Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Differential Preservation Of Endogenous Human And Microbial Dna In Dental Calculus And Dentin, Allison E. Mann, Susanna Sabin, Kirsten Ziesemer, Ashild J. Vagene, Hannes Schroeder, Andrew T. Ozga, Krithivasan Sankaranarayanan, Courtney A. Hofman, James A. Fellows Yates, Domingo C. Salazar-Garcia, Bruno Frohlich, Mark Aldenderfer, Menno Hoogland, Christopher Read, George R. Milner, Anne C. Stone, Cecil M. Lewis Jr., Johannes Krause, Corinne Hofman, Kirsten I. Bos, Christina Warinner

Biology Faculty Articles

Dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) is prevalent in archaeological skeletal collections and is a rich source of oral microbiome and host-derived ancient biomolecules. Recently, it has been proposed that dental calculus may provide a more robust environment for DNA preservation than other skeletal remains, but this has not been systematically tested. In this study, shotgun-sequenced data from paired dental calculus and dentin samples from 48 globally distributed individuals are compared using a metagenomic approach. Overall, we find DNA from dental calculus is consistently more abundant and less contaminated than DNA from dentin. The majority of DNA in dental calculus is …

Drone Photography Vs. Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Data - Which Source Is Best Utilized In 3-Dimensional Modeling Applications?, Austin Valentine

Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Drone Photography vs. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Data — Which Source is Best Utilized in 3-Dimensional Modeling Applications? is an evaluation essay comparing the analysis and modeling of both drone photography and LiDAR data. This paper gives a brief introduction into my choice of utilization between these two techniques, both of which were applied to 3-dimensional modeling of the Kincaid Mounds Archaeological site in southern Illinois. Thus, illustrating some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with both methods.

Automated Mound Detection Using Lidar And Object-Based Image Analysis In Beaufort County, Sc, Carl P. Lipo, Matt Sanger, Dylan Davis

Anthropology Datasets

The study of prehistoric anthropogenic mounded features– earthen mounds, shell heaps, and shell rings – in the American Southeast is stymied by the spotty distribution of systematic surveys across the region. Many extant, yet unidentified, archaeological mound features continue to evade detection due to the heavily forested canopies that occupy large areas of the region, making pedestrian surveys difficult and preventing aerial observation. The use of object-based image analysis (OBIA) as a tool for analysing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data, however, offers an inexpensive opportunity to address this challenge. Using publicly available LiDAR data from Beaufort County, South Carolina …

Say What?: Demystifying Discourse Analysis For Archaeology Students, Cynthia L. Van Gilder

Journal of Archaeology and Education

Most archaeology instructors are eager to have their students appreciate that the study of the past is relevant to the present. In fact, most current introductory textbooks include a section, however brief it may be, on the socio-politics of archaeology. These discussions are usually framed around how ideas about the past have been used to justify abuse (e.g., Nazi archaeology to support an Aryan homeland), or how the involvement of descendant communities in research is now considered best practice in the field (e.g., NAGPRA, community based archaeology). One of the most powerful tools for understanding how what we say about …

The Moai Of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

The current database for the moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile).

Seasonal Round Travel Routes And The Cost Of Mobility, Evan Mills

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In 1985 a settlement and subsistence model of seasonal round mobility was proposed by Statistical Research, Inc. This model proposed four travel routes used by the Late Prehistoric Serrano to access the higher elevation village site known as Rock Camp to gather acorns and pinyon nuts in the fall. This research investigates the proposed routes, as well as an additional route, for energy efficiency and archaeological evidence of use in prehistory. Data collection involved using experimental methods designed to gather controlled physiological data for evaluating the efficiency of traveling each route. Archaeological sites present on the travel routes and within …

Chocolate: A Brief Review Of Recent Research, Marshall Joseph Becker

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Community Through Consumption: The Role Of Food In African American Cultural Formation In The 18th Century Chesapeake, Alexandra Crowder

Graduate Masters Theses

Stratford Hall Plantation’s Oval Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and overseer charged with growing Virginia’s cash crop: tobacco. No documentary evidence references the site, leaving archaeology as the only means to reconstruct the lives of the site’s inhabitants. This research uses the results of a macrobotanical analysis conducted on soil samples taken from an overseer’s basement and a dual purpose slave quarter/kitchen cellar at the Oval Site to understand what the site’s residents were eating and how the acquisition, production, processing, provisioning, and consumption of food impacted their daily lives. …

Lost City Incorporated - Logan County, Kentucky (Sc 3225), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3225. Waivers of notice of the first meeting of incorporators and subscribers, and of the board of directors, of Lost City Incorporated, an archaeological tourist site in Logan County, Kentucky. Includes a letter on company letterhead from one director to another thanking him for family Christmas gifts.

