San Diego State University
Anthropology
In 1988, an unusual sculpted vault capstone, bearing a short text of three glyphs, was found atop the spinewall of a collapsed, two-chamber building surmounting a pyramidal platform at the site of Buenavista del Cayo in western Belize.... more
In 1988, an unusual sculpted vault capstone, bearing a short text of three glyphs, was found atop the spinewall of a collapsed, two-chamber building surmounting a pyramidal platform at the site of Buenavista del Cayo in western Belize. This building, designated Structure 4, closes the south side of the site’s Central Plaza. Curated with other materials from that season, the stone was recently relocated in our storage facility, while reorganizing materials for repatriation to the Belize Institute of Archaeology. Contextually and stylistically dated to the seventh century AD, the capstone appears to refer to a dedication event and may provide the ancient name of the building. This identifies Structure 4 as marking the completion of an ambitious seventh century elaboration of the Central Plaza at Buenavista. Herein we describe the capstone and its context, and discuss its glyphic text in terms of content and of paleography allowing us to explore the possible connections to other courts and realms that this text implies.
- by Christophe Helmke and +2
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Let Them Eat Pigeon! : Three faunal assemblages from 19 th-20 th century wealthy Detroit neighborhoods Faunal assemblages, or animal remains in the archaeological record, have been shown to aid interpretations of past population... more
Let Them Eat Pigeon! : Three faunal assemblages from 19 th-20 th century wealthy Detroit neighborhoods Faunal assemblages, or animal remains in the archaeological record, have been shown to aid interpretations of past population consumption patterns, or even socioeconomic differences. This paper's faunal data was from three wealthy, urban neighborhoods dating to the mid 19 th to early 20 th century Detroit. These sites were excavated before the construction of the Detroit People Mover in the 1980s, an elevated railway system running through downtown. Overall, the faunal assemblage is typical of 19 th-century Euro-American diets, with a high proportion of domestic to wild species. A few wild animals, such as black bear, pigeon, and white-tailed deer, were identified alongside more commonly domesticated animals. It appears as if these residents enjoyed a more 'exotic' diet, as pigeons were the taste 'du jour' of the early 19 th-century. Historical records also indicate that black bears were traditionally processed in Detroit for their cooking fat and pelts. The greater proportion of pork, beef, and chicken to mutton implies that these were more popular meats for these affluent residents. Beef was particularly expensive, as marshy 19 th-century Detroit could not locally sustain large cattle herds. Despite Detroit ordinances forbidding the slaughter of animals within at least three miles of the city after 1831, the relatively large amount of non-meat bearing bones presents strong evidence that animal butchering continued to occur on-site. This faunal assemblage analysis from three neighborhoods in 19 th to 20 th century Detroit highlights that socioeconomic status likely determined diet over other variables such as food availability or local regulations.
Mummies, Skeletons, and Museums: Representing human remains to the public For many people, their first encounter with biological anthropology is viewing human remains in a museum. The opportunity to educate the public with these sensitive... more
Mummies, Skeletons, and Museums: Representing human remains to the public For many people, their first encounter with biological anthropology is viewing human remains in a museum. The opportunity to educate the public with these sensitive 'materials' requires museums to make nuanced decisions regarding whether to display human remains, and if so, how to portray them. The aim of this study was to review which major museums chose to display human remains and whether certain types, such as skeletons or mummies, were humanized or objectified. Interviews with museum personnel from 28 museums across the United Kingdom and United States were conducted to determine existing museum policy for displays featuring human remains. While half of these museums had policies regarding exhibiting human remains, only one specifically dictated whether human remains were 'once living persons' or 'objects.' Consequently, both U.S. and U.K. museums had conflicting degrees of humanization in the portrayal of human remains. Incomplete human remains, such as a specific skeletal or tissue region, were most significantly correlated to objectification. In contrast, the more complete the human remains, the more consistently they were given agency. No significant pattern was detected in relation to type of human remains, the remains' geographic provenience, or time period. Bias towards either humanizing or objectifying human remains often stemmed from the opinion of the museum employee with the sovereignty to create the display. As museums have inherent sanctity in educating the public, examining the objectification or humanistic portrayals of human remains provides insight into the continual progress within the field of biological anthropology.
