Matching Items (24)
Description
The ability of Neandertals to cope with the oscillating climate of the late Pleistocene and the extent to which these climate changes affected local Neandertal habitats remain unanswered anthropological topics of considerable scientific interest. Understanding the impact of climatic instability on Neandertals is critical for reconstructing the behaviors of our closest fossil relatives and possibly identifying factors that contributed to their extinction. My work aimed to test the hypotheses that 1) cold climates stressed Neandertal populations, and 2) that global climate changes affected local Neandertal habitats. An analysis of Neandertal butchering on Cervus elaphus, Rangifer tarandus, and Capreolus capreolus skeletal material deposited during global warm and cold phases from two French sites - Pech de l'Azé IV and Roc de Marsal - was conducted to assess the impact of climate change on butchering strategies and resource extraction. Results from a statistical analysis of surface modification on all marrow yielding long bones, including the 1st phalanx, demonstrated that specimens excavated from the cold levels at each cave have more cut marks (Wald χ2= 51.33, p= <0.001) and percussion marks (Wald χ2= 4.92, p= 0.02) than specimens from the warm levels after controlling for fragment size. These results support the hypothesis that Neandertals were nutritionally stressed during glacial cycles. The hypothesis that global climates affected local habitats was tested through radiogenic strontium isotopic reconstruction of large herbivore mobility patterns (e.g., Bison, Equus, Cervus and Rangifer), because it is known that in the northern hemisphere, mammals migrate less in warm, well-vegetated environments, but more in cold, open environments. Identifying isotopic variation in mammalian fossils enables mobility patterns to be inferred, providing an indication of whether environments at Pech de l'Azé IV and Roc de Marsal tracked global climates. Results from this study indicate that Neandertal prey species within the Dordogne Valley of France did not undertake long distance round-trip migrations in glacial or interglacial cycles, maintaining the possibility that local habitats did not change in differing climatic cycles. However, because Neandertals were nutritionally stressed the most likely conclusion is that glacial cycles decreased herbivore populations, thus stressing Neandertals.
ContributorsHodgkins, Jamie Melichar (Author) / Marean, Curtis W (Thesis advisor) / Reed, Kaye E (Thesis advisor) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Committee member) / Spencer, Lillian M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In recent years, southern Africa has figured prominently in the modern human origins debate due to increasing evidence for precocious behaviors considered to be unique to our species. These significant findings have included bone tools, shell beads, engraved ostrich eggshell, and heavily ground and engraved ochre fragments. The presence of ochre in Middle Stone Age (MSA, ~250-40kya) archaeological sites in southern Africa is often proposed as indirect evidence for the emergence of symbolic or artistic behavior, a uniquely modern human trait. However, there is no remaining artwork from this period and there is significant debate about what the ochre may have been used for. With a few exceptions, ochre has gone largely unstudied. This project tested competing models for ochre use within the Pinnacle Point (PP), South Africa research area. Combined results from characterization and sourcing analyses, color classification, heat treatment analysis, and hafting experiments suggest MSA ochre is tied to early symbolic or ritual behavior.
ContributorsBernatchez, Jocelyn A (Author) / Marean, Curtis W (Thesis advisor) / Bearat, Hamdallah (Committee member) / Abbott, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This research focuses upon the intersection of social complexity and leadership among commoners in complex societies as expressed through mortuary ritual. I study how ideology, materialized through treatment of the deceased body, was a potential source of power among commoners in ancient Maya society and how this materialization changed through time. Mortuary data are drawn from mid-level settlements of the Belize River Valley, located in western Belize within the eastern Maya lowlands. The primary research question addresses whether mid-level leaders in the Belize River Valley targeted certain human bodies for ancestral veneration through tomb re-entry and ritual interaction with skeletal remains. The ritual-political strategy of mid-level leaders is measured using archaeothanatology, an analysis of grave taphonomy based on forensic data, to reconstruct cultural beliefs about death based on treatment of deceased bodies, radiogenic strontium isotope analysis to reconstruct residential history, and analysis of dental metrics to assess biological kinship. While preservation of osseous material was poor, results indicate that the frequency of disarticulated and secondary burials was higher in eastern structures than in other locales, although eastern structures were not the only loci of these types of deposits. Overall, it does not seem like secondary burials were regularly and purposefully created for use as ritual objects or display. Radiogenic strontium isotope data enrich this analysis by showing that eastern structures were not a burial locale exclusive to individuals who spent their childhood in the Belize Valley. Data from upper-level eastern structures also suggests that within that part of society local birth did not guarantee interment in a local manner; perhaps the social network created during one's life shaped treatment in death more than residential origin. Biological distance analyses were inconclusive due to missing data. Comparison of mortuary practices to nearby regions shows distinct mortuary patterning across space and time. This is consistent with reconstructions of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization as regionally diverse and moderately integrated.
