Cultural Landscapes and Long-Term Human Ecology (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology)

Bringing together an international set of scholars, this volume presents integrative theoretical and methodological perspectives linking two complementary approaches in anthropological archaeology: cultural landscapes and human ecology. Authors grapple with issues ranging from the hunter-gatherer populations of North America and the emergence of the Neolithic in Europe to contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, using approaches from ethnoarchaeology to geomorphology, and methodological specialties from stable isotopes to social networks, in order to shed light on prehistoric human adaptations and how they produce cultural variation on a landscape scale. Together, contributions to this volume illustrate how interdisciplinary and integrative perspectives can aid archaeology by providing the means necessary to interpret and explain long-term records of human activity. This book capitalizes on the unique position of archaeology, and the long-term records of human ecology and cultural resilience the discipline develops, to make significant contributions to contemporary discussions of long-term climate human-environment interactions throughout the Holocene. The book is therefore produced during a perfect time in which other disciplines are focusing on the unique contribution that can be made by archaeology. Acknowledgements Contents Contributors Chapter 1: Cultural Landscapes and Long-Term Human Ecology 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Evolving Diversity of the Ecological Approach in Archaeology 1.3 Scale Dependence of Archaeological Theory, Method, and Data 1.4 The Future of Archaeology References Chapter 2: Models, Foragers, Human Beings, and a Hunter-Gatherer Career 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Thinking About Hunters and Gatherers 2.3 Thinking About Optimal Foraging Models 2.3.1 Does Anyone Optimize Ever? 2.3.2 Hunting in the Deeper Past and in Colder Places 2.3.3 We All Have Neighbors and They Have Good Stuff 2.4 A Career Looking Outside of Our Blinders 2.4.1 Archaeology Is Hard: Research Over the Long Haul 2.5 Conclusions References Chapter 3: Defining and Modeling the Dimensions of Settlement Choice: An Empirical Approach 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 Contributing to Theory-Building and Explanation 3.1.2 Considering Variables of the Physical and Social Environments 3.1.3 Getting Rid of “Non-Sites” 3.2 Case Study Settlements and Region 3.2.1 Database and Variables 3.3 Getting at the Dimensions of Settlement Choice: A PCA Tactic 3.3.1 Component Selection 3.3.2 Readjustment of Components by Outlier Removal 3.3.3 Bootstrapping 3.3.4 Restrictive Variation 3.3.5 Visualization of Principal Components 3.4 Putting It All Together: Mahalanobis D2 as a Single-Class Model 3.4.1 Calculation of D2 3.4.2 Conversion to Probabilities 3.5 Model Evaluations 3.5.1 Performance of Transformed Mahalanobis D2 3.5.2 Performance of Logistic Regression Model 3.5.3 Performance of Maximum Entropy Model 3.5.4 Discussion 3.6 Conclusions References Cited Chapter 4: Isobiographies and Archaeology Beyond Long-Term Ethnography: Life History Reconstruction Using Stable Isotopes 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Human Skeletal Tissues 4.3 Geographic vs. Dietary Tracers 4.4 Isobiographies 4.4.1 Bone 4.4.2 Teeth 4.4.3 Dental Calculus 4.4.3.1 Hair 4.5 Case Studies from Ancient California 4.5.1 Case 1: Inter-Tooth and Bone Isobiographies 4.5.2 Case 2: Intra-Tooth Isobiographies 4.5.3 Case 3: Short-Term Hair Isobiography 4.6 Conclusions References Chapter 5: Caribou Inuit Activity and Settlement Around Yathkyed Lake: A Record of Archaeological Features in an Inland Arctic Landscape, Canada 5.1 Introduction 5.1.1 The Caribou Inuit 5.2 Location, Seasonality and Activity 5.3 Archaeological Data: