Poverty Point Culture and the Jaketown Site: New Insights on the Apex of Archaic Monumentality @NathanaelFosaaen

Nathanael Fosaaen Unfortunately I’ve gotten sucked too far down the Paleoamerican rabbit hole this last year and I intend to get back to the time period that I actually care about: The Archaic. I got to have a conversation with Dr. Seth Grooms from Appalachian State University where we talked about how his work at the Jaketown Site and contemporary advances in archaeological theory are changing our understanding of the Poverty Point phenomenon.

Related Videos for background:
Ancient Americas’s Poverty Point Summary: youtube.com/watch?v=5kwXmjEbav8&t=295s
On Hunter-Gatherers:youtu.be/gX4nR4Qb_DM
Monumental sites in the Eastern Woodlands: youtu.be/wGJIoll9zQ0
PPOs/Poverty Point Objects: youtu.be/cNsGeXeh2kE

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Citations: Grooms, Seth B. 2022: Reassessing the History of the Poverty Point Phenomenon: A Case Study from the Jaketown Site, Mississippi, USA

Abstract: Towards the end of the Late Archaic period (ca. 4800-3000 cal BP), between 3,600 and 3,300 years ago, Native Americans engineered a colossal earthwork complex that covers approximately 200 hectares in northeast Louisiana. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site known as Poverty Point and the namesake for a material culture pattern documented to varying degrees at sites throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). However, the nature of interactions between these sites and the type site is poorly understood. The people who constructed the Poverty Point site lived on wild food resources. They hunted, fished, and gathered food from the river bottoms and surrounding woodlands more than 1,000 years before food production became widespread in the region. The level of sociopolitical organization required to create such a place contradicts anthropological theories regarding the social structure of foraging societies. Consequently, the Poverty Point site is a globally relevant example of highly complex behavior by small-scale societies that lack obvious signs of social hierarchy. The mounds at Poverty Point were among the first built in the Eastern Woodlands after a millennium-long hiatus, and their enormous scale was unlike anything that came before and matched those of Mississippian chiefdoms two millennia later.

To better understand the events that led to the creation of the Poverty Point site and the historical processes that comprised the poorly understood Poverty Point phenomenon, I conducted four research expeditions at the Jaketown site in west-central Mississippi. Covering approximately 85 hectares, Jaketown is the largest Poverty Point-affiliated site outside the type site. Jaketown also has the most earthworks of any Poverty Point-affiliated site other than the type site. There have been 15 mounds documented at Jaketown, including at least three Late Archaic period constructions. Furthermore, the material assemblage documented at Jaketown shows a high degree of similarity with the type site. These factors combine to make Jaketown a critical site for understanding the historical processes that led to the creation of the Poverty Point site. Extant regional histories situate Poverty Point as a center of innovation that exported material culture, practices, and cultural identity to presumably contemporary sites in the region. The data generated by my research contradict this model. We processed 11 new AMS 14C samples, adding to the existing 22, and I created a high-resolution chronological model of site occupation at Jaketown. The model, combined with artifacts, geoarchaeological, and paleoethnobotanical data, demonstrate that some practices considered to originate at Poverty Point, such as mound building and the importation of nonlocal lithics, occurred first at Jaketown.
Our work also demonstrates that categorical frameworks that employ typological entities like the archaeological culture and the type site bias regional histories by suggesting radial diffusion of cultural identity from a center to a periphery. These biases are compounded when chronological control is poor because typological entities stand in for absolute time, which artificially flattens the regional chronology and implies that innovations and cultural identity originate at the type site, or center, and spread to the periphery, which is assumed to be contemporary in time. Our findings support an inversion of most extant models. Communities throughout the LMV, like the one at Jaketown, did not receive their cultural identity from the Poverty Point site. Rather, they had their own traditions, practices, and histories that converged on Poverty Point. In this model, Poverty Point is not a source of outward diffusion but an endpoint for multiple streams of Native American history–it was a cultural sink where disparate histories combined to form one of the most unique archaeological signatures in the world.

updated 7 months ago

Poverty Point Culture and the Jaketown Site: New Insights on the Apex of Archaic Monumentality

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-02-25 | Unfortunately I’ve gotten sucked too far down the Paleoamerican rabbit hole this last year and I intend to get back to the time period that I actually care about: The Archaic. I got to have a conversation with Dr. Seth Grooms from Appalachian State University where we talked about how his work at the Jaketown Site and contemporary advances in archaeological theory are changing our understanding of the Poverty Point phenomenon.

Related Videos for background:
Ancient Americas’s Poverty Point Summary: youtube.com/watch?v=5kwXmjEbav8&t=295s
On Hunter-Gatherers:youtu.be/gX4nR4Qb_DM
Monumental sites in the Eastern Woodlands: youtu.be/wGJIoll9zQ0
PPOs/Poverty Point Objects: youtu.be/cNsGeXeh2kE

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Citations: Grooms, Seth B. 2022: Reassessing the History of the Poverty Point Phenomenon: A Case Study from the Jaketown Site, Mississippi, USA

Abstract: Towards the end of the Late Archaic period (ca. 4800-3000 cal BP), between 3,600 and 3,300 years ago, Native Americans engineered a colossal earthwork complex that covers approximately 200 hectares in northeast Louisiana. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site known as Poverty Point and the namesake for a material culture pattern documented to varying degrees at sites throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). However, the nature of interactions between these sites and the type site is poorly understood. The people who constructed the Poverty Point site lived on wild food resources. They hunted, fished, and gathered food from the river bottoms and surrounding woodlands more than 1,000 years before food production became widespread in the region. The level of sociopolitical organization required to create such a place contradicts anthropological theories regarding the social structure of foraging societies. Consequently, the Poverty Point site is a globally relevant example of highly complex behavior by small-scale societies that lack obvious signs of social hierarchy. The mounds at Poverty Point were among the first built in the Eastern Woodlands after a millennium-long hiatus, and their enormous scale was unlike anything that came before and matched those of Mississippian chiefdoms two millennia later.

To better understand the events that led to the creation of the Poverty Point site and the historical processes that comprised the poorly understood Poverty Point phenomenon, I conducted four research expeditions at the Jaketown site in west-central Mississippi. Covering approximately 85 hectares, Jaketown is the largest Poverty Point-affiliated site outside the type site. Jaketown also has the most earthworks of any Poverty Point-affiliated site other than the type site. There have been 15 mounds documented at Jaketown, including at least three Late Archaic period constructions. Furthermore, the material assemblage documented at Jaketown shows a high degree of similarity with the type site. These factors combine to make Jaketown a critical site for understanding the historical processes that led to the creation of the Poverty Point site. Extant regional histories situate Poverty Point as a center of innovation that exported material culture, practices, and cultural identity to presumably contemporary sites in the region. The data generated by my research contradict this model. We processed 11 new AMS 14C samples, adding to the existing 22, and I created a high-resolution chronological model of site occupation at Jaketown. The model, combined with artifacts, geoarchaeological, and paleoethnobotanical data, demonstrate that some practices considered to originate at Poverty Point, such as mound building and the importation of nonlocal lithics, occurred first at Jaketown.
Our work also demonstrates that categorical frameworks that employ typological entities like the archaeological culture and the type site bias regional histories by suggesting radial diffusion of cultural identity from a center to a periphery. These biases are compounded when chronological control is poor because typological entities stand in for absolute time, which artificially flattens the regional chronology and implies that innovations and cultural identity originate at the type site, or center, and spread to the periphery, which is assumed to be contemporary in time. Our findings support an inversion of most extant models. Communities throughout the LMV, like the one at Jaketown, did not receive their cultural identity from the Poverty Point site. Rather, they had their own traditions, practices, and histories that converged on Poverty Point. In this model, Poverty Point is not a source of outward diffusion but an endpoint for multiple streams of Native American history–it was a cultural sink where disparate histories combined to form one of the most unique archaeological signatures in the world.

