CAS: Archaeology: Scholarly Papers
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Item Cosmology intertwined: a review of the particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology associated with the cosmological tensions and anomalies(Elsevier BV, 2022-06) Abdalla, Elcio; Abellán, Guillermo Franco; Aboubrahim, Amin; Agnello, Adriano; Akarsu, Özgür; Akrami, Yashar; Alestas, George; Aloni, Daniel; Amendola, Luca; Anchordoqui, Luis A.; Anderson, Richard I.; Arendse, Nikki; Asgari, Marika; Ballardini, Mario; Barger, Vernon; Basilakos, Spyros; Batista, Ronaldo C.; Battistelli, Elia S.; Battye, Richard; Benetti, Micol; Benisty, David; Berlin, Asher; de Bernardis, Paolo; Berti, Emanuele; Bidenko, Bohdan; Birrer, Simon; Blakeslee, John P.; Boddy, Kimberly K.; Bom, Clecio R.; Bonilla, Alexander; Borghi, Nicola; Bouchet, François R.; Braglia, Matteo; Buchert, Thomas; Buckley-Geer, Elizabeth; Calabrese, Erminia; Caldwell, Robert R.; Camarena, David; Capozziello, Salvatore; Casertano, Stefano; Chen, Geoff C.-F.; Chluba, Jens; Chen, Angela; Chen, Hsin-Yu; Chudaykin, Anton; Cicoli, Michele; Copi, Craig J.; Courbin, Fred; Cyr-Racine, Francis-Yan; Czerny, Bożena; Dainotti, Maria; D'Amico, Guido; Davis, Anne-Christine; de Cruz Pérez, Javier; de Haro, Jaume; Delabrouille, Jacques; Denton, Peter B.; Dhawan, Suhail; Dienes, Keith R.; Di Valentino, Eleonora; Du, Pu; Eckert, Dominique; Escamilla-Rivera, Celia; Ferté, Agnès; Finelli, Fabio; Fosalba, Pablo; Freedman, Wendy L.; Frusciante, Noemi; Gaztañaga, Enrique; Giarè, William; Giusarma, Elena; Gómez-Valent, Adrià; Handley, Will; Harrison, Ian; Hart, Luke; Hazra, Dhiraj Kumar; Heavens, Alan; Heinesen, Asta; Hildebrandt, Hendrik; Hill, J. Colin; Hogg, Natalie B.; Holz, Daniel E.; Hooper, Deanna C.; Hosseininejad, Nikoo; Huterer, Dragan; Ishak, Mustapha; Ivanov, Mikhail M.; Jaffe, Andrew H.; Jang, In Sung; Jedamzik, Karsten; Jimenez, Raul; Joseph, Melissa; Joudaki, Shahab; Kamionkowski, Marc; Karwal, Tanvi; Kazantzidis, Lavrentios; Keeley, Ryan E.; Klasen, Michael; Komatsu, Eiichiro; Koopmans, Léon V.E.; Kumar, Suresh; Lamagna, Luca; Lazkoz, Ruth; Lee, Chung-Chi; Lesgourgues, Julien; Levi Said, Jackson; Lewis, Tiffany R.; L'Huillier, Benjamin; Lucca, Matteo; Maartens, Roy; Macri, Lucas M.; Marfatia, Danny; Marra, Valerio; Martins, Carlos JAP; Masi, Silvia; Matarrese, Sabino; Mazumdar, Arindam; Melchiorri, Alessandro; Mena, Olga; Mersini-Houghton, Laura; Mertens, James; Milaković, Dinko; Minami, Yuto; Miranda, Vivian; Moreno-Pulido, Cristian; Moresco, Michele; Mota, David F.; Mottola, Emil; Mozzon, Simone; Muir, Jessica; Mukherjee, Ankan; Mukherjee, Suvodip; Naselsky, Pavel; Nath, Pran; Nesseris, Savvas; Niedermann, Florian; Notari, Alessio; Nunes, Rafael C.; Ó Colgáin, Eoin; Owens, Kayla A.; Özülker, Emre; Pace, Francesco; Paliathanasis, Andronikos; Palmese, Antonella; Pan, Supriya; Paoletti, Daniela; Perez Bergliaffa, Santiago E.; Perivolaropoulos, Leandros; Pesce, Dominic W.; Pettorino, Valeria; Philcox, Oliver H.E.; Pogosian, Levon; Poulin, Vivian; Poulot, Gaspard; Raveri, Marco; Reid, Mark J.; Renzi, Fabrizio; Riess, Adam G.; Sabla, Vivian I.; Salucci, Paolo; Salzano, Vincenzo; Saridakis, Emmanuel N.; Sathyaprakash, Bangalore S.; Schmaltz, Martin; Schöneberg, Nils; Scolnic, Dan; Sen, Anjan A.; Sehgal, Neelima; Shafieloo, Arman; Sheikh-Jabbari, M.M.; Silk, Joseph; Silvestri, Alessandra; Skara, Foteini; Sloth, Martin S.; Soares-Santos, Marcelle; Solà Peracaula, Joan; Songsheng, Yu-Yang; Soriano, Jorge F.; Staicova, Denitsa; Starkman, Glenn D.; Szapudi, István; Teixeira, Elsa M.; Thomas, Brooks; Treu, Tommaso; Trott, Emery; van de Bruck, Carsten; Vazquez, J. Alberto; Verde, Licia; Visinelli, Luca; Wang, Deng; Wang, Jian-Min; Wang, Shao-Jiang; Watkins, Richard; Watson, Scott; Webb, John K.; Weiner, Neal; Weltman, Amanda; Witte, Samuel J.; Wojtak, Radosław; Yadav, Anil Kumar; Yang, Weiqiang; Zhao, Gong-Bo; Zumalacárregui, MiguelItem Neanderthal plant use and pyrotechnology: phytolith analysis from Roc de Marsal, France(Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2019-08) Wroth, Kristen; Cabanes, Dan; Marston, John M.; Aldeias, Vera; Sandgathe, Dennis; Turq, Alain; Goldberg, Paul; Dibble, Harold L.The plant component of Neanderthal subsistence and technology is not