Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Three-Volume Set, Volume 1-3

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Professor Deborah M Pearsall The Frederick A Middlebush Chair in Social Sciences Department of Anthropology University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO USA

Professor Deborah M.Pearsall

Deborah M. Pearsall was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She grew up in various places in the upper Midwest and graduated from high school in Avon Lake, Ohio. She returned to Michigan for college, where she attended the University of Michigan and majored in Anthropology. It was also at Michigan that she became interested in paleoethnobotany—the study of plant-people interrelationships through archaeology—and studied with Richard I. Ford. After graduation from college, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and began studying with South American archaeologist Donald W. Lathrap. There she became interested in Ecuador, and participated in Lathrap’s excavations at Real Alto, an ancient agricultural village. The study of macroremains and phytoliths from Real Alto became her dissertation research, and she received a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1979. In addition to continuing to work in Ecuador, Deborah has conducted research in Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Guam, and the Midwestern U.S., and has supervised students working in these and other regions. She has taught anthropology and carried out paleoethnobotanical studies at the University of Missouri in Columbia since 1978. She is the author of Paleoethnobotany, A Handbook of Procedures (Academic Press, 2000), Plants and People in Ancient Ecuador: The Ethnobotany of the Jama River Valley (Wadsworth, 2004), The Origins of Agriculture in the Neotropics (coauthor with D. R. Piperno, Academic Press, 1998), and editor of this encyclopedia. She enjoys gardening—especially growing old English roses—and writing, and lives on 80 acres outside Columbia with her husband Mike DeLoughery.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Takeru Akazawa Kochi University of Technology Kochi Japan Pedro Paulo A Funari Department of History Universidad Estadual de Campinas Sao Paulo Brazil Julian Henderson Department of Archaeology University of Nottingham Nottingham UK Augustin F C Holl Department of Anthropology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI USA Joyce Marcus Museum of Anthropology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI USA

M Rafique Mughal Department of Archaeology Boston University Boston, MA USA Daniel T Potts Department of Archaeology University of Sydney Sydney, NSW Australia Patty Jo Watson Washington University at St. Louis St. Louis, MO USA Steve Weber Department of Anthropology Washington State University Vancouver, WA USA Zhijun Zhao Institute of Archaeology Beijing China

FOREWORD Archaeology today has become a truly international undertaking, and it has done so by employing what has become a new and universal language. The record of the human past is a material one, recorded in the earth, in the buried remains of vanished civilizations and in the material traces which past communities have left behind. As this book clearly documents, those traces, the carefully excavated settlements and burials of early human groups and their artifacts, which they made and used, can today be made accessible in what we may call the language of archaeology. That language, intelligible in every part of the world, is able to transcend the limitations of written history. For narrative history, as set down in writing, is inevitably confined to the literate civilizations whose very early texts come down to us from just a few locations in the Old World. The universal language of archaeology, however, knows no such bounds. Instead it addresses the human use of material culture wherever human beings have lived. It draws upon a broad range of techniques – from stratigraphic excavation to radiocarbon dating, from aerial photography to molecular biology – which now make it possible to speak of a world archaeology, in which the experiences of every country and people can take their place. This book sets out in a coherent way to make that language clearly and directly intelligible to the reader, so that the basic techniques of archaeology can be understood. It goes on to apply those techniques to the entire human story. Its broad sweep takes us from the emergence of the first humans, initially in Africa, and their early out-of-Africa dispersals, through the whole gamut of human experience, dealing with the rise of farming communities, the dawn of civilizations, the formation of the first cities, and so down to the present, and to the postcolonial era in every part of the world. The good news is that every land, every inhabited area of the earth, does have its archaeology. Each community has a past, which today can be investigated with the use of the now-universal techniques of investigation described here. The scope is vast. The story unfolds here on a continent-by-continent basis. Only in recent decades has it been possible to put together such a survey. For it was radiocarbon dating that opened the way for early developments in every part of the world to be dated. Suddenly the chronology of early Australia or of southern Africa became just as secure and just as available as the comparable chronologies for Europe or for the ancient Near East. The whole scope of human achievement in every part of the world is becoming known through the practice of archaeology. The authors of this survey have produced an up-to-date account not only of the methods which constitute the language of archaeology but also of the principal findings which now allow us to speak of a world archaeology. The authorship of the Encyclopedia of Archaeology reflects the cosmopolitan status of archaeology today. It is truly international, with Chinese scholars writing many of the entries for China, African scholars for Africa. The coverage is, of course, global, covering every continent (including Oceania) and every period. It is also multifacetted, giving insights into the different schools of archaeological thought, which flourish today. It recognizes that philosophical themes (Marxist archaeology; Postprocessual archaeology) must rub shoulders with social topics (Ethnicity, Rise of political complexity), and both of these with issues of contemporary concern (Who owns the past?, Politics of archaeology). These in turn are found side-by-side with some of the key scientific subdisciplines (archaeometry, phytolith analysis, taphonomy), which today provide much of the vocabulary for that universal language of archaeology. The outcome is that this work will be read with profit in every part of the world. It will be as welcome in South America (where the Amazon basin for once achieves necessary coverage) as in Europe, as appropriate in Japan as in Mesoamerica. It reflects well the changing nature of archaeology, with the fast developing range of new research methods and the changing realities of a postcolonial world where the past of every area and region is of interest. Colin Renfrew

INTRODUCTION

Archaeology is a subject that fascinates us. From Egyptian tombs to a frozen Alpine wayfarer, from cities buried under volcanic ash to stone arrowheads turned up by the plow, archaeology is in the news and in our backyards. It is paradoxical that a subject that so easily captures the imagination is so difficult to access. Superficial media treatments and picturebook atlases and site guides on the one hand, jargonheavy scholarly books and narrowly focused articles on the other – there are few ways to learn about the real world of archaeology outside the university classroom or the dig site. The aim of the Encyclopedia of Archaeology is to change this, to make all aspects of archaeology accessible to a broad audience, from educated laypersons and university students eager to learn about the field, to scholars intent on broadening and updating their knowledge of the discipline. No existing work provides the breadth and depth of coverage achieved here. It has been my privilege and pleasure to work with over 260 talented archaeologists from around the globe during this project. In the pages that follow, they will introduce you to archaeology through contributions arranged in an easy-to-use, alphabetical format. From the moment I was invited to undertake this project, I knew that I wanted the Encyclopedia of Archaeology not only to showcase archaeological knowledge at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but to convey how archaeologists work, and to illustrate the diversity of issues and theoretical paradigms that drive our research. From this grew an underlying four-part structure for the Encyclopedia of Archaeology: Archaeology as a discipline The practice of archaeology Archaeology at the beginning of the twenty-first century: A world overview Geographical overviews Topics and issues that cross-cut geography Archaeology in the everyday world

The ‘Contents list by subject’, which follows this Introduction, illustrates how individual contributions are grouped conceptually within this framework. Each contribution to ‘Archaeology as a discipline’ places emphasis on the broad approach and subject matter of part of the field of archaeology, and provides historical context when appropriate. Here you will be introduced to schools of thought as distinctive as cognitive and evolutionary archaeology, learn of the historic roots and philosophy of the field, and read overviews of subjects from archaeoastronomy to forensic archaeology to urban archaeology. Contributions to ‘The practice of archaeology’ describe the nuts and bolts of how archaeological research is conducted, and incorporate case studies as illustrations of modern archaeological practice. Topics range from fieldwork, through analysis of artifacts and biological materials, to approaches to interpreting the archaeological record. Among our authors you will find experts and innovators in archaeological methodology. ‘Archaeology at the beginning of the twenty-first century: A world overview’ is a wide-ranging review of our knowledge of the past. Archaeological sites and cultural traditions are placed in regional and temporal context in contributions in the ‘Geographical overviews’ section. Each article is written by an archaeologist with hands-on research experience in the region, and includes maps and illustrations of sites and artifacts. Look up an archaeological site in the index (or use the search function in the online version) and you will be guided to the regional and topical articles that discuss it. Or just browse and learn the latest on the archaeology of East Africa, Micronesia, or the Lesser Antilles. Regions are ordered in the ‘Contents list by subject’ west to east, and north to south, and within regions contributions are ordered chronologically or by subregion, as deemed appropriate.

x Introduction

Contributions to ‘Topics and issues that cross-cut geography’ are in-depth articles on cutting-edge research in archaeology. Case studies, often from more than one region of the world, illustrate each topic. Here you will be introduced to research on subjects as diverse as extinctions of big game, social inequality, and daily life in ancient cities. Contributions on related subjects are grouped in the ‘Contents list by subject’. Finally, ‘Archaeology in the everyday world’ steps back from the approaches, methods, and findings of archaeology to look at archaeology as a profession. In this section are contributions on the ethical and legal aspects of practicing archaeology today, popular culture and archaeology, and archaeology and stakeholder communities.

The Encyclopedia of Archaeology would never have come to fruition without the hard work of the members of the Editorial Board, who assisted in developing the subject list, fine-tuned the geographical overview sections, suggested authors for contributions, and reviewed completed manuscripts. They each have my wholehearted thanks. I also thank the following friends and colleagues for their assistance and advice: Robert A. Benfer, Jr., J. Scott Bentley, Jane C. Biers, Christine Hastorf, Janet Levy, Naomi Miller, Hector Neff, Elizabeth Reitz, Ralph Rowlett, and Peter Warnock. Deborah M. Pearsall

A AFRICA, CENTRAL Contents Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists Great Lakes Area Sudan, Nilotic Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas

Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists Scott MacEachern, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary bantu languages A closely-related group of languages in the Niger–Congo family, now spoken through much of Africa south of the equator. The ‘Bantu expansion’ is the process – still not entirely understood – through which early Bantu languages spread to the east and south from their homeland on the Nigerian–Cameroon border, beginning perhaps 5000 years ago. Lupemban A Middle/Late Pleistocene stone tool industry, found in different areas of sub-Saharan Africa and descended from the Sangoan and eventually the Acheulean traditions. It is characterized by the extensive use of bifacial and core-tools. It is often assumed to be associated with forest environments, where these tools were used for woodworking and other functions. microlithic Stone tool industries characterized by the use of small tools, usually made by carefully breaking stone blades into predetermined shapes or by the production of very small blades. Microliths are defined as being <3 cm in length, and are often used as elements in composite tools. ‘semi-domesticates’ Plants that are not planted by humans and that do not need human assistance to reproduce, but yield products important to the human communities in the area. Because of their importance, people often protect and encourage the growth of semi-domesticates, for example, through weeding of competing species. tazunu Funerary monuments found in the western Central African Republic, first built in the early first millennium BC. They consist of a group of upright standing stones, usually between 1 and 3 m in length, set in an artificial platform that often contains one or more rectangular chambers.

Tshitolian A Holocene stone tool industry of western Central Africa, characterized by a heavy-duty bifacial tool component originating in the Middle/Late Pleistocene Lupemban industry, as well as a variety of different types of arrowheads and microlithic tools.

Archaeologists know less about the prehistory of Central Africa through the last 10 000 years than about any other part of the continent. This is only in part because of the difficulties of working in tropical forest: indeed, some of the least-known areas are in the woodlands along the northeastern fringes of the Congo Basin. More important have been the effects of decades of political instability and an underdeveloped infrastructure that goes back to the colonial period. Over the last decade, however, some parts of Central Africa – especially in the northwest – have yielded a great deal of information on ancient occupations in this period. Moisture levels in Central Africa increased dramatically from the terminal Pleistocene, much drier than the present, to the early Holocene, which would have been generally wetter than today. This corresponded to a great increase in forests over the same period. However, models of a uniform expansion of tropical forest out of Late Pleistocene refugia are oversimplified. There seems to have been a great deal of local diversity in plant associations, as well as significant regional variations in rainfall, temperatures, and seasonality, through this period. Instead of thinking about environmentally determined depopulations and repopulations over Central Africa as a whole, we must imagine human communities adapting to a wide variety of circumstances and resources in different areas and at different times.

2 AFRICA, CENTRAL/Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists

The beginning of the Holocene saw all of Central Africa occupied by foraging communities. Little evidence of these populations is left, aside from their stone tool industries, which show a good deal of continuity from the Late Pleistocene. Not surprisingly, in the center of the continent, these industries are diverse, with stone tool-kits in the northwestern part of Central Africa showing some similarities with adjacent areas of West Africa, eastern industries exhibiting some resemblances to East Africa, and so on. Perhaps most uniquely Central African is the Tshitolian industry, found primarily in the west, in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo, northwestern Angola, and parts of Gabon. The Tshitolian seems to be derived from the Late Pleistocene Lupemban industry, and shares with the Lupemban an important component of heavy-duty bifacial tools, as well as arrowheads and microlithic tools. In other parts of Central Africa, microlithic industries predominate and the bifacial tools are rare or absent. We know little about the lifeways of these populations, but the available evidence indicates that for the most part they were

Nigeria

broad-spectrum, mobile hunter-gatherers. Late Pleistocene lakeshore sites like Ishango in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with their extraordinary bone harpoon points and evidence for fishing and hunting, exhibit striking similarities to Holocene sites in similar environments in East Africa, but there is no firm evidence for the persistence of this lacustrine adaptation in Holocene Central Africa (Figure 1). Just after 7000 years ago, significant innovations appeared in the economic and technical adaptations of communities in the northwestern part of the region. On what is now the frontier between southeastern Nigeria and Cameroon, archaeologists working at sites like Shum Laka have found evidence for consumption of nuts from the incense tree (Canarium schweinfurthii), a wild species that would be increasingly exploited by humans over the succeeding millennia, as well as the first evidence for pottery in the region. At the same time, larger bifacial (but not Tshitolian) tools appear among the microlithic stone tools that earlier dominated in this area, as does the first evidence for ground/polished stone tools. In later periods, such tools would be used in horticulture and forest clearance.

Chad Sudan

Shum Laka

Tazunu sites

Central African Republic

Cameroon Bioko Eq. Guinea Pit Sites Gabon

Republic of the Congo Tshitolian

Ishango

Uganda

Rwanda

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Burundi Tanzania

Upemba sites

Angola

Zambia

Figure 1 Some of the sites and traditions mentioned in the text. The extent of archaeological traditions is approximate.

AFRICA, CENTRAL/Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists 3

The Early-/Mid-Holocene appearance of these new cultural elements signals the origins of a very different adaptation to life in Central Africa, one eventually involving increased sedentism, a concentration on particular wild plant foods and increased levels of environmental manipulation. Over the next four millennia, these elements would come to dominate archaeological assemblages in this part of the region, as important ‘semi-domesticates’ such as oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) were added to local economies. This adaptation would culminate in the farming villages of southern Cameroon and Gabon, during the first millennium BC. These sites are characterized by the occurrence of large numbers of deep pits, probably used for storage and garbage disposal; these pits frequently contain pottery, Canarium, and oil palm remains, and also in some cases the remains of domesticated plants and animals, including millet, banana (originally a Southeast Asian domesticate), and sheep/ goats. These pit sites are probably related to sites of a similar period in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The spread of these communities into Central Africa from the northwestern part of the region is likely associated with the spread of Bantu languages, since the origins of those languages are in the Grassfields region around Shum Laka and the archaeological evidence agrees in general with linguistic evidence for the early expansion of Bantu languages. After the middle of the first millennium AD, few pits are found in sites in this area: the reason for this is unknown, but probably involves changes in settlement patterning during this period. The prehistory of other regions is not as well known through the mid-Holocene, but ground and polished stone axes similar to those found around Shum Laka occur in different parts of Central Africa. In some cases, for example, at Tchissanga and related sites on the coast of Republic of the Congo and in the Central African Republic (CAR), these are found with different kinds of pottery; in other cases, as on the Uelian sites of northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Angola and elsewhere, they exist as isolated discoveries, without significant cultural context. In very few cases have these occurrences been dated, but those dates that do exist indicate a Mid-/LateHolocene time period, and these sites are probably evidence of processes of economic intensification similar to those in the northwest – which, indeed, may be their ultimate origin. On the island of Bioko, now part of Equatorial Guinea, the use of stone tools, especially axes, would persist until the nineteenth century. In western CAR, these developments are, by the early first millennium BC, associated with the appearance of the tazunu sites, megalithic sites in which upright standing stones are usually set in low artificial

mounds. These are likely to have been funerary monuments, although not all excavated examples contain inhumations, and a tradition of tazunu construction may have continued in the area until a few centuries ago. The construction of these impressive monuments, and their association with single burials (where any are found), would seem to imply the existence of some degree of social ranking in western Central African Republic through this period (see Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area). The appearance of iron artifacts would eventually transform the economies and even the ideologies of Central African societies, but this did not happen immediately. Indeed, the available archaeological evidence indicates that early iron technologies were incorporated into the already-existing cultural systems discussed above, and that traditional assumptions of an Iron Age, a sudden break with earlier practices, seem to be particularly misleading in this case. The first evidence of iron production (in fact, very frequently the slag by-products of iron smelting and forging) appears on sites in northwestern Central Africa during the first millennium BC. Establishing the precise timing of that appearance is difficult, in part because of difficulties with radiocarbon calibration during the middle of that millennium. However, both a habitation site associated with the tazunu of the CAR and one of the pit sites in southern Cameroon have yielded dates for iron working of about 2600 years ago, and so between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC. This generally agrees with dates on some West African iron-working sites as well, but more work remains to be done on the origins of this technology in subSaharan Africa. Sites with iron from this area, in Gabon and in Republic of the Congo, became more common by the late first millennium BC, and through the ensuing centuries in other areas of Central Africa, until by perhaps AD 800 iron was being used throughout Central Africa (except on Bioko, as noted above, and perhaps by isolated foraging groups elsewhere). Over this same period, the use of stone tools for the most part ceased, presumably replaced by iron. In general, this parallels the introduction of iron into East Africa, although the exact routes by which that introduction took place are unknown. Over the ensuing centuries, as iron technologies became established through the region, we see the development of larger-scale societies, the extension of trade networks and evidence for increasing social complexity in some parts of Central Africa. This is most strikingly demonstrated in the Upemba Depression of southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a remarkable series of high-status grave

4 AFRICA, CENTRAL/Great Lakes Area

sites, dating to between the eighth and eighteenth centuries AD, indicate the processes of social differentiation and ideological development that culminated in the historically known Luba state. There is scattered archaeological evidence for significant trading networks and iron and copper production in western Democratic Republic of the Congo at the same time period, as well. In other areas – the Central African Republic and northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example – the village-level societies that developed in the first millennium BC and early first millennium AD remained the dominant economic and political units into the colonial period. As in much of the rest of Africa, there has been little archaeological investigation of recent centuries, and still less of the period of European contact. Over the last two millennia, archaeological data are increasingly supplemented by data from linguistic and historical research. These sources provide information on social and cultural processes that are not easily approached archaeologically – the details of the expansion of Bantu languages, the developing relations between farmers and foragers (Pygmy/BaTwa) in Central Africa and the interplay between ideology and sociopolitical relations across the region as a whole, for example. Only through such integrated approaches will researchers be able to approach a more complete picture of the Central African past. See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Africa,

Historical Archaeology.

Further Reading Clist B (2005) Des premiers villages aux premiers Europe´ens autour de l’estuaire du Gabon: Quatre mille´naires d’interactions entre l’homme et son milieu. Doctoral thesis, Universite´ Libre de Bruxelles. Cornelissen E (2002) Human responses to changing environments in Central Africa between 40,000 and 12,000 BP. Journal of World Prehistory 16: 197–235. de Maret P (1999) The power of symbols and the symbols of power through time: probing the Luba past. In: McIntosh SK (ed.) Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa, pp. 151–165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Klieman KA (2003) ‘The Pygmies Were Our Compass’. Bantu and Batwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900 CE. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Lanfranchi R and Clist B (eds.) (1991) Aux origines de l’afrique centrale. Libreville/Paris: Centre Culturel Francaise de Libreville, Se´pia. Lavachery P (2001) The Holocene archaeological sequence of Shum Laka Rock Shelter (Grassfields, Western Cameroon). African Archaeological Review 18: 213–248. Lavachery P, MacEachern S, Bouimon T, et al. (2005) Kome´ to Ebome´: archaeological research for the Chad Export Project, 1999–2003. Journal of African Archaeology 3: 175–193.

Mbida CM, van Neer W, Doutrelepont H, and Vrydaghs L (2000) Evidence for banana cultivation in central and animal husbandry during the first millennium BC in the forest of southern Cameroon. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 151–162. Vansina J (1990) Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Series. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. Zangato E (1999) Socie´te´s Pre´historiques et Me´galithes Dans le Nord-ouest de la Re´publique Centrafricaine. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Great Lakes Area Augustin F C Holl, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary earthwork Any early structure built from a mound or bank of earth, often created as fortification. forager Someone who hunts for food or provisions. iron smelting A process of heating and melting iron ores and concentrates and then separating the desirable molten metals such as copper from other elements. kingdoms Peak periods of development in ancient history.

The Interlacustrine area is flanked on both east and west by important freshwater lakes; Lake Victoria, L. Tanganyika, L. Kivu, and L. Albert. It is stretched over the eastern boundary of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Northern Tanzania, and the western fringe of Kenya. Several important Stone Age sites have been excavated at Matupi cave, Katanda sites of the Semliky valley, as well as Munyama cave in Uganda. Late Stone foragers using microliths were spread out in small groups over this vast area. The arrival of iron-using Bantuspeaking farmers in the first millennium BC triggered significant long-term increase in settlement size and density. The volcanic soils in this highly humid area are fertile, productive, and support some among the highest population density of Africa today. Evidence for iron smelting dating from the first half to the middle of the first millennium BC (900–500 BC) is documented at Gasiza I and Mirami III in Rwanda and the BuHaya region in Northwestern Tanzania. These Urewe farming communities were later joined by livestock herders from the Nile watershed. Bananas and other Southasian species took root and prospered in the fertile Interlacustrine zone. Bananas, one of the Malayo-Polynesia plants, were thought to have

AFRICA, CENTRAL/Sudan, Nilotic 5

reached Africa during the first millennium BC or very beginning of the first millennium AD. Bananas (Musa sp.) phytoliths from a core drilled at Munsa in Uganda and dated to the fourth millennium BC point to an earlier than thought introduction (see Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Sudan, Nilotic). The Great Lakes region and the Savanna-land south of the equatorial rainforest witnessed the development of complex chiefdoms and kingdoms during the second millennium AD. In the Great Lakes region, the development at Ntusi, Munsa, Bigo, Kibiro, Mubende, and other earthworks sites is remarkable. Large-scale cattle husbandry is documented at Ntusi. Kibiro witnessed an impressive intensification in the production of salt from the local brackish springs. An agricultural colonization took place in western Uganda. However, tracing the precise evolutionary trajectory of any of the Great Lakes, past polities is still hampered by the lack of sustained long-term archaeological research and terminological uncertainties. Archaeological survey, and the analyses of the ceramic material collected was used by Robertshaw to develop a model of the development of social complexity. Four areas, Nyantungo in the west, Kibale in the north, Munsa/ Kakumiro in the Northeast, and Kasambya in the southeast, were sampled to document variations in settlement patterns and pottery shapes, design, and decoration. Most of the surveyed sites (>90%) are small homesteads/hamlets measuring less than 1 ha in size. Large sites without earthworks seem to have been positioned at defensive locations. While, with a certain range of variation, earthworks sites may have been part of small and competing polities. After the sixteenth century AD, these rival and competing polities came to be united under the rulership of the Bito dynasty that created the Nyoro kingdom in Western Uganda. Rwanda and Burundi on the western side of the Interlacustrine zone also developed rival but small chiefdoms. In general and all over the Lacustrine zone, iron working was strongly associated with rulership. See also: Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Sudan, Nilotic; Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas.

Further Reading Connah G (1996) Kibiro: The Salt of Bunyoro, Past and Present. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Ehret C (1998) An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Lejju BJ, Robertshaw P, and Taylor D (2006) Africa’s Earliest Bananas? Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 102–113. Reid A (1997) Lacustrine states. In: Vogel JO (ed.) Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, pp. 501–507. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. Robertshaw P (1994) Archaeological survey, ceramic analysis, and state formation in Western Uganda. The African Archaeological Review 12: 105–131. Robertshaw P (2003) Explaining the origins of state in East Africa. In: Vogel (ed.) East African Archaeology: Foragers, Potters, Smiths, and Traders, pp. 149–166. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Schoenbrun DL (1998) A Green Place, A Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender, and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th Century. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Sudan, Nilotic Kathleen Nicoll, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Acheulian Designating, or of, a Lower Palaeolithic culture characterized by skillfully made bifacial flint hand axes. artifact Any object manufactured, used, or modified by humans. Common examples include tools, utensils, art, food remains, and other products of human activity. Aterian A stoneworking tradition that is considered an evolved style of the Palaeolithic of North Africa; it includes distinctive tools with shanks (i.e., tangs) for mounting to a handle, and basically worked leaf-shaped points. calcareous Containing calcium carbonate minerals. chert A very fine grained rock formed in ancient ocean sediments. It often has a semi-glassy finish and is usually white, pinkish, brown, gray, or blue-gray in color. It can be shaped into arrowheads by chipping. It has often been called flint, but true flint is found in chalk deposits and is a distinctive blackish color. dispersal The process in which an organism spreads out geographically. flint A hard, brittle microcrystalline form of quartz commonly found in sedimentary limestone or in chalk deposits, or otherwise any kind of stone that can be flaked. lithic Stone tools or projectiles. lithic scatter A spatially discrete, though sometimes extensive, scatter of lithic artifacts recovered from the surface, for example, by fieldwalking, rather than from a particular archaeological context. megalith An arrangement or structure of extremely large stones, possibly aligned. microlith Small tools that may be any of a variety of shapes, and which have been produced from microblades. These are too small to have been used without hafting, some were set edge to edge in a groove in a bone or wood shaft and so served as cutting tools, while others would have been functional as barbs. Neolithic Refers to the first era of village farmers in any region. nomad A member of a group of people who move according to the seasons from place to place in search of food, water, and grazing land.

6 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sudan, Nilotic optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) Quaternary geologic age-dating technique used to determine the depositional age of sediments by considering mineral grains as dosimeters that ‘accumulate’ energy over time as a function of natural environmental radiation. The technique is based on the solid-state properties of mineral grains rather than isotopic decay of constituent elements (like K–Ar or radiocarbon dating). pastoralism The form of agriculture specifically known as animal husbandry; it includes the tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It also contains a mobile element, moving the herds in search of fresh pasturelands and water resources. Pleistocene A geologic period, usually thought of as the most recent Ice Age, which began about 1.8 million years ago and ended with the melting of the large continental glaciers creating the modern climatic pattern about 11 500 years ago. pluvial A term commonly used to refer to a time period characterized by increased precipitation and reduced evaporation, resulting in enhanced moisture conditions. prehistoric The period prior to written records for a given area; note that the absolute date for the prehistoric period varies from place to place. social complexity Refers to patterns in society at levels from the individual to the group, as it relates to various human adaptive systems both comprising and surrounding a society. Complexity can refer to the rituals, culture, and practices of communities, regional systems, or empires. stratified A term that refers to sediments with primary (undisturbed) characteristics, that have been deposited or laid down in successive layers. Often the succession of layers can provide a relative chronological sequence, with the earliest at the bottom and the latest at the top.

Today the central African landscape west of the Nile River is hyperarid, with <10 mm annual rainfall; the modern Saharan region generally lacks sufficient surface water to sustain nomadic pastoralism, and settlement is localized around permanent oases and wells. The prehistoric records discovered in the desert landscape are sparse (Figure 1), and sites are commonly associated with ancient sources of water, including streams, springs, and lakes relict from ‘pluvial’ time periods of enhanced rainfall. Palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that the region has remained arid with occasional semi-arid periods when the region received around 300 mm annual rainfall, and the Sudano-Sahelian vegetation zone extended northward. The changing climatic conditions and ready availability of water resources were key factors in determining when this marginal region could sustain life and cultural activities. The geoarchaeological record informs the emerging spatial and temporal reconstruction of the alternate aridification and peopling of the Sahara since the Later Pleistocene, the period
250 000– 10 000 years ago.

A Brief History of Explorers and Archaeologists Some of the first artifactual finds from the region called the ‘Western’ or ‘Libyan’ Desert and ‘the

Sudan’ were documented by Ralph A. Bagnold and members of the Long Range Desert Group, a British army unit active during World War II. In the 1930s, excavations on Lake Qarun-Fayum and the Kharga Oases by Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor Gardiner provided the first integrated investigations into the prehistory and palaeoenvironment of the region; ironically these women were not granted membership into the Royal Geographical Society, although their reports have stood the test of time and paved the way for later researchers. Field studies in the 1970s by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition discovered some important stratified sites of Middle Stone Age–Early/Middle Palaeolithic typology, which predate the last phase of glaciation. Aterian artifacts at the site at Bıˆr Tirfawi, for example, are interstratified with calcareous lake beds that likely date to the period 125 000–90 000 years ago. Farther to the north, the Dakhleh Oasis Project has studied the remains of several prehistoric periods (Aterian through Graeco-Roman) since the 1980s. Acheulian hand ax finds older than 300 000 years were documented in the Bıˆr Kiseiba and Selima Sand Sheet regions by Smithsonian Institution researchers conducting fieldwork in the 1990s. Today, various international teams of scientists continue to decipher prehistoric archives from the Gilf Kebir, the defunct former tributaries of the Nile in northern Sudan, the Tibesti and Fezzan, and the Niger and Chad Basin.

The Fossil Record Although the Fayum is famous for its Oligocene fossil ape-like primates such Aegyptopithecus, no hominid fossils have been discovered from the broader region. Isolated Late Pleistocene lithic scatters and workshops exist, but related skeletal remains are extremely rare from Saharan North Africa. One of the most significant finds dating to the Middle Palaeolithic is an early anatomically modern human (H. sapiens sapiens) skeleton discovered along the Nile Valley
250 miles south of Cairo. At Taramsa, an anatomically modern child (aged 8–10 years) was deliberately buried in an open-air chert extraction site, which places the skeleton in direct context with worked tools and the quarry rock. A series of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from correlative eolian sands suggests an age for the burial between 49 800 and 80 400 years ago, with a mean age of 55 000. As one of the few well-dated sites in the region, Taramsa provides insight regarding origin of modern humans as preserved within the Nilotic region, one of the likely passageways ‘Out of Africa’ as modern humans dispersed from East Africa to Eurasia.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Sudan, Nilotic 7

32⬚ Mediterranean Sea

30⬚

Cairo Fayum EGYPT

28⬚

Nile River

Great Sand Sea

Taramsa

26⬚

Kharga Dakhleh Gilf Kebir LIBYA

Bîr Sahara

24⬚ Bîr Tirfawi Kiseiba Nabta

22⬚

Selima Sand Sheet

Gebel Uwien'at

20⬚

SUDAN

CHAD

18⬚

16⬚ Wadi Howar White Nile

map scale

200 km E 24⬚

Blue Nile

after Nicoll, 2001 28⬚

32⬚

Figure 1 Location of key sites mentioned from the northeastern Sahara, an area covering 92 000 000 km, and including the Western Desert of Egypt, northwest Sudan, and the adjacent parts of Libya and Chad, which together are about the size of western Europe.

Geoarchaeological Records from the NE Saharan Region Spatiotemporal patterns of prehistoric occupation suggest changes in the loci where people congregated, possibly as a function of changing water resource availability over time as the environment fluctuated between a habitable savanna and an inhospitable desert. The earliest occupation is associated with the artifacts of the Acheulian tradition of the Lower Paleolithic, and these finds are commonly associated

with groundwater-fed lakes, springs, and streams (wadis) with headwaters at higher elevations in the Plateaux escarpments. The chronology is inferential and not well constrained, but likely spans the period before 500 000 to 300 000 years ago, and is distinct from the Acheulian tradition of the Nile Valley. The archaeological record of the Middle Palaeolithic is better known, and several sites contain in situ living floors and diverse faunal assemblages, which reflect favorable climatic conditions. Much of

8 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sudan, Nilotic

the Middle Palaeolithic chronology is relative, and is based on taxonomic comparisons with diagnostic artifacts defined in units dating from 250 000 to
38 000 BP. The two oldest units, the Mousterian and the Aterian, occur in both the Western Desert and Nile Valley, but the comparative local economic patterns are markedly different. Lithics and faunal remains recovered from valley sites suggest reliance on fishing and Bos hunting. Alternately, in the Western Desert, hunting of large game was preferred over the capture of smaller animals. Large groundwater-supported lakes at Bıˆr Tirfawi and Bıˆr Sahara were favored settlement locales, although other environmental settings also were exploited and reoccupied. Within the Western Desert, the Aterian technocomplex is associated with the latest Pleistocene wet period, which preceded a long hyperarid episode that persisted until the early Holocene. The precise duration of the hyperarid interval remains unconstrained. There is no evidence for local rainfall or spring activity in the region west of the Nile between
40 000 and 11 000 BP, and human activity was confined to the valley, as preserved in Khormusan variants of the latest Middle Palaeolithic and other Late Palaeolithic complexes. The region beyond the Nile Valley was not reoccupied until the onset of suitable climate conditions
12 000 BP, when effective precipitation was enhanced due to the incursion of monsoonal rains from tropical Africa. Occasional rains created seasonal ponds and sustained vegetation that attracted game and people to a region that was otherwise desert. Savanna grasses, trees, and bushes enabled the subsistence of hares, gazelle, and a few small carnivores. Even during the Early Holocene climatic optimum
11 000–5500 cal BP, however, the region remained quite dry and drought prone (see Africa, South: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers). Characteristic tools and microliths, pottery, and ostrich eggshell beads are present at wadis, springs, and small depressions known as pans and playas, places where rainwater ponded after storms. Most of the terminal Paleolithic/Neolithic assemblages are located alongside water features fed solely by rainfall.

Neolithic Pluvials and the Emergence of Social Complexity: Examples from Nabta Playa Evidence across the northeastern Sahara suggests discrete phases of Neolithic activity during the Holocene climatic optimum. The sequence at Nabta Playa

reveals three wet–dry phases bracketed by radiocarbon dates. The accompanying stratigraphic and cultural record reflects critical transitions from foraging to food production strategies involving domestication and animal husbandry, and points toward emerging traditions of social complexity. The first settlements at Nabta Playa date between 11 000–9300 cal years ago, and include herders of domesticated(?) cattle who carried distinctive ceramic vessels decorated with wavy impressed patterns; this pottery is among the oldest known in Africa. In a similar manner to modern West African peoples, the Nabtans may have regarded their cattle as economic units of power, social status and prestige, as well as ‘walking larders’ that supplied milk and blood, rather than meat. Once the playa dried up, people migrated to areas with more water, possibly to the Nile in the east or areas further south (see Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa). After 9000 years ago, larger settlements were established at Nabta; small huts were arranged in straight lines, and walk-in wells were dug to supply the Nabtan residents with enough water to stay for longer periods. People survived on a number of wild edible plants (sorghum, millets, legumes, tubers, fruits) and small animals, including hares and gazelles. Around 8800 years ago (7800 BP, uncalibrated), pottery was produced locally. Around 8100 years ago, there is evidence for the domestication of larger animals, goats and sheep (see Animal Domestication). Between 8000 and 7000 years ago, Nabta was abandoned during two major droughts. As hyperarid conditions developed, the water table dropped, deflation persisted, and conditions became uninhabitable. The people returning to Nabta after the droughts were a complex society with an enhanced degree of organization and control, possibly centered around some ritualistic belief system associated with livestock. Excavated items supporting this inference include sacrifices of young cows and their burial in clay-lined and roofed chambers covered by stone slabs. Nabtans also constructed 25þ complex building structures with surface and subterranean features, including a shaped stone that could represent the oldest sculpture in Egypt. They also erected megaliths, alignments of large stones, and an astronomical ‘calendar circle’ like Stonehenge that marked the solstice at 6500 BP. Another significant find near Nabta is the first Neolithic cemetery in Egypt. A series of richly furnished graves date to
6400 and 6000 radiocarbon years BP (uncalibrated), and demonstrate patterns of local pastoralists who practiced transhumance during

AMERICAS, NORTH/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas 9

the later Neolithic period. In this manner, the Nabtan culture once again reflects that Saharan people had affliations with, and profound effects upon, the incipient Egyptian civilization that emerged from the Nile Valley as the region progressively aridified. See also: Africa, North: Nubia; Sahara, Eastern; Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa; Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers; Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Animal Domestication.

animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. Indian Ocean trade Monsoon based trade linking the Indian sub-continent with coastal regions of east Africa and the southern African hinterland. slash-and-burn agriculture The cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or pasture for livestock, or for a variety of other purposes. Zimbabwe Culture Refers to the states and material culture linked with the ancestral Shona speakers between AD 1100 and 1900. Mapungubwe is the earliest Zimbabwe Culture State, followed by Great Zimbabwe, and the Torwa-Changamire and Mutapa states. Drystone walls (known as Dzimbahwes – houses of stone), built using the precise placement method (without mortar) are the best known manifestation of this culture.

Further Reading Burroughs WJ (2005) Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kuper R and Kro¨pelin S (2006) Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa’s Evolution. Science 313: 803–807. Midant-Reynes B (1992) The Prehistory of Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell. Nicoll K (2004) Recent environmental change and prehistoric human activity in Egypt and northern Sudan. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 561–580. Phillipson DW (1998) African Archaeology, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rice M (2003) Egypt’s Making. The Origins of Ancient Egypt 5000–2000 BC, 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Shaw T, Sinclair P, Andah B, and Okpoko A (eds.) (1995) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge. Wendorf FA and Schild RA (1980) Prehistory of the Eastern Sahara. New York: Academic Press.

Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, Tshwane, South Africa Shadreck Chirikure, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary agro-pastoral A mode of production that combines field culture and husbandry with the use of pasture areas. colonization The act or process of establishing a colony or colonies. Colonization encompasses all large-scale emigrations of an established population to a ‘new’ location, such as immigration, the establishment of expatriate communities, and the use of guest workers. hunter-gatherer society A society whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and

Introduction The Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent regions (Figure 1) form part of the southern African subcontinent, south of the Zambezi, north of the Limpopo Rivers. In physiographic terms, it is part of High Africa, with elevations ranging from 500 to more than 2500 m above sea level. A moist savannah woodland biome dominates the plateau, and gives way to a dry woodland scrub further west, which becomes the Kalahari semidesert. The climate is largely tropical, although the higher escarpments to the east could be described as montane (see Africa, South: Kalahari Margins).

Hunter-Foragers Stone tools attributed to the Oldowan, Acheulian, and post-Acheulian traditions represent evidence of hominid/hominoid hunter-forager activity in southern Africa. Homo sapiens or early modern humans populated this region from the Middle Pleistocene up to about 40 000 years ago. They are associated with the development of abstract forms of human behavior such as the use of ochre, ostrich egg shell containers, and distinctive stone tool technologies. Tool assemblages representative of the Bambata (Stillbay) tradition have prepared cores, rare crescents, bifacial and unifacial points, denticulates, and multifaceted striking platforms. Related traditions include Tshangula and Zombepata in the western and northern parts of the plateau. Similar developments occur in the adjacent Zambezi valley, in the Batoka gorge and the Gwembe Valley. The emergence of modern humans 40 000 years ago witnessed a change toward advanced stoneworking techniques, evidenced by microlithic technologies. Such tools robustly assisted humans to cope with increasingly colder climatic conditions culminating with the Last Glacial Maximum around 18 000 years ago. Also, they were adapted to the complex hunting and gathering practices that developed since then.

10 AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas

Kadzi

MUTA

Zombepata Mutota

PA ST

Zvongombe

e

llag

t Vi

r Swa

ATE Nhunguza

Zambezi

, Diana s Vow

900 1200

Redcliff

Sawmills

Danamombe

TORWA STATE Gokomere Great Zimbabwe

Bambata

12

00

Khami

INDIAN OCEAN

Tshangula

90

0

MAKGADIKGADI PANS Schroda Mapungubwe 0

200 km Key Middle/late stone age sites

First millennium CE agro-pastoral sites

State capitals

Figure 1 Map of the Zimbabwe plateau showing archaeological sites associated with important cultural developments from the Middle Pleistocene.

An important development during the terminal Pleistocene and continuing into the Holocene relates to hunter-forager artistic and ritual traditions. These are paintings and engravings, found in caves, rock shelters, and open spaces. This ‘art’ is a product of shamanistic rituals and ceremonies connected with healing and rainmaking (Figure 2). Some of this art played a role in instructive teachings during certain ceremonies such as initiation, while other art may have expressed the local cosmological world of myths and symbolism. Some depict intergroup rivalries or conflicts. A majority of the art was authored by San hunter-gatherers, and depicts paintings dominated by the eland, an animal important to their ritual life. Other painting traditions are attributed to herder Khoekhoen and Bantu agro-pastoralists, and these continue into recent historical periods.

Early Herders In the western regions of the plateau and adjoining Kalahari sandveld, sheep, goats, and cattle were known earlier than the permanent settlements associated with the first crop farmers, and have been recovered in some later Holocene forager-hunter contexts. They date 2000–3000 years ago and, given the absence of their wild prototypes, may have been introduced in the region from further north. Events associated with early pastoral societies in the region are attributed to ancestral San and Khoekhoen communities, whose languages are related to those of some hunter-forager groups in eastern Africa. The spread of their language and other aspects of culture are, however, still in dispute. The archaeological horizons of sites with Bambata pottery have no signs of

AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas 11

Figure 3 Example of pottery made by agro-pastoralist farmers between cal CE 400 and 600. This Happy Rest potsherd was recovered from an extensive village site on the margins of the plateau in the Tswapong Hills of Botswana. Photo: P. Fredrikson.

Figure 2 Late Stone Age rock art from Diana’s Vow, in eastern Zimbabwe. The painting depicts a Shaman in trance. Photo: P. Taruvinga. (National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe).

experimentation like those in northern parts of the continent. Presumably, processes of complex interaction and shifting identities between resident hunterforagers and pastoralists and hunter-herders have formed the archaeological record that we see. The depiction of domestic animals on rock art not only attests to some of these events, but also signifies their importance in early pastoral economies (see Animal Domestication).

Agro-pastoral Communities Settled farmers identified with the speakers of ancestral Bantu languages were established in much of southern Africa, including the Zimbabwe plateau by the early first millennium CE. Their origins lie somewhere in the northern Equatorial rain forests. It remains unclear how they spread over much of the region in a fairly short period of time. The process may have involved ‘slash-and-burn’ agriculture whereby after few years, communities would abandon a piece of land due to marginal fertility of the soils, and move on to another. This process is dated from the third century BCE and continues throughout the first and early second millennium CE, attesting

to the expansion and spread of farming activities and iron production in southern Africa. Archaeological sites yielding well-fired, thickbodied ceramics decorated with either grooved or comb-stamped designs identify the expansion and spread of agro-pastoral societies (Figure 3). Most sites exhibit metalworking, the keeping of livestock, and pole-and-daub structures of permanent settlement. This pottery has been recovered from the Lake Victoria interior and coastal regions of eastern Africa, much of central Africa, the northern highveld and the eastern coastal zones of South Africa. This pottery is identical in both structure and design. Archaeologists have ascribed it to traditions or cultures which are further divided into time segments (phases), and geographical areas (facies). On the Zimbabwe plateau, such traditions include Gokomere-Ziwa, Zhizo, Kadzi, and Chinhoyi and they are all associated with early farming and iron-using communities who grew Bambara groundnuts, cucurbits, sorghum, and cow peas. They supplemented these with wild grasses and plant foods, wild animals, and marine resources. Cattle were very important in the sociopolitical and economic organization of these societies. This significance was expressed through a binary-coded settlement system known as the Central Cattle Pattern. Residential units surrounded cattle byres, which were the domain of men. Archaeologists unveiled this settlement pattern at Tabazingwe in western Zimbabwe, Kgaswe on the margins of the Kalahari and Schroda in northern South Africa (see Plant Domestication). From CE 600, these early farmers established large village settlements in the plateau and adjacent areas. Mainly situated along fertile agricultural soils and river basins, village sites covered areas averaging at least 5 ha in extent. Archaeological evidence from sites

12 AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas

such as Kadzi and Swart Village in northern Zimbabwe, Schroda in the Limpopo Valley, and various sites in the Tswapong Hills of Botswana attest to these villages as hubs of religious, economic, and political activities. Craft specialization was well developed as shown by the ubiquity of concentrated remains of iron- (Figure 4) and ivory-working. This was strongly interwoven with the development of intraregional trade and the integration of the Zimbabwe plateau area into the world system through the Indian Ocean long-distance trade that connected the interior

Figure 4 Multiple fused tuyeres from a possible specialist iron smelting village, Tswapong Hills, Botswana.

of southern Africa with parts of Asia and the Persian Gulf. In this long-distance trade network, local products including ivory and iron were exchanged for exotic goods such as glass beads.

The Development of Social Complexity and the Zimbabwe Culture States During the late first millennium CE, intensive agricultural production and long-distance trade saw the rise of powerful elites who dominated the economy and politics of the region. The interplay of these factors with ideology and ritual led to the establishment of the early states or kingdoms. Mapungubwe, located in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin is but one example. Mapungubwe has dry-stone-walled areas that housed the elite on the hilltop. Ritual objects were used as insignia for political office while prestigious gold objects and glass beads expressed their wealth. Craft specialization was a hallmark of these early kingdoms with metal-working, bead-making, and weaving flourishing. After close to a century of prospering, environmental degradation and shifting trade opportunities occasioned the rise of a more powerful system at Great Zimbabwe some 300 km to the north. After eclipsing Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe controlled long-distance trade with the Indian Ocean

Figure 5 Photograph of the Great Enclosure and Valley enclosures at Great Zimbabwe.

AFRICA, EAST/Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas 13

while the Swahili traders acted as intermediaries in a world system that linked widely separated geographical areas of the world. Local products such as gold, cattle, agricultural produce, and ivory, among others, were exchanged for exotic Persian wares, Chinese blue-on-white porcelain, and glass beads. The power and wealth of the ruling elite was invested in very impressive dry-stone-walled structures, the largest stone structures south of the Egyptian pyramids (Figure 5). Religion was important in the governance of the state and the recovery of skillfully made soapstone birds and ritual objects demonstrates this. The existence of abundant exotic and status goods at Great Zimbabwe when contrasted with the paucity of craft manufacturing evidence adduces that the elites controlled the distribution rather than primary production of goods. Such mechanisms were well supported using tributary modes of production. In a question of history repeating itself, the factors largely responsible for the rise of Great Zimbabwe led toward its demise. A rapidly deteriorating environment and the shifting trade routes led to the emergence of two successor states, the Mutapa in the north and Khami in the southwest by the end of the fifteenth century. The Mutapa state occupied the northern Zimbabwe plateau and adjacent Zambezi valley lowlands. Archaeology and oral history attest to a continuation of Great Zimbabwe influence. Early Mutapa kings had access to large and exploitable quantities of alluvial and hydrothermal gold, which became an important part of the economy of the state. The gold wealth was invested in monumental architecture and former Mutapa capitals – Zvongombe, Mutota, Kasekete, and Nhunguza – were built in the architectural styles of Great Zimbabwe. The predatory activities of merchant capital represented by the Portuguese traders became the Mutapa’s nemesis. The state ceased to be a significant political player by the late eighteenth century, and by the nineteenth century, was clearly just a mere chiefdom, largely subservient to Portuguese whims. Another successor state to Great Zimbabwe developed at Khami in the southwestern plateau area. The Torwa state was built and operated along the lines of Great Zimbabwe with the kings living on elaborate dry-stone-walled terraces and in enclosures.

Long-distance trade was an important part of the state and exotic goods have been recovered there. A civil war and Portuguese meddling sounded the death knell to the state leading to the rise of the Rozvi-Changamire state based at Danangombe in the late seventeenth century. The Rozvi-Changamire state was an important political entity, which at one time played the power broker in the Mutapa state. One of its leaders Changamire Dombo is credited with expelling the Portuguese from the plateau, for their gluttonous and belligerent behavior in the Mutapa state. Like most states that arose on the plateau, civil wars caused by succession disputes gradually weakened the state. Successive groups of Nguni people leaving southeastern Africa hastened the collapse of the state with the Ndebele occupying the vacuum arising from the aftermath. On its part, the Ndebele state was highly militarized to prevent annihilation by numerically superior opponents. Using advanced methods of warfare, they managed to subjugate some groups on the plateau. However, the influx of guns from the Portuguese meant that such groups could resist the Ndebele whose state ended with the colonization by the British South Africa Company in CE 1890. See also: Africa, South: Kalahari Margins; Animal Domestication; Modern Humans, Emergence of; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Beach DN (1994) The Shona and Their Neighbours. Oxford: Blackwell. Huffman TN (1996) Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Pikirayi I (2001) The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline in Southern Zambezian States. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press. Pwiti G (1996) Continuity and Change: An Archaeological Study of Farming Communities in Northern Zimbabwe, AD 500–1700. Studies in African Archaeology 13. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Archaeology, Uppsala University. Walker N (1995) Late Pleistocene and Holocene HuntersGatherers of the Matopos: An Archaeological Study of Change and Continuity in Zimbabwe. Studies in African Archaeology 10. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Archaeology, Uppsala University.

14 AFRICA, EAST/Ethiopia and Eritrea

AFRICA, EAST Contents Ethiopia and Eritrea Foragers Madagascar and Surrounding Islands Swahili Coast The Horn of Africa

Ethiopia and Eritrea Augustin F C Holl, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Aksum A kingdom formed from at least the first century AD in southwestern Ethiopia which developed into an empire including northern Ethiopia, Sudan, and southern Arabia. forager Someone who gathers food or provisions, especially forcibly. Horn of Africa A peninsula of East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. Tigray The northern-most of the nine ethnic regions (kililoch) of Ethiopia.

Paleontological and Stone Age research is particularly dynamic in Ethiopia. Major Australopithecus sites are found along the Ethiopian part of the East African Rift Valley, from the Omo Valley in the south to the fossils’ bearing formations of Djibouti in the Northeast. Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands are nonetheless considered as important centers of African plant domestication and agricultural innovation but archaeological research on this and related topics, even if seriously improved during the last two decades, is still lagging behind. Teff (Eragrostis teff ), noog (Guizotia abyssinica), as well as finger millet (Eleusine coracana) are part of the locally domesticated plants grown in association with Near Eastern crops such as wheat, barley, chick pea, lentil, and fava bean. Food-producing societies combining agricultural production with livestock husbandry lived in the lowland and Eritrean plateau as well as Tigray from the Middle Holocene onward. During the first millennium BC, South Arabic culture and influence expanded across the Red Sea and took roots in Ethiopian highland areas of Eritrea and Tigray. Archaeologically, this new situation is indicated by

the sudden appearance of writing, monumental stone architecture, and sculpture. Iron technology may have been part of this new ‘cultural package’ that triggered the sixth to seventh century BC process of urbanization in Highlands Ethiopia. Urban centers emerged at such places as Yeha surrounded by at least 30 other known sites among which the Hawelti–Melazzo complex. Yeha grew out of an earlier mixed farming village and became the main urban center of the Daamat kingdom in the fifth to fourth century BC. It was a relatively small town, 7.5 ha in size, with however spectacular stone monuments, the temple, and the Great Beal Gebri. The former is a massive rectangular building, 18.5 m long, 15 m wide, with preserved plain walls measuring 11 m in height. The latter consists of a series of square-section massive monolithic pillars that may have been part of a cultic complex with some affinities to the Moon Temple at Marib. The Daamat kingdom collapsed during the later part of the first millennium BC but very few is in fact known about the causes and consequences of its demise. Smaller polities emerged. Stelae were used to mark elite burials, and exchanges seem to have been predominantly with the Nile Valley. Aksum was one of these small polities that developed in the area during the later part of the first millennium BC and the early centuries of the first millennium AD. Aksum appears to have been settled in the first century AD. A few centuries later, in the third–fourth century AD, it achieved regional primacy, controlled great amount of wealth, developed a centralized monarchical system, adopted Christianity as state religion, and launched an extensive expansionist policy. As suggested by Phillipson and Anfray, Aksum’s political control extended at several times to regions beyond the modern borders of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Large areas of southern Arabia were ruled from Aksum at intervals between the third and sixth century AD. It is likely that Meroe in the Sudanese Nile Valley was conquered by an Aksumite army under King Ezana, but the nature and consequences of this episode remain poorly understood.

AFRICA, EAST/Foragers 15

The town of Aksum, at the foot of two hills, Beta Giyorgis in the west and May Qoho in the east, was extended in a deep gorge oriented north–south. The surrounding land was rich, water abundant, building stone ubiquitous. The town itself was stretched along approximately one mile west–east with its width along the north–south axis measuring no more than 500 m. Massive architectural complexes have been excavated. Some were storage facilities, elite residences, and religious buildings. Elite and royal burials carved in the bedrock and marked by lavishly sculpted stelae were located in a central position overlooking the rest of the town complex. The largest stelae appear to mark the graves of the kings of Aksum immediately prior to their adoption of Christianity in the midfourth century. These stelae are the most remarkable monuments of the Aksum ‘skyline’. Now fallen and broken, the largest of these, was originally 33 m long, and 520 tons in weight, probably the largest single block of stone which people anywhere, at any time, have attempted to stand on end according to Phillipson (see Africa, East: Foragers; The Horn of Africa). Very early in its history, Aksum became a trade hub linking the Red Sea to the Nile Valley and the Roman world from the north to the rest of the continent. It was visited by merchants from Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and even India. Adulis was its main and only harbor on the Red Sea. The economic growth and expansion of the Romans was one of the key factors for the quick pace of development of Aksum as a thriving economic metropolis. At the peak of its power and influence, the core of the ‘Aksumite civilization’ extended over a territory measuring 300 by 160 km, from 13 /17 latitude north and 38 /40 longitude east, with an access to the Red Sea at Adulis. Aksum kingdom collapsed during the eighth century AD partly because of the success and fast expansion of Islam and its corollary political and economic isolation in a predominantly Muslim world. The overexploitation of local resources, intensive erosion of the deforested land, as well as a short arid spell may have accelerated the depopulation and demise of the Aksumite metropolis in the eighth–ninth century AD. See also: Africa, East: Foragers; Madagascar and

Surrounding Islands; Swahili Coast; The Horn of Africa; Asia, West: Arabian Peninsula; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Anfray F (1990) Les Anciens Ethiopiens: Siecles d’Histoire. Paris: Armand Colin.

Bard KA, Coltorti M, DiBlasi MC, Dramis F, and Fattovitch R (2000) The environmental history of Tigray (northern Ethiopia) in the Middle and Late Holocene: A preliminary outline. African Archaeological Review 17: 65–86. Brandt SA (1984) New perspectives on the origins of food production in Ethiopia. In: Clark JD and Brandt SA (eds.) From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa, pp. 173–205. Berkeley: University of California Press. Brandt SA (1986) The Upper Pleistocene and Early Holocene prehistory of the Horn of Africa. The African Archaeological Review 4: 41–82. Butzer KW (1981) Rise and Fall of Axum, Ethiopia: A geoarchaeological interpretation. American Antiquity 46(3): 471–495. Phillipson D (1998) Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press. Phillipson D (2000) Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia, 1993–1997. London: The British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Foragers Sibel Barut Kusimba, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Eburran An East African obsidian industry of the central Rift Valley, Kenya. forager Someone who hunts for food and provisions. hunter-gatherer A member of a people subsisting in the wild on food obtained by hunting and foraging. Later Stone Age The third and final phase of Stone Age technology in sub-Saharan Africa, dating from more than c. 30 000 years ago until historical times in some places. Middle Stone Age The second part of the Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa, dating from c. 150 000–30 000 years ago and roughly equivalent to the Middle Paleolithic elsewhere in the Old World. Pastoral Neolithic A general term for the pre-Iron Age food-producing societies of East Africa.

Introduction The concept of the forager is derived from ethnographic examples of hunting-and-gathering people. These lifeways are based on the exploitation of wild plant foods and in Africa, ethnographic cases include people from the Botswanan Desert, the San, and also various Central African groups associated with tropical forests. Archaeological hunter-gatherers are different from ethnographic examples, even in the same environments. Because of the diversity of cultures bundled under the hunter-gatherer rubric, rejection of the term ‘hunter-gatherer’ has been suggested. It is possible that our trusted cubby holes

16 AFRICA, EAST/Foragers

for ‘hunter-gatherers’, ‘pastoralists’, or ‘farmers’ misrepresent a prehistoric world frequently less economically specialized than that of the ethnographic present. Nevertheless, few would argue that terms like huntergatherer be rejected. Instead, we can try to appreciate how environment and history have created variability in hunting-and-gathering societies. Three basic time periods of African Foragers will be reviewed in East Africa, including the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and transition to food production.

Middle Stone Age To some archaeologists, Middle Stone Age (MSA) shows the gradual accumulation of the modern hunter-gatherer repertoire. The repertoire, as far as the MSA is concerned, might include: diversity in the style of lithic artifacts and projectile weapons, backed microliths and composite tools, bone tools and bone points, hunting success, exploitation of fish, and other smaller resources which could represent the beginnings of a broad-spectrum or intensification process in the case of evidence of fishing, land use patterns characterized by a San-like aggregation and dispersal and repeated occupation of rock shelters, cultural use of space and activity areas within sites, increased artifact trade, and the making of beads and use of ochre. These behaviors and artifact types are thought to be related to ways of thinking, including symbolic behavior, innovation, and planning that are ‘modern’, in the sense that they are associated with Homo sapiens. At Blombos Cave on the southern coast of South Africa, MSA levels dating to 77 000 years ago have yielded more than 30 worked bone awls and points and 8000 pieces of worked ochre, two of which are incised with parallel lines as well as beads. However, other sites of the African MSA also show evidence of artifact design and geographic diversity; use of microliths, backed tools, and hafted tools; hunting proficiency; worked bone; fishing, mollusk gathering, and small animal procurement; and use of symbolic artifacts such as beads and ochre. The MSA is characterized by Levallois and other prepared core methods of stone tool manufacture. A common tool type in the East African MSA is the Stillbay point, or points from discoidal core reduction. Important MSA sites include the ones in Northern Tanzania, such as Nasera Rockshelter and Mumba Rockshelter, Mumba Hohle, Olduvai Gorge, and a recent excavation from Loiyangalani near Olduvai Gorge, where bone artifacts and fish bone have been reported. Southwestern Tanzania also has MSA localities reported along the Songwe River. In Kenya, sites have been found in the Kenya Rift Valley, including Prospect Farm and Lukenya Hill, and in

Ethiopia at Porc Epic Cave and Aduma. The East African MSA is rarely found with ostrich eggshell beads, as reported from Mumba and the Loiyangalani site, but is quite often associated with the so-called ‘Kenya Stillbay’ industry which includes small and large points which may be spear points.

Later Stone Age The Later Stone Age (LSA) is marked by the transition from the discoidal and Levallois core reduction methods to leptolithic or small tools. The sequence of LSA lithic industries at Lukenya Hill, Kenya documents the appearance and increasing proportions of time of microlithic tools, also associated with modern human behavior. Other early LSA sites show increasing use of bone tools, the exploitation of fish using specialized technology, and the use of bored stones for plant food gathering. LSA sites also contain early evidence of artifacts related to personal adornment. Often these are blade tools. Lukenya Hill contains at least five early LSA archaeological sites, including GvJm 62, GvJm 46, GvJm 22, and GvJm 16. Analysis of these sites shows that the proportions of microlithic tools and the use of nonlocal obsidian from the Central Rift Valley of Kenya, about 150 km from Lukenya Hill, increase over time. Other important early LSA sites include Enkapune ya Muto, whose assemblages show that ostrich eggshell beads, hafted microliths, and small round steep scrapers similar to those made at GvJm62 were made and used there (see Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers). Other significant LSA industries are found in the Eburran Industry of the Central Rift Valley in Kenya. The Eburran Industry represents hunter-gatherers well-adapted to Rift Valley highlands and lake basins in East Africa, who used abundant obsidian to make microlithic tools and hunted a variety of ungulates associated with woodlands and forests. After 3000 BP, many Eburran sites appear to be associated with the origins of food production, in particular the keeping of goats, such as at the site of Enkapune ya Muto. LSA people are also associated with fish exploitation and the making of pottery, as evidenced in the Kansyore midden sites of Lake Victoria.

The Transition to Food Production The problem of the transition from hunting and gathering to food production has been approached by examining how economies changed through diffusion and innovation of domesticated plant and animal species and the interactions of hunters and others who were herders/farmers. Many reviews of the

AFRICA, EAST/Madagascar and Surrounding Islands 17

origins of domesticated plants and animals in Africa have emphasized on the early and indigenous development of food production, the impact of cattleborne disease, patterns of indigenous development and diffusion, the role of arid and unpredictable environment, and the evidence of early domesticated plant foods in Africa. Several scholars have compared the ethnographic record of hunter-gatherers and food producers, both from the perspective of understanding the process of the adoption of food production and understanding hunter-gatherer–food producer interaction. Important cases of food-producer/farmer interaction include that of Eburran and Pastoral Neolithic sites in the Central Rift Valley, that indicates the association of Eburran sites with domestic stock and in lower altitude locations, which presumably reflects interaction with plains pastoralists; the Tsavo case of southeastern Kenya, where hunter-gatherers known as the Waata persisted until the twentieth century by exchanging hunted meat and ivory tusks with Oromo and Wambisha pastoralists; and the case of montane hunter-gatherers variously known as Okiek or ‘Ndorobo’ whose interaction with Maasai and other pastoralists involved exchange of honey and meat for agricultural products and animal secondary products. See also: Africa, Central: Foragers, Farmers, and Metallurgists; Great Lakes Area; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers; Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient.

Further Reading Andah B (1993) Identifying early farming traditions of West Africa. In: Shaw T, Sinclair P, Andah B, and Okpoko A (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns, pp. 240–254. London: Routledge. Bellwood P (2004) The First Farmers: Origins of Agricultural Societies. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Bollig M (1987) Ethnic relations and spatial mobility in Africa: A review of the peripatetic niche. In: Rao A (ed.) Kolner Ethnologische Mitteilungen Volume 8, The Other Nomads: Peripatetic Minorities in Cross-Cultural Perspective, pp. 179–228. Cologne: Bohlau Verlag. Burch ES (1998) The future of hunter-gatherer research. In: Gowdy J (ed.) Limited Wants, unlimited Means: A Reader in HunterGatherer Economics and the Environment, pp. 201–217. Washington, DC: Island Press. Cronk L and Dickson B (2000) Public and hidden transcripts in the East African highlands: A comment on Smith (1998). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20: 113–121. diLernia S and Manzi G (1997) Before Food Production in North Africa. Forli, ABACO. Henshilwood C and Marean C (2003) The origin of modern human behavior: Critique of the models and their test implications. Current Anthropology 44: 627–652.

Kent S (1996) Cultural Diversity among Twentieth Century Foragers: An African Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kuhn S and Stiner M (2001) The antiquity of hunter-gatherers. In: Panter-Brick C, Layton R, and Rowley-Conwy P (eds.) Hunter-Gatherers, An Interdisciplinary Perspective, pp. 99–142. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schrire C (1980) An inquiry into the evolutionary status and apparent identity of San hunter-gatherers. Human Ecology 8: 9–32.

Madagascar and Surrounding Islands Douglas William Hume, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Bantu language Group belonging to the Niger-Congo family. By one estimate, there are 513 languages in the Bantu grouping. Borneo Located at the center of the Malay archipelago and Indonesia. Administratively, this island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Madagascar Island Nation in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of Africa. It is home to 5% of the world’s plant and animal species (more than 80% of which are indigenous to Madagascar).

Current archaeological research in Madagascar is concerned with a relatively narrow band of time from approximately 2000 year BP, the generally accepted period of first contact, to the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the advent of historical records and European contact. Although the peopling of Madagascar is arguably a recent event, little is known regarding the early settlements. The lack of archaeological evidence is due to a variety of factors: quick environmental decomposition of sites, sparse use of sites by transient populations, and lack of funding to research the area. Other forms of evidence, such as linguistics, and genetic and ethnological data, are also used to develop the chronology of events during the settlement of Madagascar. Though early arguments postulated that the first Malagasy inhabitants were from one origin, historical, linguistic, genetic, and archaeological evidence suggests multiregional influences from Southeast Asia, East Africa, South Asia, and the Near East. A hybridization of many

18 AMERICAS, NORTH/Madagascar and Surrounding Islands

influences is therefore probable, in which several waves of settlement/colonization occurred and each group introduced or reintroduced technologies or other cultural traits. Prior to settlement, maritime people, who were exploiting the area’s offshore resources, visited Madagascar and traders used Madagascar for temporary shelter and restocking of supplies. As trading became more important, the camps’ temporal and spatial existence increased over time. This temporary nature of the early settlements contributes to the difficulty in tracing the sequences of events from first settlement to permanent settlements and finally a formation of a distinct Malagasy culture. Linguistically, there has been difficulty in deciphering the origin of the Malagasy language due to movement of people, the number of Malagasy dialects created, and the inability to define a protoMalagasy language. Through comparative linguistics, analysis of loan words, and the phonology, morphology, and vocabulary of the Malagasy language suggest two possible origins: the Barito Valley of Borneo and the Bantu language of Eastern Africa. Genetic analysis shows that both East African and Indonesian gene frequencies are evident within the general population at approximately equal ratios throughout Madagascar. The introduction of the sickle cell gene indicates an infusion of genes from people of central or east Africa, north of Zambezi. The ethnological evidence connecting Madagascar and other cultures such as Southeast Asia, Africa, India, and the Near East that have similar traits is ambiguous. Many similarities are better explained by environmental constraints than by direct linkage with a specific group. There are examples of shared knowledge; for example, growing of millet in dry areas of Madagascar is thought to have been borrowed from East Africa and the growing of rice in wetter areas borrowed from Indonesia. Madagascar has had exposure to a variety of cultural traits, but the existence of a cultural trait does not imply genetic relationships, but may rather result from either direct or indirect trade between two genetically distinct groups. The earliest archaeological evidence of human activity in Madagascar are the four radiocarbon-dated dwarf hippopotamus (Choeropsis madagascariensis) femurs that show human modification. The femurs, found in southern Madagascar (Lamboharana and Ambolisatra), yielded two reliable dates, 1970  60 and 1740  50 years BP. What has been most puzzling in Madagascar’s ecological history is the extinction of Madagascar’s megafauna, such as the dwarf hippopotamus, approximately 2000 years ago. Although a

catastrophic fire event, calamitous drought in southern Madagascar, first-contact overkill, introduction of cattle, and hypervirulent disease have all been blamed for the extinction of Madagascar’s megafauna, it is more likely that the causes worked in synergy: the introduction of exotic and invasive species, climatic changes, and arrival of humans caused these extinctions. Another early archaeological site in Madagascar is Sarodrano, 1490  90 years BP. However, this early date is questionable due to site disturbance and further study of the site is impossible due to its destruction by a cyclone. Other early settlements dated to the ninth–tenth centuries AD include the following: Irodo (Tafianatsirebeka) – a northeastern coast settlement that produced shellfish, farming, and chloro-schistite vessel production and trade; Andransosoa – a southeastern inland cattle pastoralist; and Talaky – a southern coastal fishing village. During this early period (first to tenth century AD), only traces of transient visits have been found, which may be a reflection of the limited areas surveyed along Madagascar’s coast and not a measure of what settlement sites are actually there. After AD 1000, permanent occupation sites along the entire Madagascar coast and one central highland site have yielded evidence of rice agriculture, bovid herding, fishing, iron smelting, and local trading, but no direct link to Southeast Asia, East Africa, South Asia, or the Near East. In addition, it cannot be determined if the economic and technological diversity in evidence from sites of this period is the result of in situ evolution or imported from another area. From the twelfth century AD, the settlements in the west began to grow to significant size and duration. Mahilaka was the first major port in the region; its decline in the fourteenth century AD was followed by settlements developing along the east coast. Cores taken from lakes and bogs from this time have found fluctuating levels of grassy and brushy vegetation along with arboreal pollen, showing a negative correlation. This indicates a variable deforestation by anthropogenic means and therefore a variable human population concentration and rate of environmental modification. By the fourteenth century AD, the archaeological evidence indicates a relatively uniform cultural pattern in the southern region. It is currently unknown what caused this explosion of settlements during this period of history in Madagascar. Settlements during this period were associated in clusters surrounding a central site, which may have been the political and/or social elite. In addition, trade goods originating in South China, Southeast Asia, the Near East, and Europe are evident

AMERICAS, NORTH/Swahili Coast 19

throughout Madagascar by this time, indicating increased external contact. Of the polities that emerged during the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries AD, only the Merina of the central highlands of Madagascar has the archaeological evidence to suggest the formation of a state. In particular, a hierarchy of a capital, subsidiary centers, villages, and hamlets along with frontier military sites provides evidence that a state level system was needed for control, because the level of control needed for these sites is more than a loose political unit could manage. During this period, the effects of European trading enabled the earliest written accounts of the Malagasy political situation to be recorded. With the advent of European trading, political power became subject to the control of trade goods and some kingdoms (e.g., the Bara) collapsed while others increased their influence (e.g., the Sakalava). Beginning in the sixteenth century, several groups were heavily involved in trade with the Europeans (mostly French, Dutch, and Arabs). Others (e.g., Tandroy, Karembola, and Mahafaly peoples in southern Madagascar) were not actively involved in trade, yet still received European goods by importing them through their neighbors. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the beginnings of what has been termed the ‘Bara state’ collapsed due to disputes between the sons of the dead ruler and, subsequently, the interior Maroserana ruler, Andriamanely, captured the area and installed his family members as local rulers. The southern kingdoms of Madagascar did not consolidate their power and remained divided from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The result was their lack of political influence on interior and northern groups. Whether groups were in direct trade with the Europeans or received goods through indirect trade, the impact of the goods that the Europeans brought to Madagascar was felt throughout the island. See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Sudan,

Nilotic.

