PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Oetelaar, Gerald A."

Browsing by Author "Oetelaar, Gerald A."

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Open Access
An Archaeology of Resilience in Rural Landscapes of Southern Italy, c. 300-1000
(2024-01) Munro, Matthew J.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Vanderspoel, John; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Cassis, Marica; Christie, Neil
Developing an archaeology of resilience is crucial for understanding the dynamics of past social systems and the paradox that arises between societal collapse and regeneration and the apparent longevity of rural lifeways. The landscape of Southern Italy provides a robust historical case study in which to understand the role that resilience plays in human decision-making in the rural world during the collapse of the western Roman Empire. The panarchy metamodel provides a robust suite of analyses in which to investigate this region focusing on the adaptive cycle heuristic to visualize social change and estimate relative capacities for resilience in human-environmental systems. These systems are further understood through the concepts of complexity science. When more explicit concepts of social change are brought into panarchy through social resilience and ecohistorical co-evolutionary perspectives, the adaptive cycle becomes a robust tool through which to explain social collapse and regeneration. Developing a panarchy requires an investigation of landscape on different spatial and temporal scales through the history and archaeology of Southern Italy over Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. To build the model, adaptive cycles of the political, economic, and urban systems are designed and considered to influence the development of the landscape. Additionally, a robust series of shocks and stressors to these systems must be made explicit. Environmental, climatological, military, and biological impacts are outlined in detail. Once this evidence is compiled and the panarchy is designed, it becomes a tool to aid in landscape analysis. Rather than apply this model to the southern landscape generally, the Basentello Valley provides a case study on which to test the heuristic capability of panarchy. The historical and archaeological evidence for this landscape is well developed for Late Antiquity and more meagre for the early Middle Ages, leaving interpretive potential for panarchy and its complexity perspective to help explain the development of this rural landscape. Panarchic analysis reveals that rural capacities for resilience are tied closely to the capacity for self-organization. Despite this, the collapse of the western Roman Empire deeply affected Southern Italy and collapsing political, economic, and urban systems made rural social change inevitable. A resilience perspective teaches us that trajectories of complex adaptive systems are impossible to predict and we can only understand them in retrospect. If the goal is to lessen the impacts of social collapse, a capacity for resilience through self-organization on local scales provides the best chance for regeneration to result in a sustainable present that learns from the past and prepares better for the future.
Open Access
Archaeological and geological evidence for the first peopling of Alberta
(2002) Gillespie, Jason David; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
Open Access
Archaeology of the Invisible: Phytolith Analysis at the Cluny Fortified Village (EePf-1)
(2018-09-19) Dowkes, Shalcey; Walde, Dale; Kooyman, Brian P.; Gerlach, S. Craig; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Chee-Tak Yeung, Edward
The Cluny Fortified Village site (EePf-1) is the only known fortified village on the Canadian Plains. Archaeologically, the main cultural layer indicates patterns that are not commonly seen elsewhere on the Plains. Many of the larger questions about the people of this site are largely left unanswered, and the experimentation of different methods can offer new perspectives to complement the ongoing excavations at the site. Phytolith analysis has not been extensively explored at the site and can offer perspectives about the presence of natural and cultural signatures. Phytolith analysis has been combined with charcoal analysis and used to explore queries regarding cultural signatures as well as the present and past environment. Three preliminary projects provided opportunities to refine the appropriate laboratory methods for this project which ultimately improved the overall phytolith counts. Over the course of the 2015 and 2016 field seasons at the Cluny Fortified Village matrix samples from both occupational layers were sampled as well as several hearth and non-hearth features. In 2016, a larger scaled survey was conducted to collect samples from the area surrounding the site. These samples form the natural control that will be compared against cultural samples. The Old Women’s Phase site of DkPi-2 (Junction Site) was used as a contemporary cultural comparative. Both phytolith and charcoal sample analyzed were provided by Lifeways of Canada Ltd. A total of 71 phytolith samples and 70 charcoal samples were analyzed. Results are indicative of a stable grassland that has seen little change over the past 300 years. Poaceae grasses are dominant amongst the datasets, with other families contributing less. Through examining phytoliths of productive plants in an archaeological context, a possible cultural signature may be presence.
Open Access
Bioavailable Strontium from Plants and Diagenesis of Dental Tissues at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
(2018-07-11) Tucker, Laura Lillian; Mercader, Julio; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Wieser, Michael E.
