Pub Date : 2020-09-14DOI: 10.1007/s10814-020-09149-7
Dylan Gaffney
Pleistocene water crossings, long thought to be an innovation of Homo sapiens, may extend beyond our species to encompass Middle and Early Pleistocene Homo. However, it remains unclear how water crossings differed among hominin populations, the extent to which Homo sapiens are uniquely flexible in these adaptive behaviors, and how the tempo and scale of water crossings played out in different regions. I apply the adaptive flexibility hypothesis, derived from cognitive ecology, to model the global data and address these questions. Water-crossing behaviors appear to have emerged among different regional hominin populations in similar ecologies, initially representing nonstrategic range expansion. However, an increasing readiness to form connections with novel environments allowed some H. sapiens populations to eventually push water crossings to new extremes, moving out of sight of land, making return crossings to maintain social ties and build viable founder populations, and dramatically shifting subsistence and lithic provisioning strategies to meet the challenges of variable ecological settings.
{"title":"Pleistocene Water Crossings and Adaptive Flexibility Within the Homo Genus","authors":"Dylan Gaffney","doi":"10.1007/s10814-020-09149-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-020-09149-7","url":null,"abstract":"Pleistocene water crossings, long thought to be an innovation of Homo sapiens, may extend beyond our species to encompass Middle and Early Pleistocene Homo. However, it remains unclear how water crossings differed among hominin populations, the extent to which Homo sapiens are uniquely flexible in these adaptive behaviors, and how the tempo and scale of water crossings played out in different regions. I apply the adaptive flexibility hypothesis, derived from cognitive ecology, to model the global data and address these questions. Water-crossing behaviors appear to have emerged among different regional hominin populations in similar ecologies, initially representing nonstrategic range expansion. However, an increasing readiness to form connections with novel environments allowed some H. sapiens populations to eventually push water crossings to new extremes, moving out of sight of land, making return crossings to maintain social ties and build viable founder populations, and dramatically shifting subsistence and lithic provisioning strategies to meet the challenges of variable ecological settings.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-24DOI: 10.1007/s10814-020-09144-y
Prudence M. Rice
Little is known about Middle Preclassic/Formative lowland Maya belief systems or ideologies, compared to later periods, but with increasing research at Middle Preclassic sites and recognition of their nascent complexity, this topic merits investigation. Belief systems are investigated through perspectives on materialization (of ideological concepts); on order, legitimacy, and wealth; and on cooperation drawn from collective/corporate action theory and costly signaling (selectionist) theory. Early lowland belief systems are partially outgrowths of Archaic period hunter-gatherer, “tribal” lifeways, and some concepts about cosmology and supernatural forces may be pan-Mesoamerican and pan-New World (e.g., quadripartition; animacy of objects). The best-known early Mesoamerican belief system is that of the Early and Middle Formative Gulf Coast Olmecs and related peoples (especially in Oaxaca) beginning around 1700 BC or so. Middle Preclassic lowland Maya ideologies (considered primarily in terms of power relations) are examined and compared with those of the Olmecs in four material domains: site plans, landscapes, and architecture; sculpture; portable material culture; and iconography. Comparisons reveal significant differences between Maya and Olmec, visible in Olmec materializations of leaders’ power: massive sculptures and exotic goods (costly signaling). Early Maya ideology and concepts of order (including cooperation) and legitimacy (including corporate political strategies) were rooted in beliefs and myths about the creation of the world and its creatures (including humans), about cosmic renewal (especially solar movements), and about time.
