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Before the arrival of Europeans, domestic cattle ( Bos taurus ) did not exist in the Americas, and most of our knowledge about how domestic bovines first arrived in the Western Hemisphere is based on historical documents. Sixteenth-century colonial accounts suggest that the first cattle were brought in small numbers from the southern Iberian Peninsula via the Canary archipelago to the Caribbean islands where they were bred locally and imported to other circum-Caribbean regions. Modern American heritage cattle genetics and limited ancient mtDNA data from archaeological colonial cattle suggest a more complex story of mixed ancestries from Europe and Africa. So far little information exists to understand the nature and timing of the arrival of these mixed-ancestry populations. In this study we combine ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from a robust sample of some of the earliest archaeological specimens from Caribbean and Mesoamerican sites to clarify the origins and the dynamics of bovine introduction into the Americas. Our analyses support first arrival of cattle from diverse locales and potentially confirm the early arrival of African-sourced cattle in the Americas, followed by waves of later introductions from various sources over several centuries.

Explores the impact of European colonization on Native American and Pacific Islander technology and culture. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the partial replacement of flaked stone and ground stone traditions by metal tools in the Americas during the Contact Era. It examines the functional, symbolic, and economic consequences of that replacement on the lifeways of native populations, even as lithic technologies persisted well after the landing of Columbus. Ranging across North America and to Hawaii, the studies show that, even with wide access to metal objects, Native Americans continued to produce certain stone tool types—perhaps because they were still the best implements for a task or because they represented a deep commitment to a traditional practice. Chapters are ordered in terms of relative degree of European contact, beginning with groups that experienced brief episodes of interaction, such as the Wichita-French meeting on the Arkansas River, and ending with societies that were heavily influenced by colonization, such as the Potawatomi of Illinois. Because the anthology draws comparisons between the persistence of stone tools and the continuity of other indigenous crafts, it presents holistic models that can be used to explain the larger consequences of the Contact Era. Marvin T. Smith, of Valdosta State University has stated that, after reading this volume, no archaeologist will ever see the replacement of lithic technology by metal tools as a simple matter of replacement of technologically inferior stone tools with their superior metal counterparts. This is cutting-edge scholarship in the area of contact period studies. Charles R. Cobb is Professor of Anthropology at Binghamton University and author of From Quarry to Cornfield: The Political Economy of Mississippian Hoe Production, also available from The University of Alabama Press.

Bayesian chronological modeling is used to investigate the chronology for a large-scale human depopulation event during the Mississippian period (AD 1000–1600) known as the Vacant Quarter phenomenon. The Middle Cumberland region (MCR) of Tennessee is within the Vacant Quarter area, and six villages from the final phase of Mississippian activity in the MCR have been subjected to radiocarbon dating. Complete radiocarbon datasets from these sites are presented within an interpretative Bayesian statistical framework. The results provide a unique history of each settlement and demonstrate that Mississippian occupations at each site likely terminated in the mid- to late fifteenth and possibly early sixteenth centuries AD, which is 50 to 100 years later than the most recent estimate for the timing of the Vacant Quarter. Mississippian abandonment in the MCR was relatively quick, likely occurring over less than a century. The exact reasons for abandonment are not entirely clear but appear to be linked to climate change. A radiocarbon simulation experiment indicates that future robust radiocarbon dating with well-selected samples could greatly improve the chronological precision for this late Mississippian activity. More broadly, this example demonstrates that model building with radiocarbon simulations can be used to address regional-scale chronological issues within the American Southeast and beyond. Se emplea el modelado bayesiano para explorar la cronología del proceso de despoblación humana a gran escala que tuvo lugar durante el periodo Misisipiano (1000-1600 dC) y que se conoce como el fenómeno del “Sector Vacante”. Seis poblados del final de la fase de actividad misisipiana en la Región del Medio Cumberland (RMC) de Tennessee, ubicada a su vez dentro del área del “Sector Vacante”, fueron objeto de un programa de dataciones radiocarbónicas. Se presentan series completas de dataciones radiocarbónicas de estos yacimientos, interpretadas mediante el análisis cronológico bayesiano. Los resultados permiten trazar la historia de cada yacimiento y demuestran que las ocupaciones misisipianas en estos sitios probablemente finalizaron entre mediados y finales del siglo quince y posiblemente comienzos del siglo dieciséis dC. Este lapso es entre cincuenta y cien años más tardío que la estimación cronológica más reciente del “Sector Vacante”. El abandono de la ocupación misisipiana en el RMC fue relativamente rápido, probablemente abarcando menos de un siglo. Las causas del abandono no están completamente dilucidadas, pero parecen estar relacionadas con el cambio climático. Un experimento de simulación radiocarbónica indica que futuros programas de datación sobre muestras bien seleccionadas podrían mejorar de manera considerable la precisión cronológica para el final de la actividad misisipiana. En términos generales, esto demuestra el potencial de los modelos construidos mediante dataciones radiocarbónicas simuladas a la hora de abordar cuestiones cronológicas de escala regional, tanto para el sudeste de EE.UU. como para otras zonas.