Stable strontium isotope analysis is used to assess the migration and mobility of past populations of people and animals. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of conducting future studies using this method at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania by determining the variability in biologically-available strontium (87Sr/86Sr) throughout the region from areas with metamorphic and volcanic bedrock, as well as recent unconsolidated lacustrine sediments. This was done by analysing modern plants collected from 33 different localities. As well, the degree to which archaeological animal teeth from Juma’s Korongo, a ~1-million-year-old site at Olduvai Gorge, have been affected by diagenetic alteration was assessed. To do this, the dentine and enamel of the teeth were analysed with and without pre-treatment with weak acetic acid: a protocol used for removing diagenetic strontium from dental specimens. There was no difference in 87Sr/86Sr values of volcanic (n=19) and metamorphic (n=9) sampling localities, but the lacustrine localities (n=5) had significantly higher values. 87Sr/86Sr values tended to decrease moving northeast towards the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, a major source of soil constituents for the area. Also, localities where trees were sampled had significantly higher 87Sr/86Sr values than those without them. Despite the homogeneous 87Sr/86Sr values described between metamorphic and volcanic localities, much higher values have been found in the northern extent of Serengeti National Park (Copeland et al., 2012), suggesting that animals who have immigrated into the area from long distances away can be identified as non-local. The animal teeth (n=7), which include zebras, crocodiles, and a hippopotamus, were all from local animals. There was a significant difference between enamel and dentine values after acid washing, suggesting that biogenic 87Sr/86Sr values are preserved in the enamel. These values were consistently higher than the modern bioavailable strontium values, possibly due to environmental differences between the past and present. The results of this study suggest that Olduvai Gorge is a suitable area for future studies using stable strontium isotope analysis, though more work is required to fully understand the inconsistencies between ancient and modern bioavailable strontium.
Open Access
Computer simulations facilitating archaeological interpretations of ground-penetrating radar field data
(2009) Lacroix, Dominic; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
Open Access
Detecting and Monitoring Change to an Arctic Heritage Site Using UAV Photogrammetry: A Case Study From Qikiqtaruk / Herschel Island, YT
(2022-04) O'Keefe, Katelyn; Dawson, Peter C.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Lichti, Derek
Arctic heritage sites are increasingly at risk due to modern climate change. Traditional documentation and monitoring of valuable heritage resources are time-consuming. In recent years, UAV (drone) photogrammetry has become a powerful tool for visualizing heritage sites. This research goes beyond visualization by evaluating the suitability of UAV data, acquired for documenting heritage resources, and for other reasons, to perform change detection analysis on Arctic cultural landscapes. The procedures developed throughout this research can also be used to create a heritage monitoring strategy. The case study used in this research is Simpson Point on Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island), the most western Canadian Arctic island and the only island on the Yukon coast. Within Herschel Island – Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, the heritage resources represent 800 years of continuous occupation by Inuvialuit, their ancestors, the Thule, and Euro-North Americans. UAV imagery of Simpson Point from July 2017 and 2019 was processed using photogrammetric software. The outputs (orthomosaics and point clouds) were prepared prior to employing two highly compatible change detection methods. The results of the change detection analysis were used to explore short-term change to the heritage features and the landscape, some of which are the result of climate change-induced overland flooding and coastal erosion. Other changes required confirmation from heritage restoration personnel. The framework of a heritage monitoring strategy for the territorial park, improvements to the future UAV data collection strategy, and the advantages and disadvantages of the change detection methods used are discussed. In addition, an emphasis is placed on the importance of data sharing, the reuse of found data, and the long-term curation of digital data.
Open Access
Digging Droughts: Maasai and Palaeoanthropological Knowledge, Subsistence, and Collaboration in Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania
(2018-04-16) Lee, Patrick; Mather, Charles; Mercader, Julio; Hayashi, Naotaka; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Thomas, Melanee Lynn
Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge is a flagship human origins research destination, yet less recognised is that the Maasai inhabit the region. This thesis uses actor-network-theory to ethnographically compare palaeoanthropological and Maasai epistemology and ontology in Oldupai, and to understand why collaboration between the groups has been sporadic. Researchers and locals constructed knowledge in equally logical forms, combining established facts and artefacts with novel data to produce new facts and artefacts. Instead of fundamental epistemic disparities, the content of each group’s knowledge differed, and this content was tied to subsistence strategies and culture. Scientists and the Maasai acquired resources in non-scientific and non-pastoral worlds to support their respective livelihoods, and multiplied ontologies by enacting composite – yet conflicting – versions of hybrid drought. Even though both groups dug in Oldupai, palaeoanthropological and Maasai subsistence exigencies have precluded meaningful collaboration. However, mutually beneficial partnerships are emerging in the birthplace of humanity.
