Material Culture Patterns Research Articles

In Search of a Borderland: Material Culture Patterns on the Southern Limits of the North American Southwest

ABSTRACT Recent research conducted in southern Sonora, Mexico provides an opportunity to revisit debates about interaction between Mesoamerica and the North American Southwest (NAS). In the borderland between these traditions, communities show few signs of cultural amalgamation, instead exhibiting either an avoidance of overt identity markers or an emphasis on more local connections. This pattern contrasts with most discussions of Mesoamerican influence on the NAS that focus on regionally atypical centers of foreign goods consumption or evidence of foreign religious traditions in distant localities. By recentering on local contexts where cultural amalgamation is expected but minimal, we raise important questions about why more distant groups found Mesoamerican societies to be worthy of emulation. The results suggest researchers should devote equal attention to cases in which distinct identities are erased or suppressed as they do to cases in which social boundaries are maintained or created anew.

An isotopic investigation on diet and inequality: The human remains from Gannì (Sardinia, 3rd millennium BC)

The Mediterranean Copper Age has been recognized as a time of profound changes related to metal circulation, better maritime connections and intensified mobility, and in many areas economic intensification, to some degree dependent on the concept of Secondary Products Revolution. This paper presents data on osteology and stable isotopes of N, C and O from collagen and bioapatite of human remains from a small cemetery in Sardinia, Italy, dating to the 3rd mill. BC and composed of three tombs and 10 individuals; to date, this is the second assemblage of skeletal remains from the chalcolithic Monte Claro culture to have been studied according to modern standards. While the absence of faunal or vegetal baseline values prevents a quantitative assessment of the proportion of different foods in the diet, a remarkably large intra-group variation in δ15N as quantifiable by the standard deviation (=1.4‰) was recorded. Considering this is one among the greatest recorded standard deviations in δ15N in the Western Mediterranean, while using caution due to limited sample size, it is compatible with a sharp differential access to resources, especially to animal protein, and such dietary inequality can be interpreted as a sign of status distinction between two groups buried in different tombs. These results are discussed in their complex, problematic relationship to the patterns of material culture.

Agricultural Intensification, Regional Differentiation, and Incipient Village Formation: Early Formative Period Patterning in the San Carlos Safford Area, Southeastern Arizona

Archaeologists commonly interpret the Early Formative period through the lens of ceramic technology and as a significant break from Late Archaic or Early Agricultural period lifeways; however, the local changes underlying this pattern often remain obscure. In this paper, we evaluate the existing literature for the Early Formative period the San Carlos Safford Area of southeastern Arizona and discern the accuracy of the current understanding of the local chronology, material culture, and regional patterning. Through a systematic examination of chronological, ceramic, and architectural data, we advocate for several interpretive shifts in the Early Formative period and characterize regional patterning during this temporal interval. We relate the emergence of larger villages as an adaptive strategy against a significant climatic event in the early to mid-sixth century yet also demonstrate the incongruities present between the San Carlos Safford Area and far better studied areas within central and southern Arizona.

Эскизы и наброски А. Л. Горбункова как объект визуальной антропологии (на основе коллекции Центрального государственного музея кино)

The article considers a series of drawings made by Russian painer, graphic artist and art historian Aleksander Gorbunkov in 1947–1948. These sketches have ethnographic character and provide a quite accurate depiction of Chukchi dwellings, household constructions, clothing, transport, religious objects and household items of the first third of the 20th century. The collection of sketches and watercolours painted by Gorbunkov has not yet been introduced to the scientific community. However, it is of undoubted interest. First of all, it is due to the fact that the 1930s were the time of tectonic social and cultural changes, which influenced various aspects of material culture of the indigenous people in Chukotka. The works of Gorbunkov can serve as a source for the study of the period when “alien” pan-European elements were being actively incorporated into the traditional patterns of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo material culture. This, in turn, contributed to the selection of certain forms by the indigenous inhabitants, which is reflected in the artist’s sketches.