Further Reading Deschamps H (1972) Histoire de Madagascar, 4th edn. Paris: Berger-Levrault. Dewar RE (1984) Extinctions in Madagascar: The loss of the subfossil fauna. In: Martin PS and Klein RG (eds.) Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 574–593. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. Dewar RE and Wright HT (1993) The culture history of Madagascar. Journal of World Prehistory 7: 417–466. Marks S and Cray R (1975) Southern Africa and Madagascar (c.1600–c.1790). In: Gray R (ed.) Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4, p. 384–468. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pearson MP (1997) Close encounters of the worst kind: Malagasy resistance and colonial disasters in southern Madagascar. World Archaeology 28: 393–417. Wright HT and Rakotoarisoa JA (2004) The rise of Malagasy societies: New developments in the archaeology of Madagascar. In: Goodman SM and Benstead JP (eds.) The Natural History of Madagascar, pp. 112–119. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Swahili Coast Adria LaViolette, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary caliphate The Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world. city-state A region controlled exclusively by a city, usually having sovereignty. colonialism The extension of a nation’s sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced. urbanism The study of cities – their economic, political, social and cultural environment, and the imprint of all these forces on the built environment.

The many towns and hinterland communities of the Eastern African coast share broad cultural commonalities that emerged in the first millennium AD, in what came to be called Swahili civilization. The Swahili coast extended along some 2500 km, from modern Somalia to Mozambique and incorporating Kenya’s Lamu archipelago, Tanzania’s Pemba, Unguja (Zanzibar), and Mafia Islands, the Comoros Archipelago, and northwestern Madagascar. This expanse corresponds with the western edge of the monsoonal wind system, facilitating travel and communication on the coast itself and among ports along the Indian Ocean rim. The pre-Swahili history of the coast is known largely through archaeological research, augmented by rare documents and interpretations drawn from historical linguistics. In the centuries prior to the founding of Swahili settlements, the coast was home to an array of smallerscale societies subsisting on pastoralism and mixed farming and fishing, and who shared archaeological and linguistic connections with interior peoples. The use of Urewe and Kwale ceramics in both areas exemplifies shared lifeways of coastal and interior regions in the Late Stone and Early Iron Ages.

20 AMERICAS, NORTH/Swahili Coast

Archaeological work at pre-/proto-Swahili sites dating to the first centuries AD, such as Unguja Ukuu in Tanzania, provides evidence of relatively small mixed farming settlements, some with impressive trade ties beyond the coast. The first written document pertaining to the coast is a merchants’ guide, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The Periplus was written in AD 40 by a Greek sailor, who wrote of trade along the Red Sea, Eastern African, and Indian shores while on a Roman ship. He references places such as Rhapta, the Romans’ southernmost port of trade, thought to have been on the central Tanzanian coast. Rhapta is described as under the authority of the governor of Muza in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, but subsequent historical and archaeological evidence have not confirmed this depiction. Exported goods listed included ivory and rhino horn from the interior and nautilus and turtle shell from the coast, while imports included metal implements, glass, and some foods. Another, second-century source is Ptolemy’s Geography, a Graeco-Roman compendium containing sailing coordinates for coastal locations. Both documents are consistent with archaeological evidence that some coastal Early Iron Age populations were engaged in trade and social relations with Mediterranean and Indian Ocean societies. The documentary record is then largely silent until the late first millennium, when Arab and other accounts begin. By the sixth to tenth centuries AD, archaeological evidence reveals a distinct coastal Swahili lifeway. Its characteristics included: (1) use of Tana Tradition or Triangular Incised Ware ceramics; (2) technologies such as iron smelting and boat construction; (3) the building of mostly rectangular earth-and-thatch houses; (4) household economy based on millet agriculture, husbandry, and fishing; (5) obtaining imported goods including glazed ceramics, glassware, metal jewelry, and stone and glass beads from the Persian Gulf and beyond; and (6) conversion to Islam from the eighth century onward. Few of these traits are exclusive to the coast but the combination emerged as characteristically coastal, and ultimately Swahili. The settlement of the coast by people with this archaeological signature marks a transition from the previous mosaic of coast and interior groups, although the early Swahili maintained many cultural practices of the pastoral and farming/fishing peoples on the coast and hinterland from whom they were derived. Nearly all known Swahili settlements were on or within 20 km of the coast. Islam grew to great importance in Swahili life. The earliest evidence to date for its practice is from the excavation of an eighth-century timber mosque at Shanga in the Lamu Archipelago. A series of mosques of increasing size and formality were subsequently superimposed. This sequence attests to contacts

between proto- or early Swahili with Muslim traders or missionaries. Earlier understandings of the formation of Swahili society presumed that Arab and Persian immigrants colonized and converted coastal people for the purpose of developing trading opportunities. However, archaeological and linguistic evidence now points convincingly to the African origins of Swahili culture, while still acknowledging that some immigration and an openness to select foreign influences was fundamental to Swahili life. By the ninth century, economic connections between Eastern Africa and the Middle East had grown in scale to include the export of thousands of slaves from the interior. The slaves were transported through coastal centers including Unguja and Pemba to destinations in modern-day Iraq where they labored on drainage projects at the head of the Gulf of Basra. In AD 868, a massive uprising, the Zanj Revolt, weakened the Caliphate based in Basra and led to a downturn in interest in slaves from Swahili sources. The revolt indicates the presence and influence of Africans in Asia at that time, but more research is needed to understand the full texture of this influence. The spiritual transformation of the Swahili coast had sweeping effects, but these were neither uniform nor rapid. Representatives of several Islamic sects gained influence in different areas. Conversion did not eliminate but rather incorporated local spiritual practices. By c. AD 1200, however, all large Swahili settlements and many smaller ones featured stonebuilt mosques as centerpieces of Islamic practice and community organization. The wealth and power of Swahili towns waxed in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, as measured by the scale and number of settlements, material culture, and expanding trade relationships to the interior and along distant Indian Ocean shores. Building in stone became the hallmark of the most elite dwellings and public and ritual structures. In the ninth century, Swahili elites adopted a method of mortared and plastered limestone construction that originated on the Red Sea shores. The resulting architecture – elaborated, multistoried, more permanent than earth and thatch – may have been critical to anchoring relationships of certain Swahili lineages with foreign traders, a practice seen ethnohistorically and which contributed to the prosperity of towns and regions at large. However, earth-and-thatch houses continued to characterize villages, and were even common within the new larger settlements marked by elite stone buildings, called ‘stonetowns’. While stone architecture became the basis of initial reconstructions of Swahili society, contemporary archaeological research is investigating the full range of Swahili houses and public buildings in town and countryside.

AMERICAS, NORTH/The Horn of Africa 21

Many Swahili settlements have been described as urban (even ‘city-states’ or ‘states’) (see Civilization and Urbanism, Rise of; Urban Archaeology) marked by complex relations between centers and their surrounding regions. These centers differed in their internal class structures and political styles. Coastal regions became more distinct from one another with localized historical trajectories. The shared visual icons of Swahili stonetowns are compelling, but should not overshadow these important differences between regions along the coast. Major stonetowns that have been investigated archaeologically include Shanga, Manda, and Gede in Kenya; Chwaka, Ras Mkumbuu, Tumbatu, and Kilwa in Tanzania; and Mahilaka in Madagascar. Certain towns created epic histories, passed down orally and ultimately formalized as written chronicles, such as those known from Pate and Kilwa. The chronicles, as well as other sources, often discuss sociopolitical relationships: the ties between Swahili and interior peoples, marriage alliances with Indian Ocean families, acts of generosity by local leaders to their populations. Life in the stonetown polities continued but with intensified farming, fishing, craft production, Islamic practice, and long-distance trade. Gold obtained from Zimbabwe Plateau (see Africa, Central: Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas) societies became a leading export from the coast, along with ivory, iron, animal products, and mangrove poles. Imports featured glazed ceramics from East, Southeast, and Southwest Asia; a range of personal items such as beads and other jewelry; cloth; and religious texts. Coins were minted in some of the largest centers. Rock crystal and other stone was worked into beads and traded, and iron and copper alloys were produced locally. From the sixteenth century onward, the effects of European and Arab colonizers became increasingly felt. The Portuguese reached the Swahili coast for the first time in 1498. Their presence in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is known from documentary sources, and architectural remains in Mombasa, Malindi, Kilwa, and on Pemba and Unguja. The construction of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1593 was the most striking presence the Portuguese achieved in this period. They were defeated there in 1697 after a long siege, ending the first phase of their colonialism on the Swahili coast. Portuguese settlement and cultural impact is not well understood at present and future study is warranted. At a regional level, their aggressive intrusions in the Indian Ocean contributed to the long-term decline of Swahili autonomy and power. Sections of the Swahili coast came under attack from Omani Arabs immediately after the Portuguese were defeated, such that from 1498 onward the Swahili

struggled against colonialist incursions of various scales and levels of success. Swahili urban and rural life prevailed, although disruptions in long-distance trade and losses of regional autonomy weakened the strength of the entire coast and its ties to the interior and the Indian Ocean. The Swahili coast was not united under a single political authority until the Omani Sultanate colonized it in the early nineteenth century. See also: Africa, Central: Zimbabwe Plateau and Surrounding Areas; Civilization and Urbanism, Rise of; Urban Archaeology.

Further Reading Allen J de V (1993) Swahili Origins. London: Heinemann. Chami FA (1994) The Coast of East Africa in the First Millennium AD: A Study of the Iron Working Farming Communities. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis. Chittick HN (1974) Kilwa: An Islamic Trading City on the East African Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Croucher S (2006) Plantations on Zanzibar: An Archaeological Approach to Complex Identities. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Manchester. Freeman-Grenville GSP (1962) The East African Coast: Select Documents from the First Century to the Early Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon. Garlake PS (1966) The Early Islamic Architecture on the East African Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Horton MC (1996) Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading Settlement on the Coast of East Africa. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa. Horton M and Middleton J (2000) The Swahili. London: Blackwell. Juma A (2004) Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar: An Archaeological Study of Early Urbanism. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis. Kusimba CM (1999) The Rise and Fall of Swahili States. Walnut Creek: AltaMira.

The Horn of Africa Rahul Oka, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA Chapurukha M Kusimba, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Early Common Era Refers to the period between 100 BC and 100 CE that witnessed a significant increase in interregional and transoceanic trade linking the Indian Ocean world, East and Central Asia, and the Mediterranean and also the rise of stable empires and states in Asia, Southern Europe, and Africa. vertical archipelago effect First described in the Andes but also in the Himalayas and Hawaii; rapidly changing elevations

22 The Horn of Africa within a relatively small lateral area causes highly variable yet circumscribed environment and leads to the development of interdependent and exchanging settlements along the vertical landscape practicing a wide variety of subsistence activities.

The Horn of Africa is a cultural area comprising the modern nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Archaeological research over the past century shows an unbroken sequence of human occupation from the Middle Stone Age to the present. It has also been blessed with a unique location: on the crossroads of Asia and Africa, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and offering easy land access between western ports on the Red Sea and the Nile River. Epigraphic evidence from Egypt identifies this region as Punt and an active trading partner of Egypt during the reign of Queen Hapshetsut. Archaeological evidence suggests that the trade links between the Horn of Africa and the Mediterranean world (Egypt) as well as Southwest Asia can be traced as far back as 2500 BC. The Horn of Africa boasts greater geographical diversity than any other area in Africa: from the baking plains along the Eritrean and Somali coasts, the largest and highest land plateau, the cooler Ethiopian highlands, the lowland tropical Nile headwaters to the north, and the arid dry lowlands to the northwestern, western, and southwestern regions along the borders with Sudan and Kenya. The wider range of geographic and hence climatic variability creates a ‘vertical archipelago’ effect allowing for a larger variety of sustainable resources and related subsistence activities, and the contemporaneous development of a regional exchange network between settlements. The Somali Coast (that includes the actual ‘horn’ or the jutting coastal plain along the Gulf of Aden and the northwestern Indian Ocean), the Eritrean (and Djiboutian) Coast along the Western Red Sea, and the Ethiopian highlands have thus been interconnected from earliest times and this regional exchange has played a great role in the development of social complexity in the Horn from 800 BC onward. The Horn of Africa is also the region of many ‘firsts’ and ‘onlys’. Important food crops such as teff, ensete, finger millet, nug, and coffee were first domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands and this is the only region in sub-Saharan Africa to use domesticated cattle and the plow for agricultural purposes. ‘Geez’ is one of the three indigenous writing systems in Africa and was developed during the development of the Aksumite polity. This region is also home to a two millennia long development of incipient state formation in sub-Saharan Africa: from Aksum (also

called Axum) (second century BC to ninth century CE), Zagwe (tenth century to fourteenth century CE), Solomonid (fourteenth century to seventeenth century), and Amharic Gondar (seventeenth century to twentieth century). The monarchs of these polities have practiced and hailed themselves as the ‘protectors’ of Christianity from the conversion of King Ezana of Aksum in CE 330, to the Amhara kings of the twentieth century, making the Ethiopian highlands the longest-lived Christian-ruled area in the world. Consequently, much focus of historical research has been on this indigenous adoption of and syncretic processes affecting Christianity, regarding the aforementioned highland states as islands of Christianity pitted against indigenous religions and later against Islamic incursions from the coasts. This paradigm is now being challenged as the positive contributions of traditional African religions and Islam are being acknowledged, as are the impacts of nonChristian peoples of the Horn, including the Somali, the Oromo (formerly called the Galla), the Afar, and the Saho. Recent historical and archaeological work on the antiquity and spread of Islam has underscored the role played by Asian and African Islamic traders and settlers in Red Sea ports, including Adulis, Massawa, the Dahlak Islands on the Eritrean Coast, and Berbera, Zeila, Ras Hafun, and Mogadishu on the Somali Coast. The Dahlak Islands, Adulis, Berbera, and Ras Hafun have been active since the Early Common Era and played a significant role in the rise of Aksum and the latter highland polities. Trade goods recovered in both the coastal ports as well as Aksum (and subsequent states) include products from South Asia (glass beads, coins, cloth), Rome (ceramics, amphorae), Egypt, and even China (iron, porcelains, silk). In return, the highland and coastal ports provided infrastructure for secondary production and regional and transoceanic trade in food grains, animal products such as elephant and hippopotamus tusk ivory (raw, cut, and carved), skins and hides, precious stones, rock crystals, gold, slaves, beeswax, and gum Arabic. Emergent trends and future directions of archaeological research seem to favor this regional approach for understanding social complexity. The rest of this essay will summarize the recent archaeological–historical work along the three zones of the Horn of Africa: (1) the Northern Coast along the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (Eritrean, Djiboutian, and northern Somali Coasts); (2) the Southeastern Somali Coast, also known as the Benadir Coast (along the northwestern Indian Ocean); and (3) the Eritrean– Ethiopian highlands. The bulk of archaeological work in the Horn has concentrated on the highlands but

The Horn of Africa 23

there have been a few projects working on the coasts, tied into the larger coastal archaeological projects further south along the East African coast.

Northern Coast The northern coast of the Horn of Africa is characterized by the ports of Adulis, Massawa, Saad-Din, Berbera and Zeila, as well as the Dahlak Islands off the coast of Eritrea. Excavations at these sites have also underscored the importance of the northern coast as the forum for contacts with Southern Arabia as far back as the second millennium BC. Analysis of similarities in material culture as well as evidence on constant interaction suggests an interdependent development of complexity on both sides of the Red Sea, especially in the pre-Aksumite period. The ports of Adulis and Massawa were significant for the external connections of the emerging Aksum polity during the Early Common Era and show evidence of Aksumite and southern Arabian interactions and trade. Artifacts recovered include gold, ivory, and a human skeleton in chains or manacles suggesting the existence of slave trade. The Dahlak Islands were sources of tortoiseshell and ambergris, but also were known pirate bases and hence played an important role in controlling the Red Sea trade until their conquest in the tenth century CE. The ports of Zeila and Saad-Din show intensive merging of agricultural and pastoral activities by providing specialized infrastructure for pastoral exchange and trade as well as being important centers of transoceanic trade. The north coast was regarded as part of the territory controlled by the given highland polity. However, regardless of hinterland influence, these ports were probably semi-autonomous. From the eighth century, Islam started to spread across the Horn but found its strength in the coastal ports of the northern coast. The aforementioned ports as well as new ports such as Aydhab and Suakin (further north) were part of coastal Islamic polities of Shewa, Falasha, Gojjam, and Damot (late ninth century and tenth century) and Ifat (Yifat) (eleventh century CE) are usually seen as engaging in conflict with the highland Christian polities of Zagwe. It is clear from recent analysis that the religious conflict did not significantly affect the trading relationships as the highland states continued to use the aforementioned ports for their commercial and diplomatic activities. Trade continued even during the conflicts between the Ethiopian polity and the emergent Islamic states of Adal and Harar between and through the fourteenth century to sixteenth century CE. The territorial conquest of most of the Horn by Imam Ahmad bin Ibrahim al-Ghazi or Ahmad Gran˜ of Harar between

CE 1529 and 1543 was brought to an end by the arrival and action of the Portuguese acting as coreligionist partners of the Ethiopian state of Gondar. Though the late first and early second millennium periods have undergone historiographic scrutiny, largely through the lens of the Christianity versus Islam conflict, this and the subsequent periods have not been subjected to significant archaeological research, especially in the hinterland.

Benadir Coast Archaeology of the Benadir zone has also been confined to the coastal area and to the large ports. The bulk of this research has concentrated on Ras Hafun and Mogadishu. Presence of South Asian, ‘Mesopotamian’, Roman, Early Sassanian, and Egyptian ceramics suggests that Ras Hafun was active in the Early Common Era trade. However, the main trading port on the Benadir Coast was the city of Mogadishu and the articulated settlements of Brawa, Merca, Warsheikh, and Kismayo. While most of the other ports on the Somali coast have declined, the Mogadishu port cluster is still active and formed the basis for ongoing trade between the hinterland and coast of southern Somalia from the seventeenth century to the present. Unlike the northern coast, there was no hinterland polity associated with the ports on the Benadir coast until the sixteenth century CE. Analysis of imported Persian, Indian, Egyptian, and Chinese trade wares in these ports suggests that Mogadishu, Brawa, and Merca arose between the ninth and tenth centuries within a similar context as the ports further south along the Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Mozambique coasts: The coastal settlements were articulated with hinterland agricultural and pastoral groups. The ports provided forums for exchange of hinterland and overseas products. The elites of Mogadishu and other ports were linked through kinship, blood-brotherhood, and marital alliances with hinterland pastoral and agricultural groups and depended on these for protection. It is not inconceivable that the trade boom and demand for African products c. CE 1500 led to the rise of the Islamic Ajurann Confederacy (CE 1500–1700) and state development among the Somali in the Benadir hinterland. This period is also known for major demographic movements in the Benadir hinterland, including the migration of the Oromo pastoralists and their wars with the Somali to the northeast and the Amhara to the north in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, leading to their southerly migration over the next two centuries. Not only did these migrations precipitate political changes in the Horn of Africa but also central and eastern Africa.

24 The Horn of Africa

Ethiopian–Eritrean Highlands

Summary

The bulk of archaeological excavations in the Horn has focused on the highlands, where the ‘firsts’ and the ‘onlys’ are concentrated, particularly on the site of Aksum–Tigray in the northern Ethiopian–Eritrean highlands. Though the early and mid-twentieth century efforts focused on the stelae, monumental architecture, artwork, and epigraphic research to reconstruct the development of the Aksumite state from the Early Common Era to its demise in the late first millennium CE, recent work has focused on tracing the beginnings of pre-Aksumite settlement. The early development of complexity in the Ethiopian highlands has now been tentatively traced to the early first millennium BC and interactions with the Hadramaut and Southwestern coast of Arabia have now been traced to the second millennium BC. Archaeo-botanical and zoological approaches have also moved away from mere establishment of antiquity to understanding the regional and evolutionary context of plant and animal domestication in the Horn of Africa. In particular, recent work in South Asia dates the African domesticates to 2000 BC. Not only does this suggest the deep antiquity of interconnections between the Horn of Africa and Asia but also the larger transregional context of domestication involving transfer of ideas, products, and technology. Current reconstructions of the demise of Aksum vary from blaming the declining climate conditions from the mid–late first millennium CE to the emergence of Islamic power along the northern coast from the late eighth century, concentrated in the ports of Massawa, Adulis, the Dahlak Islands, and Zeila. The latter argument has also been made for the fall of the subsequent polities of Zagwe, the Solomonids, and Gondar. However, it is clear that there are multiple and path-dependent causes for the decline of the highland polities and these need to be explored further in a regional context. Recent archaeological and historiographic approaches have aimed at understanding the post-Aksum polities beyond just establishing king-lists and reigning periods. The difficulty presented to researchers interested in the latter settlement and political history of the highlands is the shift in settlement organization and political infrastructure. Whether in response to conflicts with Islamic polities such as Adal and Harar and/or pastoral groups such as the Somali and the Oromo, climate, and environmental changes, the elites of Zagwe, Gondar, and the Amhara moved their capitals periodically, making their archaeological signatures ephemeral and difficult to locate.

Apart from being the home of many ‘firsts’ and ‘onlys’ in Africa, the Horn of Africa has also played an important role in the development of global, commercial, and religious processes over the last two millennia. Due to the problems in navigability of the Red Sea north of Aydhab and Suakin, traders seeking routes to the Mediterranean had two choices: make port at Mocha or Jeddah and take the overland routes up the western coast of Arabia or make port at the Eritrean ports and take the shorter overland route to the Nile and sail up the Nile to Alexandria and Aleppo. The continuity of ports and the overland routes in the Horn attest to the significance of the second passage for Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trade. Though the religious conflict in the Horn is far more complex than a simple picture of isolated Christian highland versus the traditional hinterlands, the Islamic lowlands, and/or the coast, it is also true that these divisions played a role in the generation of larger conflicts such as the jihad of Imam Ahmad Gran˜ and the Portuguese involvement, as well as the major Oromo and Somali migrations. It could also be argued that the nineteenth-century Mahdist revolt in Sudan was linked to similar and concurrent processes in the Horn of Africa. Current sociopolitical situations are not conducive to archaeological research, especially along the coasts and immediate hinterlands of Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Even so, future projects (especially those focused on regional approaches and on late first and second millennium developments) will prove immensely significant in understanding the role played by the Horn in the development of African and global modernity. See also: Africa, East: Ethiopia and Eritrea; Foragers; Madagascar and Surrounding Islands; Swahili Coast; Africa, North: Nubia; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Ahmed HS (1996) Exchange, Trade, and the Development of Urbanism in Somalia. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International. Fattovich R (1990) Remarks on the pre-Aksumite period in northern Ethiopia. Journal of Ethiopian Studies 23: 1–33. Insoll T (2003) The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jama AD (1996) The Origins and Development of Mogadishu AD 1000 to 1850: A Study of the Urban Growth along the Benadir Coast of Southern Somalia. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University.

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 25 Kapteijns L (2000) Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. In: Levitzion N and Pouwels R (eds.) The History of Islam in Africa, pp. 227–250. Oxford: James Currey. Munro-Hay S (1991) Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press. Pankhurst R (1998) The Ethiopians. Oxford: Blackwell. Phillipson D (1998) Ancient Ethiopia. London: The British Museum.

Schmidt P (2006) Historical Archaeology in Africa. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press. Tamrat T (1990) The Horn of Africa: The Solomonids in Ethiopia and the states of the Horn of Africa. In: Ki-Zerbo K and Niane DT (eds.) General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century, pp. 169–180. Berkeley, CA: James Currey; Paris: UNESCO.

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY Paul J Lane, University of York, York, UK

Introduction

ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Historical archaeology first emerged as a distinct subfield of the broader discipline in North America during the mid-twentieth century. However, many of the definitions and approaches that now dominate the field are not entirely suited to the African continent. This is partly because in many areas, especially away from the coastal zones, the temporal depth of documentary sources is fairly limited, and a European presence in these areas only dates from the nineteenth century. A key feature of historical archaeology, regardless of which definition is preferred, is that it seeks to integrate and interrogate both strictly archaeological types of sources (such as artifactual, ecofactual, structural, and architectural remains and their contextual, spatial, and temporal associations and characteristics), with other nonarchaeological sources that can be broadly defined as ‘historical’. In this respect, a useful distinction can be made between ‘external’ and ‘internal’ sources. By the former is meant sources produced by outsiders, either as direct observers, or as often in African contexts, transcribers and copiers of verbal accounts provided by others. Thus, examples might include the large number of published first-hand accounts of voyages of discovery and exploration in Africa by different individuals of European origin that begin to appear from c. CE 1500 onward, and especially after 1800; the numerous official documents produced by the different European colonial powers that are now lodged in archives in Africa, Europe, and elsewhere; the records kept by different trading companies, ship captains, and others engaged in commercial activity; personal diaries and letters written by European missionaries, explorers and administrators; and also the various pre-1500 CE descriptions and guides to parts of Africa written in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Chinese. By internal sources is meant the range of historical sources produced by, in this case, different African

Glossary Atlantic slave trade The sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and around the Atlantic ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa, to the New World. colonialism A practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. contract archaeology Archaeological work carried out on behalf of, and paid by, a commercial firm or public body in advance of land development that has the potential to impact on archaeological remains. emporium A trading center. entrepoˆt A port through which exports and imports pass, and thus links a coastal zone with its hinterland. genealogical reckoning A way of establishing a chronology based on the history of the descent of families and which typically assumes that each generation represents between twenty to thirty years, hence, for instance a family tree that names six generations could cover between 120 and 180 years of history. hieroglyphic symbols Hieroglyphic symbols are a form of writing which uses little pictures to represent actions or things. historical archaeology Historical archaeology is a branch of archaeology that concerns itself with ‘historical’ societies, that is, those that had systems of writing. Holocene An epoch of geological time that began 10 000 years ago and is the second and current epoch of the Quaternary period. littoral The stretch of land adjacent to a coast, in other words, a coastal belt. metaphor An implied comparison, normally expressed as a figure of speech, between two things that are not normally treated as if they have anything in common; an extension of this process can lead to the development of a symbol, whereby the comparison is no longer implied and the second term comes to stand for the first, as in a cross being a symbol of Christianity. slavery a social-economic system under which certain persons – known as slaves – are deprived of their personal freedom and compelled to provide their labor or services. writing system A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.

26 AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

societies. Most obviously, these include the oral traditions and histories, myths, and personal memories that have been transcribed by professional historians and anthropologists. However, there also exist various texts written in the local vernacular for certain parts of the continent, as well as some indigenous writing systems, notably the Vai script developed in what is now Liberia, the Nsibidi script found in Cross River State, Nigeria, and the Barnum hieroglyphs that occur in Cameroon. Just as archaeological sources are subject to a wide range of processes that can affect their formal, spatial, biochemical, and contextual characteristics which may influence the integrity of the scientific information they carry, so too can oral, textual, and documentary sources be subject to a wide range of factors that may introduce different kinds of bias and selectivity (see Historical Archaeology: Methods). For the African continent, both the specific and general value of oral traditions as reliable sources of historical information have been discussed at some length and various methods of source criticism devised. There is also widespread recognition of the need for detailed source criticism when handling documentary and archival sources. In terms of the latter, racial bias is obviously one factor, but many others also came into play. Equally, European perceptions of and attitudes to Africans were by no means uniform, varying between individuals, different nationalities, and different kinds of sources.

Attempts to Verify Classical Texts In common with other parts of the world, much of what might be considered historical archaeology on the African continent has been concerned with the verification of various written historical sources, especially those concerning the pre-modern era. Outside of Egypt and Nubia, where texts written using the hieroglyphic script first emerged in an archaic form perhaps as early as 3400–3200 BCE, the main areas where this has been attempted are Libya and adjacent parts of North Africa, the East African Swahili coast, and Sudanic West Africa. In the former two areas, the primary relevant texts are those written by Greek and Roman authors (although for more recent centuries, Arabic sources are also of value), while for West Africa, the earliest documentary sources derive from the writings of Arabic scholars such as Ibn Batuta and Al Bekri. In all three areas, scholars have tended to give primacy, until recently, to the available written sources, with the result that certain misrepresentations and distortions within these texts assumed the status of historical fact (see Writing Systems). Perhaps the best-known example of this concerns the use by successive generations of archaeologists of

the text known as The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, which probably dates to around CE 40. The Periplus includes a description of a sea voyage along the East African coast from a trading emporium known as Opone just south of the Somali Peninsula, to the ancient town of Rhapta, as well as details of some of the products exported from Africa, that included ivory, ambergris, and slaves. As these were mostly nondurable raw materials for which evidence is unlikely to be preserved in archaeological contexts except under special circumstances, the text provides valuable information about the trade. Understandably, it has been used from an early stage in research on the Swahili coast to supplement the evidence gleaned from archaeology of the wide range of durable products that were being imported. The Periplus contains much less information about the societies that occupied the East African coast, apart from descriptions of various landmarks and other ports that lay along this route. Some of the topographic features of the coast, such as the Lamu archipelago and Mount Kilimanjaro, are readily identifiable from the descriptions, and using these in conjunction with the sailing directions that are also provided, scholars have sought to link some of the known archaeological sites with the various ports and settlements named in the Periplus and the other important early text, Claudius Ptolemy’s Geography (c. CE 150). Few if any of these, including Rhapta, however, have been identified unambiguously. Moreover, the two texts provide conflicting information about the geographical location of several of the places named, making it especially difficult to derive an accurate topography of the East African littoral during the late first millennium BCE to early first millennium CE from these sources alone. Thus, for instance, Pemba or Zanzibar would be the best estimates for the location of the island of Menouthias based on the information given in the Periplus, whereas the coordinates given in the Geography would place this island much further south in the vicinity of Madagascar. This discrepancy, in turn, has a bearing on the possible location of Rhapta. From the description provided in the Periplus, Rhapta lay about 88 miles to the south of Menouthias, which would place it near Bagamoyo or Dar es Salaam in modern Tanzania. Whereas, in the Geography, Rhapta is said to lie far to the north of Menouthias situated on a small island set in a river, which could be a reference to the Lamu archipelago close to the modern border between Kenya and Somalia. In view of such problems, scholars no longer regard the Periplus and Ptolemy’s Geography as detailed guides to site locations, but instead as valuable, but ambiguous, testimony to the existence of long-distance trading links between East Africa and the Mediterranean world in the first few centuries of the Christian Era.

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 27

Uses of Oral History in African Archaeology One aspect of historical archaeology in sub-Saharan Africa that distinguishes it from comparable work in many other parts of the world, particularly North America and Europe, is the greater integration of oral histories. This is partly because the growth of scholarly study of the oral history and traditions of African societies coincided with a rise in interest in the later Holocene archaeology of the continent, and especially that concerning the origins and spread of food production, metal-working, urbanism, and complex political systems. As part of this intellectual trend, the use of such traditions became a common component of most archaeological surveys, principally as a means of providing an overview of the more recent history of the area under investigation. Moreover, a particular characteristic of a great many oral traditions concerning different African societies is the emphasis placed on migration as the primary driving force of social change. The first generation of Africa’s historians to be trained in the Western academic tradition were thus often keen to see their archaeological counterparts provide material verification that the routes and stopping places described in the oral accounts, were indeed associated with the settlement histories of specific ethnic groups. It is rare however, to find unequivocal confirmation of this kind in the archaeological record, and attempts to link the various oral traditions with specific archaeological sites commonly encounter several difficulties. One region where archaeological investigations were initially guided by oral histories but subsequently generated a complete rethinking of the historical and metaphorical significance of these is the Great Lakes area of East Africa. Here, several important archaeological sites have long been associated in oral traditions with an elite known as the Bacwezi. According to at least one set of traditions, the Bacwezi had been the historical rulers of a large region centered in the lush grasslands of western Uganda, which, by calculating from genealogical data, would appear to have existed sometime during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries CE. A number of extensive complexes of ditched earthworks, including the sites of Bigo, Munsa, Kibengo, and Kasonko, are known from this area. During the 1950s and the 1960s, various archaeological campaigns were undertaken at some of these in an attempt to provide a clearer understanding of their date and function, and their link with the Bacwezi dynasty. The discovery at Bigo of an enclosure similar in form to that found at some of the later royal capitals in Uganda, and a suite of radiocarbon dates from the

site suggesting occupation between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries CE, led to the conclusion that Bigo was indeed the capital of the pastoral Bacwezi kingdom, and that the other sites were part of the same political system. Reappraisals of these investigations, however, have called into question many of historical interpretations that were used to guide the archaeological excavations, and highlighted some of the more general problems associated with trying to substantiate oral traditions archaeologically. Moreover, the results of more recent field investigations at Munsa and Kibengo indicate that despite some superficial similarities these not only differ from one another but also from Bigo, in terms of their site inventories and material culture traditions. Thus, rather than belonging to a single state, each of these sites probably represents the center of an independent polity that was in competition with its neighbors over resources and control of the local populace. Other scholars have argued that the Bacwezi ‘myth’ must be seen as a symbolically loaded, metaphorical account of trends in the region’s history and changing power relations, rather than as a literal description of actual historical events and relationships. In the Kagera region of northwest Tanzania, for instance, oral traditions link the more recent, immigrant Bahinda ruling dynasty with the Bacwezi, and indicate that the power and authority of the Bahinda clans was generally associated with control over ironworking, rainmaking, and fertility rites. However, genealogical reckoning places the period of Bacwezi rule up to 20–25 generations ago and thus significantly earlier than has been estimated from the Ugandan traditions. Moreover, excavations at Katuruka, the former capital of Rugamore Mahe, one of the Bahinda rulers of the Kiamutwara kingdom during the seventeenth century CE, led to the discovery of iron smelting remains associated with the very beginnings of settled farming in the region and dating to around 500 BCE. Although similar remains of early farming and iron smelting communities were found at many of the other ritually important places within the historical topology of the Bahinda landscape, in other respects there was a lack of direct settlement continuity as evidenced by typological differences between the early farming (or Early Iron Age) ceramics and those associated with the second millennium CE kingdoms. On the basis of this, it has been suggested that whereas the Bacwezi may have been indigenous rulers of smallscale polities during the first millennium CE or possibly earlier, later leaders, unconnected with Bacwezi, subsequently manipulated traditions and appropriated the archaeological remains of the Bacwezi’s evident iron smelting abilities to legitimize their own assumption to power.

28 AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Africa, Europe, and the Age of Exploration Direct and indirect trading contacts between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have been in existence since at least the first few centuries CE. However, European contacts only intensified from the early part of the fifteenth century. Under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460), various Portuguese-led voyages of exploration to the West African coast took place during the 1430s to 1480s, and in 1487–88, Bartolomeau Dias’ vessel arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, staying there briefly before returning to Lisbon. He was followed a decade later by Vasco de Gama, whose fleet of three ships rounded the Cape in 1497, and moved north along the East African seaboard over the coming months, stopping at Mombasa and Malindi, before setting sail across the Indian Ocean. By c. 1530 there were Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch outposts on the Gold Coast, and by 1652 a Dutch colony at the Cape, by which time Danish and Swedish traders were also active along the West African seaboard. Initially, access to Guinea gold was the main objective behind Portuguese activity along the West African coast and this lead rapidly to the establishment of a fortified settlement on the coast of what is now Ghana in 1482, close to a preexisting Akan settlement. Known initially as Castle Sa˜o Jorge da Mina, the fortress and trading post that grew up around it eventually came to be called Elmina (i.e., ‘the mine’, after its proximity to the gold mines inland). It was the first and largest European trading post to be built in the region. It was captured by the Dutch in 1637, and later ceded to the British in 1872, only to be destroyed the following year by a British military force following a dispute with the local inhabitants over its control. The settlement was then abandoned. There is extensive documentation, in a variety of forms, including maps and illustrations as well as written accounts and archival sources, concerning Elmina. These indicate that over time the population of Elmina became increasingly heterogeneous, as Dyula and Mande traders from further north, along with members of different ethnic groups in Elmina’s hinterland, were drawn to the settlement adding to the indigenous Akan population. At times there was also a sizable slave population, drawn from throughout the region, as well as a range of Europeans of different nationalities and a growing mulatto community. As well as attempting to define the spatial extent and the settlement and architectural history of Elmina, archaeological research at the site has focused on tracing the evidence for cultural change and continuity. Somewhat surprisingly, given the economic importance of Elmina, its role as a

trading entrepoˆt and the increasingly diverse origins of its population, local cultural traditions appear to have been more resilient than might have been expected. Ancestral rituals, the use of space in houses, domestic building technologies, and local foodways, all exhibit considerable continuity over almost 400 years of occupation. This is not to deny change – at the time of its destruction, Elmina was a far more urban, cosmopolitan place linked to the wider world through trade and international politics, and home to new social classes of Africans, than had been the case when the Portuguese arrived. The detailed analyses of artifact and building traditions, burial practices and related evidence, nevertheless, do caution against the simple assumption that significant material culture change, and especially the increased presence of goods of foreign manufacture, necessarily equates with culture change.

The Impacts of Slavery While there is evidence, such as documented at Elmina, that many African societies and cultures were quite resilient in the face of increasing contact with Europeans, the incorporation of these societies into the Atlantic world system that this brought about did have profound changes. In West Africa, one of the main effects was a change in the orientation of trade routes from the older north–south, trans-Saharan axis to an east–west one with a coastal focus. The transSaharan routes had operated for centuries, and were under direct or indirect control of the Islamic empires of North Africa, and, the steady redirection of trade away from these areas had economic consequences there as well. European demands for raw materials and local produce also encouraged intensification of trading and a consequent commodification of local West African economies. These developments, coupled with an increased importation of firearms stimulated changes in the nature of local political systems. These included the establishment of more centralized kingdoms, such as those of Dahomey and Ashante. Gold was rapidly replaced as the main commodity by slaves – it is estimated that at least 11 million Africans were exported from the continent during the Atlantic slave trade until its abolition, and some scholars put the figures even higher (see Enslavement, Archaeology of). In contrast to the amount of historical research on the Atlantic slave trade, the ‘historical archaeology’ of slavery across the continent has only recently begun to be addressed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the low status of slaves and circumstances behind their presence at a site, archaeological investigations at most of the European trading posts on the West

AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 29

African coast have typically produced only ephemeral material traces of the trade. At Elmina, the most systematically investigated of all such trading posts, and despite considerable documentary evidence concerning Elmina’s position within the system and over 100 000 artifacts recovered from the excavations, the material testimony of slavery amounts to little more than a few items. The excavation of a slave lodge at the early eighteenth century site of Vergelegen, built as the residence for the governor of Cape Town, South Africa, similarly failed to produce much in the way of material evidence that could be linked to the lives of those who had occupied the lodge, other than the burial of a middle-aged slave woman. Although ongoing research at slave collection points such as Gore´e Island, Senegal, is beginning to recover a wider range of material items, it is possible that the main material culture legacy of Africa’s slaves may reside more in the stylistic traditions that developed in the New World, than in actual artifacts recovered from the different places of collection and embarkation on the African coast. Archaeological studies of sixteenth to eighteenth century CE sites in the interior, on the other hand, frequently offer more concrete evidence for the impacts of slavery on local communities. In parts of Togo, for instance, the increased availability of iron products of European manufacture helped precipitate a decline in what had previously been a flourishing and specialized iron-smelting industry practiced on a large scale. Detailed investigations of the shifting trends in material culture production and consumption in the vicinity of Begho and Banda, west-central Ghana, provide some of the clearest indications of the long-term consequences of the growth of trade and West Africa’s incorporation into the Atlantic world system, and its impact on local material culture traditions. Comparisons between sites and stratigraphic levels that date to the periods before the arrival of Europeans, the initial century of contact (albeit indirect), and subsequent centuries have shown that several significant changes took place. At sites such as Namasa, Begho, Nyarko, and Kuulo Kataa, founded (and in some cases also abandoned) prior to the Portuguese arrival at Elmina, differentiated craft production in iron, pottery, and textiles appears to have developed but was not uniformly distributed between different villages. This uneven distribution was offset by regular exchange of local products between villages, and settlements were linked into the trans-Saharan trade networks. By CE 1590, the cultivation of maize and tobacco, both New World crops, had been incorporated into local farming practices, and stimulated the creation of a new class of locally produced ceramic artifact in the form of clay smoking pipes. At this stage, these exhibit

considerable stylistic diversity, and they may well have served as emblems of certain social distinctions. Localized specialization in textile manufacture was beginning to break down, however, with more households engaging in the craft. Imported glass beads had also become more widely available. By the end of the eighteenth century, industrially produced beads and textiles, with highly standardized forms were steadily replacing their local equivalents, and by the end of the nineteenth century the earlier, stylistically diverse tobacco pipes had been replaced by highly uniform imported clay pipes of European manufacture. New aesthetics of taste also emerged, although in many cases they involved a reworking of older practices.

Archaeology of Colonialism Another strand of historical archaeology in Africa encompasses the issues of ‘colonialism’. This has mostly been approached from the perspective of European expansion, especially in South Africa. This is partly due to the greater numbers of trained archaeologists there, who tend to be better resourced than many of their counterparts elsewhere on the continent (outside of North Africa), and the longer established tradition of contract archaeology which, especially in urban areas, provided an important stimulus to the growth of historical archaeology. It is also because compared with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has a much longer history of European colonialism, commencing with the establishment of a staging-post in Table Bay by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) under Commander Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. Consequently, not only have more traces of colonialism survived, but also there has been a much longer history of transformation of relations between colonial powers and indigenous inhabitants. Since at least the 1970s, the archaeological traces of Dutch, British, and Afrikaaner colonialism have been the subject of increasingly intensive study from a variety of perspectives. The body of material on the historical archaeology of South Africa and the broader region, consequently, is significantly larger than for elsewhere. Subthemes that have been addressed within the region include the archaeology of impact, the creation of distinctive colonial architectural styles, Christian missions, military encounters, industrialization, and class distinctions. Whereas much early work focused on documenting the archaeological remains of the colonizing powers, more recently, attention has been given to documenting the archaeology of the colonized, and the various ways in which African societies resisted or tried to lessen the impacts of colonial rule. Excavations at Oudepost I, a small VOC outpost situated c. 120 km north of Cape Town on the edge of

30 AFRICA, HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape, for instance, were explicitly designed to measure the degree of impact on local societies on the frontier of the Dutch colony and the variable nature of interaction between colonized and colonizer. The site was occupied from 1669 to 1723, and structural remains comprised a small, irregularly shaped stone fort, a two-roomed rectangular building that probably served as the main dwelling for the fort’s garrison, and a small rectangular structure of indeterminate function, all built of stone. The excavated remains provide insights into the conditions in such outposts, and the diets and material possessions of the soldiers. The composition of the artifact and faunal assemblages and their spatial patterning also raised issues concerning the nature of the interactions between the occupants of the fort and local indigenous populations, and the identity of those indigenes. The high percentage of wild fauna represented in the assemblage, despite the availability of livestock from colonial centers further south, for instance, led the excavators to challenge the archival evidence and suggest that over time the occupants of Oudepost would have had a significant impact on the wild food base of the surrounding indigenous Khoikhoi population. Although Khoikhoi were principally pastoralists, the material culture recovered from the site was more similar to that found on pre-contact Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer sites in the region. To the excavators, this further suggested that the colonial presence ultimately undermined the subsistence strategies of local stock-keeping communities, who had always relied on hunting to supplement their diet especially during droughts and other periods of climatic stress, forcing them to abandon herding and into bondage on white settlements and farms. Comparable studies have demonstrated that the impacts of colonialism were sometimes more muted and that new forms of practice often emerged within African societies that helped to subvert colonial ideologies. There is also evidence to suggest that older material practices often proved more resistant than is implied by the available documentary sources. A good example of the latter is provided by recent work on the nineteenth century Tswana towns of Phalatswe and Ntsweng in Botswana. Specifically, despite the existence of documentary and pictorial sources which would seem to imply widespread changes in daily practice as a consequence of Protestant evangelism, it is evident from the material remains of houses, pots, metal tools, and other items, that at least in these contexts members of the local Tswana polities retained a degree of control over their material world, and were able to accommodate the new religion and direct it toward achieving their own political goals.

Conclusion Historical archaeology as practiced on the African continent is a diverse and varied subfield of the broader discipline. Whereas some favor an emphasis on the integration of oral histories and testimonies with material remains, on the grounds that the former are more authentically indigenous than written texts, others consider that the focus of historical archaeology should be on the consequences of European contact and subsequent colonialism. Between these two poles, there are many other approaches that place greater value on the interpretive possibilities offered by the existence of multiple sources of information about the past for any period, rather than on placing limits on the temporal or conceptual boundaries of the subfield. Others still have observed that the concept of historical archaeology is not only redundant, since all archaeology should be concerned with addressing historical questions, but also serves to reinforce an artificial divide, and the prejudicial baggage that comes with such a distinction, between history and prehistory, which much archaeological practice on the continent seeks to counteract. Rhetoric aside, and whether one uses the appellation ‘historical archaeology’ or not to describe the kind of studies outlined above, two things are abundantly clear. First, recovery and analysis of the archaeological traces of the last 500 years of human activity on the African continent has the potential to provide novel insights into the histories of the continent’s diverse populations, while simultaneously providing an important testament to their successes and failures, their struggles for equity and recognition, and the ways in which they gave meaning to their lives. Some of these insights could perhaps have been gleaned from careful reading of other historical sources, but most could only have been exposed by sustained archaeological research. Without a concept such as ‘historical archaeology’, however defined, to inspire and guide this research it is questionable whether archaeologists would have devoted, and continue to devote, as much attention to these time periods as they clearly deserve. Second, whether investigating the archaeology of the last 500 years or that of earlier time periods, the interpretation of archaeological remains is always enriched when alternative sources are available to interrogate. The challenges archaeologists face are first, how to develop methodologies and theoretical frameworks that are appropriate to each of these different classes of historical information, and second, how to maintain a critical and questioning perspective so as avoid taking too much of that evidence for granted. Many of the studies outlined above indicate how archaeologists have attempted

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to do this, and whether these approaches have stood the test of time or have now been superseded. Whether one considers these types of study as exemplars of historical archaeology, or not, they have clearly made significant contributions to our understanding of the substantive history of different parts of the continent. See also: Africa, West: Villages, Cities, and States; Enslavement, Archaeology of; Historical Archaeology: Methods; Writing Systems.

Further Reading Boone J, Myers E, and Redman C (1990) Archaeological and historical approaches to complex societies: The Islamic states of medieval Morocco. American Anthropologist 92: 630–646.

DeCorse CR (2001) An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Washington: Smithsonian Press. DeCorse CR (ed.) (2001) West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Leicester: Leicester University Press. Edwards DN (2004) The potential for historical archaeology in the Sudan. Azania 39: 13–33. Hall M (1993) The archaeology of colonial settlement in southern Africa. Annual Reviews in Anthropology 22: 177–200. Pikirayi I (1993) Acta Arkeologica Upsaliensis, Studies in African Archaeology 6: An Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State: Towards an Historical Archaeology of Northern Zimbabwe. Uppsala. Reid DAM and Lane PJ (eds.) (2004) African Historical Archaeologies. London: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Schmidt PR (2006) Historical Archaeology in Africa. London: Altamira Press. Stahl AB (2001) Making History in Banda: Anthropological Vision’s of Africa’s Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wessler K (ed.) (1998) Historical Archaeology in Nigeria. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

AFRICA, NORTH Contents Egypt, Pharaonic Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic Nubia Sahara, Eastern Sahara, West and Central

Egypt, Pharaonic Thomas Hikade, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Book of the Dead Funerary texts on papyrus or sometimes amulets that were usually placed inside the coffin. The collection of some 200 spells was derived from the earlier Pyramid and Coffin Texts. Called ‘spell for coming forth by day’ by the ancient Egyptians. cartonnage Material made of linen or papyrus mixed with plaster. Cartonnage was most commonly used for mummy masks, coffins, and other funerary equipment. The earliest catonnage mummy masks date to the First Intermediate Period. Coffin Texts Collection of funerary texts written on coffins and introduced during the First Intermediate Period. More than 1000 spells should guarantee survival in the afterlife. Maat Egyptian goddess symbolizing order or connective justice. She is shown as a seated woman with an ostrich feather on her head.

nome Greek term used for Egyptian provinces. Lower Egypt consisted of twenty nomes and Upper Egypt of twenty-two. nomarch Provincial governor of a nome with increasing power and influence from the end of the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom. Pyramid Texts Earliest Egyptian funerary texts that could be found in some royal pyramid chambers and corridors from the Fifth to the Eighth Dynasty. Some scholars have argued that the spells were a description of rituals during the funeral of the king. serdab Arabic word for cellar. It was a chamber inside an Old Kingdom private mastaba-tomb that housed a statue or statues of the deceased but could also be found in the royal mortuary complex of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty. vizier Highest official in the Egyptian administration after the king. The office is first attested in the Second Dynasty.

Introduction In 1798 when Napoleon’s troops landed in Egypt they were accompanied by 167 scientists whose task was to document not only the geography, flora, and fauna of modern-day Egypt but also the remains of Ancient Egypt. With the publication of the

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De´scription de l’E´gypte almost 20 years later, the foundation stone for Egyptology was laid. The expedition by the German Egyptologist Richard Lepsius in 1842–46 to Egypt and Nubia yielded further knowledge about Ancient Egypt. During the first half of the nineteenth century, however, field work in Egypt was still primarily the search for curiosities and treasures and lacked scientific method. It was not until 1881 when W. M. F. Petrie set out to survey the Great Pyramids at Giza and subsequently excavated dozens of sites throughout Egypt with a clear concept and methodology of excavating that Egyptian archaeology truly began. It is the connection of archaeological material and the evidence from thousands of inscribed objects from Ancient Egypt that makes modern Egyptology such an intriguing subject. Today there are more than 300 foreign missions working in Egypt and many countries even have their own national research centers and institutions in Cairo. Early excavation work often concentrated on cemeteries that were easily accessible as they were often situated in the dry sand of the lower desert or cut into the limestone cliffs along the Nile Valley. Thus, Egyptian archaeology is best known from its burials. Yet, in the last decades more and more settlement archaeology has taken place and our knowledge of the daily lives of Ancient Egyptians has been improved widely.

Old Kingdom (Third–Eighth Dynasty, c. 2686–2160 BC) The Old Kingdom, also called the Pyramid Age, is a continuation of the Early Dynastic Period. It was a time of long, uninterrupted economic prosperity and political stability. The central administration was at the capital at Memphis under a vizier who was the highest official. Upper Egypt, the land south of the capital, and Lower Egypt, the Nile Delta to the north, were divided into ‘nomes’ that were governed by nomarchs who maintained strong ties with the court. The state was able to consolidate its borders in the south and north and maintained long-distance trade with the Levant and Nubia. A redistributive economic system with palaces, temples, royal domains, and mortuary complexes served as centers for collecting, storing, and distributing mainly agrarian produce. The long reign of Pepi II (c. 2278–2184 BC) at the end of the Sixth Dynasty has often been seen as a time of stagnation and decline that ultimately brought down the regime of the central government but other factors such as worsening climatic conditions causing droughts and famine may have contributed to the fragmentation of the centralized regime and the growth of regional power in the hands of the nomarchs.

At the top of Egyptian society stood the divine king. His funerary complex became the focus of royal ideology and ignited large-scale building programs never seen before. More than a dozen pyramids, as stairways to heaven for the deceased king, were built close to the capital in the area of Giza and Saqqara. Royal Tombs

Royal tombs of the Early Dynastic Period were built almost entirely of sundried mud-bricks, wood, and reed with the use of stone limited to the interior of tomb chambers and stelae which were large stone slabs with the kings’ name on them. It was at Saqqara in the Third Dynasty that Egypt’s first monumental stone structure was erected for King Djoser (c. 2667– 2648 BC). His funerary complex, including the Step Pyramid and ceremonial buildings, transformed the organic building materials into their limestone equivalent (Figures 1 and 2). The enclosure wall of the complex measured 544  277 m and was 10.5 m high. The Step Pyramid itself, located to the north of a large courtyard measured 121  109 m and its six steps stood 60 m tall. The pyramid was actually begun as a mastaba, the Arabic word for ‘bench’, which the tomb resembled. It was enlarged twice before it was altered into a four-step pyramid and finally augmented to six steps. Underneath the pyramid lay a shaft (7 m square and 28 m deep) culminating in the burial chamber. Originally made of limestone with stars on the ceiling it was later replaced by a granite chamber. Nothing of the king’s interment was found. Also underground was a system of about 400 rooms and corridors, totaling almost 6 km in length. The whole gigantic royal complex at Saqqara symbolizes the focal point of Egyptian society and culture in the Old Kingdom: the divine king. There were at least two more step pyramids of the Third Dynasty before, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under King Snofru (c. 2613–2589 BC), the final design of a true pyramid was realized. The design of the pyramid complex is very standardized. Each has an axis with an east–west orientation, which underlines the structure’s solar aspect. From the valley temple at the eastern entrance (Figure 3), a causeway leads further to the west and ends in the mortuary temple, situated at the foot of the east side of the pyramid. This temple has several chambers including an inner sanctuary furnished with a stela, which is set directly against the pyramid. Despite this standardized pattern, however, no two pyramids were exactly alike. The interior chambers and ascending and descending passages were always different. Starting in the Fifth Dynasty, the walls of these chambers and corridors could be decorated with the so-called Pyramid Texts, a collection of funerary texts of about 800 spells.

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Figure 1 Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (Third Dynasty).

Figure 2 Festival court of Djoser complex at Saqqara (Third Dynasty).

The main building material for the pyramid was limestone although granite was also used for the lower casing blocks. In the pyramid temples basalt was also sometimes used for the floors. Separate smaller pyramids were erected for the queens while higher officials, often blood relatives, were buried in the limestone mastaba tombs in the necropolis nearby. Private Tombs

To date, dozens of Old Kingdom cemeteries have been found throughout the country. The major cemeteries for officials, however, were at Saqqara,

Helwan Dahshur, Giza, and at Abusir, where they could remain close to the king in the afterlife also. While the majority of the Egyptian population was buried in simple pits in the desert sands, the wealthier could afford rock-cut tombs or mastaba tombs. An early mastaba tomb comprised a subterranean structure with a shaft, a burial chamber and store rooms (Figure 4). The store rooms disappeared by the Fourth Dynasty. The superstructure was made of mud-brick or stone and its layout became more and more elaborate with the addition of multiple rooms which effectively turned it into a funerary chapel. Scenes of daily life, mostly related to farming, herding, and craftwork, were depicted on the walls of

34 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

Pyramid

Satellite pyramid

Pyramid temple

Causeway

Valley temple

Figure 3 Standard pyramid complex of the Old Kingdom.

Shaft Serdab with statue

Chapel with false door

Facade sealed with casing blocks

Burial chamber with sarcophagus

Figure 4 Mastaba tomb of the Old Kingdom.

these rooms, along with representations of the tomb owner, his relatives, and his household members. During the funerary cult the family could bring their offerings to the deceased which they presented on an altar in front of the false door. In a hidden chamber, called a serdab, a statue of the deceased was placed, thus allowing him to accept these offerings symbolically. An offering formula on the wall next to the false door secured the eternal sustenance of the deceased. Sun Temples and Provincial Temples

A special temple, which was built in addition to the pyramids, developed during the Fifth Dynasty. It was a temple dedicated to the sun god Re. It had similar architectural features to the pyramid complexes including a valley temple functioning as a gate or

entrance and a causeway leading to an upper temple which formed the main focal point of the compound: an obelisk-like structure erected of stone blocks rising up on a pedestal. In one case the pedestal was 20 m high and the obelisk 36 m tall. An open space in front of the obelisk contained an altar where offerings were presented. Located on one side of the large courtyard were magazines and rooms that have been interpreted as slaughterhouses. Parts of the upper temple were decorated with royal jubilee scenes and scenes from nature. The whole structure was surrounded by an enclosure wall. Outside the wall a brick-built model of a solar boat for the god was found. Six sun temples are known from texts but only the ones of King Niuserre and Userkaf from the Fifth Dynasty have been found at Abu Gurob, 10 km southwest of Cairo.

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While royal building activities were concentrated around the capital at Memphis, temples in the rest of the country largely comprised sanctuaries which were built and maintained by local communities. Provincial temples followed no specific design and were often of modest size. The Old Kingdom temple on the island of Elephantine opposite modern Aswan, for example, consisted of mud-bricks enclosing a niche between granite boulders and measured only c. 7  7 m.

First Intermediate Period (Ninth–early Eleventh Dynasty; c. 2160–2055 BC) At the end of the Old Kingdom large-scale royal building programs came to a halt. Yet, with the increasing prosperity of the provinces and a rise in population, it became necessary for the provinces to be administered locally rather than from the royal residence at Memphis, and the nomarchs lived and were even buried in their nomes. Ultimately, the central government collapsed and foreign trade seems to have ceased. The Ninth/Tenth Dynasty established a power basis at Herakleopolis some 100 km upstream from the old capital at Memphis. However, these dynasties never controlled the whole country and civil war broke out. In Upper Egypt Ankhtifi, nomarch of the third nome of Upper Egypt, tried to gain control over neighboring territories by force. The fragmentation of the country and violence only ended when one of these regional rulers, Mentuhotep II, defeated all others and united Egypt again. Based on texts the First Intermediate Period has often been seen as a very unstable period with civil war and even cannibalism caused by famine. A different picture emerges from excavations of cemeteries from the First Intermediate Period, however, which indicates a redistribution of wealth as well as cultural innovations. All the archaeological evidence points to an increased effort to prepare tombs of the deceased for the afterlife rather than a decline in tomb-building caused by economic hardship. In general, mastaba tombs and rock-cut tombs had already become larger at the end of the Old Kingdom and this process continued. Tombs contained several chambers for multiple burials. Grave goods took the form of wooden offering bearers, statues, and even whole miniature copies of workshops. The cartonnage mask, a colored mask made from linen and gypsum to cover the head of the mummy, was introduced. Religious texts, the socalled Coffin Texts, were inscribed on the coffins of the elite and stressed the importance of social ties, these mirroring the change in tomb architecture allowing for multiple burials.

Middle Kingdom (later Eleventh–Thirteenth Dynasty; c. 2055–1650 BC) The Middle Kingdom dates from the victory of Mentuhotep II of Thebes over his rivals at Herakleopolis and the re-unification of Egypt. Initially residing in Thebes, the Twelfth Dynasty (c. 1985–1773 BC) moved to a new capital called Amemenhet Itj-tawj, possibly in an area south of the old residence at Memphis, close to the Fayum Oasis. Archaeologists have yet to find and excavate this new capital. Passing on from father to son, the Twelfth Dynasty stayed in power for almost 200 years. The central administration followed in the footsteps of the Old Kingdom with a vizier at the top, a treasury, a ministry for supervising the harvesting and managing of the crops, a ministry for cattle and fields, and a ministry for labor, responsible for the building programs of the state. The king was still the absolute divine ruler but his legitimacy was based on representative theocracy and not on direct rule as in the Old Kingdom. Foreign affairs were dominated by the conquest of Lower Nubia and various raids into the Levant, which brought back Asiatics as slaves. Asiatics also moved voluntarily to the Nile Delta and settled there. Domestically the Twelfth Dynasty is credited with an irrigation program in the Fayum Oasis for new cultivation. Regarding religion, a new concept of the underworld, the kingdom of Osiris, saw the rise of this god. In addition, the concept of Maat (translated often as order or connective justice), a guideline of how Egyptians should live and treat each other, became popular. A wealth of literary texts was composed during the Middle Kingdom, and many of these were later considered classics. The language of these texts, Middle Egyptian, remained in use for sacred texts until the end of the Pharaonic period. All the achievements of the Middle Kingdom made it the ‘classical’ Egyptian age that was revered in later periods. Yet the Middle Kingdom ended in fragmentation when the Thirteenth Dynasty had to give way to pressure from the Hyksos, Asiatic rulers in the eastern Nile Delta, and moved their residence to Thebes in the south. The Mortuary Complex of Mentuhotep II

Under Mentuhotep II a unique mortuary temple was erected in the limestone escarpment of Deir el-Bahri on the west bank at Thebes (Figures 5 and 6). The complex once had a valley temple near the edge of cultivation and from there a causeway more than 1 km long led to a huge court in the west surrounded by a sandstone wall. Inside the courtyard, the discovery of the roots of sycamores and tamarisks in tree pits indicates that an alley once existed here. It was

36 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

Figure 5 Mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II at Western Thebes (Eleventh Dynasty).

Bab el-Hosan Upper hall Middle court Central core

Ramp

Alley of trees

Hypostyle hall

Causeway

Amun sanctuary

Lower hall

Figure 6 Mortuary temple of King Mentuhotep II (Eleventh Dynasty).

also in the courtyard that the initial royal tomb, today known as Bab el-Hosan, was found. A ramp at the end of the alley led to a platform topped by a core building and an ambulatory. The core building might have been crowned in different ways. A pyramid (for which there is no archaeological evidence), a mastaba-like structure, or a mound of soil resembling the primeval mound from which the land of Egypt once emerged, are all possible options and would all be in accordance with Egyptian beliefs. A further arrangement of courtyards and a hypostyle hall continued to the west until finally, the sanctuary and the royal tomb itself were cut into the rock escarpment. Foundation deposits in the four corners under the platform and the core building, which consisted of food offerings, ceramic, and wooden models of

people and objects like bread and vessels, as well as mud-bricks with tablets with the royal name on them give an intriguing glimpse into the rituals accompanying the construction of the temple. Middle Kingdom Pyramids

The kings of the Twelfth Dynasty deliberately repeated the Old Kingdom tradition of pyramid building along the desert edge west of the Nile Valley. The new construction method, however, consisted of a mudbrick core with a grid of stone walls. The finish was still done with limestone casing blocks. Although the new construction method was far more economical, it is no indication that the Egyptian kings could not afford solid stone pyramids. Today the limestone casing blocks have been stripped away and the Middle

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic 37

Figure 7 Pyramid of King Amenemhat III at Hawara (Twelfth Dynasty).

Kingdom pyramids are in a very bad condition with the mud-brick core exposed to the elements (Figure 7). The Settlement of Lahun

About 1200 m east of the pyramid of Senusret II (c. 1877–1870 BC), W. M. F. Petrie discovered the remains of a pyramid town called Lahun. A pyramid town is essentially the settlement that housed the workmen building the pyramid complex along with the officials overseeing the work. Subsequently, it became the home for those responsible for the royal funerary cult. Lahun was a planned town with a rigid grid system. It included an enclosure wall and a wall that divided the settlement in half. One side contained about a dozen large houses with as many as 70 rooms and covering up to 3000 m2. The other side had more than 200 houses, but their maximum size was less than 200 m2. This size disparity clearly reflects the hierarchy in the town, with a few elite individuals living in luxury while the majority lived in modest dwellings. Based on the size of granaries at Lahun, a population of up to 9000 persons has been proposed, but according to a papyri archive found at the site which sometimes lists six persons per household, the population might have been much smaller. Lahun is also important for the discovery of Minoan sherds and Egyptian imitations of Minoan pottery. Nubian Fortresses

In the wake of its aggressive foreign policy in the south, a string of fortifications were built during the Twelfth Dynasty in order to secure trade routes and to protect the border. According to textual evidence,

Egypt built at least 17 military installations starting c. 100 km south of Egypt’s border at Elephantine. Fifteen of these mud-brick built fortresses were excavated during several rescue campaigns. Following the construction of the High Dam at Aswan, the fortresses now lie beneath the waters of Lake Nasser. The forts are all very close to each other, often only 3–10 km away or just lying across the narrow stretch of the Nile. Their proximity to one another made signaling by smoke or beacon quite simple. There were two types of fortresses: first the plain type which had an almost square layout that bordered the Nile on one side. Some of the outer walls, which measured up to 460  215 m and were more than 5 m thick, contained towers with loop holes for archers and were possibly topped by crenellations. Inside these mud-brick walls, a system of ditches and ramparts formed the first line of defense around the citadel, which had storage facilities and housing for the soldiers and officials. The second type of fortress was built on granite formations which could not be easily leveled. Thus, they had not a straightforward rectangular layout but possessed a more irregular shape.

Second Intermediate Period (Fifteenth–Seventeenth Dynasty; c. 1650–1550 BC) During the Thirteenth Dynasty dynastic stability ended and dozens of kings reigned in quick succession. They came from different lineages and some of them were possibly even of Asiatic origin. Royal mortuary cults for the Twelfth Dynasty kings ceased.

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Yet, contacts with the Levant were maintained and more and more Asiatics came to Egypt. When the central government finally fragmented, several rulers emerged with authority over small kingdoms in the Nile Delta. One group of these rulers, the Hyksos (Rulers of Foreign Lands), of the later Fifteenth Dynasty, gained power, conquered Memphis, and established their residence at Avaris (modern Tell el-Daba) in the eastern Nile Delta. The rulers of the Seventeenth Dynasty in Thebes, the successors of the Thirteenth Dynasty, started what they saw as a ‘war of liberation’ against the Hyksos who had sealed an alliance with the Kushite kings of Nubia and had sandwiched Upper Egypt between the two powers. In a series of battles, the Theban rulers were finally able to defeat the Hyksos and the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose (c. 1550–1525 BC), drove them out of Egypt. The Hyksos Capital at Avaris

Although only limited areas of the Hyksos capital at Avaris have been excavated, they have revealed an occupation that possibly stretches from to the First Intermediate Period to the early Eighteenth Dynasty. The earliest archaeological settlement remains stem, however, from a workmen’s village of the early Twelfth Dynasty. The remains of an enclosure wall that were found to the north led to the assumption that the whole settlement was once surrounded by a mud-brick wall. The settlement was home for more than one thousand people. A hiatus separates this settlement from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty when the site was resettled by Canaanites. The houses had a central wide room typical of a style prevalent in Syria from the fourth millennium BC. Furthermore, there were cemeteries attached directly to the houses, a custom derived from Middle Bronze Age SyroPalestine. Surprisingly, foreign pottery from the Levant makes up only 20% of the assemblage, although burials of males showed that half of them had weapons of Levantine origin and possibly indicate that they were in the service of the Egyptian crown. The layers dating to the Thirteenth Dynasty revealed an Egyptian palace in layout with attached gardens and a cemetery with donkey, goat, and sheep burials. The donkey burials especially are a foreign element in Egypt but are well known during the Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. This evidence clearly shows that the administration of the palace was in the hands of Asiatics. By the middle of the eighteenth century BC the site was partially abandoned, most likely due to an epidemic, before being resettled. Foreign ceramics now made up to 40% of the assemblage and the site increased dramatically, covering an area of 250 ha, three times the size of the contemporary city

of Hazor in modern Israel. International trade flourished in the Hyksos period with imports from the Aegean and the Levant. In the Hyksos period, Avaris also had a huge citadel with vineyards and gardens.

