Low-ranked Resources Research Articles

Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth: Paleoethnobotany of Connley Cave 5, Oregon, USA

Paleoethnobotanical perspectives are essential for understanding past lifeways yet continue to be underrepresented in Paleoindian research. We present new archaeobotanical and radiocarbon data from combustion features within stratified cultural components at Connley Caves, Oregon, that reaffirm the inclusion of plants in the diet of Paleoindian groups. Botanical remains from three features in Connley Cave 5 show that people foraged for diverse dryland taxa and a narrow range of wetland plants during the summer and fall months. These data add new taxa to the known Pleistocene food economy and support the idea that groups equipped with Western Stemmed Tradition toolkits had broad, flexible diets. When viewed continentally, this work contributes to a growing body of research indicating that regionally adapted subsistence strategies were in place by at least the Younger Dryas and that some foragers in the Far West may have incorporated a wider range of plants including small seeds, leafy greens, fruits, cacti, and geophytes into their diet earlier than did Paleoindian groups elsewhere in North America. The increasing appearance of diverse and seemingly low-ranked resources in the emerging Paleoindian plant-food economy suggests the need to explore a variety of nutritional variables to explain certain aspects of early foraging behavior.

Modeling Incipient Use of Neolithic Cultigens by Taiwanese Foragers: Perspectives from Niche Variation Theory, the Prey Choice Model, and the Ideal Free Distribution

The earliest evidence for agriculture in Taiwan dates to about 6000 years BP and indicates that farmer-gardeners from Southeast China migrated across the Taiwan Strait. However, little is known about the adaptive interactions between Taiwanese foragers and Neolithic Chinese farmers during the transition. This paper considers theoretical expectations from human behavioral ecology based models and macroecological patterning from Binford’s hunter-gatherer database to scope the range of responses of native populations to invasive dispersal. Niche variation theory and invasion theory predict that the foraging niche breadths will narrow for native populations and morphologically similar dispersing populations. The encounter contingent prey choice model indicates that groups under resource depression from depleted high-ranked resources will increasingly take low-ranked resources upon encounter. The ideal free distribution with Allee effects categorizes settlement into highly ranked habitats selected on the basis of encounter rates with preferred prey, with niche construction potentially contributing to an upswing in some highly ranked prey species. In coastal plain habitats preferred by farming immigrants, interactions and competition either reduced encounter rates with high ranked prey or were offset by benefits to habitat from the creation of a mosaic of succession ecozones by cultivation. Aquatic-focused foragers were eventually constrained to broaden subsistence by increasing the harvest of low ranked resources, then mobility-compatible Neolithic cultigens were added as a niche-broadening tactic. In locations less suitable for farming, fishing and hunting continued as primary foraging tactics for centuries after Neolithic arrivals. The paper concludes with a set of evidence-based archaeological expectations derived from these models.

Resource intensification and osteoarthritis patterns: changes in activity in the prehistoric Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region.

Ethnohistoric accounts and archaeological research from Central California document a shift from the use of lower-cost, high-ranked resources (e.g., large game) toward the greater use of higher-cost, low-ranked resources (e.g., acorns and small seeds) during the Late Holocene (4500-200 BP). The subsistence transition from higher consumption of large game toward an increased reliance on acorns was likely associated with increases in levels of logistical mobility and physical activity. This study predicts that mobility and overall workload patterns changed during this transition to accommodate new food procurement strategies and incorporate new dietary resources during the Late Holocene in Central California. Osteoarthritis prevalence was scored in the shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee of adult individuals (n = 256) from seven archaeological sites in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. Comparisons were made between osteoarthritis prevalence, sex, age-at-death, and time period using ANCOVAs. The results of this study indicate significant increases in osteoarthritis prevalence in the hip of adult males and females during the Late Period (1200-200 BP), even after correcting for the cumulative effects of age. No differences were observed between the sexes or between time periods for the shoulder, elbow, and knee joints. The temporal increase in hip osteoarthritis supports the hypothesis that there was an increasing need for greater logistical mobility over time to procure key resources away from the village sites. Additionally, the lack of sex differences in osteoarthritis prevalence may suggest that females and males likely performed similar levels of activity during these periods.