ContributorsNovotny, Anna (Author) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Thesis advisor) / Carr, Christopher (Committee member) / Robin, Cynthia (Committee member) / Astor-Aguilera, Miguel (Committee member) / Tiesler, Vera (Committee member) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Two of the defining behaviors associated with the hominin lineage are an increased reliance on tool use and the routine incorporation of animal tissue in the diet. These adaptations have been linked to numerous downstream consequences including key physiological adaptations as well as social and cognitive effects associated with modern humans. Thus, a critical issue in human evolution is how to determine when hominins began incorporating significant amounts of meat into their diets. Bone surface modifications (BSM) have long been recognized as a powerful inferential tool in identifying the differential involvement of actors responsible for altering assemblages of bone recovered from both archaeological and paleontological contexts and remain a primary source of direct evidence for butchery activities. Thus, determining the spatiotemporal context of increased carnivory in the hominin lineage relies on the accurate identification of fossil BSM.
Multidecade-long debates over the agents responsible for individual BSM indicate systemic flaws in historical approaches to identification. These debates are in part due to the extreme morphological overlap between BSM produced by certain agents of modification. The primary goal of this dissertation project therefore, is to construct probability models of BSM capable of identifying individual marks with an associated probability of assignment. Using a multivariate Bayesian approach to analyze experimentally-generated BSM data, this dissertation uses two different models, one incorporating both two and three-dimensional (3D) metric and attribute data associated with individual BSM and a second model comparing 3D geometric morphometric (GM) shape data associated with BSM.
The 2D/3D attribute model of BSM is used evaluate an assemblage of fossil BSM recovered from the Ledi-Geraru research area, Ethiopia (2.82 Ma) in spatiotemporal association with early Homo. The results of the analysis reveal compelling evidence for early butchery activities, suggesting hominins may have been using both modified and unmodified stone implements to process carcasses.
The second model, based upon 3D GM data, was used to evaluate the earliest purported evidence for stone-mediated butchery at Dikika, Ethiopia (3.39 Ma). The Dikika marks have been argued to be the result of crocodile feeding, trampling, and butchery by three different research groups. The 3D GM model evaluates the likelihood of each of these actors in the production of the controversial Dikika marks.
Multidecade-long debates over the agents responsible for individual BSM indicate systemic flaws in historical approaches to identification. These debates are in part due to the extreme morphological overlap between BSM produced by certain agents of modification. The primary goal of this dissertation project therefore, is to construct probability models of BSM capable of identifying individual marks with an associated probability of assignment. Using a multivariate Bayesian approach to analyze experimentally-generated BSM data, this dissertation uses two different models, one incorporating both two and three-dimensional (3D) metric and attribute data associated with individual BSM and a second model comparing 3D geometric morphometric (GM) shape data associated with BSM.
The 2D/3D attribute model of BSM is used evaluate an assemblage of fossil BSM recovered from the Ledi-Geraru research area, Ethiopia (2.82 Ma) in spatiotemporal association with early Homo. The results of the analysis reveal compelling evidence for early butchery activities, suggesting hominins may have been using both modified and unmodified stone implements to process carcasses.