New Kingdom (Eighteenth–Twentieth Dynasty; c. 1550–1069 BC) After the expulsion of the Hyksos the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty set out to form one of the most powerful states in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Internal reforms and a restructuring of the administration and military enabled Egypt to march into and occupy foreign territories where she installed her own administration. Dozens of military campaigns in the Levant are recorded by pharaohs such as Amenophis II and especially Thutmosis III, who ruthlessly exercised his imperialistic policy. The eastern desert of Upper Egypt and increasingly Lower Nubia became the classic gold sources of Egypt. Large-scale expeditions were sent out to mine turquoise and copper in the Sinai Peninsula. The southern border of Egypt was set as far south as Gebel Barkal, a trading and religious center near the fourth cataract. Trade relations were maintained throughout the Mediterranean and pottery from Cyprus, Crete, Mycenae, and the Levant can be found at many sites in Egypt. By the time of the reign of Amenophis III (c. 1390–1352 BC), a prosperous, wealthy, and influential Egypt had reached its first New Kingdom zenith. This period, however, also saw domestic turbulence and turmoil arising from the religious reforms of Akhenaten (c. 1352–1336 BC), the son of Amenophis III, who abandoned the old pantheon and installed the god Aten as the sole god for Egypt. Early in his reign Akhenaten severed all links with the religious capital of Thebes and its principal god Amun by relocating the capital to Akhetaten (Horizon of Aten), modern Tell el-Amarna. Worshipping one god only was a profound disturbance for ordinary Egyptians who had always been used to having direct contact with many gods. Consequently, when Akhenaten died, so also died his religion of the Aten. Under Tutankhamun (c. 1336–1327 BC), the first attempts at a religious restoration of the old cults were launched while during the subsequent Nineteenth Dynasty, there ensued an active persecution of the Aten cult. In the administration many civil officials were replaced by military personnel and the army became the most influential domestic power. Internationally, Egypt was faced with the expansionist Hittite empire and they finally clashed at the Battle of Qadesh where the army of Ramses II met theHittite troops of Muwatalli. Ramses II did not achieve his goal of driving the Hittites out of Qadesh and

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the whole campaign ended in a stalemate that resulted in a peace treaty in the twenty-first regnal year of Ramses II. After this Egypt had a relatively calm and prosperous period until the so-called Sea Peoples caused serious turmoil in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the thirteenth century BC. First Pharaoh Merenptah (c. 1213–1203 BC) and later Ramses III (c. 1184–1153 BC) had to fight battles against the Sea Peoples on land and at sea in order to secure Egypt’s sovereignty. These international disruptions were too great, however, and combined with internal economic problems Egypt began losing her international power. At the end of the New Kingdom Egypt had to withdraw from the Levant altogether. Tell el-Amarna

The city of Amarna was built on virgin soil and covered an area of about 13  5km (Figure 8). The city was made up of palaces, houses, and temples which had to be built quickly to accommodate the many thousands who were to move there from Thebes. A major royal road running north–south was built and it was flanked by palaces and temples. Some temples like the so-called House of the Sun Disk were up to 750 m long and 230 m wide. They housed hundreds of altars for the offerings to Aten. Palaces were lavishly decorated and spread throughout the city. Private houses were located in the suburbs to the north and south of the Central City. Some larger houses or villas had more than forty rooms covering more than 1000 m2. The standard design was tripartite with two public sections consisting of a vestibule, long hall and central hall. The third section was the private area with bedrooms and bathrooms. Around these villas were clusters of smaller houses. Remarkably, the houses at Amarna differ in size rather than design, and most features were constantly repeated. By no means should Amarna be seen as an organic settlement however, since its standardization was mostly due to the time pressure of building the city. Deir el-Medineh

The workmen’s village of Deir el-Medineh was founded under King Thutmosis I (c. 1504–1492 BC) in order to house the men who built the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings (Figure 9). It was a state-run community where almost all supplies for daily life were provided by the crown. At its peak the village consisted of some 70 houses alongside the main road and was surrounded by a 6–7 m high enclosure wall. Forty to fifty houses were built outside the compound. An average house had four rooms with an entrance room 40–50 cm below street level. The original houses were complete mud-brick structures without foundations. Later houses had a basement of

stones and sometimes stone walls extending up to 2.5 m in height. The major feature in the entrance area was the mud-brick bench-like structure, possibly a small shrine. The next room had one or two columns and it contained a kind of divan. At the rear were the bedroom, the kitchen, and storage facilities. A staircase also gave access to the roof providing further living space. The inhabitants of Deir el-Medineh were buried in tombs on the hill slope nearby. The tombs had a superstructure with a chapel which was sometimes crowned by a small pyramid and a substructure with a shaft and a burial chamber that was often colorfully decorated. Next to the village around 5000 limestone flakes and broken pottery sherds were found with many inscriptions from the villagers. They consist, among others, of contracts, files of lawsuits, prayers, and school texts. In conjunction with the archaeological evidence and other papyri concerning Deir el-Medineh, the settlement has become the best-known village of the Late Bronze Age. The village was abandoned under Ramses XI (c. 1099–1069 BC) when the Valley of the Kings was also abandoned as the royal burial ground. Luxor and Karnak Temple

During the early New Kingdom building activity was conducted on all major temples such as Karnak and Luxor Temple. Both temples were located in Upper Egypt at Thebes. The temple at Karnak goes back to the time of Sesostris I and was the major cult center for the Theban triad of the gods Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. From the Middle Kingdom until the Thirtieth Dynasty Karnak remained a site under permanent construction as each pharaoh added and extended to this temple called ‘The most select of Places’ (Figure 10). The continuous addition of pylons (tower-like entrance gates), courtyards, columned halls, obelisks, and chapels means that the temple has to be read archaeologically from the inside out with the oldest part not at the front of the first pylon but almost in the middle of the compound. One of the most impressive buildings at Karnak is the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 papyrus columns rising up to 21 m (Figure 11). The hall was once roofed and illuminated through windows placed high up the wall right under the ceiling. The foundation of the great hypostyle hall goes back to Amenophis III (c. 1390– 1352 BC), but the decoration was initiated under Sety I (c. 1294–1279 BC) and finished under Sety’s son Ramses II (c. 1279–1213 BC). The Great Hall has both raised relief dating to the time of Sety I and sunken reliefs which were generally used on the outside walls to increase the effect of shadow and sunlight. The latter, more economical technique was used during the immense building program of Ramses II.

40 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

STELA V TELL EL-AMARNA NORTH CITY

NORTH TOMBS

NORTH PALACE

STELA U

NORTH SUBURB

om

b

T al

y

to

GREAT ATEN TEMPLE

Ro

CENTRAL CITY

GREAT PALACE SMALL ATEN TEMPLE

WORKMENS⬘S VILLAGE MAIN CITY

Nile River

SOUTH TOMBS

Royal Road KOM EL-NANA

MARU-ATEN

STELA N STELA M

0 0

1

2 kms 1 min

Figure 8 Capital of Pharaoh Akhenaten at Tell el-Amarna (Eighteenth Dynasty).

The inner walls were reserved for the depiction of rituals and processions while the outer fac¸ades were decorated with the campaigns of Sety I and Ramses II to Palestine and Syria.

The temples of Karnak and Luxor were linked through a system of roads, each flanked with sphinxes. As with Karnak, Luxor temple was dedicated to Amun or Amun-Ra and dates back to the reign

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic 41

Niche

Workroom /bedroom

Shrine Street

Kitchen Reception room

Second room Cellar Cellar

M 01

5

10

15

20

Figure 9 Workmen’s village at Deir el-Medineh (New Kingdom).

Figure 10 View over Karnak Temple from east.

42 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

of Hatshepsut (c. 1473–1458 BC) (Figure 12). The core at the southern end was built under Amenophis III. Under Akhenaten work was interrupted at Luxor but resumed under Tutankhamun (c. 1336–1327 BC).

The giant pylon was erected by Ramses II and decorated with scenes and texts of the Battle of Qadesh against the Hittites. In the first millennium further additions were made by Shabaka (c. 716–702 BC) who built a kiosk outside the temple, and by Nectanebo I (380–362 BC) who embellished the sphinx alley with hundreds of statues. Under Alexander the Great the worship of the emperor was established here and this tradition was continued until the Roman period, when the temple finally became a military camp from the fourth to sixth century AD. While the cult at Karnak focused on the worship of the gods, Luxor temple focused more on the worship of the king and his relationship with the gods. Later on, several churches were built in Luxor temple and in the thirteenth century AD, the mosque of Abu el-Hagag, which is still in use today, was built in the first courtyard. Western Thebes

Figure 11 Great Hall at Karnak (Nineteenth Dynasty).

On the west bank at Thebes in the Valley of the Kings, the New Kingdom pharaohs established their final resting place. As a point of departure from earlier periods, however, the mortuary cult was separated from the king’s actual burial place. Thus, the mortuary temple of each king, with the classic design of a god’s temple with pylons, courtyards, columned halls and inner sanctuaries, was erected at the edge of the river plain. Although the scenes on the walls of these temples show overwhelmingly rituals and cultic activities, they also commemorated historical events such

Figure 12 Luxor Temple from the south with pylon of Ramses II (left), colonnade of Amenophis III/Tutankhamun (right) and the mosque of Abu al-Hagag (center).

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic 43

as the Battle of Qadesh of Ramses II and the battle against the Sea Peoples by Ramses III. The tombs consist of a series of descending corridors and chambers cut into the limestone cliff. While earlier tombs have a bent axis, later tombs possess a straight axis echoing the topography of the underworld. The wall decorations show scenes and texts from afterlife books such as the Book of the Dead or the Book of Caverns. Most of the royal mummies were relocated to safer places in the Theban necropolis by the end of the New Kingdom and today many are in the Cairo Museum on display. The most famous tomb in the Valley of the King is that of Tutankhamun. In 1922 it was found largely intact and unplundered and it gives a good insight into the riches that once went into the tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs, especially in view of the fact that this king was a relatively insignificant ruler. In western Thebes thousands of higher and lower officials and priests possessed rock-cut tombs. The standard layout during the Eighteenth Dynasty comprised an open courtyard and possibly a shaft, and it was surrounded by a wall (Figure 13). Inside was a broad hall and a corridor giving the whole a T-shaped form. From here sometimes a sloping passage led to the burial chamber underground. During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties the courtyard often had a pylon and columns while the tomb structure was topped by a pyramid, crowned by a capstone (pyramidion), and attached chapel (Figure 14). A Theban specialty were the so-called funerary cones. They were made of clay and placed on the fac¸ade above the tomb entrance. They were stamped on the top with the name of the tomb owner and his titles. In contrast to Thebes, in the north at Saqqara, tombs of high officials were designed like temples with pylons, courtyards, and columned halls. Scenes of daily life and mortuary rituals characterized the wall decoration at the beginning of the New Kingdom, but over time only religious and mortuary themes tended to prevail.

Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069–664 BC) The Third Intermediate Period comprises the TwentyFirst to Twenty-Fifth Dynasties. The Libyans played a dominating role in the time of the Twenty-First to Twenty-Fourth Dynasties. Their homeland was the Cyrenaica where they originally had an economy based on pastoral nomadism. Major areas of Libyan settlements in Egypt were located between Memphis and Herakleopolis, and in the oases of the Western Desert, but most were situated in the western Delta. While there is no distinct material culture linked to

Frieze of funerary cones

Statue niche

Courtyard

Entrance

Shaft

Courtyard wall

Rock

Figure 13 Early New Kingdom Theban tomb.

Pyramidion

Pyramid chapel

Pyramid

Portico Rock Pylon

Figure 14 Late New Kingdom Theban tomb.

the Libyans in Egypt, their very un-Egyptian names, such as Takelot, Sheshonq, and Osorkon, make it clear that they maintained their ethnic identity. The first king of the Twenty-First Dynasty was Smendes who ruled in the new northern capital at Tanis, while the south was controlled by the High Priest of Amun. Seeing the weakening power and influence of the High Priest in Thebes Sheshonq managed to install his son there and to some degree Egypt was united again under his rule. Subsequently, however, rival dynasties fought for the crown, and in fact the Twenty-Second to Twenty-Fourth Dynasties ruled simultaneously in different parts of the country. Major sites were Tanis, Bubastis, and Sais. Since these Delta sites have been little explored, however, our knowledge is rather poor. The Third Intermediate Period ended with the

44 AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pharaonic

Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, a house of rulers that came from Kush in the South who conquered Egypt and ruled Egypt without rivals from c. 715–656 BC. Tanis

The city is strategically well located in the eastern Nile Delta, just north of the former capital of the Ramesside kings. Many stone blocks were taken from that earlier site to erect the new residence. Even statues and reliefs from the Old and Middle Kingdoms were re-used at Tanis. The new rulers of the Twenty-First Dynasty abandoned the Valley of the Kings and had their tombs built within the sacred precinct of a temple. In general, the idea of lifelong planning for a tomb disappeared and many private and sometimes royal burials were placed in existing New Kingdom tombs or mortuary temples. Nevertheless, the richer burials contained beautifully decorated coffins of the highest quality. When French Egyptologist Pierre Montet started to excavate at Tanis in the 1920s, he was convinced that he had discovered the capital of the Ramesside kings and wanted to find documents and monuments that would confirm the Biblical account of the Exodus. Surprisingly, he came across the royal tombs of the Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Dynasties, which were situated in the large mud-brick enclosure (430  370 m) of the Amun temple. Of the six subterranean tombs, all but the one of the third ruler of the Twenty-First Dynasty, Psusennes I, were robbed. The tombs were built of stone and mud-brick and were of modest size. The tomb of Psusennes contained not only the body of the king but the mummy of his successor, Amenemope, as well as the body of a general. With a golden mask on his face the king was placed in a silver coffin. This in turn was put inside an anthropoid sarcophagus of black granite which itself was placed in a rectangular chest of pink granite. Many precious objects of silver, gold, and lapis lazuli were discovered at Tanis in the spring of 1939. The outbreak of World War II, however, meant that these treasures are less well known than those of Tutankhamun.

Late Period (Twenty-Sixth –Thirtieth Dynasty; 664–332 BC) The rulers of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, with the help of Assyria, drove the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty out of Egypt and reunited the country. Egypt maintained good connections with Assyria and also established trade contacts with the Levant. Egypt also opened up international trade with the Mediterranean world and with such positive economic prospects, many foreigners made their way to Egypt. King Amosis

(570–526 BC) established flourishing contacts with Greek cities such as Delphi, Corinth, and Samos. In 560 BC Egypt even occupied Cyprus, and Amosis made alliances with Babylon and Croesus of Lydia against the Persian Empire. Many Greek mercenaries were employed by the Egyptian pharaoh and were stationed throughout the country. The kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty made their capital at Sais in the western Nile Delta. Due to the utilization of ancient mud-bricks as fertilizer on fields today and the proximity of the modern village of Sa el-Hagar, few remains of this capital have survived. Nonetheless, recent archaeological work has traced the beginning of the settlement as far back as the fourth millennium BC. In 525 BC Egypt became a satrapy of the Persian Empire. The Persian king Cambyses was crowned as Pharaoh in Memphis and became first king of the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty. Although Persian troops were garrisoned throughout Egypt, the administration remained in the hands of the Egyptians and in general, Egyptian culture and religion remained intact. King Darius even erected a temple in the el-Kharga Oasis in honor of Egyptian deities. Nevertheless, antiPersian sentiments were growing in Egypt and by 405 BC the Persians were driven out of Egypt. Significant building programs stretching from the Delta to the southern border at Elephantine were not resumed until the reign of the founder of the Thirtieth Dynasty, Nectanebo I (380–362 BC), determined to bring back Egypt’s old glory. Between 360 and 342 BC several attempts by the Persians to re-conquer Egypt failed. In 343 BC, however, the Persians were ultimately successful and they ended the rule of Egyptian pharaohs once and for all. In 332 BC Egypt fell prey to Alexander the Great and between 30 BC and 395 AD Egypt was part of the Roman Empire. See also: Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic; Nubia;

Sahara, Eastern; Sahara, West and Central.

Further Reading Arnold D (2003) The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. Princeton: University Press. Baines J and Malek J (2000) Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Phaidon Press. Bard KA (1999) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. London/New York: Routledge. Bietak M (1996) Avaris, Capital of the Hyksos. London: British Museum Press. Kemp BJ (2006) Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of Ancient Civilization. London/New York: Routledge. Lehner M (1997) The Complete Pyramids. London: Thames and Hudson. Reeves N (1996) The Complete Valley of the Kings. London: Thames and Hudson.

AFRICA, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic 45 Schulz R and Seidel M (eds.) (1998) Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs. Cologne: Ko¨nemann. Shaw I (ed.) (2000) The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shaw I (2003) Exploring Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic Fekri Hassan, University College London, London, UK ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Maadi-Buto Twelve sites, named after the type site of Maadi in the western Delta. Naqada A district and town about 30 km north of Luxor on the west bank of the Nile in southern Egypt (Upper Egypt), including villages such as Toukh, Khatara, Danfiq and Zawayda. Predynastic Period Traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Narmer.

Communities settled along the banks of the Nile from the border with Nubia to the shores of the Mediterranean were brought together 5000 to 4700 years ago to form a single state under the rule of powerful kings, who were later referred to as ‘Pharaohs’. The Egyptian state depended on the agricultural productivity of the Nile Valley and the Delta. Agriculture was introduced in Egypt 2000 years earlier (see Plant Domestication). The earliest food-producing (Neolithic) communities in Egypt were established on the western margin of the Delta at Mermida Beni Salama and around the Faiyum Depression (Figure 1). These sites indicate that wheat and barley were cultivated and that domestic sheep, goat, and cattle were herded. Except for a breed of cattle which was ‘kept’ in the Eastern Sahara around Nabta Playa and Bir Kisseiba, domesticated species of animals and plants were introduced from Southwest Asia. Initially, a small community sheltering in flimsy huts, the inhabitants of Merimda Beni Salama developed into a well-organized community living in a large village with mud huts. Graves were found with the settlements, but grave goods were rare. The repertoire of the last occupation at Merimda which lasted until about 4100 BC included polished dark red/black pottery, bifacial tools, figurines, and other bone, ivory, and shell items. At El-Omari, near Helwan, burials included an individual with a scepter

and valuable grave goods, perhaps indicative of the rise of local paramount chiefs. In Upper Egypt, the earliest food-producing communities are in the Badari region where small encampments, probably of herders, date back to 4400–4200 BC. These sites signal the beginning of the period commonly referred to as the Predynastic. The Badarian Early Predynastic sites contain a variety of brown, red, and occasionally black pottery with a shiny, burnished surface with ripples. This Rippled pottery is produced from very fine untempered Nile silt. The Badarian pottery is a variant of a burnished pottery present in Late Neolithic sites of the Egyptian Sahara. Badarian personal items included hairpins, combs, bracelets, and beads made out of ivory and bone. Palettes were also found. A variety of clay and ivory figurines are also represented in the Badarian. A component of the Badarian is known as the ‘Tasian’ which perhaps represents greater affinities with highly mobile groups that moved between Nubia and the Assyut region via desert routes. South of Badari, in the Nagada region (between Danfiq and Ballas), are numerous Middle and Late Predynastic village settlements and remnants of two towns (North Town and South Town) as well as extensive cemeteries dating from 3800 to 3500 BC. Two archaeological units on the basis of pottery types are identified during that period (Figure 2). The earliest ceramic assemblage zone called Naqada I (or Amratian) is generally characterized by a high frequency of Black-Topped Polished Red and White Cross-Lined pottery. This zone marks the Middle Predynastic dating from 3950 to 3650 BC. It was succeeded by the Late Predynastic Naqada II (also known as the Gerzean), dating from 3650 to 3300 BC, which is characterized by Rough pottery, and marked by the presence of Decorated and Wavy-Handled pots (Figure 3). Naqada I and Nagada II sites extend from Badari to Hierakonpolis. The majority of Predynastic sites in the Nagada region belong to Naqada I. The sites range in size from a few thousand square meters to 3 ha. They represent overlapping occupations of scores of huts in small villages and hamlets in a string along the edge of the former floodplain. Small postholes and the wooden stub of a post suggest flimsy wickerwork around a frame of wooden posts. The abundance of rubble and mud clumps indicates that many dwellings were constructed from local Nile mud and desert surface rubble. The houses contained hearths and storage pits. In some cases graves were dug into the floor of houses. Trash areas were interspersed with domestic dwellings. The houses included animal enclosures as indicated by thick layers of dung. The faunal remains indicate exploitation of cattle, sheep/goats,

46 AMERICAS, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic

Figure 1 Location map of principal Predynastic sites in Egypt.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic 47 Sequence date 80 Nagada IIICD Early dynastic Emergence of unified state ca. 3200 BC Late

72 71

Nagada III A1-A2 Protodynastic Formative stage of unification Late ca. 3300 BC

63 62

Nagada IIcd (Gerzean) Development of regional polities and states 51 Rough

50

43

ca. 3500 BC Decorated

42

Nagada IIab Emergence of petty states ca. 3650 BC

35

Nagada I (Amratian) Wavy handled Formation of provincial polities

34

31 White cross-lined Black polished

30 Black top pottery Polished red

ca. 3895 BC

Figure 2 Changes in the material, form, and decoration of Predynastic–Early Dynastic pottery have been used to generate pottery types and pottery assemblage zones. The absolute chronology of the assemblage zones, Nagada I, II, and III (called after ‘Nagada’, also known as ‘Naqada’ in Upper Egypt), span the period from c. 3950 to c. 3000 BC. This period was characterized by significant political transformations that led c. 3200 BC to the emergence of a unified Egyptian state (please refer to http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk for colored photographs and an excellent introduction to the pottery and other objects found in Predynastic tombs).

and pigs. Hunting was limited. However, fishing and fowling were important. Nagada I and II sites in Upper Egypt reveal pronounced progressive transformation of social organization and increasing complexity (Figure 4). The tombs yielded a rich variety of grave goods including copper objects, flint knives, amulets, stone vessels, pendants, hairpins, combs, and slate palettes. Only a few graves contain large numbers of special goods, and the distribution of grave goods indicates the emergence of tiered social hierarchy by Nagada I. By Nagada II, the elite segregated their burial grounds from those of the commoners. Their graves were larger and well endowed with grave goods (see Social Inequality, Development of). The rise of a local elite was embedded in a religious ideology linked with mortuary rituals as indicated by the standardization of the placement of the dead who were buried in a flexed position with heads to the south facing west. However, there were regional differences in the prevalence of this orientation. The iconography of Nagada II pottery and a variety of

figurines from mud and vegetable substances suggest that the incipient ideology included notions of female– male duality associated with concepts of life, death, and apparently life after death. Centered on grave goods and funerary rituals, the ideological technology of the emerging elite promoted trade within and beyond Egypt for elite mortuary goods. Hierakonpolis in the south was a conduit for trade with Nubia, whereas Maadi and later Buto in the Delta provided trade links with Southwest Asia. During the period when the Nagada I and II pottery types were emerging and spreading in Upper Egypt, communities in the Delta shared a distinct pottery assemblage, referred to as the Maadi–Buto Horizon. By the middle of the Late Predynastic, the pottery types common in Upper Egypt became prominent in the Delta. It is unlikely that this is an indication of a population replacement or a military conquest. It is most probably a result of the adoption by the Delta elite of the funerary ideology and practices of Upper Egypt with its intricate rituals, elaborate burials, and fancy grave goods. This was facilitated by the close

48 AMERICAS, NORTH/Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic

Figure 3 A diagnostic type of pottery (Decorated) that became common in Nagada II (Gerzean). Painted in red over a buff background, the ‘decorations’ show a variety of motifs and themes. Many, as in the case of this pot, show zigzag lines suggestive of water, trees, and boats with many oars and two cabins. These pictorial representations reveal the first steps toward writing and are most probably symbolic of religious beliefs concerning the journey from the land of the living to the land of the dead. Source Petrie WMF (1974) Prehistoric Egypt, London: Aris and Phillips.

Figure 4 Detail from Narmer’s palette (now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) showing Narmer, the first or second king of a unified Egypt, in a ceremonial procession. The procession is led by standard-bearers who may represent the domains or main allies of the king. The palette has been interpreted in many ways, but is most likely symbolic of the emergence of a powerful king who commands the Delta and Upper Egypt. The palette also shows well-developed hieroglyphic signs as a part of a writing system that emerged 200 years earlier.

trade links between the two main trade centers of Hierakonopolis and Buto and by the use of boats bypassing overland donkey routes. It appears that the Middle Predynastic was a period of incipient state formation on a regional scale, with

at least two prominent states or petty kingdoms namely Hierakonpolis and Nagada in Upper Egypt, and perhaps several town-principalities in the Delta. By about 3300 BC, Hierakonopolis seems to have extended its power over Nagada so that it began to dominate the area north of Nagada from a new stronghold at Abydos, establishing a far more suitable strategic geopolitical position within a shorter distance from Middle Egypt and the Delta than that of Hierakonpolis at the southern border of Egypt. Considering the narrow floodplain at Hierakonpolis and access to a more extensive floodplain north of Abydos, the leaders of Hierakonpolis would have buffered themselves from droughts which appear to have become more prevalent as Nile flood discharge began to diminish c. 3300–3200 BC, coincident with the transition to hyperarid conditions in the Eastern Sahara. It is also likely that the residents of the desert regions surrounding the Nile Valley and the Delta who struggled through the transition from wetter conditions before 6200 to 4100 BC might have been forced to raid the prosperous villages in the Nile Valley and the Delta giving rise to occasional skirmishes. This would have provided the elite with another legitimizing opportunity – the portrayal of the chiefs as ‘warriors’ smiting enemies. This was expressed in the use of the mace-heads as symbols of authority and in the depiction of battle scenes on commemorative ceremonial palettes. There is also the possibility that some of the ferocious desert warriors were integrated within settled agrarian communities. Given the benefits to small communities either for defense or food security against droughts and food shortages, and for the tendency of elites to aggrandize and strengthen their position through bigger tombs, more and more costly grave goods of rare materials and better artisanship, a trend was set for large political entities like the expanding Hierakonpolitan ‘kingdom’ to get bigger by annexing small polities. This perhaps demanded no or little use of force or intimidation since an alliance with a larger power may be conceived as beneficial to small polities. The transition from the level of regional complexity to that of multiregional complexity, extending from Hierakonpolis to Abydos and perhaps beyond, made it imperative to co-opt regional chiefs and rulers within the demonstrative structures of the expanding kingdom thus attenuating the grip of kinship as a social bond among the elite. This also necessitated syncretic religious ideologies that incorporated a pantheon of regional and local deities. Alliances may have also been fostered by inter-regional royal marriages. This may explain the important role of royal wives in the development of the Egyptian state and the role of women in the ideology of kingship.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 49

Royal wives were perhaps the link between the king and his allies, and their position as mothers of future kings consolidated their role, within religious ideology, as divine mothers. Although the bull might be a more likely religious entity in hunting societies, the cow is perhaps equally important, or even more important, in a herding community. Cow burials were already manifest among cattle keepers of the Eastern Sahara before 5000 BC. Narmer’s palette depicting the king as a bull is surmounted by two large cow heads. During this formative stage of Egyptian kingship, writing was developed within a ritual, royal context and is attested on ivory labels predating Narmer’s palette which carries phonetic signs of his name. Narmer was succeeded by Aha who together with his successors began to lay the foundation of a unified Egyptian state heralding the Dynastic Period. They established an administrative capital at Memphis close to their Delta allies while maintaining Abydos as a religious capital and a royal burial ground. The unification suffered periodic setbacks, especially during the Second Dynasty. By the time Zoser established his reign, he was able to build a monumental steppyramid of unprecedented dimensions as his royal tomb, a clear indication that a mighty Pharaoh ruled

Africa, North/Greek Colonies

over a state society with an elaborate administrative structure. See also: Africa, North: Egypt, Pharaonic; Plant Domestication; Political Complexity, Rise of; Social Inequality, Development of; Writing Systems.

Further Reading Adams B (1988) Predynastic Egypt, Aylesbury: Shire Egyptology 7. Bard K (1999) Predynastic period, overview. In: Bard K (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, pp. 23–30. London: Routledge. Hassan FA (1988) The Predynastic of Egypt. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 135–185. Hassan FA (1999) Epipalaeolithic cultures, overview. In: Bard K (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, pp. 15–16. London: Routledge. Hendrickx S, Friedman RF, Cialowicz KM, and Chlodnicki M (eds.) (2004) Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Brussels: Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Peters Publishers. Maisels CK (1999) Early Civilizations of the Old World. London: Routledge. Midant-Reynes B (2002) The Prehistory of Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell. Wenke RJ (1999) Neolithic cultures, overview. In: Bard K (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, pp. 17–22. London: Routledge.

See: Europe, South: Greek Colonies.

Nubia Donatella Usai, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO), Rome, Italy ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary African cattle The ongoing discussion about cattle domestication in Africa envisions the existence of an indigenous species, Bos opisthonomous, froh the domesticated form have originated. alternately pivoting stamp technique Pottery decoration technique realized with a comb impressed into the clay and lifted alternately on the extremities of the edge. Bucrania (sing. Bucranium) From greek boVB (cow) and wrani´on (skull). Pise´ Building material composed mainly of mud or clay not molded in bricks.

The Nubian contribution to the Nile Valley cultural development has been considered, for quite a long time, secondary to that of Upper and Lower Egypt (Figure 1). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, strongly influenced by the size and extent of archaeological remains scattered along the Nile, regarded Nubia, at the southern periphery of the Egyptian world, only as ‘a corridor’ to Africa. This ‘middle-land’ was, in fact, the theater for remarkable cultural changes that preluded to the formation of complex societies and were the precursors of the later urban pharaonic theocracy (see Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic). For a more detailed geographic description of the area a distinction between Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia seems to be appropriate. Egyptian Nubia, or Lower Nubia, encompasses the area from Jebel es

50 AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia

EGYPT Sodmein Cave

Elkab Jebel es Silsila I Cataract

Gilf Kebir Plateau

LOWER NUBIA

Kiseiba Nabta II Cataract

Abka IX

UPPER NUBIA III Cataract Kerma-EI Barga Kawa-R12

SUDAN

IV Cataract

V Cataract

South Dongola Reach

ra

Esh shaheinab

Ghaba kadada

ba

dam VI Cataract

At

uqad

Multaga

M Wadi

Wadi Howar

Kabbashi

Khartoum Hospital Site 10W4 ue Bl le Ni

ile

eN

400 km

Whit

0

Figure 1 Location map of sites mentioned in the text. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Silsila to the frontier between Egypt and Sudan, or the II Cataract, and the Sudanese Nubia, or Upper Nubia, from the II Cataract to the Southern Dongola Reach. It is from the core of this region that new archaeological

data arrive which motivated new thoughts on the overall Nile Valley recent prehistory cultural sequence. The Mesolithic is a key period in the prehistory of man, one when the seeds of the transition from a

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 51

hunting-gathering-fishing economy to food production were laid down. Among the archaeological evidence left by Near Eastern Mesolithic communities are the first permanent structural remains, sometimes related to ritual activities, and faunal assemblages bearing the earliest evidence of domesticated species and cereals remains produced by more systematic gathering activities. This evidence may be interpreted as the beginning of a process that will produce a fully Neolithic economy. The Nile Valley was and is still considered to be peripheral to the areas where this process took its first steps but, without denying a possible contribution to the neolithization of Nile Valley coming from Near Eastern regions, it seems that also Mesolithic Nubians were involved in a process of social and economic changes evidenced, apparently, by successful animal domestication. The Mesolithic population, in Nubia as well as in Central Sudan, is made up by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities that were producing pottery vessels some centuries before their appearance in the Near East where a Pottery Neolithic dates to around 6800 BC. The first discovery of Mesolithic pottery in the Sudanese Nile Valley was made by A.J. Arkell at the Mesolithic site of Khartoum Hospital. Two types of decoration, among others, characterize Mesolithic pottery production: incised Wavy Line (Figure 2) and impressed Dotted Wavy Line (Figure 3). During the years of the Nubian Salvage Campaign (1960–1968) a site, Abka IX, with ‘similar’ material was found also in Nubia and radiocarbon dated 8260  400 BP. At the time the date was considered too old and rejected

because of the high range, but recent archaeological discoveries in much more controlled contexts proved its being reliable. It is now accepted that a ceramic Mesolithic culture behind regional character was widespread along the Nile Valley and adjacent areas, from Central Nubia down to Central Sudan and further south, during the VIII–VII millennium BC. Nothing which can firmly be related to this culture has been found, until now, in the Upper and Lower Egyptian Nile Valley, neither in the adjacent deserts and oases. A VII millennium BC site, Elkab, located in the Nile Valley, between Luxor and Aswan, produced a lithic industry with an Epipalaeolithic character, some bone tools but no pottery. The adoption of pottery technology within Sudanese Mesolithic societies has been correlated with an increased sedentary lifestyle. Until recently no evidence, other than the pottery itself, suggested such a reduction in mobility. Most Mesolithic sites along the Nile Valley have been, in fact, deeply affected by postdepositional natural and human disturbances. Nevertheless, very recent and still largely unpublished excavations revealed semi-subterranean huts at El Barga, in the Kerma Basin, at a seasonal Late Mesolithic site near Khartoum (Figure 4) and pise´ walled dwellings at a VII millennium BC Mesolithic settlement along the left bank of White Nile again south of the Sudan capital. Nile river-versus-desert seasonal movements and vice versa were practiced by the Mesolithic huntergatherer-fishers at the beginning of the Early Holocene when, according to palaeoenvironmental data, deserts, to the west and the east of the Nile, became less inhospitable with the formation of many seasonal water pools.

Figure 2 Sample of Early Mesolithic potsherds with typical Wavy Line incised decoration, realized with a Nile catfish spine. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

52 AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia

Figure 3 A fragment of Late Mesolithic pottery decorated with Dotted Wavy line impressed pattern. This decoration is realized with the alternately pivoting stamp technique. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 4 Excavation at a Late Mesolithic prehistoric seasonal camp south of Khartoum. The site, 10-W-4, revealed a series of semisubterranean huts with refusal pits. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The pioneering researches conducted by F. Wendorf at Nabta Playa and Kiseiba Plateau sites in the Western Desert, 100 km to the west of the Nile, at the height of the II Cataract, produced the most interesting, although debatable, data concerning these Mesolithic groups. The structures excavated at these desert sites, and the faunal and palaeobotanical assemblages suggest that strictly scheduled seasonal movements may have provided a semi-sedentary life in a sort of residential mobility congruent with pottery production.

Fishing activity, whose practice is strongly evidenced especially in Mesolithic Central Sudan sites, may also have encouraged a less mobile lifestyle. Demographic growth may also have been responsible for an increased territorial control and, as a consequence, of less mobility. It is important to underline that, as suggested for the Near Eastern Mesolithic societies, this increased sedentary way of life may have favored experimentation in animal domestication, as in the case of the

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 53

African cattle. Most reliably these first experiments took place in Nubia at the end of the VIII-beginning of the VII millennium BC. The first evidence for cattle domestication comes from different sites in the Nabta–Kiseiba Western Desert. Few fragments of possibly domesticated cattle recovered at these sites date to the beginning of the VIII millennium BC. Some scholars reject this ancient occurrence, for different reasons, not least the questionable contextual associations. The presence of a few domestic cattle bones at Western Desert sites led the excavators to speak of an Early Neolithic phase, but the overall faunal assemblage is made up of wild species suggesting more caution is necessary. However, evidence of domestic cattle was recently found in Sudanese Nubia, in the Kerma Basin, at the Mesolithic site of El Barga and dated to the VII millennium BC. Domestic sheep and goat appeared in the Nile Valley and in Nubia later on, around the VI millennium BC, as witnessed by sites like Sodmein cave in the Red Sea Mountain, Nabta–Kiseiba, in the Western Desert, and El-Barga, in the Kerma Basin. As it is genetically proved that sheep and goats originate in the Near East, it is probably here that we have to envisage influences from outside the valley. Cattle herding became increasingly important in Nubian societies; hence, pastoralism became the basic subsistence economy of these populations. The emergence of cattle domestication seems limited, up to now, to the Nubian region. No evidence has been produced by sites along the Nile Valley north Chronology

Lower-Upper Nubia

7000 BC 6000 BC

Mesolithic (Western Desert-EI Barga)

6000 BC 5500 BC

Early Neolithic (Western Desert-EI Barga)

5500 BC 5000 BC

?

5000 BC 4500 BC

Middle Neolithic A (Kadruka 13-21, R12)

and south of Nubia. Moreover, no evidence of this kind was produced by the many prehistoric sites located in the desert north and south of the Nabta/ Kiseiba region. Central Sudan societies seem to retain their hunting-gathering-fishing economy until the middle of the V millennium BC. When the first Neolithic groups appear in Central Sudan (see Africa, Central: Sudan, Nilotic), they show a material culture which displays strong similarities with that produced by Nubian groups whose socioeconomic structure had already changed to a pastoral one more than a millennium before. If this picture will be confirmed by future archaeological investigations it will be interesting to work out whether the long-lasting Mesolithic social and economic way of life in Central Sudan has been culturally or environmentally determined. Palaeoenvironmental studies documented a climatic deterioration around the VI millennium BC. It affected firstly the Nubian region and only many centuries later the Central Sudan and may have produced, at the same time, an acceleration in subsistence economy transformation in Nubia as well as favoring the maintenance of the hunter-gatherer-fisher subsistence model of Central Sudan Mesolithic populations. At present the Early Neolithic of Central Sudan seems to correspond to the Middle Neolithic of Nubia (Figure 5). Some of the social and cultural aspects of these V and IV millennium BC Neolithic groups are so similar that there is no wonder that all along the valley there were strong and permanent interrelations. Central Sudan

Mesolithic (Khartoum Hospital, Saggai etc.)

Late Mesolithic (Kabbashi, 10-W-4 etc.)

Early Neolithic (Shaheinab, EI Ghaba, Kadero etc.)

4500 BC 4200 BC

Middle Neolithic B (Kadruka 1, R12, Multaga)

4200 BC 3100 BC

?

Late Neolithic (EI kadada)

3100 BC 2700 BC

Pre-Kerma

?

Figure 5 Nubian and Central Sudan chronological sequence according to new data provided by recent excavations in the region. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

54 AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia

N

G. 110 Figure 6 One of the richest graves excavated at the Middle Neolithic cemetery R12, in Lower Nubia, close to the Egyptian town of Kawa. The body, of an adult male, was covered by 108 objects. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 7 A sample of valuable stone axes recovered at R12 cemetery. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Nubia 55

Figure 8 Tools made from animal bones or containers made from a hippopotamus tooth are very common at Middle Neolithic Nubian cemeteries. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9 Caliciform beakers are considered ritual containers as they have been found only in cemeteries. They are characteristics of Nubian and Central Sudan Neolithic. ã 2008 Donctella Usai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nubia’s Neolithic is known mainly from the excavation of few of the many mound-like burial grounds dotting the Nubian landscape. These cemeteries produce the image of a ranked society with some form of incipient elite. A few graves (Figure 6), in each cemetery, are accompanied by an exceptional number of objects: pots, stone axes, mace-heads, ivory bracelets, necklaces made of semiprecious stone beads, containers made from hippopotamus teeth and bucrania (Figures 7 and 8). The number of bucrania varies according to the individual’s social position, whether achieved or acquired though kin relationship. Red and yellow ochre was often used to cover the body, which sometimes lay on an animal skin. Some graves also contain complete skeletons of an ovicaprine. One pot, in particular, seems to have had a ritual character. It is the caliciform beaker (Figure 9). This container, decorated in different ways, probably according to different regional tastes, is present only in grave contexts.

Many of the Nubian Neolithic settlements, seemingly, were destroyed by erosion or Nile flooding. They appear, in fact, as dense scatters of archaeological material. The lack of structural remains at Neolithic sites, in contrast with the evidence provided by hundreds of burial grounds sometime of very large size, has been considered as attesting the high mobility of these Neolithic herders and their living in rather ephemeral dwellings. However at Kerma, an extensive excavation revealed the structural organization of a Neolithic village, dating to 4500 BC, witnessed by thousands of postholes. While no stratified deposits survived at the site the study of postholes distribution has made possible the reconstruction of the plan of an otherwise lost ancient and complex settlement.

See also: Africa, Central: Sudan, Nilotic; Africa, North: Egypt, Pre-Pharaonic; Sahara, Eastern; Animal Domestication.

56 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern

Further Reading Arkell AJ (1949) Early Khartoum. London: Oxford University Press. Blench RM and MacDonald K (2000) The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics, and Ethnography. London: University College London Press. Guilane J (ed.) (2003) Aux marges des grands foyers du Ne´olithique. Pe´riphe´ries de´bitrices ou cre´atrices? Paris: Editions Errance. Honegger M (2004) Settlement and cemeteries of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic at el-Barga (Kerma region). Sudan & Nubia 8: 14–19. Honegger M (2005) Kerma et les de´buts du Ne´olithique Africain. GENAVA LIII. 239–249.

Salvatori S and Usai D (2004) The cemetery R12 and a possible periodisation of the Nubian Neolithic. Sudan and Nubia 8: 33–37. Usai D and Salvatori S (2005) The IsIAO archaeological project in the El Salha area (Omdurman South, Sudan): Results and perspectives. AFRICA LX (3–4): 474–493. Vermeersch PM (1978) Elkab II: Epipale´olithique de la valle´e du Nil e`gyptien. Leuven: University Press. Wendorf F, Schild R, and associates (eds.) (2001) Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. New York: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers. Wengrow D (2006) The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Africa, North/Roman Eastern Colonies

See: Asia, West: Roman Eastern Colonies.

Sahara, Eastern

Introduction

Elena A A Garcea, University of Cassino, Cassino, Italy ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Aterian A North African tradition with lithic assemblages, often made with the Levallois technology, consisting of side-scrapers and denticulates, as well as end-scrapers, perforators, and burins. Tanged tools and bifacial foliates are considered as the diagnostic features, but other, more frequent, elements include bulbar basal thinning and bifacial retouching. cultivation Any form of human activity that increases the yield of harvested or exploited plants without domestication. delayed return strategy A long-term system of resource exploitation based on delayed and planned consumption, involving food processing and storage. dotted wavy line pottery Ceramic impressed decoration made with a rocker technique using a toothed comb to produce alternately upwards and downwards fans of dotted curved lines. Middle Stone Age (MSA) A specific African age/stage system, which comprises the Early Stone Age (ESA), the Middle Stone Age (MSA), and the Later Stone Age (LSA). European-based terms such as Middle Paleolithic and Mousterian are often used to describe North African industries, even though they relate to specific cultural units and particular stratigraphic positions that do not apply to Africa. pastoralism The economic subsistence strategy that relies on the exploitation of domestic livestock for food production. It implies raising and moving herds for grazing according to seasonal availability of pasture. Western Desert This is a desert located west of the Nile River that occupies western Egypt and eastern Libya. Its main regions are the Great Sand Sea and several oases, including Siwa, Farafra, Baharia, Dakhleh, and Kharga.

The most thorough and detailed studies on the prehistory of North Africa come from the land included within the present borders of Egypt and northern Sudan. The Eastern Sahara is presently almost uninhabited by people or animals, but it has not always been so. The Nile River and the Sahara Desert have affected each other on both cultural and environmental levels and Eastern Saharan populations have often acted as intermediaries between Central Saharans and Nilotic peoples, often even linking populations and traditions between East and North Africa. The Eastern Sahara covers a surface of more than 2 million square km, which is the same size as western Europe, and is often referred to as the Western Desert, being located west of the Nile River. However, the Eastern Sahara also extends east of the Nile River, reaching the coast of the Red Sea, and to the west it extends to eastern Libya.

Environment and Climate in the Eastern Sahara The main geographic features of the Eastern Sahara are the Great Sand Sea and several oases, the main ones being, from north to south, Siwa, Farafra, Baharia, Dakhleh, and Kharga. The Fayum Oasis, which was formerly a lake, has been another very important water reservoir. Unlike in Lower (northern) Egypt, in Upper (southern) Egypt, the flood plain of the Nile is only a few kilometers wide and the desert extends near the river. The desert is not as flat as one may think: mountains and deep depressions exist in several parts,

AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern 57

including the Gilf Kebir plateau, south of the Great Sand Sea, which has an altitude of about 2000 m. In spite of the elevated areas, no rivers or streams fed by precipitation, drain into or out of the Western Desert. Nevertheless, the oases live, thanks to freshwater provided by the Nile or local groundwater. Important environmental changes affected the Eastern Sahara during the shifts corresponding to the glacial and interglacial stages in continental Europe. Although there were no glaciations in most of North Africa, the environment dramatically changed as the sea level of the Mediterranean withdrew by up to 70 m and precipitation totally disappeared. Consequently, the Sahara became a hyper-arid desert, drier than at present. During the Penultimate Glacial, corresponding to oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 6, dated between about 186 000 and 127 000 years ago, a series of sand sheets, formed by winds, covered the Eastern Sahara. Later, lacustrine and fluvial sediments were recorded at Bir Tarfawi, indicating the occurrence of lake basins and a moist climate during the Last Interglacial of OIS 5, dated to 127 000– 71 000 BP. Furthermore, a significant drainage network was active during various periods of OIS 5 in southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan. The following Last Glacial period of OIS 4, dated to 71 000–57 000 BP, witnessed abrupt climatic changes with the formation of sand sheets again, as clearly shown in the Selima region, across the Egyptian– Sudanese border. The remaining part of the Upper Pleistocene featured a harsh environment and dry climate. Although the climate during OIS 3 (57 000– 24 000 BP) improved, it was not as temperate as OIS 5, and OIS 2 (24 000–11 000 BP) was much more arid than at present. Considerable climatic ameliorations occurred only in the Eastern Sahara at the beginning of the Holocene. Groundwater levels started to rise about 9300 years BP and the aquifers rose to levels as much as 25 m higher than today. Freshwater lakes and swamps formed in the lowlands and a fluvial system developed in the uplands, attracting animals and favoring human occupation in many areas of the Eastern Sahara. Rainfall decreased from south to north, forming lacustrine sediments in the south, below 22 N, and playa sediments between 10 and 22 N. Such favorable conditions lasted until about 6000 years ago, when the landscape started to dry up again and, by 3000 BP, the Sahara became the desert we know today.

and the oases in the Western Desert played an essential role by offering water and food resources to the humans who ventured into a landscape that was much drier than their native land. A series of water springs at Kharga Oasis, central-western Egypt, about 150 km west of the Nile, sustained various Middle Stone Age (MSA) human groups using the Levallois technique and producing side-scrapers, Mousterian points, and some denticulates (Figure 1). A later complex was also found at Kharga Oasis, which included tanged tools and bifacial foliates that could be assigned to the Aterian. Tanged pieces were recorded further southeast, at Wadi Dungul, which seems to be the easternmost Aterian site. In fact, the Aterian, which takes its name from the type of site of Bir el Ater, in northeastern Algeria, is a typical late MSA tradition of the Sahara and the Maghreb and does not occur in the Nile Valley. Lithic assemblages are often made with the Levallois technology and comprise typical ‘Middle Paleolithic’ tools, such as side-scrapers and denticulated, as well as ‘Upper Paleolithic’ tools, such as end-scrapers, perforators, and burins. Tanged tools and bifacial foliates were considered as the diagnostic features, but other more frequent elements include bulbar basal thinning and bifacial retouching. At Bir Tarfawi, in southwestern Egypt, between 175 000 and 70 000 years ago, a sequence of five

The Spread of Early Anatomically Modern Humans Anatomically modern humans are found earlier in southern and eastern Africa then in northern Africa, dating to 250 000 years BP or earlier. The Nile Valley

Figure 1 Map of sites cited in the text.

58 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern

lacustrine events indicated the successive expansions of a lake where people could live and hunt a variety of large animals that are now extinct in the area, including gazelle, warthog, and ostrich, living in a wooded savanna with rainfall of 500 mm per year. They produced a typical MSA industry which included some bifacial foliates that were not significant enough to be assigned to the Aterian. Another MSA site was found at Bir Sahara East, not far from Bir Tarfawi, which revealed a long human occupation, as indicated in a long stratigraphic series. As the age of the earliest level associated with the MSA belongs to the early OIS 6, it is clear that human groups were skilled enough to cope with the severe environmental conditions of the Penultimate Glacial in the Sahara. The age of these populations, their development of MSA technologies, and their abilities to adapt to dry environments and live in open grassland suggest that they were fully modern humans. The technological shift from the production of Acheulean to MSA industries, with a correlated replacement by modern humans, occurred in the late OIS 8 and the cultural progression toward modern behavior took place during the MSA.

The Reoccupation of the Sahara after 10 000 Years Ago The Aterian was the latest Upper Pleistocene cultural entity in the Sahara and the Maghreb, but it did not last until the end of the Pleistocene or the beginning of the Holocene at 10 000 BP. The dated stratigraphic series from Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East show that no human occupation survived after 70 000 BP in the Eastern Sahara and other dated sites in the Central Sahara confirm that the region became a hyper-arid desert that had to be abandoned for a very long time, until wetter conditions returned. These populations dispersed around the northern and, possibly, southern margins of the Sahara, definitely disappearing around 40 000 BP, but did not go in the direction of the Nile Valley. Smaller groups with different industries were settled in the Maghreb and the North African littoral between 40 000 and 20 000 BP. Later, between 20 000 and 10 000 years ago, the population considerably increased and produced various technocomplexes in the Maghreb, North African Mediterranean coast, as well as the Nile Valley, but still no human resettlement occurred in any place of the Sahara during this period. At the end of the Pleistocene, around 12 000 years ago, the Nile suffered catastrophic inundations that caused a dispersion of Nilotic peoples toward the Eastern Sahara. During the Early Holocene, water was largely available from the Nile and its tributaries and rains were sufficiently frequent to keep permanent playas located in various places of the Western

Desert, from Siwa Oasis to Nabta Playa. Nevertheless, humid and dry phases still alternated throughout the Holocene. Systematic reoccupation of the Eastern Sahara took place after 10 000 years BP, when the first Early Holocene humid phase supported milder conditions. During the Holocene, humid and arid phases continually alternated, displaying eight humid and eight dry phases from the beginning of the Holocene until today at Nabta Playa. It has been suggested that, after every dry episode, the area was completely abandoned, and new people moved back again into the southwestern desert of Egypt at the onset of humid phases. In the area of Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, the earliest cultural horizon of the Early Holocene is the El Adam variant, which is dated between 9500, or possibly 9800, and 8900 BP. The lithic tool-kit includes a large quantity of backed bladelets, struck from single and opposed platform cores, followed by end-scrapers, perforators, and notches. The microburin technique is frequent. Lower and upper grinding stones and ostrich eggshell containers and beads are common. The subsequent variants are El Kortein, dated from 8800 to 8500 BP, and El Ghorab, dated from 8400 to 8200 BP, the latter corresponding to an important lacustrine episode. Scalene triangles become a dominating aspect of the El Ghorab variant and backed bladelets are still frequent. Grinding stones are common and pottery is present, but is still very rare. This cultural unit has some affinities with the Masara phases at Dakhleh Oasis. The latest Early Holocene variant is El Nabta, dated between 8200 and 7900 BP, which flourished during the maximum humid interphase recorded in the area and dated between 8050 and 7300 BP. Burins dominate in the tool-kit, together with continuously retouched tools, backed bladelets, notches, and denticulates.

The Earliest Cattle Herding The North African aurochs (Bos primigenius ssp. or Bos primigenius mauritanicus) is a wild endemic species that could live in the Maghreb and the Nile Valley, but not in the Sahara. Genetic mtDNA evidence has indicated that the ancestors of African and Eurasian cattle separated at least 22 000 years ago. As the Egyptian cattle is morphologically different from the Eurasian humpless cattle (Bos taurus) and the zebu (Bos indicus), the earliest African domestic cattle could not originate from either Europe or Asia, but was domesticated independently. The Eastern Sahara has provided chronological, paleoecological, and linguistic clues to assert domestication of aurochs in the Western Desert, which

AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern 59

definitely occurred earlier than in the Nile Valley. The earliest domesticated cattle bones are associated with the El Adam variant and are dated from 9500 BP at Nabta Playa, and from 8840 BP at Bir Kiseiba. As these dates are older than those of the earliest cattle in the Near East, they corroborate the independent domestication of cattle in the Eastern Sahara. Second, paleoecological evidence shows that large herbivores, including cattle, could not survive in a wild state in the dry environment and scarce vegetation of the Eastern Sahara without management by herders, who brought their livestock into the desert oases after the summer rains. Third, linguistic arguments show that the Nilo-Saharan language family had root words related to pastoralism and food production in the languages known in the Eastern Sahara and the Sahelian belt. In the Proto-Northern Sudanic language, there are root words referring to cattle pastoralism that go back to 10 000 years ago, and in the ProtoSaharan-Sahelian language, words for pastoralism, as well as cultivation, date from 9000 years ago. Although domestic cattle existed at Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba beginning from the El Adam variant, remains of wild game were more frequent in the archaeological sites, as cattle were rarely killed, whereas wild animals, such as small gazelle, hare, and occasionally large gazelle, were hunted for meat consumption. Cattle could be exploited for milk and blood, which represented almost inexhaustible supplies for proteins. For these reasons, cattle were defined as a ‘walking larder’. Furthermore, they could have another role, not directly related to diet, but to socioeconomic prestige and property, establishing the first social differentiation based on material possessions.

The Earliest Production and Spread of Pottery The earliest pottery in the Eastern Sahara was found at Bir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa, dating to the tenth millennium BP. It first appeared at a few sites of the El Adam variant and showed impressed decorations on the outside surface forming simple impressions and dotted zigzags made with the rocker technique. It has been suggested that pottery was unusual when it was first invented and that its function was not related to ordinary use, but to social status, symbolizing luxury possessions. Pottery became more frequent in the El Nabta variant, dated between 8200 and 7900 BP. This increase in ceramic production has been related to an intensified use by larger groups that occupied the area for longer periods. The ceramic decorative types from El Nabta also include a typical Saharan decoration exhibiting dotted wavy lines. This type of decoration appears in the earliest pottery of the Central

Sahara, also dating from the tenth millennium BP, whereas in the Upper Nile Valley it is present, but appears from the middle of the eighth millennium BP, suggesting that it was introduced there from the Sahara. Its occurrence in the Eastern Sahara at a later period than the earliest pottery, but before the Nile Valley, corroborates a west–east movement of some Saharan traditions, such as dotted wavy line pottery. Further considerations on the distribution and spread of early pottery and the populations who produced it come from the Gilf Kebir and the Great Sand Sea. A potsherd from the Wadi el Akhdar in the Gilf Kebir was dated to 9080 BP, whereas another one from the same site was dated to 6400 BP. Other dates obtained on more reliable materials span from 7700 BP. The earliest pottery in the Great Sand Sea is undecorated and dates to 7200 BP. These two areas are in an intermediate position between the Central Sahara and the Nile Valley. As the ecological conditions in the Gilf Kebir were slightly better than in the surrounding lowland areas, even during the phases of climatic deterioration, they could have encouraged contacts with Central Saharan groups and often acted as a ‘refugium’ for populations coming from the Central Sahara. The location of these areas and their availability of resources contributed to the diffusion of Central Saharan traditions toward the Nile Valley, through the Eastern Sahara.

Caprine Herding The origin of caprine domestication in North Africa is different from that of cattle. Domestic caprines were introduced from the Near East as no wild forms of sheep or goat existed in North Africa. Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) is descendant from the Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis), and domestic goat (Capra hircus) originates from the scimitar-horned Capra aegagrus of western Asia. They were brought into North Africa as domesticates around 7000–6700 years ago. Although some zooarchaeologists question the early chronology of cattle domestication in the Western Desert and consider the first uncontroversial dates for domestic cattle in the Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba area at 7700 BP, caprine herding was still later than cattle herding. Even if we take the later date for cattle domestication, it was still earlier in the Western Desert than in the Nile Valley. The earliest domestic caprines appeared in Mediterranean North Africa between 7000 and 6400 years BP, at Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica, Libya), and in the Fayum at the end of the sixth millennium BP. In the Western Desert, they were dated, at Dakhleh Oasis, from 6900 to 6500 BP, and at Sodmein cave, in the Red Sea hills, between 7000 and 6300 BP.

60 AMERICAS, NORTH/Sahara, Eastern

At Nabta Playa, they appear during the El Ghanam variant, which is dated from 7100 to 6600 BP, although they do not seem to be present from the beginning of this phase. It has been suggested that they were introduced into the Eastern Sahara either directly from the Near East or from coastal North Africa where they arrived from the Levant and from there spread into the Eastern Sahara. Caprines have different herding necessities than cattle: they can survive in drier environments and are better adapted to cope with reduced grazing lands. As a matter of fact, an impoverished environment in the Eastern Sahara is reflected in the significant reduction of living sites dating to the El Ghanam variant and in the increase of dug-out water wells that indicates a lowering of the water table in the region. Herders were forced to develop a highly mobile nomadic settlement pattern, supplementing their diet with the gathering of tubers and fruits. At the same time medium and large size herbivores decreased and gazelle-hunting was reduced and could no longer be the major source of meat.

The Development of Sedentism Several stone-built structures, forming circular huts, were found at Dakhleh Oasis associated with the Masara C cultural unit dated to 8700–8600 BP. They were strategically located on a sandstone ridge that was protected from seasonal floods so that they could be occupied during the wet seasons. The area they occupied was significantly smaller than the territory previously exploited, suggesting a contraction of resources in some selected locations. The Masara C unit has been paralleled with the El Kortein variant at Bir Kiseiba. Furthermore, at both Bir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa, a complex settlement system with habitation structures was developed during the El Nabta variant, dated to 8200–7900 BP. The largest site at Nabta Playa is E-75–6, which yielded about 20 huts, more than 30 storage pits, 3 wells, and numerous hearths. The huts were either oval or round, with shallow basin floors, encircled with postholes. Their shape suggested that they were built with wooden poles tight in the center at the top of the roof, and the walls were covered by reeds, skins, or mats. The huts contained several hearths that were seasonally reused. The chronology of this site indicated that it remained in use for more than 800 years. Sedentism in North Africa was not a form of preadaptation leading to agriculture. It was a typical strategy adopted by foragers, or forerunning pastoralists as in the case of Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, associated with the exploitation of a broad spectrum

of wild resources. These people continually occupied the same sites for long periods of time in restricted areas with concentrated water and food resources. Sedentary lifestyle favored an increased social organization and the rise of sociopolitical complexity with a delayed-return economy. Such an economic strategy implied the intensification of resource exploitation and scheduled consumption with considerable investments of capital, labor, and skills. It was a particularly efficient subsistence practice for North African populations as it allowed them to cope with irregular precipitations and to manage drier periods of reduced rainfall. Scheduled consumption increased awareness of predictable access to locally available food resources and generated techniques of delayed consumption of seasonally available products with the development of storage facilities. As sedentism with a delayed return strategy grew, local wild resources became unable to sustain the increased needs for set-aside provisions, and North African dwellers had to switch to nomadic pastoralism as the only sustainable form of food production in their environment. In the Eastern Sahara, this happened during the El Ghanam variant, when pastoralism became the predominant subsistence base and was extended to caprine herding.

The Origins of Cultivation and Farming The process leading to agriculture was very slow in the Eastern Sahara and farming, progressing inevitably to plant domestication was not the final goal. At least two important stages of selective cultivation without farming or genetic modification were successfully reached. They represent, respectively, cultivation with small-scale clearance and minimal tillage, and cultivation with larger-scale clearance and systematic tillage. Thus, cultivation is an elaborate form of plant exploitation without domestication. At Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, a new economy of intensive plant collection came into being, during the El Nabta/El Jerar humid interphase dated from around 8000 to 7300 years BP. During this period, numerous large, bell-shaped storage pits indicated intensive exploitation and preservation of fruits, tubers, and seeds, including large quantities of wild sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and two kinds of millet (Panicum turgidum and Echinochloa colona). In some particularly favorable years, sorghum may have been cultivated with the de´crue, or dry farming, technique. This system requires sowing seeds over flooded land without irrigation, and collecting with a technique that implies cross-pollination, which, unlike self-pollination, prevents the propagation of the genetic changes typical of domestication. Such a

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technique could have required shaking the harvest into baskets, instead of using sickles or removing the entire plant. At Farafra Oasis, a site in the Hidden Valley was located on the shore of an ancient water basin and exhibited numerous habitation structures with hearths containing numerous plant remains, including burnt cereal grains that have suggested independent protoagricultural activities. Three main occupation phases were identified, the earliest being dated between 7670 and 7320 BP, the second around 6750 BP, and the latest at 6190 BP. Grasses include Brachiaria, Cenchrus, Digitaria, Echinochloa, Panicum, and Setaria, belonging to the millet group, and Sorghum, which represents 40.6% of the paleobotanical samples. The high frequency of Sorghum may be due to the large size of its grains, which could have been preferred for their size and better nutritional properties. Furthermore, Sorghum is particularly suitable for this semidesert environment as it can tolerate hot and dry conditions, as well as salty soils. The area with circular structures, stone-lined hearths, and over 180 plant samples, most of them belonging to Sorghum, was dated between 7100 and 6700 BP. As there are no signs of genetic change, it is most likely that the plants were collected by hand and exploited using soft material artifacts, such as wood, whereas stone tools were only used later. Tamerix and Acacia, which were exploited for fuel, could also have been used the manufacturing of wooden implements. Cultivation practices began in the Western Desert at a significantly earlier date than in the Nile Valley. On the other hand, full domestication of sorghum and pearl millet took place in Africa in a still undetermined time, but not before the fourth millennium BP, whereas barley and emmer wheat were not local domesticates, but imported from southwest Asia into the Nile Valley. They are attested to in the Delta and lower Nile Valley from the end of the seventh millennium BP. However, as they required a humid habitat with constant fresh water, which was not available outside the Nile Valley, they were unsuitable for the Eastern Sahara.

Harris DR (1996) Domesticatory relationships of people, plants and animals. In: Ellen R and Fukui K (eds.) Redefining Nature: Ecology, Culture and Domestication, pp. 437–463. Oxford: Berg. Hassan FA (ed.) (2002) Droughts, Food and Culture. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Hoelzmann P (2001) A palaeolimnological N–S transect through the Eastern Sahara. In: Gasse F, Battarbee R, and Stickley C (eds.) Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa. An International Conference. Aix-en-Provence: Centre des Congre`s. Lanssen-Erz T, Tegtmeier U, and Kro¨pelin S (eds.) (2002) Tides of the Desert: Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolf Kuper. Ko¨ln: HeinrichBarth-Institut. McDonald MMA (1998) Early African pastoralism: View from Dakhleh Oasis (South Central Egypt). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 124–142. Nelson K (2002) Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara, Vol. 2: The Pottery of Nabta Playa. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Stahl AB (ed.) (2005) African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. van der Veen M (ed.) (1999) The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Vermeersch PM, VanPeer P, and Moeyersons J (1996) Neolithic occupation of the Sodmein area, Red Sea Mountains, Egypt. In: Pwiti G and Soper R (eds.) Aspects of African Archaeology. Papers from the 10th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and Related Studies, pp. 411–419. Harare: University of Zimbabwe. Wendorf F and Schild R (1998) Nabta Playa and its role in northeastern African prehistory. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 97–123. Wendorf F and Schild R (eds.) (2001) Holocene Settlements of the Egyptian Sahara: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa. Vol. 1. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press. Wendorf F, Schild R, and Close AE (eds.) (1993) Egypt during the Last Interglacial: The Middle Paleolithic of Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East. New York: Plenum Press.

See also: Animal Domestication; Modern Humans, Emergence of; Plant Domestication.

Glossary

Further Reading Barich BE (1998) People, Water and Grain: The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider. Close AE (ed.) (1984) Cattle-Keepers of the Eastern Sahara: The Neolithic of Bir Kiseiba. Dallas: Southern Methodist University. Garcea EAA (ed.) (2001) Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio.

Sahara, West and Central Barbara E Barich, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aterian Prehistoric culture dating to the middle Palaeolithic (30 000 BC) in the region around the Atlas Mountains, north and west Africa, and Sahara. climatic oscillations Refers to the drastic variation in the Earth’s global climate or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over timescales ranging from decades to millions of years. Tenerian culture Saharan Neolithic culture in the Te´ne´re´ Desert and extending from northeastern Niger into western Chad, Africa, dating from 6500 to 4500 BP.

62 AFRICA, SOUTH/Sahara, West and Central

Western and Central Sahara

animal husbandry, which led to the rise of pastoralism; the rock art works that appeared within the mountains of Tassili n’Ajjer, Acacus, Aı¨r, and Tibesti, and, finally, the first copper metallurgy which is found alongside evidence for social complexity. During the Pleistocene the Sahara underwent several phases of aridity alternating with periods of better climatic conditions, which were related to the

The western and central Sahara, which extends from Libya to Mauritania, enclosing the modern countries of Algeria, Niger, and Mali (Figure 1), was at the center of important cultural phenomena that were of fundamental importance to the history of the entire African continent. Among the most important of such phenomena we can mention the early experiments in

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European glacial phenomena. This was mainly due to the fact that during the glaciations, cold intrusions from the Arctic stopped the tropical monsoon from rising above the equator, thereby blocking the mechanism that brought the rains to the Sahara.

The Beginnings of Human Occupation The oldest documented human occupation in the western and central Sahara belongs to the Acheulean industry. Acheulean hand axes from the now dry basin of the ancient Lake Shati, in southern Libya, have been dated to 125 000 BP, and were deposited during a wet phase (corresponding to the oxygen isotopic stage 5 – OIS 5). An arid phase, seen in dune formation, separates the Acheulean occupation from the first traces of the Aterian, a Middle Stone Age industry whose presence in the Sahara has been dated to OIS 4 (70 000–59 000 BP). The Aterian represents an important occupation phase of the Saharan area by communities that hunted large mammals (buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, antelope), as well as carrying out marginal gathering activities, and who made their temporary bases near water sources, such as springs, lakes, and rivers. It is thought that the Aterian was the last documented occupation of the Sahara before a further very severe arid crisis, contemporary with the Wu¨rm glaciation in Europe, and this caused the Aterian hunters to abandon the area, probably in order to push on toward wetter lands, toward the coast, and the tropical regions.

From Hunter-Gatherers to Food-Producers The Wu¨rm glaciation is evident throughout the large extent of the Sahara as a long arid episode, which reached its peak around 20 000 years ago, causing a severe contraction of human occupation, if not a complete abandonment of the area by human groups. In the Sahara, therefore, the beginning of a marked transformation in lifestyle, a prelude to food production activities, coincided with the return of the rains at the end of Pleistocene (12 000–10 000 BP) and with the resettlement of the region. In the transitional phase between the Pleistocene and the Holocene, cultural groups were strongly based on the exploitation of aquatic resources, a life style that the archaeologist Sutton called ‘aqualithic culture’. In Mali a lacustrine phase, between 8500 and 6900 BP, can be seen in the stratigraphic sections of the ancient lakes that lie next to the extensive dunes. Finely stratified sediments, which contain the remains of aquatic fauna, shells, and diatoms (freshwater plants), are clear signs of the presence of permanent lakes in the

past. The huge cemeteries that have been discovered in the Taoudenni region (Hassi el Abiod, Ine Sakane) have permitted notable observations to be made regarding, in particular, palaeoanthropological characteristics. An important cultural sequence is also evident in the mountainous regions of Algeria, where huntergatherer groups left remains of their material culture, in particular a characteristic pottery type, in temporary camps such as Amekni and Ti-n-Hanakaten. Other human settlements in the central Sahara appear in the area of the modern state of Chad, but are only known from surface scatters and ceramics collected by French and German archaeologists. In contrast, in Libya and Niger there are full stratigraphic sequences that allow the transformation of lifestyle to be studied: from a wide range of environmental exploitation strategies (including hunting, gathering, and fishing activities) to an economy that was specialized in pastoralism (cattle, sheep/goat). The Tadrart Acacus Massif in Libya that, along with the Algerian Tassili n’Ajjer, is one of the most important rock art (see Rock Art) complexes in the Sahara, has provided the various phases in this sequence, allowing light to be shed on the initial stages of domestication, which is not always visible in archaeological research. The lower layers (c. 9100 BP) of Ti-n-Torha East, in northern Acacus, show occasional occupation and a wide range of environmental exploitation strategies – with a strong incidence of plant food linked to the first appearance of ceramics (Figure 2). Other sites, such as Uan Afuda and Uan Tabu, show instead a lesser interest in the exploitation of floral resources and, on the other hand, a greater specialization in the exploitation of fauna. For example, Uan Afuda was laid out as a specialized camp for Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) hunting and herding. In the upper layers (8500–8000 BP), Ti-n-Torha East becomes a real proto-village, with a series of hut foundations built against the rock walls of the wadi that was suitable for the needs of a semi-permanent settlement (Figure 3). The composite sequence obtained from the three sites of Ti-n-Torha (East, North, and Two Caves Shelters) covers the entire period from Early to Middle Holocene (Figure 4). On the basis of material culture and archaeozoological evidence, the author suggests an autochthonous transition model (i.e., a local development model, without external influences) from pre-domestication to forms of incipient domestication. The Libyan situation finds notable parallels, stratigraphic and chronological, to the situation seen in Niger. The first discoveries made here, in the Aı¨r region, were by J. Desmond Clark in the 1970s. A full reconstruction of the regional sequence is due to the subsequent research of J. P. Roset who, in the 1980s, made

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Figure 2 Ceramics with impressed decorations from Ti-n-Torha East (Libya). Photo Barbara Barich, unpublished.

