The study of prehistoric Maya settlements has been hampered by simplistic views of cultural ecology, over generalized ethnographic analogy, and a lack of attention to both natural and cultural site formation processes. As a result, Mayanists have tended to expect very little variety in archaeological features and have assumed cultural uniformity over wide ranges of time and space. Traditional research designs support these assumptions. Current knowledge of Maya social organization suggests that more structural variety may occur in Maya archaeological sites than is ordinarily discovered. Some of this variation is evidenced by features not currently visible on the ground-surface. The Nohmul Settlement pattern project employed a "purposive" sampling design to search for settlement variation over time and space. Several assumptions about surface-subsurface relationships were tested. Surface indications were not found to outline subsurface variety. Excavating at intervals from site center in both visible and "invisible" features, showed that the Nohmul community was affected by both centralizing and decentralizing influences and grouped into residential clusters resembling neighborhoods. The degree of centralization and the location of the clusters, as well as some of their characteristics, changed notably over Nohmul's 2500 year occupation.

Archaeology MSc Dissertation School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies Faculty of Science University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg 2013 / Agropastoralists during the Iron Age established their settlements in the Limpopo Valley to take advantage of the rich floodplains of the Shashe-Limpopo confluence. Trade in ivory may have been a draw card in the earlier Zhizo period (AD 900), but good climate and increased rainfall helped to maintain a growing population which in turn contributed to the rise of complex society and the first state in southern Africa, i.e. Mapungubwe (AD 1250-1300). The population increase and the concomitant agricultural land use, together with several droughts, would have challenged livestock management. Using carbon signatures, J. Smith (2005) discovered that cattle were sustained on graze alone, indicating sufficient grass in the valley for pasture during the Iron Age. I have used spherulites found in cattle dung to investigate the use of the confluence vlei area. Vlei grass would have provided extra pasturage. I considered time and space to interpret samples. For the Zhizo and Leokwe periods, I examined 13 samples, including Castle Rock, of which six were positive. K2 had nine positive samples out of 17 while Transitional K2 had 20 positives samples. The TK2 results suggest there was a greater need for extra pasturage associated with drought from AD 1220 to 1250. The Mapungubwe period is represented by 11 samples and five yielded positive results while the Khami period yielded 12 positive results out of 26 samples. These results show a regular use of the confluence vlei during the Iron Age associated with dry conditions.

Rangifer have the greatest circumpolar distribution of any living ungulate and have played an important role in the lives of many Arctic Indigenous communities for thousands of years. Given the prolific nature of Rangifer remains in many Arctic archaeological contexts, and their continued importance in many contemporary Arctic Indigenous societies, this species has the potential to be an important source of information about past Arctic human-animal-environment interactions. Given the noted influence of local and global climatic shifts on Rangifer ecology in the present, knowledge of the palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography of such a key prey-species, coupled with an indication of palaeoclimatic context, may provide valuable insights into animal-human interactions, human subsistence activities and landscape use in the past. The aims of this thesis are three-fold. The first is to explore Rangifer isotopic variability, and to indicate the utility of this species as a palaeoclimatic proxy, by isotopically analysing modern samples from across the circumpolar North. The second aim is to investigate the palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography of caribou from the pre-contact Little Ice Age (15th–17th century AD) Yup'ik village site of Nunalleq, Western Alaska, in order to determine their ranging patterns and to identify if these patterns are similar to those seen in modern caribou in the area today. The third aim brings both of these aims together in order to undertake the first multi-isotopic investigation of archaeological Rangifer in North America to provide an indication of the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic context of Nunalleq. This information, in conjunction with the caribou palaeoecological and palaeogeographical knowledge, will inform on caribou-environment and caribou-human interactions at the site. To that end, bulk bone bioapatite δ18OCO3 and δ18OPO4, and bulk bone collagen δ13C, δ15N and δ34S isotope analysis is undertaken on Rangifer from five modern herds from across the circumpolar North to explore the relationships between stable isotope ratios and environmental factors. The data presented here suggest that Rangifer bioapatite δ18O is a potentially useful proxy for regional climate. Intra and inter-population variability in these isotopic systems suggests the potential of using these to distinguish between herds and environments, particularly δ18O and δ34S. Sequential strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18OCO3) isotope data from caribou (Rangifer sp.) tooth enamel from Nunalleq are analysed in order to reconstruct caribou movement patterns in this region during the Little Ice Age. The data presented here suggests these Nunalleq caribou undertook some seasonal movements. Comparison with observational data of the local herd in the region today suggests a shift in calving area and range use between the late Holocene period represented by the site and the present day. Finally, bulk bone bioapatite δ18OPO4 and bulk bone collagen δ13C and δ15N on caribou from the site are used to reconstruct palaeotemperature for the area surrounding Nunalleq and to inform on additional palaeoenvironmental considerations. The data generated in this thesis provide new empirical data for future research in isotope zooarchaeology and significant baseline data for use in palaeodietary and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of fossil Rangifer. The isotopic data complement the wealth of data derived from other research at Nunalleq, illuminating the influence of changing climatic conditions on prey-species palaeoecology and human–animal interactions at the site.

