Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
In this work, the authors interpret archaeological data on roughly 3000 years of human history in the Valley of Oaxaca, from roughly 1500 BC to AD 1500. They integrate information on settlement patterns, political and social organization, artifact distribution, and more.
In the 1940s, Paul F. Titterington, a doctor and avocational archaeologist, excavated several prehistoric burial mounds in Calhoun County, Illinois. In this report, David Braun and James Griffin present Titterington’s research.
Extensive description and analysis of the archaeological settlement data collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the Chalco-Xochimilco Region in the Valley of Mexico.
The site of Tepe Farukhabad, in southwestern Iran, dates to the fourth millenium BC. In this monograph, editor Henry T. Wright presents archaeological data from the Tepe Farukhabad excavations. For each phase of the site, the authors give detailed descriptions of the structures and artifacts, including ceramics, stone, bone, metal, textile, and faunal remains. With his interpretation of this data, Wright advances our understanding of early exchange in southwest Asia and of development of early states.
In 1974, Michael E. Whalen excavated the Formative site of Tomaltepec, a village with houses, public buildings, and a large cemetery. Here he reports on the results of the excavation and provides a regional perspective on Formative period development in the Valley of Oaxaca.
The Garnsey site is a late prehistoric-protohistoric bison kill site in southeastern New Mexico. During the 1978 excavation, the crew clarified the stratigraphy and chronology of the site and increased the number of bison remains. In this data-rich monograph, the authors present the results of their fieldwork and analyze their findings. In addition to bison remains, researchers found lithics, ceramics, and fire-cracked rock.
In this volume, editor Robert D. Drennan presents a series of reports on archaeological research in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico. Charles S. Spencer writes about irrigation in the Formative period; Elsa M. Redmond reports on a Terminal Formative ceramic workshop; John R. Alden writes about a survey at Quachilco; Drennan provides a preliminary report on excavations at Cuayucatepec; Spencer and Redmond report on Formative and Classic developments in the Cuicatlan Cañada; and Judith E. Smith provides an analysis of carbonized botanical remains from Quachilco, Cuayucatepec, and La Coyotera.
Author John Chiapuris lived in Morocco for sixteen months while doing fieldwork with the Ait Ayash, a Berber-speaking community of irrigation agriculturalists occupying the Ansegmir Valley in the High Moulouya plain. In the first part of this study, Chiapuris explains the ethnohistorial background and sociopolitical organization of the Ait Ayash. In the second section, he focuses on the regional setting and the changes initiated by the French Protectorate in 1912. In the third, he analyzes domestic production, household organization, and marriage patterns in the contemporary period.
In the region of Xuzestan (also “Khuzestan”), in southwestern Iran, early inhabitants domesticated plants and animals and developed permanent settlements and complex political states. In this volume, editor Henry T. Wright presents the results of three archaeological surveys in this important region.
Contributors report on findings by time period, including the Paleolithic, Archaic, Susiana, Uruk, Protoelamite, Elamite, and Islamic periods.
In this work, Margaret Schoeninger investigates the use of bone strontium levels in archaeologists’ reconstruction of diet in prehistoric and recent human populations.
The Turner site, in southeast Missouri, was a small Mississippian village that was occupied about AD 1300. Along with two nearby sites, Powers Fort and Snodgrass, it is considered to belong to the Powers Phase. In this volume, Black offers a mortuary analysis of burials found at all three sites.
In this volume, author Robert Whallon reports on the results of an archaeological survey in east central Turkey. The crew found dozens of sites representing about 6,000 years of occupation, from the Early Chalcolithic (4500 BC) to the Ottoman period (roughly AD 1500).
Included are drawings and detailed descriptions of the many ceramic wares recovered, as well as site maps and a thorough analysis of settlement patterns.
Nature and Status, published in 1978, is still a standard text of the discipline, with classic papers exploring theoretical issues, principles of plant utilization, prehistoric economics, and more. A reprint of this watershed volume includes all these classic papers, a new 30-page introduction by Ford, and pages of new references.