Displaying the Dead: Assessing Agency Through Museum Linguistic Practices The authority of museums to educate the public through exhibitions is especially nuanced when considering their choice of language describing human remains. Are... more
Displaying the Dead: Assessing Agency Through Museum Linguistic Practices The authority of museums to educate the public through exhibitions is especially nuanced when considering their choice of language describing human remains. Are they sensitive 'objects' on display or 'once living persons'? Assignment of agency through language owes its origins to Bourdieu, who argued that words are never neutral and connotations of word symbolic power are constructed by a culture. This research analyzed variations between degrees of agency given to human remains based upon the objectifying or personalizing language used by museums in public displays. Results from 27 museums across the United States and the United Kingdom were gathered from interviews, email surveys, and online collection databases. Less than half of these museums possessed written policies concerning the treatment of human remains, and only one museum had guidelines for selecting language. It is therefore not surprising that many terms such as 'body,' 'specimen,' 'cadaver,' and 'it' hold conflicting acceptability amongst both U.S. and U.K. museums. While federal policies, the remains' geographical origins, and public sensitivity were all occasionally cited as influences, linguistic decisions describing human remains ultimately rested with designated museum personnel. Possessive pronouns such as 'his mouth' exhibited the highest degree of agency, and were most often used for human remains that were relatively less 'ancient.' In contrast, a lack of agency was most highly correlated to 'incomplete' human remains through objectifying language such as 'the bones.' This linguistic analysis of museum displays can aid in understanding the dynamic cultural attitude shifts regarding agency of the dead.
Testing the Coimbra Method: Discovering Possible Causes of Fibrocartilaginous Entheseal Change This research tests the Coimbra Method, an observational process created to definitively answer whether 'musculoskeletal stress markers,' or... more
Testing the Coimbra Method: Discovering Possible Causes of Fibrocartilaginous Entheseal Change This research tests the Coimbra Method, an observational process created to definitively answer whether 'musculoskeletal stress markers,' or entheseal changes, can reveal information about the physical activities of skeletal remains. Several issues led previous studies to have inconclusive results on the validity of entheseal change as a tool in this field of exploration. As a result, the Coimbra Method was produced in 2009 as a standardized process for rectifying these common concerns. After the Coimbra Method was revised in 2015, this paper independently tested both the original and revised Coimbra Methods using archaeological and contemporary skeletal populations. These tests compared rates of intra-observer and inter-observer error using Cohen's Kappa, as well as percentage of agreement on the fibrocartilaginous attachment sites of the left and right upper limbs. Results using Cohen's Kappa showed that intra-observer error was substantial bu t inter-observer error was only moderate. Predictably, intra-observer percentage of agreement vastly improved from 75% to 89% with greater familiarity of the method. Ultimately, inter-observer percentage of agreement fell short from the minimum standard of 80% with an average of 75.2%. A high inter-observer agreement is critical if the Coimbra Method is to be used as the universal standard for any type of entheseal change research. As such, the inter-observer error rates from this study indicate that more revisions are needed before either of the Coimbra Methods can be recommended as a standard. However, the significant potential for this method in understanding past activities would make additional revisions undeniably worthwhile.
Assessing the impact of prehistoric sites on their local environment is difficult to accomplish with standard archaeological methods. Simulation modeling offers a solution to this issue, but it is first necessary to delimit a site... more
Assessing the impact of prehistoric sites on their local environment is difficult to accomplish with standard archaeological methods. Simulation modeling offers a solution to this issue, but it is first necessary to delimit a site catchment, or “zone of impact”, around archaeological sites in which to carry out human–environment interaction modeling. To that end, I have developed a new method for GIS-based catchment reconstruction and distilled it into a custom module (r.catchment) for GRASS GIS, which calculates catchments of a given area based on anisotropic travel costs from a point of origin. One method of applying this new module in exploratory catchment modeling is discussed using the pastoral economy of the Late Neolithic period in Wadi Ziqlâb, Northern Jordan as a test case. A model of Late Neolithic herding economy and ecology is constructed, which combines data from archaeology, phytogeography, range science, agronomy, and ethnohistory. Four sizes of pastoral catchments are then derived using r.catchment, and the herd ecology model is used to estimate the stocking-rate (carrying capacity) of mixed goat and sheep herds for each catchment. The human populations these herd numbers could support (between 3 and 630 people in the Wadi) are then compared with human population estimates derived from household architectural analyses (between 18 and 54 people in the Wadi) to determine the most probable catchment configurations. The results indicate that the most probable zone of impact around the known Late Neolithic sites in Wadi Ziqlâb was somewhere between 9 and 20 square kilometers, delineated by 3 and 4.5 km pasture radii respectively.
The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and... more
The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and infiltrating the soil, and change water’s ability to move surface sediments. Conversely, water amplifies the impacts of human land use and extends the ecological footprint of human activities far beyond the borders of towns and fields. Advances in computational modelling offer new tools to study the complex feedbacks between land use, land cover, topography and surface water. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project (MedLand) is building a modelling laboratory where experiments can be carried out on the long-term impacts of agropastoral land use, and whose results can be tested against the archaeological record.
