This thesis tests the hypothesis that resource depletion accompanied aggregation on the Pajarito Plateau. It does so by examining changes in faunal resource availability and resource use during the Coalition and early Classic periods. The prehistoric deer population was estimated using precipitation data, following Young (1979). This estimation was used as a measure of potential resource availability for the periods concerned. Based upon the model, the mule deer population was expected to increase from the Coalition period to the early Classic period. Resource use was measured using faunal assemblages from 10 sites from the Pajarito Plateau. The sites examined in this thesis support various expectations which would suggest that resource depletion occurred on the Pajarito Plateau. It was found that changes in resource use could not be explained by environmental change alone. Thus, it appears that resource depletion on the Pajarito Plateau may have been due to human impact on the environment.

I use documentary evidence, oral traditions, and archaeological remains to examine a brief period of interaction between the White Mountain Apache and Mormon colonists in the Forestdale Valley. This research yields a holistic understanding of the nature of Apache and Mormon interactions in the Forestdale Valley. Archaeological evidence and oral traditions support the claim that Apache people reoccupied the homes of the Mormon colonists after their expulsion. This may have been a symbolic as well as a practical act. Shortly thereafter the settlement was burned, resulting in the erasure of the physical evidence of a Mormon occupation. The complexities of Forestdale as a symbol to both groups are revealed through the interplay of social memory and silences in the past.

<p> Cultural evolutionary change at Navan Fort during the Bronze and Iron Ages was shaped by multiple selective pressures, including population growth, climatic fluctuation, and warfare. Archaeological evidence suggests that there was an increase in community aggregation, agriculture, ceremonialism, and large architectural structures. What led to the construction of these monumental structures? Was Navan Fort built by a complex chiefdom or by well-organized people working together? </p><p> This work will examine the cultural evolutionary processes of Navan Fort in Northern Ireland, which thrived from approximately 400 B.C.E. to C.E. 200. It is important that both evolutionary and ecological theories, and scientific studies including dendrochronology, palynology and faunal analysis be considered in order to develop a better understanding of the cultural changes that occurred at Navan Fort, to help determine what led to the rise of monumental architecture, and to understand what kind of organized society constructed this structure. </p>

<p> Though highly advanced and of remarkable sociopolitical importance, Mesoamerican metallurgy has been an understudied field. Recently the study of Archaeometallurgy has begun to establish itself within the region, and archaeologists are increasingly using metal artifacts to address a wide variety of inquiries. While this new emphasis on Mesoamerican metallurgy is seen as a welcomed shift, rarely any studies have focused on the production of gold artifacts. The study of goldwork in this region is laden obstacles, which include the lack of well-defined mining sites, as well as the limited amount of artifacts from provenienced contexts. In the face of these obstacles, I propose a multidisciplinary approach that combines ethnohistoric, and experimental evidence in order compensate for the lack of archaeological evidence of gold production. This thesis attempted to recreate and evaluate the efficiency of four metal casting techniques that could have been available to pre-Columbian goldsmiths for the manufacture of gold sheets that were used by the province of Tlapa as part of their tributary payments to the Aztec Empire. Along with assessing the efficiency of these metal-casting techniques, this thesis also analyzed the debris discarded from each of these techniques in order to identify potential archaeological markers of gold production in Mesoamerica.</p>

<p> This thesis examines the lithic assemblage from the 2005-2012 field seasons at the Sarah Boston site in Grafton, Massachusetts. The Sarah Boston site is associated with a multi-generational Nipmuc family living on the site during the late 18^th through early 19^th centuries. In total, 163 lithic artifacts, primarily quartz flakes and cores, were found throughout the site with concentrations north of a house foundation associated with the Nipmuc family. Reworked gunflints and worked glass were examined as examples of lithic practice associated with artifacts that are conclusively datable to the period after European arrival. Presence of quartz artifacts in an undisturbed B-horizon demonstrates a much-earlier Native component to the Sarah Boston site. Lithics and ground stone tools present in the later intact midden deposit demonstrate that the Nipmuc family interacted with these materials. Given the concentration of flakes found within the midden, it is likely that some portion of these flakes as well as the reworked gunflints and knapped glass were actively used, and perhaps produced, by the occupants of the house as an alternative or replacement of other tools, including iron. This thesis concludes that the practice of knapping persisted on this site into the 19^th century indicating a cultural continuity of Nipmuc cultural practices and identity in addition to the adoption of European-produced ceramics, iron knives, and other later materials.</p>

