118 posts · 60,146 views
A blog discussing a variety of subjects related to Chaco Canyon, the prehistoric American Southwest, and their complex connections to the world today.
teofilo
118 posts
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- April 23, 2012
- 04:29 AM
- 368 views
The Roles of Linguistics and Archaeology
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Sorry for the extended hiatus; I’ve been busy with various things. I’ll have more on the Mississippians at some point, but for now I want to discuss a more general issue: the relationship of historical linguistics to archaeology in attempting to reconstruct past events. Both disciplines provide ways to study past events beyond the reach [...]... Read more »
Blust, R. (1976) Austronesian culture history: Some linguistic inferences and their relations to the archaeological record . World Archaeology, 8(1), 19-43. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1976.9979650
Ehret, C. (1976) Linguistic evidence and its correlation with archaeology. World Archaeology, 8(1), 5-18. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1976.9979649
Mallory, J. (1976) Time perspective and proto‐indo‐European culture. World Archaeology, 8(1), 44-56. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1976.9979651
Phillipson, D. (1976) Archaeology and Bantu linguistics. World Archaeology, 8(1), 65-82. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1976.9979653
- March 11, 2012
- 05:56 AM
- 367 views
The Figurines of Cahokia
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Among the rarest and most fascinating artifacts associated with Mississippian sites are figurines made of carved stone. These are most numerous in the Cahokia area, although they have also been found in various other parts of the Mississippian world, most notably at the Spiro site in Oklahoma. Regardless of where they are found, however, many [...]... Read more »
Emerson, T., & Hughes, R. (2000) Figurines, Flint Clay Sourcing, the Ozark Highlands, and Cahokian Acquisition. American Antiquity, 65(1), 79. DOI: 10.2307/2694809
Emerson, T., Hughes, R., Hynes, M., & Wisseman, S. (2003) The Sourcing and Interpretation of Cahokia-Style Figurines in the Trans-Mississippi South and Southeast. American Antiquity, 68(2), 287. DOI: 10.2307/3557081
Prentice, G. (1986) An Analysis of the Symbolism Expressed by the Birger Figurine. American Antiquity, 51(2), 239. DOI: 10.2307/279939
- February 27, 2012
- 03:25 AM
- 364 views
Filed Teeth at Cahokia
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One of the distinctive characteristics of Cahokia and its area of strong influence is the prevalence of filed teeth in many human burials. Filing of teeth as a cultural practice was common in Mexico for thousands of years before the Spanish conquest, but further north it is very rare and found mostly at Cahokia and [...]... Read more »
Perino, G. (1967) Additional Discoveries of Filed Teeth in the Cahokia Area. American Antiquity, 32(4), 538. DOI: 10.2307/2694083
- March 19, 2012
- 03:12 AM
- 359 views
Mississippian Houses
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Mississippian societies are best known for their mound centers, with Cahokia in Illinois being the largest and most impressive but by no means the only one. These sites have drawn the interest of archaeologists since the very beginning of American archaeology as a field of study, but the focus on mounds meant that other aspects [...]... Read more »
Bennett, J. (1944) A Note on Middle Mississippi Architecture. American Antiquity, 9(3), 333. DOI: 10.2307/275792
- April 12, 2010
- 10:24 AM
- 357 views
Counterpoint
by teofilo in Gambler's House
I’ve talked a bit about Jane Hill’s theory that agriculture was introduced to the Southwest by a migration of speakers of Uto-Aztecan languages from Mesoamerica, which she supports mostly through somewhat unconvincing linguistic evidence. A recent paper in, yes, PNAS offers a strong set of counterarguments to Hill’s theory, and offers an alternative theory in [...]... Read more »
Merrill, W., Hard, R., Mabry, J., Fritz, G., Adams, K., Roney, J., & MacWilliams, A. (2009) The diffusion of maize to the southwestern United States and its impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(50), 21019-21026. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0906075106
- May 22, 2012
- 12:56 AM
- 341 views
Linguistics and Archaeology in North America
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The same special issue of the journal World Archaeology that I was discussing in the previous post has an article looking specifically at the relationship between linguistic and archaeological evidence in the study of the prehistory of North America. It is by M. Dale Kinkade and J. V. Powell, two linguists who specialized in the languages [...]... Read more »
Kinkade, M., & Powell, J. (1976) Language and the prehistory of North America. World Archaeology, 8(1), 83-100. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1976.9979654
- February 21, 2012
- 01:49 AM
- 337 views
Coring Monks Mound
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Monks Mound is both the largest mound at Cahokia and the largest at any Mississippian site, by a huge margin. It’s 100 feet high and about 1,000 by 800 feet at the base, covering more than 18 acres. Its mass is five times that of the second-largest Mississippian mound (Mound A at the Etowah site [...]... Read more »
