Abstract Archaeologists have long interpreted Arizona and Sonora’s Upper Santa Cruz valley as a precolonial “contact zone” or “frontier” between the Trincheras and Hohokam traditions. These models are heavily influenced by the contemporary US-Mexico border and outdated core/periphery models. Furthermore, although plain ware represents most pottery from this region, it has never been used to understand the populations who inhabited the region or to reconstruct local communities of practice. This article provides the first systematic study of plain ware from 23 sites across the Upper Santa Cruz. We incorporate Bhabha’s (2004) “Third Space” theory to suggest that local potter communities actively responded to changing interactions with neighboring populations for more than five centuries. By focusing our attention on local ceramic production, and critically evaluating cultural boundaries, we reposition the Upper Santa Cruz as neither a periphery nor frontier but an area rich in its own dynamic cultural expressions and regional agency.

Abstract In a recent publication, Ellwood et alia (2022) presented results indicating that the LSU Campus Mounds (16EBR6) could be the oldest man-made extant structures in the Americas, that they were built in phases with a hiatus of approximately 2,000 years, and that they were used for ceremonial fires or cremations. In a subsequent publication, McGimsey et alia (2022) expressed their concerns regarding the conclusions presented in the Ellwood et alia publication. To resolve some of the controversial issues, McGimsey et alia identify six avenues for further research. In this article, we address selected aspects of four of these recommendations using synchrotron radiation (SR)–based techniques. SR-X-ray fluorescence spectra show no significant differences in the elemental concentrations of samples from various possible construction phases and in the concentration of samples from lighter-colored (ash?) and darker areas. For iron (Fe; a temperature-sensitive element) and for silicon (Si; the characteristic element for phytoliths), the corresponding X-ray absorption spectra show no significant differences in the chemical state between light- and dark-area samples. These results support neither the assumption that Mound B was built in two phases with a long hiatus nor the assumption that light-colored lenses consist of ash from hot fires.

Abstract The Fremont archaeological complex of the northern Colorado Plateau represents a mixed subsistence economy based on small-scale farming and foraging. However, the role of maize within the Fremont diet and its temporal span are poorly understood in northwestern Colorado, which is an eastern periphery of the broader Fremont tradition. Previous estimates in the region suggest that Fremont lifeways began early in the first millennium AD and persisted late into the 1600s. In this study, we examine 53 radiocarbon dates of maize macrofossils and short-lived wood/plant fragments from granary features from 33 sheltered and open-air sites in the study area. Based on our Bayesian modeling efforts, small-scale corn farming most likely began around cal AD 740–815 and ended between cal AD 1270 and 1320 , with a modeled duration of 515 years. Several peaks are apparent within the summed probability distribution (cal AD 970–1050 and cal AD 1090–1130), suggesting that the most intensive era for maize farming is coeval with social and subsistence trends evident across the broader Uinta Basin. We provide evidence of a restricted maize chronology throughout the study area, but further work is needed to understand the proportional contribution of maize to the Fremont diet.

Following the Mississippian Spread: Climate Change and Migration in the Eastern US (ca. AD 1000–1600). Robert A. Cook and Aaron R. Comstock, editors. 2022. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. xii + 397 pp. 109.00 (e-book), ISBN 978-3-030-89082-7.