s inhabitants to navigate the increasingly volatile environmental and social conditions of the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1450). With the onset of exceptionally unpredictable environmental conditions after AD 1100, residents of the Tarapacá Valley chose strategies such as increased trade and agricultural diversification and extensification to minimize shortages in staple resources. Threats of raiding and intra-community strife exacerbated the risks associated with subsistence shortfalls. Valley communities elected a number of strategies to curtail conflict-induced risk, including movement of settlements and field systems to defensible locations, construction of walls and other defensive features, and the introduction of plazas. Rock art data suggest that trade was increasingly embedded in ritually sanctioned events involving groups from different ecological zones. While studies of risk have focused disproportionately on environmental hazards, subsistence-related crises are often compounded by social hazards that require their own risk-mitigating strategies, further constraining options for coping with subsistence stress.     

Some issues in the study of the pre-Islamic weaponry of southeastern Arabia

'it is not fine raiment or stores of gold, silver and gems that bend our enemies to respect or support us; they are kept down solely by fear of our arms'(Vegetius, 1.13) (1).     

Monongahela subsistence-settlement change: The late prehistoric period in the lower Upper Ohio River valley

The Late Prehistoric period in the lower Upper Ohio River basin of southwestern Pennsylvania and adjacent portions of Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia is dominated by a material-culture assemblage named Monongahela. Monongahela has been associated with subsistence-settlement systems that included a large number of upland villages that were often far removed from large river valleys. The existence of these villages has been explained as resulting from intra- and interregional warfare. While these upland villages may have obtained as a result of warfare, it is argued that they served as important links in regional divided risk strategies in response to local environmental and social risks.     

Toward an archaeology of late prehistoric Eskimo bands in coastal northwest Alaska

The methodology of analogical explanation of prehistoric Eskimo remains in northwest Alaska is examined. The sociospatial organization of Wales or, Kingigan, settlement and the greater Kingikmiut territory is evaluated as an example based on ethnohistorical studies and archaeological excavations carried out at three sites in the locality since 1926, and relationships between the archaeological material and historic socio-spatial divisions of Kingigan are explored. The review reveals that only two historic family compound locations have been sampled archaeologically, and that several others have not yet been sampled. However, existing samples nevertheless represent the larger Agianamiut, Kiatanamiut and Kurigitavik districts in the settlement, ca. AD 1800–1850 and extending back to prehistoric times from ca. AD 1000. A nomenclature for socio-spatial units is proposed that includes compound families, local bands, tribal capitals and tribes based on examples of historic Eskimo territorial organization. Caution is suggested in applying the nomenclature to prehistoric cultures in cases where continuity of artifact forms, art styles and motifs with historic local cultures are not demonstrable. Application of historic Eskimo analogues to prehistoric entities such as Birnirk and Punuk cultural remains risk fallacious interpretations because continuity with historic examples are not demonstrable and alternative explanations cannot be eliminated.     

Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor,UK

The upland of Dartmoor, southwest England, is one of the flagship prehistoric landscapes within Britain owing to the excellent survival of extensive prehistoric coaxial field systems. Archaeological surveys and rescue excavations during the 1970s and 1980s did much to further the understanding of this landscape; however, much remains to be explored, in particular the chronology of enclosure, the nature of the pre-enclosure landscape and the relationship between Bronze Age communities and their environment. Reconsideration of this landscape is important, given the place it holds in our understanding of subdivision of the landscape across northwest Europe during prehistory. This paper presents new palaeoecological data recovered as part of an integrated archaeological and palaeoecological project on northeast Dartmoor. The sequences detailed here include the first dated Neolithic period palaeoenvironmental data from within the prehistoric enclosed land on the moor, providing a longer-term context for enclosure. Neolithic groups are implicated in the first establishment of heathland in the study area at around 3630–3370 cal BC. During the early Bronze Age, reestablishment of hazel scrub in the study area implies reduced use of the upland, although it is not clear whether this is local or indicative of the wider landscape. A combination of pollen and fungal spore data indicates a substantial shift to species-rich grassland with grazing animals at c.1480 cal BC in a phase that lasted 400 years. The later Bronze Age and early Iron Age are characterised by low intensity use of the upland. These data provide new chronological data for land cover change on Dartmoor and whilst they broadly confirm existing models of upland land use in later prehistory, their proximity to the standing archaeology affords a more nuanced interpretation of local change.     