Covering The Costs Of Curation: A Comparative Analysis In The Southeastern United States, Amanda M. Sexton

Honors College Theses

In 2017, a survey was used to assess the curation crisis and see how curators have adapted their repositories to combat the issue. The results have been analyzed compared to other surveys sent out in the past twenty years to monitor changes and trends in repositories. This is an effort to explore and understand the challenges archaeological repositories face, how they manage the obstacles that accompany archaeological curation, and how this has changed over the years. Hopefully, the study of the ongoing curation crisis and those who have to oversee it will encourage conversation and collaboration between those who wish …

Using Digital Mapping Techniques To Rapidly Document Vulnerable Historical Landscapes In Coastal Louisiana: Holt Cemetery Case Study, Alahna Moore

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis outlines a technique for rapid documentation of historic sites in volatile cultural landscapes. Using Holt Cemetery as an exemplary case study, a workflow was developed incorporating RTK terrain survey, UAS aerial imagery, photogrammetry, GIS, and smartphone data collection in order to create a multifaceted database of the material and spatial conditions, as well as the patterns of use, that exist at the cemetery.

The purpose of this research is to create a framework for improving the speed of data creation and increasing the accessibility of information regarding threatened cultural resources. It is intended that these processes can be …

Representation Of The Human Musculature In The Bronze Age Aegean, Emily R Brower

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Bronze Age sculptures range from abstract to realistic, but how accurate are the realistic sculptures? To answer this question, it is useful to compare three pieces of artwork: Prince of Lilies from Knossos, Kouros from Palaikastro, and the Boxer Rhyta from Ayia Triadha to a musculature replica. These pieces originate from the Bronze Age in the Aegean. What this comparison will tell us is how much the ancient peoples were studying the human body, along with the reasons as to why these sculptures were portrayed with such realistic characteristics. To accomplish this goal this paper takes the artifacts background into …

A Middle Pueblo Ii Production Zone For Shivwits Ware Ceramics: Implications For Understanding Settlement Patterns And Socio-Environmental Responses On The Shivwits Plateau, William Morrow Willis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The distribution of ceramics from upland regions in Northern Arizona into Southern Nevada is one of the many curiosities concerning the Virgin Branch Puebloan culture. From the Shivwits Plateau, it is more than 100 kilometers to the Moapa Valley, yet Shivwits Wares make up a sizeable proportion of sherds found at many lowland sites. These networks appear to reach their height in the Middle Pueblo II period and then collapse sometime around AD 1150. The reason for this is not yet fully understood; however, research performed on the southern end of the Shivwits Plateau concerning landscape usage and settlement placement …

Investigating The Role Of Liminality In The Cultural Transition Of The Late Eighth Millennium Bc On Cyprus, Levi Keach

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Near East has the earliest and best documented Neolithic in the world. However, most research attention has focused on the mainland. The spread of the Neolithic to the adjacent Mediterranean islands was once considered relatively late. The last three decades of research has changed this perception, demonstrating that the spread of the Neolithic to Cyprus was contemporary with its continental development.

This work addresses the change between the archeologically defined cultures of the Cypro-Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (Cypro-PPNB) and the Khirokitian Culture (KC) on the island of Cyprus between the 9th and 6th millennia cal BC. The purpose of this …

Investigating Land Use By The Inhabitants Of Western Cyprus During The Early Neolithic, Katelyn Dibenedetto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study presents the first of its kind in Cyprus that combines the use of ancient crop (two-grained einkorn wheat, hulled barley, and lentils) and animal (domestic sheep, goat, cattle, pig, and wild deer) stable isotopes (carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen) for reconstructing land use by the Kritou Marottou Ais Giorkis (Cypro-PPNB, 7956-7058 cal BC) inhabitants in western Cyprus. Current definitions of this time period employ the strict forager/farmer dichotomy, even though archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. In addition, it is still assumed that Cyprus was a barren landscape whose inhabitants were isolated from one another and the mainland. An integrated stable …

Utilizing Ground-Penetrating Radar In The Delineation And Cultural Resource Management Of Eroding Maine Coastal Shell Middens, Jacquelynn F. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shell middens along the Maine coast archive up to 5000 years of cultural and climatic change, but the record is continually and rapidly lost to the sea through climate-driven coastal erosion and sea-level rise. These sites were constructed by the ancestors of Maine Tribes, and are composed of centimeters to meters of clam (Mya arenaria) and/or oyster (Crassostrea virginica) shells, other faunal remains, and cultural materials. Shell middens record human interaction with the environment and early coastal occupation and adaptation. The faunal remains reflect paleoenvironmental conditions and the distribution of extinct and extant forage-species along the western Gulf of Maine. …

Climate Change And Threatened Heritage: Archaeology's Burden, Barry R. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change and archaeology are currently intertwined, as more and more archaeologists around the world must deal with the effects it causes on the sites they work on. Threatened cultural resource sites are being swept away at alarming rates, and excavation projects are becoming more and more like salvage digs.

