Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology PDF
Preview Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology
Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology Second Edition INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHAEOLOGY Series Editor: Michael Jochim, University of California, Santa Barbara, California Founding Editor: Roy S. Dickens, Jr. Late of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina THE ARCHAEOLOGIST’S LABORATORY The Analysis of Archaeological Data E.B. Banning AURIGNACIAN LITHIC ECONOMY Ecological Perspectives from Southwestern France Brooke S. Blades CASE STUDIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 2ND EDITION Elizabeth J. Reitz, C. Margaret Scarry, and Sylvia J. Scudder EARLIEST ITALY An Overview of the Italian Paleolithic and Mesolithic Margherita Mussi EMPIRE AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY Terence N. D’Altroy and Christine A. Hastorf EUROPEAN PREHISTORY: A SURVEY Edited by Saurunas Miliasuskas THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX HUNTER-GATHERERS Archaeological Evidence from the North Pacific Ben Fitzhugh FAUNAL EXTINCTION IN AN ISLAND SOCIETY Pygmy Hippotamus Hunters of Cyprus Alan H. Simmons A HUNTER-GATHERER LANDSCAPE Southwest Germany in the Late Paleolithic and Neolithic Michael A. Jochim MISSISSIPPIAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri Michael J. O’Brien NEW PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN SACRIFICE AND RITUAL BODY TREATMENTS IN ANCIENT MAYA SOCIETY Edited by Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina REMOTE SENSING IN ARCHAEOLOGY Edited by James Wiseman and Farouk El-Baz THE TAKING AND DISPLAYING OF HUMAN BODY PARTS AS TROPHIES BY AMERINDIANS Edited by Richard J. Chacon and David H. Dye A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology Second Edition Edited by ELIZABETH J. REITZ University of Georgia Athens, Georgia and C. MARGARET SCARRY University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina and SYLVIA J. SCUDDER University of Florida Gainesville, Florida Editors: Elizabeth J. Reitz C. Margaret Scarry Georgia Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology University of Georgia, Athens, USA University of North Carolina Athens, GA 30602 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115 [email protected] [email protected] Sylvia J. Scudder Florida Museum of Natural History University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 [email protected] ISBN-13: 978-0-387-71302-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-0-387-71303-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007929503 © 2008 Springer Science(cid:2)Business Media, LLC All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science(cid:2)Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com For students, the future of environmental archaeology Foreword to the Second Edition The first edition of this volume exhibited environmental archaeology of the 1990s, an intensely interdisciplinary field that arose half-a-century ago from wide- spread concern with environmental issues, both past and present. Environmental archaeology had clearly come of age by the last decade of the 20th century, but was still centered upon methods, techniques, and basic epistemological matters: what kinds of knowledge claims can be made by environmental archaeologists, and how can those claims be most effectively tested and justified? In the second edition of Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology, greater maturity of the sub-discipline is highlighted by a shift in emphasis to results, and to the rele- vance of those results for major themes and research problems within Americanist archaeology and anthropology. Hence, the second edition differs significantly from edition number one in scope, organization, substantive content, and emphasis. Most of the first- edition authors are also included in this second edition, having updated, revised, or rewritten their chapters, but there are several new authors and half-a- dozen new chapters. Both revised chapters and new ones have been accorded the same careful attention from the editors as was the case with the first edition, so that the volume as a whole is well written, well organized, and well integrated. Anyone seriously interested in environmental and ecological archaeology will want to own both books. The first (1996) edition was a surprise gift from students and colleagues to Elizabeth Wing when she was presented by the Society for American Archaeology with the Fryxell Award for distinguished contributions to interdisciplinary research in archaeology. Now, ten years later, having accrued another award of high distinction (election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006), but no longer this volume’s honoree, Wing has enhanced the second edition by con- tributing her own chapter on people, animals, and their reciprocal relations in Caribbean pre- and proto-history. Although this second edition of Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology is no longer overtly dedicated to her, this is still Liz Wing’s book, because the contributors — whether discussing sediments or landscapes, past and present; flora or fauna, ancient or modern, domestic or wild; climatic regimes, synchronic and diachronic; or past human subsistence patterns, and human susceptibility to endoparasites — are all individuals inspired and guided by her exemplary record as a team member, leader, and all-around practitioner of environmental archaeology. Once again Elizabeth Wing and her vii viii FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION group have clearly demonstrated the diverse, highly significant knowledge gains possible for those who follow ecological and environmental pathways to under- standing the human past. PATTYJOWATSON Washington University-St. Louis University of Montana-Missoula St. Louis, Missouri Preface to the Second Edition A few years ago, one of us was approached by a student who asked if we really knew anything about human behavior from environmental archaeology. This student was taking an environmental archaeology course in which taphonomy and the biases of the techniques and methods used by environmental