Saharan ceramic production in the Early Holocene. The faunal remains found have been attributed to wild animals and even fish, while the abundance of grinding stones is evidence of the importance of plant gathering. Hydrogeological studies in Niger have shown that an initial climatic recovery with the return of the rains, came at the end of the Pleistocene, around 13 000 years ago. It was then followed by a further dry phase in 9500 BP, just at the beginnings of the Holocene sequence. These data give support to the existence in Niger of a Palaeolithic (or Epipalaeolithic) occupation phase, as had been suggested by J. Desmond Clark. Figure 3 The Ti-n-Torha East settlement (Libya). From Barich BE (1998) People, Water and Grain – The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.

known the more-or-less contemporary sites of Temet 1 (9650–9450 BP), Ti-n-Ouaffadene (9360–9080 BP), and Adrar Bous 10 (9220–8840 BP), which are all tied to the lake expansion in the wet phase of the Early Holocene. The lithic complex of these contexts, as seen in Temet 1, continues the Epipalaeolithic tradition which, however, is already associated with pottery. The oldest examples have been found in Tagalagal, in the Bagzanes mountains (Aı¨r) and dated to between 9500 and 9200 BP. The Tagalagal ceramics have a variety of forms and well-developed decoration. Among these the ‘dotted wavy line’ decoration is noteworthy, as it is the most characteristic motif of the

Pastoralists and Saharan Rock Art During the 6000–5000 BP period (cal. 5000–4000 BC) the pastoral culture was widespread throughout the central and western Sahara. The presence of pastoralists was everywhere associated with elaborate rock art works that seem to have had, at least partly, the role of marking sacred places, where particular initiation ceremonies were carried out. In Niger, the sites of Dogomboulo in the Fachi area (7100–6600 BP) and Rocher Toubeau (5650–5500 BP), are the first examples of the Tenerian, a pastoral culture of the Middle Holocene. It is characterized by thick bifacial tools, such as gouges (flaked axes), discs, arrow heads, and polished hand axes. The Tenerian economy included animal husbandry, hunting, and gathering of wild cereals. An almost entire skeleton of a domestic ox

AFRICA, SOUTH/Sahara, West and Central 65

Figure 4 Panoramic view of the Auis and Ti-n-Torha wadis, in northern Acacus. Photo Barbara Barich, unpublished.

(Bos taurus), found in Agorass n’Tast, was dated to 6250–5250 BP. In the same area evidence for gathering of wild plant species has been found, imprints in clay vessels show the presence of Brachiaria and Sorghum. The Tenerian reached its peak around 5000 BP and was particularly widespread along the eastern side of Aı¨r, between Adrar Bous and Areschima.

The Spread of Pastoralism in the Late Holocene There is a clear chronological gap in the distribution of pastoral sites outside those areas discussed so far, both toward the Sahel and in the sub-Saharan regions. On the basis of the available data there is no evidence of domesticated animals (see Animal Domestication) on the northwestern edges of the Sahara, in the area between the Algerian and Moroccan lands of Atlas and Aure`s to the north, and Tanezrouft to the south, along the border between Algeria and Mali. This area seems to have been inhabited by mobile groups who continued in the hunting/fishing/gathering tradition (the culture of Hassi el Abiod). Based on this evidence, it can be stated that the northwestern part of the Sahara did not act as a corridor for the movement of domesticated livestock from the north (Aure`s) toward western Africa. In the Middle Holocene (6000–5000 BP) the greatest concentration of pastoral sites, such as the famous Adrar Bous, is seen along the western side of the Te´ne´re´, and it was probably from here that the Saharan pastoralists spread out toward the south and southwest, reaching the Atlantic coast of the western Sahara at Tintan and Chami, the Adrar des

Ifoghas and Tilemsi Valley in Mali, Azawagh Valley in Niger, pushing on to Dhar Tichitt in Mauretania, Kintampo and Ntereso in Ghana, where they introduced sheep/goats and decorated ceramics, developing new dynamics that led to the first agriculture in the region. Between the mid-fifth and the mid-fourth millennium BP (cal. 3500–2500 BC) Niger (Azawagh, the Aı¨r region, Ighazer-Tigidit, and the Termit Massif) saw the immigration of new groups with an organizational structure, including the presence of elites who built monumental tombs; these pastoral warriors were distinct in their palaeoanthropological profile from the previous population. Since the funerary monuments were primarily intended for males, we can argue that they were created for prestigious figures – leaders – within an aristocratic organization similar to a chiefdom. For the groups in the Agadez region there is evidence, from the third millennium BC, for the first attempts at copper metallurgy, which makes that area one of the oldest metalworking centers in Africa. See also: Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Animal Domestication; Rock Art.

Further Reading Aumassip G (2001) L’Algerie des premiers hommes. Paris: Ibis Press. Barich BE (ed.) (1987) British Archaeological Reports, International Series 368: Archaeology and Environment in the Libyan Sahara: The Excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, 1978–1983. Oxford: BAR. Barich BE (1998) People, Water and Grain – The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.

66 AFRICA, SOUTH/Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa Cremaschi M and Di Lernia S (eds.) (1998) Wadi Teshuinat, Palaeoenvironment and Prehistory in South-western Fezzan. Firenze: Edizioni all’Insegna del Giglio. Garcea EAA (ed.) (2001) Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. AZA Monographs N.2. Firenze: Edizioni all’Insegna del Giglio. Hassan FA (ed.) (2002) Droughts, Food and Culture – Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers.

Holl AFC (2004) Holocene Saharans, An Anthropological Perspective. London, New York: Continuum. Kuper R and Klees F (eds.) (1982) New Light on the Northeast African Past. Koln: Heinrich Barth Institut. Lequellec J-L (1998) Art rupestre et pre`histoire du Sahara. Paris: Editions Payot. Paris F (1996) Les se´pultures du Sahara nige´rien du Ne´olithique a` l’Islamisation (2 vols.). Paris: Orstom. Tillet Th (ed.) (1997) Sahara – Pale´omilieux et Peuplement Pre´historique au Ple´istoce`ne Superieur. Paris: L’Harmattan.

AFRICA, SOUTH Contents Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers Kalahari Margins Late Holocene Foragers Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa Simon Hall and Shadreck Chirikure, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Bantu A large group of related languages spoken over much of sub-Saharan Africa. hunter-gatherer A way of life in which subsistence is based on the hunting of animals and the collection of wild plants rather than settled agriculture. Iron Age The period during which iron was utilized by people from about 3000 years ago, that in Europe, followed the Copper and Bronze Ages. In southern Africa the ‘Iron Age’ was introduced and did not develop from the local Later Stone Age and it was not preceded by a Copper or Bronze Age. Mapungubwe A World Heritage site in northern South Africa at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers. It was the capital of an ancestral Shona-speaking Kingdom that flourished between AD 1220 and 1290 and which had influence over parts of modern-day eastern Botswana and southern Zimbabwe. mixed farming A form of intensive agriculture consisting of domesticated animal and crop production as food sources where the maintenance of soil fertility results from the use of animal manure as fertilizer.

Introduction Archaeological research into the origins of food production in South Africa was only placed on a systematic footing from the 1960s. Radiocarbon dating that helped establish a well-dated 2000-year ceramic sequence was a significant contribution to this shift. The chronology of Early Farmers refuted a dominant apartheid narrative that asserted a shallow time depth for Bantu-speaking farmers in South Africa. Since the early 1990s the exposure of this suppressed archaeology has become an important part of a new democratic history. Research themes over this period have emphasized refining ceramic culture history sequences, settlement patterns and lifeways, and cognitive archaeology using ethnographic models to understand settlement space and the scale of political power (Figures 1 and 2).

The First Mixed Farmers between AD 400 and 1000 The earliest good evidence for full mixed cereal and livestock farming is dated to between AD 400 and 600. Livestock associated with pottery known as Bambata, however, predates unequivocal agropastoralism by 200–300 years and is known from Southwestern Zimbabwe, Botswana, and northern South Africa. This Bambata Pottery is enigmatic and some suggest

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next to rivers on deep alluvial soils. Where preservation allows, villages comprised a central cattle enclosure associated with metal working and ash dumps surrounded by a domestic, ring of huts and granaries. This was surrounded by a domestic ring of huts and granaries. There has been much debate as to whether this settlement layout can be interpreted through an ethnographic model called the Central Cattle Pattern, derived from late ninteenth- and twentieth-century Nguni-speaking ethnography. Huffman argues that cattle were probably socially and politically a key resource, particularly as a medium for bridewealth, from the inception of the early first millennium AD mixed farming ‘package’. Others have suggested that cattle only developed social importance toward the end of the first millennium. Hunter-gatherers were drawn toward settlements and entered into exchange and barter relationships with Early Farmers. Most farmers were selfsufficient in terms of basic livestock, cereal, ceramic, and metal production, but some settlements were larger and others had dumps associated with central cattle enclosures and which contained the debris of prestige craft work and fragments of ceramic helmet

that it is the start of the Early Farmer sequence while others link it to pioneer pastoralists or huntergatherers. It may be part of a general process that resulted in the appearance of early sheep and pottery in the Cape. Whatever the case, food production did not evolve from the local Later Stone Age. A ‘package’ comprising village life, cattle, sheep, and goats, domesticated crops such as sorghum and millet, pottery, and iron and copper metallurgy was introduced from north of the Limpopo River. This is evident because the ceramics are the southernmost expression of a much wider Early Farmer ceramic style found in central and East Africa called the Chifumbaze Complex. The Chifumbaze Complex is the archaeological expression for the complex southward movement of speakers of Bantu languages. Early farmer settlements are only found in the northern and eastern areas of the country (Figure 1). This distribution falls within the summer rainfall region and reflects the rainfall and temperature tolerances of the primary cereal crops, sorghum, and millet. Farmers sought warm, lower altitude tree, and grassland habitats and built their homesteads

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masks. The ethnographic model infers that these central zones were male activity areas and suggest shallow political hierarchies in which some production and ritual were centralized.

The Rise of Social Complexity between AD 900 and 1300 Between AD 900 and 1000, the junction of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers saw a significant shift in political hierarchy within the Zhizo phase. A settlement known as Schroda was far larger than contemporary Zhizo settlements in the region and can be identified as the capital of an emerging chiefdom. This correlates with the intensification of trade links with entrepots such as Chibuene and Sofala on the southeast African coast. The Shashe/Limpopo area supported large elephant herds. Ivory and probably gold were exported where they entered complex trade networks with Swahili, Arab, and Indian centers around the Indian Ocean rim. Many of the thousands of glass trade beads at Schroda originated in Indonesia. At AD 1000, a new ancestral Shona-speaking chiefdom entered the Shashe/Limpopo valley, wrested power from Schroda and intensified trade links with the coast (see Political Complexity, Rise of). A new and larger capital was established at K2 and the number of smaller contemporary settlements increased significantly. Increasing political power and wealth was underwritten through the control of exotic trade goods that now included cloth. This is reflected by changes in the organization of the capital, where the central cattle enclosure was moved out of the town and suggests that political power was no longer

based only on cattle. James Denbow has shown that contemporary Toutswe farmers in Eastern Botswana to the west of K2 were also deeply enmeshed in trade relationships. These extended deep into the Kalahari and connected with the Okavango area of North Western Botswana and both pastoralists and hunter-gatherers were involved in commodity production and exchange. Despite this regional trade, however, Toutswe political hierarchies never matched those of the Shashe/Limpopo because access to exotic trade goods was limited. Early in the thirteenth century, K2 was abandoned and the town moved only 1 km away to Mapungubwe Hill (Figure 2). The status of elites found full expression with their occupation on top of the hill, deliberately separated from the commoner section of the town below. The establishment of the Mapungubwe state initiated the Zimbabwe Culture sequence. This represents a class-based system in which ruling elites, as sacred leaders, centralized political and ritual power, particularly rain making. Gold was assimilated into an elite value system and expressed in the thousands of gold beads, gold-plated rhino, bowl, and sceptre found in the royal cemetery on Mapungubwe Hill (Figure 3). The state extended its control into eastern Botswana though the boundaries are not yet fully established. Agricultural production was extensive, and the distribution of commoner homesteads on the edges of the Limpopo indicates that floodplain agriculture was important. The Mapungubwe State collapsed around AD 1300, possibly because of climatic and political factors. The main continuity in the Zimbabwe Culture was north of the Limpopo River with the rise of Great Zimbabwe, the capital of the Zimbabwe State that dominated much of present-day Zimbabwe.

Figure 2 Mapungubwe, the capital of the thirteenth-century Mapungubwe state.

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Figure 3 The gold rhino from the royal cemetery at Mapungubwe.

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Figure 4 Distribution of Later Farmers. Taken from Mitchell P (2002) The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Later Farming Communities in the Second Millennium AD There is a significant break in the ceramic sequence south of the Limpopo River, dating to the eleventh century AD in present-day Kwazulu-Natal, and in the fourteenth century in the areas just south of the Limpopo River. New ceramic styles and different

settlement preferences mark the appearance of new Bantu-speaking farmers (Figures 4 and 5). The newcomers were ancestral Nguni and Sotho/Tswanaspeakers who initiated the history of the majority of contemporary South Africans. On linguistic and cultural grounds, the origins of these new groups are in East Africa.

70 AFRICA, SOUTH/Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa

Figure 5 The central area of Molokwane, a stone wall western Tswana town dating between the eighteenth century and 1827.

By the fourteenth century, ancestral Sotho/Tswanaspeakers were established in the Limpopo region. By the end of the fifteenth century, they had expanded southwards to the edge of the southern grasslands. In the north, Sotho combined with Shona-speakers who had moved south across the Limpopo River, and by the sixteenth century had intermarried and melded to develop Venda as a language and an identity. Below the escarpment to the east, ancestral Nguni-speakers, known as Blackburn, had first settled the coastal area by the twelfth century AD. From AD 1300 a second phase had developed known as Moor Park. They moved beyond the mixed habitats of the major river valleys and expanded onto the higher grasslands over the escarpment to the west, as well as southwards along the coast to the edge of the viable summer rainfall zone. These Nguni farmers were the first to use dry stone walls to mark homestead boundaries and internal activity areas. Moor Park settlements are frequently found on steep-sided hills that may indicate the defense of agricultural resources in the harsher climatic conditions at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. Climatic downturns may also have encouraged dispersals by Nguni-speakers, one at AD 1600 and another at AD 1700, over the escarpment into the western Sotho/Tswana dominated interior. Here they initially resisted Sotho/Tswana-speakers but were soon culturally assimilated. From the sixteeenth-century, Sotho-Tswana speakers had pushed further south across the Vaal River and onto the grassland habitats of the Eastern Free State and by the seventeenth century had reached the climatic and environmental limits of sorghum and millet farming. The use of dry stone walls to delineate settlements was widespread by this time, particularly on the treeless habitats of the southern grasslands. There is a relatively direct historic relationship

between this archaeology and the ethnographic ‘present’, and analogy allows settlement structure to be ‘read’ in some detail. In addition, as Tim Maggs has shown, this period comes within the reach of oral records which attach specific identities to settlement types and individual settlements. Archaeological evidence, including rock art, ethnohistoric records, and linguistic research show that complex interactions between hunter-gatherers and farmers continued well into the nineteenth century. In the second half of the eighteenth century a process of political centralization gathered momentum among western and eastern Tswana-speakers. The oral records describe considerable tension between competing chiefdoms. The archaeological correlate is the aggregation of homesteads into large towns, some of which were clearly defensive (Figure 5). The first Europeans to visit some of them recorded populations of up to 20 000 people. The factors responsible for political centralization vary between demographic surges, drought, the introduction of maize, and the colonial frontier pushing from the Cape Colony in the south and from the south east African coast. Toward the end of the eighteenthcentury elephant ivory was a major trade item, and competition over ivory, cattle, women, and other resources for local use and trade were intense. The best-known response to colonial pressure came in the early nineteenth century when the Zulu state, under Shaka, rose to power in the east. Colonial historians of early nineteenth-century history blamed Shaka for the mfecane, a period of political instability between the early 1820s and the late 1830s. Revisionist historians see African state formation and increased militarism as a response to colonial pressures of which the Great Trek northwards from the Cape Colony was an inseparable process. With this event, the frontier

AFRICA, SOUTH/Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers 71

started to close and by the end of the nineteenth century South African farmers had all but lost their independence. See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Zimbabwe

Plateau and Surrounding Areas; Africa, South: Kalahari Margins; Political Complexity, Rise of.

Further Reading Hall M (1987) The Changing Past: Farmers Kings and Traders in Southern Africa, 200–1860. Cape Town: David Philip. Hammond-Tooke WD (1993) The Roots of Black South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. Huffman TN (1996) Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Leslie M and Maggs T (eds.) (2000) African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 years ago. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 8. Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Mitchell P (2002) The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers Andrew B Smith, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

animals (cattle, sheep, goats) or traditional African grains (sorghum, millet) to be found in southern Africa, but how these were transferred is still disputed. It used to be thought that the introduction of domestic food products was initially done by immigrant Iron Age farmers into South Africa, but it is now clear that these farmers only arrived about 1800 years ago, and the sheep bones found mostly in cave sites of the Western and Southern Cape predate their arrival by at least 200 years. The Khoekhoen (‘Hottentots’) are known historically as the herders of the Cape, and were some of the earliest sub-Saharan Africans to be met by European travelers in the fifteenth century. Their wealth in cattle made them a focus of attention, as their animals were used to refresh the ships plying the East India trade. Once sheep were excavated from sites at the Cape dating to 2000 years ago, and especially when excavations began at Kasteelberg on the west coast of South Africa, north of Cape Town, and dates of over 1800 years emerged in association with large numbers of sheep bones, it was immediately assumed that the shepherds were ancestors of the historic Khoekhoen. Today, not everyone agrees with this assumption, so there is some debate on the development of pastoral society in South Africa. There are thus two components to the arguments on the origins of food production in southern Africa: (1) how the animals and plants got there, and by whom; (2) what happened once these commodities arrived and spread to the Cape.

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Khoisan Herders Glossary farmer Someone who works on or operates a farm. forager Someone who hunts for food and provisions. herder A worker who lives a semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals. Khoekhoen A general name which the herding people of the Cape used for themselves. Khoisan A collective name that originally referred to the linguistic and biological groupings of aboriginal people of southern Africa. It has now taken on a cultural meaning in the popular literature. Soaqua A name given to hunters by the Khoekhoen of the Cape. The word means ‘people different from ourselves’ and became associated with those without livestock, or people who stole livestock.

The Debate on Early Food Production in Southern Africa The arrival of food producers to southern Africa was the end of a long process of gradual dispersal. The route of domestic animals into the subcontinent had to be from the north, as there are no wild progenitors of the

Khoisan people are the aboriginal inhabitants of southern Africa. Although they must have formed a single genetic population at one time, linguistically there are three distinct groups whose click languages are mutually unintelligible. This suggests separation over a considerable period of time. Recent physical anthropological work by Morris has suggested that there are no Khoisan skeletons to be found north of the Zambezi River, so any involvement of Khoisan people with domestic animals had to take place either along the Zambezi, or the rivers systems to the west, such as the Kavango River. This immediately implies the movement of domestic stock to southern Africa by non-South Africans, either farmers or pastoralists coming most probably from East Africa via a tsetsefree corridor (Figure 1), although movement via Angola from the Congo cannot be ruled out. The reason for this lack of clarity is due to large areas of Central Africa being poorly understood archaeologically, and small groups of migrating pastoral people may leave very little signs of their passing

72 AMERICAS, NORTH/Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers

Ngamuriak

Proposed route of sheep circa 2000 B.P. Distribution of ripple-rim ceramics c. 2000 B.P. Bambata Lowland rain forest

Geduld Falls Rock

Distribution of species of morsitans tsetse

Spoegrivier Kasteelberg Die Krans Boomplaas Witklip Die Kelders Blombos

Figure 1 Possible route of movement of domestic stock in Southern Africa 2000 BP. Taken from Smith AB (2006) Excavations at Kasteelberg and Origins of the Khoekhoen in Western Cape, South Africa.

(see Africa, East: Foragers; Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers). Support for an East African connection comes from linguistic work by Ehret which indicates that words for ‘ram’, ‘young ram’, and ‘milk ewe’ in Khoe languages came from a putative East Sahelian language that existed in East Africa. Khoe-speaking hunters still live along the Kavango River in the Caprivi, and the river systems of northeastern Botswana south of the Zambezi. This is also the base of the language spoken by the Khoekhoen of the Cape. Thus, it would appear that the Khoekhoe ancestors probably came from the area of the Kavango and Zambezi. The questions is: when did this happen? One scenario would have domestic sheep arriving in Caprivi via pastoralists or agriculturalists from East Africa and transferred to Khoe-speaking hunters who adopted sheep herding, and who spread southwards, eventually reaching the Cape some 2000 years ago. The initial arrivals were small groups who are difficult to see archaeologically, and it is from this population that the early sheep bones and pottery were transferred to hunters who occupied the small rock shelters (Figure 2). Once the herders became established, and their flocks grew, Smith suggests they used Kasteelberg as an aggregation point for harvesting seals, and at the same time used the fat mixed with ochre in ceremonies.

An alternative is suggested by Sadr that the people inhabiting such sites as Spoegrivier Cave, Die Kelders Cave, Blombos Cave, and Kasteelberg ‘G’ open-site were indigenous hunters of the Cape who occupied these sites before and after the introduction of sheep and pottery, and who obtained sheep via internal exchange systems to become independent herders. This scenario would further suggest that the Khoekhoen, as known historically, were later arrivals at the Cape, and who were the people who introduced cattle and lugged pottery.

Southern African Iron Age Farmers The arrival of Iron Age farmers to South Africa brought the widest range of domestic plants and animals. These people have been divided into three groups; (1) the Kwale branch of East African Urewe Tradition; (2) the Nkope branch of the Urewe Tradition; and (3) the Kalundu Tradition from the Congo. They brought with them ceramics whose designs can be traced further north. They also brought an African language, known as Ntu, which is part of the Niger– Congo family, and has its roots in the Cross Rivers area of West Africa. They introduced iron technology which was crucial for making tools to clear fields in the slash-and-burn system used, and for weapons. Huffman believes that the layout of the

AMERICAS, NORTH/Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers 73

Figure 2 Excavated sites at Kasteelberg, Vredenburg Peninsular, Western Cape province, South Africa. Taken form Smith AB (2006) Excavations at Kasteelberg and the origins of the Khoekhoen in the Western Cape, South Africa.

homesteads, which he calls the Central Cattle Pattern, with huts surrounding the cattle kraal, and with burials in the central cattle area, can trace its origins to the earliest arrivals. Not everyone agrees. Lane is skeptical that such a tradition can survive without change for such a long period. Huffman’s system of decorative symbols on ceramics currently has the strongest voice, and adherents would say the system also carries through to the present.

Relations between Hunters and Food Producers Since the evidence indicates that food production was introduced from the north, and that the ancestors of modern Bantu-speaking farmers also came from the north, we can assume at least a partial connection, certainly as far as domestic plants are concerned. The impact of the arrival of Iron Age farmers some 1800 years ago on the aboriginal Khoisan hunting population along the southeast coast of southern Africa may initially have been minimal, as the first farmers needed to adjust to local conditions. This would have been particularly true of the introduction of cattle which Gifford-Gonzalez says needed to deal with epizootic diseases carried by wild animals, such as buffalo and neonate wildebeest, and which are potentially fatal to cattle. By 1500 years ago, the highveld of South Africa was being colonized, and the biological evidence suggests that aboriginal hunters were subsumed into Iron Age populations as African farmers took wives from among the hunters. This resulted in hypergyny (one-way gene flow), since few hunters could have had access to the cattle

needed for bride-wealth payments to obtain farming wives. At the Cape, the historical evidence hints that hunters (called Soaqua) continued to maintain a separate existence to the Khoekhoen, right up to the colonial period in the seventeenth century. This leads to the Dutch perceived separation of ‘Bushmen’ and ‘Hottentots’, as hunters and herders respectively, with the Khoekhoen being the dominant group. In fact, a description by the governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel, in 1685 epitomizes their relationship: ‘‘We find that these Soaquas are just the same as the poor in Europe, each tribe of Hottentots having some of them and employing them to bring news of the approach of a strange tribe. They steal nothing from the kraals of their employers but regularly from other kraals . . . possessing nothing . . . except what they acquire by theft.’’ The historian Elphick challenged this separation, and suggested by the colonial period there was only one group of ‘Hottentots’, and that the Soaqua were Khoekhoen who had lost their stock through theft or disease, and were on the downward part of a cycle of fortune. The separation between Khoekhoen and Bantuspeaking farmers was ecological. The Cape is a winter rainfall area, so was not available to agriculturalists with summer rainfall crops. Iron Age people never spread to the Cape, leaving the southwest and Atlantic coastal areas open for pastoralism, while in the dry interior the hunters held sway until later in the historic period when deep underground water could be tapped using wind-driven pumps. See also: Africa, East: Foragers; Africa, North: Sahara,

Eastern; Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers.

74 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Further Reading Ehret C (1998) An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400. Oxford: James Currey. Elphick R (1977) Kraal and Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Gifford-Gonzalez D (2000) Animal disease challenges to the emergence of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa. African Archaeological Review 17(3): 95–139. Huffman TN (1980) Ceramics, classification and Iron Age entities. African Studies 39: 123–174. Huffman TN (1986) Iron Age settlement patterns and the origins of class distinction in southern Africa. Advances in World Archaeology 5: 291–338. Lane P (1994–95) The use and abuse of ethnography in Iron Age studies of southern Africa. Azania 29/30: 51–64. Morris AG (2002) Isolation and the origin of the Khoisan: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene human evolution at the southern end of Africa. Human Evolution 17(3–4): 231–240. Sadr K (2003) The Neolithic of southern Africa. Journal of African History 44: 195–209. Smith AB (2005) African Herders: Emergence of Pastoral Traditions. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Smith AB (2006) Excavations at Kasteelberg and origins of the Khoekhoen in Western Cape, South Africa. Oxford: BAR International Series 1537.

Kalahari Margins James Denbow, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

Okavango–Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. In the north, the Okavango Delta, one of the largest inland deltas in the world, provides a counterpoint to the otherwise flat and thirsty sands of the Kalahari sandveld into which it drains. From the Makgadikgadi salt pans to the Limpopo River, greater physiographic relief prevails on the more fertile soils of the hardveld, which today support over 80% of the region’s population. While the climate of the Kalahari has remained relatively stable over the past two millenniums, the archaeological record indicates that a number of important cultural and economic transformations have occurred, first as domesticated livestock were introduced to supplement forager subsistence strategies and, later, as more sedentary agropastoral communities settled the more productive regions of eastern Botswana and along the margins of the Okavango Delta (Figure 1). By CE 1000 changes in the internal dynamics of subsistence production, enhanced by the establishment of local trade networks that carried game products, metal goods, and other valued objects, led to more regional political formations and the appearance of the first chiefdoms (see Political Complexity, Rise of). Connections with longer-distance trade networks in luxury goods that reached, through intermediaries in the Limpopo valley, eastward to the Indian Ocean accompanied these internal changes, eventually underwriting the more complex political and social formations of the historic period.

ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Foragers to Herder-Foragers: 100 BCE–CE 700 Glossary Great Zimbabwe The name given to the remains of stone, sometimes referred to as the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, of an ancient Southern African city, located at 20
160 S 30
540 E in present-day Zimbabwe which was once the center of a vast empire known as the Munhumutapa Empire (also called Monomotapa or Mwene Mutapa Empire). chiefdom Any community led by an individual known as a chief. Chiefdoms are characterized by pervasive inequality of peoples and centralization of authority. Iron Age The stage in the development of any people where the use of iron implements as tools and weapons is prominent. The Iron Age is the last principal period in the three-age system for classifying prehistoric societies, preceded by the Bronze Age. In sub-Saharan Africa this system must be modified because no Bronze Age comes between the Late Stone Age and the Iron Age. Instead, the Iron Age follows directly from, and in some areas overlaps with, the Late Stone Age.

Introduction This chapter discusses the period between approximately 100 BCE and CE 1700, encompassing those parts of the Kalahari region lying between the

The Appearance of Sheep and Cattle

Beginning around 2000 years ago archaeological data from the Okavango region at sites such as Toteng 1 and Lotshitshi indicate that domesticated cattle and sheep were added in small numbers to the subsistence economy of Late Stone Age (LSA) populations living by hunting, gathering, and, in some cases, fishing. While early dates for herder-foraging in northern Botswana were once viewed with skepticism because of potential problems of association between charcoal samples and the domestic animal bones they were meant to date due to mixing in the loose Kalahari sand, the most recent calibrated AMS (accelerator mass spectroscopy) dates from Toteng, done directly on cattle and sheep bones, place the appearance of both in northern Botswana between 200 BCE and 100 CE. The domesticated animal remains at the site predate levels containing Bambata ceramics by several hundred years, indicating that the economic changes associated with herder-foraging spread independently from pottery making and/or use.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 75

Serondella Tsodilo Hills

Divuvu and Nqoma

Okavango Delta

Lotshitshi

Toteng Hippo Tooth

Makgadikgadi Pans

Tora Nju

Kaishe Toutswe

Bosutswe Botswana

Kgaswe K2 and Mapungubwe

Losé

Gaborone

0 0

50 100 km 50

100 mi

Administrative districts Geographic features Sandveld/ hardveld boundary Figure 1 Selected archaeological sites in northern and eastern Botswana. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bambata Ware

Calibrated dates for the appearance of Bambata ware at Toteng range between CE 215 and 555, which brackets a date between CE 250 and 530 for a few Bambata ceramics from the Late Stone Age site of Lotshitshi near Maun. A bone apatite date of CE 790–1010 for Bambata ware from the site of Hippo Tooth extends this distribution eastward along the Ngami–Botletli River System to the southern edge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans (Figure 2). Bambata ware has also been collected from the surface of several other, presently undated, sites in the Makgadikgadi where it accompanies LSA materials. Since cattle and sheep are not indigenous to southern Africa, there has been debate about the ultimate source of these domesticates for hunters and gatherers living below the Kunene–Okavango–Zambezi Rivers. Some argue for a source in the earlier pastoral Neolithic of East Africa, while others propose more western origins – either in the Early Iron Age of northern Angola

and the Congo, or perhaps even the Cameroon. Debate also surrounds the nature of the ceramic assemblages classed as Bambata, with some arguing for indigenous production of these ceramics by local hunter-gatherers while others suggest that the ceramics were obtained through trade with Early Iron Age communities, perhaps even as fragments used for ritual purposes or curiosities rather than as functional vessels. Apart from generalized stylistic resemblances to some ceramics from Benfica in western Angola, however, no presently known Iron Age sites north or south of the Okavango–Zambezi Rivers appear to be definitive. Sources for these early wares are unknown. What is certain is that a diversity of hunting, gathering, fishing, and herding adaptations developed along the rivers, deserts, swamps, and other ecological zones in Botswana at the beginning of the Common Era. Precisely how stone-using foragers and herderforagers interfaced and interacted with arriving agropastoral populations after CE 500 is uncertain,

76 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Figure 2 Bambata ceramics recovered from the LSA site of Hippo Tooth. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

but it is likely that a variety of interactive forms developed that ranged from intermarriage and assimilation, to fleeting interaction and trade and perhaps even competitive or antagonistic relationships – especially along the western parts of the Boteti River where the presence of Khoi-speaking herder-foragers appears to have inhibited Iron Age settlement until 400– 500 years ago. During the mid-nineteenth century, historic accounts indicate that some indigenous Khoe populations in this region, such as the Deti, kept large herds of cattle that might have put them in direct competition with Bantu-speaking agropastoralists for grazing and water rights. Further east, along the southern and eastern margins of the Makgadikgadi salt pans,

Early Iron Age settlements such as Kaishe were well established by the tenth or eleventh centuries; ruins at Tora Nju and other locations extend agropastoral settlement, social stratification, and Zimbabwe hegemony into this region during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Early Iron Age Communities on the Eastern Margins of the Kalahari Between CE 600 and 800 settled communities of mixed farmers and herders appeared along the western and southern fringes of the Okavango and Chobe Rivers at sites such as Divuyu and Serondella, the

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 77

southeastern margins of the Makgadikgadi at Kaishe, and in the hardveld of eastern and southern Botswana. Studies of cave sediments in the Tsodilo Hills, along with changes in prehistoric site distributions in central and eastern Botswana over the past 2000 years, suggest that climatic conditions were wetter during the last half of the first millennium CE. While agropastoral communities had considerable overlap with indigenous hunters and gatherers in their use of wild plants and animals, water points, firewood, and other natural resources, they also introduced more intensive systems of land use as fields were cleared for sorghum, millet, cow peas, and a variety of other crops. More regulated systems of land rights were also needed to manage growing herds of cattle, goats, and sheep, with their increased labor, grazing, and water demands. Cattle Wealth and Early Chiefdoms in Eastern Botswana: CE 700–1000

Between approximately CE 600 and 800 most settlements were small, mixed farming communities that combined animal husbandry and agriculture with a significant input from game and wild plants. Ceramic styles link these communities culturally to settlements known as Zhizo in Zimbabwe. Local distinctions in ceramic style, however, suggest they were a separate facies known as Taukome. By CE 700 domestic herds were large enough to leave an easily recognizable imprint on village layout in the form of centralized deposits of unburned and vitrified dung, surrounded by houses constructed of pole and a mixture of dung

and mud known as daga. This pattern recurs widely across southern Africa and is known, as the Central Cattle Pattern (CCP). Over the next 500 years, herds continued to prosper and grow, producing dung deposits over 2 m deep and 60 m in diameter in the centers of some villages. These animals provided the economic capital that permitted social and political differentiation between CE 900 and 1100. Increased social stratification based upon differential holdings of cattle and small stock is reflected in regional settlement patterns as large, long-term settlements such as Toutswemogala (Figure 3) and Bosutswe were surrounded by smaller, more ephemeral satellite communities whose locations shifted when fertile land, firewood, and other productive resources were exhausted. In concert with the increasing scale of political centralization and emerging chiefly authority exercised on a regional level, as reflected in these regional changes in settlement structure, ceramic assemblages become more standardized in form and decoration and are known as the Toutswe tradition (see Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallurgists of South Africa). Trade in Specularite and Social Differentiation in Northwestern Botswana

Social differentiation based upon intensification of commodity production and wealth accumulation was also occurring at the Tsodilo Hills in northwestern Botswana (Figure 4a and 4b) where intensive specularite mining took off between CE 800 and 1100. Control of the specularite mines at Tsodilo enabled

Figure 3 Aerial view of Toutswemogala showing the characteristic Cenchrus-covered midden that commonly developed in association with the animal kraals at deeply stratified Early Iron Age settlements in the eastern Kalahari. A smaller Cenchrus midden can be seen at the base of the hill. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

78 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Divuyu Nqoma

(a)

DIvuyu

1000 m 500 m

0

Nqoma

10 m

20 m

Location of Iron Age sites in the Tsodilo Hills (b) Figure 4 (a) A view of the ‘female’ hill at Tsodilo taken from the top of the ‘male’ hill showing the locations of Divuyu and Nqoma. (b) Topographic map of the Tsodilo Hills showing the locations of Divuyu and Nqoma. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

the Iron Age occupants at Nqoma to procure unparalleled quantities of iron and copper jewelry. Even glass beads, cowry, and conus shells from the east coast reached the site, making it the most distant inland entrepoˆt in eastern and southern Africa to have obtained luxury goods from the Indian Ocean trade in the first millennium (Figure 5). Finds of Nqoma style ceramics in the lower levels of Bosutswe suggest that at least some of these luxury goods were directed westward through emerging Toutswe chiefdoms rather than following routes along the Zambezi River. By

the beginning of the second millennium, however, specularite sources in eastern Botswana may have replaced those of Nqoma, leading to an attenuation of these trans-Kalahari connections. Perhaps in consequence, Nqoma was abandoned as an elite settlement around CE 1100. East Coast Trade and Early Chiefdoms in East-Central Botswana: CE 1000–1200

Glass beads, marine shells, and even chickens imported from the east coast begin to appear in

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 79

small numbers after CE 800, but apart from the differential distribution of livestock holdings there is little other material evidence for social stratification other than a tendency for the longer-term elite settlements to be established on rocky hilltops. Whether

Figure 5 An eleventh century ivory copy of a Conus shell bead recovered from the excavations at Nqoma. Nqoma, more than 1500 km from the coast, is the most distant interior settlement so far known to have been able to import luxury items such as glass beads and cowry shells from the Indian Ocean. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

rocky hilltops were chosen for defensive purposes, or for their symbolic associations with power and rainmaking, or a combination of both, is not known. Caches of glass beads and other status goods found at small sites such as Kgaswe indicate that access to luxury goods was not restricted to the elite on hilltop settlements and suggest that status differentiation was more fluid than it was to become later. Although more than 60 Toutswe period burials have been excavated, none has been found with distinctively rich grave goods that would attest to more developed class distinctions, such as those that make their appearance after CE 1200 (Figure 6). The presence of central animal kraals (a term now widely used in southern Africa to denote animal pens or byres) at all sites – from the smallest to the largest – during the Toutswe period contrasts with what is found after CE 1200 when only smaller sites continue to be organized according to the CCP. Kraals disappear from elite centers such as Bosutswe, suggesting that an important change in herd management had occurred, with animals being shifted from high-status locations to smaller, commoner settlements. Whether this was in response to ecological difficulties brought about by overgrazing around large centers, or it represents a symbolic shift associated with the establishment of more rigid social hierarchies and class differentiation, is presently unclear. But there is no doubt that new spatial and

Figure 6 Toutswe burial from Bosutswe. Analysis of the skeletal material from Bosutswe indicates a population with better nutritional health than that from Mapungubwe at the same time period. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

80 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Figure 7 The site of Bosutswe on the eastern edge of the Kalahari. The large mound in the center of the site is formed from the remains of substantial elite houses that date to the period after CE 1200 when most of the commoner Toutswe population was moved off the hilltop. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bosutswe Bronze bangle with glass bead Gold bangle

through the wearing of quantities of glass beads, copper and bronze jewelry, and cloth apparel (Figure 8). Metal production, rainmaking, trade in specularite, and other activities imbued with ritual and economic significance become more centralized at elite centers at this time (see Social Inequality, Development of).

Class Formation: Political and Economic Restructuring after CE 1200

2 cm

Figure 8 The elite at Bosutswe used metal jewelry to index their social status. While they were able to acquire small quantities of gold, they were not powerful enough to compete with the elite at Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe for this commodity. In consequence, they turned to the use of high-tin bronze bangles that, if kept polished, mimicked the appearance of gold. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

material coordinates were mapped onto social distinctions and evidence from Bosutswe indicates that the elite now lived alone on the hilltop, spatially separated from their subordinates (Figure 7). They ate from distinctively decorated ceramics patterned after those from Mapungubwe and known as Lose´ ware, and differentiated themselves in other ways

At the beginning of the thirteenth century a political change occurred as the Bosutswe elite living in the center of the hilltop aligned themselves with the elite at Mapungubwe by adopting new ceramic styles that evoked those of Mapungubwe. They further differentiated themselves from their followers by constructing large, double-walled houses with sunken interiors similar to those found at Mapungubwe. Commoners, on the other hand, continued to use Toutswe ceramics until approximately CE 1300. Remains of burned structures containing Toutswe ceramics on top of Boutswe date this period of transition to around CE 1200 and suggest that force may have been involved in the transformation of the hilltop from a Toutswe village, replete with houses and animal kraals, to the secluded residence of a small number of elite families (Figures 9 and 10). Late thirteenth century dates for Toutswe ceramics at CCP villages in the surrounding area suggest that a more rigid system of class differentiation developed that was similar to that now attested between Leopard’s Kopje and Leokwe peoples in the Limpopo valley.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins 81

Figure 9 Remains of a burned house containing Toutswe ceramics at Bosutswe. The burning, which dates to the thirteenth century, could suggest that the removal of commoner residences from the hilltop after CE 1200 involved the use of force. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

100 W ceramic seriation 0% 10% 20%

Level 1 2 3 4 5, 6, 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14, 15 Class 1e Class 1f Class 1c

Level 1 2 3 4 5, 6, 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14, 15 Class 12

Class 2b

Class 2a

Class 1a

Class 2c

Class 1b

Class 13 Class 9 Class 6 Class 6b Class 5a

Class 3a Class 7 Class 4a 4b Class 11 Class 8 Class 2d Class 2e Class 3b Class 4d

Figure 10 Changes in ceramics over time at Bosutswe. The dramatic change in ceramic classes above level 4 date to the period when elite residences inspired by Mapungubwe were built at Bosutswe. Ceramics of Class 4d originate in the Okavango region and indicate trade westward across the Kalahari. Classes 4a and 4b, on the other hand, belong to the Leopard’s Kopje and Eiland traditions in South Africa and suggest that changes in trade networks from west to east occurred after CE 1000. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

82 AMERICAS, NORTH/Kalahari Margins

Imported glass beads, along with locally made gold, bronze, and copper jewelry, were worn by the new Bosutswe elite as an index of their status. The earliest spindle whorls date from this period and suggest that cotton cloth was worn by the elite as another mark of social distinction. Finds of bronze prills, along with the crucibles used in melting copper and with remains of iron forge bases, further suggest that

Figure 11 Agate disks recovered from a fourteenth century cache of more than 100 at Bosutswe. Such stones may have figured in rainmaking and other rituals. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

the Bosutswe elite had centralized control over metal production and exchange. The high tin content of some of the Bosutswe bronze indicates it was locally produced rather than manufactured from reworked Mapungubwe bronze. Metalworking has a well-known association with the spiritual realm in the ethnographic record and smelters, who were often associated in Central African tradition with kingship, played important roles as spiritual mediators and sometimes diviners. Other evidence suggesting that the Bosutswe elite now controlled spiritual resources include the recovery of a cache of over a hundred thin, snow-white agate disks from the floor of an elite structure in the center of the hilltop along with glass beads, bronze bangles, and the canine teeth from at least four hyena – an animal often associated with the supernatural (Figure 11). Such agate disks would not be out of place in contemporary divination kits or rain-controlling paraphernalia and it is possible they served these functions in the past as well. The period between CE 1300 and 1500 saw the rise and then collapse of Great Zimbabwe to the east. While ruins of Zimbabwe type occur northeast of the Bosutswe region, and even to the west along the margins of the Makgadikgadi pans, none are known in the region running from Bosutswe to Toutswe. Bosutswe and other Lose-affiliated sites appear to have been able to maintain their distinct cultural identity while interacting with Zimbabwe communities from which rolled-rim, graphite burnished wares of Zimbabwe style, along with a lead–tin ingot, and other unusual commodities were obtained.

Figure 12 Remains of a large, circular stonewall located on an island in the Makgadikgadi pans. Local Khoe-speaking populations still leave offerings of coins and other objects at the site. ã 2008 Dr. James Denbow. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Holocene Foragers 83

The Forging of Contemporary Identities: the Proto-Historic Period between 1500 and 1700 The impact of the political restructuring that occurred in the Bosutswe region as Great Zimbabwe and then Khami rose to power is presently poorly known. In the Francistown area south of the Shashi River, the presence of Zimbabwe and Khami stonewalled settlements suggests that political and cultural developments there were closely aligned with southwestern Zimbabwe. Related ruins on the southern and eastern edges of the Makgadikgadi pans, however, suggest a more divergent historical trajectory – one that incorporated Khoe-speaking as well as Bantu peoples into a more complex and multiethnic political matrix (Figure 12). Bosutswe continued to be occupied by households using a cruder form of Lose ceramics. But at the end of its occupation around CE 1700, the remains of seven widely spaced stone-walled ellipses were constructed that probably served as household windbreaks – the hilltop was no longer the preserve of an exclusive elite. Similar stone ellipses are found on hilltops far to the west along the southern margins of the Makgadikgadi, but these are yet to be investigated by archaeologists. Their relationship to the cultural sequence at Bosutswe, and to the Zimbabwe and Khami period ruins in this area is also unknown. In addition, walled-off promontories that dominate the eroded headlands of the sandveld– hardveld boundary between Toutswe, Bosutswe, and the Makgadikgadi suggest that some eighteenth century settlements were sited with defense as a consideration. But the political and economic context of such unrest is uncertain, leaving the historical relationship of these ruins to contemporary constructions of social and cultural identity along the margins the Kalahari tantalizingly close, but unresolved. See also: Africa, South: Herders, Farmers, and Metallur-

gists of South Africa; Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers; Animal Domestication; Political Complexity, Rise of; Social Inequality, Development of.

Denbow JR (1990) Congo to Kalahari: Data and hypotheses about the political economy of the western stream of the Early Iron Age. African Archaeological Review 8: 139–176. Denbow JR (2002) Stolen Places: Archaeology and the politics of identity in the later prehistory of the Kalahari. In: Falola T and Jennings C (eds.) Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies Across the Disciplines, pp. 345–374. Transaction Publishers Rutgers: Summerset. Denbow JR and Thebe PC (2006) Culture and Customs of Botswana. Westport: Greenwood Press. Denbow JR and Wilmsen EN (1986) The advent and course of pastoralism in the Kalahari. Science 234: 1509–1515. Huffman TN (2005) The stylistic origin of Bambata and the spread of mixed farming in southern Africa. Southern African Humanities 17: 57–79. Lane P, Reid A, and Segobye A (1998) Ditswa Mmung: The Archaeology of Botswana. Gaborone: Pula Press and the Botswana Society. Leslie M and Maggs T (eds.) (2000) Goodwin Series, Vol. 8: African Naissance: The Limpopo Valley 1000 years Ago. Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Miller D (1996) The Tsodilo Jewellery: Metal Work from Northern Botswana. Rondebosch: University of Cape Town Press. Miller D (2001) Metal assemblages from the Greefswald sites, South Africa: K2, Mapungubwe southern terrace, and Mapungubwe hill. South African Archaeological Bulletin 56: 83–103. Robbins LH, Murphy ML, and Campbell AC (1998) Intensive mining of specular hematite in the Kalahari ca. AD 800–1000. Current Anthropology 39: 144–149. Robbins LH, Murphy ML, Brook GA, et al. (2000) Archaeology, palaeoenvironment, and chronology of the Tsodilo Hills White Paintings Rock Shelter, northwest Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 1085–1113. Robbins LH, Campbell AC, Murphy ML, Brook GA, Srivastava P, and Badenhorst S (2005) The advent of herding in southern Africa: Early AMS dates on domestic livestock from the Kalahari Desert. Current Anthropology 46: 671–677.

Late Holocene Foragers Judith Sealy, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Further Reading Calabrese JA (2000) Interregional interaction in southern Africa: Zhizo and Leopard’s Kopje relations in northern South Africa, southwestern Zimbabwe, and eastern Botswana, AD 1000 to 1200. African Archaeological Review 17: 183–210. Campbell AC, Denbow JR, and Wilmsen EN (1994) Paintings like engravings: Rock art at Tsodilo. In: Dowson T and LewisWilliams D (eds.) Contested Images: Diversity in Southern African Rock Art Research, pp. 131–158. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

forager Often used synonymously with ‘hunter-gatherer’ (see below). Some authors, following Binford, restrict the term to groups who move frequently to new sources of food or other resources, such as the Kalahari San. Holocene Geological period that extends from the present day back to about 10 000 radiocarbon years, approximately 11 430  130 calendar years BP (between 9560 and 9300 BC). hunter-gatherer Society whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, using foraging and hunting, without significant recourse to the domestication of either.

84 AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Holocene Foragers

Introduction Our knowledge of past foragers in southern Africa is geographically uneven (Figure 1). Most work has been done in coastal areas, where the high visibility of shell middens attracts attention, and where wavecut caves and rock shelters provide attractive sheltered camping sites for ancient and modern people alike. A few such areas have been the subjects of intensive study, but the archaeology of large areas of the subcontinent is known poorly, if at all. Despite efforts to correct this bias, our reconstructions continue to be heavily dependent on long sequence cave sites, where good preservation of organic materials allows for study of a wider range of remains than is the case at most open sites. These problems notwithstanding, the study of foraging people in southern Africa offers special opportunities, due to the preservation of a rich archaeological record and to the continuing existence of Khoisan groups, descended from these Late Holocene populations, who pursued a foraging lifestyle into the second half of the twentieth century.

The Mid-Holocene In mid-Holocene times, between about 8000 and 4000 BP, the arid central parts of South Africa were thinly populated, probably because warmer and likely drier conditions made already marginal environments unattractive. People were, however, living in the

coastal areas of South Africa, in the northern parts of the country, and in Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Stone artifact assemblages from this time are characterized by very small, highly standardized artifacts, especially tiny scrapers, and in many places, crescent-shaped ‘segments’ that may have been used in arrowheads and/or as general-purpose small cutting tools (Figure 2). The composition of assemblages changed over time (segments were especially timerestricted) but the small size of the artifacts, the relatively high proportion of retouched pieces, and a preference for fine-grained stone raw material was maintained. In the southern Cape, this tradition is called the ‘Wilton’; these assemblages extend into Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, where other names have been used. The similarity of these microlithic artifact assemblages over long distances shows that people subscribed to a shared set of social norms, at least as far as the accepted way to make tools was concerned. ‘Wilton’ artifacts include types very similar to items collected from recent San or ‘Bushmen’, including ostrich eggshell beads and beaded items, ostrich eggshell flasks, and bored stones used as digging stick weights, among others. Archaeologists are confident that the lifestyles of mid-Holocene foragers shared many similarities with those of people who continued to live by hunting and gathering into the twentieth century. Striking parallels have been demonstrated by David Lewis-Williams and others who have drawn

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Figure 1 Map showing major geographical features of South Africa and sites mentioned in the text.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Holocene Foragers 85

Mid-Holocene artifact assemblages are not, however, uniform. Lyn Wadley has excavated two approximately contemporary sites in the Magaliesberg, north of Johannesburg. Jubilee Shelter yielded many standardized, formal, microlithic stone artifacts, often made from carefully chosen, fine-grained stone not available in the immediate vicinity of the site. These were found together with bone tools, ostrich eggshell beads and bead-manufacturing debris, and other items. Cave James contained a very different kind of artifact assemblage with informal tools, made mostly from local raw material, suggesting much more ad hoc manufacture. There were few nonlithic artifacts, and much less evidence of craft activities. Wadley has interpreted this difference as the result of seasonal aggregation and dispersal of hunter-gatherer groups, with formal artifact assemblages and formal rules of behavior characteristic of aggregation-phase campsites.

4000 to 2000 BP Figure 2 Microlithic ‘Wilton’ stone artefacts: segments (top) and scrapers (bottom). Scale in mm.

Figure 3 Rock painting from Game Pass Shelter, Drakensberg, showing eland, large cloaked figures and (at top) small running humans.

from beliefs and practices of recent San communities to gain insight into the world views expressed in the complex and often very beautiful rock paintings found in many mountainous areas of southern Africa (Figure 3). Most of these paintings have not, so far, proved amenable to direct dating, but portable cobbles with paintings on them have been recovered from excavations, and can be dated by association with the levels in which they were found. Some are more than 6000 years old. Rock-painting traditions continued into the last few centuries, as images of colonial settlers and soldiers attest.

After about 4000 BP, populations grew substantially, and the interior of South Africa was re-occupied. In areas where detailed studies have been done, notably the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces and the Thukela River Basin of KwaZulu-Natal, we can see that lower-ranked food sources were added to the diet, including freshwater fish and shellfish, and there was greater emphasis on plant foods. Hilary Deacon has suggested that people may have practiced ‘fire-stick farming’ – burning the veld to promote the growth of geophytes, whose starchy corms were an important food item. These are just the type of changes one would expect if there were more people needing to be fed. In at least some areas, growing population density led to competition for resources, the emergence of more settled, territorial lifestyles and, no doubt, restructuring of earlier networks of trade and communication. At the same time, we also see evidence of increasing regional differentiation in artifact-making traditions. At some sites, microlithic tool-kits persisted, while at others, they were replaced by macrolithic assemblages. In a broad sense, this variation is likely to be one facet of the greater social and economic complexity of the last few millennia, but there is still much to explore in the links between material culture, economy, and identity (see Africa, South: Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers; Kalahari Margins). These groups may not have been ‘foragers’ in the strict Binfordian sense. Storage pits, a feature of sites in the southern and Eastern Cape in the last few millennia, point to elements of delayed return strategies. Those pits whose contents are preserved seem

86 AMERICAS, NORTH/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

to have been used mainly to store the oil-rich fruits of Pappea capensis. It is unclear just how economically important these were – the fruit is edible, but the oil was also used as a cosmetic, which may have been its main use. In the Eastern Cape, infants and young children who died were sometimes richly endowed with grave goods, especially ostrich eggshell beads. Simon Hall and Johan Binneman have suggested that these items may have been given in gift exchanges, and/or they may indicate a degree of ascribed status. These features hint at emerging complexity among Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in more productive environments. Mid- and Late Holocene hunter-gatherers were physically similar to their recent Khoisan descendants: small, lightly built people at the most gracile end of the range of documented human variation. Why this should be so is something of a mystery. It has been suggested that recent Kalahari foragers were short in stature because populations had had to adapt to scarce resources, but this clearly does not apply to equally small populations in resource-rich areas of the subcontinent; it is, therefore, probably not a major factor in the Kalahari either. People were particularly short between 4000 and 3000 BP, for reasons that are not yet well understood, but are likely to be linked to competition and conflict associated with increasing population density and the drive to intensify production. Examination of Late Holocene human skeletons has yielded remarkably little evidence of disease or trauma. Accidents or falls that resulted in broken bones or other injuries to the skeleton seem to have been rare. There are a few documented cases of interpersonal violence, all of which date to the third millennium before present – perhaps also related to conflicts to do with the re-configuration of society at that time. Overall, emerging reconstructions of Late Holocene hunter-gatherers indicate a dynamic society, with different trajectories in different regions. As in late hunter-gatherer communities in other parts of the world, there is evidence of ‘intensification’; there is no way of knowing whether this might eventually have developed into domestication, if food production had not been imported into the region.

saw the first iron-using agriculturists, who also kept sheep and cattle, move in during the first few centuries AD. Relations between food producers and foragers were complex, with evidence of interaction ranging across the spectrum from cooperation to clientship to conflict. In time, independent foragers were largely excluded from regions settled by farmers, although they continued to live until very recently in less contested areas.

New Ways of Life

Glossary

The foragers’ world was altered forever around 2000 years ago by the importation of food production from further north in Africa. In the western and southernmost parts of Africa, the first domestic sheep appeared around 2000 years ago, and by 1600 BP herding had become an important new way of life. The northern and eastern parts of the subcontinent

Early Holocene The early part of the geological Holocene period that extends from the present day back to approximately 11 430  130 years BP. forager Someone in search for food, in the context of hunter–gatherer interactions. Middle Stone Age (MSA) Period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.

See also: Africa, Central: Great Lakes Area; Africa, East: Foragers; Africa, South: Interaction of Farmers, Herders, and Foragers; Kalahari Margins; Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient.

Further Reading Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip. Hall S (2000) Burial and sequence in the Later Stone Age of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 137–146. Hall S and Binneman J (1987) Later Stone Age burial variability in the Cape: A social interpretation. South African Archaeological Bulletin 42: 140–152. Mitchell P (2002) The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pfeiffer S (in press) The health of foragers: People of the Later Stone Age, southern Africa. In: Cohen MN and Crane-Kramer G (eds.) Ancient Health. Gainesville: University of Florida. Sealy J (2006) Diet, mobility and settlement pattern among Holocene hunter-gatherers in southernmost Africa. Current Anthropology 47: 569–595.

Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers Colin A Lewis, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AFRICA, WEST/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers 87 Late Pleistocene (also known as Upper Pleistocene or the Tarantian). Latter part of the geologic timescale from 1.8 million to 11 550 years BP. Later Stone Age (LSA) Period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age.

Middle Stone Age Parts of southern Africa were occupied by peoples of Middle Stone Age (MSA) cultures during the Birnam Interstadial (35 000 to 24 000 year BP) of the latter part of the Late Pleistocene. Characteristically, the stone tools of the later MSA were triangular and irregular flakes, blades, points, knives, scrapers, and cores, as at Rose Cottage Cave in the Caledon Valley of the Free State, near the Lesotho border (Figures 1 and 2). Comparable tools have been discovered in unconsolidated deposits at Sehonghong in the Senqu (upper Orange River) Valley in Lesotho, in Strathalan Cave B near Maclear in the foothills of the Southern Drakensberg in the Eastern Cape, and elsewhere.

Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age Transition At Sehonghong, tools that are considered transitional between the MSA and the Later Stone Age (LSA) were discovered in deposits dating between 27 500 and 23 000 year BP (Figure 3). These and all other dates are calibrated radiocarbon dates, the sigma ranges are not shown. At Strathalan Cave B longer and

broader flake-blades were produced ‘toward the end of the MSA’ and date to between 28 250 and 27 250 year BP (Figure 4). Occupation floors excavated at Strathalan Cave B and dated to 33 900 and to between 28 250 and 27 250 year BP, contained patches of packed grass that were presumably used as bedding and were located near hearths, as well as twigs, corm scales, other plant debris, and bone fragments (Figure 5). These remains indicate that the inhabitants ate corms of Watsonia as well as other plant foods, and meat derived from rock hyrax (dassies) and from various antelopes including eland, blesbuck, wildebeest, springbuck, and klipspringer. The MSA dwellers of the area probably used fire to stimulate the production of edible corms and to encourage the growth of new and sweet grass in order to attract game to the area. Fire was also important for warmth at a time of deteriorating climate. Strathalan Cave B was occupied at 25 000 year BP but was abandoned by 24 000 year BP, when extremely cold conditions existed in the adjacent Drakensberg during the Bottelnek Stadial, which began 24 000 year BP but ended before 15 000 year BP. Palaeoclimatic conditions are evidenced at altitudes above 1800 m by rock glacier and gelifluction (head) deposits and, although dated less certainly, by moraines and protalus ramparts. No further evidence of human occupation of the Southern Drakensberg exists until 12 000 year BP, when the Ravenscraig rock shelter, near Barkly East (Figure 1), was occupied. Lesotho and the interior

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Figure 2 Stone tools characteristic of the later Middle Stone Age, from Rose Cottage Cave, Free State, South Africa. 1, flake; 2, 3, point; 4, blade; 5, 6, core reduced piece; 7, point with reduced butt; 8, scraper; 9, knife; 10, spall; 11, adze; 12, core rejuvenation flake; 13, blade. Reproduced from L Wadley (1991) Rose Cottage Cave: Background and a preliminary report on the recent excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 125–130, with permission from the South African Archaeological Society.

Figure 4 Long and broad flake blades from Strathalan Cave B, produced ‘toward the end of the MSA’: 1, flake-blade; 2–6, retouched flakes; 7, point. Reproduced from Opperman H (1996) Strathalan Cave B, north-eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Evidence for human behaviour 29,000–26,000 years ago. Quaternary International 33: 45–53, with permission of Elsevier/INQUA.

Figure 3 Formal stone tools of the later MSA, Sehonghong, Lesotho. 1–4, scrapers; 5, flake; 6–9, knives. Reproduced from PJ Mitchell (1994) Understanding the MSA/LSA transition: The pre-20 000 BP assemblages from new excavations at Sehonghong rock shelter, Lesotho. Southern African Field Archaeology 3: 15–25, with permission from the Board of the Trustees of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown.

AFRICA, WEST/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers 89

of South Africa were apparently unoccupied during the Bottelnek Stadial and earlier part of the succeeding Late Glacial, which lasted from 15 000 until 11 500 year BP.

Areas at lower altitudes and on the coastal side of the Great Escarpment (Drakensberg) were occupied during the Bottelnek Stadial, as at Howison’s Poort near Grahamstown, Nelson Bay Cave near Plettenberg Bay, Melkhoutboom Cave between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, and Boomplaas near Oudtshoorn.

Howieson’s Poort: A Problem Type-Site

Figure 5 Plant remains on an occupation floor dating to 33 900 year BP, Strathalan Cave B. Photographed and reproduced by permission of H. Opperman.

Excavations in a rock shelter in Howison’s Poort (misspelt Howieson’s in the archaeological literature) revealed the presence of artifacts of both MSA and LSA character (Figures 6 and 7) and the whole artifact assemblage was named the Howieson’s Poort industry. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from excavations at the Howieson’s Poort type-site in 1965 (Figure 8) indicated that the artifacts had accumulated between 23 000 and 10 500 years ago (the calibrated dates are here rounded to the nearest 500 years). These dates were initially considered too young, since artifact

Figure 6 Artifacts of mixed MSA/LSA character from the Howieson’s Poort type-site: (a), obliquely backed blades; (b) retouched unifacial points. Reproduced from Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society.

90 AFRICA, WEST/Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers

Later Stone Age Industries

Figure 7 Segments, such as occur both ‘‘in a restricted time slot in the MSA. . .and in the middle Holocene during the LSA’’ (Deacon, 1995): Howieson’s Poort type-site. They were probably mounted onto handles to form cutting tools. Reproduced from Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society.

assemblages of similar character at Klasies River Mouth and elsewhere in Africa are thought to center on 70 000 year BP. Geomorphological examination of fluvial sediments in Howieson’s Poort, supported by radiocarbon dating, has shown that flood plain deposition began on the floor of the Poort around 10 750 year BP, as fluvial and associated processes reworked sediments from the valley sides in the Early Holocene. This time period was apparently moister than the preceding Late Glacial and Bottelnek Stadial. The sediments at the Howieson’s Poort type-site have not been reworked into the valley floor deposits, presumably due to their favored location within the rock shelter. The stratigraphic layer within which the artifacts occur (Figure 8, layer 4) is the thickest unit at that site and includes roof spalls such as might have taken place under cold and frosty conditions during the Bottelnek Stadial. There is no geomorphological reason to doubt the radiocarbon dates from the archaeological type-site. The Howieson’s Poort industry, at least at the type-site, may be much younger than was previously believed and possibly form part of the LSA rather than the MSA.

Three LSA industries have been widely recognized in South Africa: Robberg, Oakhurst Complex, and Wilton, the last of which is younger than the Early Holocene. Backed tools, scrapers of various sizes, unretouched microlithic bladelets, and bladelet cores are characteristic of the Robberg industry (Figure 9). This industry was identified at Nelson Bay Cave on the Robberg Peninsula (after which it has been named), near Plettenberg Bay, where it post-dates 22 000 but pre-dates 14 000 year BP. The same industry dates from somewhat before 18 000 but ended before 12 250 year BP at Melkhoutboom and from after 24 000 but before 17 000 year BP at Boomplaas. Artifacts typical of the Robberg have also been found at some sites inland of the Drakensberg, as at Rose Cottage Cave where they pre-date 15 000 year BP. The Robberg industry apparently existed more recently in Lesotho and adjacent upland areas than elsewhere in the subcontinent. Non-stone tools associated with the Robberg include bone and ostrich eggshell beads, tortoise-shell bowls and polished bone points. At Nelson Bay Cave the fauna associated with the Robberg industry was animals typical of opencountry, grassy habitats, including giant buffalo, an equine that may have been a quagga, springbok, and alcelaphine antelopes: blesbok/bontebok, wildebeest, hartebeest, and a giant alcelaphine. They indicate that after 22 000 but before 14 000 year BP there were extensive grasslands on the coastal plateau in the Plettenberg Bay area and not the present climax vegetation type of closed evergreen forest. Virtually no remains of sea mammals occur in Robberg industry levels at Nelson Bay Cave, presumably because sea levels were much lower than at present and the cave was therefore located too far from the coast for them to be exploited by its human inhabitants. The Oakhurst Complex is named after a type-site near Wilderness on the southern Cape coast. End, round, and D-shaped scrapers; duckbill scrapers with parallel sides and outward splay toward their terminus; wide-ranging polished stone tools, and few microliths are typical of the complex (Figure 10). At Ravenscraig, in the Southern Drakensberg, Oakhurst assemblages date from 12 000 year BP but are at least 2000 years older at sites that include Bushman Rock Shelter in Mpumalanga. They have also been reported from the south and west coasts of the subcontinent as well as from the Free State, Lesotho, KwaZuluNatal, and elsewhere. The Albany industry is a regional variant of the complex in coastal and adjacent areas, while the Lockshoek industry is a variant in the Karoo.

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Figure 8 View of excavation into deposits of the Howieson’s Poort type-site, showing the position of radiocarbon-dated charcoal samples with their calibrated dates and laboratory analysis numbers. The stratigraphic layers are also shown as is the compass orientation of the section. Layer 4 contained most artifacts. Layer (5) was ‘sand of decomposed bedrock’. Reproduced from Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society, but with calibrated dates.

Figure 9 Distribution and characteristic artifacts of the Robberg industry showing bladelet cores and bladelets (left), large and small scrapers and backed tools. Reproduced with permission from Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip.

The Albany industry dates from 14 000 to 10 000 year BP at Nelson Bay Cave, 12 250 to 8000 year BP at Melkhoutboom, pre-dates 17 000 but ended

before 7250 year BP at Boomplaas, and existed before 11 250 but ended before 7500 BP at The Havens Cave in the Baviaanskloof, some 50 km inland from the

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Figure 10 Sites at which the Oakhurst Industrial Complex has been dated, with typical artifacts. After Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip, by permission of HJ and J Deacon, with map after Wadley L (2000) The Early Holocene layers of Rose Cottage Cave, Eastern Free State: Technology, spatial patterns and environment. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 18–31, by permission of the South African Archaeological Society.

coast west of Port Elizabeth. The Albany industry has also been reported from many sites in the Grahamstown area and elsewhere. Seals were an important source of food during Albany times at Nelson Bay Cave, indicating that sea level had risen and the sea was near the site by 14 000 year BP after reaching a low of 130 m below that of the present during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Other important sources of meat were rock hyrax, Hippotragus spp., grysbok/ steenbok, bushpig, reedbuck, and Cape buffalo. The last reported occurrences of eland and warthog in deposits at the cave, which are associated with Albany industry levels, and the advent of bushbuck, indicate that open grasslands were being replaced by more bushy vegetation, probably as a result of increasingly wet climatic conditions as the Late Glacial was succeeded by the Early Holocene. An increase in bushy vegetation at this time also occurred on the highlands of the Free State, as near Rose Cottage Cave, possibly due to increasingly moist conditions associated with the extension of the summer rainfall region into the area in the Early Holocene. Shellfish were an important part of the diets of Albany industry foragers at Nelson Bay Cave and elsewhere in coastal areas. During Robberg and Oakhurst Complex times the inhabitants of southern Africa were foragers who may have followed seasonal migratory patterns in order to exploit the available food resources, and who occupied established (but temporary) dwelling sites. They probably lived in family/kin groups that varied in size from season to season. The population of the subcontinent, as judged from the number of

sites at which archaeological evidence has been found, was probably thinly spread and low in numbers. Major environmental changes took place during Robberg and Oakhurst Complex times, as earlier in the Quaternary. The detailed response of the human inhabitants of southern Africa to those changes, during the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene, remains to be established.

Acknowledgments Stephan Woodborne and Marc Pienaar of the Quaternary Dating Research Unit in Pretoria are thanked for calibrating dates for this overview. See also: Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers.

