A Lithic Provisioning Model as a Proxy for Landscape Mobility in the Southern and Middle Kalahari

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Humans occupy a wide range of environments, including those that experience water stress. Our species has a long history of mitigating arid and...     

Diet,Mobility, Technology,and Lithics: Neolithization on the Andean Altiplano, 7.0–3.5 ka

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Neolithization was a complex, protracted process of domestication, sedentarization, and technology change that occurred in various combinations in...     

AN ETHNOGRAPHER'S TALE: ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN NETHERLANDS (WEST) NEW GUINEA (1950 – 1962)1

A major part of the ethnographic literature concerning present-day Irian Jay a is based on research dating back to the 1950s and 1960s. Following the independence of Indonesia, West New Guinea remained a separate Dutch colony between 1950 and 1962. The Dutch colonial administration had had little ethnographic interest in the area since the beginning of the century, so that interest in knowledge concerning the indigenous population had yet to develop. Lack of manpower, finances and time to instigate adequate research meant that the resulting search for ethnographic data became itself a complex social process. People from a range of backgrounds and training - not only academic researchers, but also administrative and missionary personnel - became involved in the gathering of ethnographic material, often while engaged in quite different duties. In this article some light is shed both on the resulting structure of research and on the motivations behind the separate research efforts. At the end of the article some conclusions are drawn concerning the nature of the material gathered.     

DIRECTIONS FOR DIVERSIFICATION WITH AN APPLICATION TO SASKATCHEWAN*

ABSTRACT. Traditional models of regional diversification do not capture the trade-off between stability and living standards. In this paper, we characterize regions as open activity models subjected to both productivity and price shocks. We then partially rank small diversification policies by the direction in which they point away from the current industrial structure in mean-variance space. Some general patterns emerge. In particular, diversification for regional self-sufficiency and away from regional comparative advantage may be undesirable.     

Sex identification from the auricular surface of the adult human ilium

The sacro-iliac joint has largely been excluded in studies of sex identification from the adult human skeleton. Yet this is a joint involved in the transmission of body weight and as such would be expected to exhibit sexual dimorphism. In addition, the auricular surface of the ilium tends to persist even in fragmented remains by virtue of its close proximity to the acetabulo-cristal buttress. The aim of this investigation was to assess the accuracy with which sex could be predicted from dimensions of the auricular surface of the ilium. Significant sex differences were found in the size and shape of the auricular surface. However, these differences were of insufficient magnitude to permit discrimination between the sexes with any acceptable degree of accuracy. Therefore, the auricular surface of the ilium is not recommended for the purpose of sex identification.     

Siberia at the Last Glacial Maximum: Environment and Archaeology

This article focuses on the presence of humans in Siberia and the Russian Far East at the coldest time of the Late Pleistocene, called the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and dated to c. 20,000–18,000 rcbp. Reconstruction of the LGM environment of Siberia, based on the latest models and compilations, provides a background for human existence in this region. Most of Siberia and the Russian Far East at c. 20,000–18,000 rcbp was covered by tundra and cool steppe, with some forest formations in the river valleys. Climate was much colder and drier than it is today. Eighteen Upper Paleolithic sites in Siberia are radiocarbon dated strictly to the LGM, and at least six of them, located in southern parts of western and eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, have solid evidence of occupation during that time span. It seems clear that southern Siberia was populated by humans even at the height of the LGM, and that there was no dramatic decline or complete disappearance of humans in Siberia at that time. The degree of human adaptation to periglacial landscapes in the mid-Upper Paleolithic of northern Eurasia was quite high; humans coped with the cold and dry environmental conditions using microblade technology, artificial shelters, tailored clothes, and megafaunal bones as fuel. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Atlantic salmon, archaeology and climate change in New England

A paucity of archaeological remains of Atlantic salmon in Northeast North America has been cited as evidence that the species may have been present in the region only during and after the Little Ice Age (ca. 1450–1850 AD), one of coldest periods of the Holocene. However, significant problems of preservation, recovery and identification remain. Here, improved methods of identification use vertebra structure to distinguish salmon from trout, and strontium/calcium ratios to differentiate sea-run from landlocked salmon. In addition to the Little Ice Age, Atlantic salmon is identified in tightly dated contexts at 7000–6500 and 3500–3000 calendar years BP, during climate periods that were comparatively warm and wet.