The late prehistoric Cahokia cultural system of the Mississippi River valley: Foundations,florescence, and fragmentation

The development, florescence, and subsequent demise of an organizationally complex cultural system in the American Bottom, part of the central Mississippi River valley, spanned a little over half a millennium. Cahokia, the largest Precolumbian site in the United States, is located within this segment of fertile floodplain, as are many other subsidiary settlements that varied greatly in terms of their size, internal structure, and occupational histories. Numerous projects over the past 30 years have resulted in the rapid accumulation of considerable information and divergent interpretations about the nature of the societies represented archaeologically by a series of superimposed settlement systems.     

Pervasiveness of phytoliths in prehistoric southwestern diet and implications for regional and temporal trends for dental microwear

Our previous analysis of phytolith content of coprolites showed that calcium oxalate phytoliths from desert food plants caused dental microwear among prehistoric Texas hunter-gatherers. We demonstrated that phytoliths from desert succulents were ubiquitous and abundant in hunter-gatherer coprolites. We found that calcium oxalate phytoliths were harder than human dental enamel. We concluded that phytoliths from desert succulent plants caused dental microwear and hypothesized that such dental microwear would be common in other desert hunter-gatherer and horticultural peoples. Presented here are further analyses of phytoliths from coprolites. Two additional hunter-gatherer sites and three Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) horticultural sites are included in this study. Calcium oxalate phytoliths are ubiquitous in coprolites from hunter-gatherer sites in the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Plateau. For the three Ancestral Pueblo sites, calcium oxalate phytoliths from desert succulents (agave family and cactus family) are the most common types of phytoliths encountered. However, silica phytoliths are also present in Ancestral Pueblo coprolites. The data demonstrate that phytoliths from non-cultivated desert plants were a source of dental microwear for the pre-maize Archaic hunter-gatherer bands and maize-reliant Ancestral Pueblo villages.     

Two cases of facial involvement in probable treponemal infection from late prehistoric coastal North Carolina

This paper describes two late prehistoric burials from coastal North Carolina with cranial and postcranial lesions characteristic of treponemal infection. Each case exhibits facial lesions consistent with clinical reports of treponemal infection, but which have not previously been documented in these populations. The suite of facial lesions in one case and a mandibular lesion in the other serve to illustrate the variability inherent in treponemal infections. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning in districts: Novelty and lock-in in a regional context

This paper deals with the constraints and risks of learning in different types of spatial concentration of related industries and firms. We aim at a better understanding of what makes the difference between local lock-in on the one hand and ongoing creation of novelty on the other. To achieve this purpose, we use Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) treatment of knowledge conversion processes and Nooteboom's (2000) cycle of discovery. Hence, we are able to clarify the concept and nature of learning, which in turn provides a basis for specifying different learning effects of two prototypes of spatial concentration: Marshallian and dynamic industrial districts. We show that these two types of industrial districts have multiple, different, and complementary functions in terms of knowledge conversion and knowledge creation. Hence, we can explain why spatial concentration can have positive and negative effects for learning and innovation, and how lock-in can be avoided.     

The dog in prehistoric and early historic britain

The development and changes in size, conformation and skull shape of the dog in Britain from the Mesolithic to the end of the eleventh century AD are described and factors are derived for the estimation of shoulder height from long bone lengths.The Mesolithic dog is represented by not more than four animals of about 60 cm shoulder height. In both the Neolithic and the Bronze Age the available evidence indicates a single population showing little variation. The observed range of estimated shoulder height was the same, 43–62 cm, but the mean values for each long bone length were a little higher in the later period.In the Iron Age there is again a single population but the larger dogs in it were either more common or better represented. An overall reduction in height is apparent, the range being 29–58 cm.The cardinal feature of the Romano-British dog is variability, apparent in height, build and skull shape. The height range is 23–72 cm. There were definitely two, possibly three, distinct populations and what were almost certainly house dogs were seen for the first time.The mean size of the dog in Anglo-Saxon times was greater than that in any previous period and there is evidence for two distinct populations. The range in shoulder height is 23–71 cm but overall the variation is reduced.Evidence is presented that the dog was probably used as a food animal.