Showing papers in "Journal of Anthropological Archaeology in 2020"

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an institutional framework for analyzing synchronic social structure and processes of structural transformation in the context of archaeology, identifying important institutions and describing their properties, potentially including resources and funding, durability, scale, activities, labor, formality, participants and membership.

TL;DR: The long-standing role of this approach to situate archaeological remains in space and time is far outweighed by the negative impacts of its underlying assumptions about the correspondence of biological and cultural groups, intragroup uniformity, discrete spatial boundaries, primordialism, and sequential change as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: The Late Classic Maya village of Joya de Ceren has been studied in this article for a unique opportunity to study ancient Meso-american landscape management and agricultural practices, showing the practice of multi-cropped or polyculture farming during Prehispanic times.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the foundation of new temple communities as they emerge on the landscape in relation to the construction of extensive state-sponsored hydraulic infrastructure and conclude that these two forms of water management transformed over 1000 km2 of the Greater Angkor Region into an elaborate engineered landscape.

TL;DR: The Indus Civilization underwent a momentous social transformation towards the end of the third millennium BC, that culminated in urban decline, cessation of writing, and the dissolution of interregional connectivity as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this article, isotope variations representing the entire range of C3 to C4 resource acquisition patterns inferred from faunal remains from archaeological sites around Parita Bay in central Pacific Panama were analyzed.

TL;DR: The importance of a variety of tubers, fruits, and seeds, including yam, sweet potato, leren, squash, and maize has been documented as discussed by the authors, indicating that shellmound builders subsisted in a mixed economy where fishing and gathering were associated with horticulture.

TL;DR: In this paper, a low-power model for state finance in Mesopotamia is proposed to develop an alternative perspective on state finance that highlights the presumptive character of early state formation.

TL;DR: In this paper, the socio-natural processes that gave rise to this cultivation system using the largest Polynesian archaeobotanical study to date were detailed using niche construction theory.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the ecological and technological records of the Hadza and Ju/Hoansi (!Kung), two recent hunter-gatherers' groups that dominate the literature as acceptable ethnographic analogs for Paleolithic Africa.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore evidence for diversity and cultural hybridity at Himera from the perspective of its food traditions using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of 90 humans, and fauna associated with the burials.

TL;DR: It is suggested that demographic population structure precedes the constitution of distinct cultural domains, a pattern which is to be verified in other chronological transects in South America and at a global scale.

TL;DR: In this paper, the use of shell money started about 1,000 years earlier than previously thought in Southern and Central California, dating back to about 2,000 BP, and was integral to bridewealth and debt incurred as part of this practice.

TL;DR: Pavlovian mammal bone assemblages from settlements in South Moravia are dominated by small (birds, hares, foxes) and medium sized animals (wolves, reindeer, wolverines), but bones of large mammals also occur (bears, cave lions, horses, and mammoths) showing the wide spectrum of the hunters' prey choices.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss recent claims that dogs were first domesticated from wild wolves in the Middle Upper Paleolithic (MUP), about 27-ka BP according to their data, they think the presence of large canids at the Pavlovian/MUP sites is a result of hunting specialization and not a sign of an early process of dog domestication.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present several different anthropological models and compare them with strontium isotope results from two LBK cemeteries (Vedrovice and Nitra).

TL;DR: In this article, a framework for identifying catalysts of expansionary phases of premodern states and empires is presented, combining ideas from W. Brian Arthur's Complexity Economics with multi-scalar evidence.

TL;DR: In this article, stylistic and technological analysis of pottery from Late to Terminal Classic (600-900 CE) Baking Pot in the Belize River Valley to reconstruct interaction networks among non-elite potters within the communities of practice theoretical framework.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the early evidence for human processing of cancellous bone for food in French Middle Paleolithic sites and found that the practice is a relatively recent phenomenon or has deep roots reaching back into the Paleolithic.

TL;DR: This paper investigated tool kits and resource landscapes, and sampled pottery from a range of sites, phases and regions to confirm the actual spatiotemporal patterning in cuisine, concluding that ruminants and nuts would have played a major role in local cuisine, especially in inland areas, and that other food groups had probably been processed in other ways.

TL;DR: In this paper, the history of the Neolithic occupation of the Franchthi Cave and its relationship to the land and the sea is examined. But the authors focus on the first Neolithic settlements in mainland Greece and do not consider the relationship between the sea and the land.

TL;DR: The authors found that dingoes were used often to help procure a wide range of prey species, performing roles from initial detection through to capture, and that they were used effectively to hunt large taxa like kangaroo, wallaby and emu.

TL;DR: This paper found evidence for the translocation of Australian Aboriginal people to Barrow Island as part of historical maritime industries, probably pearl fisheries, suggesting the presence of unfree labourers and raising the spectre of colonial slavery.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used pottery technology to approach the evolution of social and symbolic practices at a major megalithic site in Switzerland: the necropolis of Sion, Petit-Chasseur (Valais).

TL;DR: In the Caribbean, there is little direct evidence of canoes in the archaeological record, while inter-island connectivity is ubiquitous in archaeological explanations as mentioned in this paper, which suggests that aspects of society related to canoe manufacturing and voyaging have tended to be underrepresented in our interpretations.

TL;DR: The earliest dated copper mine in southern Africa, Shankare (AD 900-1300), located near Lolwe, revealed the presence of a community of independent specialists, with copper worked alongside domestic activities such as textile spinning, indicative of multi-crafting as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this article, a comparative study of state and complex societies using cases from Middle-Late Postclassic Highland Mexico (Central Mexico and Oaxaca), especially the case of Tlaxcallan, is presented.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the organization of production for Inka Polychrome pottery used at the Temple of the Sun, Pachacamac, and found that multiple groups of potters at multiple places (some of which are local) produced this pottery, and small amounts of pottery are being imported.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the effects of copying error process on material culture and assess whether the morphometric variability of standardized vessels, generated by copying errors, can reveal both collective and individual signatures.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present new evidence drawing from the fine-grained stratigraphic record of Housepit 54 to assess details regarding change in subsistence and technology as related to population and social dynamics.