{"title":"In Search of Middle Preclassic Lowland Maya Ideologies","authors":"Prudence M. Rice","doi":"10.1007/s10814-020-09144-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-020-09144-y","url":null,"abstract":"Little is known about Middle Preclassic/Formative lowland Maya belief systems or ideologies, compared to later periods, but with increasing research at Middle Preclassic sites and recognition of their nascent complexity, this topic merits investigation. Belief systems are investigated through perspectives on materialization (of ideological concepts); on order, legitimacy, and wealth; and on cooperation drawn from collective/corporate action theory and costly signaling (selectionist) theory. Early lowland belief systems are partially outgrowths of Archaic period hunter-gatherer, “tribal” lifeways, and some concepts about cosmology and supernatural forces may be pan-Mesoamerican and pan-New World (e.g., quadripartition; animacy of objects). The best-known early Mesoamerican belief system is that of the Early and Middle Formative Gulf Coast Olmecs and related peoples (especially in Oaxaca) beginning around 1700 BC or so. Middle Preclassic lowland Maya ideologies (considered primarily in terms of power relations) are examined and compared with those of the Olmecs in four material domains: site plans, landscapes, and architecture; sculpture; portable material culture; and iconography. Comparisons reveal significant differences between Maya and Olmec, visible in Olmec materializations of leaders’ power: massive sculptures and exotic goods (costly signaling). Early Maya ideology and concepts of order (including cooperation) and legitimacy (including corporate political strategies) were rooted in beliefs and myths about the creation of the world and its creatures (including humans), about cosmic renewal (especially solar movements), and about time.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2020-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-07DOI: 10.1007/s10814-020-09145-x
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos
Recent research is shedding light on the long and precocious urban tradition of the Pacific coastal rim of southeastern Mesoamerica, from eastern Soconusco, Mexico, to Escuintla, Guatemala. The available data provide a basis to discuss variations in urban shape and functions, and to a lesser extent, urban life and meaning at Formative and Classic cities, plus brief mention of Late Postclassic cities. Pacific coastal cities are larger and earlier than previously thought, and their investigation is relevant for comparative studies that aim to understand the variability of ancient urban societies in Mesoamerica and beyond.
{"title":"The Southern Cities: Urban Archaeology in Pacific Guatemala and Eastern Soconusco, Mexico","authors":"Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos","doi":"10.1007/s10814-020-09145-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-020-09145-x","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research is shedding light on the long and precocious urban tradition of the Pacific coastal rim of southeastern Mesoamerica, from eastern Soconusco, Mexico, to Escuintla, Guatemala. The available data provide a basis to discuss variations in urban shape and functions, and to a lesser extent, urban life and meaning at Formative and Classic cities, plus brief mention of Late Postclassic cities. Pacific coastal cities are larger and earlier than previously thought, and their investigation is relevant for comparative studies that aim to understand the variability of ancient urban societies in Mesoamerica and beyond.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2020-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-03DOI: 10.1007/s10814-020-09146-w
Richard C. Sutter
This paper summarizes the current archaeological, physiographic, demographic, molecular, and bioarchaeological understanding of the initial peopling and subsequent population dynamics of South America. Well-dated sites point to a colonization by relatively few broad-spectrum foragers from northeastern Asia between ~13,000 and 12,000 cal BC via the Panamanian Peninsula. By ~11,500–11,000 cal BC, a number of regional, specialized bifacial technologies were developed, with evidence for the seasonal scheduling of resources and the colonization of extreme environments. Restricted mobility, landscape modification, and the cultivation of domesticates were underway by ~8000 cal BC. The early migration routes followed by colonists resulted in a broad east-west population structure among ancient South Americans. Genetic, demographic, and skeletal morphological data indicate that a subsequent demographically driven dispersal into South America largely replaced preexisting central Andeans ~5000 BC, due to increased fertility associated with the shift to agriculture. Beyond the Andes, however, there is little evidence of impact of these later expansions on foragers and horticulturists of the Amazon and Southern Cone who were largely descended from Paleoindians and early Holocene populations.
