Jeffrey R. Ferguson

Reduction strategies and geochemical characterization of lithic assemblages : A comparison of three case studies from western North America

Based on a simple model of lithic procurement, reduction, and use, we generate predictions for patterns in source diversity and average distance-to-source measurements for flaked stone assemblages left behind by small-scale and residentially mobile populations. We apply this model to geochemical data from obsidian artifacts from three regions in western North America. As predicted, results show markedly different patterns in the geochemical composition of small flakes, large flakes, and formal tools. While small flakes and tools tend to have greater source diversity and are on average farther from their original source, the large flake assemblage is composed of fewer and closer sources. These results suggest that a failure to include very late stage reduction (e.g., pressure flakes) and microdebitage in characterization studies may bias interpretations about the extent of residential mobility and/or trade patterns because more distant sources will be underrepresented.

Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

The Middle Stone Age in Africa The Olorgesailie basin in the southern Kenya rift valley contains sediments dating back to 1.2 million years ago, preserving a long archaeological record of human activity and environmental conditions. Three papers present the oldest East African evidence of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and elucidate the system of technology and behavior associated with the origin of Homo sapiens. Potts et al. present evidence for the demise of Acheulean technology that preceded the MSA and describe variations in late Acheulean hominin behavior that anticipate MSA characteristics. The transition to the MSA was accompanied by turnover of large mammals and large-scale landscape change. Brooks et al. establish that ∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago, the populations in eastern Africa underwent a technological shift upon procurement of distantly sourced obsidian for toolmaking, indicating the early development of social exchange. Deino et al. provide the chronological underpinning for these discoveries. Science, this issue p. 86, p. 90, p. 95 Social, technological, and subsistence behaviors and pigment use emerged during human evolution more than 300,000 years ago. Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typify Homo sapiens had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200,000 years ago, but data bearing on human behavioral origins are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya, dating from ≥295,000 to ~320,000 years ago by argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25- to 50-kilometer distances. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply notable changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and to one another and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution.

Bronze Age Ceramic Economy: The Benta Valley, Hungary

AbstractWe describe the Bronze Age ceramic economy of the Benta Valley in Hungary. In the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in metals, metal objects, and other specialty items became central to expansive prestige goods exchange through Europe. Was that exchange in wealth, however, linked to broader developments of an integrated market system? The beginnings of market systems in prehistory are poorly understood. We suggest a means to investigate marketing by studying the changing ceramic economy of a region, rather than at a single site. Analysis of the ceramic inventory collected as part of the Benta Valley Project strongly suggests that, although ceramic production was quite sophisticated and probably specialized, exchange was highly localized (mostly within 10 km) and conducted through personalized community networks. Our ceramic study used three progressively finer-scaled analyses: inventorying ceramic forms and decoration to evaluate consumption patterns, petrographic analysis to describe manufacturing ...

Following A Glittering Trail: Geo-Chemical and Petrographic Characterization of Micaceous Sherds Recovered from Dismal River Sites

Abstract Protohistoric Ancestral Apache Dismal River groups (A.D. 1600–1750) participated in large exchange networks linking them to other peoples on the Plains and U.S. Southwest. Ceramic vessels made from micaceous materials appear at many Dismal River sites, and micaceous pottery recovered from the Central High Plains is typically seen as evidence for interaction with northern Rio Grande pueblos. However, few mineral or chemical characterization analyses have been conducted on these ceramics, and the term “micaceous” has been applied to a broad range of vessel types regardless of the form, size, or amount of mica in their pastes. Our recent analyses, including macroscopic evaluation combined with petrography and neutron activation analyses (NAA), indicate that only a small subset of Dismal River sherds are derived from New Mexico clays. The rest were likely manufactured using materials from Colorado and Wyoming. Seasonal mobility patterns may have given Dismal River potters the opportunity to collect mica raw materials as they traveled between the Central Plains and Front Range, and this has implications for the importance of internal Plains social networks during the Protohistoric and Historic periods.