El registro arqueológico en el sitio La Olla (San Rafael, Mendoza): Implicaciones para las ocupaciones humanas en el valle medio del río Atuel

Se presenta el registro arqueológico recuperado en el sitio La Olla, el cual comprende materiales cerámicos, líticos, arqueobotánicos, zooarqueológicos y bioantropológicos. Dicho sitio se encuentra localizado en el valle del río Atuel (Mendoza, Argentina). El trabajo intenta ajustar el conocimiento de la dispersión agrícola prehispánica utilizando información en sectores no estudiado previamente. Se definen dos pulsos discontinuos en el depósito de La Olla, el más antiguo en torno a 1900 años 14C AP y el otro entre 700 y 400 años 14C AP. El análisis confirma una estabilidad en la subsistencia y dieta humana basada en recursos de bajo retorno energético compuesta entre otros por algarrobo y animales pequeños como peces y dasipódidos. Por otra parte, se evidencian cambios en la organización tecnológica que son interpretados en términos de movilidad y rangos de acción. De este modo, el sitio La Olla muestra cómo se manifestarían ocupaciones penecontemporáneas y espacialmente cercanas a los Contextos Atuel I y Atuel II.

Interactive Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Information Spaces with Preference Support

Users access large amounts of information resources mainly through search functions, where they type a few keywords and the web search or query engine returns a linear list of hits. While this is often satisfactory for focalized search, it does not provide enough support for exploratory information needs. Faceted and Dynamic Taxonomies (FDT) is a highly prevalent model for exploratory search, which allows users to get an overview of the information space and offer them various groupings of the results based on their attributes, metadata, or other dynamically mined information, enabling them to gradually restrict their focus through clicks and locate low ranked resources. The enrichment of such mechanisms with preferences could be proven useful for exploratory tasks. However, the current preference-based approaches seem to ignore the fact that users should be acquainted with the information space and the available choices for describing effectively their preferences. In this dissertation we extend the interaction model of FDT with preference actions that allow users to express their preferences interactively, gradually, and in a simple way. We introduce a preference framework appropriate for information spaces comprising resources described by attributes whose values can be hierarchically valued and/or multi-valued. We define the language, its semantics and the required algorithms. The framework supports preference inheritance in the hierarchies, automatic conflict resolution, as well as preference composition. Subsequently, we enrich the FDT model with preference actions and we propose logical optimizations and methods for exploiting the intrinsic characteristics of the FDT-based interaction, aiming at making it applicable to large amounts of information. We present the design and the implementation of the web-based system Hippalus, which realizes the extended interaction model. Regarding user benefits, we theoretically analyze user gain in terms of the number and difficulty of choices, and we describe and analyze three user-based evaluations. The first investigates the degree of effectiveness of preferences when users are not aware of the available choices. We found that only 20% of the users managed to express effective preferences without knowing the available choices. The second comparatively evaluates FDT with other exploratory models, and shows that the majority of users preferred FDT, was more satisfied by FDT and achieved higher rates of task completion with FDT. The last one evaluates the preference-enriched FDT as realized by Hippalus. The results were impressive. Even in a very small dataset, with the preference-enriched FDT all users successfully completed all tasks in 1/3 of the time and with 1/3 of the actions in comparison to the plain FDT. Moreover all of the users preferred the preference-enriched interfac. Available: http://www.ics.forth.gr/_publications/Papadakos_Dissertation.pdf.