Reed, N., Bennett, J., & Porter, J. (1968) Solid Core Drilling of Monks Mound: Technique and Findings. American Antiquity, 33(2), 137. DOI: 10.2307/278515
- August 13, 2010
- 02:56 PM
- 335 views
More Turkey Stuff
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In looking into recent research on Southwestern turkeys, I found an interesting paper from 2007 by E. Bradley Beacham and Stephen R. Durand about turkey eggshell. Specifically, they came up with a new technique for analyzing archaeological eggshell to determine whether or not the egg had hatched. The idea behind it, confirmed by an experiment [...]... Read more »
BEACHAM, E., & DURAND, S. (2007) Eggshell and the archaeological record: new insights into turkey husbandry in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34(10), 1610-1621. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2006.11.015
- June 7, 2012
- 02:55 AM
- 333 views
Ten Thousand Smokes, One Hundred Years
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One hundred years ago today, one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in recorded history took place in southwestern Alaska. The volcano, known as Novarupta, is located in what is now Katmai National Park, which was established in 1918 as a direct result of the eruption and its effects on the landscape. As a result, this [...]... Read more »
Dailey, I. (1912) Report of the Eruption of Katmai Volcano. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 44(9), 641. DOI: 10.2307/200811
- March 26, 2012
- 03:48 AM
- 319 views
Mississippian Burial Practices
by teofilo in Gambler's House
One of the major areas of interest for the “New Archaeologists” who came to dominate American archaeology in the late twentieth century was mortuary analysis. In keeping with the arguments of Lewis Binford and other leaders of the movement that archaeology as a discipline should be “problem-oriented” and focused on reconstruction prehistoric societies as fully [...]... Read more »
Milner, G. (1984) Social and Temporal Implications of Variation among American Bottom Mississippian Cemeteries. American Antiquity, 49(3), 468. DOI: 10.2307/280355
- June 23, 2012
- 03:56 AM
- 253 views
Wetherill’s Intellectual Influence
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Today is Wetherill Day, the anniversary of Richard Wetherill’s death in 1910, and as such I would like to continue my tradition of marking the occasion by discussing the complicated and often misunderstood legacy of Wetherill, the pioneering amateur archaeologist who excavated many sites in the Southwest, including most famously Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon. [...]... Read more »
Browman, David L., & Givens, Douglas R. (1996) Stratigraphic Excavation: The First "New Archaeology". American Anthropologist, 98(1), 80-95. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1996.98.1.02a00080
Reed, Erik K. (1963) The Beginnings of Physical Anthropology in the Southwest. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science, 2(3), 130-132. DOI: 10.2307/27641802
Snead, James E. (1999) Science, Commerce, and Control: Patronage and the Development of Anthropological Archaeology in the Americas. American Anthropologist, 101(2), 256-271. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1999.101.2.256
- July 10, 2012
- 04:01 AM
- 249 views
Where They Got the Obsidian
by teofilo in Gambler's House
As I’ve discussed before, the patterns of use and importation of chipped stone at Chaco are somewhat puzzling. Unlike many other commodities, such as wood, corn, and pottery, which were imported from specific distant locations within the Chacoan sphere of influence in astonishing quantities during the height of Chaco’s regional power, chipped stone seems to [...]... Read more »
Duff, Andrew I., Moss, Jeremy M., Windes, Thomas C., Kantner, John, & Shackley, M. Steven. (2012) Patterning in procurement of obsidian in Chaco Canyon and in Chaco-era communities in New Mexico as revealed by X-ray fluorescence. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(9), 2995-3007. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.04.032
- December 26, 2012
- 02:44 AM
- 184 views
Fremont Cannibalism
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Today is Cannibal Christmas (for previous installments see here and here), and this time I’d like to discuss some instances of alleged cannibalism well beyond the boundaries of the Chaco system or even the Anasazi culture area. These assemblages are in sites belonging to the poorly defined Fremont Complex of Utah, which is roughly contemporary [...]... Read more »
Janetski, J. (2002) Trade in Fremont society: contexts and contrasts. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 21(3), 344-370. DOI: 10.1016/S0278-4165(02)00003-X
Novak, S. A., & Kollmann, D. D. (2000) Perimortem Processing Of Human Remains Among The Great Basin Fremont. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 65-75. info:/
- December 22, 2012
- 01:25 AM
- 163 views
The Circle and the Cross
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Today is a momentous day, of course. As the winter solstice, it marks the fourth anniversary of this blog. It also might be an important date in the Maya Long Count (although opinions differ). It’s not the end of the world, which should be apparent by now. In recognition of the Maya date and my [...]... Read more »