Implications for Migration and Social Connections in South-Central New Mexico Through Chemical Characterization of Carbon-Painted Ceramics and Obsidian

Magdalena Black-on-white ceramics from two sites (Gallinas Springs and Pinnacle Ruin) in west-central and southwestern New Mexico have been interpreted as evidence of a migration of Northern Pueblo groups from the Four Corners region into southwestern New Mexico during the thirteenth century. They also appear to be linked to sites with similar carbon-painted ceramics on the Rio Puerco of the east and beyond. An additional site (Roadmap Village) reveals import of Magdalena Black-on-white ceramics produced at Gallinas Springs as well as possible local production. Limited quantities of carbon paint ceramics have been found on El Paso Phase sites in south-central New Mexico that have previously been attributed to contemporaneous carbon-painted pottery produced at communities in the Galisteo Basin and the upper Rio Grande. Recent compositional analysis of carbon-painted ceramics from the Gallinas Springs, Pinnacle, and Roadmap sites has identified characteristic chemical signatures that suggest local production of carbon paint ceramics at all three sites and distribution of carbon paint ceramics from Gallinas Springs to Pinnacle and Roadmap in the eastern Black Range of southwestern New Mexico. Analysis of carbon paint ceramics from Madera Quemada, an El Paso Phase site in the Tularosa Basin indicates that the carbon paint wares found in El Paso Phase sites were acquired through trade connections from the Black Range rather than from more northern sources. The overall Magdalena Black-on-white production patterns are contrasted with the obsidian procurement data from the same sites to reveal a complex and divergent pattern.

Crossing Comb Ridge: Pottery Production and Procurement Among Southeast Utah Great House Communities

Understanding how the Chaco regional system operated requires examining the social networks maintained by great house communities during both the peak and decline ofChacos influence. We used neutron activation analysis (NAA) of pottery, kiln wasters, and clays from three great house communities in southeast Utah (Bluff, Cottonwood Wash, and Comb Wash) to examine pottery production and the interaction networks of their residents. West of Comb Ridge, most gray ware jars or the materials they were made from were imported from east of Comb Ridge in both Chaco and post-Chaco times, while importation of painted white wares changed in the post-Chaco era as local production increased. This counters the expectation that painted pots are more likely to be exchanged than cooking jars. Kiln sherds and prepared clays are shown to be better identifiers of production area than raw clays, and paste color is confirmed as a useful clay source indicator in the Comb Ridge vicinity. Great house communities in the Comb Ridge area continued to exchange pots and/or ceramic raw materials in the post-Chaco era, but there is evidence for shifting social networks and intensified local production of white ware.

Investigating Projectile Point Raw Material Choices and Stylistic Variability in the Gallina Area of Northwestern New Mexico

Relatively little attention has been given to projectile point morphology and raw material use in the Gallina (AD 1100–1300) area of northwestern New Mexico. Analysis of projectile points among six Gallina sites illustrates the spatial distribution of general point styles and material choice across the west, central, and eastern parts of the culture area. The composition of raw materials within the Gallina culture area gives insight to the differential use of sources among the Gallina people. X-ray fluorescence characterization of obsidian Gallina projectile points allows for a fine-grained examination of Gallina obsidian procurement patterns from these sites across the culture area. Results of this study indicate a differential use of obsidian flows within the Jemez Mountains and some stylistic differences across the study sites. Furthermore, the collection and re-working of Archaic/Paleoindian points by the Gallina serves as a proxy for toolstone choices of these groups occupying the area prior to Gallina arrival. We also discuss differential use of materials, namely obsidian and Pedernal chert, with neighbors during the 13th century AD.

Source Determination of an Obsidian Projectile Point from the Massacre Canyon Site (25HK13), A Keith Phase Occupation in Southwest Nebraska and Implications for Social Connections During the Early Ceramic Period

Abstract The use of chemical analyses to determine the sources of obsidian in central Plains Early Ceramic sites has potential to illuminate social contacts and patterns of exchange of goods. X-ray fluorescence analysis determined that a diagnostic point from the Massacre Canyon site in southwest Nebraska is made of obsidian from the Valle Grande source of the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. This adds to the small number of central Plains Early Ceramic obsidian samples and suggests differential source use during that period.

Ceramic Production and Interaction in the Northern Range of Trinidad

ABSTRACT Regional syntheses based on data recovered mostly from outside of the Northern Range have characterized the mountainous region in northern Trinidad as a boundary between two distinct interaction spheres during the Early Ceramic Age (ca. AD 350–650/800) (Boomert 2000). Changes occurring on Trinidad, other islands of the southern Lesser Antilles, and the South American mainland resulted in the disintegration of these earlier style zones during the final centuries of the Early Ceramic (Boomert 2000, 2010). This period of Late Ceramic cultural realignment was characterized by climate change, the renegotiation of political and social networks, and demographic transformations. We consider newly recovered ceramic evidence from the central Northern Range in order to evaluate the characterization of the region as a boundary and the regions role in broader Caribbean trends. We examine participation in interaction spheres to provide a more nuanced understanding of regional dynamics as they were expressed locally. Ceramic data indicate that occupants of the central Northern Range interpreted regional styles using locally derived materials, thus simultaneously engaging regional traditions and constructing local patterns of resource exploitation.