Settlement and Culture in the Inner Apennines: a diachronic topographic analysis of Casentino and Valtiberina (7th‑5th centuries BCE)

This work presents a temporary settlement analysis of Casentino and Valtiberina, from the 7th to the 5th century BCE. During this period, these regions may have constituted an area of Apennine interconnectivity. Over time, they became the hinterland to one or more local political entities. To demonstrate these points, I begin by creating a theoretical model of the relationship between aristocratic and civic networks and the movement of professional artisans in the hinterland. The activity of these professionals in Casentino and Valtiberina becomes clear through singling out relevant patterns in material culture and building techniques. The final diachronic analysis of these patterns shows a drastic change in local settlement strategies in the middle of the 6th century BCE. This change can be related to simultaneous processes recorded along the rest of the Tiber Valley, perhaps resulting from the political influence of Clusium and its allies. To conclude, two different areas of settlement are interpreted as two hinterlands belonging to different cities, namely Arretium and Faesulae.

To Unite and Divide: Canals,Tinku, Liquids and Time in the Moche World

Here I evaluate Andean concepts understood from the Quechua and Aymara languages to test their applicability to Moche archaeology—a region where the languages once spoken are now extinct. By focusing on geographical features common to the highlands and the coast (mountains and rivers) and archaeological evidence, I look at broad patterns of Moche material culture and consider how these relate to canal-fed irrigation systems, ceramic spatial patterning and fractaline socio-political organization documented in the colonial-era Chicama Valley. I then present a case study from Licapa II in the Chicama Valley to show that the physical components of the site's layout and the spatial patterns of artifact distribution relate to temporal and socio-political divisions that have their roots in long-standing ideas in Andean thought. Overall, this study shows that through careful evaluation some Quechua and Aymara concepts, namelytinku—or two parts coming together to make a whole—is relevant to the Moche worldview. This concept is manifest through canals uniting and dividing physical space, both socio-politically and temporally. Liquids running through the canals ensure the well-being and energetic flow of Moche society.

Exploring the Later Stone Age at a micro-scale: New high-resolution excavations at Wonderwerk Cave

In 2018, we initiated renewed excavation of the Later Stone Age (LSA) deposits at Wonderwerk Cave. Here we describe the goals and initial results of the first two seasons of excavation, including the first micromorphological description of these deposits. We employed a small-scale excavation technique to emphasize precision recording and limit the destruction of sensitive deposits. Our preliminary results indicate that meaningful patterns in material culture records and paleoecological proxy materials can be derived from such investigations.Bioturbation of the LSA deposits is widespread in our micromorphological samples, suggesting that some post-depositional movement of the sediment occurred but did not impact overall stratigraphic integrity. This is supported by the radiocarbon chronology (derived from various material records), which indicates that this movement had a limited effect on the material record.Three technocomplexes (the Kuruman/Oakhurst, Wilton, and Historic) were identified in the new Wonderwerk lithic material record, alongside increasing evidence for a period of intensified use and/or occupation of the site during the Wilton – a pattern previously identified by the F. Thackeray's and A. Thackeray's 1970s excavations. New radiocarbon ages support previous determinations placing the timing of this intensification at ca. 6200 years cal BP.Faunal and ostrich eggshell records also support previous findings, confirming an anthropogenic origin for the faunal remains and suggesting that different pathways of OES bead production were employed at the site at different times. The presence of herbivore dung and associated spherulites in a micromorphology thin section provides a new potential line of evidence to support the Thackeray's tentative suggestion for sheep herding at the site ca. 2000 years BP. While this evidence is far from conclusive, it suggests that the Wonderwerk Cave LSA record may have a role to play in resolving the timing of the adoption of sheep by hunter-gatherers on the Ghaap Plateau.Our work on the LSA at Wonderwerk Cave serves as a touchstone within the more regionally focused Northern Cape Archaeology and Ecology Project (NCAEP) – an international and interdisciplinary research project studying the LSA paleoenvironment of the South African arid interior. Ultimately, NCAEP is designed to produce a multi-proxy diachronic climatic record of the Northern Cape firmly situated within new and existing radiocarbon chronologies.

The Balkan-Aegean migrations revisited: Changes in material culture and settlement patterns in the Late Bronze age Central Balkans in light of new data

Alleged ?Aegean migrations? have long been seen as underlying major transformations in lifeways and identity in the Balkans in the 12th-11th centuries BC. Revisiting the material culture and settlement changes in the north-south ?routeway? of the Velika Morava-Juzna Morava-Vardar/Axios river valleys, this paper evaluates developments within local communities. It is argued that mobility played an important role in social change, including an element of inward migration from the north. We argue that rather than an Aegean end point, these river valleys themselves were the destination of migrants. The prosperity this stimulated within those communities led to increased networks of personal mobility that incorporated elements from communities from the wider Carpathians and the north of Greece over the course of two centuries.