Open Access
Ethnobotany of the Northern Cree of Wabasca/Desmarais
(1994) Siegfried, Evelyn Vicky; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
During the summers of 1992/93 field research was conducted on the ethnobotany of Cree people from the community of Wabasca/Desmarais. Though this community was missionized at the tum of the century many of the people continued to live in the surrounding regions practicing more traditional lifestyles. The community has become less isolated since the 1960s when an all-weather road was constructed. Much of the traditional knowledge is no longer used because of access to modern amenities. One of the goals of this ethnobotanical study was to collect traditional knowledge specific to the community from some of the remaining Elders. Though much has been lost already, information recorded provides an interesting perspective on a lifestyle in which many local resources from the boreal forest were relied upon. Far from being a generic, vegetational realm, the boreal forest in northern Alberta is a dynamic, ever-changing environment, requiring extensive knowledge of the landscape as well as the plant and animal species. The entire region of northeastern Alberta has been neglected for environmental research of any kind. This represents an initial study of one community, hopefully others will follow. Information gathered included specific knowledge of plant use both in the present and past. Elders were consulted in informal interviews which were tape-recorded but notes were made as well. None of the Consultants will be identified for the study. Information on 61 plants identified many different uses. Many plants had multiple uses such as white spruce (Picea glauca) and paper birch (Betula papyrifera). Names of plants were recorded in Cree and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) which provides interesting data for comparative work with other Cree ethnobotanical research.
Open Access
Geophysical Surveys and Spatial Analysis: Late Prehistoric Period Site Patterning at the Junction Site (DkPi-2)
(2020-06-18) Patton, Margaret Maurine; Freeman, Andrea K. L.; Kooyman, Brian P.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Moorman, Brian J.; Dalan, Rinita A.
To understand the bigger picture of how people organized their space in Late Prehistoric Period camps, we need to look at large areas and examine the feature placement as people define the space around them. While excavations are often limited to small areas due to time and cost, geophysical surveys provide a method of examining large areas of a site relatively quickly and at relatively low cost. Extensive geophysical surveys at the Junction Site (DkPi-2) examined 7.9 hectares with magnetometry and 1 hectare with ground penetrating radar, revealing several types of anomalies in various configurations extending across large portions of the site. Within the magnetic data, anomaly groups form clusters, lines, and other arrangements that hint at the underlying spatial organization of activities at Junction. Excavation by Lifeways of Canada, Ltd. in 2017 and 2018 confirmed several anomalies as archaeological, revealing hearths, roasting pits, piles of fire broken rock, and other features. Anomalies are assessed using spatial analysis methods to identify patterns and clustering, connecting anomaly groups to potential archaeological feature arrangements. In addition, matrix samples from archaeological features and exposed profiles provide a geoarchaeological background to the site, improving the interpretation of the magnetic surveys by characterizing feature types in terms of magnetic susceptibility, particle size, loss on ignition, conductivity, and pH. Archaeological feature patterning at Junction varies depending on the area of the site and its underlying use: processing camp areas have a denser concentration of magnetic anomalies, linear patterns, and anomaly pairs, while winter domestic camp areas have fewer anomalies, but regularly spaced linear alignments. The linear alignments in the winter camp areas most likely represent internal lodge hearths with the lodges aligned parallel to topographic features. This project demonstrates the applicability of magnetometry on Northwestern Plains sites as well as the presence of patterning at Junction (DkPi-2) during the Late Prehistoric Period. Combined with the excavation data, the patterns hint at the spatial organization of the site and provide clues to the use of space by Old Women’s phase people in winter campsites and processing camps.
Open Access
Hydrological Landscape Analysis of a Sinuous Depression, Yaxnohcah, Mexico
(2020-01-30) Milley, David Steven; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; McDermid, Gregory J.