The second model, based upon 3D GM data, was used to evaluate the earliest purported evidence for stone-mediated butchery at Dikika, Ethiopia (3.39 Ma). The Dikika marks have been argued to be the result of crocodile feeding, trampling, and butchery by three different research groups. The 3D GM model evaluates the likelihood of each of these actors in the production of the controversial Dikika marks.
ContributorsHarris, Jacob A (Author) / Marean, Curtis W (Thesis advisor) / Hill, Kim (Committee member) / Boyd, Robert (Committee member) / Thompson, Jessica (Committee member) / Campisano, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Social identities are fundamental to the way individuals and groups define themselves. Archaeological approaches to social identities in the Andes emphasize the importance of group identities such as ethnicity and community identity, but studies of gender and age identities are still uncommon. In this dissertation, I build on these earlier approaches to Andean social identities and consider community, gender, and age identities at the site of Chiribaya Alta using case studies.
The coastal Ilo Chiribaya polity is associated with the Andean Late Intermediate Period in the lower Osmore drainage of southern Peru. Previous analyses indicate that Chiribaya sites in this area formed a señorío, an Andean chiefdom with separate occupational groups of fishers and farmers. The most complex excavated Chiribaya site in this region is Chiribaya Alta. At this time, excavations have sampled nine of the cemeteries present at the site. Two of these cemeteries, four and seven, have the most elaborate burials at the site and are each associated with different occupational communities.
This dissertation examines community, gender, and age identities at Chiribaya Alta through the use of three case studies. The first case study argues that the iconographic designs on coca bags interred with the dead signified occupational community identities. Coca bags buried in cemetery four have designs relating to mountains and farming, whereas those from cemetery seven have symbols associated with water. These designs correspond to the occupational community groups associated with each of these cemeteries. The second case study uses grave good presence and absence to examine the nature of gender roles and identity at Chiribaya Alta. Multiple correspondence analysis indicates that normative gender roles are reflected in grave good assemblages, but that gender identity was flexible at the individual level. The final case study presents newly generated age-at-death estimations using transition analysis combined with mortuary analyses to explore the manner in which gender and age intersect for older individuals at Chiribaya Alta. This final paper argues that there is an elderly identity present amongst individuals at Chiribaya Alta and that gender and age intersect to impact the lives of older men and women differently.
The coastal Ilo Chiribaya polity is associated with the Andean Late Intermediate Period in the lower Osmore drainage of southern Peru. Previous analyses indicate that Chiribaya sites in this area formed a señorío, an Andean chiefdom with separate occupational groups of fishers and farmers. The most complex excavated Chiribaya site in this region is Chiribaya Alta. At this time, excavations have sampled nine of the cemeteries present at the site. Two of these cemeteries, four and seven, have the most elaborate burials at the site and are each associated with different occupational communities.
This dissertation examines community, gender, and age identities at Chiribaya Alta through the use of three case studies. The first case study argues that the iconographic designs on coca bags interred with the dead signified occupational community identities. Coca bags buried in cemetery four have designs relating to mountains and farming, whereas those from cemetery seven have symbols associated with water. These designs correspond to the occupational community groups associated with each of these cemeteries. The second case study uses grave good presence and absence to examine the nature of gender roles and identity at Chiribaya Alta. Multiple correspondence analysis indicates that normative gender roles are reflected in grave good assemblages, but that gender identity was flexible at the individual level. The final case study presents newly generated age-at-death estimations using transition analysis combined with mortuary analyses to explore the manner in which gender and age intersect for older individuals at Chiribaya Alta. This final paper argues that there is an elderly identity present amongst individuals at Chiribaya Alta and that gender and age intersect to impact the lives of older men and women differently.
