The desire for preserving a portion of this country's cultural resources has forced archaeologists and resource managers to make determinations about the relative significance of archaeological sites. Decisions are made regarding which sites are to be preserved and which must be dismissed in the name of progress. The first half of this thesis traces both the history and evolution of the significance concept, and briefly reviews some of the means and strategies archaeologists use in making significance evaluations in the face of continued economic development and a rapidly changing theoretic and methodological discipline. The second half of this thesis demonstrates a proposed significance preservation model for the known archaeological resources using data from the Upper Yalobusha River Basin in north central Mississippi. Unlike preservation strategies that evaluate resource significance on a site-by-site basis, this model establishes preservation areas based on a twenty percent representative sample of the known cultural resources in the region. / Department of Anthropology

A detailed investigation of a feature from a Phase II Archaeological Survey is undertaken and described. This feature of unusual shape and size is excavated and interpreted through archaeological and research methodologies to give a better evaluation for the Phase II investigation and a much more comprehensive study of the people who formed this feature in the mid-1800's. The artifacts recovered associated with the documented history gives a view of that time period that shows the history of a particular tract of land - site 12Ma648, Lawrence Township, Marion County, Indiana. From the government's land patent deed in 1826 to the government's reacquisition of the property in 1903, the site's occupants have left evidence of their existence and afforded a unique opportunity to study the lives of early Indiana settlers. / Department of Anthropology

1989, the Archaeological Resources Management Service Ball State University conducted a reconnaissance level survey of 550 acres located within and adjacent to the Wabash River Valley in Huntington and Wabash Counties, Indiana. Additional survey was conducted in 1990 and 1991 on areas of expanded right-of-way within the original project area. The field reconnaissance located 188 archaeological sites. Twenty-one of the sites located by those surveys were subjected to archaeological testing.This study examines data from the survey and testing and presents a distribution of sites and human settlement across the study area. The study also develops a site typology which is used to address settlement pattern questions for the study area. / Department of Anthropology

The Upper Wabash Drainage over the last few years has become an area which has provided archaeologists with vital data concerning prehistoric settlement patterns. One time period which has not been well represented is the Archaic Period. Many questions have been unanswered about Archaic settlement patterns within the region. This study examines data from archaeological survey and presents a model for both Early and Late Archaic settlement within the Upper Wabash drainage. The information generated by this analysis will provide a better understanding of the Archaic period within this region. The study will also prove to be useful as a reference for future research as well as an important mechanism for resource management. / Department of Anthropology

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-367).

An archaeological survey of Fayette County, Indiana was conducted under a Department of the Interior Historic Preservation Fund Survey and Planning Grant administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. The reconnaissance covered 747.3 acres by systematic survey.Prior to the survey, only 102 sites were on record in Fayette County. The systematic survey, collector interviews and background research identified 275 new sites. A total of 252 sites were identified through the systematic survey, while 23 sites were identified through collector interviews, background research and non-systematic field survey. A total of 4081 prehistoric and 13 historic artifacts were recovered. Site density for Fayette County was compiled from the systematic survey of the county and sites not found in conjunction with the systematic survey were not included. Overall site density for Fayette County is 1 site per 2.97 acres with an average of 15.66 artifacts per site and 5.28 artifacts per acre. Site densities for the Dearborn Upland were also compiled with an overall site density of 1 site per 2.64 acres. / Department of Anthropology

Following the social unrest of the 1960s, social scientists in America began to examine the persistence of ethnic identity among groups previously viewed in terms of their assimilation into the dominant culture or their geographical and thus cultural isolation. In 1969 social anthropologist Frederick Barth published his seminal essay on the subject. Ethnic identity, he claimed, can persist despite contact with and interdependence on other ethnic groups.This thesis attempts to effectively combine data from both the ethnohistoric and archaeological records in order to better understand the ethnic identity of Zachariah Cicott, a 19th century fur trader living in the central Wabash Valley. At this time the French families living in the United States had managed to maintain a separate sense of being or ethnic identity.The architectural style of an individuals residence has long been regarded as a reflection of the occupant’s ethnicity. French colonists arriving in North America brought with them a distinct architectural style characterized by the use of hand hewn vertical logs. As French communities spread across the North American landscape this style changed in response to the environment and raw materials at hand. Three ethnohistoric accounts of Cicott’s house make a convincing case for the presence of French architecture at the Cicott Trading Post Site (12Wa59).Archaeological excavations at the Cicott Trading Post Site have provided further evidence for French architecture. Found in association with a linear concentration of limestone, which appears to be the partial remains of the house foundation, were several fragments of pierrotage, a type of French mortar.Taken in conjunction with the ethnohistoric accounts, this limestone foundation and the associated pierrotage may be seen to represent the remains of a piece-sur-piece structure. / Department of Anthropology

