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Open Access
3D micro-CT imaging of human cortical bone porosity: a novel method for estimating age at death
(2005) Cooper, David M. L.; Katzenberg, M. Anne; Hallgrimsson, Benedikt
Embargo
A cognitive approach to lithic analysis
(1977) Reardon, Gerard V.; Kelley, N. Jane H.
Open Access
A Comparison of Plano complexes
(1985) Arnold, Thomas G.; Reeves, Brian O. K.
Open Access
A Comparison of two methods for estimating age at death from bone microstructure
(1991) Willows, Noreen D.; Katzenberg, M. Anne
This thesis was undertaken to assess the accuracy of two means of estimating age at death using microstructural quantification. The techniques that were chosen for comparison were the core method of Thompson and Kerley's method which requires a complete cross section of bone. It is important to assess if Thompson's method is as. accurate as Kerley's in estimating age at death because it requires the use of a much smaller piece of bone and is therefore less destructive. This has important archaeological implications because museum specimens or other rare skeletal materials can not be subjected to extensive damage. Prior to the undertaking of this thesis a comparative assessment of the two techniques had not been completed The accuracy of both methods was assessed on the femora from twenty four individuals of known age at death. These individuals were aged 21 to 90 years. Kerley's method was assessed using eighteen cross sections. Thompson's method was assessed using eighteen cross sections and six bone cores. The results of this research demonstrate that the two methods provide different age at death estimates. Kerley's method provides the best accuracy in estimating age at death both for the complete sample and for subsets of the sample. These subsets were males, females, individuals younger than 45 years of age and individuals older than 45 years of age. The accuracy of Kerley's method varies as a function of field size and the sex of the individual being examined. Certain combinations of these factors provide age estimates that are less accurate than provided by Thompson's method. Kerley's technique was assessed using field sizes similar to those suggested to have been used in his original research, in addition to a smaller field size. It became apparent that the application of a correction factor to compensate for differences in field size was not fully effective. For males, a disproportionately large number of osteons directly adjacent to the periosteal surface created corrected osteon counts in the small field size which exceeded those from the large field size. This created many errors in age estimation. The same phenomenon was not noted for females and age estimates from the smaller field size produced better age estimates for females. Different field sizes produced variation in the accuracy of estimating age at death in males and females suggesting that each sex remodels bone uniquely at the subperiosteal region. This conclusion needs to be assessed further in future studies. Both Kerley's and Thompson's methods are poor at assessing the age at death of the very old. Microstructural assessments of age at death might be limited by the nature of bone remodeling which varies extensively among the elderly. This large spread of values creates errors in age estimation when regression equations are derived from samples which include very old individuals. This error increases with higher order regression models and proved to be particularly problematic with Kerley's revised regression equation for fragments. The form of the regression equations for Kerley's and Thompson's methods are not consistent with the theoretical changes expected between bone parameters and age. This also leads to error in age estimation.
Open Access
A Faunal analysis of the Point Grey (DhRt5) site, Vancouver, B.C.
(1989) Unfreed, Wendy J.; Helmer, James W.
Open Access
A faunal approach to foodways at the Mint House-National Museum of Cultures, Mexico City, Mexico
(2012) Lopez-Forment, Angelica; McCafferty, Geoffrey G.