ContributorsSchach, Emily Ann (Author) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Thesis advisor) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Committee member) / Geller, Pamela L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This dissertation research describes the hunting behavior of early modern humans through the analysis of vertebrate faunal remains from Contrebandiers Cave, Morocco. Contrebandiers Cave is located in the town of Témara and is roughly 250 meters from the current shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean. The cave was excavated in the 1950s and 1970s by l’Abbé Roche, and again starting in 2007 by Dibble and El Hajraoui with total station plotting of finds. Contrebandiers Cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits dated to Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5e, 5d and 5c, ~120,000 to ~96,000 years ago. The Later Stone Age (LSA) deposits are dated to MIS 2, ~20,000 years ago. The entirety of the ~12,000 vertebrate faunal remains from Dibble and El Hajraoui’s excavation were analyzed for taxonomic and taphonomic identification.
A total of 67 vertebrate taxa were identified and include ungulates, carnivores, lagomorphs, birds, tortoises, snakes and fish. The faunal remains from Contrebandiers Cave preserve surface modification that indicates both humans and carnivores acted as agents of prey accumulation. Skeletal element representation and surface modification of ungulate remains suggest that humans had primary access to small, medium and large-bodied prey. In the MSA levels, carnivore skeletal remains preserve surface modification that is interpreted as being indicative of behavior associated with skinning for fur removal.
The vertebrate faunal remains from MIS 5e and 5d indicate that humans were hunting grazers and mixed feeders from open habitats and suids from mixed habitats. The faunal remains from MIS 5c indicate that humans focused less on suids and more on mixed feeders from open habitats. The vertebrate faunal remains from MIS 2 reveal humans hunting grazers from dry, open habitats. This research provides a description of human hunting behavior in North Africa, and contributes to our understanding of early modern human behavior prior to dispersal out of Africa.
A total of 67 vertebrate taxa were identified and include ungulates, carnivores, lagomorphs, birds, tortoises, snakes and fish. The faunal remains from Contrebandiers Cave preserve surface modification that indicates both humans and carnivores acted as agents of prey accumulation. Skeletal element representation and surface modification of ungulate remains suggest that humans had primary access to small, medium and large-bodied prey. In the MSA levels, carnivore skeletal remains preserve surface modification that is interpreted as being indicative of behavior associated with skinning for fur removal.
The vertebrate faunal remains from MIS 5e and 5d indicate that humans were hunting grazers and mixed feeders from open habitats and suids from mixed habitats. The faunal remains from MIS 5c indicate that humans focused less on suids and more on mixed feeders from open habitats. The vertebrate faunal remains from MIS 2 reveal humans hunting grazers from dry, open habitats. This research provides a description of human hunting behavior in North Africa, and contributes to our understanding of early modern human behavior prior to dispersal out of Africa.
ContributorsHallett, Emily Yuko (Author) / Marean, Curtis W (Thesis advisor) / Reed, Kaye E (Committee member) / Dibble, Harold L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Climate and environmental forcing are widely accepted to be important drivers of evolutionary and ecological change in mammal communities over geologic time scales. This paradigm has been particularly influential in studies of the eastern African late Cenozoic fossil record, in which aridification, increasing seasonality, and C4 grassland expansion are seen as having shaped the major patterns of human and faunal evolution. Despite the ubiquity of studies linking climate and environmental forcing to evolutionary and ecological shifts in the mammalian fossil record, many central components of this paradigm remain untested or poorly developed. To fill this gap, this dissertation employs biogeographical and macroecological analyses of present-day African mammal communities as a lens for understanding how abiotic change may have shaped community turnover and structure in the eastern African Plio-Pleistocene. Three dissertation papers address: 1) the role of ecological niche breadth in shaping divergent patterns of macroevolutionary turnover across clades; 2) the effect of climatic and environmental gradients on community assembly; 3) the relative influence of paleo- versus present-day climates in structuring contemporary patterns of community diversity. Results of these papers call into question many tenets of current theory, particularly: 1) that niche breadth differences (and, by extension, their influence on allopatric speciation) are important drivers of macroevolution, 2) that climate is more important than biotic interactions in community assembly, and 3) that communities today are in equilibrium with present-day climates. These findings highlight the need to critically reevaluate the role and scale-dependence of climate in mammal evolution and community ecology and to carefully consider potential time lags and disequilibrium dynamics in the fossil record.
