For the Neolithic transition in the Near East and Europe, this paper compares the isochrones predicted by computational models to those obtained by interpolating the archaeological data. This comparison reveals that there is a major inconsistency between the predictions of the models and the archaeological data: according to the models, the Neolithic front would have arrived to Greece in less than half the time interval implied by the data. Our main new results are as follows, (a) This inconsistency can be solved by including only Pre Pottery Neolithic B/C (PPNB/C) sites in the Near East; (b) the model that yields the lowest mean error per site in the arrival time of the Neolithic across the Near East and Europe is obtained by allowing for sea travels up to distances of 150 km; and (c) Mountain barriers have a negligible effect on the spread rate of the Neolithic front at the continental scale.

Since the beginning of systematic archaeological studies in southern Patagonia (Argentina and Chile), projectile points have played an important role as cultural markers. A sequence of projectile point types was established according to their changes in size and shape. These stone tools, along with others cultural evidences, served to differentiate a series of “culturai periods” which were, for decades, the frame of reference to understand the cultural evolution in southernmost Patagonia. Although later researches have questioned several of these assumptions, the classical typology of projectile points continued in use until the present day. The goal of this work is to evaluate size and shape variation in two late Holocene projectile point types, known as Fell, Bird, or Magallanes IV and V points or Patagónicas and Ona points, respectively. These two types are compared using geometric morphometries and multivariate statistical analyses. The reliability in the discrimination between types is tested at the light of reduction. The analyses have shown a major incidence of reduction on shape rather than on size, and on blade rather than on stem. However, in average, types IV and V can be distinguished in terms of size, and stem shape despite reduction. Thus, even though successive cycles of use, damage and resharpening have a great influence over size and shape of projectile points, resharpening techniques are specific enough to maintain the differences of size and shape between types, a pattern that is probably related with functional requirements.

People often imbue their surroundings, including tools, with a “life essence” that makes them active objects. A growing number of archaeologists are beginning to study how such “living” beings impact human behavior. These archaeologists use the term “object agency,” but employ many different ontologicai approaches. We explore this variation, and present a framework comparing different ontologicai models archaeologists use. We adopt an animistic perspective, and evaluate its applicability to the Southwest using ethnographic and archaeological data. We further propose that it is applicable throughout the New World. Puebloan potters consider pots living beings with a spiritual essence that is affected by and that impacts humans. Pottery manufacture is a mutual negotiation between the potter and the clay to create a “Made Being” with its own spiritual and material aspects. We conclude that a similar ontology is reflected in effigy pots and globular jars from the Casas Grandes region. Ultimately we conclude that this perspective provides useful insights into the placement, decoration, and discard of many vessels that have puzzled Southwestern archaeologists for decades.

Burned rock features that were used for heat, light, the processing of resources, cooking, roasting, ceremonial purposes, and other functions are encountered all over the world. Over 200 prehistoric fire-altered rock (FAR) features have been documented at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, an area ethnographically occupied by the Kumeyaay Indians along the central coast of San Diego County in southern California. These features are more densely concentrated at sites within the boundaries of the reserve than at other nearby coastal locations, suggesting an association with a specific resource in the area. Although many FAR features found in southern California and the Southwest are often interpreted as Agave deserti or Yucca whipplei roasting pits, these species are rare at the reserve; the few that exist there today are believed to be modem introductions. We propose that the FAR features in the project area were probably used to process Torrey pine nuts, a high-ranked resource that was valued by the Kumeyaay.

Compositional analysis of copper is used to explore interaction between the Late Archaic occupants of the Northern Lakes region and their contemporaries in eastern and east-central Wisconsin. Copper artifacts from Burnt Rollways phase sites in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula are compared with the Middle Archaic Reigh and Late Archaic Riverside sites. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis of copper demonstrates differential acquisition of resources between Burnt Rollways and their contemporaries and suggests barriers to social interaction between the Northern Lakes and societies in the Lake Winnebago and western Lake Michigan regions.

Archaeologists have suggested that various methods of surface texturing, specifically those resulting in alternating ridges and grooves, affect the gripability of a ceramic vessel. Various methods of vessel texturing were applied to ceramic test tiles and evaluated using a tribometer outfitted with a malleable skinlike substrate. Nontextured (smoothed) ceramic tiles were similarly evaluated. Tiles were evaluated under both dry and wet conditions. Coefficients of static friction suggest that, under wet and dry conditions, smoothed surfaces generate less friction than textured surfaces and that not all textured surfaces produce the same amount of friction. Results indicate that vessel-wall texturing may be an adaptation for increased vessel longevity. Explanations of the development and use of textured pottery must now consider gripability along with a variety of factors related to vessel performance.