Assessing diet and seasonality in the Lower Pecos canyonlands: an evaluation of coprolite specimens as records of individual dietary decisions

This article presents an evaluation of coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands as records of individual dietary decisions. Prior studies of coprolites from this region have greatly expanded our knowledge of Archaic subsistence patterns, but have not taken full advantage of the record of individual dietary decisions recorded in each coprolite specimen. The menu, or dietary combinations, reflected in individual coprolite specimens are assessed through the identification of several congruent botanical components derived from the same food resource, phytoliths, fiber ultimates, and epidermal sheets. The data is analyzed with hierarchical cluster analysis, an exploratory statistical technique. The resultant menus reflected in these clusters are evaluated with reference to a diet-breadth model developed for the known staple resources of the canyonlands. Three main menus are apparent in the specimens. The first menu consists of prickly pear ( Opuntia sp.) cladodes, or nopales, and was principally, although not exclusively, consumed in the late spring. This menu is primarily consumed when other resources were not readily available and may be considered a dependable but undesirable meal. The second menu consists of pit-baked lechuguilla ( Agave lechuguilla) and sotol (Dasylirion sp.) caudices, or hearts, common throughout the cool season. This menu entails high processing costs, but would provide a reliable caloric return. The third menu exhibits a monolithic reliance on prickly pear fruits, or tunas, during the summer. The ease of harvest and consumption is reflected in the seasonal dominance of this resource, which was assuredly a highly desirable meal. The dietary patterns recorded in the coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands demonstrate a seasonally variable diet-breadth that incorporated low-ranked resources during times of seasonal scarcity as well as a monolithic dependence on high-ranked resources when they were available in the local landscape.

Hunting and overhunting in the Levantine Late Middle Palaeolithic

We examine the larger mammals from late Middle Palaeolithic Kebara Cave (Israel), and offer eight principal conclusions concerning Neanderthal hunting activities at the site. (1) Regardless of prey size, most procurement was by hunting, not scavenging. The major prey were gazelle and fallow deer, but also aurochs, red deer, and boar. (2) Hunting was seasonal, with most hunts in winter and/or spring. (3) Hunters took male and female deer in similar numbers, but a preponderance of female gazelle. These sex ratios probably reflect local availability and encounter rates. (4) More juvenile deer than juvenile gazelle were taken. The frequency of juveniles has not been severely impacted by taphonomic processes. Because of their small size and limited body fat, juveniles were probably low-ranked resources by comparison to their adult counterparts and may often have been excluded from the hunters' optimal diet. If so, fluctuations in the numbers of juveniles do not track changes in hunting season, but instead indi...

Resource depression on the Northwest Coast of North America

The mammal and fish faunal record from eight sites on the Columbia River (Oregon, USA) dating to the last 2200 years is examined to study subsistence change before and after European contact. Results show an increased use of low-ranked resources before contact and increased use of high-ranked resources after contact, trends that are predicted from changing demography and human predation pressure.

Earth-Oven Plant Processing in Archaic Period Economies: An Example from a Semi-Arid Savannah in South-Central North America

AbstractModels of Archaic period economy in the Lower Pecos River region of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, are based primarily on coprolite, faunal, and macroplant analysis of materials recovered from rockshelters. The models maintain that during the Middle Archaic period residential mobility is reduced and tethered to rockshelters in canyons near water, and diet dominated by the plant resources lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla), sotol (Dasylirion texanum), and prickly pear (Opuntia spp.). I use archaeobotanical analysis and actualistic studies to determine the contents of earth-oven features, the number of plant food calories produced by ovens, and the quantity of refuse they generate. Considered within the framework of a diet-breadth model, the data demonstrate that return rates and caloric yields for lechuguilla and sotol processed in earth ovens are typical of a broad spectrum, low-return economy. Intensive use of these low-ranked resources indicates periods of subsistence stress beginning in the Early Archaic period and continuing through the Late Archaic. Use of low-ranked, high-cost resources in canyon zones indicates that food and fuel resources were quickly depleted forcing high residential mobility. Depletion of local resources, not the distribution of water sources governed residential mobility.