This thesis approaches colonial foodways in Mexico City using archaeological fauna! remains from the Mint House-National Museum of Cultures. The merging of ideologies and ingredients between Europeans and Mesoamericans resulted in the creation of a unique cuisine that reflected a diverse society in colonial Mexico. It was during the course of 484 years that these groups formed a rich and complex society. Each group contributed specific ingredients, inclinations, and experiences, creating new foodways that incorporated both inter-generational habitus and cultural capitals. Fauna! research at the Mint House was guided by three questions: were there food inclinations and economic distinctions among the inhabitants of the Mint House? Is there a species inclination among the inhabitants of the Mint House? If so, why? Aided with theories of practice, habitus, distinction, and cultural capital as well as zooarchaeological methods these questions are evaluated. Several intangible aspects of societies develop from social processes, including foodways, and they become visible through archaeological materials. By analyzing and describing excavated occupation layers and provenience of fauna! assemblage, as well as species identification, anatomical part identification, NISP, and MNI, I emphasize potentially quantifiable differences in the presence of mammal species in the Mint House's archaeological context. Over 11,000 bones were recovered from 32 pits from the "Project at the National Museum of Cultures -National Coordination of Historical Monuments (MNC-CNMH)". From these, 5473 diagnostic bones belonged to sheep (Ovis aries). The abundance of sheep remains, contrast with the notion that pig was the meat staple of colonial Mexico. This species inclinations indicates that social groups like Conversos, descendants of Jewish converted people who escaped the Spanish regime, were present in New Spain and that they also influenced Mexican foodways. Future analysis regarding the role of Conversos in colonial society, use of space as well as the importance of meat cuts needs to be done in order to comprehend the economic and social distinctions in colonial Mexico City.
Open Access
A geoarchaeological investigation of Simkin's Flat, Upper Basin, Northern Arizona
(2003) McNamee, Calla; Freeman, Andrea K. L.
Embargo
A model for resource utilization in an ecotone: southwestern Ontario (3000 B.C. to historic)
(1978) Stahl, Peter William; Kelley, N. Jane H.
Open Access
A multivariate spatial analysis of a Thule dwelling from Assuukaaq Island, northern Quebec
(1999) Farid, Emma Louise; Raymond, J. Scott
Embargo
A Paleoecological model for northwest coast prehistory
(1974) Fladmark, Knut R.; Forbis, Richard G.
The evolution of the Northwest Coast cultural pattern is discussed in terms of changing energy availability through periods of environmental instability and quasi-stability. Evidence is presented for the simultaneous occurrenc e of two different archaeolo gica l traditions along the Northwest Coast between about 10,000 and 5,000 B.P. The first is characterized by a blade-andcore technology and de-emphasis of bifacial flaking. Site areas are associated with raised beaches and distributed along the whole coast north of central Queen Charlotte Sound . To the south, particularly on the lower Fraser and Columbia Rivers there occurs contemporaneously an entirely different tradition characterized by large leaf-shaped bifaces and a lack of a true blade-and-core technology. The distributional break between the two traditions corresponds precisely with the zero-isobar separating sea-level s significantly higher than present north of central Queen Charlotte Sound, and sea-levels significantly lower to the south. It is suggested that this correlation reflects the divergent effects of higher and lower sea-levels on the coastal environment and corresponding divergence of cultural adaptive strategies. The blade-and-core tradition probably represents a long-standing cultural adaptation to the inter-tidal and general marine resources of the sub-arctic Pacific region, with the southern tradition more heavily based on riverine and terrestrial resources. The rapid efflorescence of large semi-permanent settlements, art and wealth objects, and other features typical of ethnographic coastal cultures, 5,000 B.P. correlates with the stabilization of sea-level at about the present position along most of the coast at this time. It is suggested that gradient maturation of the river systems following coastline stabilization allowed the establishment of the massive and dependable salmon runs on which the dense and semi-sedentary populations of the ethnographic Northwest Coast were based.
Open Access
A prehistoric soapstone quarry in Fleur de Lys, Newfoundland
(2001) Erwin, John Christopher; Raymond, J. Scott
Embargo
A re-assessment of the Neolithic period in the Sudan
(1973) Mohammed, Al-Abbas Siedahmed; Shinnie, Peter L.
Open Access
A Study of aspect marking in the copan inscriptions: a morphosyntactical approach
(1988) Williamson, Jacqueline; Kelley, David H.
Maya language grammars define the representation of time by the verb as a tense system. Script grammars, on the other hand, present the system as aspectual. This study analyzes the function of aspectual glyphs using a 'Morphosyntactical' procedure which looks at the syntax of the clause and of the verbal morphology. The glyphs examined were T.115, T.125, T.126, T.130, T.142, T.246, T.255, T.340, T.679, and T.683. The inscriptions used, come from the Classic Maya site of Copan, Honduras. This study used the split-ergative model (Schele 1982, Bricker 1986) to analyze clause syntax, and the model given by Kaufman and Norman (1984) to analyze the verbal morphology. This thesis concludes that the split-ergative model represents a more complex phenomenan than has been presented to date in the epigraphic literature. This study also suggests that the morphemes for completive aspect alternate with those for perfective aspect to communicate the transitivity status of the hieroglyphic verbal unit.