Aveni, A., Hartung, H., & Buckingham, B. (1978) The Pecked Cross Symbol in Ancient Mesoamerica. Science, 202(4365), 267-286. DOI: 10.1126/science.202.4365.267
Coggins, C. (1980) The Shape of Time: Some Political Implications of a Four-Part Figure. American Antiquity, 45(4), 727. DOI: 10.2307/280144
- January 6, 2013
- 02:50 AM
- 135 views
Capturing the Fremont
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Many of the prehistoric cultures of the Southwest are routinely described as “mysterious,” most often in popular accounts and tourist information but also sometimes in the more serious archaeological literature. This is certainly true in a sense, in that a lot of information about any given ancient society, especially one without writing, is gone forever [...]... Read more »
Aikens, C. (1967) Plains Relationships of the Fremont Culture: A Hypothesis. American Antiquity, 32(2), 198. DOI: 10.2307/277904
Armelagos, G. (1968) Aikens' Fremont Hypothesis and Use of Skeletal Material in Archaeological Interpretation. American Antiquity, 33(3), 385. DOI: 10.2307/278710
Gunnerson, J. (1956) Plains-Promontory Relationships. American Antiquity, 22(1), 69. DOI: 10.2307/276168
Gunnerson, J. (1962) Plateau Shoshonean Prehistory: A Suggested Reconstruction. American Antiquity, 28(1), 41. DOI: 10.2307/278076
Judd, N. (1917) Evidence of Circular Kivas in Western Utah Ruins. American Anthropologist, 19(1), 34-40. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1917.19.1.02a00070
Madsen, D. (1979) New Views on the Fremont: The Fremont and the Sevier: Defining Prehistoric Agriculturalists North of the Anasazi: Reply. American Antiquity, 44(4), 736. DOI: 10.2307/279114
Madsen, D., & Simms, S. (1998) The Fremont Complex: A Behavioral Perspective. Journal of World Prehistory, 12(3), 255-336. DOI: 10.1023/A:1022322619699
Schroeder, A. (1963) Comment on Gunnerson's "Plateau Shoshonean Prehistory". American Antiquity, 28(4), 559. DOI: 10.2307/278572
- March 31, 2013
- 02:01 AM
- 134 views
The Numic Spread
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau were occupied at the time of European Contact (generally between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century for this region) by a variety of relatively small groups of hunter-gatherers, all of whom spoke closely related languages belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family. By the early twentieth century these [...]... Read more »
Bettinger, R., & Baumhoff, M. (1982) The Numic Spread: Great Basin Cultures in Competition. American Antiquity, 47(3), 485. DOI: 10.2307/280231
Jennings, J., & Norbeck, E. (1955) Great Basin Prehistory: A Review. American Antiquity, 21(1), 1. DOI: 10.2307/276104
Kaestle, F., & Smith, D. (2001) Ancient mitochondrial DNA evidence for prehistoric population movement: The numic expansion. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 115(1), 1-12. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1051
Lamb, S. (1958) Linguistic Prehistory in the Great Basin. International Journal of American Linguistics, 24(2), 95. DOI: 10.1086/464442
Steward, J. (1937) Linguistic Distributions and Political Groups of the Great Basin Shoshoneans. American Anthropologist, 39(4), 625-634. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1937.39.4.02a00070
- January 14, 2013
- 02:52 AM
- 128 views
What Happened to the Fremont?
by teofilo in Gambler's House
As I mentioned in the previous post, the most mysterious thing about the Fremont is what happened to them. Unlike the Anasazi, who obviously became the modern Pueblos, the Fremont have no obvious connections to any modern groups. Fremont sites appear to disappear around AD 1300 in most areas, although there is some regional variation [...]... Read more »
Aikens, C. (1967) Plains Relationships of the Fremont Culture: A Hypothesis. American Antiquity, 32(2), 198. DOI: 10.2307/277904
Armelagos, G. (1968) Aikens' Fremont Hypothesis and Use of Skeletal Material in Archaeological Interpretation. American Antiquity, 33(3), 385. DOI: 10.2307/278710
Gunnerson, J. (1962) Plateau Shoshonean Prehistory: A Suggested Reconstruction. American Antiquity, 28(1), 41. DOI: 10.2307/278076
Madsen, D. (1975) Dating Paiute-Shoshoni Expansion in the Great Basin. American Antiquity, 40(1), 82. DOI: 10.2307/279271
Madsen, D., & Simms, S. (1998) The Fremont Complex: A Behavioral Perspective. Journal of World Prehistory, 12(3), 255-336. DOI: 10.1023/A:1022322619699
Parr RL, Carlyle SW, & O'Rourke DH. (1996) Ancient DNA analysis of Fremont Amerindians of the Great Salt Lake Wetlands. American journal of physical anthropology, 99(4), 507-18. PMID: 8779335
Pendergast, D., & Meighan, C. (1959) Folk Traditions as Historical Fact: A Paiute Example. The Journal of American Folklore, 72(284), 128. DOI: 10.2307/538475
Schroeder, A. (1963) Comment on Gunnerson's "Plateau Shoshonean Prehistory". American Antiquity, 28(4), 559. DOI: 10.2307/278572
- April 28, 2013
- 03:21 AM
- 64 views
About Those Toltecs
by teofilo in Gambler's House
With increasing evidence for Mesoamerican influence at Chaco in recent years, it’s worth taking a close look at what was going on in Mesoamerica itself during the Chacoan era. As I’ve mentioned before, there is some reason to believe that the most likely area to look to for direct influence in the Southwest is West Mexico, [...]... Read more »
Healan, D. (2012) The Archaeology of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research, 20(1), 53-115. DOI: 10.1007/s10814-011-9052-3
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