Archaeological and paleoenvironmental data are integrated in an investigation of culture change among the Anasazi of the American Southwest by a conceptual model of the interaction among environment, population, and behavior, the major determinants of human adaptive systems. Geological, palynological, and dendrochronological reconstructions of low and high frequency environmental variability coupled with population trends are used to specify periods of regional population-resource stress that should have elicited behavioral responses. Examination of these periods elucidates the range of responses employed and clarifies the adaptive contributions of mobility, shift of settlement location, subsistence mix, exchange, ceremonialism, agricultural intensification, and territoriality. These results help differentiate responses that are triggered by environmental variability from those stimulated primarily by demographic or sociocultural factors. These analyses also demonstrate the adaptive importance of amplitude, frequency, temporal, spatial, and durational aspects of environmental variability compared to the commonly invoked but simplistic contrast between “favorable” and “unfavorable” conditions.
Convergent archeological, geological, palynological, dendrochronological, and radiometric data provide a paleoenvironmental record for the American Southwest at a level of detail and time resolution not previously achieved. Many prehistoric cultural and demographic changes on the Colorado Plateaus coincided with environmental fluctuations defined by precisely dated geoclimatic and bioclimatic indicators. These coincidences support the interpretation that socioeconomic changes and population displacements were commonly triggered by environmental stress.
Keratinous horn sheaths of the extinct Harrington's mountain goat, Oreamnos harringtoni, were recovered at or near the surface of dry caves of the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Twenty-three separate specimens from two caves were dated nondestructively by the tandem accelerator mass spectrometer (TAMS). Both the TAMS and the conventional dates indicate that Harrington's mountain goat occupied the Grand Canyon for at least 19,000 years prior to becoming extinct by 11,160 + 125 radiocarbon years before present. The youngest average radiocarbon dates on Shasta ground sloths, Nothrotheriops shastensis, from the region are not significantly younger than those on extinct mountain goats. Rather than sequential extinction with Harrington's mountain goat disappearing from the Grand Canyon before the ground sloths, as one might predict in view ofevidence of climatic warming at the time, the losses were concurrent. Both extinctions coincide with the regional arrival of Clovis hunters.Certain dry caves of arid America have yielded unusual perishable remains of extinct Pleistocene animals, such as hair, dung, and soft tissue of extinct ground sloths (1) and, recently, of mammoths (2). Other less well known collections from the surface or shallowly buried in six caves of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, include horn sheaths, dung pellets, and dry tissue of an extinct mountain goat, Oreamnos harringtoni, as reported here (Fig. 1).Beyond their significance as paleontological curiosities, the perishable remains provide high quality organic residues for radiocarbon dating (3, 4). Contamination by soil humic acids or by other sources of allochthonous organic carbon is unknown and unexpected. The scarcity of perishable material in paleontological collections, and, until recently, the small size of many samples otherwise ideal for 14C dating has prevented the widespread use of keratin or dung in geochronology. Our contribution follows the advance in radiocarbon technology offered by the tandem accelerator mass spectrometer (TAMS)-in particular, its small-sample capability.Extinction of Harrington's mountain goat and that of the Shasta ground sloth, Nothrotheriops shastensis, may be compared biologically as well as temporally. Compared to living mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus), Harrington's mountain goat was small, with a more robust mandible, a distinctive palate, and larger dung pellets (5). The extinct mountain goats and the ground sloths once occupied the same region and, at least in one case, the same cave (Rampart). Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine two more divergent large herbivores. For example, the extinct mountain goat was digitigrade, gracile, and presumably highly mobile in rough terrain, penetrating remote parts of the Grand Canyon
The skeleton of a middle-aged female showing an unusual pattern of congenital, traumatic, and degenerative pathology was recovered from a small Kayenta Anasazi site located near the confluence of Bright Angel Creek with the Colorado River in the Inner Gorge of Grand Canyon. The atlas is fused with the base of the skull and C2 is fused with C3. The cervical region was subjected to hyperextension, perhaps through use of a tumpline, with resultant reduction of the neural canal to 8 mm, a condition that quite likely led to neurological problems. The skeleton also includes a depression fracture of the lateral condyle of the left tibia. Complete, bilateral spondylolysis of L5 led to an olisthesis of approximately 15 mm. The disc between L5 and S1 then ossified, most likely from staphylococcus bacteremia, making the olisthesis permanent and thereby creating a unique arachaeological specimen. Although spondylolysis is usually viewed as a stress fracture, the general pattern of pathology in this individual makes it necessary to consider an etiology of acute trauma.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.