Open Access
A study of classic Maya priesthood
(2004) Zender, Marc Uwe; Mathews, Peter; Raymond, J. Scott
This study employs a conjunctive, interdisciplinary approach to contemporary iconographic, epigraphic and archaeological evidence to shed light on the role of religious specialists and religious practice in Maya society of the Classic Period (A.D. 250 - 900). Its central contribution is a thematic model of Classic Maya priesthood. While the existence of priests in Classic society has been questioned - and while some have seen the religious specialists and political leaders of the period as shamans - this study finds evidence for an elect group of professional worshippers who constituted a 'class apart', wearing distinctive vestments, propitiating deities in temples, producing liturgical documents (codices), and performing community-wide services on a regular, calendrical basis. Such traits are all characteristic of priests in universal comparison. Priests occupied various ranked offices since at least the outset of the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600), including: (1) ajk'uhuun or "worshipper", a propitiator of deities and keeper of codices, but also a court chaplain (parallel to the Colonial Yucatec ajk 'iin ); (2) yajawk'ahk' or "fire's vassal", primarily a warrior priest, but also responsible for incense ceremonies (parallel to the Aztec tlenamacac "fire priest"); and; (3) ti 'sakhuun "speaker of/for the white headband", a prophet and oracular priest ( cognate with the Colonial Yucatec chi'laan), intermediary betweens humans and gods, and also a spokesman for the king. Importantly, a number of prominent ixajk 'uhuun or "priestesses" are also known from the second half of the Late Classic Period (A.D. 700 - 800). The existence of a Classic Maya priesthood reveals hitherto unsuspected dimensions of the social, political and economic organization of Maya society. Like their Postclassic and Modem descendants, Classic priests were more than esteemed religious specialists, scribes and teachers; they also wielded considerable political and economic power. They commissioned their own monuments and temples, governed their own segmentary lineage compounds, and even acted as regents or stewards for young rulers. While most priests acknowledged subordination to their k 'uhulajaw or "holy lord" - himself the divine king and ex officio high priest - this information could be suppressed in private documents, and some priests served multiple rulers in tum. As such, the monumental commissions of priests and other non-royal nobles comprise a crucial, nominally independent register of historical information which reveal emic dimensions of resistance to royal ideology, and which can be profitably compared and contrasted with "official" royal history.
Open Access
A Study of Dress and Identity in the Late Classic Maya Court
(2017) Tremain, Cara Grace; McCafferty, Geoffrey; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn; Lyons, Diane; Hardy, Michele; Halperin, Christina
This dissertation seeks to understand the relationship between ancient Maya identities and dress during the Late Classic period (A.D. 600-900), through an analysis of sartorial representations of members within the royal court. The specific research question that frames this dissertation is whether roles or offices within the ancient Maya royal court were made salient through dress. Rather than focus on one particular type of identity or office role, this dissertation takes a more holistic approach by considering all royal court members represented on painted ceramic vessels. In carefully examining painted imagery and providing a means of identifying inauthentic representations of dress, this research also helps to uncover the life histories of Maya ceramics. Using organizational dress theory, the study contributes a novel insight into the nature of Maya royal courts. It demonstrates that dress is a useful means of examining the political makeup and behaviour of courts, though at present it cannot alone speak to all the identities of those within the court. The study also reveals the difficulty of understanding active individuals from static representations, reflecting the fluidity with which courtiers were able to change dress and shift their identities. Overall, there is a lack of evidence that dress made specific courtly roles salient. Maya courtiers seem to have chosen dress elements that align with their gender identity and elite positioning—choices that were regulated by informal rules (or norms) in society.
Embargo
A study of traditional iron metallurgy in Africa
(1977) Kense, Francois Jannis; Shinnie, Peter L.
