Botanical Remains from the Baumer Component at Kincaid Mounds

The Baumer construct defines the Early and Middle Woodland periods in the lower Ohio Valley in the confluence region of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers. Originally defined by University of Chicago investigations in the 1930s, Baumer remains a poorly understood cultural unit. This paper reports the botanical and environmental data from Baumer features excavated in recent work at Kincaid Mounds. These data demonstrate a stable plant food regime highlighted by a major emphasis on nut harvests as well as the cultivation of Eastern Complex seed crops. The Kincaid data show that Baumer and related Crab Orchard groups inhabiting large stream floodplains are more strongly committed to horticulture than their relatives living in small interior stream drainages in southern Illinois. Maize was also recovered but it is clearly of Mississippian origin.     

Going underground: experimental carbonization of fruiting structures under hearths

We show that carbonized fruits and seeds recovered from Middle Stone Age deposits in rock shelters are likely to have been carbonized as part of post-depositional processes. We buried indigenous South African fruits, nuts and seeds at pre-determined depths and distances from the centers of experimental fires. The cold ashes of the hearths and the sand surrounding them were subsequently excavated, using standard archaeological techniques and dry-screening. The fruiting structures from the oxidizing part of the fire were burnt to ashes, whereas those buried in sand under anoxic conditions survived in varying forms. Those buried 5 cm below the center of the fire were carbonized; those buried 10 cm below the center of the fire were dehydrated; and those 5 cm and 10 cm below the surface at the outer edge of the fire were unaffected. Size, moisture or oil content of the original fruit or seed did not appear to influence whether or not carbonization took place. Temperatures recorded 5 cm below the experimental fires suggest that the carbonization occurred at or before a maximum temperature of 328 °C, and also at lower maximum temperatures (152 °C) that were maintained for long periods. Even when the quantities of a particular wood are controlled, open fires may produce variable underground temperatures and the temperatures below ancient hearths would have been equally variable. We suggest that Cyperaceae (sedge) nutlets, the most numerous fruiting structures in the Sibudu Middle Stone Age archaeobotanical assemblage, occur in the shelter as a result of human activity, subsequent burial, and accidental carbonization when hearths were built directly above the buried nutlets.     

An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough

The Early Bronze Age round barrows at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire and Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire contained remarkably large quantities of cattle (Bos taurus) remains. At Irthlingborough, at least 185 skulls with smaller numbers of mandibles, shoulder blades and pelves were found together with a small number of skeletal elements from aurochs (Bos primigenius). In contrast, the remains from Gayhurst are dominated by the limb bones from more than 300 animals. This study employed strontium isotope ratio analysis of cattle tooth enamel from 15 cattle and one aurochs to investigate the diversity of the animals' origins at both sites and provide insights into Early Bronze Age funerary practices. Although strontium results show that most of the cattle and the aurochs included in this study were consistent with local origins, one animal from each barrow was born remotely, most likely in western Britain. In addition, a second Gayhurst animal was consistent with origins in a region of chalk rather than the local Jurassic sediments.     

Shellfish Exploitation in the Western Canary Islands Over the Last Two Millennia

ABSTRACT

The residents of the Canary Archipelago consumed limpets since the arrival of humans ～2500 yrs. ago, and these harvested gastropods were deposited in large coastal shell middens. This work preliminarily explores shell margin oxygen isotope composition (δ¹⁸O) and body size of the black limpet (Patella candei d’Orbigny, 1840) from archaeological sites in the Canary Islands to assess possible seasonal variability and intensity of shellfish collection throughout the late Holocene. The shell margin δ¹⁸O values of 100 shells (radiocarbon dated between ～500 and ～1800 cal. yr BP) were analysed to estimate sea surface temperature (SST) at time of death. Paleotemperature estimates suggest shellfish harvesting was not year-round, and was avoided in the cooler months (when SST?<?20°C). This pattern differs from most higher latitude Mesolithic and Neolithic human groups, which gathered shellfish year-round, targeting winter more heavily. Preliminary body-size measurements suggest shell sizes have experienced a decline from aboriginal times to the present, which possibly resulted from increasing anthropogenic pressures. During aboriginal inhabitation, maximum adult shell size remained stable, suggesting that present-day harvesting practices are more intense than harvesting from aboriginal human groups. This intensive collection has likely diminished the average adult size of limpet populations in the islands by ～27%.     

Mentoring with: reimagining mentoring across the university

Abstract

Traditional, formal mentoring structures established within the space of the university can be rooted in patriarchal systems of power, hierarchy, and exclusion that perpetuate neoliberal and capitalist understandings of individualism and exceptionalism. This model privileges certain forms of knowledge and expertise, often that of senior, tenured faculty rather than those who are ignored or overlooked as ‘experts’ such as historically underrepresented tenured and untenured faculty, contingent faculty, and staff. In this paper, we seek to reimagine the concept of the traditional mentoring relationship rooted in power and hierarchy into a more democratic, empowering model across the space of the university. We do this by expanding upon the concept of power mentoring which emphasizes mentoring networks rather than individual relationships. Power mentoring centers reciprocal support and mutual benefit, infusing a feminist ethics of care into the spaces and structures of the neoliberal university. We draw on Joan Tronto’s caring with to frame mentoring as collective, collaborative, and democratic: mentoring with. Based upon a collective reading of Ensher and Murphy ’s Power Mentoring: How Successful Mentors and Protégés Get the Most Out of their Relationships and conversations from our faculty learning community about mentoring, we argue that mentoring relationships within the spaces of the university should emphasize the role of dynamic networks between faculty, staff, and administrators to build upon existing feminist praxis to develop a more inclusive, geographic system of mentoring, which enables participants to grow, develop, and learn with one another.