These computational experiments are providing new insights into the socio-ecological consequences of human decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales.
These computational experiments are providing new insights into the socio-ecological consequences of human decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales.
Archaeology has an opportunity to offer major contributions to our understanding of the long- term interactions of humans and the environment. To do so, we must elucidate dynamic socioecological processes that generally operate at... more
Archaeology has an opportunity to offer major contributions to our understanding of the long- term interactions of humans
and the environment. To do so, we must elucidate dynamic socioecological processes that generally operate at regional
scales. However, the archaeological record is sparse, discontinuous, and static. Recent advances in computational modeling provide the potential for creating experimental laboratories where dynamic processes can be simulated and their results compared against the archaeological record. Coupling computational modeling with the empirical record in this way can increase the rigor of our explanations while making more transparent the concepts on which they are based. We offer an example of such an experimental laboratory to study the long- term effects of varying landuse practices by subsistence farmers on landscapes, and compare the results with the Levantine Neolithic archaeological record. Different combinations of
intensive and shifting cultivation, ovicaprid grazing, and settlement size are modeled for the Wadi Ziqlab drainage of northern Jordan. The results offer insight into conditions under which previously successful (and sustainable) landuse practices can pass an imperceptible threshold and lead to undesirable landscape consequences. This may also help explain long- term social, economic, and settlement changes in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia.
and the environment. To do so, we must elucidate dynamic socioecological processes that generally operate at regional
scales. However, the archaeological record is sparse, discontinuous, and static. Recent advances in computational modeling provide the potential for creating experimental laboratories where dynamic processes can be simulated and their results compared against the archaeological record. Coupling computational modeling with the empirical record in this way can increase the rigor of our explanations while making more transparent the concepts on which they are based. We offer an example of such an experimental laboratory to study the long- term effects of varying landuse practices by subsistence farmers on landscapes, and compare the results with the Levantine Neolithic archaeological record. Different combinations of
intensive and shifting cultivation, ovicaprid grazing, and settlement size are modeled for the Wadi Ziqlab drainage of northern Jordan. The results offer insight into conditions under which previously successful (and sustainable) landuse practices can pass an imperceptible threshold and lead to undesirable landscape consequences. This may also help explain long- term social, economic, and settlement changes in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia.
Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) of social actors or social systems is a new and exciting tool kit in the arsenal of computational archaeology. However, traditional ABM techniques alone are not adequate for those computational archaeologists... more
Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) of social actors or social systems is a new and exciting tool kit in the arsenal of computational archaeology. However, traditional ABM techniques alone are not adequate for those computational archaeologists interested in modeling human-environment interaction. This goal can be accomplished by coupling ABM modeling of human land-use decision-making with a dynamic and spatially explicit Landscape Process Model (LPM). Agent movement across the landscape is often only implicitly considered during the construction of hybrid models of social and environmental systems (coupled ABM-LPM's). In fact, movement modeling is a vitally important component of this coupling, and determines the scope of possible locations of specific human interactions with the environment.
This chapter will first examine the various ways in which movement modeling has been utilized in ABM and coupled ABM-LPM, and then will describe the model developed by the MedLanD project, before laying out the experimental case study. The case study will model the long term effects of four contrasting village locations in the Penaguila Valley in Eastern Spain (Figure 9.1). The study will use a five-meter spatial resolution DEM for the region, and will model the economic, social, and environmental trajectories of the four different village locations over a hundred years of village-based agropastoralism.
This chapter will first examine the various ways in which movement modeling has been utilized in ABM and coupled ABM-LPM, and then will describe the model developed by the MedLanD project, before laying out the experimental case study. The case study will model the long term effects of four contrasting village locations in the Penaguila Valley in Eastern Spain (Figure 9.1). The study will use a five-meter spatial resolution DEM for the region, and will model the economic, social, and environmental trajectories of the four different village locations over a hundred years of village-based agropastoralism.
The chapter focus is on spatial aspects of erosion processes and their modeling using Geospatial Information Science principles and tools. The mathematical, statistical and physics foundations of erosion models are introduced and... more
The chapter focus is on spatial aspects of erosion processes and their modeling using Geospatial Information Science principles and tools. The mathematical, statistical and physics foundations of erosion models are introduced and simplified cases, suitable for Geographic Information System (GIS) implementation are derived. Coupling of complex models with GIS is discussed and examples of GIS implementation of simple and advanced models is presented. Regression and statistical modeling approaches are also included. The concepts and methods are illustrated using several case studies at different scales, levels of detail and complexity. Visualization of the modeling results includes dynamic surfaces and innovative Tangible Geospatial Modeling System. Future directions in geospatial erosion modeling are discussed, reflecting the new developments in mapping and monitoring technologies.
