Interpretation of Prepared Clay Surfaces at Dust Cave, Alabama

Homsey, Lara K.; Sherwood, Sarah C.

doi:10.1179/eth.2010.2.1.73

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Paleoenvironmental data indicate that the Younger Dryas and Early Holocene in the middle Tennessee River valley were cool and wet with abundant wetland plant communities. Mean annual precipitation was high within the valley (Bryson 1999 in Homsey 2004) and at the pollen core site of Anderson Pond, Tennessee, from approximately 14,000 to 11,500 cal BP (Figure 1; Delcourt 1979:Figure 13). Additionally, lake levels at the pollen core site at Cahaba Pond, Alabama (Figure 1) were high between 14,060 and 10,785 cal BP (Delcourt et al 1983).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Declining Foraging Efficiency in the Middle Tennessee River Valley Prior to Initial Domestication

Weitzel

2019

Am. Antiq.

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Recently, researchers investigating the origins of domestication have debated the significance of resource intensification in the shift from foraging to food production. In eastern North America, one of several independent centers of domestication, this question remains open. To determine whether initial domestication may have been preceded by intensification in eastern North America at approximately 5000 cal BP, I evaluated the archaeofaunal assemblages from six sites in the middle Tennessee River valley. Analyses of these data suggest that overall foraging efficiency gradually declined prior to initial domestication, but patch-specific declines in foraging efficiency occurred in wetland habitats and not terrestrial ones. Climatic warming and drying during the Middle Holocene, growing human populations, and oak-hickory forest expansion were the likely drivers of these changes in foraging efficiency. These results support the hypothesis that initial domestication in eastern North America was an outcome of intensification driven by environmental change and human population increases. Finally, while the debate concerning the relationship of intensification to domestication has been framed in terms of a conflict between niche construction theory and optimal foraging theory, these perspectives are compatible and should be integrated to understand domestication more fully.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Declining Foraging Efficiency in the Middle Tennessee River Valley Prior to Initial Domestication

Weitzel

2019

Am. Antiq.

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“…Our results are in line with these experimental observations, as they show a decrease in heating traces within the same clay aggregate. Moreover, experimental studies were done by Homsey and Sherwood () on the recreation of clay surfaces used for cooking at Dust cave show that the clay rehydrates easily even after well‐maintained fires built on top of the surfaces are burned at constant, regulated temperatures for several hours. Since FTIR and micro‐FTIR indicators of heating relate to dihydroxylation, that is, the loss of molecularly bound water in clay that occurs above 400°C, one possibility for the nonheated signals is that the clay at YCY had been heated but then underwent rehydroxylation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reasons why the inhabitants of YCY lined hearths with clays are still obscure, but we can hypothesize that the physical properties of clays as conductors of heat might have been a factor (see Homsey & Sherwood, ). Archaeological and ethnographic evidence indicates that clay surfaces can be used for parching or as griddles for roasting seeds, roots, and nuts; to increase fuel efficiency in a burning fire; or as a place to keep hot coals for warmth or later fire building (Baykara et al, ; Karkanas et al, ; Sherwood & Chapman, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micromorphological and FTIR analysis of the Upper Paleolithic early pottery site of Yuchanyan cave, Hunan, South China

et al. 2019

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The site of Yuchanyan cave (Hunan Province, China) contains evidence for some of the earliest‐known (ca. 18,000 cal BP) pottery in the world alongside a typical South China Upper Paleolithic cobble tool (chopper) industry. Here we present the results of a micromorphological study of the deposits with particular attention to site formation processes and recognizable human activities. Our study reveals that the majority of the sediments are anthropogenic and produced by repeated combustion episodes involving the complete expenditure of the fuel and then the refuse being raked out and redistributed across the cave. In relation to the pottery production, clay was also used to line fireplaces. Our results, combined with our Fourier‐transform infrared analysis of the clays and bones, and supported by the zooarchaeological data, suggest that fire and pottery were used here to boil bones and render grease. This behavior must be considered in respect to its associated chopper industry, and the presence of early pottery may be related, suggesting differences in behavioral modernity for hunter‐gatherers in Upper Paleolithic South China. This study demonstrates the advantages of analyzing sediments as a record of past human actions and the value of using micromorphology for the study of Late Pleistocene sites in China.

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“…Eight cultural components were associated with the zones through dominance of diagnostic projectile points by depth below datum, although there was “no perfect correlation between depth and zone” (Sherwood et al 2004:540). Lara Homsey-Messer (Homsey 2004) collected an additional date, which is included in this analysis. Table 1 lists the 14 C dates by zone and associated cultural component.…”

Section: The Dust Cave Radiocarbon Datesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because cultural components are the focus, the displacement of samples between strata assigned to different components is more of a concern than displacement within or between strata assigned to the same component. Here, accuracy was evaluated by reviewing the excavation publications (Driskell 1994, 1996; Sherwood et al 2004) and geomorphological analyses (Homsey 2004; Sherwood 2001).…”

Section: The Dust Cave Radiocarbon Datesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dust Cave Revisited: A Bayesian Reanalysis of the Radiocarbon Record

Thulman

2017

Am. Antiq.

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The Dust Cave cultural chronology and radiocarbon sequence is one of the most important in southeastern North America. In their initial interpretation, the excavators were unable to separate the dates of the early and later strata in ways that facilitate their use for defining the associated cultural components. Here the sequence is reevaluated using Bayesian statistics, one additional date, and assessment of potential outliers. The results produce a useable sequence of non-overlapping cultural components (within the uncertainties of radiocarbon dating) that will improve our understanding the Paleoindian and Early and Middle Archaic cultural chronology in the Southeast.

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Interpretation of Prepared Clay Surfaces at Dust Cave, Alabama

Cited by 7 publications

References 7 publications

Declining Foraging Efficiency in the Middle Tennessee River Valley Prior to Initial Domestication

Declining Foraging Efficiency in the Middle Tennessee River Valley Prior to Initial Domestication

Micromorphological and FTIR analysis of the Upper Paleolithic early pottery site of Yuchanyan cave, Hunan, South China

Dust Cave Revisited: A Bayesian Reanalysis of the Radiocarbon Record

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