<p> Perched at the base of a prominent cliff above the Nutria River is the Village of the Great Kivas great house. Beginning in the mid-eleventh century, numerous small sites were constructed around the great house&mdash;establishing the Village of the Great Kivas community&mdash;a cluster of residential sites distributed along the fertile floodplain of the Nutria River and its drainages. Although the area was not used prior to the A.D. 900s, by the mid-eleventh century this location became the center of an expansive Chacoan community. </p><p> This thesis is about outlying Chacoan communities in the Zuni region. My study of Zuni great house communities begins at Village of the Great Kivas. Here, during an unusually hot summer in 1930, Frank H. H. Roberts began excavations that would eventually lead to the notion of a connection between Chaco Canyon and the Zuni region. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore the meaning behind the Chacoan experience in the Zuni region and trace the origins, development, and abandonment of several great house communities throughout the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Such a broad emphasis can only be approached from community comparisons. Throughout this thesis, I compare Zuni region great house communities to other Chacoan communities throughout the Chaco world, contending that the differences and similarities between Chacoan communities have implications for understanding the relationships these communities endured with Chaco Canyon. </p><p> Recognizing how Zuni great house communities are different or similar to other Chacoan communities has implications for understanding the relationships that existed between Chaco Canyon and its regional system. Here, I focus on four characteristics of Chacoan communities&mdash;community origins, timing, historical events, and proximity to arable land&mdash;and contend that these factors, in part, directed Chacoan community development in the Zuni region. The similarities and differences between these themes begin to illustrate how Zuni great house communities participated in the Chaco world and how local developments and histories influenced community construction during the Chaco era.</p>

<p> In the course of the development of weaponry and technology, the issue of whether a novice would be able to learn to use a new force multiplier quickly and accurately enough to benefit from its use is in question here. In the case of the atlatl and the sling, two force multiplier weapons that have existed for thousands of years, which would a novice be able to more effectively use in a brief amount of time, and what would this tell archaeologists about the behaviors surrounding each weapon? While the results of several volunteers learning how to use both the sling and the atlatl were unexpected, and indicate far more than an outright beginning advantage over throwing their ammunition of choice in their initial adoption and development, the outcome of their introduction to these weapons can be understood in the larger context of how human technology and weaponry developed.</p>

<p> The archaeological and ethnohistoric records suggest that the human head held special significance(s) as both symbol and object through space and time in the pre-Columbian Andes. A review of the literature reveals the absence of a set of definitions capable of clearly and efficiently describing the phenomenon. Instead, the various contexts and portrayals of heads are often referred to as &ldquo;trophy heads&rdquo; or trophy or head &ldquo;taking&rdquo;, even when a &ldquo;trophy&rdquo; function is considered unlikely. An etic typology of several head forms is proposed to bring clarity to the subject. The typology consists of the terms <i>Disembodied Head, Burial Head, Transformed Head, Severed Head,</i> and <i>Abstract Head,</i> and addresses physical remains as well as iconography. An etic typology of several forms allows for transparent discussion of Andean heads without relying on a vestigial interpretative label that minimizes variability.</p>

<p> Ceramics are among the most useful artifact types in historical archaeology. Identifying different earthenware types is often difficult, especially when the sherds lack diagnostic features. The purpose of this study was to determine if the colors of ceramics can be used to identify pearlware, creamware, and whiteware sherds that lack diagnostic features. A colorimeter was used measure the color of the glazes and pastes from 1929 scans of sherds categorized by experts in museum collections. Several statistical tests were performed on the data set, including ANOVA, multiple comparison, and discriminate analysis. Results from ANOVA indicated that creamware, pearlware and whiteware had different mean color values. Multivariate analysis was used to group the observations and indicated that color can be used to identify creamware, pearlware, and whiteware, but only if a color standard can be generated to compare against because colorimetric analysis can roughly duplicate the results of a single expert.</p>

Archaeological research undertaken in 1989/90 has demonstrated that a millenium ago, the Malian region of Mema (a now dry alluvial basin located northwest of the current Inland Niger Delta and south of the Lakes Region), was intensely occupied by iron using people. This intense occupation, clearly associated with a period of climatic amelioration, extends back in time to the Late Stone Age. During the regional site survey, 137 archaeological sites (29 Late Stone Age sites and 108 Iron Age sites) were identified, recorded by size, surface material and features, and location on different geomorphological zones. Radiocarbon dates spanning the fourth to fourteenth centuries AD from excavations at the Iron Age mound complex of Akumbu, and a preliminary analysis of both the excavation and survey pottery permitted the determination of a broad chronology of occupation. Numerous slag heaps (associated with smelting furnaces) found during the regional site survey, and exotic goods uncovered during the excavations at Akumbu indicated that local iron production and long distance trade played an important role in the Mema economy.