ABSTRACT To accurately replicate highly complex, flaked stone artifacts using the same raw materials as the original artifacts is a challenge for any present-day flintknapper. Replication of individual bifacial points from a Bronze Age burial mound in Wales led to further study of the artifacts. Integrating experimental replication, technological analysis, x-ray fluorescence, and geometric morphometry

ABSTRACT A hearth is the location of an intentional fire, commonly fueled with organic matter such as wood, charcoal, crop waste, or dried animal dung (biomass, or biofuel). Hearths also implicate gender, regional ecologies, and complex, symbolically rich technologies. This article is about household cooking hearths—specifically, biomass hearths used with ceramic cooking vessels. Insights are drawn

ABSTRACT Mapping is an established practice by which people represent, explore, and share their understandings of geography. While cartographic products have become the dominant medium for this, there are many ways of expressing spatial knowledge, providing a rich opportunity to understand different forms in which people recreate, navigate, and understand their landscape. This research explores how

ABSTRACT In recent years, thousands of posthole features have been located during open-area excavations of Indigenous archaeological sites in the Caribbean Islands. However, the reconstruction of village spatial organization and its changes over time is sometimes a challenging task, because Indigenous village occupation can span more than 500 years. This article presents archaeological data from rescue

ABSTRACT An ethnoarchaeological study was conducted in northwestern Ethiopia on the cultivation of dagusa (Amharic), commonly known as finger millet (Eleusine coracana) in English. Dagusa is one of the most important cereals and staple foods in East and Central Africa. The field study examined crop-processing activities from land preparation to food processing. The study documented traditional agricultural

ABSTRACT The distinctive “saddle-shape” stone knives known as Tembeling knives of West Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia) have long been used to characterize the early agricultural activities of Neolithic populations in the region. While these tools are morphologically suggestive of a reaping function, their association with early plant use has never been established. The present study explores for the

ABSTRACT Drylands cover more than 40% of the earth’s land surface, are found on all continents, and are home to 30% of the world’s population. Due to water scarcity, they are generally considered unsuitable for lasting human settlement. While pastoralism has been reconceptualized recently as a rational, efficient, and sustainable way to live in drylands, agriculture without irrigation is generally

ABSTRACT Archaeological studies of pottery production have given little attention to the productive uses of water, building historical discourses without taking into consideration its crucial role in many chaînes opératoires. Structures related to the use of water in pottery-making, such as wells, cisterns, or settling ponds, are very rarely discussed. This article aims to remedy that situation by

ABSTRACT Jeffrey Parsons was a pioneer who expanded the scope of settlement pattern analysis in archaeology. He conducted extensive surveys in Mexico, Peru, and Argentina. Here I discuss Parsons' contributions to ethnographic research with archaeological goals (ethnoarchaeology). His major contributions to the field dealt with Mesoamerican subsistence activities in three broad areas: maguey (Agave

Published in Ethnoarchaeology: Journal of Archaeological, Ethnographic and Experimental Studies (Vol. 13, No. 1-2, 2021)

ABSTRACT This article explores the materiality of the Orthodox Christian cult of the Epitaphios on Good Friday of 2020 when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and isolation were deemed the most effective means of protecting societies from exposure to the virus. Epitaphios is a metonym that references a venerated object, a decorated cloth or wooden icon bearing the image of Christ prepared

(2020). Sugarcane and Rum: The Bittersweet History of Labor and Life on the Yucatán Peninsula. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 148-149.

(2020). Ruins, Caves, Gods, and Incense Burners: Northern Lacandon, Maya Myths, and Rituals. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 149-151.

(2020). EXARC Journal. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 156-157.

(2020). Ancient West Mexico in the Mesoamerican Ecumene. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 151-154.

ABSTRACT This article presents a pilot experiment conducted to better understand how Middle Pleistocene hominins might have processed and exploited elephants using simple stone and bone tools. The experiment was conducted in three phases: (1) production of small, flake-based stone tools, (2) butchery of the lower hind-leg of an Indian elephant, and (3) manufacture of bone tools from the tibia. The

(2020). Experimental Archaeology: Making, Understanding, Story-telling. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 154-156.