Further Reading Deacon HJ (1976) Where Hunters Gathered. South African Archaeological Society Monograph Series, 1, 229 pp. Cape Town: South African Archaeological Society. Deacon HJ and Deacon J (1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Cape Town: David Philip. Deacon J (1995) An unsolved mystery at the Howieson’s Poort name site. South African Archaeological Bulletin 50: 110–120. Inskeep RR (1978) The Peopling of Southern Africa. Cape Town: David Philip. Klein RG (1972) The Late Quaternary mammalian fauna of Nelson Bay Cave (Cape Province, South Africa): Its implications for megafaunal extinctions and environmental and cultural change. Quaternary Research 2: 135–142. Lewis CA (2005) Late Glacial and Holocene palaeoclimatology of the Drakensberg of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Quaternary International 129: 33–48.

AFRICA, WEST/Early Holocene Foragers 93 Mitchell PJ (1994) Understanding the MSA/LSA transition: The pre20 000 BP assemblages from new excavations at Sehonghong rock shelter, Lesotho. Southern African Field Archaeology 3: 15–25. Opperman H (1996) Strathalan Cave B, north-eastern Cape Province, South Africa: evidence for human behaviour 29,000–26,000 years ago. Quaternary International 33: 45–53. Singer R and Wymer JJ (1982) The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Mouth in South Africa. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Wadley L (1991) Rose Cottage Cave: Background and a preliminary report on the recent excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 125–130. Wadley L (1997) Rose Cottage Cave: Archaeological work 1987 to 1997. South African Journal of Science 93: 439–444. Wadley L (2000) The Early Holocene layers of Rose Cottage Cave, Eastern Free State: technology, spatial patterns and environment. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 18–31.

AFRICA, WEST Contents Early Holocene Foragers Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists Villages, Cities, and States

Early Holocene Foragers Joanna Casey, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary terra cotta cigars Flattened, elliptical items made of sandstone or, rarely, clay that are often scored or pecked on one or both sides. They are known only from Kintampo Complex Sites (3000–4000 years ago) in Ghana. Their function has never been determined, but abrasion on many specimens suggests grating or rasping.

The end of the Pleistocene brought dramatic climate change to West Africa. During the last glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere, Africa underwent a period of extreme aridity when the Sahara Desert expanded well beyond its current limits, and savanna and forest zones were compressed toward the coasts. Much of West Africa was unpopulated during this time, but during the early Holocene a humid phase brought plants, animals, and people back to the region. Understanding the Holocene foragers is made difficult by a number of factors. Certainly the archaeological evidence over this vast region is not as complete as one would prefer due to preservation problems and the difficulty of acquiring adequate research coverage. Equally significant is the nature of the data itself. Artifact types such as ceramics, grinding stones, and

ground stone tools that are usually associated with farming communities appear early in sequences, long before there is any evidence for domestic crops. When domestic plants and animals do appear, foraging continues to play an essential role in subsistence activities, and it is often unclear whether we are seeing mixed economies, or the interactions of subsistence specialists. With the return of humidity to the Sahara, there were no major geographical barriers to the movements of people throughout West Africa, yet researchers have tended to specialize in one of three areas: the Sahara, the sahel, or the forests and savannas (see Africa, North: Sahara, West and Central). Although the differences in these areas may be more perceived than real due to a lack of communication among researchers, there is increasing evidence that contact between these regions was infrequent until relatively late in antiquity. The terminal Pleistocene arid episode ended at around 12 000 BP with geological and palynological evidence indicating the appearance of rivers and lakes with their attendant flora and fauna. The earliest evidence for human reoccupation of the Sahara comes from small lithic scatters, characterized by blades and bladelets and sometimes shouldered Ounanian points. Little is known about the people who made the artifacts that are found in the central Sahara, but the resemblance of their artifacts to materials from North Africa suggests that they had a northern origin. At around 9500 years ago, ceramics appear at the sites of Amekni, Ti n Torha, and Tagalagal in the central Sahara (Figure 1). These are the

94 AFRICA, WEST/Early Holocene Foragers

Hoggar

Ti n Torha Uan Afuda Uan Muhugggiag

Amekni Tibesti

Adrar Bous

Air

Dhar Tichitt Tilemsi Valley Ounjougou Kourounkorokale

Yagala Kamabai

Tagalagal

Lake Chad

Rim Maadaga

Rop Dutzen Kongba

Birimi K6

Yengema Kokasu

Agarade Bosumpra

Sopie

Kpone Bingerville

Figure 1 Location of sites mentioned in the text.

Mejiro Iwo Eleru

Sumpa

Shum Laka

Afikpo Map Area

AFRICA, WEST/Early Holocene Foragers 95

earliest known ceramics on the continent, indicating that they developed independent of outside influences. Grinding stones are also in abundance at most sites and suggest an intensive use of wild grains. Faunal evidence from all sites indicates exploitation of local fish and game. Selective hunting techniques were used at Ti n Torha, and the penning of Barbary sheep is documented at Uan Afuda. At around 7500 years ago, a short but intense dry period caused a readjustment in many parts of the Sahara. Parts of the eastern and central Sahara appear to have been briefly abandoned, while in other parts people shifted their settlements with the shrinking shorelines of the lakes. In the central Sahara, people increasingly settled around the permanent water sources from which they exploited both aquatic and terrestrial resources (see Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Sahara, West and Central). Sites from this time are characterized by the presence of bone harpoons, numerous fish bones, and ceramics bearing wavy line motifs. Initially, the broad similarity among the sites led researchers to consider it to be one vast culture complex stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea and lasting for 3000 years. Recent research however indicates that the similarities among the sites are very superficial and can largely be attributed to similar subsistence orientations. Variations in the contributions of various plants and animals, and in the raw materials, techniques of manufacture, and styles of lithics and ceramics indicate significant regional differences that have been obscured by the focus on wavy lines and fish. The return of humidity is marked by pastoralists entering the Sahara. The earliest cattle date to 5950–5700 years BP at Adrar Bous and Uan Muhuggiag, but cattle spread rapidly throughout the Sahara and by 4000 years ago were in the Tilemsi Valley and Mema regions of Mali, and as far south as Lake Chad. Over much of the Sahara, the appearance of cattle, sheep, and goats is not accompanied by a significant change in material culture. While this may indicate the adoption of domestic animals by the settled foragers, it is also likely that the foragers and herders developed reciprocal relationships similar to those witnessed today between farmers, fishers, and herders in the inland delta of the Niger River, and among farmers and herders right across West Africa (see Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists). Identifying the sites of mobile pastoralists is notoriously problematic because they leave so few remains, and in West Africa it is complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing early domestic cattle from indigenous West African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Domestic animals are attested to by the presence of bovid bones in archaeological sites, but at many of

these sites, wild animals continue to play a crucial role in the subsistence economy. South of the Sahara a different scenario prevails. During the terminal Pleistocene dry phase, forests and savannas continued to exist along the coast and probably as far north as 11 . While the area could have been a refuge for people who had abandoned the Sahara, there is little evidence for this. The post-Pleistocene rise in sea levels may have obliterated the evidence for coastal sites, but it is notable that there is little reliable evidence elsewhere for occupation between 20 000 and 13 000 years BP. Shum Laka, in Cameroon, may be an exception. Here cultural deposits go back 30 000 years, and the environment appears to have seen only minor change during the terminal Pleistocene. The earliest Holocene occupations south of the Sahel contain microliths, although it is sometimes difficult to determine whether individual authors are referring to formed, geometric microliths or simply to the small size of the lithic material. Microliths occur at many early sites in Central Africa, starting at around 40 000 BP, and appear at Shum Laka around 30 000 BP, presenting the possibility that the spread of microliths south of the Sahel came from the east. The earliest microlithic sites in West Africa include Bingerville-Highway (Coˆte d’Ivoire), Iwo Eleru (Nigeria), and Rim (Burkina Faso) which date to 13 000–11 000 years ago. Similar assemblages are found at Maadaga (Burkina Faso), Rop, Afikpo, Mejiro Cave, Dutzen Kongba (Nigeria), and Kourounkorokale (Mali). Some of these sites are overlain by microlithic assemblages bearing ceramics and ground stone tools, a trend that appeared throughout sub-Sahelian West Africa around 6000 years ago and continued until the first millennium AD. Shum Laka and Ounjougou (Mali) have early occurrences of this sort, while Iwo Eleru and Bosumpra (Ghana) are slightly later. Other sites from this period include Sopie, Kokasu (Sierra Leone), Yengema, Yagala, Kamabai (Liberia), Sumpa (Cameroun), Agarade Rock Shelter (Togo), and Kpone Shell Midden (Ghana). Nonmicrolithic occurrences with large format flakes, core tools, and prepared core technologies also occur at a small number of sites south of the sahel from the Late Pleistocene through the midHolocene. These sites were thought to be further evidence for central African affinities, but the wide and patchy distribution of these sites, along with their variability, suggests that they relate to specialized heavy-duty activities and adaptation to poor-quality raw material rather than to cultural migrations. At around 4500 years ago, the climate became arid again, and people started to leave the desert. The most dramatic response to the increasing aridity is witnessed at Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania where cattlekeeping people increasingly fortified their settlements

96 AFRICA, WEST/Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists

with stone enclosures and moved closer and closer to the shrinking water sources. Seed impressions on ceramics show an increasing reliance on wild and ultimately domestic millet by 3700 years BP. Some time after 4000 years ago, settlements start to appear in sub-Saharan West Africa. The Kintampo Complex, known only from Ghana, is the earliest of these. Kintampo sites share a material culture characterized by ground stone tools, grinding stones, ceramics bearing comb-stamped decoration, and projectile points styles that resemble those found farther to the north. The fossile directeur of the Kintampo Complex is the ‘terra-cotta cigar’, a flattened elliptical object of unknown function, made from fine-grained sandstone and scored, pecked, and/or abraded on both sides. Individual Kintampo sites have produced fishhooks, beads, and figurines. Reliable subsistence information has been scarce. The best evidence is from K6 Rock Shelter where the assemblage was dominated by wild species with evidence for an increase over time in species that prefer settlements and cleared areas. Much has been made of the domestic animal bones found at some Kintampo sites. While the cattle bones have been dismissed, the bones from one or two domestic caprines have been confirmed at K6. While these bones demonstrate that domestic animals were present during Kintampo, their contribution to the economy is unclear. Domestic millet found at Birimi in northern Ghana indicates that the Kintampo people did cultivate domestic crops, but Kintampo sites are found in diverse ecosystems, some outside of the area in which millet will grow. Furthermore, Kintampo sites are characterized by the presence of tools specific to the extraction of local resources. Both these factors, and the high incidence of wild plant and animal species in Kintampo sites suggest that farming was most likely only a part of a complex subsistence strategy.

Monographs in African Archaeology No. 51; BAR International No. 906. Oxford: Archaeopress. Casey J (2005) Holocene occupations of the forest and savanna. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology, pp. 225–248. London: Blackwell. Cornelissen E (2003) On microlithic quartz industries at the end of the Pleistocene in Central Africa: The evidence from Shum Laka (NW Cameroon). The African Archaeological Review 20(1): 1–24. Garcea EAA (2004) An alternative way towards food production: The perspective from the Libyan Sahara. Journal of World Prehistory 18(2): 107–154. Haour AC (2003) One hundred years of archaeology in Niger. Journal of World Prehistory 17(2): 141–179. Huysecom E, Ozainne S, Kaeli F, Ballouche A, Rasse M, and Stokes S (2004) Ounjougou (Mali): A history of holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara. Antiquity 78: 579–593. Lavachery P (2001) The Holocene archaeological sequence of Shum Laka rock shelter (grasslands, western Cameroon). The African Archaeological Review 18(4): 213–247. MacDonald KC (1997) Kourounkorokale revisited: The Pays Mande´ and the West African microlithc technocomplex revisited. The African Archaeological Review 14(3): 161–200. Mohammed-Ali AS and Kabir ARK (2003) The wavy-line and dotted wavy line pottery in the prehistory of the central Nile and the Sahara-sahel belt. The African Archaeological Review 20(1): 25–58. Muzzolini A (1993) The emergence of a food-producing economy in the Sahara. In: Shaw T, Alexander J, and Opoko A (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, pp. 227–239. London: Routledge.

See also: Africa, North: Sahara, Eastern; Sahara, West and Central; Africa, South: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Foragers; Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Animal Domestication.

Neolithic A period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. herders Workers who live a semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, especially in places where these animals wander unfenced pasture lands. cultigens Organisms, particularly cultivated plants, that do not have a wild or uncultivated counterpart. These are species that were domesticated (grown and selected by humankind) from so far back in antiquity, and have undergone such drastic transformation under prehistoric human selection, that the plant ancestry is essentially unknown.

Further Reading Breunig P and Neumann K (2002) From hunters and gatherers to food producers: New archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence from the West African sahel. In: Fekri H (ed.) Droughts, Food and Culture: Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory, pp. 123–155. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Casey J (2000) The Kintampo Complex: The Late Holocene on the Gambaga Escarpment, Northern Ghana. Cambridge

Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists Peter Breunig, J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary

West Africa is bounded on the north by the Sahara, on the east by Lake Chad, on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Distinctive vegetation zones running in an east–west

AMERICAS, NORTH/Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists 97

direction are the result of decreasing precipitation from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahara in the north. Between the tropical rain forest along the southern coastline and the Sahara Desert, the vegetation changes from Guinean to Sudanian to Sahelian savanna. This relatively close proximity of rather different environments and their considerable shift during the last millennia most likely influenced the appearance and development of herders and farmers in West Africa. During early Holocene times, vast areas of the Sahara resembled today’s Sahelian vegetation zone. It is in this region that important cultural innovations like the manufacture of pottery and the development of pastoral economy took place. Whether pastoral beginnings go back to the eighth millennium BC, as presumed on the basis of finds from the eastern Sahara, has been questioned. However, its existence in the central and eastern Sahara during the fifth millennium BC is beyond dispute. At this time, domesticated cattle appeared along with ovicaprids. While cattle might have been domesticated autochthonous, domesticated ovicaprids (sheep and goat) are believed to come from the Near East, because the fossil record and modern biogeography both indicate that their wild progenitors never lived in Africa. After a flourishing period, the Saharan livestock herders were affected by the final desiccation of the Sahara caused by the southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. As a consequence, herders migrated into the moister southern regions. Archaeological data indicate that they started expanding into West Africa at around 2000 BC. Formerly existing disease barriers like the tsetse belt also shifted further south so that the vast grasslands in West Africa became suitable for pastoral occupation. The migration from the Sahara to West Africa is conclusive for several reasons. First, the dates for the earliest evidence of cattle get younger the more southerly the sites are located. Then, since the earliest domesticated animals have no local counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa, they must have been imported to West Africa. Finally, in some cases, the cultural material from the Sahara and the new homeland further south show similarities. How far farming and the beginning of plant cultivation were part of these migrations is one of the most important questions of sub-Saharan archaeology. With regard to the location of the wild progenitors of the African cultigens and theoretical considerations on the cultural context of initial farming, the southern Sahara is seen as the key area where the most important food crops of sub-Saharan Africa, pearl millet and sorghum, were originally cultivated.

Like anywhere else on earth, the appearance of herders and farmers with their food-producing economy constitutes a fundamental break in the prehistory of West Africa. Its occurrence is considered the prelude to a new era classified as the ‘West African Neolithic’. Herders and farmers are represented differently in the archaeological record. While the pastoral activities of herders are generally less visible, farmers and their sedentary communities usually produce abundant archaeological remains. Contrary to other Neolithic centers in the world, for instance, the Near East, the African evidence indicates a considerable time gap between the appearance of herders and farmers. However, this ‘cattle before crops’ pattern is not very pronounced in West Africa. Here, in most cases, domesticated animals and plants (see Animal Domestication; Plant Domestication) appear almost simultaneously or with only a slight time difference. The early food-producing communities must have met favorable conditions in West Africa, because both herding and farming activities spread very rapidly in manifold ways. One of the areas where comparably intensive research on early herders and farmers has been carried out is the Tichitt–Walata escarpment in Mauritania (Figure 1). The dry-stone architecture and the considerable size of the villages along the escarpment are unique among contemporaneous settlements in West Africa. Not only is it the northernmost food-producing complex in West Africa, but recent investigations have also shown that the area is among the earliest evidence of farming activities, dated to about 1800 BC. Another example for an early agropastoral society is the Kintampo culture in Ghana, located in the forest fringe and woodland savanna zones. The Kintampo people settled in rock shelters or hamlets consisting of huts spread over areas of up to 2 ha. They possessed domesticated animals, in particular sheep/goat and probably cattle, and cultivated pearl millet. In addition, there is evidence for the exploitation of the oil palm and a range of wild resources typical for the environment of the forest fringe and woodland savanna. Whether Kintampo emerged as a result of Saharan migration or represents a case of local intensification is discussed controversially. The floodplains and margins of the Inland Niger Delta constitute another focal point of agropastoral origins in West Africa. This region was home to a variety of cultural groups with different economic adaptations, appearing in the archaeological record during the second and early first millennium BC. One group is known as the Kobadi Neolithic of specialized fishers without domestic livestock or cultigens. Other groups have

98 AMERICAS, NORTH/Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists

Figure 1 West Africa: geographic zones and archaeological areas mentioned in the text.

pastoral components, for example, Ndondi Tossokel, which originated from the Tichitt tradition in Mauritania or Winde´ Koroji. Early food-producing groups can also be found in the Sahelian zone of the Chad Basin in northeast Nigeria. Mobile herders arrived here in the early second millennium BC and became sedentary farmers or agropastoralists as documented by numerous village-like settlements dating from about 1500 BC onwards. In addition to such key areas of early food production, there are regions of marginal significance, where traces of herding cannot be detected by archaeological means or only appeared after the farming economy had established. After a period of prospering development in the second millennium BC, the early herders and farmers apparently were faced with a crisis in the first millennium BC, probably stimulated by another severe drought. In many regions, cultural sequences faded away and gave way to completely new developments. Among the economic innovations of the first millennium BC were new cultigens. While pearl millet was the only cultivated plant before, other important crops such as sorghum, African rice, cowpea, bambara groundnut, and okra as well as agro-forestry activities appeared between 500 BC and AD 500. They formed the basis of a productive Iron Age subsistence system where food security was more predictable than before. During the same period, large settlements, partly fortified, and site-size hierarchies emerged, followed by the development of urban centers, social

stratification, and inter-regional trade during the latter half of the first millennium AD. As a concomitant phenomenon of increasing cultural complexity, craft specialization is supposed to have developed during the first millennium BC (see Craft Specialization). Different concepts of craft specialization are discussed. Some accordant aspects highlight that craft specialization requires an economy able to produce surplus commodities in order to support craftsmen. It also intensifies the inequality among the members of a community, and thus favors the development of rank or class systems. But apart from these theoretical considerations, it is important to identify the existence of craft specialization in the archaeological record. Craft specialization can appear at the household level, as a form of part-time specialization concerning objects of daily use such as pottery, bone tools, mats, and basketry. In West Africa, this form of specialization possibly originated among the early herders and farmers of the second millennium BC, or even earlier in a hunter-gatherer context. A more complex craft specialization beyond the household level appears to have developed only during the first millennium BC. From this period onwards, evidence for concentrations of manufacturing by-products in specific sections of settlements is found. Another important innovation of the first millennium BC is iron metallurgy. While its origin and spread in sub-Saharan Africa is a matter of a longrunning debate, there is no doubt about its technological advancement and the demand for specialists to

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 99

conduct iron smelting and processing. Together with early iron metallurgy, art appears as another impressive case of craft specialization. Undoubtedly, the earliest art of West Africa, the expressive terracottas of the Nok culture in central Nigeria, were created by specialists belonging to a stratified society and not by herders and farmers as a result of leisure activities. As a conclusion, the first millennium BC was a period of crises, discontinuities, and innovations with paramount importance for subsequent times. Fundamental economic, technological, and social changes took place and were the basis for developments which led to the formation of civilizations and empires only a few centuries later. See also: Animal Domestication; Craft Specialization; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Breunig P and Neumann K (2002) Continuity or discontinuity? The 1st millennium BC – Crisis in West African prehistory. In: Lenssen-Erz T, Tegttmeir U, Kro¨pelin S, et al. (eds.) Africa Praehistorica 14: Tides of the Desert. Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolph Kuper, pp. 491–505. Ko¨ ln: Heinrich-Barth-Institut. Holl AFC (1998) Livestock husbandry, pastoralisms, and territoriality: The West African record. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 143–165. MacDonald KC (1996) The Winde´ Koroji complex: Evidence for the peopling of the eastern Inland Niger Delta (2100–500 BC). Pre´histoire et Anthropologie Me´diterrane´ennes 5: 147–165. Magnavita C, Kahlheber S, and Eichhorn B (2004) The rise of organisational complexity in mid-first millennium BC Chad Basin. Antiquity 78, no. 301, project gallery. http://antiquity.ac. uk/projgall/magnavita/index.html. McIntosh SK (2001) West African Late Stone Age. In: Peregrine PN and Ember M (eds.) Encyclopedia of Prehistory 1, Africa, pp. 323–338. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Munson PJ (1971) The Tichitt Tradition: A Late Prehistoric Occupation of the Southwestern Sahara. PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Neumann K (2005) The romance of farming: Plant cultivation and domestication in Africa. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology, pp. 249–275. Malden: Blackwell. Smith AB (1992) Pastoralism in Africa: Origins, Development and Ecology. London: Hurst. Stahl AB (1993) Intensification in the West African Late Stone Age: A view from Central Ghana. In: Shaw T, Sinclair P, Andah B, and Okpoko A (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, pp. 261–273. London: Routledge. Van Neer W (2002) Food security in Western and Central Africa during the Late Holocene: The role of domestic stock keeping, hunting and fishing. In: Hassan FA (ed.) Droughts, Food and Culture: Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory, pp. 251–274. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Watson DJ (2005) Under the rocks: Reconsidering the origin of the Kintampo tradition and the development of food production in the savanna-forest/forest of West Africa. Journal of African Archaeology 3(1): 3–55.

Villages, Cities, and States Susan Keech McIntosh, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary flotation Use of water to separate plant materials from archaeological deposits. Holocene A geological epoch covering the period from the retreat of the ice sheets at the end of the last glacial period between 11 000 and 12 000 years ago to the present. lineage A group tracing descent from a common ancestor.

In West Africa during the later Holocene, villages occupied by multiple family or lineage-based groups appeared, enabled by new subsistence technologies, including agriculture, that increased output and supported a larger number and density of people. Greater sedentism, either seasonally or year round, is reflected by labor investment in durable construction technologies and large quantities of items that are not easily portable, such as grindstones and pottery. Although the development and spread of village life associated with food production has been a source of interest and detailed investigation in the Near East since the 1950s, comparable studies in West Africa involving excavation and recovery of archaeobotanical samples are relatively recent and rare (see Paleoethnobotany). Our understanding of early village life and subsistence in West Africa is therefore fragmentary at present and likely to change significantly as new data become available. This applies equally to the development of cities and states (see Africa, West: Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists). The earliest unambiguously identified villages in West Africa were built between 3500 and 2500 BP (1800–800/400 cal BC) on the 60–100 m high escarpment (dhar) that extends for c. 400 km from Tichitt to Walata and Nema in southeast Mauritania (Figure 1). These settlements had multiple, dry-stone-walled compounds large enough to accommodate several huts or houses, granaries, and livestock (Figure 2). Some of the dhar settlements are extremely large, measuring 30–95 ha, with 200–600 compounds, suggestive of towns or central places in an emergent urban/ political hierarchy (Figure 3).These agropastoralists hunted, herded cattle, sheep and goats, and cultivated pearl millet, a drought-tolerant African cereal that was first domesticated in the Sahel of Mauritania or Niger, according to DNA analysis.

ALGERIA

Atakor

TASS ILI

SAHARA

TEGDAOUST

Senegal

JA

mb

ig

er

ia

Ba

N

GUINEA-BISSAU

ni

JENNEJENO

FUTA JALLON

CHAD Lake Chad

MOUHOUN BEND

HAUSA

BURKINA FASO

LIBERIA

NIGERIA

BIRIMI

SIERRA LEONE

IVORY GHANA COAST Lake Volta

GAJIGANNA ZILUM KURSAKATA GE ME

KANO

Lake Kainji Nig er

NOK

OLD OYO

nue

Be

IFE

MANDARA MOUNTAINS

YORUBA EDO BENIN CITY

Ch ari

ne go Lo

GUINEA

BENIN

Ga

KAWKAW

TOGO

GAMBIA

GHANA

ME MA IN L N A DE IGE ND LT R A

SENEGAL

NIGER BEND

KUMBI SALEH

NIGER

AI R

MALI NEMA

TAKRUR

MSV

LIBYA

R RA AS AD IFOR S E D

MAURITANIA

TICHITT

AC

TROPIC OF CANCER

AC U

100 AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States

CAMEROON Mount Cameroon

2000 m 1000 m 500 m 0m

COUNTRIES SITE

NATURAL FEATURES AND REGIONS Lakes and Rivers EARLY STATE

Figure 1 Sites and regions mentioned in the text.

Figure 2 Dry-stone compound walls at the site of L’ouedi (c. 900 BC) atop the Tichitt escarpment. ã P. Munson.

At the village settlement of Birimi in northern Ghana, pearl millet was also cultivated by 3500– 3000 BP, and was the dominant plant species recovered from flotation samples. Three dozen burnt clay house floors have been mapped in this extensive

site belonging to the Kintampo complex. Further south in central Ghana, Kintampo is also associated with the appearance of villages and subsistence intensification involving oil palm exploitation. In northeastern Nigeria, on the Bama Deltaic soils that once

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 101

Figure 3 Plan of walled compounds at Dakhlet el Atrouss, one of the largest villages on the Tichitt escarpment. ã R. Vernet.

bordered Lake Chad, small, ephemeral pastoralist camps occupied between 3500 and 3000 BP were replaced by larger, more sedentary settlement mounds up to 7 ha in extent occupied by agropastoralists who cultivated pearl millet. Several of the mounds have been excavated and over 100 have been surveyed and identified as part of the Gajiganna complex. As the shore of Lake Chad retreated after 3000 BP, settlers moved onto the newly exposed lakeplain in northern Nigeria and Cameroon and southern Chad, and established village settlement mounds (e.g., Kursakata, Mege) with a subsistence economy based on herding, fishing, and millet cultivation. To the northwest, older Gajiganna settlement mounds were abandoned, and larger, fortified villages with extensive storage pits, such as Zilum, were built in the same area (Figures 4 and 5). It seems that with the appearance of iron c. 2500–2200 BP and the addition of new domesticates, such as African rice and fonio, permanent village settlements were established in the Mema and Inland Niger Delta of Mali (Ja, Jenne-jeno), and in the Nok area of Nigeria, where first millennium BC sites with stone walls have recently been found. Village settlements were well established in many areas of West Africa by the first millennium AD. In some of these areas of early village settlement, sites continued to expand and develop center-andhinterland articulated systems of urban character. The Inland Niger Delta and its margins have been the focus of considerable fieldwork on these systems, which frequently involve closely clustered mound sites on the floodplain. At Ja, and in the Me´ma, the development of larger-scale settlement systems is claimed to have occurred in the first millennium BC.

At Jenne-jeno, it seems to date to the mid-first millennium AD (Figure 6). Clustered settlement mounds are not restricted to the Middle Niger; they have also been documented on the Mouhoun Bend in northern Burkina Faso in the first millennium AD. Based on excavations and survey at the mounds of the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex (Figure 7), it has been suggested that the distinct mounds were inhabited contemporaneously by different groups of functionally integrated economic specialists who resisted assimilation into a single town settlement. In this scenario, political power was weakly centralized, a view that is at odds with earlier theories that locate cities exclusively within state systems. The field research necessary to fully evaluate this hypothesis is still in its early stages. The development of new ideas about urban origins in West Africa has occurred at a time of increasing interest by archaeologists in the nature of the premodern city. It is now understood that many earlier ideas about urbanism, such as V. G. Childe’s wellknown trait-list of essential features that included writing and monumental architecture, were developed with reference to Western sequences of historical development and excluded much of sub-Saharan Africa from consideration. Investment in monument building, for example, is now seen to be a common, but not inevitable aspect of early cities. The absence of monumental architecture in large areas of West Africa likely reflects lack of suitable building materials (such as stone) in some areas and the prevalence of extensive, slash-and-burn agricultural systems that required settlement relocation after several decades, thus working against permanent installation of

102 AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States

Figure 4 Magnetic anomalies at Zilum show a ditch and rampart encircling the settlement, plus hundreds of large pits. Courtesy of P. Breunig and C. Magnavita.

Figure 5 Outline in section of a large storage pit at Zilum. ã C. Magnavita.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 103

Figure 6 Aerial view of the settlement mounds in the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex. Jenne-jeno is in the foreground. The town of Djenne´ is on the upper left. ã R.J. McIntosh.

E

NN

JE

- Ancient sites 0

km 1.0

BANI R .

JENNEJENO

Figure 7 Plan of the settlement mounds of the Jenne-jeno Urban Complex.

populations at one location for long periods. In some areas, the location of the capital city frequently shifted. Ecological constraints linked to a value system that conceived of space as social (rooted in kin groups and genealogical proximity), rather than as a particular physical place, produced some early African urban

configurations that looked quite different than the cities of the West. The vast system of earthen embankments (iya) demarcating settlement boundaries in the YorubaEdo region of Nigeria is a prime example of a very non-Western configuration. Over 16 000 km of

104 AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States

UTE IYA Ikokhan

Ihovbor Oria

Idumwowina Ute Ugbowo

0

1 km

N

Urora

Uselu

Lwogban Aduwawa

Uzama villages

Ohovbe 1

Oregbeni old canoe port

Ogbesan

palace

BENIN CITY

Ikpoba Stream

Ihimwirin Ugbeku

0

5

10 km

Figure 8 Map of earthworks (iya) around Benin City and Ute in southwestern Nigeria. From Darling P (1984) Archaeology and History in Southern Nigeria: The Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan, p. 89. Oxford: BAR, ã P. Darling.

embankments enclosing more than 500 interconnected settlements in a 6500 km2 area have been mapped around Benin City (Figure 8). These systems enclosed villages/towns/capitals and the agricultural lands that supported them. The total vertical height of ramparts, measured from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank, generally ranged from 3 to 9 m, and occasionally up to 20! The massive labor inputs required to create them imply that substantial populations were involved. Initial construction is thought to have

begun in the later first millennium AD, and multiple episodes of wall construction have been documented at the early city-state of Ife, which had inner and outer embankments enclosing an area of 20 km2. Neither the chronology, settlement layout, nor the political organization of most of these enclosured settlements has been documented, with the exception of Ife, Old Oyo, and Benin City. At the center of each of these three cities was an extensive palace inhabited by a powerful divine king, with a marketplace opposite.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Villages, Cities, and States 105

In northern Nigeria, fired brick city walls up to 20 km in length surrounded the cities and towns of Hausaland from at least the sixteenth century, but their antiquity has not been investigated archaeologically (see Cities, Ancient, and Daily Life). Historical written and oral sources speak to us of powerful kings, states, and trading empires in the late first/second millennium AD in both savanna and forest. The archaeological research needed to illuminate the early development of these polities and to provide details on the forms of political economy, and the social and religious institutions they incorporated is still in its infancy. Ritual practice involving lifelike brass heads depicting royalty was important at Ife, and clearly involved sophisticated craft specialists attached to the royal families. Ife’s role as a powerful ritual center may have been an important key to its growth and influence. In other areas, such as the early states of Takrur, Ghana, and Kanem, trade may have been the most influential factor. In the first millennium AD and even earlier, copper moved considerable distances from sources in the Sahara and southeastern Nigeria. Salt almost certainly moved long distances as well along trade networks that extended east–west and north–south. Ultimately, as pack camels became widely used in the desert, and with the arrival of the Arabs in North Africa in the seventh century, regular, trans-Saharan trade routes were established. These extended deep into West Africa to the sources of gold, incorporating earlier exchange networks. Trade entrepots and political centers, such as Tegdaoust (probably the site of Audaghust, mentioned by early Arab authors) and Kumbi Saleh (presumed to be the capital of Ghana), developed on the southern margin of the desert, strategically placed to service and to levy taxes on the trade. There is a great deal that we still do not know about the earliest emergence of towns and states in West Africa, including detailed comparative chronologies and contexts, specific historical trajectories, associations between degree of urbanization and specific political forms, and the nature of relations

between towns and their hinterlands as well as among interacting polities. That research is sure to continue to provide some surprises, including significant discoveries in unsuspected areas. Archaeologists have only begun to reconstruct the rich and diverse history of complex societies in West Africa. See also: Africa, West: Early Holocene Foragers; Herders, Farmers, and Crafts Specialists; Cities, Ancient, and Daily Life; Paleoethnobotany.

Further Reading Andah B (2003) Genesis and development of settlements in the Guinea and savanna regions. In: The Development of Urbanism from a Global Perspective, electronically published by Uppsala University. http://www.arkeologie.uu.se/afr/projects/ BOOK/Andah/Andah.htm. Casey J (2005) Holocene occupations of the forest and savanna. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction, pp. 225–248. Oxford: Blackwell. Connah G (1980) Three Thousand Years in Africa : Man and His Environment in the Lake Chad Region of Nigeria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Connah G (2001) African Civilizations, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Darling P (1984) Archaeology and History in Southern Nigeria: The Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan. Oxford: BAR. Holl A (1986) Economie et Socie´te´ Ne´olithique du Dhar Tichitt. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. Holl A (2002) Land of Houlouf: Genesis of a Chadic Polity, 1900 BC–AD 1800. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Museum. LaViolette A and Fleisher J (2005) The archaeology of sub-Saharan urbanism: Cities and their countrysides. In: Stahl AB (ed.) African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction, pp. 327–352. Oxford: Blackwell. McIntosh RJ (2005) Ancient Middle Niger: Urbanism and the Self-Organizing Landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McIntosh SK (ed.) (1995) Excavations at Jenne´-Jeno, Hambarketolo, and Kaniana (Inland Niger Delta, Mali), the 1981 Season. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ogundiran A (2005) Four millennia of cultural history in Nigeria (ca. 2000 BC–AD 1900). Journal of World Prehistory 19(2): 133–168.

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AGENCY Tamara L Bray, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary habitus Concept originally introduced by Marcel Mauss but later to become closely associated with work of Pierre Bourdieu; can be understood as those aspects of culture that are anchored in the body or daily practices of individuals, groups, societies, and nations, including the totality of learned habits, bodily skills, styles, tastes, and other non-discursive knowledges. modernity Term used to describe the condition of being ‘modern’; typically viewed as the historic period beginning in the nineteenth century associated with the Enlightenment, notions of progress, and the quest to rationally understand, master, and live comfortably in the world that came to dominate western thought and action of this era. new archaeology See ‘processual archaeology’. post-processual archaeology A movement within archaeology developed in the late twentieth century in reaction to perceived sterility of processual archaeology; label indicates both an engagement with postmodernism, its parent theory, as well as emergence from processual archaeology; rather than signifying any new orthodoxy, post-processualism encompasses a diversity of approaches, including structural-symbolic, contextual, feminist, phenomenological, and Marxist archaeologies; while differing in significant ways among themselves, what these different post-processual approaches share is a rejection of the idea of scientific objectivity, recognition of the indeterminacy of archaeological data, and the relevance of one’s standpoint or position with regard to the interpretation of the past. practice theory Seeks to explain the relationship between human action, on the one hand, and the extant system, or structure, on the other, by focusing on how the system shapes practice and how practice changes or reproduces the system. processual (new) archaeology Refers to both a phase and a theoretical orientation in American archaeology that dominated the field in the 1960s and 1970s; emphasized a systemic and adaptive view of culture, the search for general laws to explain human behavior and culture change, a positivist approach to science, and the rigorous use of the scientific method. praxis Understood as a theory of knowledge concerning people’s practical engagement with the world that has Marxist roots. structuration Concept and theory developed by Anthony Giddens in an attempt to reconcile fundamental dichotomies bedeviling the social sciences (e.g., agency vs. structure, subjective vs. objective, and micro vs. macro perspectives); approach focuses not on individual actors or the social totality but rather on social practices ordered across space and time that bridge these realms. structure Refers to a particular and complex organization of relations that both enable and constrain agency and social action. systems theory A trans-disciplinary meta-theory that gained currency in archaeology in the early 1960s; sought to discern rules governing the behavior of complex entities conceptualized holistically as configurations of interacting parts; provided a nomenclature for describing the organization and interdependence of any given configuration of parts connected and joined together by webs of relationships.

Introduction Over the past 20 years, agency has become an important concept in the toolbox of archaeological theory. Understood generally, if rather simplistically, as emphasizing the role of the individual in the creation of social conditions and outcomes, agency theory has had a common-sense appeal to archaeologists from a variety of theoretical backgrounds. With the collapse of consensus regarding a unitary approach to the past that has left in the wake of processual archaeology, agency theory became de rigueur in the discipline beginning in the late 1980s. As various scholars have noted, however, the concept of agency has been uncritically adopted by many as ‘good to think with’. As a result, there is considerable ambiguity surrounding the notion of agency as used within archaeology. Generally speaking, ‘agency’ may be understood as an umbrella term for the more subject-centered approaches to archaeological inquiry. The focus in agency theory is on the individual, human action, intentionality, and indeterminacy. While the concept has been fairly malleable in the hands of archaeologists, there are a few common elements within its various constructions that help to define a general sense of the term. These include a recognition of the importance of actions and motivations of agents; the idea that agency must be a socially significant quality of action rather than being simply reducible to action itself; that social life is materially and historically enabled and constrained; and that agency and structure exist in a dialectic relationship. Overall, agency may be understood as a key element in action-oriented social theory that views people as active agents in prehistory.

General History of Concept The significance of the concept of agency for social analysis and theory was most thoroughly explicated by Anthony Giddens. A sociologist by training, Giddens’ work was not aimed at anthropologists, yet his ideas held strong appeal as his account of agency was seen as a way of overcoming various two-headed monsters with which anthropology had wrestled for years. Among these ‘‘central problems’’, to use Giddens’phrase, were the relationships between structure and agency, society and the individual, free will and determinism, and social change versus social reproduction. In his writings, Giddens investigated the concept of agency in relation to structure, action, and power. These terms and notions comprise the core elements of

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a new orientation that began to emerge in anthropology in the 1970s, which came to be labeled ‘practice theory’. The roots of contemporary practice theory can be traced to Marx, his concern with production, and the idea of praxis. The notion of praxis may be understood as a theory of knowledge concerning people’s engagement with the world. In seeking to explain the relationship(s) between human action and systems or structures, e.g., how the system shapes practice and how practice changes or reproduces the system, practice theory provides for an ‘actionoriented’ account of social organization. Within this framework, structure (or the system) is understood as both the medium and the outcome of action. In other words, structure is the unintended outcome of the agent’s bringing about of effects at the same time that it is the medium through which those effects are achieved. As such, structures do not exist at any point in time or space but are always in a process of becoming (rather than being). This process of becoming is what Giddens refers to as ‘structuration’. Power, and the social relations through which it is manifest, are directly related to the agent’s transformative capacity, or her ability to produce form through work upon the world. Power is a necessary implication of the logical connection between human action and transformative capacity. In an insightful analysis of emerging theoretical trends in anthropology written two decades ago, Sherry Ortner identified practice (or praxis or action) as the key symbol of a newly developing disciplinary paradigm. She suggested that the interest in practice theory noted in the early 1980s related to increasing disenchantment with the normative views of culture and societies that had held sway within the discipline for generations. Highlighting the work of Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, and others, she outlinedhow the study of practice was not to be viewed as an antagonistic alternative to the study of systems or structures but rather as a necessary complement to such work.

History of Use in Archaeology As with most things theoretical in archaeology, interests in agency first took hold in anthropology and subsequently trickled down. Like many elements of the post-processual program that emerged in archaeology in the 1980s, concern with the role of human agency can be traced directly to dissatisfaction with various tenets of the new archaeology of the 1960s and 1970s. Given the systems-theory framework within which processual archaeology was constructed, its empirical orientation, and its principal concern with long-term processes, there was little room for the individual

or intentionality in archaeological investigations of this period (see Processual Archaeology). In the wake of the various critiques of behavioralism, ecosystems, and cultural evolutionary theory that were subsequently developed, a variety of alternative, post-processual approaches began to coalesce around an explicit concern with individual agents and agency. As a reaction to the functional and deterministic emphases of the new archaeology, agency was initially conceived in opposition to the view of prehistoric peoples as simple pawns in some highly orchestrated game. It took as its starting point the idea that humans are able to monitor the effects of their actions and act in novel and creative ways as opposed to being simple stimulus-response reactors caught up in larger, pre-existing sets of processes and systems. Among the different post-processualists contributing to an interest in agency-oriented questions in archaeology were the structural-symbolic, feminist, and Marxist contingents. Others who followed a more continuous trajectory from processual archaeology to the present and maintain a strong neoevolutionary bent have also embraced the concept of agency. Given the range of interest in the idea of agency as a useful explanatory device, it is little surprise that the concept has developed in so many different directions within the field.

Practice and Agency in Archaeology The concepts of practice and agency are closely bound up in the literature and often seem to be used interchangeably. While human agency is necessarily realized through practice, the notion of practice cannot be simply reduced to action because it has a strong element of political and social significance built into its definition. In practice theory, social agents are typically understood as individuals with goals, intentions, and subjectivities who operate within materially and historically given circumstances only partly of their own making. People are assumed to be competent and knowledgeable social actors who may conduct their daily affairs and relations both in strategic and intentional ways, and in routinized, nondiscursive ways. Their actions have both intended and unintended consequences. In the dialectical relationship between the structure within which social actors operate and the consequences of their action, or agency, both structure and agent are continuously and interactively remade. Several key terms are found within the lexicon of practice theory, the most important among these being agent, agency, structures, and structuration. Agents are the active subjects, the individuals, and social collectivities whose actions are typically understood to be purposive, determined, and knowledgeable. Agents enact

108 AGENCY

rather than possess agency and do so in the context of the socially, materially, and historically given structures of daily life. Agency is the dynamic process through which people construct and express their identity, participate in social life, and materially shape their existence. While agency constitutes a form of involvement with the world expressed through the material practices of mindful agents, it is important to note that not all agents possess the same skills, competence, knowledge, awareness, or foresight. Agency is best understood not as a thing but rather as a quality of many things and the relationships among these. The structures within which agents and agency operate are constituted by the principles and resources that orient social conduct, including the cognitive and cultural ordering of the world. The structures that shape human agency are visible only through the effects of that agency as translated into social action. In the mutual interdependence of structure and agency, or what has sometimes been called the duality of structure, the structural properties of a system are seen as both the medium and the outcome of the social practices they organize and orient. The concept of structuration, or the process of a structure’s becoming through the action and agency of knowledgeable actors, describes this recursive relationship and underscores the virtual quality of structures, which do not exist at any point in time or space but rather exhibit tendencies in action. The idea of structuration refers to ‘‘the ongoing production, maintenance, and transformation of societal institutions as well as the material, social, and symbolic conditions within which people exist and through which they reproduce and transform themselves’’ (Dobres 2000: 133). Archaeologists who take practice theory as their analytical framework tend to divide into one of two camps fissuring along the dimension of intentionality. On one side are those who view the intentionality of agents and their actions as the key aspect of agency. Within this school of thought, individuals are typically assumed to act strategically to advance their own interests. The social agents in these scenarios tend to be portrayed as rational actors interested in maximizing some element of their economic, political, or symbolic capital, their motives often taken to be autonomously constructed and universal. An extreme version of this view informs some of the Darwinian and evolutionary ecology approaches that have adopted the concept of agency. At the other end of the spectrum are those who stress the nondiscursive qualities and unintended outcomes of mindful human action as most significant. From this perspective, what agents want or intend is often irrelevant to the real social consequences of

their actions. The most important effect is rather seen to be the unwitting reproduction of the social structures within which agency is enacted. While it is recognized that social agents do often act with explicit intent and goals, it is simultaneously understood that they also often act in routinized, habitual ways in the course of everyday life. Acknowledgement of both kinds of agency in archaeological investigation comes closest to the theoretical concerns and analytical frames developed by Bourdieu and Giddens. As various scholars have noted, the study of agency cannot be separated from a study of structure. Agency only exists in a dialectical relationship to structure. In other words, one cannot talk about the agency of individual social actors without simultaneously taking into account the cultural background of those actors and the cultural structures within which those actors operate. While agency and structure are analytically distinct, they are nevertheless entwined each can be seen as the product of the other when viewed at different points in time. To understand human agency in the past, it is critical that archaeologists engage the mutuality of structure and agency, focusing equally on the antecedent historical conditions – the habitus from which the actor draws, as well as on individual action and intent.

Archaeological Studies Using the Agency Theory In North America, archaeologists have utilized practice theory and the concept of agency in a variety of research contexts ranging from the study of prehistoric technologies to concerns with the emergence of social inequality to the negotiation of social identities. Various recent studies of the Mississippian period and the rise of chiefdoms in the American bottomland, for instance, have made explicit use of agency theory in attempts to explain the transition from egalitarian to hierarchical societies in this region. Archaeologist Timothy Pauketat, who emphasizes the mutually enabling and constraining nature of the relationship between practice, agency, and structure in his work at the site of Cahokia, offers a particularly good example. In looking to explain the construction of the enormous mounds that characterize Mississippian centers and the massive amounts of labor they represent, he focused on the interests and agency of different segments of society. He argues that the practices associated with mound building were based in a pre-existing social structure but that as the scale and materiality of these practices changed, so too did the structures within which they were enacted. The end result for the Mississippian peoples was the

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hardening of social differences, the emergence of a hereditary elite, and the creation of a powerful chiefdom – unforeseen consequences of the interplay of agency, practice, and structure. In another archaeological study focused on the politics of identity and resistance, Stephen Silliman explores the role of agency in interpreting indigenous responses to the colonial enterprise in nineteenthcentury California, emphasizing both the agency of the native population and the material practices of everyday life. Archaeological excavations at the Mexican land-grant site of Rancho Petaluma in northern California produced a wealth of both westernmanufactured and traditional native goods that were found in close association with one another across the site. Attending to the large quantities of lithic debris and stone tools recovered, the investigator argued that the continuing reliance on this category of material culture represented a political choice on the part of native residents – one that speaks to processes of contestation and negotiation as well as the agency of native peoples within the changing structures and practices of everyday life. Focusing on the role of lithics as material agents, he concludes that their presence at this historic period site signified a conscious strategy on the part of indigenous workers to activate or solidify precolonial identities and associations.

Critiques of Agency Theory in Archaeology One of the most important critiques of agency theory to date has been the anti-essentialist argument brought to bear by feminist scholars in particular. Most often, the active agents with whom our models of prehistory are populated are conceived as a homogeneous lot having similar basic traits, skills, and goals. Typically, these agents are constructed as essentialized acultural, ahistorical, and atomistic beings with rational, capitalist, cost/benefit analyzing impulses. As Joan Gero notes, though it is not often articulated, it also seems to be commonly assumed that since these individuals have agency by definition, they are gendered male and colored powerful. In answering this critique, some have called for historicizing the notion of agency, identity, and the individual by situating these notions in their own unique culture historical context. A taking to heart of the dialectical relationship within which agency and structure exist would seem to obviate this problem as structures are not uniform across time or cultural space and hence we would not expect agency to be either. As is true for most forms of archaeological interpretation, agency-centered models are also vulnerable

to the projection of our own values onto the past. Such concern has been expressed with regard to the inherent emphasis placed on the autonomy of the individual and individual agency in practice theory. Various scholars have suggested that such an orientation simply mirrors contemporary western society and politics. Similarly, while the issue of having and constructing personal identities is a pervasive theme of modernity, it has not necessarily been so prevalent a concern in other times and places. From an epistemological standpoint, the privileging of agency as the most significant element in theories of social change necessarily grants individuals and their self-interested actions primacy at the expense of other modes of social interaction such as empathy or concordance. In sum, the uncritical application of agency theory in archaeology runs the risk of reproducing, if not naturalizing, the political relations and asymmetries that structure our present lives. Another point of concern revolves around the tendency to conflate agency with the actor and thus assume that evidence of agency is evidence for individuals or subjects in the archaeological record. It has been noted that while agency is a socially significant quality of action, it must be understood as both more and less than mere action. As with gender studies, becoming caught up in the search for individuals risks displacement of what should be the primary objectives of identifying and understanding the contexts, structures and intersubjective dynamics through which agents expressed themselves. The task is not so much to recover agency archaeologically as to recognize that human agency is inherent in the material remains. As Marcia-Anne Dobres has repeatedly pointed out, we do not have to find individuals in order to theorize about processes of agency in prehistory. Many scholars have argued for the central importance of agency in archaeological interpretation and the productive utility of working within this paradigm is attested by numerous recent studies. It should be clear, however, that the study of agency cannot be divorced from the study of the structures, systems, and habitus within which past lives were lived. It is also clear that archaeologists need to generate more nuanced understandings of agents and agency by incorporating concerns with social heterogeneity, gender, and identity into their analytical frameworks. Agency-based theories also need to broaden the concept of the individual beyond the liberal western sense of ‘free agents’ to include a more relational perspective. Agency should not be understood as simply located within bounded human bodies but rather within the wider sets of human relationships that make up the social person.

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Beyond human agency, such a theoretical orientation also holds much promise for furthering our models and understandings of material culture. Given that social agency is not co-terminous with the human body, we may begin to consider how objects, as material extensions of the agency of those who produced them, participate in this system of social relationships. Following Alfred Gell’s pioneering work in this area of investigation, we may begin to think about how personhood is augmented, extended, and distributed among the many objects fashioned and employed in social action. See also: Engendered Archaeology; Evolutionary Archaeology; Philosophy of Archaeology; Postprocessual Archaeology; Processual Archaeology.

Further Reading Bourdieu P (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dobres M-A (2000) Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Dobres M-A and Robb J (eds.) (2000) Agency in Archaeology. London: Routledge. Gell A (1998) Art and Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Gero J (2000) Troubled travels in agency and feminism. In: Dobres M-A and Robb J (eds.) Agency in Archaeology, pp. 34–39. London: Routledge. Giddens A (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory. Berkeley: University of California Press. Giddens A (1981) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, Vol.1: Power, Property, and the State. Berkeley: University of California Press. Giddens A (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of a Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press. Johnson M (1989) Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8(2): 189–211. Ortner S (1984) Theory in anthropology since the sixties. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26: 126–166. Pauketat T (2000) The tragedy of the commoners. In: Dobres M-A and Robb J (eds.) Agency in Archaeology, pp. 113–129. London: Routledge. Saitta D (1994) Agency, class, and archaeological interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13(3): 201–227. Silliman S (2001) Agency, practical politics, and the archaeology of culture contact. Journal of Social Archaeology 1(2): 190–209.

AGRICULTURAL FIELDS, IDENTIFICATION AND STUDY M G Elgar, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary anthrosol A soil horizon created by human activities such as cultivation, irrigation, middening or mining. biolipid A hydrocarbon-containing organic compound derived from plants or animals that is relatively stable over time. Analysis of biolipid residues may be used to help identify the original source of decayed plant or animal material. bioturbation The disruption and mixing of soils and sediments by organisms, especially by burrowing or boring (e.g., roots, earthworms), which has the effect of homogenizing the original strata. lynchet A bank of earth commonly formed at the edges of fields from plowing. midden A prehistoric refuse deposit that may contain artifacts as well as organic remains such as plants, bones and shell. plaggen soil A surface anthrosol formed by long-term manuring and mixing of the soil, usually from cultivation. soil micromorphology The study of soil morphology by microscopic methods, usually by studying thin-sections under a polarizing microscope.

Introduction The study of agriculture incorporates natural variables (e.g., climate, geology) with cultural variables (e.g., technology). The off-site emphasis of field systems requires different methodological and theoretical frameworks to the overall study of agriculture. Detailed investigations of fields reveal the practices behind agricultural production and contributes to understanding human agency and long-term human– landscape interactions. These inquiries also place agriculture in its ecological setting revealing relationships between fields, topography, and environmental conditions. For instance, we frequently find terraces in hilly regions, whereas irrigation networks are found in arid lands. Practices of this kind transform natural land into agricultural substrates following culturally defined blueprints. Alterations to the landscape – landscape modifications – are generally enduring and are frequently cumulative in their impacts. These qualities lend regional investigations of fields to questions of agricultural intensification and the long-term maintenance of farming systems.

AGRICULTURAL FIELDS, IDENTIFICATION AND STUDY 111 Table 1 Methods and applications for the study of agricultural fields by scale of analysis Scale

Primary methods

Archaeological features

Human practices

Region/ Landscape

Aerial photography Geographic Information Systems Pedestrian survey Published maps (e.g., political, property, geological, soil) Regional palaeoclimate reconstruction Remote sensing Satellite imagery

Field systems: walls, raised or ridged fields, terraces, lynchets, leveled land Water management: irrigation channels, aqueducts, drainage, water storage features Occasionally: furrows, plow marks

Adaptation to local conditions Degree of landscape modification Extent of bounded land General production capacity Land units where field units visible Water management and catchment area

Garden/Field

Architectural analysis Feature mapping Pedestrian survey

Architectural style Artifact assemblages (e.g., hoe tips) Construction materials Dimensions of field features such as raised platforms or furrows Evidence of reconstruction

Cultural associations Construction techniques and material sources Landscape history (construction, remodeling, abandonment) Planning Tillage methods

Seed bed

Coring and excavation Botanical: pollen, phytoliths, macrobotanicals Dating methods Geoarchaeology: bulk soil analyses (e.g., organic matter, nutrients, particle size, biolipids); soil micromorphology

Exposed soil to reveal: plowzone, amendment and depletion, anthropogenic soils, plow features Botanical remains Buried artifacts, crop, furrow and irrigation features Dates of architectural features Infilling and disruption of irrigation features Soil properties

Climate change Crops Cultural associations Long-term landuse impacts Soil amendment (e.g., burning, fertilization, middening), Soil depletion or overuse Tillage methods

Field system research strategies are scalar and three levels of analysis are considered here: (1) regional/ landscape, (2) garden/field, and (3) the seedbed (Table 1). These strategies are not exhaustive and the primary literature offers additional approaches.

Identifying Field Systems Intensive agriculture frequently involves the construction of landscape architecture such as field walls, terraces or lynchets, raised or ridged field features, and irrigation systems (e.g., canals, aqueducts, wells, water storage features) (Figure 1). These features enclose natural land, aid crop production, and engender land tenure. Field boundaries may appear in political and property maps and, as they are frequently maintained for generations, historical maps may identify archaeological fields in regions with long agricultural histories. Aerial photography and satellite imagery capture landscape architecture where it is still standing or is near the surface and modern vegetation is minimal (Figure 2). Remote sensing (e.g., ground-penetrating radar, magnetrometry) can identify subsurface field systems, particularly buried field walls and irrigation features. Geological and soil maps help evaluate natural resources. The value of these proxy records should be evaluated through reconnaissance and

survey of actual field systems on the ground. Geographical information systems (GISs) are employed to integrate these multiple spatial data sets, speed mapping of landscape architecture, and calculate the cultivated area. Irrigation systems rely on natural rainfall and hydraulic patterns, which should underpin their archaeological investigation. Changing water tables and tectonics may complicate the reconstruction of irrigation systems and need to be addressed in field investigations. Abandoned irrigation features can be excavated to help deduce why they failed (e.g., gradual silting up, catastrophic infill). In a study that critically applies many of the methods highlighted here, Tony Wilkinson (2003) investigated Near Eastern agricultural landscapes and the role of irrigation. Divergent agricultural adaptations were identified in the rain-fed northern uplands and the irrigated fields of southern Mesopotamia. Reflecting the role of agriculture in complex polities, this study provided insight into different configurations of community organization, political inequality, and authority systems. This exemplifies the potential contribution of field system research to central questions in archaeology. The identification of extensive agriculture (i.e., swidden or slash-and-burn) provides a greater challenge to archaeologists. Scarce landscape architecture

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Figure 1 Inca terraces at Moray, Peru.

Figure 2 Aerial photograph of a Later Bronze Age field with plaggen A horizon defined by dark soil mark at Welland Bank Quarry, south Lincolnshire, UK. Copyright Charles A. I. French.

limits the utility of aerial images and maps. Short occupation may leave little trace on the soil. When abandoned, extensive fields may blend into the surrounding uncultivated ecology. In some instances, burning and fertilization alter vegetation and soils aiding in identification. In other instances, rare constructed features within areas of swidden cultivation support the identification of cultivated areas.

Gardens and Fields Pedestrian survey, feature mapping, and assessment of architecture are used to study gardens and fields.

Ideally, a statistically representative number of fields will be selected for study from the total cultivated area. Variations in elevation, topography, architecture, and associations to other archaeological features should be considered in field selection. As in other kinds of architecture, variations in design, construction materials, and quality of field architecture can provide information into such issues as planning, labor, and prestige. The collection of artifact assemblages from fields may shed light on farming implements and cultural associations. The surface vegetation in old fields is another line of evidence as it often differs from adjacent uncultivated land.

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The Seedbed

Crops

In ancient fields, excavation and coring reveal the seedbed (plowzone or A horizon), which may be on the modern surface or buried. Agricultural soils are impacted by soil type, environment, crops, cultivation regime (e.g., intensive or extensive), tools, and cultural traditions. Geoarchaeological techniques are employed to determine the fertility and stability of palaeosols. Common bulk soil analyses include quantification of crop-limiting nutrients (e.g., organic matter, phosphorus, nitrogen), soil particle size, and magnetic susceptibility. Intact soil blocks are analyzed through soil micromorphology (thin section analysis) to reveal preservation conditions by identifying soil structure, the distribution of soil constituents, and bioturbation. Geoarchaeological analyses of fields are best compared to uncultivated lands for accurate assessment of human impacts. Triplicate replication of soil conditions (i.e., collecting samples from three fields with similar physical settings) further controls for variations across agrarian landscapes (Figure 3). When preservation is outstanding, excavation may unearth anthropogenic features such as plow marks and furrows (cf. Figures 2, 4a, and 4b). Differences in soil color, nutrient concentration, and soil particle size are used to identify land-use impacts. Long-term soil management is seen from the development of plaggen soils, dark nutrient-rich anthropogenic soils resulting from repeated applications of fertilizer-like dung (Figure 5). In arid regions, nutrients such as phosphorous may be retained for millennia. In contrast, overuse and erosion are revealed by reduced concentrations of silt, clay, and soil nutrients when field soils are compared to uncultivated controls.

Studies of cultigens often originate in settlements where macrobotanical remains indicate the consumption and use of cultivated plants (see Plant Domestication). In contrast, macrobotanical remains excavated from within fields are only reliable from intact palaeosols because of the potential for modern contamination, augmented by industrial tillage, bioturbation, and organic decay. Pollen and phytoliths may be more stable in fields and can provide in situ confirmation of cultigens when recovered from secure contexts. Phytoliths are preserved under different conditions than pollen and may also reflect different crop species than pollen (see Phytolith Analysis; Pollen Analysis). Regional palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, contemporary agronomic studies, and surface vegetation provide additional insight into ancient cropping regimes. Increasingly, research into cultigens combines several methods with attention to sampling and preservation conditions. Dating

Bioturbation, poor preservation of macrobotanicals, and modern disturbance also impact dating strategies. Dating may be further complicated by the sequential use of fields for different activities (see Dating Methods, Overview). Buried contexts under standing features, such as field walls or aqueducts, may provide secure contexts for recovering datable material. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is increasingly used to date humic acids in soil (see Luminescence Dating). Surface and excavated artifact collections from gardens and fields provide additional chronological information.

Figure 3 Schematic of triplicate sampling pattern (S ¼ sample collection point). Copyright Chris Stevens.

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Figure 5 Plaggen soil in terraced field (highlands of Yemen). Copyright Charles A. I. French.

Figure 4 Thin sections of soils from ancient fields. (a), Plow marks in well-preserved buried palaeosoil, Welland Bank Quarry, south Lincolnshire, UK. Copyright Charles A. I. French. (b), Bioturbated palaeosoil from a pre-Columbian terrace (Paca, Peru).

Agriculture, Landscape, and Society Field system research reveals the human ingenuity behind food production systems adapted to diverse ecosystems. For instance, tropical adaptations include Asian rice paddies, Mesoamerican chinampas, and raised fields in South America. Each system provides a signature on the landscape. This can be illustrated by rice paddy fields which are made by leveling and walling to pond water, dramatically changing natural topography and soils. In contrast, responses to arid lands, limited by water and soil nutrients, are seen in an array of different technologies. For instance, abandoned grid-like landscape features in Arizona were found through an intensive multidisciplinary study to have produced agricultural crops in a desolate landscape. Cultural and environmental contexts are therefore essential components of field system research. Additional lines of evidence may be found in art, historic documents, and modern correlates. Egyptian

farming methods are recorded in art and hieroglyphs (e.g., collections of the British Museum). The Romans employed centurion field systems and recorded field allocations. Experimental farming with replica tools and old crops provide heuristic models to reconstruct annual yields, labor requirements, and soil responses to different treatments (e.g., the experimental Butser Ancient Farm, United Kingdom). Ethno-archaeological studies with nonindustrial farmers provide further data for reconstructing crop rotation cycles, labor allocation, and natural constraints on farming. Research methods for off-site agricultural landscapes reflect analytical scale, environmental conditions, field architecture, and palaeosol preservation. Ground reconnaissance to verify published data in maps and aerial images provides a baseline for regional studies and also detailed assessments of individual fields. Field system research is multidisciplinary and often requires specialist research methods to provide evidence for specific cultivation practices.

Acknowledgments Thanks are due to Charly French and Chris Stevens for permission to use figures. See also: Dating Methods, Overview; Geoarchaeology; Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction, Methods; Phytolith Analysis; Plant Domestication; Pollen Analysis; Soils and Archaeology.

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Further Reading Doolittle WE and James AN (2004) The Safford Valley Grids: Prehistoric Cultivation in the Southern Arizona Desert. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Hastorf CA (1993) Agriculture and the Onset of Political Inequality before the Inka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goldberg P and Richard IM (2006) Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Miller NF and Gleason KL (1994) The Archaeology of Garden and Field. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Thomas K (ed.) (1990) Soils and early agriculture. World Archaeology 22(1). Wilkinson TJ (2003) Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

AGRICULTURE Contents Biological Impact on Populations Social Consequences

Biological Impact on Populations Patricia M Lambert, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary bioarchaeology The study of the human biological component of the archaeological record. dental attrition The wearing or grinding down of teeth. fertility Birthrate of a population. malocclusion Abnormality in the way the teeth of the upper and lower jaw fit together. morbidity Disease rate, proportion of diseased to healthy in a population. morphology Shape, form. mortality Death rate of a population. occlusal Chewing surface of a tooth. palaeopathology The study of disease in former/ancient times as evidenced in human remains from archaeological contexts. robusticity Expression of relative size and strength of bones or teeth, or of a skeleton more generally, for example, increased robusticity of long bones.

Introduction Questions concerning the biological impacts of the economic transition from foraging to farming have formed a central focus of research in bioarchaeology since the late 1970s. Researchers examining this transition have generally compared diet, health, and workload of mobile/semimobile forager antecedents and later sedentary agriculturalists to identify differences

and therefore changes associated with the adoption of an agricultural mode of subsistence. The groundbreaking volume, Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, published in 1984, represents the first major effort to gather together such studies from a number of world regions to address questions concerning the impetus for and biological consequences of agriculture. Much of the research available at that time focused on skeletal samples from the Americas, particularly North America, and these studies still predominate in the literature. However, research efforts over the intervening years have expanded this geographic purview to include different types of agriculture and agricultural transitions in many world regions. As research accumulates, some general trends are emerging in certain aspects of health and workload, but it is also becoming apparent that the ‘transition’ and consequent health impacts were not uniform in all times and places, or even unidirectional. This growing awareness of variability in the agricultural experience has led to an increasing research emphasis on how different environmental and behavioral correlates of agriculture influence the skeletal markers used to reconstruct the different lifeways and health impacts associated with this economic transition.

Osteological Evidence for Dietary Change One of the important challenges of studying the transition from foraging to farming has been documenting the timing and nature of this transition. Traditionally, archaeologists have studied palaeobotanical, faunal, and artifactual evidence to document the types of

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food resources available and presumably consumed by people at a particular locale. Bioarchaeology adds a different dimension to the study of diet and dietary change through the analysis of the biological impacts different subsistence regimes had on the teeth and bones of ancient practitioners (see Osteological Methods; Paleopathology). Dental indicators and bone chemistry are the most important lines of skeletal evidence for diet. These are discussed in greater detail below. Reconstructing Diet from Dental Indicators

Figure 1 Carious lesions in the mandibular molars of a farmer from North Carolina. 100 90 80 % molars with cavities

A number of dental indicators are used to gain insights into the nature of foods consumed. These include dental disease (dental caries, periodontal disease, alveolar abscesses, and antemortem tooth loss), tooth wear, chipping, dental calculus (plaque), and patterns of dental occlusion and associated craniofacial robusticity. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive and indeed are often interrelated. This discussion focuses on worldwide patterns of three indicators that have proven particularly useful for assessing changes in diet: dental disease, dental wear (attrition), and craniofacial morphology. Dental caries is a disease process caused by the bacterial fermentation of dietary carbohydrates, which produces acids that erode tooth enamel (Figure 1). Because caries-causing oral bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans thrive on carbohydrates, dental caries is more prevalent in individuals and populations consuming carbohydrate-rich foods (Figure 2). Such foods tend to be more heavily processed and thus do not have the cleansing properties of greens and other fresh foods that require heavy chewing, which also contributes to dental disease. Cereal food production in particular is a primary factor in declining dental health with the transition to agriculture; grains are valuable cultigens because they store well, but properties such as hard texture and low water content that enhance storage result in the need for hulling, grinding, and/or cooking before consumption. Highly processed foods stick to the teeth and feed the oral bacteria such as S. mutans that adhere to tooth surfaces. Although changes in dental disease with the advent of agriculture are far from uniform, a general trend toward increasing dental caries and antemortem tooth loss is evident in both New and Old World contexts. In the New World, maize is the most important cause of increasing rates of dental disease due its relatively high sugar content, and observed changes in dental health throughout the Americas are often marked when people make the shift from foraging to maize farming. For example, this pattern of declining

Southeast farmers Southwest farmers California fisherpeople

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Figure 2 Comparison of dental caries rates in foragers and farmers.

dental health with agricultural intensification has been documented in northern Chile and coastal Peru in South America, in Mesoamerica, and in various regions of North America including the Southwest, Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Hence, an increase in dental disease has often been used as a proxy measure of corn consumption and the shift to maize agriculture in New World contexts. In the Old World, the agricultural base was often more diversified, potentially including several grains or legumes and domesticated animals; the consequences to dental health were correspondingly more varied. In the Levant, for example, there is little evidence for increasing prevalence of dental caries at the Neolithic transition, though a considerable decline in

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dental health is evident later in the agricultural sequence. On the other hand, when prehistoric farmers (wheat, rice, barley) of western India made the reverse transition to foraging, there was a substantial reduction in dental caries prevalence, evidence for the cariogenic nature of the agricultural diet there. Overall, dental health decline is more prominent than stasis or improvement in the Old World, but the changes are not uniform or generally as severe as those documented in the New World. It should also be noted that other diets can also result in an increase in dental disease, so it is important to seek corroborating evidence that agricultural products were responsible. For example, on the offshore islands of the Santa Barbara Channel, California, a region where agriculture never took hold prehistorically, early inhabitants had relatively high rates of dental caries that subsequently declined through time. It is uncertain what led to dental disease in this environment, but one possibility is the consumption of sugary roots and tubers, a hypothesis supported by the presence of digging apparatus in archaeological sites of the time. In Portugal, foragers had fairly comparable rates of dental disease relative to later agriculturalists, probably due to the consumption of cariogenic wild foods such as sticky fruits and honey. These cautionary tales illustrate the importance of multiple lines of evidence in reconstructing diet and identifying agriculture from visual examination of teeth. Unlike dental caries, dental wear shows a decline in most world regions with the transition to agriculture. This is because processed foods are softer and require less chewing, which reduces the loss of enamel on the occlusal surfaces of teeth, although use of sandstone mortars and metates for processing grain crops may introduce grit into these staple foods and lead to increased wear. The form of dental wear also tends to differ between foragers and farmers: the worn molars of foragers tend to be flat, whereas those of agriculturalists tend to be angled and often have a cupped appearance attributed to the consumption of softer foods. This change in degree and type of wear is evident at the foraging–farming transition in the southern Levant, for example, although wear rates tend to track the stage of transition and earlier farmers show more comparable wear to foragers than later farmers. Other dental signs of an agricultural diet observed in skeletal series worldwide include a reduction in the size of the jaw and concomitant malocclusion of teeth. Chewing hard-textured foods tends to stimulate growth of the jaw bones, producing jaws that can accommodate the permanent teeth. Soft-textured foods require little chewing, on the other hand, resulting in narrower dental arches, tooth crowding, and

misalignment of teeth. In consequence, facial form tends to change with the transition to agriculture, with agriculturalists having less robust facial features than their forager antecedents. This pattern is evident in the Eastern Woodlands of North America, in the Balkans region of central Europe, in the Nile Valley of Africa, and in the southern Levant region of the Middle East, where a reduction in craniofacial robusticity is evident from the Natufian to Neolithic transition with the adoption of agropastoralism. Bone Chemistry

Studies of bone chemistry have added an important dimension to the study of diet and dietary transitions because they provide an independent line of evidence and document the relative importance of certain types of food for individuals and populations. Stable isotopes of several elements (carbon, nitrogen, strontium), as well as a number of trace elements (e.g., barium, calcium, strontium, zinc), have been used to track changes in diet. These elements are important components of the foods we consume and are incorporated into our bone tissues during normal bone growth and maintenance. The two elements that have proved to be most useful in bone chemistry research on dietary transitions and agricultural origins are carbon and nitrogen. Each element has two stable forms (stable isotopes) that differ in proportion according to types of foods consumed. Carbon-13 (13C) is a very small proportion of the total carbon in foods (12C predominates), but is more abundant in tropical cultigens (C4 plants) such as corn, millet, and sorghum, and in coastal and estuarine sea grasses due to the manner in which carbon is incorporated into the tissues of these plants. Consumers of these foods also have relatively more 13 C in their bone (and dental) tissues than those consuming most other foods (plants that follow the C3 photosynthetic pathway and the animals that consume them). Nitrogen-14 (14N) is the more common form of nitrogen, but 15N is relatively more abundant in marine versus terrestrial food chains and also tends to concentrate up the food chain. When carbon and nitrogen values are used in combination, it is possible to derive more nuanced interpretations of diet and dietary change because it becomes possible to differentiate marine resources such as fish and sea mammal meat from terrestrial plant resources like corn, and thereby identify the role of cultigens in the diet. Stable isotope studies have probably been more important for documenting the agricultural transition in the New World than Old World due to the primary importance of a single, C4 grain crop (maize), and the rarity of domesticated animals that led early Americans to depend more heavily on this storable

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cultigen. For this reason, carbon-13 enrichment can generally be taken to reflect a transition to maize agriculture in most American contexts, except in coastal regions such as those of the Georgia Bight or southern Peru, where nitrogen values are needed to differentiate corn from marine foods. Studies of stable isotopes from several midcontinental regions in North America have also shown, however, that the timing and duration of this economic transition were far from uniform, and these differences are likely important for understanding extant and emerging data on the health consequences of farming in the New World. Peoples of the Old World had a number of important grain crops, most of them C3 plants (e.g., wheat, rye, barley, rice), although millet and sorghum were tropical cultigens important in some regions and time periods. Here, the shift toward enriched carbon-13 values signals either the increasing use of millet and/ or sorghum, or increased emphasis on marine foods. In northern China, for example, 13C values indicate a substantial emphasis on millet (13C enrichment) during the Neolithic that later shifted to rice and wheat (decrease in 13C) and more recently to maize (13C enrichment). A shift in coastal regions of the Old World from enriched to less-enriched carbon-13 values, on the other hand, may signal increased emphasis on C3 cultigens such as wheat, barley, rye, or rice, as has been documented in Neolithic samples from coastal Scandinavia and Greece.

