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Revisiting the Role of Caves and Rockshelters in the Hunter-Gatherer Taskscape of the Archaic Midsouth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lara Homsey-Messer
Lara Homsey-Messer*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 441 North Walk, Gl McElhaney Hall, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15705 (lmesser@iup.edu)
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Abstract

This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic periods. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation intensity, and function. Focus is placed on using the often overlooked feature assemblages to discern these activities. Data suggest that the changing use of many caves and rockshelters is not one of longer term occupation as base camps, as has been previously argued, but rather as specialized field camps dedicated to the processing of mast resources. This shift takes place as Middle Holocene warming prompted hunter-gatherers to adopt a more logistical mobility strategy in order to take advantage of the spatio-temporal variance associated with increased mast availability. It is further argued that these sites were likely locations of women's activities and that foraging in the Midsouth involved groups of women engaged in daily tasks centered around mast, tasks that over time imbued caves and rockshelter s with symbolic meaning such that they came to function simultaneously as both processing camps and as persistent places of ritual significance in the hunter-gatherer taskscape.

Résumé

Résumé

Este trabajo evalúa modelos previos del uso de las cuevas y los abrigos rocosos en el centro-sur de los Eslados Vnidos desde elperiodo arcaico temprano hasta el arcaico medio. Se comparan cuatro sitiospara identificar variabilidaden las actividades, la estacionalidad, la intensidad de ocupación y la función. El estudio se enfoca en el uso de los ensamblajes de rasgos, los cuales frecuentemente se pasan por alto, para discernir estas actividades. Los datos sugieren que el uso cambiante de muchas cuevas y abrigos no indica el uso a largo plazo como campamentos de base, como se ha sostenido antes, sino un caso de uso intensificado como lugares especiales dedicados alprocesamiento de nueces. Este cambio se llevó a cabo mientras el calentamiento del Holoceno Medio motivó a los cazadores-recolectores a adoptar una estrategia de mobilidad mós logistica para aprovechar la varianza espaciotemporal asociada con mayor disponibilidad de nueces. Además se sostiene que estos sitios eran probablemente ubicaciones de actividades mujeriles y que la recolección de comida en el centro-sur suponía grupos de mujeres ocupadas con tareas diarias centradas en los nueces, tareas que con el tiempo imbuyeron a las cuevas y a los abrigos rocosos de importancia simbólica de tal forma que llegaron a funcionar simultáneamente como campamentos de procesamiento tanto como lugares persistentes de significado ritual en el “taskscape” cazador-recolector.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , pp. 332 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2015

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