Archaeological Ceramics at the Williams Spring Site: Back in the Village pt. 2

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-09-16 | Ceramics are definitely my weakest subdiscipline in archaeology, and that's mostly because this site is the only one where I've dealt with it extensively. This is the second installment of my series on the Williams Spring site, which is a terminal Middle Woodland period village site near the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. You can find the link to part 1 down below.

Williams Spring pt. 1: youtu.be/9uJaP29xudk

Further Reading:
Lawrence S. Alexander, Orion S. Kroulek, Max Schneider,
Mary F. Trudeau, Robert H. Lafferty, III, 2017: Phase III Data Recovery at the Williams Spring Site (1MA1167), a Late Middle Woodland Village on Redstone Arsenal, Madison County, Alabama.

Most of my ceramics images came from the report above and https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/ceramiclab/

Back In The Village: The Biggest Site Ive Ever Excavated (That I Can Talk About)

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-08-19 | Williams Spring is a late Middle Woodland village site on Redstone Arsenal near the Tennessee River. It's a site where I really cut my teeth as a professional. I was the block supervisor during the excavations, I wrote sections of the 5 volume report, I helped with the lithic analysis. I'm all over it. This is the first video in what I hope will be a series dealing with the site in as much detail as I can manage based on the report and supplemented with my own recollection.

Further Reading: Lawrence S. Alexander, Orion S. Kroulek, Max Schneider,
Mary F. Trudeau, Robert H. Lafferty, III, 2017: Phase III Data Recovery at the Williams Spring Site (1MA1167), a Late Middle Woodland Village on Redstone Arsenal, Madison County, Alabama.

Copper vs Stone Axes in the Archaic Great Lakes and Beyond

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-08-03 | Note: I keep calling the axes type IV-C when they're actually type VI-C

Lanna Crucefix 2001: "Copper Use in the Old Copper Complex: A Comparative Analysis of Wittry VI-C Copper Axes and Three-Quarter Grooved Stone Axes:

Abstract:

A design theory approach was used to determine whether the copper axes of the Old Copper Complex (a Middle Archaic cultural complex located in the Upper Great Lakes region) were used primarily under practical (utilitarian) or prestigious (social) circumstances. To ascertain whether copper axes were used as functionally efficient tools or social enablers, Wittry VI-C copper and three-quarter grooved stone axes (the control artifact type) were experimentally replicated. The effort involved in manufacturing the axes, and their effectiveness at completing a chopping task were then compared. To supplement the experimental study, archaeological context and spatial distribution, raw material procurement strategies, and copper use and beliefs in later cultures o f the Great Lakes region were also investigated. This study found that the spatial distribution o f Wittry VI-C copper axes and three-quarter grooved stone axes was not significantly different. However, copper axes had a higher incidence o f being located in prestigious contexts such as burials and caches. An examination o f procurement costs found that copper was more expensive to obtain than stone material, in terms of skill, labour, and time. Considering the experimental replication of the two axe types, when the collection of firewood is factored in, the copper axes took longer to make, as well as requiring more skill, advanced technical knowledge, effort, dedicated work time, and more ancillary tools. When compared to the stone axes, copper axes—particularly the annealed axes— were not significantly more efficient in a wood-chopping task. Copper axes also required more maintenance to remain effective. Using the data generated in this study, Wittry VI-C annealed copper axes— which have been found archaeologically— can be said fulfill the requirements of a purely prestige object, as they are costly to procure and manufacture, but are completely ineffective for most practical tasks. Although the cold-worked copper axes did meet a minimum level o f functional efficiency, their overall costs show them to be utilitarian prestige objects. The primary role of these axes was played in the social sphere, displaying wealth, status, and power.

Further Reading:
Peter G. Murphy and Alice J. Murphy 2012: Chipped Stone Axes of the Archaic Southeast: An Important Step in the Advancement of Stone Tool Technology. Central States Archaeological Journal, Vol. 59, No. 2

Warren Lee Wittry 1950: A Preliminary Study of the Old Copper Complex Bachelor's Thesis, University of Wisconsin.

Tiziana Andrea Gallo 2022: Vibrant Stone: Ground Stone Celt Biographies Among the Ancestral and Historic Wendat in Southern Ontario from
the 14th to mid-17th Centuries. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Ontario

Related Content:
David Pompeani interview:byoutu.be/wxEU6VllH-g
Response to Scott Wolter / America Unearthed on the subject of Great Lakes Copper: youtu.be/H8nAJd_F8ck
On Copper mining in the Great Lakes region: youtu.be/HmStTZad1tk
Old Copper Complex overview: youtu.be/H8nAJd_F8ck

Experimental Archaeology: Making a Middle Archaic Bone Pin with Stone Tools.

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-06-30 | This wee project was inspired by the 1997 Richard Jefferies paper "Middle Archaic Bone Pins: Evidence of Mid-Holocene Regional-Scale Social Groups in the Southern Midwest." Much like bannerstones, these bone objects are elaborately decorative and have a very restricted region of use. The chronology of these artifacts has been evaluated by Andrew White in his "
Temporal Variation in Late Middle Archaic Bone Pins from 2003." These artifacts have been invoked to stretch our theoretical frameworks related to material manifestations of social identity.

Related content
Using cave systems to reconstruct the Hypsithermal: youtu.be/LNgEWP8Gfe0
Changes in hunting strategies during the Hypsithermal: youtu.be/tFWZvU9aqoQ

Ancient Copper Mining at Lake Superior, Geoscience, & the Book Great Water with Dr. David Pompeani

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-06-17 | Dr. Pompeani joined me to talk about his research on indigenous North American copper mining, the Archaic Old Copper Complex, how the Phoenicians learned sailing and how to use copper from Native American explorers, the history of research on the subject, and his new book “Great Water” which you can order here:

amazon.com/Great-Water-Lost-Mines-Superior/dp/B0CZLYSFNQ

You can see what David is up to on Instagram @davidpompeani

The scientific papers he’s published on the topic can be found at

researchgate.net/profile/David-Pompeani

Further Reading:

Vall K, Murphy C, Pompeani DP, Steinman BA, Schreiner KM, Bain DJ, DePasqual S, Wagner Z (2022). Ancient mining pollution detected in early to middle Holocene lake sediments from the Lake Superior region. Anthropocene 39, doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2022.100348

Pompeani DP, Steinman BA, Abbott MB, Pompeani KM, Reardon W, DePasqual S, Mueller RH (2021). On the Timing of the Old Copper Complex in North America: A Comparison of Radiocarbon Dates from Different Archeological Contexts. Radiocarbon 63, doi: 10.1017/RDC.2021.7

Pompeani DP (2019). Lead pollution can be detected in North America for thousands of years. Geology 47, doi: 10.1130/focus122019.1

Pompeani DP, Abbott MB, Bain DJ, DePasqual S, Finkenbinder MS (2015). Copper mining on Isle Royale 6500 to 5400 years ago identified using sediment geochemistry from McCargoe Cove, Lake Superior. Holocene 25, doi: 10.1177/0959683614557574

Why Archaeology Programs Fail to Prepare Students for Their Careers: Discussions with JT Lewis

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-05-18 | First off, JT and I want to help young archaeologists succeed in their career. Please feel encouraged to talk to us and ask for guidance. You can find me on Instagram at @nfosaaen_archaeology and JT is on twitter @jtlewis_arch. We'd love to make contact and help you find your way.

