Introduction: The Materiality of Traces and Legacies

This Special Issue presents issues in contemporary archaeological theory and practice as influenced by the work of H. Martin Wobst. Wobst came to study in the U.S. nearly 50 years ago and has contributed to many changes in the theory and practice of archaeology since then. Though the papers cover a wide range of topics they share common interests in seeing materiality as constitutive of culture, archaeologists as participants in the present as well as observers of the past, and an interest in transcending traditional definitions of archaeological research.     

Avian resource depression or intertaxonomic variation in bone density? A test with San Francisco Bay avifaunas

Previous analyses of the Emeryville Shellmound fauna suggested that ever-expanding late Holocene human populations of the San Francisco Bay area depressed a wide range of vertebrate taxa, including cormorants (Phalacrocorax), geese (Anserinae), and large shorebirds (e.g., Numenius, Limosa). Far-reaching implications for prehistoric human behavior, historical ecology, and modern conservation biology have resulted from that work. We test the generality of the bird-based conclusions here by documenting temporal trends in avifaunal abundances from five additional sites located on the San Francisco Peninsula. Analyses of these data reveal patterns identical to those found at Emeryville, showing significant declines through time in the relative abundances of both geese and cormorants between about 2000 and 700 B.P. New photon absorptiometric-based density data for cormorants, geese, and ducks (Anatinae) are used to determine if the declines through time in the relative abundances of geese and cormorants are correlated with variation in the extent of density-mediated attrition observed in these faunas. The data and analyses presented here suggest that while density-mediated attrition played a role in structuring element abundances in these avifaunas, there is no evidence that it varied systematically through time to produce the revealed patterns in taxonomic abundances. Resource depression thus remains a viable hypothesis for the declining abundances of large-sized waterbirds during the late Holocene of the San Francisco Bay region. The new bone density data we present should be useful to analyses of archaeological and paleontological avifaunas wherever these or related taxa are found around the world.     

Stable isotope chemistry,population histories and Late Prehistoric subsistence change in the Aleutian Islands

Aleut population history has been a topic of debate since the earliest archaeological investigations in the region. In this paper, we use stable isotope chemistry to evaluate the hypothesis that two distinct groups of people, Paleo- and Neo-Aleut, occupied the eastern Aleutians after 1000 BP. This study focuses on 80 sets of directly dated eastern Aleutian burial assemblages from Chaluka midden, Shiprock Island and Kagamil Island. We use a linear mixing model informed by isotopic analysis of two large Aleut faunal assemblages to address temporal and spatial variation in human carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from these sites. The patterning we report addresses both Aleut demographic and economic prehistory, illustrating a transition in both at ca. 1000 BP. Our results suggests that the Chaluka diet, dominated by Paleo-Aleut inhumations, differed in both trophic level and foraging location from the other two sites for much of the past 4000 years. Trends in our data also suggest that individuals from Shiprock and Kagamil burial caves, primarily Neo-Aleuts, had enough access to higher trophic level foods to differentiate their bone chemistries from those buried in Chaluka midden. These trends in diet, recently reported genetic differences, as well as the introduction of novel mortuary practices at ca. 1000 BP, suggest that Neo-Aleuts do represent a population new to the eastern Aleutians.     

Building Bridges Through Performance and Decision‐making: Schools,Research and Public Engagement

Abstract: This paper uses the impact agenda in the UK to realign debate about the relationship between schools, universities and (human) geography. It positions this debate in systemic tendencies within UK higher education. It argues that, whilst impact can be seen as a further instance of neoliberalism, emphasising the gap between accountability and accounting allows an identification with communicative and reflexive knowledge and, more broadly, critical praxis. The paper draws on a year‐long research‐based collaboration with school teachers and their students involving performance work and the development of decision‐making curriculum materials. It argues that working in these ways with schools can provide the basis for public engagement partnerships between schools and universities and a means to constitute diverse research publics. In these ways, it is argued, a wider sense of impact can be reappropriated, to reclaim the critical subject and to constitute academic value     

Declines in Mammalian Foraging Efficiency during the Late Holocene, San Francisco Bay, California

Resource intensification models that have been posited for prehistoric California predict decreases in foraging efficiency during the late Holocene, Using implications of the fine-grained prey model of optimal foraging theory, I derive an index of the efficiency of vertebrate prey choice from the relative abundances of large- and small-sized prey items. I then test the intensification models with late Holocene mammalian faunas from San Francisco Bay shellmounds. Dramatic linear decreases in the relalive frequency of artiodactyls compared to the smaller sea otters (Enhydra lutris) throughout the occupational histories of particular localities strongly support the resource intensification models. The declines in artiodactyl abundances are not correlated with late Holocene climatic indices developed for this region, with changes in the seasonal use of shellmounds, or with technological innovations. An intra- and interregionally consistent pattern in declining abundances of large mammals in environmentally distinct regions throughout California suggests that resource depression driven by human predators may be the single most important cause of the declines. These patterns have far-reaching implications concerning the long-term human role in structuring prehistoric ecosystems.     

A Late Holocene Population Bottleneck in California Tule Elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes): Provisional Support from Ancient DNA

Zooarchaeological analyses have suggested a possible case of late Holocene resource depression in California tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes). We develop and conduct a preliminary independent test of this here based on trends in genetic diversity derived from ancient DNA extracted from archaeological elk bone. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data from 24 tule elk temporally dispersed across the late Holocene deposits of the Emeryville Shellmound, California, provide provisional support for a decline in genetic diversity and a population bottleneck beginning about 1600 B.P. Final confirmation of this pattern must await complete replication of the sequences. Stable isotope analyses of the elk bone provide a record of change in the terrestrial environment across the period of deposition and no suggestion that climate change may have played a role in an elk population decline. The analysis has implications for our understanding of change in human behavior and biology during late Holocene of central California, the methodology of resource depression analyses, and the conservation biology of tule elk.     

Evolutionary Ecology,Resource Depression,and Niche Construction Theory: Applications to Central California Hunter-Gatherers and Mimbres-Mogollon Agriculturalists

Evolutionary ecology is a theoretical framework that has been widely applied to problems in human evolution and prehistory. Because the approach often focuses on how behavioral adjustments to changing socio-ecological conditions create novel selective pressures that in turn drive other changes in morphology and behavior, it draws on the same evolutionary logic that underlies niche construction theory. We illustrate here the important role that niche construction has played in archaeological applications of evolutionary ecology with two detailed case studies: one from Late Holocene hunter-gatherer populations in Central California and one from Mimbres-Mogollon agriculturalists in New Mexico. These examples illustrate that evolutionary ecology-based approaches, with an emphasis on formal predictive modeling, allow for the incorporation of niche construction as it affects model parameters with reference to specific problems involving past behavior. Further modeling and empirical applications will expand the synergies between these complementary approaches and advance our understanding of the human past.