Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America
Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America

Author: Guy E. Gibbon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-01-26

Total Pages: 1020

ISBN-13: 1136801790

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First published in 1998. Did prehistoric humans walk to North America from Siberia? Who were the inhabitants of the spectacular Anasazi cliff dwellings in the Southwest and why did they disappear? Native Americans used acorns as a major food source, but how did they get rid of the tannic acid which is toxic to humans? How does radiocarbon dating work and how accurate is it? Written for the informed lay person, college-level student, and professional, Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia is an important resource for the study of the earliest North Americans; including facts, theories, descriptions, and speculations on the ancient nomads and hunter-gathers that populated continental North America.

Zuni Origins
Zuni Origins

Author: David A. Gregory

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2015-11-01

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 0816533407

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A Choice Outstanding Academic Title The Zuni are a Southwestern people whose origins have long intrigued anthropologists. This volume presents fresh approaches to that question from both anthropological and traditional perspectives, exploring the origins of the tribe and the influences that have affected their way of life. Utilizing macro-regional approaches, it brings together many decades of research in the Zuni and Mogollon areas, incorporating archaeological evidence, environmental data, and linguistic analyses to propose new links among early Southwestern peoples. The findings reported here postulate the differentiation of the Zuni language at least 7,000 to 8,000 years ago, following the initial peopling of the hemisphere, and both formulate and test the hypothesis that many Mogollon populations were Zunian speakers. Some of the contributions situate Zuni within the developmental context of Southwestern societies from Paleoindian to Mogollon. Others test the Mogollon-Zuni hypothesis by searching for contrasts between these and neighboring peoples and tracing these contrasts through macro-regional analyses of environments, sites, pottery, basketry, and rock art. Several studies of late prehistoric and protohistoric settlement systems in the Zuni area then express more cautious views on the Mogollon connection and present insights from Zuni traditional history and cultural geography. Two internationally known scholars then critique the essays, and the editors present a new research design for pursuing the question of Zuni origins. By taking stock and synthesizing what is currently known about the origins of the Zuni language and the development of modern Zuni culture, Zuni Origins is the only volume to address this subject with such a breadth of data and interpretations. It will prove invaluable to archaeologists working throughout the North American Southwest as well as to others struggling with issues of ethnicity, migration, incipient agriculture, and linguistic origins.

The Toyah Phase of Central Texas
The Toyah Phase of Central Texas

Author: Nancy Adele Kenmotsu

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1603447555

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In the fourteenth century, a culture arose in and around the Edwards Plateau of Central Texas that represents the last prehistoric peoples before the cultural upheaval introduced by European explorers. This culture has been labeled the Toyah phase, characterized by a distinctive tool kit and a bone-tempered pottery tradition. Spanish documents, some translated decades ago, offer glimpses of these mobile people. Archaeological excavations, some quite recent, offer other views of this culture, whose homeland covered much of Central and South Texas. For the first time in a single volume, this book brings together a number of perspectives and interpretations of these hunter-gatherers and how they interacted with each other, the pueblos in southeastern New Mexico, the mobile groups in northern Mexico, and newcomers from the northern plains such as the Apache and Comanche. Assembling eight studies and interpretive essays to look at social boundaries from the perspective of migration, hunter-farmer interactions, subsistence, and other issues significant to anthropologists and archaeologists, The Toyah Phase of Central Texas: Late Prehistoric Economic and Social Processes demonstrates that these prehistoric societies were never isolated from the world around them. Rather, these societies were keenly aware of changes happening on the plains to their north, among the Caddoan groups east of them, in the Puebloan groups in what is now New Mexico, and among their neighbors to the south in Mexico.

Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin
Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin

Author: Noel D. Justice

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2002-05-23

Total Pages: 582

ISBN-13: 9780253108838

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Noel Justice adds another regional guide to his series of important reference works that survey, describe, and categorize the projectile point and cutting tools used in prehistory by Native American peoples. This volume addresses the region of California and the Great Basin. Written for archaeologists and amateur collectors alike, the book describes over 50 types of stone arrowhead and spear points according to period, culture, and region. With the knowledge of someone trained to fashion projectile points with techniques used by the Indians, Justice describes how the points were made, used, and re-sharpened. His detailed drawings illustrate the way the Indians shaped their tools, what styles were peculiar to which regions, and how the various types can best be identified. There are hundreds of drawings, organized by type cluster and other identifying characteristics. The book also includes distribution maps and color plates that will further aid the researcher or collector in identifying specific periods, cultures, and projectile types.

Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States
Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States

Author: Noel D. Justice

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2002-05-23

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 9780253108821

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The American Southwest is the focus for this volume in Noel Justice's series of reference works that survey, describe, and categorize the projectile point and cutting tools used in prehistory by Native American peoples. Written for archaeologists and amateur collectors alike, the book describes over 50 types of stone arrowhead and spear points according to period, culture, and region. With the knowledge of someone trained to fashion projectile points with techniques used by the Indians, Justice describes how the points were made, used, and re-sharpened. His detailed drawings illustrate the way the Indians shaped their tools, what styles were peculiar to which regions, and how the various types can best be identified. There are hundreds of drawings, organized by type cluster and other identifying characteristics. The book also includes distribution maps and color plates that will further aid the researcher or collector in identifying specific periods, cultures, and projectile types.

The Prehistory of Texas
The Prehistory of Texas

Author: Timothy K. Perttula

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2012-09-24

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1603446494

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Paleoindians first arrived in Texas more than eleven thousand years ago, although relatively few sites of such early peoples have been discovered. Texas has a substantial post-Paleoindian record, however, and there are more than fifty thousand prehistoric archaeological sites identified across the state. This comprehensive volume explores in detail the varied experience of native peoples who lived on this land in prehistoric times. Chapters on each of the regions offer cutting-edge research, the culmination of years of work by dozens of the most knowledgeable experts. Based on the archaeological record, the discussion of the earliest inhabitants includes a reclassification of all known Paleoindian projectile point types and establishes a chronology for the various occupations. The archaeological data from across the state of Texas also allow authors to trace technological changes over time, the development of intensive fishing and shellfish collecting, funerary customs and the belief systems they represented, long-term changes in settlement mobility and character, landscape use, and the eventual development of agricultural societies. The studies bring the prehistory of Texas Indians all the way up through the Late Prehistoric period (ca. a.d. 700–1600). The extensively illustrated chapters are broadly cultural-historical in nature but stay strongly focused on important current research problems. Taken together, they present careful and exhaustive considerations of the full archaeological (and paleoenvironmental) record of Texas.