Yaxnohcah is a large site in Campeche, Mexico with evidence of continual occupation from the early Middle Preclassic into the Postclassic. In 2014, the Yaxnohcah Archaeological Project commissioned a high resolution LiDAR scan of the region, which has allowed for accurate modeling of surface hydrology and significantly contributed to our understanding of hydrological landscape modification at the site. One feature of particular interest was an irregularly shaped, deeply etched sinuous depression located in the Bajo Tomatal, just south of the narrow drainage that connects it with the Bajo Laberinto. The aim of this research was to ascertain whether this sinuous depression is a cultural or natural feature, and if cultural, what it can tell us about how the ancient lowland Maya at Yaxnohcah modified the hydrology of their natural landscape to sustain urban settlements in the dense and inhospitable rainforests of the Yucatan. In 2017 and 2018, I modeled and analysed the hydrology of the sinuous depression, and in the 2018 field season performed excavations of the feature. The excavations showed that, while the sinuous depression may originally have been a natural feature, it was extensively modified, with clear evidence for considerable refurbishment during the Postclassic and data suggesting an earlier date for initial construction. Furthermore, the modelling indicates that the sinuous depression formed part of system of hydrological features that was accretional developed throughout the Preclassic into the Early Classic as control mechanisms for redirecting, buffering, and capturing water around the Brisa complex. This system underwent considerable refurbishment during the Postclassic.
Open Access
In the shadow of Chief Mountain and the Porcupine Hills: an analysis of prehistoric land use on the Piikani reserve #147, Alberta
(2009) Lobb, Wayne Murray; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
An analysis of prehistoric land use was conducted using archaeological data from the Piikani Reserve# 147 in Southern Alberta using Geographic Information Systems (ArcGIS 9.1) and statistical software (SPSS 15). Previous models of land use based on the archaeology of the Northern Plains and Landscape Archaeology were examined to identify criteria for use within this analysis. The criteria were transformed into quantifiable variables for use in a Discriminant Analysis. In addition, a pattern analysis was conducted to investigate the observed clustering of the archaeological data from the study area. Together, these two processes of investigation were used to qualify which land use criteria were significant and therefore important to prehistoric site selection. The goal of this thesis is not merely to examine and define appropriate land use criteria, but to explain the observed prehistoric land use found within the study area.
Embargo
Indigenous People & Archaeology
(The University of Calgary, 2003) Peck, Trevor; Siegfried, Evelyn; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
Open Access
Indigenous stewardship: lessons from yesterday for the parks of tomorrow
(2008) Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Oetelaar, D. Joy
Open Access
Late quaternary landform development, paleoenvironmental reconstruction and archaeological site formation in the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta
(2006) Robertson, Elizabeth Cornelia; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
Open Access
Modelling Archaeological potential with GIS in Northern British Columbia
(2009) Harris, C. Jason; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
The use of site location models, whether internal intuitive or external formalized, is inherent in archaeological site prospection, discovery and management. The widespread use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for building archaeological site location models in the context of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) has reignited criticism and debate regarding their appropriate construction and use. This thesis demonstrates a correlative approach to modelling archaeological site location that is clear to follow, based on robust spatial statistics (Weights of Evidence) and is independently tested for performance. This thesis is important to the modelling endeavour in the Canadian boreal forest in that it can legitimately make these three claims. Additionally, the recognized importance of trails to archaeological site location is examined through an example of how least-cost paths may be used to fill-in for missing traditional trails data in the modelling endeavour. The model created in this thesis was successful with an overall performance of 90% of known sites in 41 % of the study area, modelled as moderate and high potential. The high potential areas scored a very high Kvamme Gain Statistic of 0.85. Also, the leastcost paths demonstration led to the consideration of an evidence category not previously entertained in Canadian boreal forest modelling programs; that of lakes containing aquatic resources.
Open Access
Place on the Plains: Modelling Past Movement Along the Red Deer River
(2018-08-31) Beaulieu, Terry; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Walde, Dale; Dawson, Peter Colin; Jacobson, Dan; Kennedy, Margaret
This study explores the results of acknowledging philosophical and theoretical biases when undertaking a landscape archaeological investigation of movement by past people through one of the warmest and driest regions in the province of Alberta - the edges of the Red Deer River valley and adjoining coulees. Models of movement through the environment that reflect actual avenues of travel rather than just gross movement patterns of people are constructed employing Geographic Information Systems techniques. Prior to addressing the specifics of that movement, however, the current study explores the nature of reality, placing the research within a realist philosophical perspective, and examines the implications of acknowledging that objectivity in archaeology is but a myth. It also details some key concepts critical to understanding a landscape archaeological approach: space, place, and environment. By employing a Newtonian conception of space it draws from objectivist landscape archaeological techniques while, by defining place as wholly dependent upon human perception, simultaneously embraces subjectivist landscape archaeological views. The study thus attempts to bridge some of the divisions separating objectivist and subjectivist landscape archaeological approaches. Two seasons of field work led to the discovery and recording of close to 1,000 cobble features, comprised of rings, cairns, medicine wheels, and numerous other feature types. Recognizing the relational affordances active between past people and the environment enabled the identification of past significant places, revealed by the lasting imprints left by past place making activities, and the GIS modelling of probable past pedestrian routes through the study area. Such modeling uncovered past travel patterns that led to the locating of a previously unrecognized river crossing and illustrated the critical role place occupies in archaeological investigations. Additionally, the acknowledged importance of visibility was employed to identify possible physical locations of an as yet unknown medicine wheel. This study revealed that, while we exist within a world limited to biased perceptions of reality, when archaeologists acknowledge the existence of such perceptive biases they can subvert much of the negative effect caused by the inability to achieve true objectivity and uncover richer, more satisfying, pictures of the past.