ContributorsRowan, John (Author) / Reed, Kaye E (Thesis advisor) / Campisano, Christopher J (Committee member) / Franklin, Janet (Committee member) / Marean, Curtis W (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Migrations, past and present, fundamentally influence human interaction, community building, and social evolution. Studies of contemporary migrations demonstrate that the form and intensity of interaction migrants maintain between homeland and host communities shape social dynamics, innovations, and identities. This dissertation applies a contemporary theoretical framework and biogeochemical analyses to elucidate the scale, processes, and impacts of migration in the hinterland of the pre-Hispanic Tiwanaku polity (ca. AD 500-1100). Social diversity is examined by reconstructing the migration histories and dietary choices of individuals interred at the Tiwanaku-affiliated site of Omo M10 in the Moquegua Valley of southern Peru.
Radiogenic strontium and stable oxygen isotope data from human dental and skeletal elements are used to characterize intra- and inter-individual paleomobility patterns at Omo M10. When contextualized with archaeological evidence, these data reveal multigenerational interaction through migration between communities in the highland Tiwanaku heartland and at Omo M10. The observed greater mobility of females and juveniles at Omo M10 indicates that women and families played an essential role in maintaining social relationships and persistent cultural continuity in Moquegua Tiwanaku life. Contact with the highlands waned over time as disruption in the urban highland centers likely weakened ties to peripheral lowland communities.
Stable carbon and nitrogen data from human dental and skeletal elements are employed to estimate intra- and inter-individual paleodietary patterns. Results indicate diet at Omo M10 varied depending on an individual’s community affiliation, sex, age, and level of mobility; diet broadly changed over time with shifting levels of interaction with highland Tiwanaku communities. Intra-individual biogeochemical analyses of migration and diet at Omo M10 contribute a nuanced perspective on the diverse experiences of multigenerational colonists on the periphery of the Tiwanaku polity.
Radiogenic strontium and stable oxygen isotope data from human dental and skeletal elements are used to characterize intra- and inter-individual paleomobility patterns at Omo M10. When contextualized with archaeological evidence, these data reveal multigenerational interaction through migration between communities in the highland Tiwanaku heartland and at Omo M10. The observed greater mobility of females and juveniles at Omo M10 indicates that women and families played an essential role in maintaining social relationships and persistent cultural continuity in Moquegua Tiwanaku life. Contact with the highlands waned over time as disruption in the urban highland centers likely weakened ties to peripheral lowland communities.
Stable carbon and nitrogen data from human dental and skeletal elements are employed to estimate intra- and inter-individual paleodietary patterns. Results indicate diet at Omo M10 varied depending on an individual’s community affiliation, sex, age, and level of mobility; diet broadly changed over time with shifting levels of interaction with highland Tiwanaku communities. Intra-individual biogeochemical analyses of migration and diet at Omo M10 contribute a nuanced perspective on the diverse experiences of multigenerational colonists on the periphery of the Tiwanaku polity.
ContributorsDahlstedt, Allisen Cecelia (Author) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Thesis advisor) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Committee member) / Goldstein, Paul S (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Federal legislation prioritizes the repatriation of culturally unidentifiable human remains to federally-recognized Indian tribes that are linked geographically to the region from which the remains were removed. Such linkages are typically based on a Eurocentric notion of the exclusive use and occupancy of an area of land - a space-based approach to land use. Contemporary collaborations between anthropologists and indigenous communities suggest, however, that indigenous patterns of land use are better characterized as place-based and are therefore more complex and fluid than is reflected in current legislation. Despite these insights, space-based approaches remain common within archaeology. One example is the inference of territorial behavior from the presence of monuments within the archaeological record.
Drawing on osteological and mortuary data derived from a sample of Adena mounds located in northern Kentucky, this dissertation adopts a place-based approach in order to evaluate the archaeological association between monumentality and territoriality. The relative amounts of skeletal and phenotypic variability present at various spatial scales are quantified and compared and the degree to which mortuary and phenotypic data exhibit spatial structure consistent with the expectations of an isolation-by-distance model is assessed.