An Archaeological Perspective On Architectural Evolution At Fort Harrison, Rachel Nicole Bergstresser

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Fort Harrison is a historic home located in Rockingham County, Virginia. Occupation of the site began in 1749, when Daniel Harrison constructed the original limestone dwelling, and today it is protected and interpreted by Fort Harrison, Inc. The Department of Anthropology at James Madison University has performed exploratory archaeological fieldwork to better document change in the way the site has been utilized.

This project has evaluated the hypothesis that the main (front) entrance to the house was relocated from the northerly-facing side to the southerly-facing side, in conjunction with the decision to enlarge the structure. Archaeological findings and architectural evidence …

Documentation Of Cultural Landscape Alteration At The Heritage Mounds Site, Georgia, Shannon Sullivan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project used geoarchaeological techniques to examine how humans impacted the landscape at the middle Mississippian archaeological site Heritage Mounds (9DU2), in Dougherty County, Georgia, specifically looking at a borrow pit and a plaza. The site was the civic and ceremonial capital of the Capachequi territory, occupied at two separate times between AD 1250 – 1700. At the site soil samples were collected from two excavation units and two wetland cores. The units were for analysis of the plaza, and the cores were for analysis of the Mound A borrow pit. The samples were used for particle size and chemical …

Explaining Anthropophagy And Social Violence In The Mesa Verde Region Of The American Southwest, Riley Smith

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This thesis is an examination of a controversial problem in anthropology and archaeology – the motives and cultural context of anthropophagy, or cannibalism. Views that the practice was a reflection of a primitive state of humanity have given way to a more ethnographically-informed appreciation of the practice as culturally situated with a diverse set of potential motives. Claims of anthropophagy in the ancient past influence perceptions of both prehistoric and modern groups. Because of the wealth of information gathered from recent excavations, it is now possible to explore the context of, motives for, and consequences of anthropophagy in the American …

Reconstructing Ancient Lives Using 3d Technology: A Case Study Of Pork And Doughboy Point, Belize, Jane Fiegel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation

3D technology can preserve cultural heritage resources and enhance museum collections and exhibits. Through 3D scanning, an exact digital replica of an artifact is created, which can be printed out or used to create a digital display. For this project, 3D scanning was used to reconstruct ancient Maya lives at Pork and Doughboy Point, Belize. By studying and classifying an inventory of selected artifacts, we were able to determine what activities occurred at the site. goal of this project was to showcase the growing importance of 3D technology in cultural preservation and the variety of ways in which it can …

Missing The Point: Identifying Perishable Projectiles In The Archaeological Record From Bone Damage, Sara R. Wingert

Honors Student Research

For decades, archaeologists have used replicative studies to develop a better understanding of prehistoric technology. Many replicative studies have focused on the manufacture and use of stone projectiles, resulting in a detailed understanding of the design of hunting weapons in relation to various features of the environment and, in turn, elegant explanations for technological change over time. Yet if ethnographic accounts are any indication, lithic technology was only one (perhaps minor) part of many prehistoric technological systems. It is likely, then, that the technological changes archaeologists commonly document through their morphometric analysis of stone projectile points occurred against a backdrop …

Population Change In Times Of War: Biodistance Analysis Of Medieval And Early Modern Skeletal Populations From Adriatic Croatia, Lindsey Jo Helms Thorson

Theses and Dissertations

Research by doctoral candidate Lindsey Jo Helms Thorson, under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Richards, investigated population during the Ottoman expansion into Croatian territories to determine whether migration contributed significantly to changes in the biological make-up of the population. The study focused on phenotypic trait variation, using cranial and dental metric and nonmetric data, in two skeletal samples from the Medieval (pre-Ottoman) period and two skeletal samples from the Early Modern (Ottoman) period in the central Dalmatian region of Croatia, curated at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Anthropology Center. Historical narratives suggest that as the Ottoman Empire …

Death In Anonymity: Population Dynamics And The Individual Within The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery, 1882–1925, Brooke L. Drew

Theses and Dissertations

Prior to hospital construction in late 1991 and early 1992, and again in 2013, archaeologists were called upon to excavate 1,649 and 831 burials, respectively, from the unmarked Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery. The individuals disinterred during these field seasons represent what remains of a much larger indigent population buried by Milwaukee County between 1882 and 1925 in what has been designated as Cemetery II. Long before the expanding facilities at Wauwatosa’s Milwaukee Regional Medical Center threatened these graves, however, the very nature of pauper burial grounds caused the identities of these disenfranchised individuals to be systematically obliterated.

