L. Mark Raab

Environmental Imperatives Reconsidered

Review of late Holocene paleoenvironmental and cultural sequences from four regions of western North America shows striking correlations between drought and changes in subsistence, population, exchange, health, and interpersonal violence during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (a.d. 800–1350). While ultimate causality is difficult to identify in the archaeological record, synchrony of the environmental and cultural changes and the negative character of many human responses—increased interpersonal violence, deterioration of long‐distance exchange relationships, and regional abandonments—suggest widespread demographic crises caused by decreased environmental productivity. The medieval droughts occurred at a unique juncture in the demographic history of western North America when unusually large populations of both hunter‐gatherers and agriculturalists had evolved highly intensified economies that put them in unprecedented ecological jeopardy. Long‐term patterns in the archaeological record are inconsistent with the predicted outcomes of simple adaptation or continuous economic intensification, suggesting that in this instance environmental dynamics played a major role in cultural transformations across a wide expanse of western North America among groups with diverse subsistence strategies. These events suggest that environment should not be overlooked as a potential cause of prehistoric culture change. The present paper was submitted 16 11 98 and accepted 5 vi 98; the final version reached the Editors office 6 vii 98.

Archaeology and Development [and Comments and Reply]

The establisment of a national site survey in the Solomon Islands provides a case study of the way in which the discipline of archaeology, developed in highly industrialised, wealthy countries, must be adapted if it is to prove meaningful in other parts of the world. Such changes are not only organisational and logistical; they extend to the conceptual basis of archaeology and to the relationship of the discipline to society. Specifically discussed are the problems of interpreting archaeological discoveries in terms of traditional perspectives of the past, the establishment of an archaeological unit and fieldwork programme, the question of decentralisation, rescue archaeology, protective legislation, the use of archaeology within the educational system, and the role of the external researcher.

Testing at Isla Alor in the La Venta Olmec hinterland

Abstract The Olmec site of La Venta, located on Mexicos Gulf Coast, has intrigued archaeologists with its stone sculptures, ceremonial caches, and massive earthen constructions for seven decades. Only in the last twenty years have conditions emeged that allow archaeologists to investigate readily the settlement and subsistence patterns that sustained the rise of the La Venta urban center. Recent studies at the site of Isla Alor demonstrate that a wide range of useful data can be recovered from domestic sites that formed the base of the regional settlement hierarchy of the La Venta hinterland. Isla Alor provides primary evidence of household activities, including ceramics, obsidian tools, and subsistence resources. This research suggests that regional site formation processes probably favor the preservation of many sites such as Isla Alor.