Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semi-sedentary Peoples

Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semi-sedentary Peoples
Author: Amy Elizabeth Clark
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2022
Genre: Archaeology
ISBN: 9781647690458

"In the 1980s and early 1990s, a number of studies were published on intrasite spatial analysis following a surge of ethnoarchaeological work from the previous decade. Many of these publications were edited volumes "that dealt with the arrangement of artifacts within individual archaeological horizons from a range of site types" and were focused on mobile peoples (huntergatherers). They are now at least thirty years old. This volume focuses on current studies and new offerings of intrasite spatial analysis. During the intervening years, different approaches to intrasite spatial analysis were developed based on "higher quality data, technological innovations, and a more sophisticated understanding of what processes govern spatial patterning in the archaeological record.""--

Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semisedentary Peoples

Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semisedentary Peoples
Author: Amy E. Clark
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2022-01-31
Genre:
ISBN: 9781647690441

Describing the nature and meaning of artifact spatial patterning can be highly subjective, yet many patterns can be quantified to create general models that are comparable across time periods and geographic space. The authors employ various techniques in this endeavor, including large sample sizes, model-driven analyses of the ethnographic record, bone and lithic refitting, and a careful consideration of artifact attributes that elucidate spatial patterning. Such detailed analyses allow archaeologists to better interpret site formation processes and address large-scale anthropological questions. This volume includes studies that span archaeological and ethnographic contexts, from highly mobile Paleoindian foragers to semi-sedentary preagriculturalists of the Epipaleolithic and modern pastoralists in Mongolia. The authors hold that commonalities in human behavior lead to similar patterns in the organization and maintenance of space by people. They present a series of ideas and approaches to make it easier to recognize universals in human behaviors, which allow archaeologists to better compare intrasite spatial patterns. The book creates a baseline for new intrasite spatial analyses in the twenty-first century.

More Than Shelter from the Storm

More Than Shelter from the Storm
Author: Brian N. Andrews
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2022-08-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 081307018X

The role of place-making and architecture in mobile cultures The relationship of hunter-gatherer societies to the built environment is often overlooked or characterized as strictly utilitarian in archaeological research. Taking on deeper questions of cultural significance and social inheritance, this volume offers a more robust examination of houses as not only places of shelter but also of memory, history, and social cohesion within these communities. Bringing together case studies from Europe, Asia, and North and South America, More Than Shelter from the Storm utilizes a diverse array of methodologies including radiocarbon dating, geoarchaeology, refitting studies, and material culture studies to reframe the conversation around hunter-gatherer houses. Discussing examples of built structures from the Pleistocene through Late Holocene periods, contributors investigate how these societies created a sense of home through symbolic decoration, ritual, and transformative interaction with the landscape. Demonstrating that meaningful relationships with architecture are not limited to sedentary societies that construct permanent houses, the essays in this volume highlight the complexity of mobile cultures and demonstrate the role of place-making and the built environment in structuring their worldviews. Contributors: Brian Andrews | Amy E. Clark | Margaret W. Conkey | Kelly Eldridge | Randy Haas | Knut A. Helskog | Bryan C. Hood | Sebastien Lacombe | Danielle Macdonald | Lisa Maher | Brooke Morgan | Christopher Morgan | Gustavo Neme | Lauren Norman | Matthew O’Brien | Spencer Pelton | Sarah Ranlett | Vladimir Shumkin | Kathleen Sterling | Todd Surovell | Christopher B. Wolff

The Archaeology of Arcuate Communities

The Archaeology of Arcuate Communities
Author: Martin Menz
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2024-06-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817361553

Provides case studies of social dynamics and evolution of ring-shaped communities of the Eastern Woodlands

The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research

The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research
Author: Tom Brughmans
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 737
Release: 2024-01-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0198854269

Network research has recently been adopted as one of the tools of the trade in archaeology, used to study a wide range of topics: interactions between island communities, movements through urban spaces, visibility in past landscapes, material culture similarity, exchange, and much more. This Handbook is the first authoritative reference work for archaeological network research, featuring current topical trends and covering the archaeological application of network methods and theories. This is elaborately demonstrated through substantive topics and case studies drawn from a breadth of periods and cultures in world archaeology. It highlights and further develops the unique contributions made by archaeological research to network science, especially concerning the development of spatial and material culture network methods and approaches to studying long-term network change. This is the go-to resource for students and scholars wishing to explore how network science can be applied in archaeology through an up-to-date overview of the field.

Barger Gulch

Barger Gulch
Author: Todd A. Surovell
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2022-03-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816546258

At the end of the last Ice Age in a valley bottom in the Rocky Mountains, a group of bison hunters overwintered. Through the analysis of more than 75,000 pieces of chipped stone, archaeologist Todd A. Surovell is able to provide one of the most detailed looks yet at the lifeways of hunter-gatherers from 12,800 years ago. The best archaeological sites are those that present problems and inspire research, writes Surovell. From the start, the Folsom site called Barger Gulch Locality B was one of those sites; it was a problem-rich environment. Many Folsom sites are sparse scatters of stone and bone, a reflection of a mobile lifestyle that leaves little archaeological materials. The people at Barger Gulch left behind tens of thousands of pieces of chipped stone; they appeared to have spent quite a bit of time there in comparison to other places they inhabited. Summarizing findings from nine seasons of excavations, Surovell explains that the site represents a congregation of mobile hunter-gatherers who spent winter along Barger Gulch, a tributary of the Colorado River. Surovell uses spatial patterns in chipped stone to infer the locations of hearths and house features. He examines the organization of household interiors and discusses differential use of interior and exterior spaces. Data allow inference about the people who lived at the site, including aspects of the identity of flintknappers and household versus group mobility. The site shows evidence of a Paleoindian camp circle, child flintknapping, household production of weaponry, and the fission/fusion dynamics of group composition that is typical of nomadic peoples. Barger Gulch provides key findings on Paleoindian technological variation and spatial and social organization.

Ethnoarchaeology and Intrasite Spatial Analysis

Ethnoarchaeology and Intrasite Spatial Analysis
Author: Brian Spurling
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 1984
Genre:
ISBN:

Frequency distribution of cultural items based on excavations at Walukaritji and Ngarulurutja and informant accounts; lithic technology and subsistence patterns.

Home is where the Hearth is

Home is where the Hearth is
Author: Nena Galanidou
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
Total Pages: 182
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN:

The aim of this study is to examine patterns of spatial organisation in rockshelters inhabited during the Upper Palaeolithic, based on examination of two such sites in northwestern Greece: Klithi, a site in the steep-sided Voidomatis gorge, and Kastritsa, a site in open terrain on the shore of Lake Pamvotis. It also examines the evidence for spatial variation in a number of functionally and geographically comparable Upper Palaeolithic sites in physically confined locations. The analysis is organised around three questions: (a) To what extent can the distribution of artefacts and food residues tell us how life was organised in these camps? (b) Do the sites show common patterns of spatial organisation, and do these exhibit temporal or regional variation? (c) What underlies variation in patterns of site structure? Do site function and its social, seasonal and demographic corollaries do so independently of time and place, or are other culture-specific factors involved?