Sandia Cave generated much interest when in the 1940s extinct Pleistocene megafauna were reported in association with what appeared to be a pre-Folsom Paleoindian component. By the 1950s a series of controversies regarding the stratigraphy and dating began to push the site into obscurity. The human occupation at the site has never been directly dated beyond 2250 ± 50 BP, and nonartifactual associated bone will not provide reliable age estimates because of extensive bioturbation, poor provenience, and the fact that the majority of fossils were accumulated by carnivores and rodents, rather than humans. However, a small number of mineralized fragments display human modification, suggesting occasional human activity of some antiquity at the site. One bone tool, one burned bone, and four bones bearing butchery marks were subjected to direct Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating. Unfortunately, mineralized bones did not preserve sufficient collagen to be dated. Two unmineralized specimens (the burned bone and the bone tool) push the direct Chronometric ages for the human occupation at Sandia Cave back to 3447 ± 96 BP. An older Folsom occupation is suggested by associated dates on breccia, but all lines of evidence taken together provide no support for a pre-Folsom human occupation.

The histories of maize utilization in eastern North America have been substantially revised recently, primarily because of the analysis of charred cooking residues encrusted on pottery. A multifaceted research strategy of bulk δ13C assays coupled with accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon data and microbotanical evidence can yield coherent regional maize use histories. Bulk δ13 C assay interpretation complications include (1) variations among vessels by site, (2) a potential for false negatives, and (3) a wide range of variation potentially present for any given time period. Regional histories using this approach can be quite variable without appropriate use of multiple lines of evidence.

This study revisits an earlier publication in this journal (Wills and Windes 1989) in which a settlement model involving seasonal mobility and limited household autonomy was outlined for Shabik’eschee Village, a Basketmaker III period (ca. A.D. 400–750) site in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. We return to that work for three reasons. First, the original interpretation has been challenged and an alternative view offered in the form of a large sedentary village. Second, the issue of Basketmaker III sedentism is central to recent efforts to identify and understand a Neolithic Demographic Transition in the northern Southwest. And third, we have obtained new field data from Shabik’eschee and Chaco that contributes to this debate. We conclude that our understanding of Shabik’ eschee’s history is improved by both new data and the ongoing consideration of alternative models, but the site does not contain evidence for a sedentary village.

Analyzing technological patterns and source provenance of stone tools, Jones, Beck, Jones, and Hughes (2003) argue that Paleoarchuic groups of the central Great Basin moved within an extensive home range, perhaps reaching 400 km in its longest dimension. The Eastern Conveyance Zone, as they refer to this territory, was aligned with the predominantly north-south trending mountains and valleys of the province. To evaluate this model of mobility, artifacts were collected from the southern part of the Eastern Conveyance Zone for geochemical characterizations. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry of 183 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic artifacts identified 12 known rock sources, all from the southern and central sections of the zone. No northern sources are represented among artifacts studied. Revisions of the Eastern Conveyance Zone model are considered in light of these results.

Mesoudi and O’Brien (2008) describe an experimental simulation of the cultural transmission of projectile-point technology. They base some of their conclusions on the results of tests of correlation. I explain why their use of correlation is improper, and hence that the validity of their conclusions is questionable at best. To support that assertion, I provide simulations to demonstrate that spurious correlations arise in the situations where the authors use correlation. I also describe analysis methods appropriate for their data.

Potter criticizes our experimental study of the roles played by indirect bias and guided variation in shaping prehistoric Great Basin projectile point variation. His criticisms are technically correct from the standpoint of statistical convention, but he fails to understand the theoretical rationale of our study. Without such an understanding, his assertion that our conclusions are questionable is incorrect. Here we point out again (1) how our experimental work bridges the gap between cultural-transmission theory and the empirical record and (2) why our conclusions are indeed valid.

Beck and Jones (2010) assert that Clovis “was not first in the Intermountain West”; Western Stemmed points are older than fluted points; and the stemmed point makers derived from a hypothetical pre-13,000 cal B.P. Pacific Coast migration. A less tendentious review of the data suggests instead that Western Stemmed follows Clovis in this region, as previously inferred by Willig and Aikens.

Fiedel and Morrow challenge our argument that Clovis technology originated in the southern Plains or Southeast and from there was carried by populations migrating north. Upon entering the Intermountain West relatively late, they encountered a population utilizing a different technology (Western Stemmed), the latter having arrived independently from the Pacific coast. Fiedel and Morrow offer arguments in favor of Clovis-first in the Intermountain West and coastal California and against the coastal route, Clovis origins in the south, and technological differences between Clovis and Western Stemmed. We evaluate these arguments and find their supporting evidence, when provided, meager and unconvincing.