A constitutional approach to cacao money

Money in Mesoamerica has a long history and many forms; cacao, a tree seed, was one kind of currency. Abundant archaeological evidence of cacao money in Mesoamerica contributes to broader theoretical debates about money and monetization. Among many competing theories of money, the constitutional model of money particularly emphasizes materiality as well as the importance of money in relationships of governance and finance in ways distinct from both classical and chartalist theoretical approaches. The propositions of this theory bear up when tested with Mesoamerican examples. In particular, the Izalcos polity located in what is today western El Salvador is an important late prehispanic to colonial case study because it relied upon cacao money to an unusual degree and had extraordinary levels of cacao production. Archaeological evidence of Izalcos region settlement patterns, built environment, and material culture patterning indicate the political and economic consequences of cacao money for configuring authority, state finance, agricultural production, and commercial systems. This evidence accords with constitutional model expectations, including governance seeking to measure and mobilize material resources and labor in order to deploy their power in public projects as well as contexts of well-developed markets, some degree of commodity trade, and complex household economies.

Forests of History: Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeological Survey in Southern Ghana

Archaeological research shows that people have inhabited the southern Ghanaian forest zone for millennia. Yet the cultural landscape is poorly known due to enormous logistical challenges that have frustrated survey efforts for the past century. Establishing long-term archaeological and regional perspectives on the settlement landscape and patterns of material culture is necessary to address larger social, political, and economic questions regarding the precolonial and pre-Atlantic history of West Africa. I argue that satellite remote sensing, combined with topographic data and traditional pedestrian survey methods, provides an important tool for surveying the forests of southern Ghana. These methods are used to identify settlement sites on hilltops and low rises in the coastal hinterlands occupied during the first and early second millennia AD. Satellite imagery is a useful tool not only for expediting archaeological survey but also for visualizing human relationships with the densely vegetated landscapes of West Africa.

Observations on the origin and demography of the Vinča culture

The Vinča culture represents one the most important archaeological phenomena of the Neolithic and Eneolithic world in Southeastern Europe. As all other archaeological cultures, the Vinča culture is defined in the era of culture-historical archaeology, representing a set of sites with similar material culture with a core area in the Central Balkans. The task of modern archaeological research is to reconstruct social and cultural processes that gave rise to the observed patterns of material culture. In this paper I explore two partially related issues: 1) the formation of the Vinča culture (Early-Late Neolithic or Starčevo-Vinča transition) 2) regional and settlement demography of the Vinča culture. The transition between the Early Neolithic Starčevo culture and the Late Neolithic Vinča culture was marked mainly by changes in pottery style and technology, as well as in settlement size and architecture. The analysis of the regional population dynamics pattern based on the summed probability of calibrated probability distributions of radiocarbon dates suggest that the population rapidly increased after ~5300 cal BC. The relative population size proxy curve reached its peak ~5200 cal BC and had remained relatively constant until 4500 cal BC when it declined sharply. Estimates of settlement population sizes suggest that changes in the community organization also occurred, as Vinča culture settlements with hundreds of people, even over a thousand in some cases, could support higher levels of scalar stress than earlier Starčevo settlements. The current state of evidence is such that no definite answer can be given regarding the hypotheses about the formation of the Vinča culture.

Mondes sociaux et communautés de pratique : un modèle culturel polythétique pour l’Europe du IIIe millénaire avant notre ère à la lumière des débats actuels sur la migration

As an alternative to the traditional practice of cultural history using a monothetic classification of material, creating “archaeological cultures”, a polythetic culture model based on Strauss´s social worlds and Wenger´s communities of practice is proposed, which better represents the archaeological record dated to the 3rd millennium BC in Central Europe. Based on this approach current migration models elaborated for the 3rd millennium in connection with aDNA evidence are re-evaluated. It is argued that the use of “archaeological cultures” misleads our understanding of population movements. Steppe ancestry, as representing migrants or their descendants, is not primarily connected to specific “cultures” such as the Corded Ware or the Bell Beaker, but rather to a specific social world, a new set of burial practices, i.e. the Late Neolithic complex of individual, gender-specific burials with strict rules of orientation. A strong expression of a new cosmological understanding, a specific set of values is the migration process, rather than specific pottery styles, specific weapons or specific tool types. Including the differential patterns of material culture in the archaeological record results in suggestions of different scenarios of population mixing and social change.