My colleague JT Lewis sat down with me to talk about how University archaeology programs are failing to prepare their students to work in the archaeological industry. We also talked about some possible solutions to these issues, what students can do to improve the technical side of their education, and some of JT's other projects (Like working with Dr. Flint Dibble to prepare for the debate with Graham Hancock on Joe Rogan last month.) This video is mostly aimed at archaeology students, but it might help people outside the industry to understand how most archaeology is done in America.

The graphs shown come from the SAA forum "Not Your Parents' Archaeology: Results and Implications of the GAC's 2023 Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines Survey"
Moderated by Karen Brunso, Julia Prince-Buitenhuys, and David Witt.
Participants were Elizabeth Bagwell, Jodi Jacobson, and JT Lewis.

Archaeologist Recap of the Hancock v. Dibble Debate and the 89th SAA Conference.

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-04-26 | The archaeology world had two events this weekend. The 89th Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in New Orleans, and the Graham Hancock vs. Flint Dibble debate on Joe Rogan. I enjoyed both thoroughly. This is a very informal, somewhat rambling recap of what I found noteworthy about each.

NOTE: When I recorded this I had just gotten done with an 8 hour drive after 4 days of non-stop archaeology presentations, and somehow I mixed up Tom Dillehay and Richard Yarnell when I talked about Monte Verde. That'll teach me not to record videos tired.

Here's the link to the debate video:
youtube.com/watch?v=-DL1_EMIw6w

Interview with Seth Grooms on Poverty Point: youtu.be/6UQ0Pk7A4vg

Blood, Crops, and Weaving in Ancient Appalachia: Archaeology of Archaic Women in East Kentucky

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-04-06 | This is a summary of a paper that had a lot of influence on the theoretical frameworks I use to interpret archaeological sites, as much for what it does right as for what I think it does very wrong. That's ok. Sometimes working through unfounded lines of evidence will guide you in a good direction. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan.

Cheryl Claassen 2011
Rock Shelters as Women's Retreats: Understanding Newt Kash
Primary available for download here: researchgate.net/publication/273042638_Rock_Shelters_as_Women's_Retreats_Understanding_Newt_Kash

Abstract:
This paper provides a cultural context for the cache of early domesticated seeds found in Newt Kash Shelter in eastern Kentucky. Based on the abundant fibers, bedding, nuts, cradleboard, bedrock mortar, shell spoons, abundance of potential medicinal plants, infrequent fauna, and arrangement of pits, Newt Kash may have been a women’s retreat place during
menstruation, birthing, and sickness, and possibly the meeting place of a medicine society. There are other possible retreat shelters in this region and elsewhere.

Amidst the Dust and Ash: Rethinking the Archaeology of Caves in Eastern America

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-03-12 | Several people had issues with the first upload's volume so I'm giving it a second shot.

Abstract:
This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic periods. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation intensity, and function. Focus is placed on using the often overlooked feature assemblages to discern these activities. Data suggest that the changing use of many caves and rockshelters is not one of longer term occupation as base camps, as has been previously argued, but rather as specialized field camps dedicated to the processing of mast resources. This shift takes place as Middle Holocene warming prompted hunter-gatherers to adopt a more logistical mobility strategy in order to take advantage of the spatio-temporal variance associated with increased mast availability. It is further argued that these sites were likely locations of women’s activities and that foraging in the Midsouth involved groups of women engaged in daily tasks centered around mast, tasks that over time imbued caves and rockshelters with symbolic meaning such that they came to function simultaneously as both processing camps and as persistent places of ritual significance in the hunter-gatherer taskscape.

the article:
researchgate.net/publication/276167843_Revisiting_the_Role_of_Caves_and_Rockshelters_in_the_Hunter-Gatherer_Taskscape_of_the_Archaic_Midsouth

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Related Content
Excavating Features: youtu.be/iyokvGlewck
Dust Cave Summary: youtu.be/Cn1EfFs6gfk
On Archaic Climate Change: youtu.be/LNgEWP8Gfe0
On Human Behavioral Ecology pt1: youtu.be/N5O9P2dXU4A
On Human Behavioral Ecology pt2:youtu.be/b_uk0P8bZcQ
On Hunter-Gatherer Theory: youtu.be/gX4nR4Qb_DM
Western Appalachian Cave Research pt. 1: youtu.be/ierw1ixMQMU
Western Appalachian Cave Research pt. 2: youtu.be/uqjCuGLzgHo

Archaeologist Reacts to Scott Wolter being a F*cking Con-artist 2: Windover and Solutrean Hypothesis

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-02-12 | Fam. I really despise this Scott Wolter guy. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He does interviews with people who are either completely ignorant or WAY out on the fringe, and I think he should feel bad about himself.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Related content
The Solutrean Hypothesis with Ancient Americas: youtu.be/2qaUyGhdJTA

What is the Clovis Culture?: youtu.be/UsfbFKaaZzc

Windover Site summary by Milo Rossi: youtube.com/watch?v=keLfvywvlzg&t=3s

ancient DNA Lectures by Eske Willerslev:
youtube.com/watch?v=yshBA5LQ8p8&t=2287s
youtube.com/watch?v=uhPCMyO8sjA&t=14s
youtube.com/watch?v=iyNdlc7lkF4

The Solutrean Hypothesis: Retracing Ancient Footsteps Across Atlantic Ice ft. Ancient Americas

Nathanael Fosaaen 2024-01-14 | WAAAAAY back in my 4th video in June 2020 I said I would talk about the Solutrean Hypothesis and then I promptly decided I wasn't that interested in putting that much time and energy into researching a topic that wasn't really that interesting to me. Years passed and I wound up becoming internet bros with the Ancient Americas channel. (check him out. He's got my favorite Youtube archaeology channel youtube.com/@AncientAmericas) Pete kindly agreed to help me research, write, and present this episode, so the style is going to be completely different from what I normally do.