Correlates of Activity and Season 5.4 Analysis of Sites 5.4.1 Archaeological Evidence for Seasons and Activities 5.5 Conclusions References Chapter 6: Resource Acquisition Risk and the Division of Labor: Austral Lessons for Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Theoretical Framework and Empirical Predictions 6.3 Explaining Variation Across Ethnographic Landscapes 6.3.1 When Men’s Hunting Fails, Women’s Work Dominates Production: Martu 6.3.2 When Men’s Hunting Is Reliable, Their Labor Dominates Production: Alyawarre 6.4 Explaining Variation Across Ethnoarchaeological Landscapes 6.5 Explaining Variation Across Archaeological Landscapes 6.6 Summary and Conclusion References Chapter 7: Niche Construction and the Ideal Free Distribution: Partners in Characterizing Past Human-Environmental Dynamics 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Niche Construction and the Ideal Free Distribution 7.2.1 Discussion: A Question of Scale? Niches, Habitats, and Suitability 7.2.2 Niche Construction and Transhumance 7.2.3 Transhumance, Niches, and the IFD 7.3 Conclusions References Chapter 8: Reconsidering the Amazonian Interfluvial Occupation 8.1 Amazonian Diversity 8.2 The Floodplain and the Interfluve 8.3 The Pardo River, Entering into an Interfluvial Zone 8.4 Excavations 8.5 Patterns 8.6 Discussion 8.7 Is There a Sociopolitical or Environmental Periphery in the Amazon? 8.8 The Interfluve as More Pristine? 8.9 Mobility and Long Distance Travel 8.10 A Vision Moving Forward References Chapter 9: Holocene Human Ecology and Adaptation to Millennial- and Centennial-Scale Climate Change: A Case Study from the North Sea Basin 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Coupling the Human System to the Natural System in the Southern North Sea Basin 9.2.1 The Natural System 9.2.2 The Human System 9.3 A Chronological Model for Diachronic Change in the RMS Mesolithic 9.4 A New Hypothesis for Mesolithic Adaptations to Environmental Change in the RMS Region 9.5 Conclusion References Chapter 10: Technological Changes in Lithic Reduction as a Chronological Indicator in Surface Artifact Scatters 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Late Palaeolithic 10.3 Early Mesolithic 10.4 Late Mesolithic 10.5 Research History 10.6 Discriminant Analysis 10.6.1 Chronologically Significant Variables 10.6.2 Training Samples 10.6.3 Survey Sites as New Cases to Be Classified 10.6.4 Analysis – Discriminant Analysis 10.7 Conclusion References Chapter 11: Neolithic Cultural Landscapes in Southwestern Germany: Exploring Contributions of Regional Survey 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Environmental and Archaeological Context of the Southwest German Neolithic 11.3 Plowzone Surveys: Methods and Survey Coverage 11.4 Geographic Setting and History of Research 11.5 Distribution of Neolithic Archaeological Sites in and around the Study Areas 11.6 Exploring Potential of Plowzone Surveys: A Non-site Approach 11.7 Survey Results 11.7.1 Upper Swabian Study Area: Moraine Lowlands 11.7.2 Swabian Alb Study Area 11.7.3 Identifying Neolithic Materials in Surface Scatters 11.7.4 Low Density of Neolithic Finds in Upper Swabian Surveys 11.7.5 Neolithic Finds from Swabian Alb Surveys 11.8 Exploring Potential Contributions of Regional Survey in Southwest Germany 11.8.1 Neolithic Land Use Patterns in Comparison to Earlier Prehistoric Periods 11.8.2 Distribution of Neolithic Activities around Settlements 11.8.3 Directions for Future Research References Chapter 12: Neolithic and Bronze Age Bog Settlements in the Federsee Basin (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) 12.1 Environmental Context and State of Research 12.2 Houses, Settlement Types and Society 12.3 Mobility and Settlement Systems 12.4 Paths of Settlement, Fluctuations of the Lake Levels, Climatic and Economic Changes 12.5 Transformation of the Landscape 12.6 Final Discussion References Index