This paper reviews studies of phenotypic inheritance and microevolutionary processes in archaeological populations using data on cranial and dental phenotypic variation, often referred to as paleogenetics or biodistance analysis. The estimation of biological distances between populations, or among individuals within populations, is one component of bioarchaeological research on past populations. In this overview, five approaches that focus on morphological variation within cemeteries are summarized: kinship and cemetery structure analysis, postmarital residence analysis, sample aggregate phenotypic variability, temporal microchronology, and age-structured phenotypic variation. Previous research, theoretical justifications, and methods are outlined for each topic. Case studies are presented that illustrate these theoretical and methodological bases, as well as demonstrate the kinds of inferences possible using these approaches. Kinship and cemetery structure analysis seeks to identify the members of family groups within larger cemeteries or determine whether cemeteries were kin-structured. Analysis of sex-specific phenotypic variation allows estimation of postmarital residence practices, which is important for understanding other aspects of prehistoric social organization. Analysis of aggregate phenotypic variability can be used to infer site formation processes or cemetery catchment area. The study of temporal microchronologies can be used to evaluate provisional archaeological chronologies or study microevolutionary processes such as adaptive selection or changing patterns of gene flow. Finally, age-structured phenotypic variation can be reflective of selection processes within populations or it can be used as a measure of morbidity, growth arrest, and early mortality within past populations. Use of phenotypic data as a genotypic proxy is theoretically sound, even at small scales of analysis.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajpa.20517

Phenotypic approaches for understanding patterns of intracemetery biological variation.

Between A.D. 900 and 1150, more than 200,000 conifer trees were used to build the prehistoric great houses of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, in what is now a treeless landscape. More than one-fifth of these timbers were spruce (Picea) or fir (Abies) that were hand-carried from isolated mountaintops 75–100 km away. Because strontium from local dust, water, and underlying bedrock is incorporated by trees, specific logging sites can be identified by comparing 87Sr/86Sr ratios in construction beams from different ruins and building periods to ratios in living trees from the surrounding mountains. 87Sr/86Sr ratios show that the beams came from both the Chuska and San Mateo (Mount Taylor) mountains, but not from the San Pedro Mountains, which are equally close. Incorporation of logs from two sources in the same room, great house, and year suggest stockpiling and intercommunity collaboration at Chaco Canyon. The use of trees from both the Chuska and San Mateo mountains, but not from the San Pedro Mountains, as early as A.D. 974 suggests that selection of timber sources was driven more by regional socioeconomic ties than by a simple model of resource depletion with distance and time.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/98/21/11891.full.pdf

Strontium isotopes reveal distant sources of architectural timber in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Using the occupation histories of 3,176 habitation sites, new estimates of maize-agriculture productivity, and an analysis of over 1,700 construction timbers, we examine the historical ecology of Pueblo peoples during their seven-century occupation (A.D. 600‐1300) of a densely settled portion of the Mesa Verde archaeological region. We identify two cycles of population growth and decline, the earlier and smaller peaking in the late-A.D. 800s, the later and larger in the mid-A.D. 1200s. We also identify several episodes of immigration. Formation of aggregated settlements, which we term community centers, is positively correlated with increasing population and the time elapsed in each settlement cycle, and it persists during periods of regional population decline, but it does not correlate with climatic variation averaged over periods. Architectural and land-use practices depleted pinyon-juniper woodlands during the first cycle, but more stable field systems and greater recycling of construction timber resulted in more sustainable management of wood resources during the second cycle, despite much higher population densities. Our estimates for maize production are lower than previous estimates, especially for the A.D. 1200s, when population reached its peak in the study area. Even so, considerable potential agricultural production remained unused in the decades that immediately preceded the complete depopulation of our study area.

Historical ecology in the Mesa Verde region: results from the village ecodynamics project

marco a. janssen, t imothy a. kohler , and marten scheffer Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, Indiana University, 408 N. Indiana Ave., Bloomington, Ind. 47408-3799, U.S.A. (maajanss@indiana.edu)/Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, P.O. Box 644910, Pullman, Wash. 99164-4910, U.S.A. (tako@wsu.edu)/ Department of Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8080, NL-6700 DD Wageningen, The Netherlands (marten.scheffer@aqec.wkao.wau.nl). 26 v 03

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/379261

Sunk-cost effects and vulnerability to collapse in ancient societies

The study of warfare in the ancient Pueblos of the U.S. Southwest has become politicized and contentious, and southwestern data are only rarely used to address larger anthropological theories of war. A cross-cultural model of violence proposed by Carol and Melvin Ember (1992) suggests that war in pre-state societies is predicted by resource unpredictability and socialization for fear. The Ember and Ember model is evaluated using syntheses of southwestern warfare by Steven LeBlanc (1999), environmental variability by Jeffrey Dean (1988, 1996), and political history by Stephen Lekson (1999). The fit between the southwestern data and the model is close, and supports the Ember and Ember model.

/pdf/war-in-the-southwest-war-in-the-world-5g31js8yjq.pdf

War in the Southwest, War in the World

The inventory and analysis of 4,294 pieces of wood remaining in Pueblo Bonito are described. This site, long a keystone for interpreting the Chacoan Phenomenon in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico, reveals a fascinating history in the procurement, use, and reuse of wood through time. The long use of the site portrays a complex picture of wood procurement for construction from the A.D. 800s through the early A.D. 1100s, and its reuse in both prehistoric and historic times. Major construction periods are tree-ring dated to the mid-A.D. 800s, between A.D. 1047 and 1049, and between A.D. 1077 and 1082. Many of the construction events appear causally related to decade-long wet periods, when food surplus could accumulate. The use of wood at Pueblo Bonito mirrors a larger system of cultural behavior important for our interpretation of the development and demise of the Chacoan system.

Dabney Ford

Papers

The Chaco Wood Project: The Chronometric Reappraisal of Pueblo Bonito