【Archaeology】An Annotated WWII Underwater Archaeology Bibliography
With four decades of WWII underwater archaeology publications, the time is nigh to create a comprehensive bibliography and conduct an analysis of tren... [more]
【Archaeology】Dirt in the Wounds: Confronting Hard Histories through Public Community Archaeology in Boston
The majority of Boston's residents are minorities. These minority residents confront the ongoing effects of racism, including the hard histories of e... [more]
New article
The death of Smokey Bear: The ecodisaster myth and forest management practices in prehistoric North
Through time primeval Europe was transformed into a landscape where managed woodlands (forestis) became repositories for resources and wild woods (silva) were seen as being occupied by wild men, the savages. The importation into the New World of these att
Evolutionary ecology of spoken language: Co-evolutionary hypotheses are testable
Evolutionary ecological frameworks can give us new insights into the emergence of human adaptations such as language and cultural learning. There now exist several well-specified models of the social and ecological conditions in which the human capacity f
The effect of handling time on subsistence technology
Models in evolutionary ecology have been applied to non-human decision making for decades. Archaeologists have been especially attracted to foraging models, because the evidence of past subsistence activities is a common component of the archaeological re
Subsistence strategies and early human population history: An evolutionary ecological perspective
One of the keystones of the evolutionary ecological approach is the concept of energy budget, in which time and energy allocation is conceptually divided into somatic effort (growth, development and maintenance, and includes subsistence activities) and re
Analogues at Iqaluktuuq: The social context of archaeological inference in Nunavut, Arctic Canada
This paper presents a case study from the Canadian Arctic, in which the community context of an archaeological project has led to a re-thinking of a fundamental aspect of archaeological interpretation. Archaeologists are constantly confronted with the pro
Prey spatial structure and behavior affect archaeological tests of optimal foraging models: Examples
Foraging theory is increasingly used as a framework to analyze prehistoric resource depression, or declines in prey capture rates that stem from the activities of foragers. Resource depression, with the resulting declines in foraging efficiency, appears t
Conversations about the production of archaeological knowledge and community museums at Chunchucmil
The Pakbeh Regional Economy Program centered at the ancient Maya tradition center of Chunchucmil in Yucatan, Mexico, shifted research priorities from a processual program aimed at recovering indicators of ancient ethnic identification to a more community-
Faunal collapse, landscape change and settlement history in Remote Oceania
Substantial anthropogenic environmental change occurred in Remote Oceania following the first arrival of people at 3000 BP and their spread throughout the region by 700 BP. It included numerous faunal extinctions, widespread deforestation and the erosion
Explaining subsistence change in southern New Zealand using foraging theory models
New Zealand provides one of the earliest examples of foraging theory applications to archaeological situations (Anderson 1981). Since this landmark study; significant developments over the last twenty years have led to an increasing number of detailed ana
A message for our future? The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) ecodisaster and Pacific island environments
The unique archaeological remains of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in conjunction with its geographical position have led to a special interest in this place. What has become the orthodox understanding of the material remains, especially the famous large carve
Rethinking disaster-induced collapse in the demise of the Andean highland states: Wari and Tiwanaku
The role of drought in the collapse of the ancient states of the Andean Middle Horizon has received a great deal of attention in recent years. The only Andean valley where both principal states of the time period, Wari and Tiwanaku, had established settle
Time, process and catastrophism in the study of Mediterranean alluvial history: A review
This article offers an update on the long-standing debate on the causes and effects of Holocene erosion and alluviation in the Mediterranean lands. The contribution of Vita-Finzi (1969) has continued to be a positive stimulus to research, and its punctuat
Variability in Palaeoeskimo occupation on south-western Victoria Island, Arctic Canada: Causes and c
Palaeoeskimo occupation history on western Victoria Island int he Canadian Arctic is inferred on the basis of the abundance of dwelling features according to elevation above sea level. The correlation between elevation above sea level and dwelling age is
Annales history and the ancient Maya state: Some observations on the dynamic model
Joyce Marcus has recently proposed a dynamic model for the ancient Maya state. in doing so she has emphasized the importance of spatiotemporal fluctuations between centralization and decentralization. Although this idea has obtained wide-ranging support,
Sources of mummy bitumen in ancient Egypt and Palestine
Bitumen used as a preservative in ancient Egyptian mummies was previously thought to come only fromt he Dead Sea in Palestine. Other, closer sources of bitumen were investigated at Abu Durba and Gebel Zeit on the shores of Egypt's Gulf of Suez. Bitumen f