Dale Walde

Phytoliths from Middle Stone Age habitats in the Mozambican Rift (105–29 ka)

The detection of areas suitable for hominins during late Pleistocene drought intervals is currently a priority for Middle Stone Age research. Predicting the location of populations and dispersal pathways through the East African Rift System during the last glacial phase is a challenging task due to scarce direct archaeo-vegetation data. We present a Mozambican phytolith record spanning 105-29 ka and argue for the necessity and utility of using local plant microbotanical data from archaeological sites to understand the past environments in which early modern humans lived. We assess biome structure, spatial variability, and compare phytolith-based to lacustrine environmental reconstructions to conclude that dense wooded landscapes dominated the area over much of the last glacial phase. Archaeological and botanical data suggest the hypothesis of a palaeodispersal along a montane woodland archipelago that could have attracted hominin settlement and facilitated dispersals through an inland bridge that connected southern, central and East Africa, and the two branches of the East African Rift System.

Sedentism and pre-contact tribal organization on the northern plains : colonial imposition or indigenous development?

Abstract This paper explores the influence of sedentary and semi-sedentary ‘tribally’ organized Eastern Woodlands and Middle Missouri horticultural villagers on Canadian plains hunter-gatherer social organization during the millennium prior to European contact. So-called tribal organization of Canadian plains bison hunters has been suggested to have been caused by the acquisition of domesticated horses from Europeans, which enabled the ritualized mass killing of bison, large group size and a more complex material culture. That is, the complex culture of plains groups at the time of European contact is held to be the result of that contact. It is clear, however, that the material culture correlates of semi-sedentism, complexity and tribal social organization begin to appear in the archaeological record of the Canadian plains with the development of horticultural villages to the south and east, and the appearance of certain aspects of village material culture (primarily specific types of pottery and lithic raw materials) in Canadian plains archaeological assemblages well prior to any European influence. Expansion of horticulture slowed dramatically upon encountering the plains peoples who, I suggest, adopted certain aspects of the culture of their horticultural neighbours and sometime invaders, including a segmentary tribal social organization, sodalities and limited use of traded horticultural products, primarily maize. By adopting a communal bison-hunting subsistence system that included the construction of gathering facilities such as pounds and jumps, people were able to increase their food production capabilities while reinforcing their tribal social structure. These cultural changes would have occurred as a result of resistance to the expansion of apparently aggressive horticultural neighbours combined with acculturation to a changing world system of food production. The complex culture of Canadian plains peoples appeared well prior to the appearance of Europeans and is an indigenous development.

Rethinking Avonlea: Pottery Wares and Cultural Phases

Abstract It has become conventional in northern Plains archaeology to recognize an Avonlea phase, based on the presence of delicate, well-formed side-notched arrow points, mainly of the Timber Ridge Side Notched type. Over the past few decades, information regarding the associated pottery has slowly accumulated, allowing us to recognize three main wares: net/jabric-impressed, parallelgrooved, and cord-roughened. In this paper, we move away from the concept of a single Avonlea phase, returning to the original idea of Avonlea as a horizon. In so doing, we emphasize regional concentrations of certain pottery wares as the basis for the recognition of particular phases within the Avonlea horizon. It is apparent that some of these pottery wares are also present to the east in Minnesota and adjacent southern Manitoba and northeastern North Dakota. In particular, the netimpressed ware has an Early Woodland presence there. It is postulated, therefore, that most of the Avonlea wares had their origins in this more easterly region, although the impetus behind their westward spread and the manner in which this occurred remain in question.

Avonlea and Athabaskan Migrations: A Reconsideration

Abstract Following the description of Avonlea projectile points from Saskatchewan in 1961, several researchers proposed an association between the points and Athabaskan migrations from the north. This paper suggests assignment of a single ethnicity to a redefined Avonlea horizon is problematic. Proposals that Avonlea represents Athabaskan people are even more difficult to sustain. Two ceramic wares associated with Avonlea points have antecedents in the Eastern Woodlands. Rock Lake Net/Fabric-Impressed pottery, perhaps produced by Siouan speakers in central Minnesota, appeared some 3,000 radiocarbon years ago, well before the proposed southern migration of Athabaskan peoples. In Alberta, continuities between the Upper Kill and Old Women’s phases in the form of Ethridge Ware suggest Avonlea horizon groups there may have been ancestral to present-day Blackfoot peoples. Participation by Avonlea horizon groups in southeastern British Columbia in the Top of the World Chert quarrying tradition suggests those groups were ancestral to present-day Tunaxa. Avonlea horizon components form a number of regional phases that demonstrate relationships with different external groups. Local adaptations are identifiable throughout the area, suggesting long-term residency rather than migration. Different selfidentifying groups, some of them probably identifiable and certainly not Athabaskans, participated in producing the horizon style.

Ethnicity, the Archaeological Record, and Mortlach

Abstract Assignment of ethnicity to the archaeological record continues to be a very controversial area of research and involves widely varying audiences with multiple and often conflicting interests. It is suggested here that short, summary expressions of opinion in ongoing debates as to ethnicity do not sufficiently address the importance of the issue or adequately inform our variously interested readers. Meyer and Russell (2006) briefly discuss their suggestions as to the ethnicity of the peoples who created Mortlach material culture. They did not intend a full discussion of the issue but it is suggested that such a debate is necessary to address the needs of interested communities of readers. The brief arguments of Meyer and Russell (2006) are examined in hopes of stimulating a detailed dialogue. A short technical suggestion for reassignment of Mortlach to the cultural historical level of culture is also offered.