archaeol- ogists figured prominently. The goal was to train students to be informed users of environmental data. But the student, quite rightly, wanted to know if beyond taphonomy, recovery biases, and analytical biases, there was anything environ- mental archaeologists could say about the human condition. Her question was the stimulus for the first edition of this volume and continued to guide us as we edited this second edition. Our purpose is to show students and scholars, through a series of case studies, that there are things environmental archaeologists do know about the human-environmental relationship; many of which defy conventional archaeological expectations. To do so, however, we must break with the tra- ditional organization of environmental archaeology along disciplinary lines. Environmental archaeology is intrinsically interdisciplinary. The demands of each discipline often mean, however, that specialists become further special- ized in a very limited technical focus. While almost every environmental technique and method is represented in this edition, they are used as tools, not as ends in themselves. To enhance the focus on interpretation, each author has reduced or elimi- nated discussions of methodology and technique. Thus, each had to balance the methodological responsibility required by the scientific method with a focus on theory and interpretations. The studies focus on insights obtained from methods, rather than on the methods themselves. Readers are referred to other literature for discussions of biases and methodological limitations. Environmental archaeology is a broad and diverse field united by ecological and anthropological theories and interests that rarely are made explicit. It is not possible, in a few case studies, to do justice to the entire field. Some themes, however, are consistently embraced by environmental archaeology. These themes include, but are not limited to: the systemic relationships between humans and the physical, chemical, and biological world in which they live; human nutrition and health; and complex human behaviors associated with acquiring resources. These behaviors include strategies for accommodating variations in temporal and spatial availability of resources, such as settlement ix x PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION patterns, domestication, and exchange systems; and the emergence of social complexity. These interlaced topics are addressed to varying degrees in this volume. The case studies focus on research problems using data from the Americas; however, a quick review of these studies shows that the subject matter of each study has a global perspective. We hope that by demonstrating the power of environmental archaeology to explore interesting aspects of human behavior using examples from a hemisphere not known for its strength in environmental archaeology that we will draw students to these topics. Preparing these studies was a challenge to us all. The scientific method requires that the validity of scientific finds be assessed first by evaluating the methods used to derive the results. But, we also believe it is important to look up from the microscope occasionally and evaluate what we have learned about culture. We ask forbearance from our colleagues for down-playing how we know what we know in order to focus on broader questions. We hope that students and colleagues alike will appreciate the joy of discovery that moti- vates us to persevere. The first edition was dedicated to Elizabeth S. Wing, who is a friend, colleague, and mentor to many of the authors in this volume. Without her inspiration, guid- ance, and encouragement, this volume would not have been conceived. The first edition was intended to be a surprise for her on the occasion of the Society for American Archaeology’s Fryxell Award in Interdisciplinary Studies. Thus, we did not ask her to contribute a case study. We are delighted to include her among the authors of this second edition. Many others made substantial contributions either to the first edition or to the second edition. In particular, we thank Gisela Weis-Gresham and Tara Odorizzi, who drafted most of the figures. Robin Cook, Ervan G. Garrison, H. Stephen Hale, Lee A. Newsom, Rochelle A. Marrinan, Bonnie G. McEwan, Deborah M. Pearsall, Irvy R. Quitmyer, Herman J. Reitz, Michael J. Rodeffer, Donna L. Ruhl, Clara JoAnn Scarry, John F. Scarry, Izumi Shimada, Myrna Sulsona, Eliot Warner, Timothy S. Young, and the staff of Plenum Press provided invaluable assistance on the first edition. To this list we add Teresa Krauss, Katie Chabalko, and the staff of Springer for the second edition. Through the generosity of Kitty Emery, the Florida Museum of Natural History provided essential support during the final preparation of the second edition. Finally, we thank our home institutions, students, colleagues, families, and the authors of these studies for their patience, cooperation, and support. Contents PART I: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 Introduction to Environmental Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Elizabeth J. Reitz, Lee A. Newsom, Sylvia J. Scudder, and C. Margaret Scarry Chapter 2 Environmental Archaeology and Historical Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Kathleen A. Deagan Chapter 3 Historical Perspectives on Timbisha Shoshone Land Management Practices, Death Valley, California . . . . 43 Catherine S. Fowler PART II: THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE Chapter 4 Geoarchaeology and Archaeostratigraphy: View from a Northwest Coast Shell Midden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Julie K. Stein Chapter 5 Anatomy of a Southwest Florida Sand Burial Mound: Smith Mound at the Pineland Site Complex . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Sylvia J. Scudder Chapter 6 Archaeozoology, Art, Documents, and the Life Assemblage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Richard Cooke, Máximo Jiménez, and Anthony J. Ranere Chapter 7 Using Land Snails and Freshwater Mussels to Chart Human Transformation of the Landscape: An Example from North Mississippi, U.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Evan Peacock and Jochen Gerber xi
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