well documented, partially due to the preservation constraints of macrobotanical components. Phytoliths, however, are preserved even when other plant remains have decayed and so provide evidence for Neanderthal plant use and the environmental context of archaeological sites. Phytolith assemblages from Roc de Marsal, a Middle Paleolithic cave site in SW France, provide new insight into the relationship between Neanderthals and plant resources. Ninety-seven samples from all archaeological units and 18 control samples are analyzed. Phytoliths from the wood and bark of dicotyledonous plants are the most prevalent, but there is also a significant proportion of grass phytoliths in many samples. Phytolith densities are much greater in earlier layers, which is likely related to the presence of combustion features in those layers. These phytoliths indicate a warmer, wetter climate, whereas phytoliths from upper layers indicate a cooler, drier environment. Phytoliths recovered from combustion features indicate that wood was the primary plant fuel source, while grasses may have been used as surface preparations.Item Zenon’s flour: grains of truth from Tel Kedesh(Biblical Archaeology Society, 2019-11-01) Berlin, AndreaAccording to one of the Zenon papyri, In 259 BCE the Ptolemaic courier Zenon stopped at the site of Kedesh, located today in northern Israel, to pick up some flour. In our excavations at this site from 1999-2011, we uncovered an enormous public administrative building with several storerooms filled with large jars. In one room fourteen locally made storage jars lined the walls. Phytoliths taken from the jars turned out to be identifiable as Triticum aestivum, commonly known as bread wheat. This may allow a scientific identification of “Syrian wheat,” a strain first mentioned in third century BCE Egyptian papyri as part of a package of agricultural innovations introduced by Ptolemy II Philadelphus.Item Multiple ways of understanding Peru's changing climate(University of Minnesota, 2019) Bria, Rebecca; Walter, DorisItem A Holocene paleoenvironmental record based on ungulate stable isotopes from Lukenya Hill, Kenya(Elsevier BV, 2019-12) Robinson, Joshua R.Investigating the development of Holocene behavioral adaptations requires knowing how and why different human groups are distributed on the landscape. An expanded dataset of site-specific environmental and habitat reconstructions from eastern Africa are crucial contextual components necessary for pushing this line of inquiry forward. This paper provides localized paleoenvironmental data from Holocene deposits at the multi-site Lukenya Hill archaeological complex on the Athi-Kapiti Plains of Kenya. Lukenya Hill preserves two temporal units, an early-mid Holocene (~9.0–4.6 ka) and a late Holocene (~2.3–1.2 ka), which span the end of the African Humid Period and the onset of late Holocene aridification. Carbon isotope analysis of herbivore tooth enamel (n = 22) indicates an increase in open grasslands over time with the early-mid Holocene having a woodier signal than the late Holocene and Recent populations in the Athi ecosystem. This pattern deviates from local environmental sequences in the Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana basins, providing additional evidence of heterogeneous habitat conditions during the Holocene of eastern Africa. The expansion of locally specific paleoecological datasets in eastern Africa allows for an examination of the role climate and ecology played in human economic and behavioral development during the Holocene.Item Glass vessels from the Persian and Hellenistic Administrative Building at Tel Kedesh, Israel(Association International pour l'Histoire du Verre, 2017) Larson, Katherine A.; Berlin, Andrea; Herbert, SharonItem James C. R. Gill, Dakhleh Oasis and the Western Desert of Egypt under the Ptolemies(2017) Berlin, AndreaItem Digging up dinner: gastronomical archaeology(2017-02-24) Beaudry, Mary C.Global Food+ 2017 is an event open to all that will feature an afternoon of “speed talk” presentations by two dozen top scholars in the Boston area. This event will highlight current research findings at the important nexus between food, agriculture, health, society, and the environment. The twenty-four presenters include scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, political science, history, sociology, engineering, biology, and environmental sciences. Each will deliver a seven-minute summary of his or her most recent research findings. The topics covered will include cultural practices and veganism, irrigation and food security, farm subsidies, GMOs, cropland productivity and climate change, food contamination, food waste, the environmental consequences of meat consumption, and rural poverty in Africa.Item Ends and beginnings: political change and daily life at Sardis in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic times(Peeters) Berlin, AndreaThe fame of Sardis is tied to its history as a royal city, beginning in the 7th century BC and continuing down into the 3rd century BC, when the city was made the capital of the Seleucid province of Cis-Tauric Asia. This glittering resume highlights political eras and focuses attention on the lives of well-connected elites – but at the same time obscures the lives of regular people. This dichotomy inspires a question: can we identify a connection between changing political regimes and everyday life? Three assemblages of household pottery from Sardis provide evidence to answer this question. The first dates to ca. 350 BC, the second to the late 4th/early 3rd century BC and the third to the mid-3rd century BC. A close look allows us to see that it was not until the mid-3rd century BC that those two spheres – politics and daily life – meshed for everyday Sardians.Item Aztec obsidian industries(Oxford University Press, 2016) Pastrana, Alejandro; Carballo, David M.Obsidian was the primary lithic or stone material used for cutting activities in Aztec society, including domestic food production, craft production, hunting, warfare, and ritual. The demands of millions of consumers within and outside of the Aztec Empire shaped a diversity of industries and distribution networks that operated through merchants, markets, and state taxes in goods and labor. This chapter provides an overview of the primary obsidian sources, quarry activities, artifact types, use contexts, and innovations in lithic technology during the Aztec (Middle and Late Postclassic) period. A particular focus is the Sierra de Las Navajas (or Pachuca) mine and the detailed history of quarrying and manufacturing activities that have been documented there.Item Los juegos de pelota en el Altiplano Central de México(Editorial Raices, 2017) Carballo, David M.Los juegos de pelota más antiguos de Mesoamérica se encuentran en las Tierras Bajas; sin embargo, los habitantes del Altiplano Central adoptaron y construyeron canchas formales desde principios del Preclásico Medio. En periodos posteriores, el predominio de canchas varió según el sitio, los contactos regionales y las tendencias sociopolíticas más generales. Las canchas de juegos de pelota fueron particularmente numerosas en Puebla y Tlaxcala hacia finales del periodo Preclásico, y abundantes durante el Epiclásico en todo el Altiplano Central de México. Las mejores descripciones de cómo se jugó pelota en toda Mesoamérica durante los tiempos prehispánicos provienen de documentos del siglo xvi, del Altiplano; incluso el juego fue llevado a España por Cortés.Item The Mixtecs of Oaxaca: Ancient Times to the Present(2015-12) Carballo, David M.Item La casa en Mesoamerica(Editorial Raices, 2016) Carballo, David M.Tanto en la Mesoamérica prehispánica como en los pueblos indígenas actuales, las familias se definen por medio de sus casas físicas –animadas por rituales de consagración y comunión. Se definen también por sus actividades laborales dentro del grupo doméstico y por las relaciones cooperativas y comunitarias entre tales grupos. Por lo tanto, la arqueología de la casa y de la vida cotidiana ayuda a comprender la variabilidad entre familias e individuos respecto a su género, edad, subsistencia, ocupación, estatus, redes sociales y creencias fundamentales, en fin, la base de la sociedad y de la historia. Los pueblos prehispánicos de Mesoamérica se organizaron en una amplia gama de unidades domésticas; los textos que conforman esta edición proporcionan una visión actualizada de la casa y la cotidianidad mesoamericana.Item Cooperation, collective action, and the archeology