Results indicate that, while burial samples derived from some mounds exhibit amounts of phenotypic variability that are consistent with the expectations of a territorial model, data from other mounds suggest that multiple groups participated in their construction. Further, the general absence of spatial structure within the phenotypic data suggests that the individuals interred in these mounds are perhaps better characterized as representing an integrated regional population rather than localized groups. Untested archaeological inferences of territoriality may therefore mischaracterize regional population dynamics. In addition, these results suggest that the prioritization criteria for the repatriation of culturally unidentifiable human remains may merit revision.
Drawing on osteological and mortuary data derived from a sample of Adena mounds located in northern Kentucky, this dissertation adopts a place-based approach in order to evaluate the archaeological association between monumentality and territoriality. The relative amounts of skeletal and phenotypic variability present at various spatial scales are quantified and compared and the degree to which mortuary and phenotypic data exhibit spatial structure consistent with the expectations of an isolation-by-distance model is assessed.
Results indicate that, while burial samples derived from some mounds exhibit amounts of phenotypic variability that are consistent with the expectations of a territorial model, data from other mounds suggest that multiple groups participated in their construction. Further, the general absence of spatial structure within the phenotypic data suggests that the individuals interred in these mounds are perhaps better characterized as representing an integrated regional population rather than localized groups. Untested archaeological inferences of territoriality may therefore mischaracterize regional population dynamics. In addition, these results suggest that the prioritization criteria for the repatriation of culturally unidentifiable human remains may merit revision.
ContributorsSeidel, Andrew Colin (Author) / Carr, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Stojanowski, Christopher M (Thesis advisor) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Committee member) / Aguilera, Miguel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In anthropological models of social organization, kinship is perceived to be fundamental to social structure. This project aimed to understand how individuals buried in neighborhoods or patio groups were affiliated, by considering multiple possibilities of fictive and biological kinship, short or long-term co-residence, and long-distance kin affiliation. The social organization of the ancient Maya urban center of Copan, Honduras during the Late Classic (AD 600-822) period was evaluated through analysis of the human skeletal remains drawn from the largest collection yet recovered in Mesoamerica (n=1200). The research question was: What are the roles that kinship (biological or fictive) and co-residence play in the internal social organization of a lineage-based and/or house society? Biodistance and radiogenic strontium isotope analysis were combined to identify the degree to which individuals buried within 22 patio groups and eight neighborhoods, were (1) related to one another and (2) of local or non-local origin. Copan was an ideal place to evaluate the nuances of migration and kinship as the site is situated at the frontier of the Maya region and the edge of culturally diverse Honduras.
The results highlight the complexity of Copan’s social structure within the lineage and house models proposed for ancient Maya social organization. The radiogenic strontium data are diverse; the percentage of potential non-local individuals varied by neighborhood, some with only 10% in-migration while others approached 40%. The biodistance results are statistically significant with differences between neighborhoods, patios, and even patios within one neighborhood. The high level of in-migration and biological heterogeneity are unique to Copan. Overall, these results highlight that the Copan community was created within a complex system that was influenced by multiple factors where neither a lineage nor house model is appropriate. It was a dynamic urban environment where genealogy, affiliation, and migration all affected the social structure.
The results highlight the complexity of Copan’s social structure within the lineage and house models proposed for ancient Maya social organization. The radiogenic strontium data are diverse; the percentage of potential non-local individuals varied by neighborhood, some with only 10% in-migration while others approached 40%. The biodistance results are statistically significant with differences between neighborhoods, patios, and even patios within one neighborhood. The high level of in-migration and biological heterogeneity are unique to Copan. Overall, these results highlight that the Copan community was created within a complex system that was influenced by multiple factors where neither a lineage nor house model is appropriate. It was a dynamic urban environment where genealogy, affiliation, and migration all affected the social structure.
ContributorsMiller, Katherine Anne (Author) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Thesis advisor) / Bell, Ellen E. (Committee member) / Stojanowski, Christopher M (Committee member) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015