English forts in the Carolina Colony embodied the ongoing struggle between the ambitions of imperial impositions and the aspirations of frontier autonomy. This tension is acutely reflected in the spatial organization of forts. Whereas colonial authorities sought to separate Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans through the formal segregation of the built environment, life on the frontier encouraged a fluidity in space and identity. The theoretical construct of flat ontologies can be used to explore how frontier forts were a catalyst for complex and emergent spatial relations that subverted hierarchical space. Archaeological data from early 18th-century forts on the Carolina frontier exemplify the connective processes of flat ontologies that blurred space and identity. Los fuertes ingleses en la colonia de Carolina encarnaban la lucha continua entre las ambiciones de imposiciones imperiales y las aspiraciones de autonomía en la frontera. Esta tensión se refleja agudamente en la organización del espacio en las fortalezas. Mientras que las autoridades coloniales buscaban separar a los europeos, africanos y americanos nativos a través de la segregación formal del entorno construido, la vida en la frontera alentaba una fluidez en el espacio y la identidad. La construcción teórica de ontologías planas puede utilizarse para explorar de qué manera los fuertes fronterizos fueron un catalizador para las relaciones espaciales complejas emergentes que subvertían el espacio jerárquico. Los datos arqueológicos de las fortalezas en la frontera de Carolina desde principios del siglo XVIII ejemplifican los procesos conectivos de ontologías planas que desdibujaban el espacio y la identidad. Les forts anglais de la colonie de la Caroline personnifient l’opposition continue entre les ambitions des impositions impériales et les aspirations de l’autonomie pionnière. Cette tension est très bien représentée dans l’organisation spatiale desdits forts. Tandis que les autorités coloniales tentaient de diviser les Européens, Africains et Amérindiens en scindant formellement leur environnement construit, la vie au front pionnier favorisait une fluidité d’espace et d’identité. La trame théorique des ontologies linéaires peut être utilisée pour explorer la façon dont les forts des fronts pionniers furent des catalyseurs pour l’émergence de relations spatiales complexes ayant renversé l’espace hiérarchique. Des données archéologiques provenant des forts de la Caroline du début du 18e siècle démontrent les processus de connexion desdites ontologies linéaires qui obscurcissent à la fois l’espace et l’identité.

The Forum article “Grand Challenges for Archaeology” (Kintigh et al. 2014) defines a number of leading research topics derived from a crowd-sourcing report and parsed by a panel of archaeologists. The questions focus on scientific subjects with high funding potential, amenable to addressing contemporary problems. Although the grand challenges put forth do represent many of the key issues being pursued by archaeologists today, I argue that they will impact a more limited audience than envisioned by the authors due to their emphasis on transhistorical processes and their lack of emphasis on the larger social and political implications of our research.