Changes in Patterns of Health and Disease with Agriculture Reconstructing Health from Osteological Indicators

A number of skeletal indicators are used by bioarchaeologists to reconstruct patterns of health and disease associated with agricultural transitions. These include linear enamel hypoplasia, porotic hyperostosis/cribra orbitalia, periosteal lesions, juvenile and adult stature, and mortality patterns. Linear enamel hypoplasia refers to depressed bands that form in tooth enamel when childhood growth is disrupted by nutritional insufficiency, infectious disease, or other significant stressors that interrupt the metabolic process (Figure 3). These dental markers serve as a general indicator of health during infancy and childhood. Porotic hyperostosis refers to porous lesions of the cranial vault and eye orbits (cribra orbitalia) that form in response to iron deficiency anemia, although in recent years palaeopathological research has demonstrated a link between porous cranial lesions and scurvy (Figure 4). These lesions also tend to form in childhood due to dietary deficiencies or blood loss

Figure 3 Enamel hypoplasia in a maxillary canine tooth. Photo credit: Korri D. Turner, Soil Systems, Inc.

Figure 4 Cribra orbitalia.

due to parasites and bacterial infection, and thus provide another but more specific indicator of childhood health experience. Periosteal lesions (Figure 5) are plaques of bone that form on external (cortical) bone surfaces when the connective tissue that covers bone (the periosteum) becomes separated from the cortex due to various biological processes. Although there are numerous conditions that can cause these lesions (e.g., trauma, scurvy, vascular disease), bacterial infection is among the more prominent, and periosteal lesions therefore tend to be viewed (albeit not quite correctly) as a proxy measure of infectious disease experience. In combination, these lesions provide a reasonably good measure of childhood stress levels, particularly when used in a comparative framework. Periosteal lesions can also provide information on the disease and injury experiences of adults. Stature estimates based on long bone measurements and mortality patterns based on age distributions of cemetery samples have also been used to

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Figure 5 Periosteal lesion on the midshaft of a tibia.

assess health status of individuals and populations at economic transitions. People who experience poor nutrition and ill health during the growth years do not achieve their genetic height potential, and adult stature can therefore provide a good measure of cumulative health experience during the growth years. Growth curves for juveniles have also been used to characterize subadult health, but can be difficult to interpret for cemetery samples. This is because the curve is necessarily based on the measurements of children who died at a particular age rather than all the children of that age in the living population, and therefore reflects the stature of the least healthy members of each age group. Ratios of subadults (especially, infants and young children) to adults in cemetery samples can provide information on age-based differences in mortality and offer insights into patterns of morbidity in a population. However, there are a number of challenges to reconstructing mortality profiles from death assemblages that are discussed below. Almost everywhere in both New and Old World contexts, the osteological indicators described above provide a cumulative picture suggesting greater decline than improvement in health with agriculture, although this difference is often most evident in comparisons of foragers and full-scale, sedentary agriculturalists. Health changes associated with the actual transition period are much more variable due to differences in how quickly the transition took place, how much the agricultural diet differed from that of earlier foragers, and the degree to which demographic factors such as sedentism and growth

rate altered with the introduction of agricultural production. The general pattern of health decline observed in many settings has led to the conclusion that disease risk increased with agriculture, and there are certainly reasons to believe this might be so. When people begin to grow their food, they become tethered to a particular place in a way that foragers are not. Sedentism increases disease exposure through accumulation of food refuse and human waste, both sources of parasitic and bacterial infection. These accumulations also attract vermin such as rats, known to carry bubonic plague, hantavirus, typhus, rabies, and other diseases transmissible to humans. In tropical environments, clearing of agricultural fields or construction of irrigation systems can create breeding grounds for mosquitos and the infections such as malaria and West Nile virus they can transmit. Such health problems were apparently created in ancient Bahrain with the transition from nonirrigating to irrigation agriculture. In addition, agricultural populations often rely heavily on storable staple foods such as corn and wheat that do not contain the range of vitamins and minerals available from the mixed diet of most foragers, potentially rendering agriculturalists more susceptible to pathogens as a result of poor nutrition. Food storage itself can also lead to increased problems with gut infection due to spoilage from bacteria and molds. There are, however, also health advantages of an agricultural economy. The production of surplus, storable foods can reduce the impact of lean periods that for foragers may lead to malnutrition and death. This may account for the lack of stature decline, or in some cases even an increase in stature, documented in some regions of the southeastern United States and elsewhere with agriculture. Surplus food can also permit incapacitated members of a society that cannot contribute to subsistence efforts due to sickness, injury, or old age to survive where they might not in a mobile society. In addition, the injured and ill need not be mobile to survive, but can rest and regain strength. Food production also permits shorter birth spacing, resulting in increasing fertility rates and therefore relatively more children each generation. Some researchers question whether the health risks among prehistoric agriculturalists were actually greater than their foraging antecedents, despite osteological evidence suggesting that this was the case. For example, age distributions of agriculturalist samples frequently show a higher ratio of infants and young children to adults, a pattern interpreted to reflect an increase in infant mortality and a decrease in life expectancy at birth. However, it has become clear that, while age distributions can provide a

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good measure of fertility, they are a poor measure of mortality. This is because changes in birthrate have a much greater impact on demographic profiles than changes in death rate. Fortunately, alternative methods have been developed to derive more accurate estimates of fertility and mortality from archaeological cemetery samples. One method designed to eliminate problems associated with the underenumeration of infants and inaccurate estimation of age in older skeletons uses the proportion of individuals over 30 years to the proportion of individuals over >5 years to estimate fertility. Another method uses birth rates calculated from age distributions of skeletal samples and growth rates based on settlement data to estimate fertility and mortality. Estimates based on these revised methods suggest that early American horticulturalists experienced an increase in both fertility and mortality rates relative to contemporaneous foragers. However, similarly high rates appear to have been experienced by both foragers and farmers living in the Americas between about 1500 and 500 years ago (when most groups made the transition to sedentary agriculture), and it has been argued that population growth and high mortality may have been the impetus for agriculture rather than a consequence of it. Increasing morbidity also appears to generally characterize the transition to agriculture, but some scholars have argued that this too is a product of changing patterns of infant survivorship. In foraging societies, it is hypothesized that at-risk infants may not survive infancy due to limiting factors such as the need for greater birth spacing and annually occurring lean periods, and thus be eliminated from the population before developing any skeletal record of ill health. Survivors in these societies are therefore the healthiest born and would be expected to fare better in life. On the other hand, if at-risk infants in agricultural societies survive due to better provisioning and stability, they may nonetheless suffer the consequences of greater frailty. These survivors thus may develop the signs of ill health that osteologists use to reconstruct patterns of health and disease. Agricultural skeletal samples would thus look sicker because they include sickly survivors, whereas foragers would look healthier because susceptible infants died before they could develop these signs. However, although these problems (the osteological paradox) introduce challenges to estimating life expectancy and mortality accurately, skeletal samples nonetheless provide a record of disease experience for those who did survive. In this sense, agriculturalists generally show more signs of ill health and disease than their forager antecedents (or contemporaries), and illness thus appears to have been a more prominent aspect of everyday life in these societies.

Infectious Disease

The skeleton provides only a very limited picture of infectious disease experience with the transition to agriculture. This is because most diseases do not affect the bones and those that do tend to affect them in nonspecific ways. However, what evidence there is suggests that infectious disease generally increased when people made the shift from foraging to farming. We can see this pattern most clearly in the changing prevalence of two chronic infectious diseases that commonly affect the skeleton in distinctive and therefore identifiable ways: treponemal disease and tuberculosis (TB). Treponemal disease, a bacterial infection that affects the bones in some (reports vary from 1 to 50þ%) cases, tends to result in periosteal lesions of the long bones (especially, the tibias; Figure 6) and destructive lesions of the cranial vault (caries sicca) and nasal region. TB, a mycobacterial infection, may stimulate periosteal lesions of visceral (internal) rib surfaces in pulmonary TB and tends to affect the vertebrae, hips, and knees with destructive lesions in the skeletal form of the disease (Figure 7). Though neither disease causes bone lesions in all or even most cases, knowledge of the likelihood of bone lesions in each disease can facilitate a more accurate estimation of morbidity levels in the population. Emerging studies of pathogen DNA will likely enhance our understanding of the impact of these diseases prehistorically. The history and antiquity of treponemal disease is best known from sites in North America, and primarily serves as a disease index in New World contexts. This is because its appearance and prevalence in the Old World to date is less well documented and understood. In North America, evidence for some form of the disease predates the transition to agriculture by several thousand years. However, most evidence derives from population samples postdating AD 1000.

Figure 6 Anterior bowing and disfiguration of the tibias due to chronic periosteal reaction in a case of treponemal disease.

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Figure 7 Destructive lesion of a lumbar vertebra in a probable case of skeletal tuberculosis.

The link in this increasing prevalence appears to be one of increased population density and sedentism, important demographic correlates of both agriculture and infectious disease. The earliest cases of tuberculosis have been found in the Old World at sites in the Mediterranean and North Africa, where the domestication of herd animals such as cattle, a well known carrier of the pathogen, may have brought people into contact with the disease as early as 8000–9000 years ago. Early on, it was probably not crowding and sedentism that led to infection, but rather proximity to animal reservoirs of the disease. In the New World, the earliest, well documented cases of tuberculosis occur in South America, where the initial mode of transmission remains unclear, although domesticated camelids in some Andean regions may later have served as a reservoir for tuberculosis initially introduced by humans. However, the greatest visibility of tuberculosis in the New World is very late in the prehistoric sequence, much of it postdating AD 1000. An opportunistic infection, tuberculosis differentially affects those with compromised health and tends to thrive in crowded living conditions. Its apparent association with agriculture, especially well documented in North America, again may reflect the health risks that tend to occur when people become sedentary, increase in number, and live in closer proximity to one another. Perhaps the most direct evidence for the impact of agriculture on infectious disease rates is the increase in dental caries rates noted above. The health consequences of dental disease are often underestimated due to modern perceptions of its minor impact on overall health relative to other diseases. However, in the absence of modern dental care, dental caries progresses from superficial tooth erosion to invasion of

the dentin, death of the tooth, abscessing, and eventual tooth loss. This process is painful, produces a foul odor, and can be dangerous. The proximity of the teeth to major blood vessels connecting to the heart and brain means that bacteria can more readily be transmitted to these organs than from most other regions of the body. Once dental disease sets in, the pain and fragility of diseased teeth also limits a person’s diet to foods that require less chewing. When the teeth are gone, the diet is further restricted to foods such as gruels that lack essential nutrients and that can act as a medium for bacterial growth. Thus, the increased tooth decay and loss commonly seen in agriculturalist samples, particularly in the Americas, was likely associated with a decline in nutrition that rendered people more susceptible to infectious pathogens. In this way, dental disease likely played an important role in the patterns of morbidity and mortality we see archaeologically with the agricultural transition.

Change in Workload with Agriculture One of the big questions concerning the transition from foraging to farming is how this transition impacted workload: did farming offer a relief from the constant quest for food or did it impose a heavier burden on those now responsible for its production? Answers to these questions lie in the study of the skeletal changes associated with mechanical stresses: degenerative joint disease and structural changes in bone morphology – an area of study known as biomechanics. Degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis) refers to destructive changes of joint surfaces that primarily occur in response to mechanical stress and physical activity, although other contributing factors such as age, sex, and weight also play a role in the development and severity of joint damage. Biomechanics refers to the application of engineering principles to the study of living tissue; in other words, the functional properties of bone are understood in terms of the same loading modes that affect steel beams and other building materials (e.g., tension, compression, bending, sheer, torsion). These two indices account for the majority of studies focused on changes in workload with agriculture, although there is growing interest in a third method involving study of muscle attachment sites (musculoskeletal markers, or MSMs). Degenerative Joint Disease as an Indicator of Workload and Activity Patterns

Comparative studies of degenerative joint disease are more limited than other types of studies described above, but those available have generally documented a decline in osteoarthritis in both New and Old World settings with the transition to agriculture.

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In western Europe, for example, Mesolithic samples tend to show more osteoarthritis – particularly in the back and upper limbs – than Neolithic samples, suggesting that foragers experienced greater biomechanical stress than later farmers. In North America and particularly in the Southeast, where many of these studies have been conducted, osteoarthritis has been shown to decline in a number of joint surfaces with this economic transition. In Alabama and the Georgia Bight, declines are evident in the bones of the neck and lower back, the elbows, and knee joints. Within the Georgia Bight, the skeletal remains of upland agriculturalists show more osteoarthritis than those of lowland agriculturalists, suggesting that topography influenced workload, and thus the mechanical stresses placed on the joints of agriculturalists living in this region. Several studies from the American Southeast also document a shift to greater sexual dimorphism in the severity and patterning of osteoarthritis with the transition to agriculture, as well as a tendency for males to be more affected than females. These data imply that, although workload or at least mechanical loading of joints may have declined overall, the sexual division of labor became more pronounced with food production. There are exceptions to this pattern of decline in osteoarthritis, however. In Portugal, Mesolithic foragers show few signs of osteoarthritis, whereas several severe cases are present in a sample of Neolithic farmers, particularly in the bones of the neck – perhaps from carrying heavy loads on the head. At the Dickson Mounds site in Illinois, degenerative joint disease (DJD) increased in the vertebras with agricultural intensification in comparison to earlier agriculturalists, indicating that changes in the intensity of production could result in rising prevalence of osteoarthritis. These cases once again illustrate the variability that exists in samples classified as agriculturalists. Biomechanical Measures of Workload and Activity Patterns

Studies of biomechanical properties of long bones provide an independent means of assessing workload and activity patterns, and have often been used in conjunction with patterns of osteoarthritis. Crosssectional geometry is arguably the most accurate method for identifying activity-based changes from bone morphology, although external measurements have also produced useful results. In cross-sectional geometry, cross-sectional data on bone mass and distribution relative to the long axis of a bone are obtained from computed tomography images or actual cross sections of bone. These measurements provide insights into mechanical loading of bones and therefore types and levels of physical activity. Much

of the data currently available derive from studies of North American samples, and indicate that bone mass and distribution differed between prehistoric foragers and farmers, but not always in predictable ways. In Georgia Bight populations, for example, the transition to agriculture was accompanied by a decline in bone strength (and thus, mechanical loading), whereas in northwestern Alabama bone strength increased with agriculture. Emerging research on European populations has documented a decline in bending and torsional strength of femurs and tibias with the Neolithic transition, a pattern consistent with many American agriculturalist samples and one supporting archaeological evidence that mobility declined with the transition to agriculture. Studies of cross-sectional geometry in North American samples also indicate that men and women did not always experience this economic transition equally in terms of workload. Male foragers, for example, tend to have greater torsional strength of the femur midshaft (larger midshaft diameters) than male agriculturalists, whereas females show no consistent difference according to subsistence strategy. These data suggest that the decline in mobility evident with food production is particularly reflective of changes in the activities of men. Women, on the other hand, tend to have structural properties that correlate with ruggedness of the local terrain, supporting the hypothesis that women in both contexts were more tethered to the home base and domestic tasks performed there. The humeri of agriculturalists also show sex differences in structural properties that appear to reflect distinct gender roles. Samples from prehistoric Alabama and Georgia Bight populations generally show a decline in left/right asymmetry with agriculture, but this pattern is particularly evident for females. One likely explanation is an increasing emphasis on two-handed tasks such as maize pounding and grinding that were habitually performed by women. These examples document the variable impacts that the transition to agricultural production could have on different members of the same society. They illustrate another aspect of the complexity that emerges when attempts are made to characterize the biological impacts of agriculture in a broad comparative manner.

Conclusion There is a large and growing body of literature on the biological impacts of economic transitions, although many world regions have yet to be explored in this way. As studies accumulate, it becomes increasingly possible through more inclusive intra- and interregional comparisons to refine our understanding of the causal mechanisms behind observed changes in

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diet, health, and workload. These causal mechanisms are not always the same or as straightforward as originally envisioned, but with a greater knowledge of the variability that characterized the agricultural transition comes a better understanding of how the physical and social environment can influence human biology and a greater appreciation of the human capacity for biocultural adaptation in an ever-changing world. See also: Agriculture: Social Consequences; Animal Domestication; Health, Healing, and Disease; Paleodemography; Paleopathology; Plant Domestication; Stable Isotope Analysis; Trace Element Analysis.

Further Reading Buikstra JE (1994) Diet and disease in late prehistory. In: Verano JW and Ubelaker DH (eds.) Disease and Demography in the Americas. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. Cohen MN and Armelagos GJ (eds.) (1984) Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. Orlando: Academic Press.

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Cohen MN and Kramer GC (eds.) (2007) Ancient Health: Skeletal Indicators of Agricultural and Economic Intensification. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Eshed V, Gopher A, and Hershkovitz I (2006) Tooth wear and dental pathology at the advent of agriculture: New evidence from the Levant. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 130: 145–159. Lambert PM (ed.) (2000) Bioarchaeological Studies of Life in the Age of Agriculture: A View from the Southeast. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Larsen CS (1997) Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McCaa R (2002) Paleodemography of the Americas: From ancient times to colonialism and beyond. In: Steckel RH and Rose JC (eds.) The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere, pp. 94–126. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Powell ML and Cook DC (2005) The Myth of Syphilis: The Natural History of Treponematosis in North America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Roberts CA and Buikstra JE (2003) The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global View on a Reemerging Disease. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Wood JW, Milner GR, Harpending HC, and Weiss KM (1992) The osteological paradox: Problems of inferring prehistoric health from skeletal samples. Current Anthropology 33: 343–370.

See: Plant Domestication.

Social Consequences Brain D Hayden, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary aggrandizers People who excessively promote their own self-interests over the interests of other community members, thereby attempting to acquire more power, wealth, and privilege than others. chiefdoms Political organizations in which one central authority (the chief) in a dominant community exerts political control over other authorities and communities in a hierarchical fashion. Hereditary social and economic classes typify chiefdoms although they sometimes also occur in transegalitarian societies without political hierarchies. complex hunter-gatherers Societies that generally can extract resources via hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods in enough abundance to establish higher population densities, greater sedentism, surpluses, private ownership of resources and prestige items, and social and economic inequalities. complexity Fundamentally refers to levels of political and socioeconomic specialization and differentiation that occur

to varying degrees beyond ‘egalitarian’ societies. Typically, the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities, centralization of political power, and craft specialization indicate levels of complexity. Complexity does not refer to relative elaboration of linguistic, kinship, or artistic products. corporate groups Groups of people (often related) who identify themselves as a social entity persisting over time and who share rights and responsibilities in the control of resources and relationships with other groups, for example, a landowning descent group. egalitarian societies Societies in which basic access to resources and produce is shared and in which no family is subject to hierarchical control from another family, although individuals may exhibit hierarchical relationships in terms of age, sex, marriage rights, or ritual knowledge. heterarchies Sociopolitical organizations in which multiple social groups (often corporate groups) share equally in the exercise of power within a community, in contrast to hierarchical organizations where there is a single center of power that dominates. prestige items Items that function primarily to achieve social or political goals. In contrast to practical items, prestige items often have no practical function and involve excessive costs in their manufacture or procurement. secret societies Voluntary ritual societies that typically involve the most powerful or ambitious members of a community who claim to protect the community’s supernatural

124 AGRICULTURE/Social Consequences interests. Various supernatural secrets are divulged to members as they progress from lower to higher ranks with ever-increasing costs of taking on new ranks. sedentism A relatively permanent year-round residence, in contrast to mobile settlements that move from place to place over the course of a year. More appropriately, one should refer to relative degrees of sedentism or residential mobility. transegalitarian societies Societies that are between true egalitarian societies and the stratified societies characteristic of chiefdoms and states. Transegalitarian societies exhibit private ownership, significant socioeconomic inequalities, although these are often not hereditary, prestige items, and surplus production. These societies can be based on hunting and gathering wild foods, fishing, trading, horticulture, or herding.

Neolithic societies ... must also be defined by their social values based around sedentary existence, the acquisition and storage of produce and goods, close kin groups and descent from ancestors, and a symbolic division of the world into constituent and often opposing parts. (Whittle 1994:136–137)

Even at the time of Alisdair Whittle’s synthesis, there were strong dissenting opinions about the underlying essence of the Neolithic as is clearly evident in the chapters in the same volume that preceded his (see Europe: Neolithic). In these chapters, Stephen Mithen documents the development of sedentism, storage, and cemeteries (therefore the importance of corporate kin groups and ancestors) in the Mesolithic. Similarly, Paul Mellars compares Upper Palaeolithic population densities in southwest France to later agricultural population densities, while Olga Soffer has shown that large-scale storage of food really begins in the Upper Palaeolithic. In addition, Nicholas Cauwe has argued that Neolithic burial practices can be traced back to the Mesolithic and even the Palaeolithic, while Andre´ Leroi-Gourhan long ago established a very strong case for the symbolic division of the Upper Palaeolithic symbolic world into constituent and often opposing parts. Moreover, Whittle’s subsequent claim that Neolithic myths became somehow more complex is difficult to assess, much less substantiate, especially given the complex symbolism that characterized the Upper Palaeolithic in southwestern Europe. I wish to argue that population levels, sedentism, storage, permanent architecture, pronounced socioeconomic inequalities, ancestor worship, corporate social groups, complex myths and symbols all typify complex hunter-gatherers well before the Neolithic. They are not new elements introduced with the Neolithic, and they cannot be used to distinguish or define the Neolithic. A major division persists in the discipline of archaeology between researchers like Whittle (Ian Hodder, Richard Bradley, Julian Thomas),

who view the Neolithic as a fundamental change in cognition that created changes in other domains of culture (notably in the economic, social, and political domains), versus those researchers like Mellars and the author who view the Neolithic as essentially a continuation of complex hunter-gatherer technology, values, practices, and social structures with the eventual addition of more intensified means of production such as domesticated animals and plants which eventually made even more complex types of organization and ideology possible. The question arises that if these social and ideological aspects were well established in the Mesolithic or even the Upper Palaeolithic, how could they represent a ‘new ‘cognitive revolution that could have created the Neolithic? Obviously, how the Neolithic is defined results from the outlook one adopts. From the author’s perspective, the cognitive revolution as a cause for, and core of, the Neolithic has serious shortcomings. The more traditional (and generally accepted) view is that the Neolithic was essentially a technological (domestication) phenomenon that brought about other changes in culture and created the first complex cultures. Yet, as we shall see, this view is not quite accurate either.

Cultivation, Food Production, and Domestication A key issue is determining precisely when ‘cultivation’ and ‘domestication’ actually began. There is considerable uncertainty concerning when both cultivation and domestication began as well as what the economic impact that these practices had during the initial 1000–2000 years after they appeared. As David Harris argued over 15 years ago, the distinction between these two concepts is important. ‘Domestication’ involves some genetic changes from wild forms (e.g., the larger sizes of grains and changes in their dispersal structures). These changes can be readily observed in archaeological botanical remains (see Animal Domestication; Plant Domestication). The archaeological occurrence of domesticated forms clearly implies that some form of cultivation or planting existed as well as the selective use of seeds for planting (or animals for breeding). However, a number of palaeoethnobotanists now suggest that prior to the appearance of domesticated forms, many complex hunter-gatherers were involved in forms of cultivation that did not result in the creation of domesticated forms. That is, complex huntergatherers were tilling the soil and planting crops just as later groups practiced, but without seed selection

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which could result in detectable genetic changes. Similarly, as we shall see later, complex hunter-gatherers frequently raised wild animals for pets or for ritual feasts without breeding them or changing their genetic characteristics. Unfortunately, cultivation or other intensified food production practices are much more difficult to establish for prehistoric communities when there is a lack of indication for domestication. However, clues sometimes do exist such as the occurrence of species at sites outside their normal ranges, the occurrence of weed species typical of cultivated fields, types of sickle gloss that indicate disturbed earth (as in prepared fields), construction of terraces or simple irrigation or drainage features, changes in the species of animals exploited as well as emphasis on certain ages and on males, erosion patterns on animal teeth from bits, settlement pattern shifts to areas of prime farmland, as well as higher population densities and greater sedentism. These characteristics all seem to indicate the likelihood that food production and cultivation, and perhaps animal rearing, may have been taking place for centuries or millennia before the first definite indications of domestication. Nevertheless, the occurrence of domesticated forms has been the defining hallmark of the Neolithic since V. Gordon Childe first proposed this definition in 1953. ‘Food production’ is another term often used in discussing or defining Neolithic societies. It is frequently used as a synonym for ‘domestication’. However, it would probably be more logical to view cultivation (without domesticated forms) as a type of food production as well. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this section, ‘food production’ is used in its more usual sense, as implying the use of domesticated species. Palaeoethnobotanists have increasingly entertained concepts and interpretations of pre-Neolithic cultivation and animal rearing (without any genetic morphological changes in species) documented back to 13 200 BP and even suggested that these practices may extend centuries or milleniums further back in the Near East. Such views correspond well to what is known about cultivation and animal-rearing practices (without domestication) of ethnographic complex hunter-gatherers which can be viewed as similar to the complex hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic in Eurasia. In Japan and Siberia, the Ainu and other complex hunter-gatherers captured bear cubs and raised them for a year before sacrificing and consuming them at their winter bear feasts. Evidence for bears being held in captivity has also emerged from the European Mesolithic, while in the Near East, bulls appear to have been held in captivity before

domestication (presumably for feasts, as in Japan). Similarly, even among simple horticulturalists in the Amazon basin, Warren DeBoer reports that wild peccaries and tapirs are captured, kept, and fattened for feasts. The Lillooet complex hunter-gatherers of the northwest interior captured and kept birds, foxes, marmots, and bears as pets. On the Northwest coast of North America, groups of complex hunter-gatherers constructed terraced gardens in which they grew clover and cinquefoil roots for feasts. The gardens were owned, guarded, and tended using all the techniques of later horticulturalists without resulting, as far as we know, in genetically modified ‘domesticated’ plant varieties. The same techniques were used by complex huntergatherers of the Northwest interior, resulting in larger sizes of roots due largely to the reduction of soil compaction, weeding out of plant competitors, and spacing plants for more optimal growth. No genetic changes have been established as the result of these practices even though the techniques used may go back thousands of years. Similarly, no genetic changes resulted from the capturing and raising of bears in Japan or Siberia, even though these practices probably extend thousands of years back into the prehistory of Asia. But even after the first genetically modified domesticated plants appear in the Near East and the New World, their role in the overall economy of early Neolithic communities appears to be almost inconsequential for the first 1000–2000 years in terms of the proportion of domesticated to wild plant and animal remains. In fact, some of the most widely recognized early ‘Neolithic’ communities in the Near East failed to produce any evidence of domesticated plant or animal use (e.g., Jerf el Ahmar, Asikli, Gobekli, and Nativ Hagdud). Similar patterns occur in the Japanese Jomon.

Complex Hunter-Gatherers Increasingly, it now appears that food production (with domesticates) was only one strategy among many intensification techniques that characterized complex hunter-gatherer and subsequent horticultural subsistence. To understand what social, political, and cultural changes actually took place as the result of food production and domestication, we must first develop a better understanding of the cultures that these developments emerged from. In the Near East, in Japan, and perhaps elsewhere, domestication developed among complex hunters and gatherers, notably the Natufian and Jomon cultures. However,

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the first well-documented complex hunter-gatherers to appear in the archaeological record lived in the periglacial savannahs of Upper Palaeolithic of southwestern Europe, about 35 000 years ago. These were exceptionally rich environments for hunting, unparalleled anywhere in the world for their biomasss and diversity. Upper Palaeolithic technology was well adapted to taking large numbers of animals. While these regions were too cold to support the domestication of plants, some archaeologists like Paul Bahn have argued that horses were probably tamed, bridled, and kept. However, with the disappearance of the southwestern European savannahs after the Ice Age, these savannah cultures collapsed and reverted to more simply organized societies with lower populations and minimal art or prestige items. Some people argue that the Upper Palaeolithic cultures migrated north and developed into the historic Saami reindeer hunters and herders. Elsewhere in the world, complex hunter-gatherers only began to appear with the advent of the Mesolithic, some 10 000–15 000 years ago when new technological developments rendered other environments highly productive. Some of these technological developments included the first systematic forms of fishing (using hooks, nets, and weirs) and the first effective use of grass seeds (procured and processed with grinding stones, sickles, and probably baskets). These and other similar technological developments opened up vast quantities of new resources in some environments, making it possible to establish economic, social, and ritual structures based on the production of dependable surpluses. Some of the most common types of environments where these complex forms of societies developed were riverine or coastal areas in which large quantities of fish could be procured, or areas like the Near East where large quantities of cereal grains could be harvested. The result was a more widespread emergence of complex types of hunter-gatherers than had previously existed (only in periglacial savannahs during the Upper Palaeolithic). These cultures are referred to as ‘complex hunter-gatherers’ to distinguish them from the simpler forms of hunter-gatherers that existed in the Middle and Lower Palaeolithic, and in some cases continued to exist in less productive environments up until contemporary times. Whether food producing or not, archaeological and ethnographic complex hunter-gatherers had a number of resource and social characteristics in common, including: . intensified techniques of food production and usually storage;

. a predictable production of surpluses; . recognition of private ownership of some resources and products (especially stored produce); . pronounced socioeconomic differences within communities (including hereditary elites and slavery, in the more developed cases; see Social Inequality, Development of); . heterarchical sociopolitical structures with inverted social pyramids; and . the rise to prominence of some aggrandizers using an array of strategies including transegalitarian types of feasting, wealth exchanges, use of wealth to obtain marriage partners for elite families (via bride-prices or dowries), investments of wealth in offspring, wealth-based alliances and conflicts, development of prestige items (for social and political transactions), and a wealth-based restriction of access to supernatural powers (often via secret societies). None of these traits appear to any significant degree among simpler hunter-gatherers. In fact, many of these traits are the complete antithesis of simple hunter-gatherer values and practices. Simple huntergatherers eschew any idea of social classes, slavery, economically based hierarchies, private ownership of essential resources, or wealth. Rather, they emphasize communal ownership and unrestricted access to essential food resources, sharing, egalitarian practices, and freedom of movement. Complex hunter-gatherers with the above social and material characteristics appear to have emerged before food production in key areas like the Near East, Japan, and Europe and to have continued their basic form of sociopolitical organizations fundamentally unchanged during the first several thousand years of the Neolithic. In fact, it can be argued that it was the competitive social and political forces in the early complex hunter-gatherer communities that provided the relentless driving force behind increasing surpluses via food production (with or without domesticates). In this respect, it will be especially useful to examine the role of prestige items and feasting in terms of the pressures that they created for intensifying production.

Feasting and Prestige Items How can surplus food production be used to anyone’s benefit? There are a number of possibilities, but two of the most important and recurring ethnographically documented strategies involve using surplus food to create prestige goods and to hold feasts, both of

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which are central features among almost all complex hunter-gatherers. In terms of prestige items, one can use surplus food to ‘pay’ or support other individuals to produce finely crafted items or to travel to distant places to procure exotic materials. Thus, obsidian, shells, beads, and exotic stone materials occur at many complex hunter-gatherer sites, even if they are hundreds of kilometers from the sources of raw materials. Among ethnographic transegalitarian societies, prestige items were used in five important ways, and we may expect that they were used in similar ways among prehistoric complex hunter-gatherers. The functions of prestige items included: 1. as a means to establish debts (due to the essentially reciprocal contracts involved in gift giving and the high investments entailed); 2. as a means of displaying economic and social success; 3. as a means of confirming, validating, or emphasizing the value of important social transactions (especially marriages, alliances, the taking of important positions, and peacemaking); 4. as a means to convert surplus food into other desirable materials (wealth) or relationships; and 5. as a substitute for human life (payments for brides or as compensations for injuries or deaths in lieu of revenge killings or the reciprocal transfer of children in marriages). The traditional models of cultural complexity and technological advances (as reflected in the opening quotation of this article) consider features such as sedentism, monumental architecture, pottery, metal use, calendars, record-keeping, slavery, and various forms of wealth as the result of the domestication of plants, animals, and agriculture. However, it is evident from both ethnographic and archaeological remains that all of these features actually occur first among complex hunter-gatherers and are related to the development of the kinds of prestige economies discussed above. Thus, most of the major technological and social changes usually considered as resulting from domestication are clearly not the result of domestication but stem from much more fundamental transformations that begin in complex hunter-gatherer societies and also continue into agricultural societies, becoming even more developed in the most productive agricultural contexts. Because of the advantages conferred by prestige items for the five purposes mentioned above, there should have been significant pressures within complex hunter-gatherer societies to increase food production

in order to produce or acquire prestige items on an ever-increasing scale. Once surplus production became the basis for acquiring mates, military allies, and decision-making power, people must have begun to compete in order to see who could produce the most surpluses. And this appears to be a new cultural phenomenon beginning with the appearance of complex hunter-gatherers. However, aside from increasing surpluses in order to produce more prestige items, an even more effective way of using surplus food was in feasts. In fact, the most valued foods used in feasts can be considered prestige items. It is no coincidence that the usual context in which almost all types of prestige items were displayed was in feasts, often as gifts creating debts. Feasts were used for a wide variety of purposes, including all of the purposes prestige items were used for (see Food and Feasting, Social and Political Aspects). Above all, feasts constituted extremely effective means of converting surplus food production into other desired materials or relationships (whether debts or alliances). The ability of individuals to marry and reproduce, survive hostile attacks, and defend their own interests in the community depended, to a large degree, on the successful cultivation of support networks within and between communities. The production of surpluses for feasting was the most important means of creating these networks, and it is not surprising that considerable competition among support groups (usually loosely kin-based) and communities characterized a great deal of feasting. People tried to outdo competing groups in terms of the size and lavishness of feasts in order to obtain the best marriage partners, the most wealth, the most influence in decisions or disputes in villages, and the best military assistance. There are repeated references in the ethnographic literature of complex hunter-gatherers and simple horticulturalists to the effect that the most powerful forces that intensified production were not periodic food shortages, but the social and political competition between factions and communities over desirable marriages, alliances, and decisionmaking roles. Because surplus production and the control of the most productive resource sites (whether fishing sites, patches of fertile land, or hunting locations) conferred so many advantages for people in complex huntergatherer societies, it is to be expected that these sites would have been owned or controlled by the most ambitious families and that these rights would have been passed down from generation to generation. In this context, ancestor worship and the establishment

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of corporate kin groups would be very advantageous. Not surprisingly, ownership of resource sites and the importance of ancestors characterize most ethnographic complex hunter-gatherers, whether on the Northwest coast or elsewhere. Thus, the type of religious, social, and mythological structures that are often thought to characterize food-producing Neolithic societies (strongly centered on ancestor worship and corporate kin totems) occur among complex hunter-gatherers and probably appeared well before domestication. In sum, complex hunter-gatherers and simple horticulturalists share many important basic characteristics. While it is not possible to discuss all of these in detail in this short section, some of the most salient features include similar or overlapping population densities, settlement sizes, levels of sedentism, technologies, use of prestige items, types of feasts, socioeconomic inequalities, secret societies, human sacrifice and slavery, ancestor worship, corporate kinship groups, cemeteries, and a heterarchical type of sociopolitical organization. The only aspects that seem to distinguish simple horticultural societies from complex hunter-gatherers are the techniques that they use to intensify production: some groups include cultivation and domestication among the array of intensification techniques used, others such as fishing or reindeer-herding societies do not. Thus, at a general level, we may refer to both complex hunter-gatherers and simple horticulturalists as a single type of society. The term ‘transegalitarian societies’ is used herein. Transegalitarian societies exhibit the characteristics listed as well as the previously discussed features of prestige items. Most pastoral nomad societies also fit the characteristics of transegalitarian societies, although their economic base is different from both complex hunter-gatherers and simple horticulturalists.

The Real Consequences of Food Production If most of the social and technological changes typically viewed as the outcome of food production and domestication really began earlier in Mesolithic or complex hunter-gatherer contexts, then what were the real consequences of food production and domestication? It could be argued that for the first millenium or two after the appearance of domestication, there are not any fundamental changes. At most, there may be some intensification of production (with initial domesticated forms) and elaboration of social, ritual, political, and technological trends

begun in Mesolithic types of societies as well as shifts in settlement patterns to take advantage of the best food-producing areas. However, over the long term, it was possible to gradually modify and increase the productivity of plants and animals through genetic manipulation and labor investment (weeding, tilling, watering, fertilizing, mulching). In this fashion, food production using domesticates eventually provided the potential of expanding the resource base in an elastic fashion (almost without ultimate upper limits) that other forms of intensified collection of wild foods did not. Certainly, fishing and the production of nonfood prestige items could not be modified in this fashion. Thus, the immediate social consequences of food production (using domesticates, especially for occasional feasts) may not have changed the basic way of life from that of complex hunter-gatherers to any significant extent. However, ultimately, with refinements in the genetic productivity of crops, food production made it possible to support denser populations, larger communities, greater surpluses, and more complex sociopolitical systems.

The Near Eastern Example More archaeological and biological research devoted to the study of early domestication has been conducted in the Near East than anywhere else in the world (see Asia, West: Archaeology of the Near East: The Levant). Although far from complete, the sequences and conditions pertaining to initial domestication in the Near East are the best that are currently available. Thus, it is worth examining the archaeology of this area to illustrate some of the points presented in the preceding section. While there are a few indications of special burials and prestige items in the Upper Paleolithic sites of the Near East, it is not until the Mesolithic Natufian cultures that very clear indications of complex hunter-gatherers emerge in the area. The Natufian culture emerged about 13 000 years ago and lasted until 10 500 years ago. It exhibited a wide range of complex hunter-gatherer characteristics, including: . settlements in unusually rich environments encompassing ‘‘endless vistas’’ of ‘‘vast supplies’’ with 250 riparian and other plant food species, and ‘‘meat in whatever amounts were needed’’ (Hillman 2000, 366, 370–371, 384; Moore et al., 2000, 480); . relatively high population densities; . large settlements of several hundred people; . permanent architecture and indications of high levels of sedentism;

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. many prestige objects including shells, carved basalt objects, obsidian, raptor bird wings and claws, and other exotic stone materials (some transported over hundreds of kilometers); . corporate kin groups and burial areas; . heterarchical organization; . socioeconomic inequalities; and . elaborate feasting. Settlements in the ‘core’ Natufian area constitute some of the best examples of transegalitarian hunter-gatherers that have been archaeologically documented. It is especially significant that there are good indications of relatively large-scale feasting by corporate kin groups (especially in funeral contexts), and considerable sociopolitical competition, all before any significant occurrence of domestication. On the other hand, several authors have argued that cultivation (without domestication) and the ownership of prime cultivation plots probably characterized these Natufian communities. The Natufian cultures develop into Pre-Pottery Neolithic A cultures with more substantial plastered architecture but no perceptible change in practical technological tools. Unfortunately, there are no plant remains from this period to assess the status of domestication in these societies. In the succeeding (and derivative) early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) sites (from 10 500 to 8500 years ago), domestication is clearly attested in many sites. However, domesticates were of only very minor significance in most of these early PPNB sites and appear to be completely absent from some of them (Gobekli, Jerf el-Ahmar, Asikli, Nativ Hagdud). By the end of the PPNB, domesticated goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle appear at many sites. Clearly they were being kept, herded, and bred by this time, and we might expect that the raising of wild animals (arguably for feasting) predated their domestication by several centuries, if not more. The change in settlement patterns, at or before this time, to site locations associated with fertile soils suitable for growing crops is a strong indication that some cultivation was taking place and that the products were of considerable importance, at least in terms of their values if not in terms of the quantities of food produced. The basic PPNB economy appears to have been similar to earlier complex hunter-gatherer subsistence regimes, emphasizing intensified techniques for collecting plants, including, in some cases, their cultivation. These aspects are consonant with interpretations mentioned previously concerning surplus production and the role of feasting, prestige economies, and competition between aggrandizers or corporate kin groups.

By the end of the PPNB, there was a veritable explosion of sites together with a major increase in the importance of domesticated plant forms in the subsistence economy. I suggest that genetic selection of the previous centuries and millenniums culminated at this time in new varieties that were much more productive than their wild counterparts. As a result, growing domesticated crops could finally compete with (or outcompete) the gathering of wild foods in terms of returns for effort invested. Thus, domesticates began to be grown as the major staples, since they provided the greatest return, whereas previously they were more labor intensive to produce and thus used only for special occasions like feasts. The increased productivity of domesticated varieties eventually provided a decisive turning point in making possible larger political organizations and more complex societies. The major forces of change had been established in the Mesolithic, and the development of genetically modified cultivation and breeding varieties whose productivity could be ever increased, provided the means to catapult social and political complexity to new levels. With each increase in social and political complexity, a concomitant but geometrical increase in surplus production was required to fund the ever-augmenting needs of the political apparatus which continued to be based on feasting, prestige items, and status. At first, few important changes occurred in the Near East, even after the adoption of domesticates which probably only provided marginally better returns than wild resources. At this time, the pottery-using Hassunan culture (5800–5000 BC) emerged in the north Mesopotamian Plain in the Baghdad region. Evidence for domestication comes from the charred remains of several basic plants which may have become staples such as barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, linseed, as well as goats and sheep (probably always used for feasts). Hassunan settlements were restricted to areas where dry farming could be practiced, although some evidence of very simple irrigation occurs at a few sites. As with the preceding PPNB and Natufian cultures, there were significant prestige objects. At Hassunan sites, these included jewelry of turquoise and shells, the earliest true seals, and quantities of obsidian. However, there were no pronounced differences in house sizes or grave goods in the communities or any significant monumental architecture such as fortifications or large temples. All these characteristics fit the models of transegalitarian horticultural societies at their simple or intermediate levels (despot or reciprocator forms) with no fixed leadership, monumental architecture, or entrenched stable economic inequalities. In terms

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of general levels of complexity and organization, they might be compared to traditional communities in New Guinea or the Amazon. The following Halaf culture (5000–4300 BC) provides a number of significant indications of increasing complexity, albeit still in the realm of transegalitarian types of cultures, perhaps at the more complex, entrepreneur level. The subsistence base does not seem to change dramatically, although one might expect some genetic improvements in crop yields over time. What clearly does change is the quantity and diversity of prestige items as well as the appearance of monumental architecture. The prestige items take the form of increased amounts of jewelry, obsidian, seals, stone bowls, as well as the appearance of native copper jewelry, and fine pottery manufactured by full-time specialists. Monumental architecture occurs in the form of rock-cut fortification ditches and apparent ritual structures (tholloi) up to 6 m in diameter. Fortifications might be expected to reflect an increase in conflict and competition due to the increased production of surpluses, wealth items, trade, and the advantages to be gleaned from controlling such commodities. However, it was not until the succeeding Ubaid period (4300–3500 BC) that the first good indications of socially and politically stratified societies appeared in favorable locations, especially where this culture spread into the south. Wherever water could be brought to the soils of the southern plains, the land was transformed into the most productive among any in Western Asia. These areas are composed of fertile silts laid down by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, much in the way that the Nile annually deposited fertile silts in its lower reaches. In lower Mesopotamia, when combined with irrigation technology and crops capable of high yields, unparalleled surpluses could be produced. These conditions produced chiefdoms that rapidly developed into the first civilizations of the Old World, the Sumerians. Indications of chiefdoms can be detected during the Ubaid period in terms of the enhanced prestige items (including the first true smelted copper items with axes as well as jewelry), substantial use of irrigation (although still at a basic technological level), much more significant monumental standing architecture (at Tepe Gawra, 20 buildings surround a central sanctuary and courtyard 20 m on a side), rich burials for some families in plastered tombs, numerous seals, and sites up to 25 ac in size. In neighboring Khuzistan, separate clusters of sites occur, each containing a somewhat larger central site indicating the existence of separate polities (each displaying a political hierarchy such as typifies chiefdoms). This is a pattern that became much more

pronounced at the end of the period and became much more elaborated in the Sumerian period with the formation of city-states. With the move into the very productive niche of the lower floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, surpluses based on domesticated food production rapidly escalated and cultural changes occurred so fast that that some scholars even question whether a chiefdom phase of development really preceded state formation in Mesopotamia. In the author’s opinion, this is an extreme and unwarranted interpretation of the archaeological record. Whether one wishes to term the aggrandizers who were pushing their selfinterested proposals for changes, ‘big men’, ‘great men’, ‘entrepreneurs’, ‘chiefs’, or some other epithets, is irrelevant to the argument that it was these individuals who were responsible for creating the cultural changes that emerged before, during, and after food production based on domesticates. These individuals created the strategies that took advantage of surplus production and created the intense pressures for ever more intensified surplus production. It seems clear that over the millenniums, food production based on domestication did eventually create a much more productive subsistence base than food production based on wild species could ever achieve. When combined with favorable environments and technology, domesticates made it possible to produce food surpluses on a scale unprecedented among complex hunter-gatherers. These food surpluses in turn could be used to produce ever more prestige goods, sponsor ever more lavish feasts, and support ever greater political complexity. The upshot was the creation of the first state-level polities: the Sumerian city-states that Samuel Noah Kramer has likened so eloquently to contemporary industrial societies. While it may be true that Sumerian states provide our first glimpse of modern types of societies replete with high degrees of social and economic complexity, specialization, writing, law codes, commerce, and social ills, at a more basic level, the values and practices that laid the foundation for these kinds of features really appeared first among complex huntergatherers. It was domestication that permitted the full development of the potential of this new type of culture. However, the basic logic of private ownership, surplus production, investment, and use of prestige goods, has not changed since complex hunter-gatherers first pioneered these developments. As we emerge today from the industrial period and enter a new nuclear/cybernetic period, we have yet to realize the full potential of the type of cultural and ecological system that began with complex huntergatherers. The forms of surplus energy that we

AGRICULTURE/Social Consequences 131

now use have expanded from food production to combustible fuels, wind, water, solar, and nuclear fuels, but the fundamental strategy of producing surplus energy and devising strategies to convert that energy into desirable commodities and relationships has not changed. Today, it is impossible for growth and change to continue at the present pace. Our cultures must create a more stable equilibrium in the coming centuries. Exactly what form culture will take at that future time is difficult to predict, but it will ultimately owe its existence to the expanded production of surplus energy that domestication initially made possible. The increase in the level of complexity beyond transegalitarian communities is the real legacy of food production and domestication. It opened a Pandora’s box of productive potential that continuously stretched the system established by complex hunter-gatherers to ever more complex limits. We are still expanding that same basic system and its limits in our own society. It is worth reflecting on the pervasive role prestige goods play in our own social system today and how this system will develop in the foreseeable future. The author’s argument here is that in the last 30 000 years, especially the last 10 000 years, we have created a new type of ecological system without parallel in the natural world around us. There is no other species that can readily convert available surplus production into other survival and reproductive benefits. Other species may be able to adapt genetically in order to convert extra resources into bodily appendages or displays that confer selective advantages, but none can convert extra resources to benefit themselves in an immediate fashion. Only humans can do this. See also: Animal Domestication; Asia, East: Japanese Archipelago, Prehistoric Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers; Asia, West: Archaeology of the Near East: The Levant; Mesolithic Cultures; Mesopotamia, Sumer, and Akkad; Europe: Neolithic; Europe, Northern and Western: Mesolithic Cultures; Food and Feasting, Social and

Political Aspects; Paleoethnobotany; Plant Domestication; Social Inequality, Development of.

Further Reading Deur D (2002) Rethinking precolonial plant cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America. The Professional Geographer 54: 140–157. Deur D (ed.) (2005) Keeping It Living. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Hayden B (1995) Pathways to power. In: Price T and Feinman G (eds.) Foundations of Social Inequality, pp. 15–86. New York: Plenum. Hayden B (1998) Practical and prestige technologies. Journal of Archoeological Method and Theory 5: 1–55. Hayden B (2001) Richman, poorman, beggarman, chief: The dynamics of social inequality. In: Feinman G and Price T (eds.) Archaeology at the Millenium, pp. 231–272. New York: Kluwer/ Plenum. Hayden B (2004) Sociopolitical organization in the Natufian: A view from the Northwest. In: Delage C (ed.) BAR International Series: The Last Hunter-Gatherers in the Near East, pp. 263–308. Oxford: Archaeopress. Hayden B (2007) Une societe hierarchique ou egalitaire? In: Beaure S de (ed.) La vie quotidienne au Paleolithique Superieure, pp. 197–208. Paris: Editions CNRS. Hillman G (2000) The plant food economy of Abu Hureyra 1 and 2. In: Moore A, Hillman G, and Legge A (eds.) Village on the Euphrates, pp. 327–398. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Moore A, Hillman G, and Legge A (2000) The significance of Abu Hureyra. In: Moore A, Hillman G, and Legge A (eds.) Village on the Euphrates, pp. 475–526. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Peacock S (1998) Putting Down Roots: The Emergence of Wild Plant Food Production on the Canadian Plateau. PhD Dissertation, University of Victoria. Peacock S (2002) Perusing the pits: The evidence for prehistoric geophyte processing on the Canadian Plateau. In: Mason S and Hather J (eds.) The Hunter-Gatherer Archaeobotany, pp. 45–63. London: Institute of Archaeology. Pringle H (1998) The slow birth of agriculture. Science 282: 1446–1450. Whittle A (1994) The first farmers. In: Cunliffe B (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe, pp. 136–166. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Willcox G (1998) Archeobotanical evidence for the beginnings of agriculture in southwest Asia. In: Damania A, et al. (eds.) The Origins of Agriculture and Crop Domestication, pp. 25–38. Aleppo, Syria: ICARDA.

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AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN Contents The Greater Antilles and Bahamas The Lesser Antilles

The Greater Antilles and Bahamas Mary Jane Berman, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary anthropomorphism The attributing of human attributes to non-human beings or inanimate objects. archipelago A chain of islands. colonization The establishment of permanent settlements in a new area, a special form of migration in which migrant groups settle in previously uninhabited locales. hallucinogen A psychoactive substance that induces altered consciousness and sensory experiences. lipidary The cutting, shaping, polishing, and finishing of materials such as stone, mineral, and gemstones to produce functional or decorative items. migration The movement of people from one locale to another. rain shadow Dry region on the surface of the earth that is leeward or behind of a mountain with respect to the prevailing wind direction. raptorial Any of numerous carnivorous birds that hunt and kill other animals. shaman A religious practitioner who possesses the power to communicate with supernatural forces on behalf of individuals or groups to heal or malign them. zoomorphism The attributing of animal attributes to humans or inanimate objects.

Introduction Geography

Located in the northern Caribbean basin, the Greater Antilles (Figure 1) consists of the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The Bahamas archipelago consists of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, BWI. Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean’s largest, oldest, most geologically complex, and most physiographically and environmentally diverse islands, are characterized by topographically varied landforms created by

metamorphic, volcanic, and sedimentary activity. In contrast, the Bahama archipelago is made up of a series of low-lying carbonate islands composed of Pleistocene and Holocene eolianite ridges and swales formed by sedimentary processes. Climatically, the area is characterized as the subtropics. The greatest amounts of precipitation fall June–November, coinciding with the hurricane season. Dry seasons occur February–March and in May. Precipitation varies greatly. More precipitation falls on the islands’ higher elevations and the northern and eastern sides; the southern and western sides, and the mountains’ leeward side receive less precipitation (rain shadow effect). In Hispaniola the mean rainfall varies between 1000 and 5000 mm, whereas in the Bahama archipelago mean rainfall ranges from 350 to 1250 mm. There is little annual change in mean air temperature. Diversity in vegetation is attributed to latitude, elevation, rainfall amounts and seasonality, topography, and edaphic conditions. There are 13 life zones ranging from tropical desert scrub to subtropical rainforest; the dry forest life zones dominate. Marine (beach, intertidal, reef, deep-water) environments support shellfish, fish, marine mammals, and turtles. Estuaries serve as marine fauna nursery grounds. Terrestrial environments support mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, and amphibians. Birds inhabit a variety of habitats. Time–Space Systematics

Caribbean archaeologists use different schemes to name, classify, and systematize the temporal, spatial, and cultural relationships of the prehistoric people they study. The most widely used system was conceived by Irving Rouse who created it to chart the migratory routes and culture histories of the people who colonized the Caribbean. In his system, prehistory is divided into periods; each period is characterized by archaeological cultures defined by lithic or ceramic assemblages grouped on the basis of shared traits (see Time and History, Divisions). In an assemblage, the most inclusive cultural unit is the series (designated by -oid), which is divided into a subseries (designated by -an). The minimal unit is the style, which represents a local expression of a subseries. The style is typically named for the first site in which it was

AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas 133 Florida Atlantic Ocean

N

Gulf of Mexico San Salvador Middle Caicos Grand Turk Cuba Hispaniola Belize

Jamaica

MESOAMERICA

Puerto Rico

Caribbean Sea

Trinidad

Venezuela 0

400 km

SOUTH AMERICA

Figure 1 Map of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas archipelago. Courtesy of Perry L. Gnivecki.

found and described. Critics believe the system simplifies and obfuscates the range and sources of cultural variation present in the archaeological record. Cuban archaeologists use an evolutionary scheme based on stages consistent with Marxist cultural materialism (see Marxist Archaeology). Chanlatte Baik has developed a system for Puerto Rico, while Dominican archaeologists employ one based on local sequences.

Period I: Peopling of the Caribbean Throughout prehistory, the peopling of the Caribbean was due to multiple migrations from more than one place and by people of varying ethnic and linguistic affiliations. The earliest evidence of human occupation of the Caribbean, which dates to 5500 BC, comes from the Banwari Trace site in southwestern Trinidad. These people, who entered the Antilles from mainland South America, are known as the Ortoiroid culture. They practiced what archaeologists call an Archaic subsistence economy characterized by fishing and gathering. They manufactured and used groundstone, shell, and flaked stone tools, and lived in small mobile or semi-sedentary communities. By 2500 BC, the Ortoiroid had made their way through the Lesser Antilles, bypassing some islands (see Americas, Caribbean: The Lesser Antilles) to Puerto Rico. At 4200 BC or thereabouts, Cuba was the first island of the Greater Antilles to be settled. The

colonizers, who are known as the Casimiroid peoples, settled in Cuba and then migrated to Hispaniola. These first settlers probably came from Belize in Central America, since there are similarities between stone tools found there and in Cuba that date to this time period. A computer simulation that employed wind and water currents and other variables important to maritime travel suggests though that these people may have come directly from South America. The Casimiroid people made tools that include large macroblades, core tools, scrapers, burins, and awls, anvils, and hammerstones. Their perishable technology, which likely constituted most of their material culture, has not been recovered. They lived in open-air sites and rock shelters and many of their sites appear to be workshops where they made stone tools. In Cuba, people occupied the coast and inland river valleys; rock shelter and open-air sites have been found in the Seboruco and Levisa River Valleys. The Levisa Rock Shelter (3190 BC) is one of the best studied sites from this time period. Sites on Hispaniola include the Vignier III site (3630 BC) in Haiti and the Barrera-Morda´n (2610–2165 BC), Casimira, Honduras del Oeste, and Tavera sites in the Dominican Republic. The Maruca and Angostura sites in Puerto Rico indicate that the island was settled around 4000–5000 BC. We know little about the subsistence practices of these people, other than they hunted terrestrial

134 AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas

species such as hutı´as (a Capromyid rodent), iguanas, and snakes. Although the people also collected shellfish, it did not constitute a large part of the diet and there is no evidence for fishing. In Cuba, overpredation resulted in the extinction of the giant sloth. Sites dating to this time period or attributed to this culture have not been found in Jamaica, or the Bahamas. By around 2000 BC to about 200 BC, the descendants of these people engaged in fishing, shellfish collecting, and plant gathering, and manufactured groundstone tools. Like their predecessors, they, too, lived in open-air sites and rock shelters. They probably also managed or tended fruit trees. Inter-island variation in material culture, settlement patterns, and dietary choices emerged. Such differences can be attributed to a combination of local cultural, environmental, and functional factors. In Cuba, sites dating to this time period are located along the coast and in the interior. These people manufactured distinctive Strombus gigas shell artifacts, including gouges, cups, and hammers; groundstone artifacts such as unique polished stone balls (spheroliths) and groundstone daggers, which served as burial accompaniments; polished ovoid stones, corazones, which have not been reported elsewhere in the Caribbean (Figure 2); stone rings, wooden objects, and pendants. They made blade tools, which

Figure 2 Heartstones (corazones). Cuba. Stone. 12.5 cm (white), 12.3 cm (yellow). Collection of the Montane´ Anthropological Museum, University of Havana. Photograph by Kristine Edle Olsen.

were smaller and of poorer technical quality than those from the earlier period and flake tools eventually replaced them. Microlith tools have been found at a few sites. Complex, abstract, highly imaginative, geometric pictographs occur at the Punta del Este caves located on the Isla de la Juventud. Other important sites include Cayo Redondo and Cueva Funche (2050 BC); later occupations of the Levisa rockshelter, and burial sites from caves and open-air sites such as Cueva de El Purial (1110 BC) and Canı´mar Abajo (2750 BC). In western Cuba, people practicing an Archaic economy were not supplanted by later ceramic-making groups as they were elsewhere on the island; these communities persisted until the fifteenth century or later. Sites in Haiti (2660 BC– AD 240) and the Dominican Republic (2030 BC–AD 145) are located in river valleys and coastal areas. Here the people hunted sloths, manatees, crocodiles, sea turtles, and whales, and collected shellfish. They made large stemmed spearheads, backed blades, and end scrapers, which they used to hunt these animals. It is believed that they are responsible for the local extinction of the sloth. They also made and used a wide array of groundstone tools including conical pestles, single- and double-bitted axes, rectangular hammer grinders, balls, hook-, fan-, and pegshaped objects, metates, mortars, incised bowls, and body adornments such as beads, and pendants. The people gathered or casually cultivated plants and fruit trees. Dried Zamia sp. leaves, Clusea rosea seeds, palm nuts, and maize pollen have been identified from sites in the Dominican Republic. There is considerable regional diversity in the material culture from Puerto Rico during this time period and it resembles both Casimiroid and Ortoiroid cultural traditions. Some archaeologists have attributed this variation to the presence of culturally distinct peoples, differences in site function, or varying raw material properties and availability. The people were mobile fisher-foragers who lived in small, open-air sites or rock shelters. A few larger communities may have been semi-sedentary. Settlements are located in coastal settings adjacent to mangrove swamps. The people engaged in low-level or casual root, seed, and tree crop cultivation and management. Food remains such as avocado and yellow sapote have been found at the Marı´a de la Cruz site. At Maruca and Puerto Ferro, starch grain analysis of groundstone artifacts has revealed evidence for domesticated maize, manioc, beans, sweet potato, and yautı´a (cocoyam). There is support from the Maisabel site that these people burned the landscape to create horticultural plots or regenerate natural areas with wild plants. Animal foods included shallowwater mollusks, marine fish, land crabs, and minor amounts of reptiles, turtles, and birds. The diet varied

AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas 135

by locale. Terrestrial resources seem to have been favored at rock shelter sites such as Cueva Tembladera and Cueva Gemelos, while the occupants of coastal, open-air sites such as Maruca and Cayo Cofresı´ emphasized foods from marine or littoral sources. The people manufactured flake tools and groundstone tools that included small mortars, and conical manos, which are highly diagnostic of this time period. Use-modified stone tools include edge grinders, manos, and discoid nutting stones. At Maruca, some of the chert used to make the flaked stone tools has been sourced to Long Island (Antigua) (see Americas, Caribbean: The Lesser Antilles) and there is evidence from other sites of stone materials from other islands. The people also made tools from Strombus gigas such as celts, gouges, and picks that resembled those from Cuba. They also manufactured shell and bone points, net weights, and carved and drilled shell ornaments. Sites in eastern Cuba [e.g., Caimanes III (AD 200), Belliza], eastern Dominican Republic [Punta Cana (340 BC–AD 830), Honduras del Oeste and el Barrio (230 BC–AD 420), and el Caimito (305 BC–AD 120)], and throughout Puerto Rico contain low densities of plain, small, low-fired ceramics that are globular and boat-shaped in form. Undecorated and decorated sherds (with incisions and punctation, mirroring designs found on stone bowls and wooden objects) have been found. It has been argued that people from the Middle Orinoco, coastal Columbia, or elsewhere in northern Latin America introduced pottery to these islands. Another argument claims that these people adopted ceramics from the Cedrosan Saladoid peoples who settled eastern Dominican Republic (see below). Some archaeologists propose that these people ‘borrowed’ and incorporated ceramic technology from neighboring societies or other areas in the circum-Caribbean. It has also been suggested that ceramics evolved independently of external causes.

Period II: Early Ceramic Age Around 500 BC, new groups of people entered the Caribbean from the Orinoco and other river basins of Venezuela and Guiana. These ceramic-making and -using, full-time sedentary horticulturalists are known as the Saladoid. It is believed these people came from the Lower Orinoco, then went to Trinidad and ultimately made their way to the Greater Antilles, establishing sites in the Lesser Antilles along the way. In the Greater Antilles, evidence for Saladoid peoples can be found in Puerto Rico and at least one site in eastern Hispaniola. It appears that the Saladoid peoples bypassed the Windward Islands and moved directly to the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. By 300–250 BC, they had settled Puerto

Rico. Chanlatte Baik suggests that a separate group migrated directly to Puerto Rico from another portion of the Orinoco River Valley around this time. According to Rouse, there are at least two Saladoid groups or subseries: the Cedrosan and Huecan Saladoid. The Huecan is believed to be a variant of the Cedrosan Saladoid that diverged from the Saladoid somewhere in the Orinoco region. Chanlatte Baik and others regard the Huecan materials as a separate and unrelated cultural phenomenon that consists of the La Hueca complex dating to 200 BC and AD 200. In Puerto Rico, Cedrosan Saladoid components are present at the Hacienda Grande, Maisabel, Paso del Indio, and Tibes sites, among others. Huecan materials are found exclusively at the Sorce´ site (Vieques Island) and Punta Candelero (on mainland Puerto Rico within view of Sorce´). In the Lesser Antilles, Huecan and Cedrosan Saladoid assemblages cooccur in the same deposits, but in Puerto Rico they are spatially separate. At the Sorce´ site, Saladoid materials overlay the Huecan materials. The relationship between the Cedrosan Saladoid and the La Hueca complex is poorly understood; neither is found elsewhere in the Greater Antilles nor the Bahamas. Cedrosan Saladoid ceramics are characterized by elaborate painted designs in white-on-red (WOR), white-on-red with orange slip, black paint, and negative-painted designs, in a variety of vessel shapes. These are considered to be the finest example of Caribbean ceramics (Figures 3 and 4). Vessels often had modeled and incised zoomorphic adornos and strap and loop handles. Cedrosan Saladoid potters also produced zone-incised cross-hatched (ZIC) wares. In contrast, the Huecan Saladoid ceramic assemblages lack painted wares and are characterized by ZIC pottery and modeled handles (Figure 5). In some examples, the incisions were filled with white or red paint. A variety of flaked and groundstone artifacts unique to the La Hueca complex have been found exclusively in Huecan deposits and flaked stone and groundstone manufacturing techniques differed between Cedrosan and La Hueca peoples. While both Cedrosan Saladoid and La Hueca complex people produced carved stone figurines made from nonlocal materials, bird-head pendants (Figure 6) resembling raptorial birds (condors, king vultures, or combinations of these species) have only been found at Punta Candelero, where they were manufactured, and at Sorce´, which is thought to have served as the port-of-trade. The unique flake tool and lapidary traditions lend further proof of the distinctiveness of the Cedrosan and La Hueca complex peoples and to the possibility of separate origins. During this period, three-pointed stone, shell, and coral artifacts known as zemı´s, a designation describing spiritually-imbued objects

136 AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas

Figure 3 Saladoid (WOR) bowl. Puerto Rico. Ceramic. Height: 7.7; width: 15.2 cm. Centro de Investigaciones Arqueolo´gicas, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

Figure 6 Bird-beak pendant. La Hueca Culture. Puerto Rico. Jadeite and serpentine. Height: 5.1; width: 4.1 cm. Centro de Investigaciones Arqueolo´gicas, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

Figure 4 Saladoid (polychrome) bell-shaped vessel. Puerto Rico. Ceramic. Height:15.2; width: 27.9 cm. Centro de Investigaciones Arqueolo´gicas, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

Figure 5 Huecan-Huecoid zone-incised cross-hatched (ZIC) tabular-shaped rim handle sherds. Puerto Rico. Ceramic. Centro de Investigaciones Arqueolo´gicas, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

associated with the later Chican Ostionoid and Taı´no cultures, appeared, suggesting the onset of zemı´ worship. Snuffing vessels, believed to have been used to ingest hallucinogens, have been found, too. Cedrosan Saladoid sites were located on coastal plains and in interior alluvial valleys. Sites consisted of a central plaza surrounded by multiple domestic structures, believed to house extended families. It is believed that Saladoid society was egalitarian. Burial groupings located in the plazas are thought to represent lineal descent groups. The two known Huecan sites are smaller than their Cedrosan Saladoid counterparts and are also inferred to have been organized along egalitarian lines. The Sorce´ site is made up of seven small mounds arranged in a horseshoe pattern. Little perishable technology has been recovered, although archaeologists infer that the people used gourds as containers, made cordage and netting, wove baskets, and manufactured wood canoes, paddles, and other items. Polished and groundstone axes and adzes were made from fine-grained materials, including various kinds of greenstone. Axes and adzes were also manufactured from Strombus shells. During this period, three-pointed stone, shell, and coral artifacts known as zemı´s, a designation describing spiritually-imbued objects associated with the later Chican

AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas 137

Ostionoid and Taı´no cultures, appeared, suggesting the onset of zemı´ worship. Snuffing vessels, believed to have been used to ingest hallucinogens, have been found, too. Archaeobotanical remains indicate that the Cedrosan Saladoid and Huecan peoples practiced arboriculture and cultivated or collected herbaceous plants and seed crops such as Panicum grasses (see Paleoethnobotany). The cultivation of root crops, such as manioc, has been inferred from ceramic objects believed to be griddles. Manioc was believed to have been brought to the Antilles by Saladoid peoples from South America; we now know that it was grown by earlier peoples practicing on Archaic subsistence economy. The diet consisted further of hutı´a, fish, turtles, shellfish, iguanid lizards, and land crabs. Marine mammals may have contributed to the diet. The hutı´a, which is found at both Cedrosan and Huecan sites, represents an imported species. The dietary remains from Vieques also include remains of the spiny rat and a possible peccary, which represents a South American import, as well as a variety of aquatic and terrestrial species of birds. The Saladoid persisted for almost 1000 years in Puerto Rico. Rouse believes that the Casimiroid of Hispaniola created a frontier that prevented the Saladoid from expanding westward. Evidence for Saladoid intrusion exists in the eastern Dominican Republic (c. AD 240) There are no Saladoid sites in Cuba, the Bahamas, or Jamaica.