(2020). Archaeology and Ethnography along the Loango Coast in the South West of the Republic of Congo. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 75-77.

reader is sometimes irritated by spelling mistakes that taint the reading. To sum up, this volume poses a valuable contribution in describing heritage management efforts in the southern Republic of the Congo and displaying the primary data uncovered. Unfortunately, a synthesis between the archaeological and ethnographical observations is hard to find within the text. While the text is accompanied by

The monograph, Tarascan Pottery Production in Michoacan, Mexico by Eduardo Williams offers a synthesis of fieldwork among “traditional” potters practicing their craft in Tarascan (Purepecha) commun...

multi-disciplinary team, anthropology (in the broadest sense of its multiple sub-disciplines), which has long-standing holistic and universalistic ambitions, is as well positioned as any discipline for the task. The point is nicely illustrated by these two authors. Kim is an anthropological archaeologist, Kissel a paleoanthropologist, and together they have put together a survey of war and its origins

(2020). Pottery Archaeology in the Michoacan Sierra. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 68-70.

more useful in frequency seriations for chronology. He also concludes that interpretations of activity patterns (e.g. estimates of where cooking occurred) are complicated by the fact that they “are the product of differences in [pottery] type use lives as much as they are the product of ancient pot-using behavior” (p 173). This is a very detailed study of an important issue in archaeology, but I suspect

Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dietler, M., and I. Herbich. 1989. “TichMatek: The Technology of Luo Pottery Production and the Definition of Ceramic Style.” World Archaeology 21 (1): 148–164. Dobres, M.A., and J. E. Robb. 2000. Agency in Archaeology. New York: Routledge. Knappett, C., and L. Malafouris. 2008.Material Agency: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric

ABSTRACT Eight decades of ethnographic research provide a rich dataset for studying the changing organization of labor in households involved in specialized pottery production in the Purépecha region of Michoacán, Mexico. Relevant ethnographies are examined to identify the contributions of household members who might be considered “the potter” and the “hidden producers” who are integral to production

ABSTRACT Long-term ethnographic research in the region of Tiznit in Morocco enabled us to reconstruct the different stages of manufacture of children's clay toys, from the selection of the raw material to shaping, firing, use and discard. Making toys and playing with them are two inseparable activities, essential for learning everyday tasks. From this perspective, we consider Neolithic figurines and

(2020). EARTH: The Dynamics of Non-Industrial Agriculture: 8,000 Years of Resilience and Innovation. Ethnoarchaeology: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 64-66.

ABSTRACT Archaeological approaches to “finding the individual” have been applied through various material avenues. Pottery production has been considered an effective avenue to identify idiosyncratic variation, but there has been little work to evaluate fundamental assumptions of attribution studies. This paper addresses how differences in decorative techniques can influence our ability to identify

Kathryn Weedman Arthur has produced a fantastic and delightful book. The Lives of Stone Tools is an ethnographic account of stone tool production and use in late twentieth century Ethiopia. It is a valuable cautionary tale on all of the potential cultural and symbolic meaning prehistoric stone tools may have possessed and manifested, which would be invisible to archaeologists if indeed this meaning

ABSTRACT The adoption of pottery in the Upper Great Lakes region occurs quite late compared to the greater Eastern Woodlands. Recent organic residue analyses suggest that the earliest pottery in the Upper Great Lakes region was likely used to process acorns. Through experimental means using temperature as a proxy, this paper evaluates the efficacy of leaching tannins from acorns by comparing two regionally

ABSTRACT In 2016 Olivier Gosselain published a paper in Archaeological Dialogues suggesting that ethnoarchaeology should “go to hell”. His provocation misrepresents the ethnoarchaeology of the past quarter century, as is evident in a literature of which he appears largely unaware. Here we refute his charges, showing, for example, that ethnoarchaeologists neither regard the societies with which we work

ABSTRACT In 2014–2015 we combined questionnaires with direct observation to study the architectural transition of a remote Iranian village in order to assess the relationship between the layout and architecture of the settlement and the cemetery, and to assess the ways the characteristics of the settlement were or were not reflected in the cemetery. The architecture of the settlement site in Makhunik

ABSTRACT This ethnoarchaeological study examines contemporary salt and earthenware pottery production in Alburquerque, Bohol, Central Philippines. It highlights the intersection of these two craft industries through the use of locally made earthenware pots for salt making, serving both as brine boiling containers, as well as standard units of measurement for trade. It examines the spatial distribution

ABSTRACT Obsidian flake tools are an important component of Early Horizon (ca. 800–400 B.C.) lithic assemblages in highland Peru. However, the functions of these tools have not been ascertained. In this paper, we present the results of an experimental project that tests the hypothesis that flake tools were used for shearing domesticated camelids (alpacas and llamas). A collection of 10 replicated flake

Although Ed Wilmsen has made crucial contributions to ethoarchaeology, he does not identify himself as an ethnoarchaeologist, and so his important work in this field is often overlooked. He is not mentioned, for example, in the monumental history of ethnoarchaeology by David and Kramer (2000). When I recorded an on-camera interview with him in 2015, he described himself as a four-field anthropologist