From Quarry to Cornfield provides an innovative model for examining the technology of hoe production and its contribution to the agriculture of Mississippian communities. Lithic specialist Charles Cobb examines the political economy in Mississippian communities through a case study of raw material procurement and hoe production and usage at the Mill Creek site on Dillow Ridge in southwest Illinois. Cobb outlines the day-to-day activities in a Mississippian chiefdom village that flourished from about A.D. 1250 to 1500. In so doing, he provides a fascinating window into the specialized tasks of a variety of "day laborers" whose contribution to the community rested on their production of stone hoes necessary in the task of feeding the village. Overlooked in most previous studies, the skills and creativity of the makers of the hoes used in village farming provide a basis for broader analysis of the technology of hoe use in Mississippian times. Although Cobb's work focuses on Mill Creek, his findings at this site are representative of the agricultural practices of Mississippian communities throughout the eastern United States. The theoretical underpinnings of Cobb's study make a clear case for a reexamination of the accepted definition of chiefdom, the mobilization of surplus labor, and issues of power, history, and agency in Mississippian times. In a well-crafted piece of writing, Cobb distinguishes himself as one of the leaders in the study of lithic technology. From Quarry to Cornfield will find a well-deserved place in the ongoing discussions of power and production in the Mississippian political economy.  

In a poorly understood yet recurring phenomenon, communities occupying diverse settings within a region may undertake large-scale migrations that cannot be easily attributed to single variables such as climate change. As a result, the study of these movements has increasingly focused on the distinct histories of localities to address how they may have articulated as large-scale abandonments. We adopt this micro-history perspective on the fourteenth to fifteenth century depopulation of a large portion of the North American Midwest and Southeast, popularly referred to as the Vacant Quarter. Our research on the Middle Cumberland drainage within the Vacant Quarter suggests that a significant exodus began slowly ca. 1300 CE; then, it accelerated extremely rapidly in the first half of the fifteenth century CE. This genesis of this trajectory seems to be related to a pattern of severe droughts, but it was brought to a close by social and demographic challenges such as endemic conflict and adverse health conditions.

Although plazas have a lengthy and variable history in southeastern North America, by the Mississippian period (ca. 1000–1500 CE), they had assumed some degree of conformity: they were square to rectangular in shape, anchored the approximate center of a settlement, often had additional inclusions such as public buildings or earthen monuments, and were the arenas of secular and religious public activities. We suggest that the importance of these architectural features to Mississippian life ways can be attributed to two characteristics that are widely shared with other cultures that also employed plazas as a form of axis mundi. First, their construction represents an event that arrests temporality and draws attention to their pivotal role in synchronizing ritual life. Second, their relatively open architecture confers them a relational flexibility that allows for the linkage of a wide variety of spaces, things, and beings. A quantitative and qualitative study of 35 Mississippian plazas demonstrates discrepancies from a linear relationship between plaza size and site size that may be related to variation in the kinds of performances that were conducted in these public places at different types of settlements. Despite this variation, the ubiquity of plazas suggests that they were pivotal to the founding of Mississippian places, and may have been important for reestablishing a sense of cosmological order for migrating communities.

Investigations at the Native American site complex of Stark Farms in Mississippi, USA, have yielded numerous examples of metal artifacts of European origin. Our study suggests that they derive from contact between the AD 1540–1541 winter encampment of the Spanish Hernando de Soto expedition and the local Indigenous polity. The artifacts display a wide range of modifications, uses, and depositional contexts congruent with hybrid practices. We argue that the early colonial setting of Stark Farms requires a different perspective on cultural mixing than is often applied in studies of European colonialism. This is highlighted by the strongly improvisational nature of the modification of the metal objects, embodying a political climate in which European incursions were precarious and in which hybridity and power were heterogeneous and fluid.

Many attempts to understand the cultural impact of the forces of modernism, capitalism, and globalization have come to highlight contemporary cultural diversity at the expense of reifying a homogenized past of traditional, static societies. The \"savage slot\" still provides a convenient myth for characterizing small-scale communities before the advent of modernism--communities that experienced dramatic change only as they were pulled into the world system. Archaeological evidence from the southeastern United States challenges this stereotype, as Native American groups routinely migrated and continually redefined notions of \"place\" and \"locality\"--processes often treated as distinctly (post)modern. Such case studies emphasize the importance of working toward a deep historical anthropology that will continue to undermine stereotypes about the Other in the past as well as the present.