{"title":"The Pre-Columbian Peopling and Population Dispersals of South America","authors":"Richard C. Sutter","doi":"10.1007/s10814-020-09146-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-020-09146-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper summarizes the current archaeological, physiographic, demographic, molecular, and bioarchaeological understanding of the initial peopling and subsequent population dynamics of South America. Well-dated sites point to a colonization by relatively few broad-spectrum foragers from northeastern Asia between ~13,000 and 12,000 cal BC via the Panamanian Peninsula. By ~11,500–11,000 cal BC, a number of regional, specialized bifacial technologies were developed, with evidence for the seasonal scheduling of resources and the colonization of extreme environments. Restricted mobility, landscape modification, and the cultivation of domesticates were underway by ~8000 cal BC. The early migration routes followed by colonists resulted in a broad east-west population structure among ancient South Americans. Genetic, demographic, and skeletal morphological data indicate that a subsequent demographically driven dispersal into South America largely replaced preexisting central Andeans ~5000 BC, due to increased fertility associated with the shift to agriculture. Beyond the Andes, however, there is little evidence of impact of these later expansions on foragers and horticulturists of the Amazon and Southern Cone who were largely descended from Paleoindians and early Holocene populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-28DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09143-8
Gary M. Feinman
{"title":"Journal of Archaeological Research: Continuity and Change","authors":"Gary M. Feinman","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09143-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09143-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2020-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-03DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09140-x
Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Neill J. Wallis, Victor D. Thompson
Migration was embraced as a general phenomenon by cultural historical archaeologists in the Eastern Woodlands, subsequently rejected by processualists, and recently invoked again with greater frequency due to advances in both method and theory. However, challenges remain in regard to establishing temporal correlations between source and host regions and identifying the specific mechanisms of migration and their archaeological correlates. Bayesian modeling, in combination with insights from recent modeling of migration processes, supports the inference that migration was a causal factor for shifts in settlement observed in the archaeology of the Woodland period (ca. 1000 BC to AD 1050) cultures of the eastern Gulf Coast subregion.
{"title":"The History and Future of Migrationist Explanations in the Archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands with a Synthetic Model of Woodland Period Migrations on the Gulf Coast","authors":"Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Neill J. Wallis, Victor D. Thompson","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09140-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09140-x","url":null,"abstract":"Migration was embraced as a general phenomenon by cultural historical archaeologists in the Eastern Woodlands, subsequently rejected by processualists, and recently invoked again with greater frequency due to advances in both method and theory. However, challenges remain in regard to establishing temporal correlations between source and host regions and identifying the specific mechanisms of migration and their archaeological correlates. Bayesian modeling, in combination with insights from recent modeling of migration processes, supports the inference that migration was a causal factor for shifts in settlement observed in the archaeology of the Woodland period (ca. 1000 BC to AD 1050) cultures of the eastern Gulf Coast subregion.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2020-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-12-20DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09141-w
A. Dolfini
{"title":"From the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Central Italy: Settlement, Burial, and Social Change at the Dawn of Metal Production","authors":"A. Dolfini","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09141-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09141-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10814-019-09141-w","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45128768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-12-19DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09142-9
M. Price, H. Hongo
{"title":"The Archaeology of Pig Domestication in Eurasia","authors":"M. Price, H. Hongo","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09142-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09142-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10814-019-09142-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52323242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-09DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09137-6
Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, M. Aldenderfer
{"title":"The Archaeology of the Early Tibetan Plateau: New Research on the Initial Peopling through the Early Bronze Age","authors":"Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, M. Aldenderfer","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09137-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09137-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s10814-019-09137-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52323215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-08-31DOI: 10.1007/s10814-019-09136-7
Augusta McMahon
Cities generate challenges as well as confer advantages on their inhabitants. Recent excavations and surveys in northern Mesopotamia have revealed extensive settlements with diverse populations, institutions, extended hinterlands, and mass production by the early fourth millennium BC, comparable to well-known evidence for cities in their traditional homeland of southern Iraq. However, early northern Mesopotamian cities incorporated low-density zones and flexible uses of space not yet identified in southern Mesopotamia. Evidence for violent conflict in northern Mesopotamian cities also raises questions about urban sustainability; cities succeeded despite new sources of social stress.
{"title":"Early Urbanism in Northern Mesopotamia","authors":"Augusta McMahon","doi":"10.1007/s10814-019-09136-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09136-7","url":null,"abstract":"Cities generate challenges as well as confer advantages on their inhabitants. Recent excavations and surveys in northern Mesopotamia have revealed extensive settlements with diverse populations, institutions, extended hinterlands, and mass production by the early fourth millennium BC, comparable to well-known evidence for cities in their traditional homeland of southern Iraq. However, early northern Mesopotamian cities incorporated low-density zones and flexible uses of space not yet identified in southern Mesopotamia. Evidence for violent conflict in northern Mesopotamian cities also raises questions about urban sustainability; cities succeeded despite new sources of social stress.","PeriodicalId":47005,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2019-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138514919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}