ABSTRACT In northwestern Ethiopia, hide working is a skilled practice that involves turning raw hides into processed leather products using iron blades in wooden hafts for scraping and hammer stones with plant oils for hair removal, softening, and coloring the hides. This study among Amhara hide workers living in the East Gojjam Zone focuses on the specialized use of iron scrapers, which establishes

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to cast light on how the red glossy slipped pottery of the Urartian Kingdom (9th–6th century BC) was manufactured. Ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology, as well as more traditional archaeological research methods, are used to discern the processes involved. First, the pottery was categorized based on surface treatment. Next, ethnoarchaeological research

In an era of fake news and alternative facts, archaeologists need to think carefully about what it takes to make an effective argument and how best to train students to do so. While the unfettered enthusiasm for positivism and science evinced by some in the 1960s and 70s is rare in the wake of post-processual critiques, archaeological interpretations of the past are and must still be evidence-based

our knowledge of the nature of the Aztatlán system. Each of the contributing authors to this volume is either retired or emeritus. As such, the book represents the work of mature scholars carefully and thoughtfully presenting their results to support the legacy of the Marismas Nacionales project and to facilitate future studies in the region. In this sense, the volume is an unambiguous success and

ABSTRACT This article addresses aspects of earth-oven baking, as reported in ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts from western North America and via a series of actualistic experiments. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts attest to far more variability in oven morphologies, baking times, and food types than has been identified archaeologically. Toward mitigation of this data-discrepancy, we

Although fire is ubiquitous among humans and it appears to have been so for at least hundreds of thousands of years, its study as an artifact is relatively recent due to its sedimentary nature. Archaeologists are only now beginning to properly document and sample combustion residues for their study as artifacts and to realize their potential as sinks of behavioral information, with clues concealed

ABSTRACT This paper presents a synthetic overview of the results of a multidisciplinary approach –archaeological, experimental and ethnographic – that provides new insights into the fire-related management strategies (from firewood procurement to fire use and cleaning activities) adopted by Yamana groups. We bring to the fore the significance of recent results from a chemical, GC-MS and GC-C-IRMS analysis

ABSTRACT Prehistoric fuel management and hearth functions are key research issues that have benefitted from the development of experimental and ethnoarchaeogical approaches aimed at providing interpretative models for archaeological fire and fuel studies. In this paper, we present a selection of ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical data mostly collected among Evenks and Athabascans

ABSTRACT Livestock fecal remains provide an important source of information on past animal husbandry systems and dung use. A combined micromorphological and biomolecular investigation of dung deposits brings new perspectives into past landscape land use and animal husbandry strategies by providing seasonal-scale information on livestock dietary intake as well as intensity of dung deposition in penning

ABSTRACT Geoarchaeology focusing on microscopic and chemical remains has contributed greatly to the study of archaeological fire. One of the methodological approaches geoarchaeologists have adopted in the last two decades is the use of ethnoarchaeology to collect reference materials and construct models for how fire residues are formed and preserve or deteriorate in the archaeological record. Geo-ethnoarchaeology

similarly organized, making cross-cultural comparisons relatively easy, limited only by the quality of the original data (for which these authors are not to be faulted). Some of the most significant insights from these cases include examples where yarn quality estimates derived from spindle whorl weight do not match well with suggested tensions estimated from preserved loom weights, thus supporting

ABSTRACT The consumption of alcohol in the past is a much-studied subject, largely because alcoholic beverages play an important role in numerous sociopolitical institutions. While alcoholic beverages have been widely acknowledged to be an important component of society, the ability to recognize alcohol intake in ancient contexts has proven difficult. As a result, many authors investigating ancient

The name of J. D. Lewis-Williams has been linked for decades to his ground-breaking theory relating shamanism and Southern African rock art, and the interpretation of San paintings in the light of ...

ABSTRACT Archaeologists commonly encounter the occupation surfaces of ephemeral prehistoric houses. Within those spaces, artifacts can exhibit considerable spatial structure raising the question of what that structure can tell us about human behavior. We explore a simple site-formation model in which household occupancy, defined here as the average number of individuals who simultaneously occupy a

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the cultivation, harvesting and consumption of anchote and examines the social and environmental factors that frame the practice. Anchote, an indigenous tuber crop propagated by seed, is primarily cultivated for its edible tubers. In addition to forming part of the dietary staple of the Wallaga Oromo, the tuber is central to the culture and identity of the people. The

ABSTRACT Ethnoarchaeological research was conducted on traditional agriculture and use of noog (Guizotia abyssinica (L.) Cass.) as well as its wild progenitor, mech (Guizotia scabra (Vis.) Chiov) in present day Ethiopia. The study revealed technological and social aspects of this oil crop. Various traditional processing methods (field and household), division of labor, and economical and cultural values