Open Access
A tale of chert with a side of shell: the preceramic occupation of Antigua, West Indies
(2005) de Mille, Christy Nicole; Kooyman, Brian P.
Alone of the Lesser Antillean islands, Antigua has a rich Preceramic archaeological record. The goal of this dissertation has been to develop our understanding of the Antiguan Preceramic through the synthesis and interpretation of available data. The data for this dissertation came from two main sources. The first is from excavations undertaken at the site of North Crabb's Bay. The second is a dataset collected by researcher Bruce Nodine. Site location on the island is heavily biased toward the northeastern coastline that offers the best marine resources and the closest access to the main chert source. Investigation of the Preceramic subsistence remains from Antigua reveals a pattern reproduced in many of the other Preceramic sites in the Lesser Antilles. Data from Antigua confirm previous models of a marine oriented subsistence strategy focussed on shellfish. A consistently observed pattern is a high degree of species selectivity displayed in the assemblages. It is suggested that little resource stress allowed these people to be highly selective. There is a long-term pattern of living well on the island and on other neighbouring islands as well. Antigua has abundant evidence of large blade production, rare outside of the Greater Antilles. Technological analysis undertaken here indicated a regularised and consistently patterned method of producing large percussion blades. A distinctive core maintenance flake appears characteristic of Preceramic blade production. The structured lithic production is not found in the tool assemblage. Generally, the expedient nature of the identified tools indicates a strategy of tool selection/use based on usable edges, as opposed to retouch toward a specific form. The correlation of the presence of blade production in areas like Antigua and the Greater Antilles that have the raw material to support such an industry is too perfect to be coincidental. It is possible that blade technology was part of the overall Preceramic cultural repertoire and was practiced in regions that had the raw material to support blade production. The lithic technological analysis presented here forms the basis upon which future work, as well as comparisons with other islands, can be attempted.
Open Access
A Whiskey trade frontier on the Northwestern plains
(1991) Kennedy, Margaret Anne; Reeves, Brian O. K.
Embargo
Aboriginal settlement patterns in the upper Stikine River drainage, northwestern British Columbia
(1985) Friesen, David E.; Forbis, Richard G.
This thesis focusses on aboriginal settlement patterns in the Upper Stikine River drainage, northwestern British Columbia. Utilizing an ecological approach to investigate this problem, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological field work were conducted on the Spatsizi and Klastline Plateaux. The objective was to evaluate a series of hypotheses concerning the interrelationship between culture and environment over the last 3,000 years. These test hypotheses were formulated from information supplied by an ethnographic model of subsistence (Albright 1982) and, environmental and archaeological studies conducted in the region. Palynological evidence suggests that the research area is characterized by environmental stability during this time period. Therefore, it was assumed that the effective resource base has not changed. Archaeological investigations resulted in discovery of 67 prehistoric sites. The locations of these sites are influenced by local, regional and seasonal variations in the resource base. Settlement locations are oriented to forest/aquatic ecotonal communities where human accessibility to a range of important fixed (ie., landform, water source etc.) and mobile (ie., ungulate populations} resources is maximized. Site density in the study area is low (0.15 - 1. 1 km^2) as local aboriginal populations tended to exploit dispersed and mobile resources such as caribou. Sites recorded are generally small and transitory, representative of short-term occupations by small hunting parties. Seasonal changes in resource abundance and availability forced frequent camp relocation, as well as changes in group size. Therefore, settlement mobility and flexibility of social organization were strategies employed to cope with resource variability and unpredictability. Techniques employed to exploit resources were simple, characterized by relatively homogeneous tool assemblages dominated by obsidian flakes. Palaeoenvironmental, archaeological and historic evidence suggest that fire was an important exploitative tool. Conclusions indicate that the ethnographic tradition of dispersed fall/winter hunting and camping in the study area is supported archaeologically. The historic Hyland Post Trail closely follows an ancient aboriginal route 1inking fall/winter hunting areas on the Spatsizi and Klastline Plateaux with obsidian quarries on Mount Edziza and summer fishing villages situated in the Telegraph Creek area.
Embargo
African agriculture origins: a perspective
(1978) Brower, Ann Merrill; Shinnie, Peter L.