The basic premise is that Bruce Bradley and Dennis Stanford considered it unlikely that the Paleoamerican cultures like Clovis and the eastern Pre-Clovis complexes were the product of immigrants from Siberia, because Siberian material culture doesn't resemble Paleoamerica at all. Paleoamerican material culture looks much more like material from western Europe between 25,000 and 16,000 years ago, and that led them to suggest that a group of Solutrean migrants following sea mammals across the Atlantic eventually made it to the Tidewater region of North America. This was a compelling hypothesis and it got a lot of attention from academia and the popular press. I was taught about it in undergrad and we were encouraged to take it seriously as a potential model for the peopling of the Americas. It has not aged well however. Were the Solutreans Graham Hancock's Lost Advanced Civilization? No. Of course not. Don't be ridiculous.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Sources:
Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley 2012: Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture

Jennifer Raff 2022: Origin: A Genetic History of The Americas

J. David Kilby 2019: A North American perspective on the Volgu Biface Cache from Upper
Paleolithic France and its relationship to the “Solutrean Hypothesis” for Clovis origins
https://www.academia.edu/en/24273014/Le_Volgu_A_North_American_Perspective_on_an_Upper_Paleolithic_Artifact_Cache

Kilby 2008: AN INVESTIGATION OF CLOVIS CACHES: CONTENT, FUNCTION, AND TECHNOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
https://www.academia.edu/2311773/An_investigation_of_Clovis_caches_Content_function_and_technological_organization

O'Brien, M.J., Boulanger, M.T., Collard, M., Buchanan, B., Tarle, L., Straus, L.G., Eren,
M.I.,
2014 On thin ice: problems with Stanford and Bradley's proposed Solutrean
colonization of North America. Antiquity 88, 606–624.

Related Content:

Eske Wilerslev presentations on archaeogenetics.
youtube.com/watch?v=yshBA5LQ8p8&t=2287s
youtube.com/watch?v=uhPCMyO8sjA&t=5s

Archaeology tools: Weeb-style. #archaeology #naruto #weebstuff

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-12-28 | Just a short process video for a Naruto-style Weeb trowel I made.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

archaeology tools #archaeology #excavation #tools

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-12-26 | ...

Mainstream Archaeologists dont want you to know about these!!!! #history #archaeology #aliens

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-12-22 | ...

Excavating a Sheeps Jaw at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney #archaeology

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-12-21 | ...

Children of Clovis: An Introduction to Dalton Paleo-Lumberjacks of the Ozarks and Mississippi River

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-12-16 | This video was predominantly inspired by a somewhat recent Bayesian model of dated Dalton sites by David Thulman. It covers the origins of the technological tradition, the role of changing Holocene environments, and the spread of the culture from its Ozark and Mississippi River Heartland.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Sources:
Thulman, David K. 2019 The Age of the Dalton Culture: a Bayesian Analysis
of the Radiocarbon Data, Southeastern Archaeology, 38:3, 171-192

Abstract:
Since a radiocarbon chronology of the Dalton culture in the Southeast was first proposed, several new sites have been dated. I propose a new chronology based on radiocarbon dates from sites in the Dalton Heartland and its eastern periphery using Bayesian statistical models in OxCal and an
analysis of the associated diagnostic projectile points. The analyses indicate that the Dalton culture probably evolved from the Clovis or Gainey phenomena about 12,680 cal BP (ca. 10,700 BP) and lasted at least until ca. 10,400 cal BP (ca. 9,200 BP), if not several centuries later. I propose early and late Dalton phases that follow changes in how Dalton points were made and resharpened. It appears that the people living to the east of the Heartland followed a different trajectory of projectile point evolution. There, notched points appear about 11,500 cal BP, while in the Heartland, true notched points do not appear in large numbers until the Graham Cave
point over 2,000 years later. The chronologies demonstrate that early, coeval, region-wide cultural changes may not have been the norm. They also raise interesting questions about how people in the Heartland and its eastern periphery interacted.

Yerkes, Richard W., and Brad H. Koldehoff 2018: New tools, new human niches: The significance of the Dalton adze and the origin of heavy-duty woodworking in the Middle Mississippi Valley of North America

Abstract:
Innovations in tool technology during the early Holocene in the North American midcontinent are related to construction of a new human niche focusing on woodlands, water travel, and improved aquatic and terrestrial
resources. Production and use of early Holocene Dalton adzes and other tools from sites and caches exemplify these adaptations. Subsistence remains are not abundant, but microwear and technological analyses of flaked stone tools can be used to infer production of dugout canoes and document trends that reflect new sustainable and resilient lifeways and complex social networks. The functions of tools from Dalton sites and tool caches in Illinois and Arkansas are contrasted with typical Clovis tools. Technological and microwear analyses reveals that the Dalton adze was made and used for heavy-duty woodworking—felling trees and likely for manufacturing dugout canoes. Dalton toolkits are highly formalized, consisting of adzes, scrapers, awls, and points used both as projectiles and knives. Large distinctive Sloan points were exchanged within emerging Dalton social networks. Dalton toolkits, often considered late PaleoIndian, are part of an Early Archaic horizon. New tools helped Dalton groups to create new niches as they settled into new woodland and riverine landscapes and laid the foundation for later Archaic and Woodland socio-economic systems.

Koldehoff, Brad and John A Walthall 2009 Dalton and the Early Holocene Midcontinent: Setting the Stage, in Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity across the Midcontinent, ed. Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier

The Appearance of Toads on Ancestral Cherokee Village Sites in the Appalachian Summit

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-11-30 | This is a summary of some experimental archaeological research done by Tom Whyte (Appalachian State University) and Matt Compton (Georgia Southern University) on the appearance of Bufonidae (toads) on sites in the Appalachian Summit region believed to be affiliated with Cherokee communities.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Citation:

Whyte, Thomas R. and J. Matthew Compton. “Explaining Toad Bones in Southern Appalachian Archaeological Deposits – Corrigendum.” American Antiquity 85 (2020): 405 - 405.

Abstract:

Toad bones, sometimes occurring in great numbers in pit features and other contexts in Native American village and mound sites in the Appalachian Summit, have been interpreted as evidence that toads were consumed, used for their purportedly hallucinogenic toad venom, placed as ritual deposits, or naturally entrapped/intrusive. A paucity or lack of bones of the head in
some contexts is suggestive of decapitation and consumption of toads. Alternatively, bones of the head may be less preservable, recoverable, or identifiable. This study examines toad remains on Appalachian Summit late precontact and contact period sites, reviews previous experimentation, and presents a new experimental study undertaken to identify agencies of accumulation. We propose that toads were regularly consumed and possibly as part of ritualized events associated with village and mound construction. The temporal and geographic restriction of this practice to the Pisgah and Qualla phases of the Appalachian Summit suggests subsistence ethnicity as alluded to in historical accounts.

Ask an Archaeologist: Books You Should Read.

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-11-18 | I had someone ask for book recommendations for archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands, so I put this reading list together real quick. It's a 50/50 mix of traditional books and edited volumes which are more like anthologies. Some are regional syntheses that summarize. Some are older and more out of date, but are still useful in context with the more recent work.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Titles and Authors:

Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology: From Colonization to Complexity
David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman

Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast: Archaeology of Alabama and the Middle South
John Walthall

Foraging in the Tennessee River Valley: 12,500 to 8,000 Years Ago
Kandace D. Hollenbach

Boone Before Boone: The Archaeological Record of Northwestern North Carolina Through 1769
Thomas R Whyte

Eastern Archaic Historicized
Kenneth E. Sassaman

Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent
Ed. Thomas Emerson, Dale McElrath, and Andrew Fortier

The Woodland Southeast
Ed. David G. Anderson and Robert C. Mainfort Jr.

Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast
Ed. Alice P. Wright and Edward R. Henry

Archaeology of the Mammoth Cave Area
Ed. Patty Jo Watson

Archaeology of the Southern Appalachians and Adjacent Watersheds
Ed. Thomas R. Whyte and Clifford Boyd Jr.

Archaeological Experiments on Blades Made From Frozen Human Feces

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-11-10 | Read the report here:
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371?via%3Dihub

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Abstract:

The ethnographic account of an Inuit man manufacturing a knife from his own frozen feces to butcher and disarticulate a dog has permeated both the academic literature and popular culture. To evaluate the validity of this claim, we tested the basis of that account via experimental archaeology. Our experiments assessed the functionality of knives made from human feces in controlled conditions that provided optimal conditions for success. However, they were not functional. While much research has shown foragers to be technologically resourceful, innovative, and savvy, we suggest that this ethnographic account should no longer be used to support that narrative.

Archaeological Changes in Hunting Before and After the Younger Dryas Onset.

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-10-22 | This summer, Christopher Moore and colleagues published a study of blood residue analysis on stone tools that provides information on what animals Paleoindigenous hunters targeted. Their dataset included 120 artifacts including Clovis, Cumberland, Simpson, Redstone, and Beaver Lake types. An as-of-yet undated Haw Creek biface tested positive for Proboscidean proteins, suggesting it is contemporaneous with or possibly older than Clovis.

Interview with Chris Moore on the Younger Dryas Onset: youtu.be/l8aB3m39nLI

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Here's the article: nature.com/articles/s41598-023-36617-z?fbclid=IwAR12pP5HzDl5slJvEsKRlVDL_H47mTqodflnE00RzjEbfwmxdozksH7bvtQ

Abstract:
Previous immunological studies in the eastern USA have failed to establish a direct connection between Paleoamericans and extinct megafauna species. The lack of physical evidence for the presence of extinct megafauna begs the question, did early Paleoamericans regularly hunt or scavenge these animals, or were some megafauna already extinct? In this study of 120 Paleoamerican stone tools from across North and South Carolina, we investigate this question using crossover immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP). We find immunological support for the exploitation of extant and extinct megafauna, including Proboscidea, Equidae, and Bovidae (possibly Bison antiquus), on Clovis points and scrapers, as well as possible early Paleoamerican Haw River points. Post-Clovis points tested positive for Equidae and Bovidae but not Proboscidea. Microwear results are consistent with projectile usage, butchery, fresh- and dry hide scraping, the use of ochre-coated dry hides for hafting, and dry hide sheath wear. This study represents the first direct evidence of the exploitation of extinct megafauna by Clovis and other Paleoamerican cultures in the Carolinas and more broadly, across the eastern United States, where there is generally poor to non-existent faunal preservation.
Future CIEP analysis of stone tools may provide evidence on the timing and demography of megafaunal collapse leading to eventual extinction.

For Regular Viewers - Diving Deep into My Comments

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-10-14 | The Youtube Comments section is a jungle of great questions, ridiculous misinformation, and whatever the hell this is. I made this mostly for my own amusement, but longtime viewers might enjoy it too. All of the comments are direct quotes with the original spelling and punctuation.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

UPDATE!!! White Sands Footprints 2: The Quickening - New Dates and Methods on a 22,000 Year-Old Site

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-10-07 | We got what I asked for quicker than expected! The team working on the White Sands site in New Mexico have provided dates based on terrestrial pollen as well as Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) methods to refute the claim that the original dates were distorted by the reservoir effect.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Previous Relevant Content
My first White Sands video: youtu.be/z9kWZmwmudY
On how carbon dating works: youtu.be/5O-OH-dT880

Abstract:
Human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA, reportedly date to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago according to radiocarbon dating of seeds from the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa. These ages remain controversial because of potential old carbon reservoir effects that could compromise their accuracy. We present new calibrated 14C ages of terrestrial pollen collected from the same stratigraphic horizons as those of the Ruppia seeds, along with optically stimulated luminescence ages of sediments from within the human footprint–bearing sequence, to evaluate the veracity of the seed ages. The results show that the chronologic framework originally established for the White Sands footprints is robust and reaffirm that humans were present in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum.

What Was Clovis Culture and Where Did it Go?

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-09-23 | The way archaeological cultures like the famous Clovis Culture are discussed can be very misleading for people outside of archaeology. This video is a discussion of what an archaeological culture really is, and more importantly, what it is not. These misunderstandings make it very easy to twist the archaeological data into pseudo-archaeological stories that are not grounded in reality.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Irish Bronze Age Zooarchaeology, Old World v. New World Archaeology, and Other Shop-Talk

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-09-16 | This is a fairly unstructured conversation with my old friend and colleague Dr. Erin Crowley-Champoux who is a zooarchaeologist working in Ireland with a focus on food security. This is essentially a recording of how our conversations go when we hang out at pubs in Dublin so I think it provides some insight to people outside of the archaeological profession what issues we’re interested in. The whole thing builds momentum as we go and honestly I think things get more interesting in the second half.

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New info on the White Sands Footprints and Other Updates

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-08-21 | I know I've been slow to get these updates made but they're finally here! There IS such a thing as a forensic geologist, the LSU mounds probably aren't as old as previously reported, and the White Sands footprints might also be a bit younger than previously thought.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Videos referenced here:
Scott Wolter is a Goddamned Con-Artist: youtu.be/ege0YCq4Oog

The LSU Mounds: youtu.be/Bu1KUUl8xTE

White Sands Footprints: youtu.be/z9kWZmwmudY

Here's the response paper to the Ellwood study on the LSU mounds: Http://onlinedigeditions.com/publication/?i=768625&article_id=4385027&view=articleBrowser

Excavating Faunal Material Time-lapse: Ness of Brodgar Structure 27

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-07-21 | just a quick time-lapse video of a mandible I excavated in Orkney this morning. juvenile caprine.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Ozarchaic Bison Hunters: Calf Creek Archaeology at the Hudson Sites

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-04-01 | In the late summer of 2015 I went to Northwest Arkansas to work on a pair of archaeological sites that are now known as the Hudson sites. This is a brief summary of what we learned by excavating there, focusing on the Ozarchaic Calf Creek component which ranges from central Texas to northern Missouri. I want to thank my field director Pritam Chowdhury for loaning me the "Calf Creek Horizon" book and the site reports for the Hudson sites.