of large-scale societies(2016-11) Carballo, David M.; Feinman, Gary M.Archeologists investigating the emergence of large-scale societies in the past have renewed interest in examining the dynamics of cooperation as a means of understanding societal change and organizational variability within human groups over time. Unlike earlier approaches to these issues, which used models designated voluntaristic or managerial, contemporary research articulates more explicitly with frameworks for cooperation and collective action used in other fields, thereby facilitating empirical testing through better definition of the costs, benefits, and social mechanisms associated with success or failure in coordinated group action. Current scholarship is nevertheless bifurcated along lines of epistemology and scale, which is understandable but problematic for forging a broader, more transdisciplinary field of cooperation studies. Here, we point to some areas of potential overlap by reviewing archeological research that places the dynamics of social cooperation and competition in the foreground of the emergence of large-scale societies, which we define as those having larger populations, greater concentrations of political power, and higher degrees of social inequality. We focus on key issues involving the communal-resource management of subsistence and other economic goods, as well as the revenue flows that undergird political institutions. Drawing on archeological cases from across the globe, with greater detail from our area of expertise in Mesoamerica, we offer suggestions for strengthening analytical methods and generating more transdisciplinary research programs that address human societies across scalar and temporal spectra.Item Rural agricultural economies and military provisioning at Roman Gordion (Central Turkey)(Routledge, 2017-10-11) Çakırlar, Canan; Marston, John M.Roman Gordion, on the Anatolian plateau, is the only excavated rural military settlement in a pacified territory in the Roman East, providing a unique opportunity to investigate the agricultural economy of a permanent Roman garrison. We present combined results of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses, assessing several hypotheses regarding Roman military provisioning. The garrison adapted its dietary preferences to local agricultural systems, but maintained its traditional meat supply of pork, beef, and chickens as well. There is evidence for economic interdependence with local farmers and cattle herders, self- sufficiency in pork and chicken production, and complex relationships with autonomous sheep and goat herders who pursued their own economic goals. If the Roman military in Gordion exercised a command economy, they were able to implement that control only on specific components of the agricultural sector, especially cereal farming. The sheep and goat herding system remained unaltered, targeting secondary products for a market economy and/or broader provincial taxation authorities. The garrison introduced new elements to the animal economy of the Gordion region, including a new pig husbandry system. Comparison with contemporary non-military settlements suggests both similarities and differences with urban meat economies of Roman Anatolia.Item Bridging prehistory and history in the archaeology of cities(Many Publishing, 2015-10) Carballo, David M.; Fortenberry, BrentArchaeology is ideally suited for examining the deep roots of urbanism, its materialization and physicality, and the commonalities and variability in urban experiences cross-culturally and temporally. We propose that the significant advances archaeologists have made in situating the discipline within broader urban studies could be furthered through increased dialog between scholars working on urbanism during prehistoric and historical periods, as a means of bridging concerns in the study of the past and present. We review some major themes in urban studies by presenting archaeological cases from two areas of the Americas: central Mexico and Atlantic North America. Our cases span premodern and early modern periods, and three of the four covered in greatest depth live on as cities of today. Comparison of the cases highlights the complementarity of their primary datasets: the long