Keywords: geospatial modeling, landscape evolution, regression analysis, rills, soil erosion, sediment routing
Keywords: geospatial modeling, landscape evolution, regression analysis, rills, soil erosion, sediment routing
The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and... more
The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and infiltrating the soil, and change water’s ability to move surface sediments. Conversely, water amplifies the impacts of human land use and extends the ecological footprint of human activities far beyond the borders of towns and fields. Advances in computational modelling offer new tools to study the complex feedbacks between land use, land cover, topography and surface water. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project (MedLand) is building a modelling laboratory where experiments can be carried out on the long-term impacts of agropastoral land use, and whose results can be tested against the archaeological record.
These computational experiments are providing new insights into the socio-ecological consequences of human decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales.
These computational experiments are providing new insights into the socio-ecological consequences of human decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales.
The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land-use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and... more
The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes during the Holocene has been increasingly governed by the complex interactions of water and human land-use. Different land-use practices change the amount of water flowing across the surface and infiltrating the soil, and change water's ability to move surface sediments. Conversely, water amplifies the impacts of human land-use and extends the ecological footprint of human activities far beyond the borders of towns and fields. Advances in computational modeling offer new tools to study the complex feedbacks between land-use, land-cover, topography, , and surface water. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics Project (MedLand) is building a modeling laboratory where experiments can be carried out on the long-term impacts of agropastoral land-use, and whose results that can be tested against the archaeological record. These computational experiments are providing new insights into the socioecological consequences of human decisions at varying temporal and spatial scales.
Archaeology has an opportunity to offer major contributions to our understanding of the long-term interactions of humans and the environment. To do so, we must elucidate dynamic socioecological processes that generally operate at regional... more
Archaeology has an opportunity to offer major contributions to our understanding of the long-term interactions of humans and the environment. To do so, we must elucidate dynamic socioecological processes that generally operate at regional scales. However, the archaeological record is sparse, discontinuous, and static. Recent advances in computational model- ing provide the potential for creating experimental laboratories where dynamic processes can be simulated and their results compared against the archaeological record. Coupling computational modeling with the empirical record in this way can increase the rigor of our explanations while making more transparent the concepts on which they are based. We offer an example of such an experimental laboratory to study the long-term effects of varying landuse practices by subsistence farm- ers on landscapes, and compare the results with the Levantine Neolithic archaeological record. Different combinations of intensive and shifting cultivation, ovicaprid grazing, and settlement size are modeled for the Wadi Ziqlab drainage of north- ern Jordan. The results offer insight into conditions under which previously successful (and sustainable) landuse practices can pass an imperceptible threshold and lead to undesirable landscape consequences. This may also help explain long-term social, economic, and settlement changes in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia.
The archaeological record has been described as a key to the long-term consequences of human action that can help guide our decisions today. Yet the sparse and incomplete nature of this record often makes it impossible to inferentially... more
The archaeological record has been described as a key to the long-term consequences of human action that can help guide our decisions today. Yet the sparse and incomplete nature of this record often makes it impossible to inferentially reconstruct past societies in sufficient detail for them to serve as more than very general cautionary tales of coupled socio-ecological systems. However, when formal and computational modeling is used to experimentally simulate human socioecological dynamics, the empirical archaeological record can be used to validate and improve dynamic models of long term change. In this way, knowledge generated by archaeology can play a unique and valuable role in developing the tools to make more informed decisions that will shape our future. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project offers an example of using the past to develop and test computational models of interactions between land-use and landscape evolution that ultimately may help guide decision-making.
The archaeological record has been described as a key to the long-term consequences of human action that can help guide our decisions today. Yet the sparse and incomplete nature of this record often makes it impossible to inferentially... more
The archaeological record has been described as a key to the long-term consequences of human action that can help guide our decisions today. Yet the sparse and incomplete nature of this record often makes it impossible to inferentially reconstruct past societies in sufficient detail for them to serve as more than very general cautionary tales of coupled socio-ecological systems. However, when formal and compu- tational modeling is used to experimentally simulate human socioecological dynamics, the empirical archaeological record can be used to validate and improve dynamic models of long term change. In this way, knowledge generated by archaeology can play a unique and valuable role in developing the tools to make more informed decisions that will shape our future. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project offers an example of using the past to develop and test computational models of interactions between land-use and landscape evolution that ultimately may help guide decision-making.
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