Here's a link to the Calf Creek book. I'm sure you can get it cheaper elsewhere. I'm not an author on this book and I don't get a cut from sales, but the proceeds *do* go to the Native American Scholarship Fund.
tamupress.com/book/9781623499624/the-calf-creek-horizon

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Related Video Content

To get a real big-picture look at the Calf Creek phase, you really need to watch this presentation.
A Zoom lecture on Calf Creek by Dr. Jon C. Lohse : youtube.com/watch?v=doH8q20oWh0

How stone tools are made: youtu.be/7MLJNTenKq4
Basic stone tool analysis pt 1: youtu.be/SnL_Wmi-ED8
Basic stone tool analysis pt 2: youtu.be/SHN0pVPvOBs

Archaeologist Reacts to America Unearthed: Scott Wolter is a Con Artist and This Show is Garbage

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-03-24 | I've been good and pissed off about America Unearthed for at least a year now and I decided to air my grievances in reaction video format. Scott Wolter uses some extremely dishonest tactics to convince his audience that Minoans came to Michigan and took a metric buttload of copper back to the Mediterranean to fuel the bronze age some 5000 years ago. His math is bogus. His methods are ignorant. His arguments are invalid. I've had it with his Hancock-grade bullshit.

***CORRECTION***
Wolter's original career was as a concrete specialist, and he was apparently part of the analysis of the concrete at the World Trade Center after 9/11, which is how he claims to be a "Forensic Geologist." Forensics describes methodologies involved in criminal investigation. It does not apply to high-tech analytical methods outside of criminal investigation contexts.

Previous videos relevant to the discussion:
Ancient Egyptians were mining American Copper? :youtu.be/CBN6HfzCRcU

Prehistoric Copper Mining in North America:
youtu.be/HmStTZad1tk

Ancient Coppersmiths of the Great Lakes: youtu.be/H8nAJd_F8ck

Ancient Americas did a good summary of the Old Copper Complex here: youtube.com/watch?v=cpmMY_Rcbd8&t=5s

Jackson Crawford's analysis of the Kensington Runestone: youtube.com/watch?v=aWvRtlyTaUc

Indigenous Pets, Specialized Weapons, and Site Disturbance: Ask An Archaeologist #7

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-03-18 | In this video I answer several of your questions about site formation processes, what animals eastern Native American groups kept as pets, hunting technologies, hunter-gatherers, and the "civilization" concept.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Other videos relevant to these questions:

Problems with the "Civilization" concept: youtu.be/PiFY-bCOIgw
Human Behavioral Ecology: youtu.be/N5O9P2dXU4A
References I mention in this video

To Render the God of Water Propitious:
https://www.academia.edu/6612754/To_Render_the_God_of_the_Water_Propitious_Hunting_and_Human_Animal_Relations_in_the_Northeast_Woodlands

Poverty Point copper sourcing:
sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X16300669

pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/311230/1-s2.0-S2352409X16X00028/1-s2.0-S2352409X16300669/Mark_A_Hill_Poverty_Point_2016.pdf?X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEJf%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIQCcBZuWKcyZix5W2A8mMJI%2Byv4WnU3l39P9hApye2ZU1gIgIamzxa%2BvuY4EbPmsYXkrhSWQ5UG91eiOM8z9YWyYEFkqswUITxAFGgwwNTkwMDM1NDY4NjUiDMAWXiweAvygr4gd5yqQBUE6nakGdKxefg7YAwxQu3NFxpWgv10AU%2FGFVSjtojM0MkHBiuKxrCLIOLSTindUbq9P7l%2FAwPlyW8bfNtJ%2FMKHQw8VYYm1ickpnzssJfQLMHL2JZMzDwgWlxmj0bppOFdxyEWOIwdiqJFZPAb%2F%2B16ZFufgxcUyge3Qck81%2BfvtsoiMjE8s6B7JVYCRWIj489s%2Bp5HcwhYXQ14Yo3P%2B%2FnaJNq6WyVgGR9aoRQt0NMMlhmsewnqnZAdO7%2Bi3Tn8VCIu4t%2Bb2COrs7W7jotYQWziw6QUX6SVFn1iirXRl3zS7IQHcRoha8Us%2Bzg9CVcEdiFpRoZ845%2BiyiKlDZwwAApi8rP4Xh7Ny5HuUS4IuV2wkn3TwyFGOhwSINQZypgNHyMFaY%2FHcYRZuvbEa15uiEQ16CxASCnmxgj81FHYtznRx06VwPFWWZyL19Tgq%2FgSFwqj7dUKkWfIB4KFMuxDdHtm6QwX2lV92vrDoJG%2FsbhTktPg0CMu4wP5ddw230oslgN%2Bq0Qu2I1Umve951GmjRBvO7ydXB0SZ3VoFk%2B%2BGX%2FyrF07A03qLkMtTEJeJplA934z1GqN02Ag6qfxMZTIyN72OVtRMp830x2Ge6Ez%2BvK%2FGTnQOTGKBcJLyQYf9hWpVpson6nSTkkwit7Tkr0txvyA4ZrPSzkiA9sTWqEzGY2hOQR%2FUhFn6eEwCUTrJE%2FwgVHgCbxzf7yv9YJ7YFJW%2FQnBVa1ofoWbnYmg8fk9uWGwUwJ8j70Hm61jn9vcMQGksU%2B0mdPDk1Z4rkMtoaAsFsS7Ovai%2FyrOy9AFNOW4IhrKUdf6N5NTrekp1qVqpuIyS1%2B8t%2FIcJ%2FVDFdOA5%2BYC8L0UD54Y8ZvSrFousfrq2BcX3vML2UpKAGOrEBETpXA7MCU0gIbumR8qxr1CDXHdDWUlmsxFu1VdTQ%2BAM89jNjIeJ8Iu5v2dgflMl9lIN1qpwWZTE%2BS1lHrJ%2BX02YSTEcZugStot25Lwa4WW0eH65MBUumzxUUq5uDn12ukuJPy92U9oJfv0i9aHK1tijHVJTC6vBMjSnFun5pdpAk8Ea1cBfJ%2FF0jUcLgm1R%2Berg6Wrocryv6EOvTheOoZV25LTeHCjmoeVn9sjINxc6b&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20230308T232221Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQ3PHCVTYVUBBBEH7%2F20230308%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=34350a38a65bd87e673a98396de1681c7cdf173fea6b58a25e025edebd5f7650&hash=cfb799d8239f764730b08bb8bb9e9d2730dde5b798bce26a837b060a39aa1e1b&host=68042c943591013ac2b2430a89b270f6af2c76d8dfd086a07176afe7c76c2c61&pii=S2352409X16300669&tid=pdf-a7bd10d3-badc-4716-bc23-21b6882d46f4&sid=532fe3251afe95462c5bd208b117c0d0be49gxrqa&type=client

The Archaeology of Plants: Archaeology 101 - Paleoethnobotany

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-01-28 | My archaeology 101 series is an adaptation of some of the lectures I gave in Intro to Archaeology classes in grad school. This is a very brief introduction to the archaeological sub-discipline of paleoethnobotany, which focuses on human interactions with the world of plants. This baseline information may be necessary to understand later videos.

