Showing papers in "Journal of Anthropological Archaeology in 2009"

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors derived, quantified and tested a series of basic predictions about the effects of group size, occupation duration and habitat quality on mobility strategies using a substantial ethnographic dataset.

TL;DR: The transfer of rank-based society at K2 developed into class distinction at Mapungubwe has received less attention as mentioned in this paper, but it is well known that rank based societies in southern Africa first developed in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, and the new elite used the unique Zimbabwe birdstones to establish their legitimacy.

TL;DR: Eerkens et al. as discussed by the authors used the accumulated copying error model to predict negative drift in archaeological data due to the proportional nature of compounded copying errors (i.e., neutral mutations), and the multiplicative process of cultural transmission.

TL;DR: In this article, Strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope data from archaeological human tooth enamel from Nasca trophy heads from Aja, Cahuachi, Cantayo, Majoro Chico and Paredones, and from individuals buried in Nasca cemeteries at Cahuachina, Chico, and Majorco Chico elucidate the geographic origins and paleodiet of trophy heads in the Nazca Drainage.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the question of changes in residence and place of origin among the inhabitants of the landscape of south-central Sweden and focus specifically on the area known as Falbygden where an extraordinary concentration of megalithic tombs from the Neolithic preserves the skeletal remains of many individuals.

TL;DR: In this paper, an integrative approach that emphasizes the role of the built environment as the context for interactions through which social structures are created, transformed, and reproduced is presented to examine how buildings structure patterns of movement and encounter that allow social actors to engage in or avoid particular forms of interaction.

TL;DR: A new interpretation of early stone-tool use by hominins at Olduvai depicts them as involved in battering activities (using pounding tools) rather than making cutting butchering tools as is commonly inferred in most other Plio-Pleistocene sites where lithics appear associated to faunal remains as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this article, four material culture categories are considered with the aim of characterizing Hittite imperial relationships in Late Bronze Age Anatolia and northern Syria, including pottery traditions and their degree of susceptibility for central influence, diachronic settlement developments, the distribution of imperial administrative technology and an ideological discourse carried out through landscape monuments.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the intersection of antagonistic, diplomatic, subordinate, and kinship relationships and discussed how these overlapping networks contributed to dynamic changes in the Classic period.

TL;DR: In this paper, a methodology for identifying and studying shamanism based on cross-cultural regularities in shamanic tools (sacra) and shamanic experiences is presented, and applied to the Casas Grandes region and Pottery Mound, both from the North American Southwest, indicates that shamanic ritual was likely present during the late prehistoric occupation of the region.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used surface archaeology, GIS, and two straightforward spatial statistics, nearest-neighbor and variance-to-mean ratios, to provide a robust, objective picture of population aggregation and dispersal.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the centralised hierarchy that emerged at the beginning of the Kofun (mounded tomb) period in Japan can be explained by the locations that the polities to be hierarchised occupy and the differences in the topological potentials that these locations generate.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the relationship between social boundaries, territoriality and ancestor veneration during the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1450 AD) in the Rapayan Valley of the Central Andes of Peru.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the raw material used to produce projectile points at least sometimes moved across the Plains independently of material used for making most other kinds of flaked stone tools, raising serious questions about the validity of widespread views of Paleoindian mobility.

TL;DR: Haak et al. as mentioned in this paper presented a detailed study of antemortem and perimortem trauma in a group of Corded Ware skeletons from four multiple graves and gave the most probable interpretation of the site, based upon all available bioarchaeological evidence.

TL;DR: Lowland Mayan political economies are cosmopolitical economies, with knowledge (symbolic capital) especially astro-calendrical knowledge, and ostensible control of time evolving as the basis for Classic wealth, power, and dynastic legitimacy.

TL;DR: This article explored Native American responses to Spanish colonialism through an analysis of multiple lines of evidence concerning subsistence practices, diet, and health in the Salinas Pueblo area of central New Mexico.

TL;DR: In this article, a case-study of northeast Californian hunter-fisher-gatherers is presented to understand the factors generating long-term diversity in local material culture, and the extent to which branching and reticulation explain variation in four distinct technological traditions (basketry, cradles, ceremonial dress and earth-lodges).

TL;DR: In this article, changes in the diversity of temporal types of North American projectile points are modeled to reveal evolutionary patterns of origination and extinction, and extinction is modeled as gradual winnowing of less efficient types.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the possibility of using optimal foraging theory, as representative of the hunting behaviour of hunter-gatherer groups, in the accurate objective estimation of the catchment areas of a site.

TL;DR: This article analyzed two pottery assemblages from Sai Island, north Sudan, revealing dramatic shifts in the scale of cultural spheres and the nature of cross-cultural interaction between 5000 BC (Khartoum Variant) and 2600 BC (Pre-Kerma).

TL;DR: This paper presented settlement and subsistence data that highlight the role of floodplain resources in the development of Gulf Olmec politico-economic complexity and support a non-agricultural alternative to traditional models of Early Formative Gulf lowlands center.

TL;DR: The authors developed an index of defense (DI) based on commonly invoked constituent measures of defensiveness, such as visibility, elevation, accessibility and area, to evaluate the contribution of site location and architectural features.

TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that folk beliefs in early modern northern Finland can be understood in terms of local perception and engagement with the material world, and they are, at least in the specific case discussed in this paper, indicative of two-way relatedness between people and various constituents of the world.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the social structure of an Early Bronze Age society whose members were buried at the necropolis of Mokrin (Serbia, Southeastern Europe), by comparative analysis of musculo-skeletal markers (MSM) of activity and social status as induced on the basis of grave contents.

TL;DR: The authors reviewed the chronology and stratigraphy of the Middle Son valley and presented a model that hypothesizes the temporal sequence of important lithic assemblages from excavated and surface contexts.

TL;DR: In this article, it was suggested that a more fruitful approach to understand the evolution of northern Iroquoian groups is to be found in ethnogenesis theory as described by Moore (1994, 2001).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the nature of utilitarian bone-artifact crafting from the perspective of an unusual assemblage of manufacturing debitage dated to the Terminal Classic, which contains unprecedented quantities of debris from the production of utilitarian artifacts, primarily bone perforators (needles, pins, awls).

TL;DR: The authors apply the dual-processual model to a data-rich environment to elucidate to a greater degree how each of these power strategies operates, and how these strategies change over time.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined storage facilities utilizing a digital planimeter to evaluate the volume and morphology of storage pits in the Jomon period (ca. 13,750-500 cal. BC).