Noncultural Processes Research Articles

Under the Boards: Archaeological Site Formation Processes at the Commissariat Store, Brisbane

The study of archaeological site formation processes, although routinely undertaken for prehistoric sites, is only carried out in historical archaeology in a limited way. Understanding the processes which formed the archaeological record of a site is an important first step towards developing justifiable inferences about past behavior and past societies regardless of the age of the site. This paper identifies and examines the cultural and non-cultural processes that formed the archaeological record at the Commissariat Store, Brisbane. The history of the site, from its construction in 1829 as part of the Moreton Bay penal settlement to the present, is examined and the expected impacts and processes on the archaeological record are identified. Archaeological evidence from the salvage excavation of the site undertaken in 1978 and 1979 is analyzed to identify the cultural and non-cultural site formation processes. This study identifies the presence of cultural formation processes including discard, loss, abandonment and re-use from an examination of the historical and archaeological evidence. Non-cultural formation processes at work in the site include faunalturbation, floralturbation, flooding, and aquaturbation.

Lithic Activity Area Investigations at the Longhorn Site (41KT53) in the Upper Brazos River Basin, Western Texas

Lithics from the Longhorn site (41KT53) represented the majority of artifacts recovered from a seventeenth century Native American encampment in western Texas. Both tools and debitage were reanalyzed utilizing macroanalysis to identify stages of their life histories. ArcGIS maps then allowed for the examination of these lithics’ spatial relations across the site. This patterning was evident in clusters of artifact types representing various stages of flintknapping processes. Both cultural and noncultural processes also were examined to determine their role in the creation, distribution, and disturbance of the site’s lithics and related features. Results focused on the roles of these processes concerning activities performed during the site’s occupation. Aspects of trade and mobility were inferred based on the site’s lithic content and position on the landscape, providing a broader representation of late Holocene hunter-gatherer life along the eastern edge of the southern High Plains.

Obscuring Cultural Patterns in the Archaeological Record: A Discussion from Southwestern Archaeology

Failure to distinguish clearly between human behavior and cultural behavior, as well as inattention to procedures for evaluating inferences about the past, undermine some recent efforts in archaeological interpretation. Examples from the archaeological literature of the American Southwest show how analytical confusion may arise when research strategies obscure cultural variability. We are especially concerned about instances in which archaeologists assume that variability in archaeological assemblages derives primarily or exclusively from variability in human behavior (rather than cultural behavior) or from noncultural processes that are instrumental in forming the archaeological record. Suggestions for modifying research strategies to avoid these problems are offered.

Broken Canines from Alaskan Cave Deposits: Re-Evaluating Evidence for Domesticated Dog and Early Humans in Alaska

Broken canines from two caves on the Porcupine River, Alaska are analyzed with respect to size, development, morphology, breakage pattern, and stratigraphic placement. These analyses indicate that they are deciduous bear teeth exfoliated in these caves through noncultural processes associated with dental development. Similarity of these teeth to the canines recovered from various stratigraphic levels at Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9, on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska (Larsen 1968:58), indicates that the Trail Creek specimens (including specimens from levels dating to the late Pleistocene) are also naturally exfoliated bear teeth and not dog canines (Canis familiaris) broken out by human beings, as originally suggested.

Is There a "Pompeii Premise" in Archaeology?

In a recent article in this journal, Binford (1981) called attention to a counterproductive "Pompeii premise" and attributed it to the present author. Drawing on two case studies of house floor assemblages from the Southwestern literature, this paper shows that an insidious Pompeii premise can be found in archaeology, but it is different from the one identified by Binford. The real Pompeii premise is not employed by this author, but by those who fail to evaluate in detail how specific house-floor assemblages were formed by cultural and noncultural processes. To promote more rigorous analyses, this paper summarizes the basic formation processes that affect the composition of house-floor assemblages and provides several provisional measures for assessing de facto refuse.

On the possible utilization of Camelops by early man in North America

Camelops was a major faunal element in late Wisconsin biotic communities over much of North America. Interpretations of possible human association with Camelops are often based on poorly evaluated evidence. Ideal standards for acceptable evidence are compared here to the actual evidence that has been advanced. Of 25 fossil assemblages examined, 2 might be examples only of geological contemporaneity of humans and Camelops; 2 might indicate behavioral association of humans and Camelops bones; and 2 might indicate actual human utilization of Camelops (killing and/or butchering). Camelops bones interpreted as artifacts are similar to modern specimens affected by noncultural processes.