Period III: Population Expansion and New Ceramic Traditions Around AD 600, changes in ceramic and lithic assemblages occurred on Puerto Rico. Rouse attributes these to the Ostionoid series that emerged from the Saladoid series. In contrast, Chanlatte Baik and others argue that the Ostionoid resulted from the interaction of the Huecan and Cedrosan Saladoid peoples with Archaic populations; others believe the Ostionoid represents a separate migration from South America; another recent argument places the origins of the Ostionoid among the Archaic cultures of Hispaniola. By the end of the seventh century, the Ostionoid culture had expanded westward to the Dominican Republic; by the eighth century, it had spread to Grand Turk, BWI; and by the mid-ninth century, it was present in Jamaica and central Cuba. In Puerto Rico, Ostionoid culture is known from the Punta Ostiones, Maisabel, Tibes, and Bronce sites, among others, and from Paso del Indio, Puerto Rico’s deepest, best-stratified site. The Coralie site (Grand Turk), thought to be an Ostionoid colony or outpost, was occupied and reoccupied by people from AD 700–1100.

The earlier occupation represents an early, if not the first, peopling of the Bahama archipelago. Archaeobotanical evidence indicates that Ostionoid peoples harvested wild plants, tended or managed fruit trees, and cultivated root-tuber crops. For many years, it was argued that a dietary shift took place between the Saladoid and Ostionoid periods whereby terrestrial resources (Saladoid) were supplanted by marine resources (Ostionoid). This is also known as the crab-shell dichotomy. While zooarchaeological and carbon isotope evidence is contradictory, it is generally agreed that where such subsistence change is observed, local factors are responsible and that marine resources contributed significantly throughout both periods. Guinea pigs, recovered from several sites, including Tibes, represent a faunal import from South America. Terracing and raised fields (montones) are found during this time period in Puerto Rico. People established settlements in new areas; in some regions, residences decreased in size, suggesting that they were occupied by nuclear families. On the eastern side of Puerto Rico, there is evidence of centralized settlement patterns. Civic-ceremonial and ballcourt sites, mostly in the southeastern part of the island, appear. There is also an increase in the number and size of zemı´s. Architectural settlement and artifact changes are believed to relate to the emergence of institutionalized social hierarchy. Tibes (Figure 7) is the oldest civic-ceremonial and possibly the first prehistoric political center in the Caribbean. Located in south-central Puerto Rico, it contains nine ballcourts, three dance plazas, causeways, and residences believed to have been occupied by emerging elites. Anadenanthera sp. wood and seeds of evening primrose (Oenothera sp.), a mild narcotic, were both found dating to the ceremonial occupation. Anadenanthera sp. is one of the possible sources of cojoba, the primary hallucinogenic substance used by the Taı´no to induce visions. This is the earliest archaeological evidence of the plant in the Caribbean. Ostionoid pottery consists of red-slipped boatshaped, straight-sided, and open vessels that often contain loop handles, sigmoid applique´s, and simple modeled head lugs (Figure 8). Red paint and black smudging on vessel exteriors is sometimes present. New kinds of flaked stone tools and different methods of tool production also differentiate the Ostionoid from the Saladoid. The people also made stone and shell artifacts with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images. Sometime during the AD 600s, another pottery subseries, the Meillacan Ostionoid, emerged in the Cibao Valley of northern Hispaniola and is believed to represent an in situ development from the Ostionoid.

138 AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas

Figure 7 (a) Central section of the southern stone row of the main plaza of Tibes (Structure 6). Ball Court 2 is visible in the background. Puerto Rico. Photograph courtesy of L. Antonio Curet. (b) Ball Court 1 of Tibes facing east. Puerto Rico. Photo courtesy of L. Antonio Curet.

Figure 8 Ostionan Ostionoid boat-shaped vessel with strap handles. Puerto Rico. Ceramic. Height: 41; width: 32; thickness: 21.1 cm. Museo de Historia, Antropologı´a y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

Contrasting views suggest, though, that the Meillacan diffused from the Guyana Highlands, that it emerged centuries earlier from the Punta Cana tradition of eastern Dominican Republic (see below), and that it is unrelated to the Ostionoid series. The Meillacan and Ostionan cultures overlapped temporally in the Turks and Caicos and elsewhere; moreover, Ostionan pottery has been found in association with Meillacan sherds at sites in Hispaniola, suggesting that the latter did not necessarily supplant the former. Meillacan pottery is thin, hard, and unpainted. Decorations include modeling, punctuation (Figure 9), zoned incision, and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic applique´ figures located on the shoulder or rims of hemispheric and boat-shaped vessels. Some argue

AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas 139

Figure 9 Meillacan Ostionoid sherd with punctation. Illustration courtesy of Mary Jane Berman.

that Meillacan ceramic decoration drew upon Courian Casimiroid stone work designs; such an argument lends support that the Meillacan were direct descendants of Archaic cultures, with no links to the Ostionoid or represents the merging of Archaic and Ostionoid cultures. Meillacan ceramics or local versions with Meillacan designs appear almost contemporaneously in the ninth century in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, eastern and central Cuba, and the central Bahamas. A combination of exploration, colonization, and high levels of interisland interaction (trade, exchange) is likely responsible for the extensive spread of the Meillacan style. The earliest evidence of Palmetto ware, a locally made Bahamian pottery with Ostionan and Meillacan traits, signifies the appearance of a distinct Lucayan culture at AD 700–900 at the Three Dog and Dune #2, Pigeon Creek sites on San Salvador Island. Ceramic assemblages from northern and eastern Cuba exhibit both Meillacan and Ostionan traits, as does the White Marl pottery of Jamaica. Meillacan peoples and people influenced by Meillacan culture practiced root crop and seed horticulture in home gardens and mounded fields, tended or managed fruit trees, gathered wild plants, and fished and collected shellfish from marine and estuarine waters. Starch grain analysis on chert microliths from the Three Dog site has revealed evidence of maize, chili peppers, and several root and tuber crops, suggesting that the peoples who settled the central Bahamas brought these plants with them from their homelands in Hispaniola and Cuba (see Starch Grain Analysis). Sites in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Jamaica are small, reflecting the activities of horticultural-fishing groups. Meillacan outposts, including specialized shell bead production sites, were established on Middle Caicos and Grand Turk, BWI. The Meillacan culture did not penetrate Puerto Rico.

Figure 10 Chican Ostionoid bowl. Dominican Republic. Ceramic. Height: 14; width: 20.6; thickness: 18.7 cm. Collection of El Museo del Barrio, gift of Brian and Florence Mahony. El Museo del Barrio, New York City (PC92.1.4). Photograph by Bruce Schwarz.

Around AD 800, a new pottery, Chican Ostionoid, emerged in the southeastern Dominican Republic. By AD 1200, this ceramic style and its regional variants became widespread in Hispaniola (except for the southwestern peninsula), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Turks, and Caicos, and ultimately eastern Cuba, which the Chican peoples settled in (approximately) AD 1450. It has been argued recently that Chican pottery, like Meillacan pottery (see above) can also be traced to Punta Cana pottery due to resemblances in decorative characteristics. According to this argument, the Meillacan and Chican traditions are unrelated to the Ostionoid and should be referred to by their own series (rather than subseries) names (Meillacoid, Chicoid).

Period IV, AD 1200–1500 By AD 1200, Taı´no culture on Hispaniola was fully established; most of the characteristics observed by the Spanish, who arrived three centuries later, emerged during this period. Both Chican Ostionoid and Meillacan pottery and their local variants persisted into the fifteenth century in northern Hispaniola, central Cuba, Jamaica, and the central and northern Bahamas (which was settled by this time). Chican pottery is characterized by constricted open, boat-shaped, or constricted bottle-shaped vessels with carved or broad-lined curvilinear incisions sometimes in line and dot patterns (Figure 10). After AD 1200, pottery became more elaborate. Modeled-incised lugs depicted zemı´s, animals, gods, and caciques wearing ear spools and elaborate headdresses adorned the sides of vessels. At numerous sites in Hispaniola, Meillacan and Chican ceramics are found in the same strata.

140 AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas

Basketry-impressed Palmetto ware, which appears after AD 1100 in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, reflects complex Lucayan basketry traditions (Figure 11). Throughout Hispaniola, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Jamaica, there was an increase in the number, type, and size of settlements. Except for western Cuba where a foraging subsistence economy was practiced, people grew manioc (the staple crop), maize, gourds/ squashes, varieties of peppers, tobacco, sweet potato, papaya, avocados, peanuts, yautı´a and other roots and tubers, engaged in arboriculture, and collected wild plants. Terraced fields are reported from Puerto Rico; irrigation was practiced in parts of Hispaniola. In the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, fields were created in low-lying interdune areas. During this time, fish and shellfish dominated the meat portion of the diet, with minor contributions from iguana, hutı´a, and other animals. By the late fifteenth century, the Greater Antilles, Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos consisted of many linguistic and ethnic groups that interacted with one another through trade, exchange, marriage, and political alliances. Although culturally diverse, the people who lived here are known collectively as the Taı´no, meaning ‘good’ or ‘noble’ in classic Taı´no. The Indians of Hispaniola used this term when speaking to the Spanish in order to differentiate themselves from other groups. At the onset of Spanish entry into the Americas, the people of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos spoke at least three languages (classic Taı´no, Ciboney Taı´no, and Macorı´s) and two dialects, Ciguayo and Guanahatabey. Hispaniola was organized into five large and several smaller stratified chiefdoms or cacicazgos made up of: caciques (paramount ruler-chiefs) and their immediate families; nitainos, believed to be nobles, who assisted the caciques; and naborias or laborers. The behiques (shamans), who served as advisors and healers, were considered nitainos. A cacicazago consisted of 70–100 villages made up of several thousand people. Inheritance was matrilineal; residence patterns

may have been avunculocal. Caciques were invested with religious and political power, controlling economic, craft, and artistic labor, production, and distribution. Puerto Rico, eastern Cuba, and Jamaica were divided into smaller-sized, less politically complex polities, but more and bigger ballcourts were constructed during this time in Puerto Rico suggesting some form of social restructuring from the previous period. The Turks and Caicos and Bahamas may have been organized into small, less stratified cacicazagos. Hunting-gathering populations (Guanahatabeys) lived in western Cuba and southwestern Hispaniola. The Taı´no cosmological system consisted of a pantheon of deities such as Yu´cahau, the god of cassava, Attabeira, the fertility goddess, and 12 lesser deities. Zemı´s were ancestor-gods and/or shamanic spirithelpers who possessed spiritual, political, and/or healing powers. They were made from stone, shell, bone, coral, wood, ceramic, woven cotton, and other materials and resembled a combination of human, animal, and supernatural creatures drawn from a pantheon of spirits and ancestors (Figure 12). The objects often differed in material, style, and decorative treatment from island to island. Zemı´ were often depicted in rock art. The ingestion of hallucinogens such as cojoba was an integral part of spiritual life facilitated by the use of elaborate paraphernalia including inhalers, vomiting sticks, snuff tables, and spoons. Shamans (behiques) and shaman-caciques served as the expert translators of these experiences and were sometimes depicted in their altered states (Figure 13). The Taı´no and their Chican Ostionoid predecessors of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola played a ballgame on leveled courts or plazas (bateyes). Differences in shape, appearance, size, and number reflect interisland political and cultural differences. For example, there are fewer ballcourts on Hispaniola, but they are larger than those found on the other islands. Two teams made up of about 20–30 players vied with

Figure 11 Mold and cast of Lucayan basketry-impressed pottery. San Salvador, Bahamas. Photograph courtesy of Mary Jane Berman.

Figure 12 Three-pointer zemı´ with shell inlay. Puerto Rico. Stone. Height: 20.0; width: 8.3; thickness: 7.9 cm. Museo de Historia, Antropologı´a y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas 141

Figure 13 (a) Zemı´ of Deminan Caracarakol effigy jar (frontal view). Dominican Republic. Ceramic. (b) Zemı´ of Deminan Caracarakol effigy jar (back view). Dominican Republic. Ceramic. Height: 40.5 cm. Collected by Theodoor de Booy. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (05/3753). Photograph by David Heald.

one another to send the ball toward its goal. Hands and feet were not allowed to come into contact with the ball, nor was it permitted to touch the ground. The ball was made from rubber and other materials. In Puerto Rico, ballgame participants wore elaborately decorated stone artifacts known as stone collars and elbow stones on their waists and arms that helped keep the ball afloat (Figure 14). The competitions helped to resolve social tensions, serving also as occasions for feasting, trading, and alliance creation. Women-only teams were known to play. In recreating Chican mythology and ancestral genealogies, the petroglyph-zemı´s lining the Caguana (Puerto Rico) ball court, served as visual reminders of history and social organization. Low stools (duhos), which conveyed caciques’ and behiques’ position, wealth, prestige, authority, and power were used during ceremonies and other special occasions, including ballgames (Figure 15). They also served as gifts and elite burial accompaniments and caciques and behiques sat on them during the ingestion of cojoba. It is believed that the caciques sat on the stools with curved backs, while the behiques sat on ones that lacked backs.

The Taı´no also expressed themselves in music and dance. Ceremonies (areytos) signaling battles, marriages, and deaths of important personages and other significant events took place in the central plaza of the cacique’s village, which was larger than the surrounding ones. The arrival of Columbus and the Spanish in 1492 brought devastation and upheaval. The earliest evidence of Spanish presence in the Americas, known from glass beads, European ceramics, and a variety of metal objects, comes from the Long Bay site on San Salvador, Bahamas. After visiting several Bahamian islands and eastern Cuba, Columbus left a garrison of men at En Bas Saline in northern Hispaniola in December 1492. Upon his return in December 1493, there was no sign of them. A few weeks later, he established a settlement to the east at La Isabela. Within a few short years, other settlements and a chain of forts were built. Initially the two groups exchanged gold and food for European trinkets, but Spanish abuses soon triggered Indian resistance that was matched in 1494–95 by brutal Spanish reprisals, resulting in the eventual, near-universal enslavement of the Taı´no. Then, in 1495–97, the Spanish

142 AMERICAS, CARIBBEAN/The Greater Antilles and Bahamas

Figure 14 Collar with decorated panel. Puerto Rico. Stone. Height: 9.5; width: 21.1 cm. Museo de Historia, Antropologı´a Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

warfare, and relocation, severely decimated the population. The Spanish conquered Puerto Rico (1508), Jamaica (1509), and Cuba (1510), establishing the encomienda system. Indian women married Spanish men or served as their concubines. Indian plant foods were incorporated into the European diet. On each of the large islands, unknown numbers of Indians fled to the mountainous interior, where they established maroon communities. With the exception of these groups, by the mid-sixteenth century or earlier, the Taı´no and the Lucayans had virtually disappeared as cultural entities. Their biological and cultural heritage survive today in the people of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico; many aspects of diet, medicinal knowledge, crafts, spiritual beliefs, and vocabulary draw on Taı´no culture. By 1511, Africans were systematically imported to replace the Indians as slave labor. The beginning of contemporary Caribbean culture, drawing on Amerindian, African, and European beliefs, practices, and lifeways was established. See also: Americas, Caribbean: The Lesser Antilles; Animal Domestication; Marxist Archaeology; Paleoethnobotany; Plant Domestication; Starch Grain Analysis; Time and History, Divisions.

Figure 15 High-backed wooden duho. Puerto Rico. Wood. Height: 38.0; width: 20.3. Museo de Historia, Antropologia Y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico.

commanded that tribute (gold, cotton, food, labor), organized and negotiated through the caciques, be paid them every 3 months. The system was unsuccessful. In 1497, repartimiento, a system of forced Indian labor, was instituted, whereby the Crown gave land to the Spanish to be used for farming and ranching. Indians were assigned to Spaniards for whom they worked and received education in Christianity and ‘civilization’. In 1503, the encomienda system was established on Hispaniola; Indians paid tribute, worked in the mines for 4–6 months, and returned to their villages for the rest of the year (demora). The intentional and accidental import of Old World animals (cows, pigs, rats, mice) and plants (e.g., wheat, sugarcane, weeds) and deforestation due to the establishment of settlements and forts all contributed to major ecological changes. Within two decades, diseases (e.g., measles, smallpox, influenza), for which the aboriginal populations lacked immunities, physical abuse, overwork, food shortages, malnutrition,

Further Reading Bercht F, Brodsky E, Farmer JA, and Taylor D (1997) Taı´no, PreColumbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean. New York: The Monacelli Press. Curet LA (2005) Caribbean Paleodemography: Population, Culture History, and Sociopolitical Processes in Ancient Puerto Rico. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press. Dacal Moure R and Rivero de la Calle M (1984) Arqueologı´a aborigen de Cuba. La Habana: Editorial Gente Nueva. Granberry J and Vescelius GS (2004) Languages of the PreColumbian Antilles. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press. Keegan WF (2000) West Indian archaeology 3. Ceramic Age. Journal of Archaeological Research 8(2): 135–167. Newsom LA and Wing ES (2004) On Land and Sea: Native American Uses of Biological Resources in the West Indies. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press. Paga´n Jimenez J, Rodrı´guez M, Chanlatte Baik LA, and Narganes Storde YM (2005) La temprana introduccio´n y uso de algunas plantas dome´sticas, silvestres, y cultivos en Las Antillas precolombinas. Dia´logo Antropolo´gico 3(10): 7–33. Rouse I (1992) The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People who Greeted Columbus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Siegel PE (ed.) (2005) Ancient Borinquen: Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Native Puerto Rico. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press. Wilson SM (1990) Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.

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The Lesser Antilles Corinne L Hofmann, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary cross hatching Fine line incision in a cross-hatched pattern. caliviny Buff or black painted circular motifs on a plain or red slipped surface, in use throughout the entire Troumassoid sequence in the southern Lesser Antilles, notably on St. Vincent, where more than 20 sites have been documented yielding Caliviny pottery. This pottery has also been found on St. Lucia, Martinique, the Grenadines, and Barbados. Cayo Late Ceramic Age pottery style on Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, and Guadeloupe with affiliations to the Koriabo complex of the Guianas, itself a member of the Koriaban subseries of the Polychrome Tradition of Amazonia. head lugs Modeled zoomorphic or anthropomorphic representations, added to vessel as handles or lugs when both were in a plastic or leather-hard state. Huecan Saladoid subseries Pottery style identified in Puerto Rico, Vieques, and the northern Lesser Antilles as far south as Marie-Galante. The origin of this Early Ceramic Age style, the so-called Huecan problem, has been debated since its first discovery. Some scholars view it as a separate Huecoid series, resulting from an independent migration from the South American mainland, others as Huecan Saladoid, a separate subseries that developed independently out of the Saladoid series. Recently, also affiliation to Central America has been suggested. incision Linear or curvilinear grooves applied to the vessel surface once the clay was leather-hard. Kalinago Island Carib of colonial times who refer to the Guianas as their original homeland. Cayo pottery has been correlated to the Island Carib. Maloca Large communal house known from Tropical Lowland peoples of South America. The ‘maloca’ accommodates a wide range of activities such as living, sleeping, food preparation, working, storing, meeting, dancing, and worshipping. modeled applique Pre-modeled clay sometimes of a geometric shape attached to the vessel, when both were in a plastic or leather hard condition. Ortoiroid Series that extends from the coastal zone of Venezuela and the Guianas through the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico during the Archaic Age. The toolkit consists of ground stone and shell tools as well as flint. Series Cultural complexes or ceramic styles that developed from a common ancestor. A subseries is a spatial and/or temporal division of a series.

Introduction Archipelagic Environment

The Lesser Antillean archipelago separates the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, forming a series of stepping-stone islands between South America and

the Greater Antilles (Figure 1). The Lesser Antilles include Trinidad, the Windward (Tobago to Dominica) and Leeward Islands (Guadeloupe to Saba), and the Virgin Islands. Most islands are intervisible; there are only two wider straits of sea, the Grenada passage and the Anegada passage, both c.150 km wide (see Americas, Caribbean: The Greater Antilles and Bahamas). Natural Island Setting

The arc comprises volcanic and limestone islands situated on the margin of the Caribbean Plate. The inner arc, from Marie-Galante northward after outer arc, encompasses geologically younger islands consisting of active and recently extinct volcanoes. The geologically older islands of the outer arc are made up of marine sediments overlaying the volcanic foundation. This divergence affects the ecological and climatological characteristics of the islands. Trinidad and Tobago sit on the continental shelf and their terrestrial flora and fauna reflect this South American mainland allegiance. The many islets located near the main islands play an important role in the exploitation of natural resources. Communicating Communities: Mobility and Exchange in the Lesser Antillean Archipelago between 6000 BC and AD 1492

The discontinuous distribution of subsistence resources and great variability in the availability of raw materials are the driving forces behind the highly mobile nature and diversified procurement strategies of the Archaic Age groups and the establishment and maintenance of the intensive insular contact networks during the Ceramic Age. The favorable position of the Lesser Antilles between the mainland and the Greater Antilles stimulated exploratory voyages and migration processes, linked two major centers of cultural development and encouraged the establishment of interconnecting exchange networks. Both regions were of great importance for the sociocultural development of the Lesser Antilles throughout the preColumbian era (Figure 2). Mobility patterns and material distributions evidence that the archipelagic interaction networks evolved through time as a result of the shifting and expansion of group territories, fission and fusion of local groups, and the increasing complexity of sociopolitical organization. This complicated web of social relationships also involved the sharing of myths, tales, songs, dances, and ritual knowledge.

144 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles

Dominican Republic

Puerto Rico

Virgin Islands Anguilla St. Martin

St. Barths

Vieques St. Croix

Saba St. Eustatius St. Kitts

Barbuda Nevis

Antigua Guadeloupe La Désirade Marie-Galante

Les Saintes Dominica

Martinique

St. Lucia Barbados St. Vincent

Aruba Curaçao

Grenadines Bonaire Grenada

Los Roques

Margarita

Tobago Paria Trinidad

Orinoco Delta Venezuela

Or

o inoc

0

100

200

300 km Guyana

Figure 1 Map of the Lesser Antilles.

Archaic Age (6000 BC–500 BC) Early Occupation by Seasonal Hunter-FisherCollectors

Archaic Age groups came into Trinidad from northern South America by 6000 BC and by around 2500 BC various islands of the Lesser Antilles had seen human occupation. Archaic Age sites are to be

found from Trinidad to the Virgin Islands. Antigua was the most densely occupied island, likely due to the presence of major flint sources. Lifeways and Settlement

Early island dwellers were well adapted to the varied environmental conditions and differential distribution

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles 145

Northern South America Orinoco

Coastal Guyana

Trinidad

Antilles Windward islands

Leeward islands

Virgin islands

Puerto Rico

2000 Cariban and Arawakan speaking peoples 1500

Koriabo Macapaima Arauquinoid

1000

Mon Repos

Mayoid

Bontour

Island Carib Cayo Suazan Troumassoid Anse Trabaud

Morne Cybèle Freeman's Bay Mamoran Mamora Bay Troumassoid Mill Reef

Troumassan Paquemar Troumassoid Espérance

Chican Ostionoid Magens BayEsperanza, Capá Salt River II Santa Elena Modified Ostiones Elenan/Ostionan Magens Bay- Ostionoid Salt River I Monserrate

500

cal AD 0 cal BC

Palo Seco

Barrancoid Los Barrancos

Coral Bay-Longford

Diamant

Cuevas

Cedrosan Saladoid Indian Creek

Cedros Vivé Barrancas

Ostiones

Erin

Guarguapo

Mabaruma

Prosperity

Hacienda Grande/La Hueca

Morel/Hope Estate

500

1000 Ortoiroid

Casimiroid

Ronquinan Saladoid 2000

Colonial period

3000 Ortoiroid 4000

Neoindian epoch/Ceramic Age Mesoindian epoch/Archaic Age

6000 10 000

Paleo-Indian epoch/Lithic Age

Figure 2 Chronological chart of Archaic and Ceramic Ages covering northern South America, Lesser Antilles, and Puerto Rico (after Rouse 1992).

of resources throughout the archipelago. On the coast they relied heavily on reef fish and shellfish exploitation while in inland locations they foraged crabs and birds in combination with plant gathering or managing. The combination of flint, groundstone, and shell artifacts at sites of this period has been defined as the Ortoiroid series (Figure 3). The apparent co-evality of the Archaic populations and the earliest Ceramic Age settlers indicate possibilities for transfer of information and knowledge between these groups. Resource Mobility

The Archaic Age hunter-fisher-collectors moved around the islands adapting to a subsistence and settlement system living semi-permanently and alternately in coastal and inland settings. They adopted an annual mobility cycle encompassing multiple islands, each representing a unique resource patch

within the environmentally heterogeneous region (Figure 4). Communities relied upon seasonality markers as animal cycles, the succession of xeric, moderately humid and wet seasons, and hurricanes to structure their activities through time and across place.

Early Ceramic Age (400 BC–AD 600/800) Intensification of Island Occupation by Horticultural Sedentary Groups

By 400 BC Puerto Rico and the northern Lesser Antilles saw the appearance of two Ceramic subseries, Huecan and Cedrosan, of the Saladoid series, a pottery tradition originating in South America. The remaining Lesser Antilles beyond Trinidad were only occupied from AD 200 on and the continuous influx of local groups from the mainland totally transformed the natural and cultural landscape

146 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles

Figure 3 Ortoiroid toolkit.

March

September

December

June Figure 4 Yearly Archaic archipelagic resource and mobility cycle in the northern Lesser Antilles.

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles 147

Early Ceram mic Age

Morel

Golden Rock

Late Ceram mic Age

Anse à la Gourde

Kelbey's Ridge II

?

Figure 5 House structures and burial practices between 400 BC and AD 1500 in the Lesser Antilles.

of the islands. By AD 350/400 all the islands had seen occupancy and sites increased considerably in number and size. Lifeways and Settlement

Communities lived in more or less permanent settlements in diverse ecological settings, people taking on a broad-spectrum subsistence economy consisting of a combination of horticulture, hunting, fishing, and food collecting. Excavations at Golden Rock, St. Eustatius, revealed house plans of various shapes and sizes, including a large 19 m2 roundhouse, which recalls Amazonian ‘malocas’ for extended families (Figure 5). Human and dog burials were located outside the houses (Figure 6). Grave inventories comprise beads and amulets of quartz, amethyst and greenstone, conch shells, and ceramic vessels.

Figure 6 Morel dog burial.

Huecan and Cedrosan Saladoid ceramics are characterized by a large variety of vessel shapes including hemispherical, bell-, boat-, and kidney-shaped bowls, occasionally provided with D-shaped handles and

148 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles

Figure 7 Huecan and Cedrosan Saladoid ceramics (not to scale).

highly decorated with curvilinear incising, zonedincised crosshatching (ZIC), white-on-red painting (WOR), and modeled-incised head lugs representing a mainland faunal imagery. A so-called ‘Saladoid veneer’ masks the underlying heterogeneity of pottery styles, evidencing the complicated nature and diverse origin of the series (Figure 7). Social Organization and Establishment of Regional and Local Contact Networks

Saladoid society was egalitarian; communities participated in ceremonial activities on a household level. Exotic items, semi-precious raw materials, and mainland iconography reflect the existence of regional networks linking South America to the Lesser Antilles. Local networks for the distribution of raw materials existing from the onset of occupation gained importance over time. Such interaction networks spreading Antiguan flint and St. Martin greenstone were present in the northern Lesser Antilles from the heydays of island occupation.

Late Ceramic Age (AD 600/800–AD 1492) Consolidation of Independent Local Polities

Over time, the stabilized conditions afforded by island adaptation and increased population density resulted in the formation of more localized microregions, acting independently with respect to resource procurement and social matters. Local ceramic styles developed but still evidence the enduring influence of the mainland in the southern Lesser Antilles. Those in the northern Lesser Antilles show affiliations to the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Lifeways and Settlement

Site structure at Anse a` la Gourde, Guadeloupe, shows a doughnut-shaped midden encircling a habitation area and a ‘plaza’ with houses of various shapes between 5 and 12 m in diameter (Figure 8). The deceased were buried within the residential space and under the house floors indicating a shift from

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles 149

N 0 Atlantic Ocean Midden area Ivlidden

Midden area Vacant area Habitation area

Midden area Contourline, 0.5 m interval Contourline, 2.5 m interval

Anse à la Gourde, Troumassoid settlement

Figure 8 Settlement structure at the site Anse a` la Gourde, Guadeloupe (AD 1000–1350).

Figure 9 Postholes and human burials under house floor at Anse a` la Gourde.

25 m

150 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles

Figure 10 Late Ceramic Age pottery in the Leeward Islands.

earlier practices. Burials reflect varied mortuary practices, internal differentiation, and personalized treatment (Figure 9). In the Leeward Islands red-painted ceramics with incised and modeled applique´s of the Mamoran Troumassoid subseries replaced the bicolor and polychrome painting of the Cedrosan Saladoid. Ceramics affiliated to the Chican Ostionoid subseries of the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands also characterized the complexes in the Leewards around AD 1200. Ceramic decoration included incised designs and anthropo-zoomorphic modeling on nonpainted surfaces (Figure 10). In the Windward Islands, the Saladoid ceramics were replaced by the Troumassan and subsequent Suazan Troumassoid subseries. White-on-red painting was replaced by monochrome red-painted ceramics with incised motifs and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic modeling. Caliviny-painted scrolls accompanied the Troumassoid sequence between Grenada and St. Lucia. The Suazan Troumassoid subseries,

distributed from Tobago to Guadeloupe, was long regarded as the crudest pottery in the Antilles, but also comprises a finer ware. In a final stage these islands witnessed the appearance of Cayo and other ceramic styles related to the mainland. Trinidad remained under continual influence of coastal Venezuela with the advent of the Arauquinoid series. Its final ceramic style, Mayoid, may have originated in the Guianas (Figure 11). Social Organization and Exchange Relationships

Long-distance exchange diminished over time; lapidary items decreased in number and were replaced by objects made of local rock types. The level of sociopolitical integration oscillated between both extremes in the range of tribal organization. A number of sociopolitical polities were established encompassing several settlements or islands. One of these polities was formed around the island of Anguilla. Interisland

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles 151

Figure 11 Late Ceramic Age pottery in the Windward Islands.

trade and exchange networks existed in which lithic materials, ceramics, and ceremonial paraphernalia circulated between the islands but also between the Lesser and the Greater Antilles. On the southern Lesser Antilles similar networks existed with South America. At the end of pre-Columbian occupation there was a pan-regional interaction sphere in which exotic items circulated between elites of the Greater Antilles and both South and Central America in which the northern and southern Lesser Antilles operated jointly (Figure 12).

Epilogue The Demise of the Native Population of the Lesser Antilles

After European colonization, diseases and slavery rapidly decimated the native population of the Lesser Antilles. Nonetheless, missionary accounts from the mid-seventeenth century still attest to a sizeable

indigenous population on several islands of the southern Lesser Antilles. Ties with the mainland were secured until colonial times with the intrusion of the ‘Kalinago’ or so-called ‘Island Caribs’ historically documented but archaeologically only tenuously attested, who held the assertion to have conquered the islands out of the Guianas. Various chroniclers note intensive inter-island interactions, as well as long-distance voyages undertaken by Carib from the mainland to Dominica and vice versa. Carib live to this day on Dominica and several other islands of the southern Lesser Antilles (Figure 13).

Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge Arie Boomert and Alistair Bright for their useful comments and linguistic improvement of the text. Alistair Bright has provided some of the photographs of the ceramics and made the scheme in Figure 3. Medy Oberendorff made the drawings of Figures 1 and 4.

152 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/The Lesser Antilles

Figure 12 Ceremonial paraphernalia (coral face, shell mask, lithic threepointer, diorite and quartz beads, and bone snuff inhaler).

Figure 13 Carib Territory, Dominica.

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya 153 See also: Americas, Caribbean: The Greater Antilles and Bahamas.

Further Reading Boomert A (2000) Trinidad, Tobago and the Lower Orinoco Interaction Sphere. An Archaeological/Ethnohistorical Study. PhD Disseration, University of Leiden. Heerhugowaard: Plantijn Casparie. Crock JG (2000) Interisland interaction and development of chiefdoms in the Eastern Caribbean. PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor. Drewett P (2000) Prehistoric Settlements in the Caribbean: Fieldwork in Barbados, Tortola and the Cayman Islands. For the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. London: Archaeotype Publications.

Delpuech A and Hofman CL (eds.) (2004) Late Ceramic Age Societies in the Eastern Caribbean. BAR International Series 1273. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. Hofman CL, Bright AJ, Boomert A, and Knippenberg S (2007) ‘Island rhythms: The web of social relationships and interaction networks in the Lesser Antillean archipelago between 400 BC and AD 1492’. Latin American Antiquity (in press). Keegan WF (2000) West Indian archaeology 3. Ceramic Age. Journal of Archaeological Research 8(supplement 2): 135–167. Knippenberg S (2006) Stone artefact production and exchange among the Northern Lesser Antilles. PhD dissertation, Leiden University. Righter EC (ed.) (2002) The Tutu Archaeological Village Site: A Multi-Disciplinary Case Study in Human Adaptation. London: Routledge. Rouse IB (1992) The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven/London: Yale University Press. Wilson SM (ed.) (1997) The Indigenous People of the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

AMERICAS, CENTRAL Contents Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya Early Cultures of Middle America Historical Archaeology in Mexico Lower Central America Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica The Olmec and Their Contemporaries

Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya Anabel Ford, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary agroforestry A collective name for land-use systems and practices where woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops and/or animals on the same land management unit. anthropogenic Caused by human activity. chert A variety of silica that contains microcrystalline quartz, often called flint. cultivar A cultured variety of plant. ecological diversity A variety of biological communities or ecosystems in a given area. hieroglyphics A system of ancient writing using a combination of logographic, syllabic, and pictographic elements. Milpa A multicrop planting system based on maize, beans and squash on the same plot-turns into a treasure hunt.

obsidian A volcanic glass and fine raw materials for the chipping of stone tools. polyculture An agricultural system where different crops are planted at the same time in the same space. prismatic blade A long, narrow, specialized lithic flake with parallel margins that may derive from a polyhedral blade core, often triangular in cross section with several facets or flake scars on the one surface. smallholder A farmer who lives on and works cultivating a small portion of the lands. stelae A stone slab with an inscription or design which was used as a monument.

Introduction Mesoamerica in the Classic period was a time of great political and economic development from the Mexican Highlands in the north to the Maya lowlands in the south (Figure 1). There were wide regional interactions among the elite leadership and extended trade relationships all within the context of an essentially agrarian Stone Age economy. Major centers of power emerged around the region,

154 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya

Chichen Itza

Tajin Teotihuacan

MESOAMERICA

Monte Alban

Tikal

N

0

250

El Pilar

Kaminalijuyu

500

Kilometers

Figure 1 Mesoamerican with major sites indicated. Courtesy of the Anabel Ford.

including Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, Monte Alban in the Oaxaca Valley, and Tikal in the Maya lowlands. This overview focuses on Maya civilization, situating it within a framework of the overall developments of the Classic period. Mesoamerica was a world without animal husbandry, without metals for agriculture, and without roads for commerce. Without all these attributes, often deemed essential for the development of complex societies, the ancient Mesoamericans thrived. What they did have – an intimate knowledge of landscape, a dynamic management of water, a fabulous repertoire of cultivars – provided a substantial foundation for organization and growth. This is the story of Classic Mesoamerica. Our knowledge of Classic Mesoamerica has been enriched over the past decades by research addressing some of the more complex and subtle components: the social, political, and economic aspects of the cultures. Importantly, while early on only the most glamorous aspects of culture were investigated, current research has brought in fieldwork and interpretations of rural as well as urban sectors. While there is still much focus on the development of centers and the elite process of the evolution of civilization, our understanding of Mesoamerican societies has become

Table 1 Major centers of Classic Mesoamerica Region

Culture

Time period

Main center

Central Mexico Oaxaca Gulf Coast Volcanic Highlands Maya Lowlands

Teotihuacan Zapotec Huastec Maya

AD 100–600 AD 200–750 AD 800–1200 AD 400–700

Teotihuacan Monte Alban Tajin Kamilnaljuyu

Maya

AD 250–900

Tikal

more balanced when compared to the initial focus on only the sensational and monumental. Nonetheless, the basic definitions and characteristics of Mesoamerican cultures rely heavily on the elite and ceremonial characteristics relegating the adaptive characteristics to a lesser role. Classic period Mesoamerica emerged in the first millennium of our current era (Table 1) within a complex and heterogeneous ecological landscape from contemporary central Mexico, down through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras embracing the arid highland plateaus of Mexico and Oaxaca, the dramatic volcanic highlands of Guatemala, and the lowlands of the Gulf Coast, the Pacific, and the Yucatan. Within this diverse setting, all below the Tropic of Cancer, major archaeological civilizations

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya 155

evolved to become large population centers and regional economic powers with far-flung exchange relationships across the Mesoamerican landscape. In the Classic period, political and economic institutions of the region reached a level of complexity that incorporated all the basic qualities of civilization: centralized administration, major public works, sumptuary rules, military readiness, occupational specialization, and political intrigue. The region embraces considerable environmental diversity. The Valley of Mexico and the large Valley of Oaxaca dominate the core of Mesoamerica. These areas are characterized by temperate climate. The valleys are flanked by mountains and punctuated by active volcanoes that played an important role in the prehistory of the region. Tropical lowlands typify the Gulf Coast plains of Veracruz and extend to the Yucatan Peninsula in the south. The Maya lowlands are situated on limestone bedrock dominated by tropical forests. The area includes the greater Yucatan, the adjoining Pete´n of Guatemala and Belize as well as the Caribbean zone of Honduras. The Pacific volcanic highlands complete the complex setting presenting an agriculturally fertile and seismically active geography. Mesoamerica is well known for the cultures that arose in this dynamic context, each taking advantage of facets of their locale to build their regional presence. The Classic period is traditionally linked to the Maya long count as it appeared and was read on ancient Maya stelae. It was in the Maya area that the full development and use of writing and mathematics was honed to a level that is understood now to reveal political relations, alliance building, intercenter genealogies, and standard styles. Other areas of Mesoamerica clearly used stylistically similar iconographic representations to make historic statements,

but were cursive and with subtle meanings. They were broad icons that were used across space and time. The mat, for example, signified the throne and it is recognized before the time of the Maya, used throughout the Classic period, and it was understood throughout Mesoamerica. Developmentally, the Classic period is most esteemed for its elite traditions that hold stylistic sway across the varied landscape. The Classic was a time of spectacular investments of art and architecture and, while each area has distinctive means of rendering these features, they all display exuberance in stone work, painting, mosaics, ceramics, and most particularly in the monumental architectural undertakings of temples, plazas, and palaces. The region shares one important additional foundation, the subsistence system known as milpa with the important cultivar, maize. From the Mexican Plateau to the Maya Lowlands, maize formed a fundamental part of the Mesoamerican diet. Recognized at the time of Spanish invasion as the staple, grain yields per hectare in the Valley of Mexico were greater than that known in Europe at the same time (Figure 2). The Mesoamerican subsistence strategy, called the ‘high-performance milpa’, is an agroforestry polyculture based on the triad of maize–beans–squash intercropped with other edibles and a myriad of useful herbs and shrubs. Proficiently developed as cultivated fields within a context of managed regeneration, the system imitated the natural ecological cycle, whether it was in the arid highlands or the humid lowlands. These adaptations resulted in an astonishing array of approaches, many without any visible land modifications and largely dependent on rainfall, and all providing support for developing the hierarchical societies found among the Classic period civilizations.

Figure 2 Contemporary mano and metate for grinding corn from the Pete´n, Guatemala. Courtesy of Anabel Ford.

156 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya

Characterization of the Mesoamerican Classic While the foundation of Mesoamerican civilization is based on agriculture; art, architecture, and exotic exchange goods form the great constellation of attributes used to identify Classic Mesoamerica in general and it is the rendering of details that is used to distinguish the main areas.

Figure 3 Plazas flanked by palaces and temples such as this one at El Pilar. Courtesy of BRASS/El Pilar Program.

Art is one of the most identifiable aspects of Mesoamerican traditions. So wonderfully resplendent are the portable art objects that they have become the focus of intense collection, degrading the archaeological contexts of the ancient pieces. The archaeological source of objects is universally from regal settings: tombs and caches, dedications of temples and buildings, and in other royal sectors. The awesome polychrome vases, the delicately carved jade, the remarkable polished pendants, and other crafted stone, shell, and coral items and adornments make up the glamor of the elite assemblages. When recovered in careful excavations, these artifacts provide vital information from personal histories to general standards. When removed from the archaeological context and collected as art, the objects lose their inherent cultural value and lack all the critical contextual data that could have garnered. The public architectural form of Mesoamerica employs the basic platform to compose pyramidal structures, terraces, patios, and buildings arranged around plazas (Figure 3). This tradition dates back before the Classic period and holds for all the major areas of the region, the theme playing out in major and minor constructions as well as residential forms. A longstanding tradition was to construct a new edifice over an old one, at once honoring the ancient place and constructing a current statement. The construction layers are reminiscent of an onion, earlier phases capped by later ones with the ultimate result of something higher and wider than the last (Figure 4). The components of Mesoamerican public architecture relied on local materials, represent major construction projects, and include dedicatory offerings within

LC: Late Classic period EC: Early Classic period LPC: Late Preclassic period MPC: Middle Preclassic period 2 Building episodes

245 m 244 m 243 m 2 LC 1 4C 3 EC 5

4

6

4 LPC

6 LPC

7 MPC 8 MPC

Bedrock 9 MPC

1m

5

10

15

20

25 m

Figure 4 Multiple superimposed layers of construction typical of Mesoamerican public architecture. This example is from El Pilar. Courtesy of BRASS/El Pilar Program.

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya 157

the buildings. The constructions typically consisted of open and paved plazas, pyramid temples with rising platform terraces, multi-roomed buildings or palaces with internal rooms, and monolithic

Figure 5 Stela and altar of Twin Pyramid complex at Tikal.

sculptures, stelae and altars commemorating important events (Figure 5). Outer surfaces were usually plastered and painted. Red was a dominant color, and multicolored iconographic representations could adorn the surfaces harking to the ideological and political importance of the building. Major displays of control and power are embedded in public architectural presentations. The overall footprint of the Mesoamerican center and the height of the structures within the center played significant roles as an ostentatious demonstration of power and are a rough reflection of population control. Centers like Teotihuacan, in the northern Valley of Mexico, could not be missed on the landscape where the main public monuments sprawled over more than 900 ha (hectares), dominating every view and commanding the area (Figure 6). This contrasts with the Zapotec center in Oaxaca, Monte Alban, covering 200 ha, yet situated visibly high on a striking hilltop dominating the three arms of the valley (Figure 7). The prominences of the public features of highlands civilizations are distinct from the lowland Maya area. Tikal, covering about 150 ha, is large by any standard, but the landscape does not emphasize the size in the same way as the centers of the highlands. Long-distance trade and exchange is another important feature of Classic period Mesoamerica. It is recognized most prominently for minerals that are procured from specific highland sources and found at distant locations in special ceremonial contexts. Materials include obsidian, jade, pyrite, hematite, and other stones polished for masks, mirrors, plaques, scepters, pendants, mosaics, and beads. Shells and corals from the sea also circulated and appear as garment decoration and as necklaces, belts, and other adornments. All these products were restricted to elite use and ritual disposal. They are recovered in tombs and recognized in paintings and carvings. From the ancient artistic representations, many perishable items, primarily derived from lowland tropical resources, were also exchanged and circu-

Figure 6 Teotihuaca´n in the Valley of Mexico. Photograph by Macduff Everton 04328.

158 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya

Figure 7 Monte Alban overlooking the Valley of Oaxaca. Photograph by Macduff Everton 04228 m.

Figure 8 Obsidian prismatic blade core and blades. Courtesy of BRASS/El Pilar Program.

lated among the elite: feathers, pelts, incense, honey, and cacao. Obsidian, a volcanic glass, is one of the most widely distributed items, and occurs in the form of prismatic blades (Figure 8). Artifacts of obsidian have been recovered farther than a 1000 km from the volcanic sources. This is most evident with the green Pachuca obsidian mined outside of Teotihuacan and recovered at Maya centers such as Tikal and El Pilar. Other sources from the Mexican Volcanic Belt (e.g., Orizaba, Otumba, and Ucarea), and the Central American Volcanic Axis (e.g., Chayal, Ixtepeque, and San Martin Jilotepeque) are well known from a variety of archaeological contexts. For example, the distinctive Pachuca as well as the Otumba obsidians have been recovered in dedicatory deposits at Tikal, even though the majority of the obsidians were from

the nearer sources of Guatemala, such as Chayal. Intriguingly, special caches and burials at major centers in the Maya area, such as Tikal’s splendid Burial 116 enshrined in Temple 1, were strewn with obsidian waste flakes as the final cap of the offering. Jade, jadeite, and greenstone were an especially prized resource revered by the elite and used in many regal and ritual contexts. Jade is highly restricted and rarely recovered outside of ceremonial contexts. Jade carvings come in many forms – human figures, delicate ear spools, composite belts, elaborately carved pectorals, mosaics for masks, as well as beads for necklaces and clothing adornment. Many jade objects maintained their value across time and space. Objects were curated long after their production and Preclassic Olmec ‘antiques’ have been recovered from later Classic sites or at distances as far

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya 159

south as Costa Rica. The best-documented jade sources are from the Montagua Valley of Guatemala.

Cultural Regions Founded on Stone Age Technologies The magnificent Mesoamerican achievements attributed to the Classic period are all developed in the context of Neolithic Stone Age technologies, without draft animals, metal tools, and the plow, so familiar to Indo-European civilizations. This may appear to be a great disadvantage, but it was not. Maintaining animals is an additional production burden for farm families, and without that burden, the Mesoamerican farmers were able to focus entirely on their landscape. The domesticated plants from Mesoamerica include a shrub that produces chocolate or cacao and the orchid that produces vanilla. More plants in today’s markets have their origin in Mesoamerica than Europe, and maize is now a fundamental staple all over the world. The strength of the Mesoamerican agricultural strategy was founded on maize polyculture, relying on an intimate knowledge of the immediate habitat for subsistence. Working the landscape with both intensive infield home gardens and extensive outfield high-performance milpas shaped this subsistence system. The dynamics of the Mesoamerican subsistence system utilized a rotational sequence for maintaining production. The system employs cutting and burning used as an environmental management tool at the outset. Then selecting, planting, and growing native plants, managing volunteer plants and cultivars to promote a managed regeneration dependent on the indigenous ecosystem. The high population levels of the Classic period correlate with an intensive agricultural and natural resource management scheme that was integrated into the subsistence system. This is a system still found today among traditional farmers. It relies on the smallholder farming strategy of investing knowledge and skill to increase the productivity of scarce fertile land versus the large-scale strategies of investing in capital improvements to increase the productivity of scarce labor. The result is a complex managed field design with domesticated crops and managed tree growth on fields once the maize crop cycle was complete. The intensification of this essential system took on varied forms depending on the region and resources. Teotihuacan evolved a system in part employing irrigation of the arid plateau on which it is situated. Similarly, the Zapotec of highland Oaxaca relied on investments in flood water irrigation. In contrast, the humid lowlands of the Maya relied principally on

rainfall agriculture with few land modifications such as at the great population center of Tikal. There are notable exceptions where either steep slopes required terracing or perennial swamps justified draining. The Classic Maya

The Maya area, unlike the highland valleys in Mexico, is spread out across the tropical ridge lands and hills of lowlands, today a forested landscape rarely higher that 300 msl. Local topography of the absorbent limestone bedrock creates well-drained ridges interspersed with perched lakes and wetland depressions. Rain falls mainly between June and December and varies annually from 3000–4000 mm in the south to less than 500 mm in the northwest Yucatan. Drinking water during the dry season is scarce as there is little rain. The ancient Maya constructed reservoirs, or aguadas, to accommodate their dry season drinking water needs. The Classic period has traditionally been hinged to the stone carving of the Maya calendar. The majority of the Classic period stelae have carved hieroglyphs and appear to commemorate marriages, alliances, meetings, and wars and could be viewed as the official history. The nature of this official history is fast being revealed with the combined research of linguistics, art, and archaeology. Once thought only to commemorate the worship of time, we now know that important political information is canonized on these stelae. The source of strife, the importance of coalitions, and the ritual of marriage highlight the reported regal relationships. Fractious and fragile, information on the stelae underscore the impact of the distant relationships, where centers were dispersed and the independence readily exerted in the absence of a strong capital as with Teotihuacan or Monte Alban. Farming settlements are distributed across the Maya area, clustering in the best agricultural zones of the well-drained upland ridges and hills that are unevenly dispersed across the lowlands. Centers are situated in prominent extensions of well-drained uplands, and the greater the extents, the higher settlement density, and the larger the centers (Figure 9). Nohmul, with 15 ha of public architecture, is one of the largest centers in Northern Belize. Settlement density is around 79 structures per sq km and the uplands cover only 15% of the local zone. The large center of El Pilar, located north of the Belize River, covers about 60 ha, has an average of 160 structures per sq. km distributed within the surrounding uplands that represent 39% of the zone. In contrast, Tikal, among the largest centers of the Classic period Maya covering more than 150 ha, supports up to

160 AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya

200 structures per sq km found predominantly in uplands that make up 49% of the local zone. Farmers were attracted to the good soils of the uplands and that was where the centers grew. The Maya cultivated the forest as garden with maize polyculture and orchards with important fruit and hardwood tress as well as palms, managing cultivated fields in an orchestrated system of regeneration. Traditional Maya farmers today, drawing on their legacy, have one of the most diverse domestic systems on the planet. Signatures of their former gardens abound in the feral forest of today where 90% of the dominant plants of the forest are useful to people: avocado, allspice, vanilla, mahogany, cedar to name a few. This was created by millennia of accumulated knowledge and skill in the forest. The economic landscape of the central Maya Lowlands 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 North Belize

Belize River

Central Patén

Settlement density (km2) Ridge lands (%) Center size (in hectares) Figure 9 Economic landscape of the central Maya Lowlands BRASS/El Pilar Program.

Many perishable elite materials such as colorful feathers for headdresses, resins for incense and gum, pelts for adornment, honey for sweetener, as well as cacao as a medium of exchange were produced in the lowlands. Most of these resources that would have balanced the trade between the highlands and lowlands could only dependably thrive in forested habitat. Consequently, the vitality of the Mesoamerican trade and exchange system, as well as Maya subsistence, depended on the management of the Maya forest as a garden. The Maya lowlands are known for many centers, but Tikal was the largest by far (Figure 10). Tikal established its dominance in the Classic period around AD 250. By AD 600, the center held considerable sway over most of the southern lowlands. As Tikal was growing early on, the center embraced Mexican Teotihuacan themes that were prominently displayed on stelae and in architecture, yet these appear, like those of Zapotec of Monte Alban, to be translated into the local vernacular. Despite its evident influences, Tikal was subject to checks by neighbors, such as Uaxactu´n, Caracol, Naranjo, and Calakmul vying for power. The growing interpretations of the hieroglyphic record attest to the delicate balance of power and alliance that was the charge of Classic Maya rulers. Texts carved in stone on stelae suggest tenuous coalitions punctuated by startling acrimony twisting and turning political events. These official texts were only one aspect of the story. The juggling of power noted in the readings of the stelae of major centers can be seen in the lower-order settlements as well. Major centers have conspicuous temples and monuments to demonstrate their control of labor. Not so for the community level elite; it was their community production that would link them to the hierarchy. The culmination of the Classic period Maya dates to around AD 900–1000. This is called the Classic Maya Collapse and is known for the abandonment of building and maintenance of the major centers, such as Tikal and El Pilar. It is said that the collapse

Figure 10 Tikal and the Pete´n Rainforest. Photograph by Macduff Everton 04505 m.

AMERICAS, CENTRAL/Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya 161

was based on poor resource management and that today we are witnessing the repeat of those errors. Pollen and sediment data from lake cores south of Tikal have been interpreted as supporting this proposition. Yet today, the dominant plants of the Maya forest are replete with economic uses. Such a coincidence cannot be by chance. It is difficult to imagine that the Maya civilization, after having developed over more than 2000 years in Maya forest and supporting substantial populations, could have turned around to destroy it in only 100 years. New data demonstrate that the Maya adaptation was innovative and that the biodiversity of the Maya forest today is entirely anthropogenic. The Maya Collapse represented a major change in Maya cultural traditions, but this did not occur all at one time or uniformly across the area. It has been assumed that the population underwent a major decline, but what is more likely is that the society transformed. There is no doubt that the maintenance of the major architecture and the support of the regal ritual traditions so elaborated in the Classic Period were indeed jettisoned, but there is no evidence that the populations disappeared. Major centers flourished north of the Tikal area after AD 1000. These include many of the major centers of the Yucatan, such as Chichen Itza´, Uxmal, Sayil, and Becan. Far from disappearing, the Maya were present when the Spanish invaded Mesoamerica in the 1500s. Today, vital communities of Maya exist, impacted, as with all traditional communities, by the great changes wrought by globalization. Among them, traditional Maya farmers manage hundreds of plants in their own forest gardens and their knowledge of the forest demonstrates that it abounds with useful plants. Given these facts, it is obvious that the forest was not destroyed.

Classic Mesoamerican Traditions We have begun to unravel the remarkable prehistory of Mesoamerica. The diversity of the geography and the common themes of the region demonstrate its importance in the history of civilization. Early interpretations about the ancient Mesoamericans are constantly being challenged and refined with new data and perspectives. Once it was thought the Maya were peaceful while the central Mexicans were bellicose. The discovery of the graphic murals of Bonampak in 1945 squelched that idea forever. Teotihuacan was thought to have no writing systems, yet recent research has proposed that the large murals revealed on pyramid and platform facades are actually iconic glyphs. Writing systems

were thought to have been confined to the Maya; however, now earlier systems are known. Once the Mesoamerican environment, and especially the tropical Maya lowlands, were thought to have been stable so that any changes would have necessarily been caused by humans. Today, with new palaeoclimatic studies, it is clear that there has been significant climatic change and that the prehistoric cultural innovations and adaptations were more likely a response to, not the cause of, these changes. In addition, ever more precise laboratory methods have provided greater access to radiocarbon dating for settings that initially were thought to be impossible. These are but a few of the new developments that promise to challenge our current interpretations and bring more interdisciplinary thinking to the understanding of Mesoamerican prehistory. See also: Americas, Central: Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica; The Olmec and their Contemporaries; Civilization and Urbanism, Rise of; Political Complexity, Rise of; Social Inequality, Development of.

Further Reading Blanton R, Kowalewski S, Feinman GM, and Finsten LM (1981) Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Three Regions. London: Cambridge University Press. Bray F (1994) Agriculture for developing nations. Scientific American 271(1): 18–25. Campbell DG, Ford A, Lowell KS, et al. (2006) The feral forests of the eastern Pete´n. In: Erickson C and Balee´ W (eds.) Time and Complexity in the Neotropical Lowlands. New York: Columbia University Press. Fedick S (2003) In search of the Maya forest. In: Slater C (ed.) Search of the Rain Forest, pp. 133–164. Durham: Duke University Press. Fedick SL and Ford A (1990) The prehistoric agricultural landscape of the central maya lowlands: An examination of local variability in a regional context. World Archaeology 22(1): 18–33. Macri MJ and Ford A (1997) The Language of Maya Hieroglyphs. San Francisco, CA: Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute. Martin S and Grube N (1995) Maya superstates: How a few powerful kingdoms vied for control of the Maya lowlands during the Classic period (A.D. 300–900). Archaeology 48(6): 41–46. Netting RM (1977) Maya subsistence: Mythologies, analogies, possibilities. In: Adams REW (ed.) Origins of Maya Civilization, pp. 299–333. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Sabloff JA and Andrews PA (1981) Handbook of Middle American Indians: Archaeology. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Voorhies B (1982) An ecological model of the early Maya of the central lowlands. In: Flannery KV (ed.) Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis Edward Puleston, pp. 65–95. New York: Academic Press. Warman A (2003) Corn and Capitalism: How a Botanical Bastard Grew to Global Dominance. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. Wilken GC (1987) Good Farmers: Traditional Agricultural Resource Management in Mexico and Central America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

162 AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America

Early Cultures of Middle America Robert N Zeitlin, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary atlatl A Nahuatl (Aztec) word describing a compound throwing weapon consisting of a shaft with a hook at one end into which a spear or dart is inserted. The shaft acts as an extension of the hunter’s arm, providing much greater force and velocity to the thrown dart. Use of the atlatl in the New World extends back at least 12 000 years, when it enabled Native Americans to more effectively hunt large Ice Age animals. Much later the Aztecs found it more effective than the bow and arrow in penetrating the metal armor of the Spanish conquistadors. maize Commonly referred to as ‘corn’ or more properly Indian Corn, maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) was first domesticated in Middle America and then spread throughout much of the Americas where it became a staple pre-Columbian food. Because there is no known wild form of maize its origin has been a matter of long-standing inquiry. Although several theories have been offered, it is most widely believed that the progenitor of maize was an annual race of teosinte (Z. mays ssp. Parviglumis), a wild grass native to the Balsas River drainage of southern Mexico. However, the specific process of genetic mutations that produced what we know as the maize cob is still disputed by botanists. Under one reconstruction the teosinte tassel spike, the plant’s male reproductive organ, evolved into the maize ear; another claims that the maize ear developed directly from the teosinte ear. The earliest known archaeological remains of domesticated maize cobs, dated 6250 BP, were found at Guila´ Naquitz Cave in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. mano and metate A paired tool set used throughout Middle America to grind maize and other seeds. The mano (‘hand’ in Spanish) is a coarse-grained cylindrical or rounded stone which is rubbed back and forth on the metate, a stone slab or basin on which the seeds are placed. Manos and metates are first found with Early Archaic archaeological remains when seeds and other plant foods became a more important dietary component; they continue to be familiar household implements in rural Middle America. Middle America Refers to the areas of Mexico, upper Central America, and the neighboring islands. The term encompasses and is often used coterminously with the culture area of temporally varying boundaries known as Mesoamerica, the locus of pre-Columbian high civilization, bordered on one side by the semi-nomadic hunting and gathering societies of northern Mexico and on the other by the chiefdoms of lower Central America. mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Unlike most DNA which is located in the cell nucleus, mtDNA is located in the mitochondria (organelles in complex cells that convert food molecules into energy). In mammals mtDNA is inherited only from the mother and mutations are passed from mother to child. Because of its high mutation rate mtDNA can be employed to trace matrilineage over many generations. Research has revealed that mtDNA of Native Americans falls into four lineages called A, B, C, and D as well as a residual X lineage also found in some European populations. Another mutation occurring in Native

American as well as Southeast Asian, Melanesian, and Polynesian populations has suggested that between 6000–12 000 years ago people migrated across the Pacific or up the east coast of Asia into the Americas. phytolith Rigid deposits in many plants resulting from absorption of groundwater containing dissolved minerals. The most useful for archaeology are opal phytoliths, consisting of silica deposited between or within the plant cell walls and often preserved as mineralized copies of the cell long after the plant dies. Consequently they can serve to identify plant species when all other parts have decayed. Pleistocene The geologic epoch, commonly referred to as the last Ice Age, extending from approximately 1.65 million to 10 000 years ago. It precedes the current Holocene epoch. Four major cycles of global glaciation occurred during the Pleistocene, within each of which there were numerous minor advances (stadials) and retreats (interstadials). At its maximums, glacial ice in North America extended as far south as the 40th parallel and sea levels were lowered worldwide by more than 100 m. stable isotope analysis Differing quantities of isotopes are incorporated in animal tissue from the foods consumed over a lifetime. Consequently, measuring the ratios of the stable isotopes of carbon (13C and 12C) and nitrogen (15N and 14N) in preserved bone collagen and dentin can provide insight into the diets of ancient peoples. For example, the photosynthetic pathway in tropical grasses such as maize (referred to as the C4 pathway) differs from that of trees and shrubs (the C3 pathway), the latter of which discriminates against 13C. The resulting differences in 13C/12C ratios between C4 and C3 foods consumed by the Archaic period inhabitants of Middle America and incorporated in their bones and teeth have been used to estimate the date at which maize became a dietary staple. Similarly, 15N/14N ratios have served to identify diets with a primarily marine versus terrestrial food component.

Introduction When, how, and why the first native people arrived in Middle America and the story of their transformation from itinerant hunters and wild food gatherers to the architects of imposing states and empires are subjects that intrigue archaeologists and the lay public alike. Beyond questions about initial entry, some of the most interesting, albeit baffling, issues involve the early periods of the area’s prehistory, when the idea of farming originated as a subsistence alternative to hunting and gathering and when permanent villages, with the social and political arrangements that living within them entailed, began to dot a landscape that had previously hosted only temporary encampments. Definitive answers to these questions are still elusive, but recent archaeological research is beginning to provide insight into the patterns and processes of development.

Dating and Chronology Methods and Conventions

Essential to understanding the pre-Columbian evolution of Middle American culture and society is the construction of a reliable chronology. To do so

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depends on accurate age determinations, and while a number of methods are available to archaeologists, radiocarbon (14C) dating stands out as the technique most widely applied whenever organic materials are available for analysis. Unfortunately the accuracy of this method is affected by temporal variations in cosmic radiation and radioactive atmospheric carbon, resulting in dates that can be hundreds of years more recent in time than their actual calendar equivalents. Calibration formulae have been developed, but until recently they were not applied to published dates. Moreover, calibration for the earliest periods of Middle American prehistory is still imprecise. Consequently, even today some published dates are calibrated while others are not. To avoid confusion, in this article uncalibrated dates will be differentiated by use of the lower case suffix, bc or bp (before present) while calendar dates will be denoted by upper case BC or BP Where no other indication is given, terms such as ‘years ago’ used in the text refer to uncalibrated dates. In addition to calibration errors, older methods of 14 C determination, because of their sample size requirement, could not directly date small plant, bone, or other organic fragments but instead relied on the stratigraphic association of these materials with larger quantities of datable carbonized substances, such as charcoal from cooking areas. The inability to date materials directly led to significant errors where the archaeological specimens had been vertically displaced by animal burrowing, human activity, or other forms of soil disturbance. Accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS), a newer radiocarbon dating technique, has solved the problem by enabling very small organic samples – seeds and even pollen, for example – to be directly dated. Many archaeological specimens have been re-analyzed by AMS technology, sometimes resulting in significantly altered dates.

Paleoindian subperiod begins, and may extend 35 000 years back in time, or even earlier. The Paleoindian period ends and the Archaic, subdivided into Early, Middle, and Late subperiods, begins somewhere between 9000 and 7000 bc, at the onset of the Holocene, the epoch following the last major glacial advance. During this interval worldwide temperatures at times averaged up to 2  C. warmer than today, the glaciers that shrouded the higher latitudes of North America retreated to the sub-Arctic, seawater levels rose dramatically and, in Middle America, generally drier conditions prevailed. Profound changes in plant and animal life also occurred, perhaps the most conspicuous being the disappearance of many species of Ice Age megafauna, a phenomenon that had begun toward the end of the Paleoindian period and ended around 7000 bc with the extinction of the indigenous American horse. Although the evidence for any kind of causal relationship is ambiguous, loss of these large animals occurred at a time when the inhabitants of Middle America were abandoning their nomadic hunting and wild-food gathering way of life for an agriculturebased subsistence economy, with most people eventually residing in permanent settlements. By 2300 bc pottery was being manufactured in Middle America, which by definition marks the end of the Preceramic era and its final Archaic period. Some archaeologists, however, prefer to extend the Archaic to 1500 bc or later, by which time agriculture provided the bulk of food and the previously nomadic hunter-gatherers had settled in permanent villages. The variance in dates delineating the Paleoindian and Archaic periods, while having the appearance of imprecision, denotes ranges of years extending over centuries, rather than discrete points in time. As an example, there is no single date pinpointing when agriculture was adopted.

Periodization

Archaeologists refer to the years from the time of earliest human presence in the Americas to the development of fully sedentary, agricultural societies as the Lithic or Preceramic era, based on the fact that a stone tool technology dominated and pottery had not yet been invented. This era is commonly divided into two chronological periods, known as the Paleoindian and Archaic (Figure 1). The Paleoindian period, divided into Early and Late subperiods, commences toward the end of the last Ice Age, with the first evidence of human habitation. The beginning date of the Early Paleoindian subperiod is a matter of ongoing controversy, but is now generally agreed to have occurred earlier than 12 500 calendar years ago, when the Late

The Path to Middle America Answers to questions about how, why, and from where Middle America was initially populated require the overall colonization of the New World to be considered. An Asian source of emigration is strongly indicated by biological relationships between its inhabitants and Native Americans. One line of evidence shows that both ancient and modern Northeast Asians and Native Americans, including those living in Middle America, share a number of unique nonmetric dental characteristics, including shovel-shaped incisors, single-rooted upper first premolars, and threerooted lower first molars, all indicative of a common genetic origin.

164 AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America Date

Period

Typical Events

Formative/Preclassic

Settled village life throughout Mesoamerica

Late Archaic

Pottery appears Collecting subsistence strategy Maize pollen in Tabasco

Middle Archaic

Maize pollen in lowland Belize Maize cobs at Tehuacán Maize phytoliths at Chantuto Earliest maize at Guilá Naquitz

Early Archaic

Manos and metates Domesticated bottle gourd Domesticated squash Avocado cultivation Foraging subsistence economy Holocene epoch

Late Paleoindian

Extinction of Pleistocene megafauna Carved Tequixquiac camelid sacrum Tepexpan human burial Clovis and fishtail Points Iztapan mammoth kill sites Mobile microbands Ice free corridor through Alaska

Early Paleoindian

Peñon III woman Earliest migrations to America Bering Land Bridge Pleistocene epoch

2000 bc

3000 bc

5000 bc

7000/9000 bc

10 500 bc 12 500 years bp

35 000 years bp …or earlier Figure 1 Chronological table for the Paleoindian and Archaic periods.