This thesis develops and executes a method of comprehensively discovering accessible Paleoamerican archaeological materials from a restricted geographic area, analyzing the data collected, and comparing them within a larger sphere of interaction. The restricted area was Darke County, in west-central Ohio. The study area was familiar to the writer both in field experience and knowledge of collections held by local residents. A total of 115 diagnostic points and additional tools were located, examined, photographed, and measured.On the basis of point typology three stages of Paleoamerican occupation were identified, Early (11, 500 to 10, 500 B. P.), Middle (11,000 to 10, 500 B. P.), and Late (10,500 to 10,000 B. P.). The Early Paleoamerican stage was marked by Clovis fluted and Unfluted fluted points, the Middle by the Cumberland point, and the Late by Agate Basin, Transitional, Plano Lanceolate, and Hi-Lo points. The sources of raw materials were identified and changes of habitat through time were described.The abundant data recovered and analyzed by the approach used in this study from just one Ohio county indicates that extensive data is available but has yet to be recorded and analyzed for Paleoamerican occupation throughout Midwestern United States. / Department of Anthropology

This project represents the comprehensive study of architectural duties on an archaeological excavation known as the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis. This project is meant to serve as an overview of the duties and expectations of an architectural staff member for recruitment and enrichment purposes. The project is divided into 5 main categories: The Sardis Architecture Manual, recruitment lecture transcript, an exhibit of Ball State University staff and student work pertaining to the excavation, an analysis of the future of architectural recording at Sardis, and process work done in the completion of the project.In the future, the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis may not have the necessary Senior Architects to train the new Student Architects from Ball State University. It is hoped that this project will allow new Architect staff members to properly perform the duties pertaining to an archaeological excavation with a minimum of training from senior members. / Department of Architecture

This thesis examines prehistoric land use patterns of the entire North Santiam subbasin, located on the western slopes of the Oregon Cascade Range. The objective of this analysis is three-fold: 1) to contribute to reconstructing the cultural chronology of the area; 2) to address the use of raw material by local hunter-gatherers and how raw material can be used to reconstruct the seasonal procurement ranges for these groups; and 3) to model the adaptive strategies of the prehistoric inhabitants of the North Santiam subbasin. The adaptive strategies of hunter-gatherer groups in the North Santiam subbasin are addressed by using the known ethnographic record, limited archaeological excavations, and the environmental and social data layers in Geographic Information Systems. ArcView Spatial Analyst was used to analyze the density and distribution of prehistoric sites and their association with major vegetation, huckleberry patches, non-forested communities, slope, aspect, streams, lithic sources, hot springs and trails within the subbasin. Five elevation zones are outlined corresponding to the site density pattern and the key predictive environmental and social variables. This study assumed that sites are not randomly distributed across the landscape; instead hunter-gatherer groups chose a particular location based on the natural environment. It is also assumed that many of the environmental variables have survived to modern time and are represented by the presently available data. Concurrent trace element analysis by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and obsidian hydration analysis conducted on projectile points recovered from the surface and subsurface have provided evidence for early occupation in the subbasin; and revealed patterns in mobility, social interaction, and the use of raw material during the Archaic. The key predictive variables sustained a diversity of plant and animal resources that attracted human groups from both east and west of the Cascade Mountains over the past 10,000 years to seasonally hunt and procure a variety of important plant resources. The results of this study while descriptive in nature elucidates a pattern of land-use by hunter-gatherers, by providing key distributional data on prehistoric sites and their association to particular ecological zones within the North Santiam subbasin during the Archaic Period. / Graduation date: 2002