Open Access
The Ceramic Economy of Pre-Columbian Pacific Nicaragua (AD 1–1250)
(2016) Dennett, Carrie Lynd; McCafferty, Geoffrey G.; Joyce, Rosemary A.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Kooyman, Brian P.; Cuthbertson, Jennifer
Recent ceramic compositional analyses based on a combination of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrography demonstrate that our historic understanding of pre-Columbian ceramic production and distribution in Pacific Nicaragua—the northern sector of the Greater Nicoya archaeological region—has been somewhat less than accurate. Importantly, it also challenges ethnohistoric accounts, which have traditionally served as our basic framework of inquiry, and which suggest that changes in the social fabric and material culture across time are the result of in-migration and colonization by groups from Mesoamerica. The results of the current compositional analyses instead indicate continuity and internal change among local potting groups for more than 1,000 years, and coloured by longstanding social and economic connections with non-Mesoamerican groups in west-central Honduras, particularly the Comayagua Valley and Lake Yojoa regions. Importantly, this research also represents the first archaeological attempt to reconstruct the local volcanic environment and then articulate that with the compositional results. A total of 14 petrofabric groupings are proposed herein, with a particular focus on identification of pottery-producing centres in the Granada-Mombacho and Rivas-Ometepe areas of Pacific Nicaragua. Drawing on ceramic economy theory to structure and interpret the compositional results, this dissertation reconstructs the pre-Columbian ceramic economy in its ecological context (ca. AD 1–1250), highlighting patterns of ceramic production, consumption, and distribution at multiple scales of analysis. This framework is then further contextualized socially and interpreted utilizing a revised version of communities of practice theory designed to address the multiple scales inherent in the proposed reconstruction, including communities, constellations, and networks of practices. Based on the information presented in the results and interpretations, I address several key challenges that archaeologists working the region currently face. In final discussion I propose (1) a reconfiguration of the Greater Nicoya archaeological region, (2) an alternative explanation for difficulty in ‘seeing’ the local Ometepe period (AD 1250–1522) in the archaeological record, and (3) propose an alternative model to explain the presence of Oto-Manguean-speaking Chorotega groups in the region prior to European contact.
Open Access
Tipi rings, ceremonial sites and the Siksikaitsitapi in souther Alberta
(2007) Moors, Matthew; Oetelaar, Gerald A.
Open Access
The Use of Reality Capture Technologies to Mediate Relocation Impacts: A Case Study at the Perrenoud Homestead Provincial Historic Resource, Alberta
(2020-05-11) Hvidberg, Madisen; Dawson, Peter C.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Lichti, Derek D.
Relocation of buildings has been a common practice for centuries and is now frequently used as a means to preserve heritage structures in the face of various economic, social, and environmental risks. In relocating a heritage structure, documentation is of the utmost importance because of the adverse effects that relocation can have. Reality capture technologies provide a powerful tool for rapidly recording real-world phenomena in three-dimensions but have yet to be utilized for the documentation needs of relocation projects. This thesis provides a novel example of these technologies used for not only documentation of, but in an assessment of the impacts of relocation at the Perrenoud Homestead Provincial Historic Resource (PHR). During its disassembly, the Perrenoud Homestead was digitally documented using terrestrial LiDAR (laser scanning) and drone-based photogrammetry. The resulting datasets were then used to explore the impacts of relocation to the structural integrity of the site, through a three-part analysis of visual inspection, angular measurements, and change detection. A discussion was then posed about the consequences of the project on the commemorative integrity of the site, looking at dynamics of reality capture and the physical components of the PHR, as well as changes to the visitor experience and accessibility of this site. Overall, this thesis presents an example of the benefits of reality capture technologies to heritage relocation projects, and advocates for more incorporation of these methods for similar initiatives in the future.
Open Access
When humans entered the northern forests: an archaeological and palaeoenvironmental perspective
(2002) Bouchet-Bert, Luc; Oetelaar, Gerald A.