Patty Jo Watson

SYSTEMATIC, INTENSIVE SURFACE COLLECTION

Archaeologists would agree that the cultural debris lying on the surface of a site in some way reflects what is buried below. However, few attempts have been made to discover just how closely one can predict from detailed knowledge of surface distributions what he will find if he digs. In October and November, 1968, surface collections based on statistical sampling techniques were made at two mounds in Diyarbakir Vilayet, Turkey. The tabulated data were put into the form of contour maps. We find that study of these maps, singly or in combination as overlays, suggests numerous hypotheses that can be formulated much more precisely than those deriving from the usual intuitive method based on simple inspection of the site surface. Soundings were made to test some of the major hypotheses. The results of the soundings plus subsequent statistical analyses suggest that intensive, systematic surface collection is an extremely useful technique for determining where to dig. It is also highly productive of testable hypotheses relevant to the total interpretation of the site.

Aspects of Zuni Prehistory: Preliminary Report on Excavations and Survey in the El Morro Valley of New Mexico

Abstract Preliminary assessment of survey and excavation data suggest that major shifts occurred regionally in settlement patterns within El Morro Valley during the last half of the 13th century A.C. Clusters of small masonry pueblos on ridge tops are replaced by a few, large, defensible pueblos; then the valley is abandoned early in the 14th century. Intensification of intercommunity warfare is postulated in attempting to explain these shifts, and our results are compared with those of earlier workers (especially Leslie Spier and Richard Woodbury) to arrive at a tentative cultural-historical outline culminating in Zuni settlement of the Cities of Cibola.

Beginnings of Village-Farming Communities in Southeastern Turkey

Since the end of World War II, much evidence has accrued of the primary phase of village-farming community life in Southwestern Asia, which began about 7000 B.C. The remains of (usually) several of the positively domesticated animals (dog, sheep, goat, pig) and plants (wheat, barley, legumes such as peas and lentils) assure us that these settlements were based on effective food production, although collected wild foods also remained a significant portion of the human diet. Evidence of a transitional phase (or phases) that must have immediately preceded the primary phase of effective food production has, however, remained very elusive. Part of a breakthrough appears to have been made in the autumn 1970 field campaign at Caÿonü Tepesi in southeastern Turkey, where the expansion and deepening of earlier exposures has yielded evidence that may span a significant portion of the transition.

Sex Determination of Prehistoric Human Paleofeces

Analysis of 12 prehistoric human paleofecal specimens from the Mammoth Cave System, Kentucky has produced the first estimate of biological sex using fecal material from ancient humans. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating indicates that the specimens range in age from ca. 2700 B.P. to 2300 B.P. Dietary contents and steroids were extracted and analyzed. Chromatography and radioimmunoassay were used to measure levels of testosterone and estradiol in both modern fecal reference samples and in ancient feces. Results indicate that all 12 paleofeces were probably deposited by males whose diet included a variety of native crops and wild plants. These preliminary analyses have the potential to revolutionize the investigation of gender difference in diet, health, and nutrition.

Prehistoric Footprints in Jaguar Cave, Tennessee

Abstract About 4500 years ago, during the Late Archaic period, nine explorers reconnoitered several passages within a large cave in north central Tennessee. Although prehistoric cave exploration was not unusual in eastern North America, this particular trip is unique because 274 footprints of these ancient cavers are preserved in the damp floor sediment of a side passage. Analyses of the route taken by the explorers, and of their footprint trail significantly enhance our knowledge of cave use in prehistoric eastern North America.

The covering law model in archaeology: Practical uses and formal interpretations

Abstract In a recent issue of World Archaeology, Charles Morgan criticized our book, Explanation in Archaeology. We find much of his discussion to be not only unfair but wrong because: (1) He attacks us as though we were advocating the adoption of a formalist version of the Covering Law (CL) model by archaeologists, which we are not.

An archaeological odyssey

Binford, Lewis R. Working at Archaeology. New York: Academic Press, 1983. xix + 463 pp. including references and index.

Prehistoric Investigations in Southeastern Turkey

29.50 cloth.

SITES | Mounded and Unmounded

An archeological survey of the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin in Turkish Mesopotamia revealed a very early phase farming village and a nearby developed phase farming village. Late prehistoric developments in this region are critical to understanding of the beginnings of trade and metallurgy.

Explanation in archaeology : an explicitly scientific approach

The most common of all archaeological deposits are mounded and unmounded open sites. They range from thin scatters of stone tools and/or fragments of broken pottery to enormous heaps of cultural debris marking the locations of past cities. This category also includes burial mounds and earthworks as well as monuments, battlefields, prehistoric and early historic fields and irrigation canals. Several examples are briefly described: the ancient city of Ur in Mesopotamia, Viking ship burials in Norway, a riverine shell mound in eastern North America, a bison kill-site in western Canada, prehistoric copper mines on an island in lake Superior (USA), and a late nineteenth-century battlefield in western North America.