Here's the video where I talk about archaeological biases, like preservation bias: youtu.be/jruT3FcJ708

The Younger Dryas Impact, Geoarchaeology, and Pre-Clovis Culture, with Dr. Christopher R. Moore

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-01-20 | In light of the increased interest from "Ancient Apocalypse", I had the privilege to sit down with Dr. Christopher Moore earlier this week to discuss his research on the Younger Dryas comet impact, Pre-Clovis archaeology, and his specialization in Geoarchaeology.
Dr. Moore works for the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program in South Carolina, and his research on these subjects are well published.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Some of the sources we discussed are linked below:

"Sediment Cores from White Pond, South Carolina, contain a Platinum Anomaly, Pyrogenic Carbon Peak, and Coprophilous Spore Decline at 12.8 ka"
nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51552-8?fbclid=IwAR087cgA-Ix7mkXFoiilMdPppcq_L1Xp1O8kGUasgjBOynhWAunl8y2Og_8

"Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 2. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments"
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/695704

"Multiple lines of evidence for possible Human population decline/settlement reorganization during the early Younger Dryas"
researchgate.net/publication/229344558_Multiple_lines_of_evidence_for_possible_Human_population_declinesettlement_reorganization_during_the_early_Younger_Dryas

"Widespread platinum anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas onset in North American sedimentary sequences"
nature.com/articles/srep44031?fbclid=IwAR3BiOLIh9zr_32BQV3y3V3kdbnmMRepyGC6X5RYtPAtzcsmH-uXzGYeH0A

Dr. Moore has also appeared on the Seven Ages podcast where he covers other details of the impact with colleagues
sevenages.org/podcasts/seven-ages-audio-journal-episode-33-the-younger-dryas-impact-hypothesis/?fbclid=IwAR1SG2O2AbhmXxe852aibhg9GvQ8EeKjDVd_NLhQESrE3Lwthhm3XDLZhNw

An Ever-Fading Glimpse of All Eternity: An Ozarchaic Faunal Analysis of Gray Fox Cave, Arkansas

Nathanael Fosaaen 2023-01-14 | "An Ever-Fading Glimpse of All Eternity: A Zooarchaeological Analysis of Ozarchaic Fauna from Gray Fox Cave, Arkansas" is a presentation of research that I gave at the 78th annual meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Little Rock Arkansas.

This study deals with how Hunter-Gatherers from the southern Ozarks dealt with changing climates in the hypsithermal through the lens of hunting and trapping practices, as well as faunal recourse processing methods. I also conducted a comparative analysis between Gray Fox cave and Dust Cave, Alabama, Modoc Shelter, Illinois, and Little Freeman Cave, Missouri.

My cover image was painted by Kilan Jacobs, Grayhorse Village, Tsizhu Washtake Clan, Osage Nation

Some of the artists' handles from my slides:
@tawa_kaxe (Kilan Jacobs)
@kindra_swafford
@bserway

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Zooarchaeology 101: A Guide for Calculating MNI and MNE

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-10-17 | This is just a step-by-step tutorial on MNI (Minimum Number of Individuals) and (Minimum Number of Elements) MNE estimations that Zooarchaeologists use. It's more geared towards archaeology students than most of my content.

Related Content:

Zooarchaeology 101: youtu.be/jruT3FcJ708

Archaic Climate Change: Reconstructing the Hypsithermal with caves.

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-10-13 | The Hypsithermal was a period of warming and drying in the mid-continental region of North America. This is an overview of some of the methods we use to reconstruct these climate patterns in the deep past focusing on the Middle Ozarchaic region/period.

Cited Sources:
Denniston, Rhawn F., Luis A González, Yemane Asmerom, Mark K Reagan, and Heather Recelli-Snyder
2000 Speleothem carbon isotopic records of Holocene environments in the Ozark Highlands, USA. Quaternary International 67(1):21–27.

Jones, Rachel A., John W. Williams, and Stephen T. Jackson
2017 Vegetation history since the last glacial maximum in the Ozark highlands (USA): A new record from Cupola Pond, Missouri. Quaternary Science Reviews 170:174–187.

Ask an Archaeologist #6: A Rant About Shellfishing in Winter, Poison Fishing, and Fur Trapping

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-10-01 | I got several good questions about my last video on Human Behavioral Ecology and Optimal Foraging Theory, so this is mostly just a response to those.

Content referenced in this video:
Human Behavioral Ecology pt. 1: youtu.be/N5O9P2dXU4A
Zooarchaeology 101: youtu.be/jruT3FcJ708
Lewis Binford: youtu.be/H_oaJ44CwQ8

Relevant Citations
Reidhead, Van A.
1981 A Linear Programming Model of Prehistoric Subsistence Optimization: a Southeastern Indiana Example. Prehistory Research Series, Vol. 6(1). Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.

Andy White’s blog post:

andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/bigfoot-bone-stacks-and-binfords-body-part-utility-indices

Squirrels are the Archaic Taco Bell: Hunter-Gatherer Foraging and Optimal Hunting Strategies.

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-09-24 | Some overview and explanation of Human Behavioral Ecology and some of the analytical methods we use to address foraging strategies practiced thousands of years ago.

Related Content:
Zooarchaeology pt. 1: youtu.be/jruT3FcJ708
Hunter-Gatherers 101: youtu.be/gX4nR4Qb_DM

Some references:

Winterhalder, Bruce
1981 Optimal Foraging Strategies and Hunter-Gatherer Research in Anthropology: Theory and Models. in Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses. Edited by Bruce Winterhalder and Eric Alden Smith, pp. 13-35. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, IL.

Thomas, David Hurst
2008 Native American Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia: I. The Theoretical Framework. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History 88(1):1-341.

Weitzel, Elic M.
2019 Declining Foraging Efficiency in the Middle Tennessee River Valley Prior to Initial Domestication. American Antiquity 84(2):191-214.

Ugan, Andrew
2005 ArchaeologyDoes Size Matter? Body Size, Mass Collecting, and Their Implications for Understanding Prehistoric Foraging Behavior. American Antiquity 70(1):75-89.

Fosaaen, Nathanael G., "No Tunes Chime Amidst the Bones: A Zooarchaeological Analysis of Saltpeter Cave (3NW29), an Ozarchaic Bluffshelter in Northwest Arkansas. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2022.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/6490/

Are the Louisiana State Campus mounds older than we thought?

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-09-15 | New information about this site is discussed here: youtu.be/utWlpLCvviU

A recent study cited below claims that the mounds on Louisiana State University's campus have their origins in repeatedly used funeral pyres dating to the Dalton culture as much as 11,000 years ago. This would make these mounds the oldest monumental structures on the continent.

Reference:
Brooks B. Ellwood, Sophie Warny, Rebecca A. Hackworth, Suzanne H. Ellwood, Jonathan H. Tomkin, Samuel J. Bentley, Dewitt H. Braud, and Geoffrey C. Clayton

2022 The LSU Campus Mounds, With Construction Beginning At ~11,000 Bp, Are The Oldest Known Extant Man-Made Structures In The Americas, American Journal of Science

Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology 101

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-08-20 | This is a brief overview of how and why radiocarbon dating works, and some of the details that we have to consider when interpreting our radiocarbon dates. It is based on some of the lectures I've taught at University of Tennessee, Knoxville and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Archaeology 101: Zooarchaeology pt. 2. Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS)

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-08-13 | Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) is a relatively new method of identifying animal and human remains when those remains have been damaged or modified beyond visual recognition. This is a brief explanation of how it works.