The research …

Social Organization And Environmental Patterning At Tel Abu Shusha: An Integrated Spatial Approach To Survey Archaeology, Seth Price

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tel Abu Shusha, located in the Jezreel Valley of Palestine, is a large-scale archaeological site possibly identified as the cities of Biblical Gaba or Roman Gaba Hippaeon/Gaba Philippi. Surface archaeological survey of the surrounding area, conducted by the Jezreel Valley Regional Project during 2017, revealed extensive assemblages of visible settlement features dating primarily to middle and late Islamic periods. This research seeks to answer questions of settlement decision-making and societal organization, by integrating archaeological, textual, environmental, and geospatial data sources. In addition to visual interpretation, Kolmogorov-Smirnov nonparametric tests are used to gain insight on environmental settlement preferences; Ripley’s K analysis …

Decisions Set In Stone: Spatial Analyses Of Ozark Rock Art Sites, Elements, And Motifs With Gis, Jordan Lee Schaefer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to spatially analyze rock art distributions in the Salem Plateau section of the Arkansas Ozarks. Statistical tests, such as chi-square and t-testing, are applied to provide an objective view of rock art patterning in relation to the overall landscape. The data collected from these methods allow one to discern the locational preferences for rock art, which potentially reveal cultural details about the people involved with its creation. Multiple analytical perspectives are applied throughout, initially focusing on comparisons with expected values and random points. Later statistical tests use bluff shelter distributions as reference data …

A Macroscopic Examination Of Expedient Tools: Comparing Replicated Collections And Precontact Collections To Aid In Determining Site Type, Heather R. Adams

Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management

This thesis project was utilized to examine the use of expedient tools, or stone tools made with little to no production effort, through macroscopic means to determine if specific activities were being enacted on a site. CRDA8-Site5 (36GR0418) functioned as an Early, Middle, and Late Woodland lithic reduction and tool production locus, based on the recovery of 2,442 precontact artifacts, including lithic debitage, chipped stone tools, and polished, ground, and pecked stone tools (PGP). The lack of artifact rich features with datable charcoal and additional artifact types, such as faunal remains, left little to give insight into further site purpose. …

Fortifying Saint Cloud: Searching For Fort Holes, Charles Peliska

Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management

This thesis is about my efforts to locate Fort Holes – a civilian fortification built in September of 1862 in response to the nearby threats of Native American violence. A decade after the western parts of Minnesota were opened to Euro-American settlement, the actions of government agents, traders, and a small group of Native American actors led to violence on the frontier. The citizens of Saint Cloud constructed Fort Holes in a week and it only stood for a couple of years before they removed the lumber for the growing city. Throughout Minnesota, citizens constructed over 50 of these expedient …

Old Collections, New Insights: Technological Organization Of The Lungren Site (13ml224), A Middle Archaic Residential Camp, Warren Davis

Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management

The Lungren Site (13ML224) is a Middle Archaic campsite located in Mills County, Iowa. The site was excavated in the 1960s during the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys, and represents one of a relatively small number of well-preserved Archaic period sites known in western Iowa. Lithic artifacts from the Lungren assemblage were reanalyzed as part of this thesis in order to derive better understanding of technological strategy and land-use by the mid-Holocene bison hunters who left these tools behind. Analysis of lithic debitage and raw material illustrates heavy utilization of locally acquired raw material for tool making. This includes both expedient …

Transitions: The Study Of A Late Nineteenth Century Minnesota Farmstead During A Period Of Agricultural Transition, Theresa Gilbertson

Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management

The late 19^th century in Minnesota was largely shaped by immigration, and Benton County was no exception. The region was a prime location for families, providing land that was both fertile and abundant. It was common for a couple members of a family to head west first, the rest of the family joining at a later time. Families could find land near each other and stick together in a new country. Benton County boasts a number of farmstead sites from this period of time. In 1873, John Keefe homesteaded one of these farms.

Diversity in population was not the …