In this volume, the authors report on the complete excavation of the Snodgrass site, a prehistoric Mississippian village in southeast Missouri. More than 30 structures were completely excavated over seven years of fieldwork. Price and Griffin present descriptions and analyses of the structures, artifacts (primarily lithics and ceramics), and burials found at the site. Their work provides a look at the social complexity and patterned lifeways that existed within a prehistoric village population.
In this work the author reports on his excavation of the Sinking Ponds site in Erie County, New York. He combines this with extensive information on the Riverhaven 2 site and a general definition and description of the Meadowood Phase in New York State. Using assemblages excavated in these areas of the Niagara Frontier, Granger explores adaptive processes (procurement, manufacturing, storage, and exchange) of the Meadowood settlement pattern and settlement system.
In the 1970s, Frederick Charles Huxley conducted fieldwork in the Lebanese village of Barouk to investigate the social process called wasita: a term that means, roughly, intermediary or mediation. He explains the geography and history of Lebanon as they relate to the country’s social diversity, and argues for further examination of wasita as a process that operates on and between levels of society in economic, political, and social contexts. Following a detailed description of his ethnographic research, he discusses the importance of a better understanding of wasita in the context of the Lebanese civil war.
In the early 1970s, Timothy Earle worked with Marshall Sahlins doing archaeological and ethnohistorical research on the Halelea district in Kaua’i, Hawaii. In this volume, Earle reports on his archaeological and historical research on irrigation in this region. He also discusses modern taro agriculture and community organization. Illustrations by Eliza H. Earle.
In Part I of this volume, C. Earle Smith draws on years of survey in the Oaxaca Valley and archaeological discoveries of plant remains in the region to create a portrait of the valley’s original wild vegetation, previous to human settlement. In Part 2, Ellen Messer provides the results of her ethnobotanical study of the Zapotec residents of Mitla, a town in the southern highlands of the Valley of Oaxaca. Over the course of four years, she studied with local residents to learn the names and uses for wild plants and agricultural plants in the area.
Archaeologists John D. Speth and William J. Parry present the results of the first season of excavation at the Garnsey site, a bison kill site in southeastern New Mexico.
In this volume, Robert D. Drennan presents results of two seasons of archaeological research on the Palo Blanco Project in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico. He reports on the surface survey and excavations at the central plaza and surrounding areas, including the outlying barrios.
During 1968 and 1969, Alan G. Fix conducted an anthropological and genetic study among the Semai Senoi of Malaysia. His goal was to measure the amount of genetic exchange between local populations and document the effects of that exchange. This work combines results from that study with data from a 1965 census of aborigines and an expanded analysis.
In 1975, James B. Griffin retired as director of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. During his three decades as director and professor, he had become one of the leading archaeologists in North America and had tremendous influence over the next generation of archaeological research. To honor the man and his work, nineteen scholars contributed essays to this volume.
Mescal beans were important for many North American tribes in Mexico and the southwestern U.S. Tribes used the beans primarily as decorations (seed beads) for clothing; some tribes consumed the beans for their psychotropic properties as part of ceremonies.
In this volume, the author examines the distribution of mescal bean use and compiles a description of archaeological and ethnographic specimens from dozens of tribes. Illustrated.
In 1968 and 1969, Frank Hole directed the excavation of Chagha Sefid, a prehistoric site on the Deh Luran plain in Iran occupied from about 7000 to 3500 BC. This volume contains an analysis of the architecture, burials, and artifacts uncovered on the site. Contributions by M. J. Kirkby and Colin Renfrew.
In the early 1970s, Robert D. Drennan excavated the Middle Formative archaeological site Fábrica San José in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. In this volume he presents the results of the excavations and provides a chronology of Middle Formative ceramics. Appendix on carbonized plant remains by Richard I. Ford.