developmental trajectories and relatively intact urban plans offered by many prehistoric cities, and the rich documentary sources offered by historic cities.Item Alternative pathways to complexity: a collection of essays on architecture, economics, power, and cross-cultural analysis(Cambridge University Press, 2017-07-01) Carballo, David M.Item Economía y ritual en Teotihuacan y su orbito(WordPress, 2017) Carballo, David M.Economy and ritual at Teotihuacan and its orbit During Teotihuacan’s apogee, the city served as a hub for the grandest rituals and most robust economic system in Mesoamerica. Tens of thousands of individuals gathered regularly for religious spectacles designed to sustain the cosmos and time itself. They also appear to have gathered in similar numbers to manufacture and exchange products with origins in all corners of Mesoamerica. Ritual and economy were often intertwined in the daily practices of Teotihuacanos, both within their households and next to the city’s monumental temple complexes. In this paper I examine the ritual and economic dimensions of the city and some of its zones of interaction, with a particular focus on the intersection of the two, in what we could call the Teotihuacano ritual economy.Item Kara-tepe, Karakalpakstan: agropastoralism in a Central Eurasian oasis in the 4th/5th century A.D. transition(Routledge, 2017-09-26) Brite, Elizabeth Baker; Khozhaniyazov, Gairatdin; Negus Cleary, Michelle; Marston, John M.; Kidd, Fiona J.This paper reports on the results of archaeological field excavations at the site of Kara-tepe, in the semi-autonomous region of Karakalpakstan in northwestern Uzbekistan. Investigations at the site in 2008–2009 turned up an unusually rich assemblage of remains from a household context. Combined analysis of the household botanical and faunal remains has allowed us to reconstruct the agropastoral practices of local inhabitants in this oasis region during a critical period of social and environmental change in the Early Medieval transition (4th–5th centuries A.D.). The results of the study raise important new questions about agropastoralism in the oases of Central Eurasia, highlighting continuities of practice between oasis and steppe populations, and revealing dynamic changes in these systems over time.Item Scholarly motivations to conduct interdisciplinary climate change research(Springer, 2017-06) Milman, Anita; Bolson, Jessica; Marston, John M.; Godsey, Sarah E.; Jones, Holly P.; Weiler, C. SusanUnderstanding and responding to today’s complex environmental problems requires collaboration that bridges disciplinary boundaries. As the barriers to interdisciplinary research are formidable, promoting interdisciplinary environmental research requires understanding what motivates researchers to embark upon such challenging research. This article draws upon research on problem choice and interdisciplinary research practice to investigate motivators and barriers to interdisciplinary climate change (IDCC) research. Results from a survey on the motivations of 526 Ph.D.-holding, early- to mid-career, self-identified IDCC scholars indicate how those scholars make decisions regarding their research choices including the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and the barriers arising from the nature of interdisciplinary research and institutional structures. Climate change was not the main motivation for most respondents to become scholars, yet the majority began to study the issue because they could not ignore the problem. Respondents’ decisions to conduct IDCC research are driven by personal motivations, including personal interest, the importance of IDCC research to society, and enjoyment of interdisciplinary collaborations. Two thirds of respondents reported having encountered challenges in communication across disciplines, longer timelines while conducting interdisciplinary work, and a lack of peer support. Nonetheless, most respondents plan to conduct IDCC research in the future and will choose their next research project based on its societal benefits and the opportunity to work with specific collaborators. We conclude that focused attention to supporting intrinsic motivations, as well as removing institutional barriers, can facilitate future IDCC research.