The prehistory of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is poorly understood and the region today is home to the Yupiit, whose traditional lifeways revolve around animals. However, the fur trade and Christianity limit the use of ethnographic data to fully understand pre-contact human-animal relationships and subsistence in particular. The discovery of the prehistoric site of Nunalleq (15th-17th c. AD), therefore provides a unique opportunity to address this issue and opens a window to explore human responses to the Little Ice Age. In this research, a zooarchaeological analysis was undertaken to investigate animal exploitation at Nunallleq, potential changes in subsistence strategies and the nature of the faunal assemblage. Results suggest that people at Nunalleq focused primarily on salmon, marine mammals and caribou with migratory waterfowl possibly playing an important role at specific times of the year. This tripartite subsistence strategy appears to have provided the inhabitants of the site with the flexibility and necessary coping mechanisms to face potential environmental-related stress during the Little Ice Age by relying more on other resources, such as seals and caribou, when experiencing a reduced availability of salmon. The choice to settle at Nunalleq may have been strategic in order to have good access to multiple key resources simultaneously and it is suggested that perhaps the possible decline in salmon may be related to prehistoric warfare in the region. It is also highlighted that bone working and dog gnawing contributed to the formation the Nunalleq faunal assemblage. This raises further questions as to the nature and meaning of arctic and subarctic archaeofaunas and highlights the importance of multiple lines of evidence to document past human-animal relationships. This study better informs our understanding of Nunalleq forming a baseline for further subsistence studies in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Despite the fact that there has been an enormous amount of jades excavated from the Western Han tombs of Chu Princes, Xuzhou in Jiangsu province, little scholarly literature has been focused on these artefacts. Based on archaeological findings, this thesis selects some significant jade objects as the focus of attention, including jade pendants, jade vessels, jade weapons, jade suites and other burial jades. As the role and value of jade is varied in the hierarchy of material within different cultural and historical context, the changes in its functions and meanings, to some extent reflects the changes in politics, economy, and society. Through tracing their origins, the identity of the owners and examining the changes in material and society, this study attempts to reveal the cultural and social value embedded in these objects, and in doing so to reconstruct the changes in material concepts and aesthetic ideologies in the Han periods. / On the basis of the achievements have hitherto in Han jade study, the present study is expected to shed light on our understanding of tomb culture and its relation to the society from a broader and more comprehensive perspective. Aside from placing specific types of jade into an accurate period or investigating their functions and sources, this study will read the object by cross reference to ancient textual material. / Using jade, a particular category of art objects, as the point of entry, this study seeks to explore and question the issue of materiality and identity within the context of tomb art, and the wider issue of cultural and social practices in the Han Dynasty. / 林巧羚. / Submitted: 2010年11月. / Submitted: 2010 nian 11 yue. / Adviser: Jenny F. So. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 355-396). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Lin Qiaoling.

No description available.

There are two principal models that purport to interpret the evidence for the origins of the Neolithic period in Thailand. Both stress the importance of rice cultivation and the domestication of a range of animals. One incorporates archaeological and linguistic evidence in identifying the origins as the result of the diffusion of farming communities into Southeast Asia and India from a source in the Yangtze River valley. The alternative stresses a local evolutionary pathway whereby indigenous hunter-gatherers began to cultivate rice within Thailand. This dissertation is centred on the results of the excavation of Ban Non Wat, in the Upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand. This has provided one of the largest, best dated and provenanced samples of occupation and mortuary remains of a Neolithic community so far available in Southeast Asia. Its principal objective is to define the motifs incised, impressed and painted onto the surface of ceramic mortuary vessels, in order to permit a comparison with other assemblages first in Thailand, then in Southeast Asia north into China. It is held that if there are close parallels over a wide geographic area, in these motifs, then it would support a model of diffusion. If there are not, then the alternative of local origins would need to be examined closely. It is argued that the similarity in motifs, particularly a stylised human figure, between Thai and Vietnamese sites lends support to a common origin for these groups. The motifs are not so obvious when examining the southern Chinese data, although the mode of decoration by painting, incising and impressing recur there. This, in conjunction with mortuary rituals, weaving technology, the domestic dog, and the linguistic evidence, sustains a model for demic diffusion. However, the presence of ceramic vessels also decorated with impressed/incised techniques in maritime hunter-gatherer contexts stresses that the actual Neolithic settlement may have been more complex.

Thesis (M.A. in anthropology)--Washington State University, December 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-202).

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2006. / "This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat"--ProQuest document view. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis describes the archaeological site content and integrity of the Copeland site (35BE90) in Corvallis, Oregon. The Copeland site is owned by the Benton County Historical Society and is the future home of the Benton County Historical Museum. In 2001, an Oregon State University archaeological field school was conducted to test for the presence of the residential houses and commercial businesses that once occupied the Copeland site. The archaeological excavation revealed the presence of both the residential and commercial usage that occurred at the Copeland site. Excavation also revealed that while the integrity of the site has been disturbed by commercial activities the integrity has not been completely destroyed. Finally, recommendations are made concerning further archaeological exploration of the site. / Graduation date: 2006