Richard A. Gould

Lithic Procurement in Central Australia: A Closer Look at Binford's Idea of Embeddedness in Archaeology

Field surveys of lithic sites in Central Australia and experimental tests of materials from these sites permit evaluation of Binfords (1979) concept of embeddedness. While basically agreeing with Binfords view that raw material procurement by mobile hunter-gatherers occurred incidentally in relation to other subsistence activities, our results indicate that Binfords argument cannot account for patterning in raw material procurement based on the utilitarian properties of the materials themselves. In dealing with questions of raw material procurement, we propose that controlled efforts be made to evaluate the technological characteristics of materials vis-a-vis the mechanicalforces involved in their known or presumed uses before assuming the degree to which their procurement was structured by subsistence factors.

The archaeologist as ethnographer: A case from the Western desert of Australia

Abstract Recent excavations at Puntutjarpa Rocksheiter, in the Western Desert of Australia, reveal a continuous human occupation of this site from 10,000 years ago to the present. Preliminary analysis has stressed systematic comparisons of modern desert Aborigine stone tools, camp‐sites, ‘native wells’, etc., with specific archaeological features and lithic materials discovered in the excavations. Changes, mainly in the stone toolkit, are evident. These, however, are outweighed by evidence for cultural continuities pointing to a relatively stable adaptation to rigorous post‐Pleistocene conditions in the Western Desert which has continued to the present‐day (the Ngatatjara Aborigines and their desert‐living kin). This long‐term hunting and foraging pattern is referred to here as ‘the Australian desert culture’. The formulation of this hypothesis points to specific ways the ethno‐archaeologist, as a site‐oriented ethnographer, can achieve useful interpretations of prehistoric human behavior.

Man the Hunted: Determinants of Household Spacing in Desert and Tropical Foraging Societies

Abstract Controlled comparisons of ethnographic Western Desert Australian Aborigine and !Kung San campsites reveal significant differences in mean distances between households as well as differences in campsite areas based on nearest neighbor analysis. In terms of campsite areas in m 2 /person, the Aborigines space themselves over areas many times greater than the !Kung. A review of alternative hypotheses to account for these differences supports a combination of kin-ties and larger campsite areas/person to explain the variance, while the gross overall differences in spacing households are structured primarily by the relative effects of predation pressure, which is inversely proportional to both mean distances between households and campsite areas in m 2 /person. Some trial comparisons with other ethnographic cases are offered, along with test implications for archaeology.

Diggers and Doggers: Parallel Failures in Economic Acculturation

The histories of economic acculturation of the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia and the Numic-speaking Indians of the Great Basin of North America are compared in a manner similar to that utilized by Murphy and Steward (1955) in their study of Northeastern Algonkians and the Mundurucú of South America. Numerous and specific parallels in economic and social change are noted, leading to the conclusion that both of these desert hunting-and-gathering societies have followed a pattern of economic acculturation characterized by increased dependence on European food and goods rather than by the establishment of a viable relationship to the world economy.

Residue and use-wear analysis of grinding implements from Puntutjarpa Rockshelter in the Western Desert: Current and proposed research

The excavation of Puntutjarpa Rockshelter, located within the Western Desert Culture Bloc, provided the first complete Holocene sequence for Aboriginal occupation of the arid interior of Australia (Gould 1977). Continuities in artefact sequences at this site were used to typify the conservatism of desert adaptations in Australia generally (Gould 1977:75; 1980:146).

Brandon Revisited: A New Look at an Old Technology

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a new look at an old technology. The gunflint manufacturing center of Brandon, in Suffolk, England, has attracted the attention of archaeologists since the 1870s. Some studies have described the technology of Brandon gunflint making in detail. Homogeneous, black East Anglia flint has been used in tool-making since Paleolithic times. There are estimates that 200 flintworkers were employed at Brandon during the Napoleonic Wars, which was probably the all-time peak of production there, but by 1837, the number of flintworkers had declined to around 70–80, to revive briefly in 1846 to around 100 flintworkers. The town of Brandon, while not a cosmopolitan center, is hardly the sort of isolated setting in which one might expect to find traditional crafts being maintained. Brandon is a medium-sized residential and light-industrial center like many others in East Anglia, with the same general degree of involvement in modern British society.

Misreading the past: A reply to binford concerning hunter-gatherer site structure

Binford’s critique of our earlier paper comparing Ngatatjara Aborigines and !Kung household spacing in campsites (Gould and Yellen 1987) operates at several levels. It attacks a broad array of issues ranging from specific cases of Australian Aboriginal campsite structure to general arguments about the scientific philosophies and assumptions subsumed under the label “empirical.” In order to respond effectively, we think it best to present our views jointly but also with enough separation to allow the reader to distinguish our own differences clearly. Not surprisingly, a joint paper like ours in 1987 represented a de facto division of labor reflective of our different geographical and topical areas of interest and expertise. This, too, is a joint paper, but the division of labor regarding ideas and evidence will be flagged more clearly in order to identify differences of emphasis and interpretation. Before embarking upon a detailed reply to Binford’s critique, it may be useful to review and summarize the views we share with Binford, since these can easily be lost in the rhetoric of debate: 1. Ethnoarchaeology is a potent source of explanatory ideas for interpreting the archaeological record. It is no accident that much of the most stimulating discussion about the process of archaeological inference today is being generated by “card carrying” ethnoarchaeologists in the context of continuing efforts to provide usable models for archaeological explanation. 2. For explanations of past human behavior to proceed, one must go beyond pattern recognition in the archaeological record. Such pattern

Hard rocks and heavy science

Earl Swanson, ed. Lithic Technology: Making and Using Stone Tools. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1975. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Company, vii + 251 pp. Illustrations, tables, figures, biographical notes, and indices.

The wreck of the barque North Carolina, Bermuda, 1880: An underwater crime scene?

27.50.

The Archaeology of Watercraft Abandonment. Nathan Richards and Sami Kay Seeb, editors. 2013. Springer, New York, xiii + 375 pp.

Archaeological and historical research in 1999–2001 on the loss of the 3-masted, iron barque “North Carolina” produced a series of anomalies and coincidences suggesting that the ship was sunk intentionally. The wreck lies along the southwest edge of Bermuda’s reef system. At first it appeared to be that of a fairly typical sail-propelled, iron-hulled cargo ship of a general type built in the United Kingdom during the late nineteenth century. The original research design for the “North Carolina” project sought to test how representative this shipwreck was as an example of that shipbuilding tradition. Archaeological surveys as well as published and archival accounts of the ships loss, however, revealed discrepancies that were explored further. The project evolved into the investigation of a possible 120-year-old crime scene. The “North Carolina” offers a case study of how scientifically grounded archaeology applied with due regard for critical issues of cultural context can reveal systemic as well as proximate factors that affect past human behavior—including possible criminal behavior.