Social differentiation in the pre-Hispanic horticultural societies of central Chile (200–1500 AD). A stable isotope study

The horticultural societies of the central zone of Chile in the first millennium AD and the first half of the second have been the subject of archaeological study for many years, and their cultural contexts have been described extensively. Their material culture, lifeways and settlement patterns present significant differences between the Bato and Llolleo groups in the Early Ceramic period (200–1200 AD) and between these and the Aconcagua groups of the Late Intermediate period (1000–1500 AD) (Falabella et al., 2016). Increasing complexity, social differentiation and changes in polity structure have been proposed, but robust data are still missing for many of these interpretations. The object of this work was to contribute to the identification of inter- and intra-group social differences in mobility, sex and age patterns and maize consumption, based on stable isotope analysis of human bones and a sub-sample of teeth. Analysis of the C, N and O stable isotopes in collagen and bioapatite extracted from the samples showed differences between the three groups studied in spatial mobility patterns and consumption of C4 plants, suggesting that local communities organized themselves according to distinct social strategies at the regional level, and developed different horticultural practices and uses of maize. Among the Aconcagua groups a larger contribution of C4 plants was found in children and in adult males, making visible sex and age categories. The results support archaeological data and contribute to a better understanding of gender issues and social organization in the groups studied.

Manganese and iron oxide use at Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France): A proxy for cultural change in Neanderthal communities

Neanderthal material culture patterning in Western Europe has been primarily approached from retouched stone tools and associated flake production methods. While considerable effort has been devoted over the past decade to better characterize Middle Palaeolithic lithic techno-complexes (LTCs) in this region, the extent to which they reflect cultural groups still remains unclear. In this respect, integrating other forms of archaeological evidence could provide valuable insights on the cultural significance of late Middle Palaeolithic industrial variability. The site of Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France) has yielded consistent evidence of mineral pigment use throughout the upper part of the sequence. Here we explore whether mineral pigments might be embedded with an indexical meaning and if changes in pigment exploitation potentially reflect cultural changes. We combined a microscopic use-wear approach with SEM-EDS, pXRF, and XRD analyses of 73 pigment fragments from layers 26 to 11 in order to reconstruct the different stages of their acquisition and use (provenance, selection, processing, function). Our results show manganese oxides to have been used in the lower layers of the Quina LTC, while red and/or yellow iron oxide pieces were employed during the Discoid and Discoid/Levallois LTCs. This decrease in manganese oxide use correlates with a change in lithic technology and may represent some form of cultural change.

Household Ethnoarchaeology and Social Action in a Megalith-Building Society in West Sumba, Indonesia

An analysis of contemporary megalith building, associated social endeavors, and material culture patterning among households in West Sumba, Indonesia can advance knowledge of the inner workings of past megalith building societies and how they can be identified archaeologically. As a reflection of broader sociopolitical dynamics, the household has become an essential unit of analysis in the examination of prehistoric social organization. This study of household ethnoarchaeology in West Sumba illustrates the utility of household-level analyses in the interpretation of megalith building societies of the ancient past. The results of household interviews and material culture inventories conducted in the Kodi area of West Sumba provide a nuanced view of the social entanglements linked to megaliths and related phenomena such as ritual feasting. A wide degree of inter-household variability is associated with investments of resources into these endeavors in Kodi, reflecting not only the traditional means of achieving power and renown but also the traditional emphasis on group-oriented sociopolitical power and prestige. An examination of the household material culture linked to this behavior reveals both the potential insights as well as the limitations of inferring the intricacies of social action from material culture patterning. The results of this study can provide a useful interpretive model for megalith-building societies in appropriate contexts.

Photographs as Artifacts

This article presents key concepts and methods used to develop a visual archaeology of two Indigenous societies of Tierra del Fuego (Shelk’nam, Yámana/Yagan). Photographs are conceived as artifacts, which condense the traces of at least two agents: photographers and photographed subjects. These visual records are not only biased by the different photographers who took them, but also shed light on the different material culture patterns produced by each Indigenous society, which are visible on the images when studied in large samples. The article discusses some results of systematic investigations carried out on a corpus of 847 photographs taken by 39 photographers of Shelk’nam and Yámana/Yagan persons (19th and early 20th centuries). These are compared to materials found in the archaeological record in order to generate new data about the material culture used by Fueguian hunter-gatherers.