References:

Krista McGrath, Keri Rowsell, Christian Gates St-Pierre, Andrew Tedder,
George Foody, Carolynne Roberts, Camilla Speller, & Matthew Collins
2019 Identifying Archaeological Bone via Non-Destructive ZooMS and the
Materiality of Symbolic Expression: Examples from Iroquoian Bone
Points.

file:///C:/Users/fosaa/OneDrive/Pictures/Archaeology%20Videos/Zooms/Mcgrath%20et%20al..pdf

Courtney Culley, Anneke Janzen, Samantha Brown, Mary E. Prendergast,
Ceri Shipton, Emmanuel Ndiema, Michael D. Petraglia, Nicole Boivin ,
Alison Crowther

2021 Iron Age hunting and herding in coastal eastern Africa: ZooMS
identification of domesticates and wild bovids at Panga ya Saidi, Kenya

file:///C:/Users/fosaa/OneDrive/Pictures/Archaeology%20Videos/Zooms/Mcgrath%20et%20al..pdf

Archaeology 101: Zooarchaeology 1

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-03-20 | This is a brief introduction to Zooarchaeology, the kinds of questions it can help answer, and a few musings on alien sculptures.

Ancient Astronaut Theorists: Wyatt Rowe and Texas Toast Tom.

Further Reading:

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez 2018 "An Introduction to Zooarchaeology"

Experimental Archaeology

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-03-10 | Just some musings on experimental archaeology, and how the public can best contribute to ongoing archaeological research.

Here's some of the experimental archaeology youtube content I've found.
youtube.com/watch?v=1kzFaCpKfpk

youtube.com/watch?v=1TDKl099CU4

Ask an Archaeologist #5: Horses, Arrows, and Ignored Sites

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-02-13 | A long overdue answer to some questions I was asked back in July. Better late than never I guess. This one covers Horseback riding in the americas, what real arrowheads look like, portable art, and a handful of topics more esoteric, if such topics exist.

Cahokia Field Trip: The Mississippian Cultures First City

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-01-30 | I went to Cahokia a few weeks back and improvised for once. Cahokia is the first city of the Mississippian culture, which formed around 1100 years ago near the modern day city of St. Louis. The Temple Mound here is bigger than the Great Pyramid at Giza. It features nearly 100 earthworks and a Woodhenge that was reconstructed five times over the use-life of the city.

Ancient Americas has since released a much more comprehensive summary of Cahokia Archaeology which you can find here: youtu.be/iciOvaIm51M
He corrected me on something I got wrong: Mound 72 is associated with an older woodhenge to the south of Monk's Mound, not to the west where Woodhenge III is located.

Archaeology 101: Stratigraphy and Spatial Control

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-01-24 | One of the most obvious differences between scientific archaeology and making a mess is attention to context in excavation methodologies. This video explains the importance of professional levels of precision.

Related Content
Dust Cave: youtu.be/Cn1EfFs6gfk

Further Reading

Mark R. Harrington 1960, Ozark Bluff-Dwellers: Indian Notes and Monographs vol. XII

Simek, Jan, Sarah A. Blankenship, Alan Cressler, Joseph C. Douglas, Amy Wallace,
Daniel Weinand, and Heather Welborn 2012, The Prehistoric Cave Art and Archaeology of Dunbar Cave, Montgomery County, Tennessee

Archaeology 101: Arrowheads, Knives, and Spears - Lithic Analysis pt. 2

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-01-10 | An introductory overview of morphological analysis of Projectile Points used in the Eastern Woodlands.

Related Content:
Lithic Analysis part 1: youtu.be/SnL_Wmi-ED8
Knapping Demonstration: youtu.be/7MLJNTenKq4

Cambron and Hulse's Point Type guide for Alabama: gutenberg.org/files/39974/39974-h/39974-h.htm

Archaeology 101: Lithic Analysis

Nathanael Fosaaen 2022-01-05 | The Archaeology 101 series is basically a youtube version of the labs that I've taught at Tennessee and Arkansas. They're oriented towards the hands-on elements of artifact analysis. This first one deals with lithics, and debitage in particular.

Related content:
Knapping demonstration: youtu.be/7MLJNTenKq4

The First Society: An Introduction to Hunter-Gatherers

Nathanael Fosaaen 2021-10-07 | WARNING: This video is about analytical methods in archaeology. It is also introductory, so broad generalizations are necessary to introduce these concepts. Exceptions exist.

This is effectively a summary with commentary of a paper by Peter Rowley-Conwy explaining the problems with common perceptions of hunter-gatherers and unilineal cultural evolutionary theory.

Further Reading:
Rowley–Conwy, Peter A. 2001 Time, Change and the Archaeology of Hunter–Gatherers: How Original is the 'Original Affluent Society'? In Hunter–Gatherers: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Catherine Panter-Brick, Robert H. Layton, and Peter Rowley-Conwy, pp. 39–72. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

Binford, Lewis R.
1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs' Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological
Site Formation. American Antiquity 45:1–17.

23,000 year old Footprints in White Sands New Mexico: The First Americans pt. 3

Nathanael Fosaaen 2021-09-25 | LATEST UPDATE 10/7/2023 : youtu.be/w0eRZ6PBMNU

First update video 8/21/2023 : youtu.be/utWlpLCvviU

Recently archaeologists radiocarbon dated seeds embedded in fossil human footprints that provide strong evidence of humans arriving in the American Southwest before 20,000 years ago, adding to a growing body of evidence that humans were here during the Last Glacial Maximum, before the ice-free corridor was open. Even with the supplemental materials, the paper is extremely simple and straightforward.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

First Americans pt.1: youtu.be/XichPm-y-qs
First Americans pt. 2 : youtu.be/RtLqFral-OU
Possible 30,000 year old archaeological site in Mexican cave: youtu.be/MeAZIkNuhIs

Further Reading:

Bennett, Matthew R., David Bustos, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Kathleen B. Springer, Thomas M. Urban, Vance T. Holliday, Sally C. Reynolds, Marcin Budka, Jeffrey S. Honke, Adam M. Hudson, Brendan Fenerty, Clare Connelly, Patrick J. Martinez, Vincent L. Santucci, Daniel Odess,

2021 Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum. Science 373(6562):1528-1531

Oaks Ablaze: Stone Cauldrons of Appalachia

Nathanael Fosaaen 2021-07-01 | In the mid-2000s a debate re-emerged over whether carved soapstone predated the invention of pottery in the Eastern Woodlands. This is an explanation of the arguments as they were set out at the time. Soapstone is hugely important to the most profound monumental culture of ancient North America, so if you're unfamiliar, look at my videos about monumentality and Poverty Point.

Instagram: instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology

Methods and Madness: youtu.be/6MvhlW3STVc
Mast Resources: youtu.be/jB4qzYYkS94

Further Reading:

Truncer, James
2004 Steatite Vessel Age and Occurrence in Temperate Eastern North America, American Antiquity, 69:3, pp. 487-513

Sassaman, Kenneth E.
2006 Dating and Explaining Soapstone Vessels: A Comment on Truncer, American Antiquity, 71:1 , pp. 141-156

Truncer, James
2006 Taking Variation Seriously: The Case of Steatite Vessel Manufacture, American Antiquity, 71:1 pp. 157-163