Confirmation of the role of geographic isolation by distance in among-tribe variations in beadwork designs and manufacture on the High Plains

Understanding the patterns that result from intercommunity contact has long been an interest in anthropology. Although linguistically diverse, peoples of the Historic-period Great Plains came into contact through a diversity of means, both malevolent and benevolent in form. Accordingly, the idea that the Plains was an environment that led to high degrees of cultural interchange has long been held. Recently, it has been proposed that the among-tribe distribution of some material culture patterns, such as beadwork patterns on moccasins, is explicable in geographic terms. That is, geographically proximate groups exchanged cultural features at higher rates than those more geographically distant from each other. While logically sound, this pattern would only emerge at statistically significant levels if selective biases were not operating to prevent the “free flow” of information. However, there are viable and well-documented reasons why decorative features may be subject to such cultural selection. Moreover, previous assessments of the geographic hypothesis only examined the general layout of beadwork designs, rather than more detailed features such as motifs, beadwork techniques, and other decorative features. Here, the role of geographic spacing in explaining the among-tribe distribution of beadwork attributes on the High Plains during the Historic period is reexamined. A dataset describing motifs, beadwork techniques, and additional decorative features is used. These data are subjected to several sets of statistical analysis. The role of linguistic affinities is also considered. The results show that geographic “isolation by distance” does indeed explain the distribution of beadwork attributes among these ethnolinguistically diverse tribes, with no equivalent statistical effect for language patterns. In turn, these results highlight the role of specific processes operating among these communities. These results also underline the value of ethnographic museum collections for addressing the role of social processes among the people responsible for their manufacture, which can have anthropological relevance over much broader scales.

Material culture patterning as the source of the Avar power network, 8th century AD

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The Flow of Culture: Assessing the Role of Rivers in the Inter-community Transmission of Material Traditions in the Upper Amazon

Rivers are known to play a role in human subsistence, economic, transport, and communication dynamics in many regions of the world. However, there has been little systematic investigation of how landscape features such as rivers might structure cultural transmission, such that this has a direct influence on cross-community patterns of artifactual variation. Here, we statistically explore the influence of river networks on patterns of inter-community material culture variation by utilizing spatial, linguistic, and material culture data from linguistically diverse peoples of the Upper Amazon region, using an ethnographic dataset recorded during the early twentieth century. When the geographic (“straight line”) distances among groups were controlled for, our statistical analysis found no relationship between inter-group material culture patterns and linguistic variation. We did, however, find a statistical relationship between the geographic distances among ethnolinguistic groups and their overall similarity as measured by material culture. This suggests that geographic distance is a more important factor in influencing pathways of cultural transmission among groups than language across the region. Most importantly, however, our analysis also found a significant relationship between riverine distances among ethnolinguistic groups and their material culture patterns. This relationship remained statistically significant even when taking both language variation and geographic (straight line) distances into account. Hence, this result strongly supports the hypothesis that rivers are having an influence on pathways of cultural transmission, and that they ultimately contribute to the structure of material culture patterns observed across the region. Accordingly, river distances and other landscape features may need to be more closely considered in archaeological studies when attempting to understand cultural transmission pathways influencing the spatial distribution of artifactual variation across communities.

Caracterización inicial de los sitios arqueológicos en la subcuenca del río Mayales, Departamento de Chontales, Nicaragua

In 2015 and 2016, the Proyecto Arqueologico Centro de Nicaragua ( Pacen) conducted several fieldwork seasons which focused on surface survey and mound recording. The main goal of this research was to systematically document the synchronic and diachronic variability in pre-Hispanic material culture found throughout the Mayales River subbasin, particularly in the valley north of Juigalpa, in the department of Chontales. The study started as a full-coverage, high intensity surface survey in a 52 sq km area, as well as the recording of all sites featuring architecture within a 42 sq km subarea. Surface ceramics were mainly found on the riverbanks, while chipped stone presented lower densities distributed uniformly throughout the area, similar to groundstone, which occurred in even lesser quantities. Ceramic and chipped stone distribution and frequency seem to be related to raw material procurement practices rather than the chronological depth of sites with architectural features. In the process, 1,300 mounds were documented during 2015 and 2016. Including the previously registered site of Aguas Buenas, the total of 1,679 mounds was divided in 47 clusters, following specific environmental and material culture patterning. Preliminary results of this study suggest that pre-Hispanic communities in the research area formed a historically complex social landscape