A few archaeologists argue for a European source of pre-Columbian immigration, based on perceived technological similarities between stone implements of the Solutrean tradition of southern France and Iberia and those of the Clovis toolmakers, variants of whose distinctive fluted lanceolate projectile points are found throughout North and Central America. Other shared traits include a custom of pebble decoration and burial of lithic artifacts in red ocher filled caches. This hypothesis drew fleeting support from the notoriously misinterpreted characterization of an ancient human skull from Kennewick, Washington, 14C dated 7300– 7600 BC, as morphologically ‘Caucasoid-like’, similar to some European populations. Although migrations by boat dating back 50 000 years or more are known for places such as Australia and Melanesia, the 5000 km of stormy ocean separating the European and American continents would have been daunting, even if a route

along the North Atlantic ice rim that then connected Ireland and the Grand Banks had been taken. Another difficulty with a hypothesis of direct European origin stems from the fact that the Solutrean tradition ended some 16 500 years ago, over 4000 years prior to the appearance of Clovis points. Proponents of the European origin hypothesis have recently proposed that preClovis American sites such as Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill bridge this gap. New radiocarbon dates on bone samples from four skulls that had languished for years in a collection housed at the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology have added to this controversy. The oldest, dubbed ‘Pen˜on Woman III’, was shown to be 12 700calendar years old. Particularly interesting is that, like the Kennewick Man, these ancient skulls are dolichocephalic (long and narrow headed) in contrast to the typically brachycephalic (short and wide) Native

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American crania. Their resemblance to native Southeast Asian, Polynesian, Australian, and Japanese populations has led some scholars to speculate that the skulls indicate a discrete wave of immigration into the New World following the Pacific coast and islands, a movement that also would have entailed the use of watercraft. Ongoing studies of Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), nuclear DNA, and Y-chromosomes may eventually help to resolve these questions. MtDNA analyses consistently reveal genetic relationships between modern Native American, Asian, and Siberian peoples. One study, however, has isolated a lineage of mtDNA in modern Native Americans not found in ancient individuals of Asian origin. Named ‘X’, it occurs in Europeans but also shows a partial relationship to Mongolian lineages. Overall, the current data favor an Asian versus European origin of New World peoples, either as a single wave of migration or, strengthened by estimates of mtDNA mutation rates, a series of separate migrations beginning as early as 40 000 years ago. Discounting the dubious likelihood of oceangoing voyages directly across the Pacific, the entryway for Asian migrants into the Americas would almost certainly have been through the narrow Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska. During the final Wisconsin stage of the Pleistocene, c. 70 000 to 10 000 years ago, worldwide climate was much colder than today for long stretches of time. Ocean levels were lowered by as much as 150 m during these frigid intervals, as surface water became locked up in glacial ice. At those times the beds of the shallow Bering and Chukchi seas were exposed, resulting in a 1500 km wide ‘land bridge’, known to geologists as Beringia, connecting Siberia to Alaska. The verdant tundra that developed in this broad area offered an attractive habitat for herds of large, cold-adapted herbivores as well as for the hunter-gatherers that exploited them and, in so doing, wandered unwittingly to its Alaskan border. Once on the Alaskan mainland it is not clearly understood how and over what routes the early migrants moved onto the rest of the continent. This dilemma stems partly from the difficulty in recovering archaeological evidence in the inhospitable Alaskan environment and partly from the fact that, with rising sea levels, confirmation of human habitation along what was the Ice Age coast now lies deeply submerged. Until recently it was believed that the main route south was by way of an ice-free corridor between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, following the Yukon and McKenzie river basins (Figure 2). But recent geological evidence indicating that this area was probably glaciated until about 12 000 years ago casts doubt on this hypothesis. Furthermore, for centuries afterwards the succeeding wetlands may not have supported enough

food resources to sustain the wandering Paleoindian hunter-gatherers. An alternative hypothesis, which posits a maritime route into the Americas, is gaining increasing attention as archaeologists evaluate the abundant subsistence potential of the fish, sea mammals, shellfish, and birds along the Pacific coast. A littoral ‘highway’ is envisioned that may have become ice-free long before interior regions. Tantalizing evidence in support of this hypothesis includes human femora, radiocarbon dated 12 960 years BP recovered on Santa Rosa Island, located over 60 km off the coast of Southern California, along with chipped stone artifacts and marine shells found at Daisy Cave on the adjacent San Miguel Island, dated c. 12 000 BP. Further south, on the Peruvian coast, stone tools, hearths, and associated marine fauna are reported from Quebrada Jaguay and Quebrada Tacahuay, two prehistoric fishing camps with radiocarbon dates in the range of 12 500 to 12 700 calendar years ago. Proponents of the coastal migration hypothesis recognize that early migrants would have had difficulty traversing the rugged Pacific littoral entirely on foot, and posit the use of boats. Although there is no direct archaeological evidence of watercraft in the Americas for this early period, certainly they would have been required to reach the Santa Rosa and San Miguel Island sites. Linguistic theory lends another line of support to the maritime hypothesis, inasmuch as the high diversity of mutually unintelligible aboriginal languages along the Pacific coast of North and Central America suggests a lengthy process of divergence from an ancestral tongue. It is altogether possible that the early immigrants to the New World made use of a coastal route and somewhat later in time, after the Yukon-McKenzie River corridor became free of ice and wetlands, an inland pathway.

The First Paleoindian Migrations While we will never know the precise day the first hunter-gatherer set foot in the Americas, the idea of initial entry by 30 000 to 40 000 years ago is considered possible by some archaeologists. One serious impediment to verification is the fact that the earliest human skeletal remains so far recovered from New World archaeological sites are no more than 13 000 calendar years old. Given the paucity of skeletal evidence the dating of earliest migration relies primarily on artifactual material. Until recently the oldest such evidence fully endorsed by the archaeological community was a widespread distribution of North American sites associated with the Clovis projectile point technology, the earliest of which date

166 AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America

SIBERIA

Chukchi Sea

GR

Beringia

EE

NL

Alaska

D

ime l a ntic Marit Route

r orrido ie C enz cK illeran Cord eet h Ice S

ifi c

astal Route Co

Pa c

AN

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Laurentide Ice Sheet

At

Bering Sea

Kennewick Meadowcroft Cactus Hill

Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Clovis

l sta oa P a c ifi c C

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rat Mig

Quebrada Jaguay Quebrada Tacahuay

ion Route

N

0 0

1000 mi

Monte Verde

1000 km

Tierra del Fuego

Pleistocene Migration Routes Archaeological site Migration Route

Figure 2 Map of possible Pleistocene migration routes.

c.11 000–12 000 years bp. Named after the locale in New Mexico where in 1932 it was first identified, the bifacially flaked, lanceolate-shaped Clovis point is distinguished by a flute or channel at its base, probably used to facilitate fastening to the tip of a thrusting spear or atlatl (spear thrower) dart. The longstanding claim by ‘Clovis first’ proponents that it was the New World mother culture has been quashed by the recent dating of archaeological sites with unequivocal evidence of earlier human occupation. In addition to the early coastal habitation

noted above, prominent among the pre-Clovis sites is Monte Verde, located about 20 km inland from the Pacific Ocean in southern Chile. Settlement at Monte Verde by 13 000 14C years bp (11 500–10 500 BC) is well documented, with wood, bone, ivory, cordage, and simple stone artifacts, along with food remains and the vestiges of timber structures, all recovered in good archaeological context from waterlogged deposits that inhibited organic decay. Lower stratigraphic levels of the Monte Verde excavations, provisionally assigned a date of 33 000 years bp, are still

AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America 167

under investigation. At the far end of the age spectrum, but treated with a degree of skepticism by most archaeologists, is the Topper site in South Carolina, where artifact-bearing sediments are claimed to be at least 50 000 years old.

The Earliest Archaeological Sites in Middle America Paleoindian sites in Middle America dating to the earliest time of occupation are scarce, hindered by the fact that population density was low, residence was transitory, and material possessions minimal (Figure 3). Perhaps equally significant, the small number of known sites may be attributed to the relative lack of attention paid to Middle America’s Early Paleoindian prehistory, given the allure of the area’s more spectacular later periods. One of the best known, though still controversial, Early Paleoindian occupations is located in highland Mexico, near the present-day city of Puebla, where a cluster of what appears to have been transient hunting camps was discovered adjacent to the Valsequillo Reservoir. Excavations at five of the sites, which the investigators designated Hueyatlaco, Tecacaxco, El Mirador, El Horno, and Cualapan, resulted in the

recovery of numerous stone tools alongside the fossilized remains of various large, Ice Age animals, including mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, four-horned antelopes, saber-tooth tigers, and dire wolves. The Hueyatlaco excavations exposed ten stratigraphic layers of alluvial deposits ranging in age from modern times back to the Pleistocene. Below the top stratum of recent debris were two levels of deposit, the upper of which contained a bifacially flaked stemmed projectile point along with a variety of percussion- and pressure-flaked cutting, piercing, and scraping implements, reflecting a well-developed lithic technology. In association with these implements were abundant bone remains of Pleistocene megafauna. The lowest artifact bearing ‘unit’ at Hueyatlaco, along with equivalent levels at other Valsequillo sites, revealed a cruder tool-making technology in which fragments were simply smashed off one side of a stone flake to produce a sharp edge that was then marginally retouched by pressure-flaking into an implement of desired form. Along with these tools were the remains of mastodon, camel, horse, and other animals. At the adjacent El Horno site, similar stone tools, some showing signs of use, were found alongside a butchered mastodon. The simple, unifacially flaked

SIE RR

S IE

San Isidro, Calsada

Middle America Paleoindian Sites

RR

AM

Tamaulipas

AD

AM

Highland areas (Altitude over 1000 meters)

AD

RE

Site

IEN

D CI OC

OR

RE Rancho la Amapola

TA L

EN

Gulf of Mexico

TA

L

Plateau of Mexico

Tequixquiac Tepexpan, Ixtapan

Loltún Cave

Yucatán Peninsula

Tlapacoya Valsequillo

MEXICO

August Pine Ridge

Tehuacán

SI E

RR

AM

AD

Cueva Blanca

RE

D EL

SUR

Caribbean Sea

Ladyville

Isthmus of Tehuantepec

PACIFIC OCEAN

Actun Halal

BELIZE

GUATEMALA Quiche Basin

HONDURAS

La Esperanza El Bosque

EL SALVADOR N 0 0

300 mi 300 km

Figure 3 Map of Middle American Paleoindian sites mentioned in the text.

168 AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America

stone implements, along with the absence of spear or projectile points, are thought by some archaeologists to be part of an early lithic tradition, with roots extending as far back as 40 000 years in time, antecedent to the production of bifacially flaked tools. Questions arise as to how mastodons, mammoths, and other formidably large animals could have been hunted without projectile or spear points, given the simple stone tools found in the lower levels of the Valsequillo excavations. One explanation is that the early inhabitants and their contemporaries elsewhere in Middle America were foragers whose principal diet consisted of smaller animals and plant foods, the remains of which were not preserved as they were at Monte Verde. Only when a mastodon or mammoth had been handicapped by sickness, injury, or other impediment would it have been pursued. Alternatively, it is possible that the excavations at Valsequillo failed to recover existing evidence of points, or that they had been produced from bone, wood or other perishable materials. A series of five radiocarbon dates were obtained from fossilized freshwater mollusks recovered from a stream-eroded gully adjoining the Valsequillo Reservoir. The dates, in stratigraphic sequence, span the period from approximately 35 000 years bp at the lowest level to 9150  500 years BP near the surface of the gully. Midway down the stratigraphic profile, a shell sample in direct association with a flake scraper was dated to 21 850  850 years bp, which the investigators proposed as representative of the site’s time of occupation. In 1962–66, when the Valsequillo project took place, pre-Clovis sites were typically greeted with disbelief. Although that is no longer so, the Valsequillo dates are still considered problematical by many archaeologists on grounds that the shell used for radiocarbon dating is an unreliable medium, and the integrity of the streambed stratigraphy is problematical. A project underway at the Mexican National Institute of Archaeology (INAH) and the National Museum of Anthropology proposes to validate these dates. Other dates from the Valsequillo excavations obtained through an experimental tephra hydration assay of volcanic pumice, from fission track analysis of obsidian, and from uranium series analysis of bone, range from 245 000 to 600 000 years BP and are universally rejected, as they would connote the implausible existence of a New World population antecedent to the evolution of modern Homo sapiens. In 2005 a British geoarchaeological team working under the shadow of the Toloquilla Volcano, in the vicinity of Valsequillo, announced the discovery of what they claimed to be a large cluster of fossilized human footprints imprinted in volcanic tuff

(concretized volcanic ash) at an abandoned quarry. Optically Stimulated Luminescence, a technique that calculates when sediment grains were last exposed to heat or light, was used to date what appeared to be burnt clay fragments within the Cerro Toloquilla tuff, leading to assertions that the footprints were more than 40 000 years old. Later, samples of the tuff were taken to the Berkeley Geochronology Center where they were dated at 1.3 million years BP by 40Argon/39Argon and Palaeomagnetic techniques, which would make the ‘Toloquilla footprints’ – if that is really what they are – impossibly ancient. Another questionable Early Paleoindian occupation in Middle America is the El Bosque site, in Nicaragua, near the southernmost periphery of Middle America. Excavations uncovered crudely flaked stone tools along with mastodon, giant sloth, and horse remains. Radiocarbon dates extend from 18 100 to over 35 000 years in the past. One of the lithic implements has been classified a primitive ‘chopper’, a simple bifacial implement type some prehistorians profess to be characteristic of the earliest tradition of New World toolmaking, preceding in time the unifacially flaked tools found in the lower stratigraphic levels at Valsequillo. Doubts have been expressed about the early dates for the site and even whether the lithic finds are actual artifacts. A more probable Early Paleoindian occupation is reported at Tlapacoya, located near Lake Chalco in highland Central Mexico. Eight seasons of interdisciplinary fieldwork at the site from 1965–73 produced a large number of stone tools, animal bones, and plant remains, some recovered in or around what appear to be ancient hearths. From a suite of radiocarbon determinations, a sample from a circular hearth dated 21 700  500 years bp was selected as an indication of the age of the site. Two other cooking areas, replete with the remains of stone tools and animal bones, many from now extinct Pleistocene mammals, suggest a series of temporary campsites along the ancient lakeshore. Many of the artifacts from the earliest dated locality were crudely made flakes and blades similar in form to those from the lowest Hueyatlaco excavation levels. Several bifacially flaked obsidian implements were also found in association with the animal bones and hearths. Remarkably, the nearest source of obsidian is located more than 50 km from the site, indicating that the Tlapacoya hunter-gatherers either ranged widely or had established exchange relationships with adjacent groups. However, the more sophisticated obsidian flaking technique used to produce the implements, atypical of Early Paleoindian toolmaking, raises reservations about their association with the early radiocarbon dates.

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Also in Central Mexico, the Rancho La Amapola site in San Luı´s Potosı´ was, at the time of its occupation, situated in an area resplendent with lakes, marshes, streams, and springs, making it an attractive habitat for humans and other animals. Several seasons of excavation between 1977 and 1980 produced remains of mammoth, mastodon, horse, camel, dire wolf, short-faced bear, glyptodon, giant sloth, and other now-extinct megafauna, but only three definite artifacts: a point carved from a horse tibia, a limestone hammerstone, and a discoidal chalcedony scraper. A charcoal sample from what was believed to be a cooking area was dated at 31 850  600 years bp; another radiocarbon determination from the stratigraphic level in which the scraper was found produced a date of 33 300  2700–1800 years bp. In the lowlands of Middle America, only two sites, both in caves on the Yucatan Peninsula, offer insights into possible Early Paleoindian occupation. Neither have the confirmation of radiocarbon dating. Loltu´n Cave, in the Puuc Hills of northern Mexico, is dated solely by the association of crude stone and bone tools with the remains of mastodon and other Pleistocene age animals in the lowest stratigraphic levels of excavations. Projectile points are lacking. Upper strata have evidence of occupation by pottery-making peoples. Analysis of the stone tools and their faunal association has led to speculation that occupation may extend back in time as early as 40 000 years. Actun Halal Cave in western Belize also relies on the association of stone tools with the remains of extinct megafauna for its Early Paleoindian assignment. Among the lithic artifacts associated with the fragmentary remains of horse, spectacled bear, and peccary are a crude, bifacially flaked cobble, possibly a chopper, and a discoidal-flaked core. The core, however, is reported to be similar to artifacts found in fluted biface assemblages elsewhere in Middle and North America, which would suggest that the site may actually date to the Late Paleoindian period.

lifeways of the people that made them can only be inferred from sites further north in the United States. The dozen or so Clovis finds from highland regions of Middle America area are distributed geographically from Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Durango in northern Mexico, to San Luı´s Potosı´, Quere´taro, Tlaxcala, Puebla, and Oaxaca in the Mexican central and southern highlands, down to Guatemala and Costa Rica. In the lowlands only three Clovis finds have been reported, all from Belize. Two are from Ladyville, north of Belize City, and the other was found near August Pine Ridge (Figure 4). As noted above, the Actun Halal Cave site might also date to this period. Another diagnostic Late Paleoindian artifact, contemporaneous and morphologically akin to Clovis, are the so-called Fishtail projectile points. Also fluted, they are distinguished from Clovis points by a characteristic stemmed base. Their origin appears to have been in South America, where they were first encountered at Fell’s Cave in the Tierra del Fuego region of Chile. Four are currently known from Belize, all surface finds, where they have been provisionally dated c. 9000–7000 years bc, based on their resemblance to better known examples at Madden Lake in Panama and the Quiche´ Basin of Guatemala (Figure 5). The August Pine Ridge Clovis point exhibits a degree of fishtail-like basal narrowing, suggesting that southern Middle America may have been the meeting point of the two traditions. Although no faunal remains have been associated with the Belize points, the open savanna environment where some of the specimens were found would have provided an appealing habitat for large, grazing animals. At the Fell’s Cave

The Late Paleoindian Period A hallmark artifact of the Late Paleoindian period is the Clovis point. So effective for hunting was this implement that its design proliferated among Paleoindian peoples throughout much of North and Middle America. For the first time a tool was available to confidently confront the large animals that had previously been an attractive but elusive and often dangerous source of food. In Middle America scattered Clovis points have been recovered from both highland and lowland regions, although all are isolated surface finds. Lacking context, their use, age, and the

0

1

2

cm Figure 4 Fluted Clovis point from August Pine Ridge, Belize. Courtesy of Fred Valdez, Jr., drawn by Dee Turman.

170 AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America

site, radiocarbon dated 9050 and 8770 years bc, Fishtail points were recovered in association with the remains of horse, mylodon, and other now-extinct Pleistocene animals. Appearing somewhat later in time than Clovis and Fishtail points are a variety of large, unfluted lanceolate-shaped projectile points and knives, many of them dazzling in their technological refinement.

0

They are best known from the North American Southwest and Plains under such type names as Angostura, Dalton, Plainview, and Scottsbluff, but variants extend into other areas, including Middle America. At the La Calsada Rockshelter in the highland Mexico state of Nuevo Leo´n, similar tools have been radiocarbon dated to the beginning years of the Late Paleoindian period. While still associated with the hunting of Ice Age megafauna, these implements are increasingly found at sites with bison, antelope and other modern prey, reflecting the changing composition of animals on the post-Pleistocene landscape during the final millennia of the Late Paleoindian period. Also exemplifying this complex in Middle America are the Santa Isabel Iztapan finds, where the dismembered skeletons of two mammoths were discovered along the shores of ancient Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. Spear points comparable to Lerma, Scottsbluff, and Angostura types were found near the animals, along with an assortment of chert and obsidian knives and other butchering tools that were probably responsible for the many cut marks found on the fossil bones (Figure 6). As at the earlier Tlapacoya site, the fact that the obsidian and chert from which many of the tools were manufactured were procured from sources many kilometers away indicates the mobility of these hunters or their participation in an early network of exchange with other bands. The location of the kill site suggests that the

5 cm

Figure 5 Fishtail point from the Lowe Ranch Site (BAAR 35E), Belize. Reproduced with permission of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA.

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Figure 6 Projectile/spear points found in association with the Santa Isabel Iztapan mammoths. a. Scottsbluff point; b. Lerma point; c. Angostura point.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America 171

animals were driven into or had attempted to escape along the swampy shore of the lake and were butchered on the spot. In the North American Southwest and Plains regions the recovery of many large animal bones in Late Paleoindian period archaeological sites suggested that a ‘big game hunting tradition’ had evolved, a tradition that was ultimately shown to be inapplicable to Middle America. The initial negative evidence was provided by the Tehuaca´n Archaeological-Botanical Project, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary study based in the highlands of Puebla, Mexico. The ambitious objective of the project was to reconstruct in a single place – the Tehuaca´n Valley – a complete sequence of social and cultural development, from the time of earliest human settlement to the beginning of urban civilization. Excavations at Tehuaca´n revealed that the earliest human occupants of the valley, between 12 000 and 9000 years ago, manufactured a variety of bifacially flaked stone tools, including Lerma- and Plainviewlike projectile points. Judging from the association of these implements with the remains of animals such as horse and antelope, it was apparent that big game hunting had indeed been practiced by these early settlers. But notably, analysis of the many bones recovered from birds, gophers, jackrabbits, rats, and turtles revealed that smaller animals actually constituted the bulk of the diet for the Tehuaca´n inhabitants. Recovered from an early stratigraphic zone in the valley’s Coxcatla´n Cave, for example, were nearly 400 jackrabbit bones, including in a one square meter unit, the feet of over 40 animals that had been slaughtered in a single session. The tendency of jackrabbits to congregate suggested that they were hunted in communal drives, involving people from several otherwise independent bands. However, as the environment changed during the Holocene, social species of animals, such as jackrabbits and pronghorn antelopes, appear to have been supplanted by more solitary types, such as cottontail rabbits and white-tailed deer, a population shift that would have entailed the abandonment of communal hunting for the stalking of single animals by individuals or small groups of hunters. Along with the fauna, the recovery in the Tehuaca´n Valley of food remains from wild plants such as avocado, agave, and opuntia further indicates a much broader spectrum of subsistence than that implied by a ‘big game hunting’ model. Subsequent archaeological excavations at Cueva Blanca, several hundred kilometers further south in the Oaxaca Valley, corroborate the Tehuaca´n reconstruction. Overall the Late Paleoindian mode of subsistence in highland Middle America appears to have involved generalized

foraging, with small game constituting the bulk of the diet, supplemented by the occasional larger animal and the seasonal availability of wild food plants. Population density is estimated to have been very low, clustered into small, mobile ‘microbands’ consisting of four to eight related individuals. Mostly independent, several bands may have temporarily joined each year for hunting and perhaps social activities. The need to not overexploit the limited wild food carrying capacity of the habitat in places such as the Tehuaca´n and Oaxaca valleys would have induced the small bands to remain dispersed for most of the year. Another of the defining attributes of the Late Pleistocene period is the dramatic disappearance of over 32 genera of large Ice Age animals, among them the mammoth, mastodon, horse, camel, tapir, ground sloth, dire wolf, saber-tooth tiger, and glyptodont. Since prior environmental fluctuations during earlier phases of the Ice Age had not resulted in similar extinctions, the growth of human population and the attendant development of more efficient hunting techniques have been proposed as the principal causal factor. Support for this Pleistocene Overkill hypothesis is strongest on the North American Plains where there is archaeological evidence of a shift in hunting strategy from the stalking of solitary prey to the often wasteful slaughter of entire animal herds in a single episode. Critics of the hypothesis respond that many of the species that became extinct were not hunted and some that were, such as the modern bison, did not perish. Evidence from the Tehuaca´n ArchaeologicalBotanical Project indicates that at least for Middle America predation of Pleistocene megafauna was not intense enough to have accounted for their extermination. Overall, the explanation for the extinctions may lie in a combination of climatically induced environmental change and more intensive hunting.

The Origins of Middle American Art and Ideology The delicate pressure flaking that produced the superbly made lanceolate projectile points and knives of the Late Paleolithic reveals a degree of attention to manufacture that far exceeded purely functional requirements. Archaeologists do not know whether the diversity and refinement of the implement types resulting from this extra effort is accounted for by an aspiration for greater creativity and beauty or by a more utilitarian need, such as a desire by indigenous groups to differentiate themselves through a distinguishing ‘signature’ as they became more territorially bounded. Whatever the case, to the extent it can be called art, the effort was applied to practical implements.

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Figure 7 The Tequixquiac carved camelid sacrum.

The earliest known example in Middle America – and indeed one of the oldest in the New World – of what would be a purely aesthetic work, is a carved camelid sacrum, fashioned in the shape of what appears to be the head of a peccary or canid (Figure 7). The object was discovered in 1870 at Tequixquiac, in the Central Mexican state of Hidalgo, deeply buried in a thick layer of Late Pleistocene sediments known as the Upper Becerra formation. For many years the carving’s antiquity was questioned, but subsequent investigation at the Tequixquiac site revealed its association with Late Paleoindian stone and bone tools and the remains of camel, ground sloth, mammoth, mastodon, and other Ice Age animals. Also found in the Upper Becerra deposits, adjacent to Lake Texcoco at a location less than two kilometers away from the ‘Iztapan mammoth’ finds, was a female skeleton, buried in a face-down, flexed position. Because it was felt that the pit in which the skeleton was placed might be intrusive from a more recent stratigraphic level, the antiquity of the burial, like that of the carved camelid sacrum, was questioned. Subsequent fluorine and nitrogen analyses of bone samples tended to verify the contemporaneity of the Tepexpan skeleton with the nearby mammoths but more recent radiocarbon analysis indicates that the bones may be only 2000 years old. If the earlier date is correct Tepexpan Woman would be the earliest example of an intentional human burial, suggesting that by the Late Paleoindian period belief in an afterlife was part of Middle American ideology.

The Archaic Period in General The long Archaic period, beginning sometime after 9000 bc, can be divided into Early, Middle, and Late subperiods (see Figure 1). Comparable to the Old

World Mesolithic, it was a time of profound transformation, culminating in the appearance of permanent settlements supported by a subsistence economy primarily based on agriculture. In Middle America domesticated animals – and only the turkey, Muscovy duck, dog, and honeybee can be included in this category – never figured significantly in the PreColumbian diet. Maize, beans, and squash, three of the early plant domesticates, became Middle America’s staple foods, although by the sixteenth century, when the Spanish arrived, over forty other cultivated species were being consumed. In Middle America’s highlands the first steps toward agriculture can be traced to the Early Archaic, when wild plants appear to have become an increasingly important component of the diet. At this time populations settled into more defined territories, replacing a mobile lifeway with scheduled rounds of shorter moves to take advantage of the seasonal availability of locally available plants and animals. By the Late Archaic, in some highland regions, particularly where resources were sparse, ‘foraging’ of this kind gave way to a ‘collecting’ strategy, where small task groups made transient forays to specific food sources, leaving the main community behind in more permanent settlements. Food collecting strategies may have developed in lowland regions as well, although there is not yet enough evidence to be certain. The practice of food collecting promoted cultivation when non-local plants were brought back to the settlement where they could be watered, weeded, and better protected from predators. In addition, accidentally dropped seeds from wild food plants would have sprouted in the disturbed soils around the camp. From there it was only a short step to creating domesticates by selecting seeds, cuttings, and issue from the most productive cultigens. The resulting domesticated plants (see Plant Domestication) addressed human needs, but often at the cost of their ability to survive in the wild. Once agriculture was fully embraced, it permitted (some prehistorians would argue that it required) those of its practitioners who were not already doing so to forego their mobile lifeway. Contrasted to subsistence dependent on a finite supply of wild plants and animals, the intensifiable nature of horticulture allowed for the support of densely populated villages and, eventually, for the large towns and cities that appeared in later periods. The Archaic transformation in Middle America was not uniform, but varied in timing and possibly in process from region to region. Like the previous Paleoindian period, most of what we currently know about it derives from investigations in highland regions where the more arid environment is more

AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America 173

conducive to preservation. Practical difficulties of research in the hot, often wet and densely forested, lowlands of Middle America are exacerbated by the three-meter post-Pleistocene rise in sea level that has inundated early coastal sites; by higher groundwater levels and encroaching wetlands that frustrate excavation; by stream and river erosion that has destroyed some sites while deeply burying others under alluvial sediment; and by a paucity of cave sites where archaeological remains tend to be better preserved (Figure 8). Only in the last few decades has this unbalanced perspective begun to be rectified, often through sophisticated collection and analytical techniques. Even so, almost nothing is known about the lowland Early Archaic, particularly in the more interior tropical forest regions, although from evidence of Paleoindian occupation it could be inferred that at least some of these places were inhabited. The emerging picture from the better known lowland Middle and Late Archaic suggests that the path its inhabitants took to a horticulture-based economy was, with the possible exception of tropical domesticates such as manioc, conditioned by earlier developments in the highlands.

SIE

To fully appreciate the changes that occurred during the Archaic, it is instructive to first examine their earliest manifestation on Middle America’s northeastern periphery. There, at Frightful Cave, Fat Burro Cave, and Nopal Shelter in Coahuila and Calzada Rockshelter in Nuevo Leo´n, a Mexican extension of the North American Desert Culture has been found. Beginning as early as 9000 bc, these caves, and undoubtedly many others in this harshly rugged area, were occupied seasonally by small bands of mobile foragers who left behind a bountiful array of artifacts. Utilitarian items included small, percussion flaked projectile points for attachment to darts propelled by wooden atlatls, along with stone scrapers, choppers, hammerstones, fiber cordage, sandals, baskets, mats, fire drills, and tongs. Hinting of a rich ceremonial life were scarifiers for bloodletting or tattooing, musical rasps, ornamental shell beads, and hallucinogenic plants. Food remains, some recovered from grass-lined storage pits, indicate a diet heavily dependent on wild plants, supplemented by meat from small and medium sized animals of modern species. Cobblestone manos (grinding stones) along with fragments from flat milling bases for

Middle America Archaic Sites

Coahuila Cave Sites Calsada

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Highland areas (Altitude over 1000 meters)

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The Early Archaic

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San Andres

Tehuacán

Middle Balsas Basin

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Santa Luisa Zohapilco

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Loltún Cave

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Figure 8 Map of Middle American Archaic sites mentioned in the text.

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more efficient processing of seeds and other plant parts were used for the first time by people who retained a nonagricultural subsistence regime but who showed an increasing interest in plant foods. Further south, in the Sierra de Tamaulipas, the lowest, ‘Infiernillo phase’ excavation levels at several cave sites dated c. 7000–6000 bc reveal an Early Archaic artifact inventory similar to that of the Desert Culture, including a food complex that relied primarily on wild plants such as runner beans, agave, and opuntia. A critically important distinction was that by the end of the Archaic period, at around 2400 BC, maize (Zea mays) was being cultivated. The discovery, first published in 1958, but with a now corrected sequence of dates, stimulated a still ongoing search throughout Middle America for earlier places of plant domestication. A number have been found, among them the Santa Marta Rockshelter and Aguacatenango II–III in Chiapas, Mexico, some surface surveyed locations in Guatemala’s Quiche´ Basin, and a series of habitation sites near La Esperanza, Honduras. However, to this day, much of what has been learned since the Tamaulipas project has been a product of investigations in just three highland regions: the Tehuaca´n Valley, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Basin of Mexico. From the Tehuaca´n Valley, information about the Archaic derives from the Tehuaca´n Archaeological– Botanical Project, previously noted for its Paleoindian period research. Several hundred cave and open-air archaeological sites were surveyed, nine of which were chosen for excavation. Along with the many artifacts, copious food remains were recovered, including both macrobotanical specimens and human coprolites (fossilized feces). Based on their stratigraphic position and the typology of artifacts, the materials were originally assigned to one or another of three sequential Archaic phases, El Riego (7000– 5000 bc), Coxcatla´n (5000–3400 bc), and Abejas (3400–2000 bc), mirroring the division of the Archaic into Early, Middle, and Late subperiods. Although the specific dates assigned the excavated materials and their cultural implications have been extensively amended since the 1960s when the project took place, the general sequence of developments is still widely used to model the transition from hunting and gathering to horticulture in highland Middle America. The earliest Archaic food plants recovered from the Tehuaca´n excavations consisted exclusively of wild species such as foxtail millet, mesquite, and acacia, from which seeds and pods were harvested; pochote, which has edible roots and seeds; maguey leaves and hearts, collected for roasting; and chupandilla, cosahuico, ciruela,and opuntia (prickly pear), desired for their fruit. Along with the appearance of manos and metates – the grinding stones and basins that were

to become the ubiquitous plant processing tools in Middle America – the food remains indicated the increasing importance of plants in the diet of the Tehuaca´n foragers (Figure 9). By 7000 BC, the first tentative step toward plant domestication at Tehuaca´n was taken in the form of attention the Valley’s Archaic foragers paid to avocados (Persea americana). Because these trees required regular watering, they appear to have been transplanted to locations where they could be better tended, a procedure amounting to simple cultivation. By 5960 BC, toward the end of the Early Archaic period, morphologically domesticated squash (Cucurbita pepo) was being cultivated in the Valley; by 5200 BC there is evidence for the domesticated bottle gourd (Lageneria siceraria); and somewhat later, chile peppers (Capsicum frutescens). Some tiny fossilized maize cobs from the Tehuaca´n caves were also determined to be domesticates, as it was observed that they were unable to disperse their tightly attached seed grains without human assistance. The survival of this maladaptive morphology could only have been the product of purposeful selection for a set of genetic traits that made the plant more attractive for harvesting and consumption, but which had the effect of preventing its reproduction in the wild. Charcoal from the archaeological strata in Coxcatla´n Cave from which the primitivelooking cobs were recovered was radiocarbon dated

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cm Figure 9 Archaic period oblong mano fragment (above) and metate-milling stone from Tehuaca´n.

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Figure 10 Maize cob remains from Tehuaca´n. From left to right: Middle Archaic Coxcatla´n phase; Late Archaic Abejas phase; Late Formative/Early Classic; last two on the right date to the Postclassic period. Photograph courtesy of the R.S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA.

c. 5500 BC and until recently that terminal Early Archaic date was accepted as marking the initial domestication of maize in Middle America (Figure 10). Recent analysis of bottle gourd samples from the same level at the cave verified their domestication at a date just a few hundred years later. However, subsequent direct AMS determinations on maize cobs from the Valley’s San Marcos and Coxcatla´n caves, produced a suite of revised dates, none earlier than 3555 BC, well into the Middle Archaic. Consequently, most archaeologists now reject the original 5500 BC date, attributing it to post-depositional intrusion of the cobs into earlier stratigraphic levels of Coxcatla´n cave. Excavations at Guila´ Naquitz and Cueva Blanca, two cave sites in the Valley of Oaxaca, have greatly augmented the Tehuaca´n archaeological record. At Guila´ Naquitz (Figure 11), nine AMS determinations on seeds and fruit stems of squash (C. pepo) indicate that a domesticated variety was being cultivated by 8000 BC, over 2000 years prior to the Tehuaca´n specimen,

making it Middle America’s earliest dated domesticated plant. Domesticated bottle gourds (L. siceraria) followed shortly thereafter at 7970 BC Nevertheless, the more than 20 000 plant specimens recovered at the site reflect an Early Archaic diet consisting mainly of wild plants. Acorns appear to have been most important, but runner beans, maguey, seeds and pods of mesquite, prickly pear cactus leaves and fruit, pin˜on and susi nuts, hackberries, and onions were also among the wild plants eaten (Figure 12). In addition, faunal remains show that deer, cottontail rabbits, mud turtles, collared peccary, raccoons, and a variety of birds were hunted by the small family bands that occasionally occupied the cave during fall seasons. Flaked stone tools, classified as belonging to the Early Archaic Naquitz phase in the Oaxaca Valley, show little standardization. Among them are crude blades, notched flakes, and denticulate scrapers, typically produced from locally available chert (Figure 13). Metates and manos for processing plant foods were made from local ignimbrite and stream-borne cobbles.

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Figure 11 Guila´ Naquitz Cave. A person is standing in front of the cave entrance. Photo courtesy of Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Figure 12 Wild plant food remains from Guila´ Naquitz Cave. a–b: acorns; c–f: pin˜on nuts; g–i: West Indian cherry seeds; j–m: yak susi hulls; n: mesquite seeds; o: hackberry seeds; p: prickly pear cactus fruit; q: wild onion bulb; r–s: chewed agave fiber quids. Photograph courtesy of Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

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Figure 13 Early Archaic period stone tools from the Oaxaca Valley. a: notched flake; b: denticulate scraper; c: crude blade. Redrawn from K.V. Flannery (ed.), Guila´ Naquitz. Archaic Foraging and Early Agriculture in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Figure 14 Net bag fragment from Guila´ Naquitz. Photograph courtesy of Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Knotted netting fragments, cordage, coiled basketry, fire drills, a drill hearth, and some roasting sticks round out a typical Early Archaic artifact assemblage (Figure 14). The Middle and Late Archaic in the Highlands

The Middle and Late Archaic were times of growing reliance on horticulture among the highland populations of Middle America. At Tehuaca´n, coyol palms and sapote trees, like avocados, alien to the region, were brought into the Valley and domesticated. Other domesticated plants were two additional varieties of squash (C. moschata and mixta), bottle gourds, common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and, as indicated

above, maize. By the Late Archaic, tepary beans (P. acutifolius) and jack beans (Canavalia ensiformis) were added to the list. Toward the end of the Archaic, maize, initially a primitive grass of marginal food value, had evolved into a nutritious and storable grain staple. In the Oaxaca Valley increasing residential permanence is inferred from Gheo-Shih, a Middle Archaic open air camp where occupation has been dated c. 8600 years BP Excavation at the 1.5 ha site revealed an unusual architectural feature interpreted as a ‘dance ground’, similar to those found among historic period Great Basin hunter-gatherer bands. The feature consists of two parallel rows of boulders, twenty meters in length, bounding a seven meter-wide space that had been kept clean of the projectile points, grinding stones, scrapers, pebble ornaments, and other lithic remnants of occupation found elsewhere at the site. Gheo-Shih appears to have been an encampment where several family microbands, totaling 25–30 individuals, congregated for ceremonies and other social activities during the rainy season, when food supplies were ample. Still lacking was a food source adequate to enable year-round residence. That the occupants of the Oaxaca Valley had begun to experiment by the Middle Archaic with the cultivation of maize has been confirmed by a series of direct AMS dates on some primitive-looking but domesticated cobs from excavations at Guila´ Naquitz Cave (Figure 15). The dates, averaging 6250 calendar years ago (approximately 4250 BC), are the earliest currently recognized for domesticated maize, predating by as much as 800 calendar years the oldest Tehuaca´n specimens. The absence of wild maize in

178 AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America

Figure 15 The two oldest maize cobs in the New World, from excavations at Guila´ Naquitz Cave, dated c 6250 calendar years ago. The lower cob is approximately 2.5 cm long. Photo courtesy of Dolores Piperno, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

deeper excavation levels at the site has led to the conclusion that the initial place of maize domestication lay outside the Oaxaca Valley. Currently favored is the region around the middle Balsas River Basin, in the states of Guerrero and Michoaca´n, where DNA and isozyme studies point to a local variety of teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis), a wild annual grass with naturally disarticulating grains, as the probable ancestor of domesticated maize. Indications of a continuing movement toward residential permanence in the Oaxaca Valley appear at the Late Archaic Cueva Blanca site, near present-day Mitla. From artifacts and faunal remains it appears that the seasonal inhabitants of the rockshelter were all-male deer hunters. Whereas the previous foraging lifeway had entailed an annual cycle of movement requiring entire bands to travel from one seasonally available food source to another, a ‘collecting’ strategy is inferred from the Cueva Blanca remains. Under this strategy, deer hunters, as well as other small task groups, made transient forays from a semi-permanent base to specific locations of food and other resources, camping temporarily at places like Cueva Blanca. An alternative path to highland sedentism that circumvents the transitional collecting strategy was theoretically possible in regions of rich, locally available resources. Zohapilco, in the highlands of Central Mexico not far from the Paleoindian Tlapacoya encampments, may exemplify this alternative. Its setting on the shore of Lake Chalco, surrounded by abundant wild plant and animal populations, is thought to have enabled Zohapilco’s Middle Archaic inhabitants to remain in one location throughout the year. The limited archaeological excavation, consisting of a single long trench, failed to expose evidence

of permanent structures, so the actual nature of occupation remains to be verified. Excavation strata, dated 5059–4250 bc, revealed pollen and seeds from wild plants such as teosinte, amaranth, portulaca, goosefoot, tomatillo, and squash, along with the bones of fish, waterfowl, deer, rabbits, turtles, snakes, and the amphibian axolot. With the exception of dogs, there is no evidence of domestication. The associated lithic assemblage included obsidian projectile points and flakes, large bifaces, macroblades, notched flakes, scrapers, mullers, and metates. Not until the Late Archaic do domesticates appear at Zohapilco, in the forms of maize, amaranth, tomatillo, pumpkin, chile pepper, and chayote. Elsewhere in the highlands of Middle America there is no indication at present of permanent, year-round villages until the beginning of the Formative/Preclassic period. The Lowland Middle and Late Archaic

Future archaeological investigation will be required to determine whether the lack of evidence for Early Archaic occupation in the lowlands of Middle America is simply a failure of discovery or, less likely, whether those regions had been abandoned by their previous Paleoindian inhabitants, only to be resettled thousands of years later. Although this remains an open question, research in coastal and near coastal regions is at least beginning to cast light on the subsequent Middle and Late years of the Archaic. During that time plant domestication and farming spread throughout much of the area and, at the end of the period, permanent villages were established. Whether lowland village life arose without the support of horticulture, as some scholars have argued, or was tied to a developmental sequence that ran from

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foraging to collecting, and finally to horticulture, as exemplified by the Valley of Oaxaca, is another debated question. A sedimentary core drawn from a small freshwater lake at San Andre´s, near the Gulf Coast of Tabasco, Mexico, was aimed, in part, at addressing this issue. Pollen in the core sediment indicating the appearance of domesticated maize along with forest clearance, presumably for agriculture, was initially dated c. 5000 bc The C14 dates were obtained from fossil clams, which appeared at the same level in the core as the maize pollen and were therefore assumed to be contemporaneous with it. This would have put the development of agriculture long before any known permanent settlement in Middle America. Doubt about the date was cast by the subsequent AMS analysis of another sedimentary core from the adjacent Veracruz coastal plain. In this sample the maize pollen itself was analyzed, producing a date c. 2500 BC, 2500 years more recent than the Veracruz determination and over 1700 years later than the highland Oaxaca domesticated maize cobs. The discrepancy in the two Gulf Coast dates has been attributed to soil bioturbation in the Tabasco core, resulting in a flawed association between the clams and maize pollen. The Veracruz date is corroborated by another pollen sequence from the nearby Tuxtlas region. Together these dates support the hypothesis that maize was initially domesticated in the Balsas Basin, then diffused to a number of highland regions, and only later spread to the lowlands. The small number of archaeological sites currently providing evidence of early plant domestication, however, makes any model of diffusion very provisional. A lowland site whose inhabitants appear to have lacked an early interest in horticulture is located on the northern Veracruz coast. At Santa Luisa, where occupation seems to have been comprised of multiple deltaic island encampments, the resource rich coastal habitat apparently was the source of subsistence. Plant remains are missing from the Middle-Late Archaic Palo Hueco phase, dated 4000–2400 bc, nor were there any of the grinding implements commonly used for plant processing. Scatters of fire-cracked cobbles are thought to have been used in cooking the oysters, fish, land crabs, and small mammals whose remains were found in abundance. Obsidian nodules, obtained from a geological source several hundred kilometers away in Quere´taro, along with locally available sandstone, served to produce crude blades, flakes, and bifaces, probably used in food preparation. The evidence of Middle Archaic obsidian procurement at Santa Luisa is an indication that long-distance contacts had been established with the highlands.

Although the concentration of nearby resources and density of food remains at Santa Luisa led the site’s investigator to describe it as a ‘permanent village’, it is equally likely that occupation was only seasonal, by foragers making their annual food gathering rounds, and later as either base or satellite camps for people engaged in a system of food collecting. If the latter, it remains to be determined if and when more inland sites within the system engaged in horticulture. Further insight into the relationship between lowland horticulture and settlement might be drawn from a more comprehensively studied cluster of Middle and Late Archaic sites on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico. The inhabitants of these sites, known as the Chantuto people, were probably collectors who exploited the lagoon estuarine environment from inland base camps. Six of the sites consisted of massive shellmounds, and at Cerro de las Conchas, the earliest of them, a series of radiocarbon dates brackets occupation between 7500 and 5300 calendar years ago (c. 5500–2300 BC), squarely within the Middle Archaic. Excavation indicated that the site consisted of accumulated refuse from consumption of the marsh clams (Polymesoda radiata) that grew in abundance in the lagoon estuarine environment. Aside from the voluminous burned and unburned clamshells, the limited cultural remains were comprised of waterworn cobbles, believed to have been heated by the Chantuto inhabitants to boil or steam clams, along with ark shells (Anadara spp.) that served as multipurpose cutting and scraping tools. No evidence of plant use was found dating to the site’s Middle Archaic occupation. Tlacuachera, the largest of the Chantuto shellmound sites, was dated to the Late Archaic, although occupation may have begun earlier, as excavations never reached the bottom levels of debris. The mound consisted mainly of layer upon layer of burned and unburned shells, the litter from years of clam consumption. Excavation within one of the bedded layers uncovered a clay floor, estimated to have measured 24 by 48 m, with a thickness of 10–20 cm. The labor investment in transporting the large quantity of clay to the site would have been substantial. Nevertheless, the untrampled clamshells suggest that the encampment was not occupied for extended periods of time. A pattern of postholes on the floor marks the location of two oval-shaped structures that may have served as temporary shelters. Although no supporting evidence was found, the investigator proposed that another activity at the site might have been the drying of shrimp, a practice common along the coast today.

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3 cm

Figure 16 Late Archaic/Early Formative lithic artifacts from Pulltrouser Swamp, Belize. a: Lowe/Pedernales-like projectile point, C14 dated 2210 BC; b: constricted/sole-shaped uniface, C14 dated 1275 BC Drawings courtesy of Mary D. Pohl, Department of Anthropology, Florida State University.

Phytoliths from plants indicating forest clearance as well as from maize were dated c. 3500 BC at Tlacuachera. With regard to maize, stable-carbonisotope analysis of bone samples from two human skeletons buried in the clay floor stratum suggests that by 2000 BC it was making a substantial contribution to the Chantuto diet. From the lowest cultural level at Vuelta Limo´n, another Chantuto site located some 20 km inland, phytolith analysis broadens the evidence for a gradual Late Archaic adoption of maize farming in the region. Several hundred kilometers southeast, on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, near Sipacate, fossil maize pollen from a sediment core echos the Chantuto findings. Other Late Archaic sites have been identified on the Pacific coast northwest of the Chantuto region at Puerto Marquez, Guerrero and San Blas, Nayarit; a number of shellmound sites in Sinaloa and Sonora may also date to this period. On the opposite coast of Middle America, an effort to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of cultural change, from Paleoindian hunting and gathering through the introduction of agriculture and settled village life, was initiated in 1980 by the Belize Archaic Archaeological Reconnaissance. The BAAR project was envisioned as a companion to the Tehuaca´n Archaeological–Botanical Project under the premise that lowland and highland cultural developments would have followed similar paths. During four field seasons, about 150 possible preceramic sites were recorded, several of which were selected for excavation. With few samples recovered for radiocarbon analysis, a provisional chronology of developments, spanning the years from 9000 to 2000 BC, was constructed by cross-dating projectile points and other lithic artifacts with better known equivalents from other regions. Subsequent investigation at other sites in the Belize region, primarily through the Colha Project, has shown a number of the BAAR artifact assignments

to be erroneous. Lowe projectile points and adze-like constricted unifaces, for example, originally employed to identify the Early Archaic, are now known to have been produced much later in time, with specimens radiocarbon dated at 2210 BC and 1275 BC, respectively (Figure 16). Consequently, there remains a long gap in knowledge about cultural developments in the Belizian lowlands, extending from the end of the Paleoindian period until the final centuries of the Middle Archaic. The known sequence of development in Belize resumes around 3400 BC, when remains of domesticated maize and manioc (Manihot esculenta) are found in the northwestern part of the country at the Blue Creek site, corresponding in age to the earliest Chantuto evidence. Additional radiocarbon dates from Kob Swamp, adjacent to the Hondo River, reveal maize and manioc there at about the same time. At Cobweb Swamp, near the archaeological site of Colha, manioc pollen is reported c. 2500 BC. There is also evidence throughout the region of deforestation, probably to clear land for agricultural use.

From Nomadic Hunting and Gathering to Village Based Farming Societies: Toward Explaining the Processes of Development Despite the current paucity of data, some tentative generalizations can be made about cultural developments in the periods immediately following the first Paleoindian arrivals in Middle America. What is securely known is that a subsistence economy initially founded on hunting and wild plant gathering evolved by the end of the Archaic period into a dependency on agriculture, just as a pattern of group mobility was supplanted by residence rooted in permanent villages. As agricultural productivity approached a threshold where it could provide a relatively reliable, storable, and intensifiable source of food, it enabled the small

AMERICAS, NORTH/Early Cultures of Middle America 181

bands of loosely affiliated families to coalesce into larger, more permanent entities and, early in the Formative/Preclassic period, into chiefdoms, some incorporating hundreds of people in villages and towns, interacting within a hierarchical social and political system where one’s status was ascribed at birth rather than by personal achievement. While present archaeological knowledge is inadequate to provide definitive answers to questions about the cultural and environmental processes that drove these developments, a number of hypotheses are worth examining. To begin with it must be understood that horticulture, more labor-intensive than hunting and wild-food gathering in most Middle American regions of the time would have afforded no purely economic advantage to its practitioners unless something happened to undermine theestablished equilibrium between population and habitat. Although the number of Middle America’s inhabitants had indeed increased by the Middle Archaic to the point where group mobility was commonly replaced by a loose territorialism, there is little evidence that population pressure played a direct role in the adoption of agriculture. On the contrary, while there was feedback between the growth of population and agriculture, rapid population increase did not occur until much later, after agriculture had become well established, and then for other reasons. Nor do post-Pleistocene vegetation alterations, animal extinctions, and climatic change, despite transforming the habitat, seem to have been sufficient in themselves to turn Middle America’s inhabitants into farmers. A broader utilization of available wild resources would have been a far more effective response. Alternatively, a desire to better cope with year-toyear inconsistency in plant food availability due to drought and other natural events, particularly in marginal post-Pleistocene habitats, has been proposed as having encouraged experimentation with plant cultivation. That the first such experiments apparently occurred in low productivity thorn-scrub-cactus habitats of highland Middle America supports this hypothesis. Somewhat later, on the Pacific Coast, periods of reduced rainfall are cited as having intensified the shift to a horticultural mode of subsistence. As indicated above, the initial step toward domestication may have occurred unintentionally when early collectors brought wild food to their campsites, in the process inadvertently scattering seeds or plants in the disturbed soils where they tended to flourish. From that point, recognizing the advantage of relocating and nurturing desirable species would have been fairly obvious. The appearance of avocados and other non-local plants in the Early Archaic Tehuaca´n Valley exemplifies this rudimentary stage

of plant cultivation. Intentional selection of seeds, cuttings and offspring from plants with economically beneficial traits would have been the next step toward domestication. The process of maize domestication is of particular interest to paleobotanists and archaeologists as it is believed to have involved a series of fortuitous genetic mutations that transformed a wild grass of marginal economic value into Middle America’s premier food plant. Although the details continue to be argued, the most widely accepted reconstruction holds that a subspecies of teosinte (Z. mays subsp. parviglumis), a plant with small seed heads, each loosely holding no more than 12 kernels, was the progenitor of the modern maize plant, with its several hundred kernels tightly attached to a cob. Lacking a cob, the ancestral teosinte was designed to shatter its seeds which, encased in tough glumes (fruitcases), were able to survive the digestive tracts of consuming animals and, once deposited in the soil, self-propagate. By selecting for the characteristics that produced soft glumes and multiple large, tightly attached kernels, Archaic period horticulturalists fashioned a nutritious, bountiful food plant (Z. mays subsp. mays), easy to harvest, store and digest, but by definition a consummate domesticate, unable to reproduce on its own. Regional time differences in the appearance of maize horticulture in Middle America raise questions about whether the processes of adoption were the same in resource-rich localities as has been outlined for more patchy highland environments. From the small number of archaeological sites with dated evidence of domesticated maize one can at least begin to speculate about the pattern of diffusion. In the highlands the earliest known appearance of domesticated maize is in the Oaxaca Valley at 4250 BC; evidence is found further to the northwest c. 3555 BC at Tehuaca´n, and by 2400 BC in Tamaulipas. By 3500–3400 BC maize is reported at a number of coastal lowland locations, from Blue Creek on the Caribbean to the Chantuto sites on the Pacific, although not until 2500 BC on the Gulf Coast. It’s delayed appearance at places such as highland Zohapilco and on the Gulf Coast seems anomalous, but might be attributed to the reliable year-round abundance of wild food if not gaps in research. By 2000 BC, at the end of the Late Archaic, maize horticulture is widespread throughout most of Middle America. The appearance of maize in Pacific and Caribbean coastal sites raises questions about a longstanding hypothesis that in such well-endowed habitats the initiation of settled village life would not have depended on an agricultural economy. Under this premise it is appealing to consider another pathway

182 AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico

to agriculture. In one version of the process, leaders of complex hunter-gatherer societies are deemed to have initially adopted agriculture not to fulfill subsistence needs but to produce food surpluses for the purpose of sponsoring feasts and other forms of conspicuous consumption. Through these displays ambitious leaders would have gained prestige, followers, allies, and authority. In an extension of this model, exchange of prestige goods with highland peoples, illustrated by the widespread presence of highly valued highland obsidian in Archaic period coastal sites and the concomitant ornamental marine seashell found in the highlands, would have brought maize seed along with other high-status goods to the coast where they were redistributed by status-hungry leaders to individuals within and beyond their community. The precocious appearance of chiefdom societies, religious complexity, and architectural sophistication in the ensuing Early Formative period along Middle America’s Pacific lowlands lends support to this hypothetical reconstruction. Once adopted on the coast, agriculture would have spread to lowland localities further inland where it provided the subsistence basis for later Olmec and Maya societies. More research will be needed to determine whether this model is valid for the lowlands and perhaps other regions of Middle America. See also: Americas, Central: Classic Period of Meso-

america, the Maya; Lower Central America; Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica; The Olmec and their Contemporaries; Extinctions of Big Game; New World, Peopling of; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Bonnichsen R and Turnmire KL (eds.) (1999) Ice Age Peoples of North America: Environments, Origins, and Adaptations of the First Americans. Corvallis, Oregon: Center for the Study of the First Americans. Oregon State University Press. Doebley J (2004) The genetics of maize evolution. Annual Review of Genetics 38: 37–59. Jablonski NG (ed.) (2002) The First Americans. The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World. San Francisco, CA: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 27. Lohse JC, et al. (2006) Preceramic occupations in Belize: Updating the Paleoindian and Archaic record. Latin American Antiquity 17(2): 209–226. MacNeish RS (1981) Tehuaca´n’s accomplishments. In: Sabloff JA (ed.) Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 1. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Marcus J and Flannery KV (1996) Zapotec Civilization. How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. London, England: Thames and Judson Ltd. Meltzer DJ (2003) Peopling of North America. Development in Quaternary Science, vol. 1, pp. 539–563.

Pearsall DM (1995) Domestication and agriculture in the New World tropics. In: Price TD and Gegauer AB (eds.) Last Hunters – First Farmers, pp. 157–192. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press. Pohl MP, et al. (1996) Early agriculture in the Maya Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 7(4): 355–372. Smith BD (2005) Reassessing Coxcatlan Cave and the early history of domesticated plants in Mesoamerica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United State of America 102: 9438–9445. Straus LG, Meltzer DJ, and Goebel T (2005) Ice Age Atlantis? Exploring the Solutrean-Clovis ‘connection’. World Archaeology 37(4): 507–532. Voorhies B (2004) Coastal Collectors in the Holocene. The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. Zeitlin RN and Zeitlin JF (2000) The Paleoindian and Archaic cultures of Mesoamerica. In: Adams REW and MacLeod MJ (eds.) The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. II, Mesoamerica, Part 1, pp. 45–121. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Historical Archaeology in Mexico Thomas H Charlton, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA Patricia Fournier, Escuela Nacional de Antropologı´a, Mexico City, Mexico ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary audiencia Spanish imperial administrative unit for political, judicial, and fiscal ends. capilla (English, chapel). Usually associated with a church complex or with a section of a community. Casa de Cultura Regional museum of archaeology, history, and contemporary art and handicrafts. Ciudadela (English, citadel). Large building in Mexico City built in the late eighteenth century to house a state monopoly on tobacco. Later used for other activities. Classic period period from CE 300 to 900; subdivided into Early (c. CE 300–600), and Late (c. CE 600–900). Colonial period Culture period from c. CE 1521 to 1820. Precise starting date varies from region to region. May be subdivided into Early (c. CE 1521–1620), Middle (c. CE 1621–1720), and Late (c. CE 1721–1820). convent (Spanish, convento). Meaning varies by context. Residential section of a church or Mission complex housing male regular or secular clergy. Also refers to the complex in which cloistered nuns live (nunnery). hacienda Large and often ostentatious rural residential estate associated with animal husbandry and agricultural activities. Generally, late appearance in central Mexico but may be earlier in northern regions. Independence period Also known as Republican period. Culture period from CE 1821 to the present. indios principales Indigenous community leaders.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico 183 palaces Large, luxurious elite residential structures of the Colonial period and the nineteenth century, particularly in the Historic Center of Mexico City, are often referred to as palaces even though they had no direct governmental functions. Postclassic period Preconquest indigenous culture period from c. CE 900 to c. CE 1519–1520. presidios Fortified sites usually in the northern borderlands, most dating from the eighteenth century. ranch (Spanish, rancho). Small rural residential complex associated with animal husbandry and agricultural activities. Occurs in all three Colonial periods and during the Independence period where small ranches were associated with large haciendas.

Introduction For background on the history of historical archaeology in Mexico, three articles are useful starting points. One of these, by Patricia Fournier and Ferna´ndo Miranda, published in 1992, presents a general overview of the development of historical archaeology in Mexico until the early 1990s, emphasizing its relationship with the conservation of Colonial and Republican period monumental buildings, as well as salvage projects. The second (by Elsa Herna´ndez Pons), published in 1998, in the memoir edited by Enrique Ferna´ndez Da´vila and Susana Go´mez Serafı´n, presents a well-thought-out statement of the

development and current (pre-1998) status of Mexican historical archaeology. A third article by Araceli Peralta, also in the Ferna´ndez Da´vila and Go´mez Serafı´n edited memoir, presents a geographically and typologically organized summary of some studies in historical archaeology in the Basin of Mexico. Religious, civil (secular), and production (industrial, ranching, and farming) archaeological site categories are included in the Peralta paper. In our treatment of Mexican historical archaeology, we expand on the format in this paper by including studies from outside the basin, and by elaborating on the categories used. We have included six tables with this article, organizing by area and identifying by topic the papers included in the abovementioned memoir. These papers probably present the best current cross-section of approaches and topics under active consideration in Mexican historical archaeology. Of the total papers published in the Memoir of the First National Congress on Historical Archaeology, eighteen are on investigations in Mexico City (Table 1); ten on investigations in the Basin of Mexico and adjacent areas in the central plateau (Table 2); eight on investigations in the highlands of Oaxaca

Table 1 Studies in Mexico City Reference

Area

Theme

Ban˜os Ramos (1998)

Mexico City, Historic Center

Flores and Pe´rez Rivas (1998) Fournier (1998)

Mexico City, Tlatelolco Mexico City, the Templo Mayor and Tlatelolco Mexico City, the Templo Mayor Mexico City, Historic Center Mexico City, Historic Center Mexico City, Historic Center

Salvage archaeology and historical study of the old Convento de la Concepcio´n Documentary sources and maps related to Tlatelolco Interpretations of the ceramics recovered from the two sites

Fournier and Charlton (1998) Garcı´a Samper (1998) Gonza´lez Leyva (1998) Herna´ndez Pons, Nieto, and Feria (1998) Lo´pez Palacios (1998) Nieto (1998) Peralta (1998) Pe´rez Rivas and Flores (1998) Pe´rez and Corona (1998)

Mexico City, Historic Center Mexico City, Historic Center Mexico City and the adjacent Basin of Mexico Mexico City, Historic Center Mexico City, Historic Center

Sala and Santaella 1998 Salas (1998) Santa Cruz and Moreno (1998)

Mexico City, Historic Center Mexico City Mexico City, Historic Center

Temple (1998)

Mexico City, Historic Center

Tovar (1998)

Mexico City, Historic Center

Zapata 1998

Mexico City, Tlalpan

Majolica chronology Historical study of the iconography of a church Documentary studies of the architecture of a chapel Excavations in the old Convento de Betlemitas Chronology of glazed candeleros Analysis of hooded figurines recovered from various sites Archaeological and documentary studies of religious and industrial public structures Documentary study and salvage exploration of urban zones Salvage archaeology in the Biblioteca de Finanzas Pu´blicas in the National Palace Excavations in the old Convento de San Jero´nimo Historical and archaeological study of an industrial structure Historical and archaeological study of the old Convento de Santo Domingo Study of lebrillos recovered in salvage excavations and in the Metro Study of historic documents related to a guild in the Convento de Santo Domingo Connections between archaeology and history with a proposal for investigation in the parish of Tlalpan

In Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia.

184 AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico Table 2 Studies in the Basin of Mexico and adjacent Central Highlands Reference

Area

Theme

Alvarez Santiago (1998) Brambila and Avilez (1998)

Puebla, Puebla Jilotepec, Hidalgo

Cedilla Ortega (1998)

Puebla, Puebla

Cedillo Vargas (1998)

Tepozotlan, State of Mexico Otumba, State of Mexico

Urban and industrial studies related to urban renewal Historical and architectural studies of religious and secular structures of the sixteenth century Salvage archaeology and historical studies related to religious and industrial structures Hydraulic construction in religious structures

Charlton and Otis Charlton (1998) Contreras (1998) Co´rdova (1998) Martı´nez Magan˜a (1998) Oviedo (1998) Pastrana and Fournier (1998)

San Francisco Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala Huejotzingo, Puebla Huichapan, Hidalgo Pachuca and Real del Monte Sierra de las Navajas, Hidalgo

Historical and archaeological studies of the sixteenth century Historical and architectural studies related to salvage archaeology in an old convent Historical and archaeological studies of the convent group of Huejotzingo Historical and archaeological studies of a religious architectural group Industrial archaeology of mining Exploitation of obsidian during the Colonial period

In Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia.

Table 3 Studies in Oaxaca and Veracruz Reference

Area

Theme

Alvarez Franklin (1998) Ferna´ndez and Go´mez (1998b)

Cuilapan, Oaxaca Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

Ferna´ndez and Go´mez (1998c)

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

Ferna´ndez and Go´mez (1998d)

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

Go´mez and Ferna´ndez (1998a)

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

Go´mez and Ferna´ndez (1998b)

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

Herrera (1998)

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

Matadamas (1998)

Teotitla´n del Valle, Tlacolula, Oaxaca Co´rdoba, Veracruz

Historical studies of a ruined religious building complex Archaeological studies in the old Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n Archaeological studies of the hydraulic works in the old Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n Studies of lime production in the old Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n Studies of local majolica recovered from the old Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n Studies of the ceramics recovered from the old Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n Studies of the botanical remains recovered from the old Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n Archaeological salvage of the historical architecture, with preColumbian and historical archaeology Salvage archaeology and historical documents

Miranda and Becerril (1998)

In Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia.

and one on the highlands of Veracruz (Table 3); six refer to investigations in the northern and western areas of Mexico (Table 4); six lack a specific geographical association, with one being on nautical archaeology, three being analyses of documents (historiography and/or interdisciplinary), one an ethnohistoric study of Spanish–indigenous interaction, and one a brief history of historical archaeology in Mexico (Table 5), and finally three papers deal with research in the Maya area and one in the State of Tabasco (Table 6). Strictly speaking, archaeological scholars investigating the Late Postclassic civilizations of the central (Aztec) and southern (Zapotec, Mixtec) Mexican

highlands or the Classic and Postclassic Maya civilization in eastern Mesoamerica (Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala extending into parts of Honduras and all of El Salvador, as well as the Belize lowlands) can be said to be conducting historical archaeological research, insofar as they use available relevant textual documentary sources in conjunction with traditional archaeological materials. Indeed, some of the earliest historical archaeology carried out by Mexican scholars was a by-product of research into the Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Noguera’s research in the 1930s perceptively identified and described some of the diagnostic ceramics for the Colonial period but the main

AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico 185 Table 4 Studies in north and west Mexico Reference

Area

Theme

Arciniega (1998) Brown (1998) Crespo and Cervantes (1998) Mendoza (1998)

San Blas, Nayarit El Carrizal (northern border) The states of Quere´taro and Guanajuato Guanajuato, Guanajuato

Moguel and Carballal (1998) Valencia (1998)

Culiaca´n, Sinaloa Aquascalientes, Aguascalientes

Historical and archaeological studies of urban structure Historical and archaeological studies of the Spanish expansion Studies of historical religious structures and documents related to otomı´ families Historical architecture and interventions for the conservation of religious structures Salvage archaeology in various areas in and near Culiaca´n Salvage archaeology and historical studies

In Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia.

Table 5 Studies in Veracruz related to underwater archaeology, historiography, the history of historical archaeology, and ethnohistory Reference

Area

Theme

Luna (1998) Spores (1998) Herna´ndez Aranda (1998) Corona (1998) Herna´ndez Pons (1998) Martı´nez Torres (1998)

Coastal waters

Underwater archaeology and documentary studies of the colonial period Historiography, guide to the documents Historiography, use of documents Historiography, use of documents Short history of historical archaeology Ethnohistory; the monks and the natives based on the use of indigenous plants

In Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia.

Table 6 Studies in Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Tabasco Reference

Area

Theme

Lee Whiting (1998)

Chiapas and Guatemala Chicomuselo, Chiapas Quecchula, Chiapas Chetumal, Quintana Roo Tabasco

Documentary and archaeological studies along the Camino Real

De la Cruz and Lee Whiting (1998) Navarrete (1998) Corte´s de Brasdefer (1998) Ledesma (1998)

Archaeological studies of a foundry Historical and archaeological studies of the church of Quecchula Historical and archaeological studies in Oxtankah Historical studies of the Franciscan foundations in the Sierra Tabasquen˜o

In Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia.

orientation of the study was on the Aztec Late Postclassic main temple buildings. In this paper, however, we restrict the practice of historical archaeology to the period of initial European contact and conquest (c. 1519–21) continuing through the Colonial period (to 1820) and the period of Independence (1821–present), within the borders of Mexico today.

Historical Archaeology in Mexico: An Overview

origin, from sites occupied during the Colonial and Independence periods and found within the modern boundaries of Mexico. The problem orientations of investigations into these data generally include one or more of the following: (1) a study of the variable contact period interaction situations between indigenous and intrusive cultures, (2) a study of subsequent continuities and changes within both the indigenous and the intrusive European cultural traditions, and (3) a study of the emergence of new cultural and ethnic traditions, throughout the Colonial and Independence periods.

Subject Matter

Research Trends and Disciplinary Origins

The subject matter of historical archaeology in Mexico includes archaeological remains and relevant historical documents, both indigenous and European in

There are many different research approaches within postconquest historical archaeological investigations practiced in Mexico today. Such a diversity of

186 AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico

approaches is common in the current worldwide burgeoning field of historical archaeology and reflects, according to K. Kelly in 2005, a dynamic and a recently emerging field, in Latin America in general, and for this article, in Mexico specifically. In Mexico, the field of historical archaeology has multiple origins, domestic and foreign, and multiple disciplinary backgrounds. As we suggest later on, the majority of foreign influences come from North American archaeology. As practiced, Mexican historical archaeology contains varying proportions of the disciplines of history, ethnohistory, cultural and historical geography, archaeology, and anthropological archaeology in the mix. The amount of each in any investigation depends upon (1) the time period addressed, (2) the cultural functions and structures under investigation, and (3) the disciplinary backgrounds and institutional affiliations of the investigators. As a result, Mexican historical archaeology is not a monolithic structure in origin, practice, or theory. There is considerable variation between the investigations carried out within the borders of the national state and we may speak of ‘‘many historical archaeologies’’ (with apologies to Leslie Byrd Simpson). Since the late 1970s, Mexican scholars have increasingly reflected on the relevance of historical archaeology for increasing our level of knowledge of the past by combining, in various ways, archaeology and history, and by increasing protection of Mexico’s cultural heritage. Such reflections form part of their search to validate and integrate this still-evolving field of research. Some considerations have focused on the terminology or nomenclature to be used to denote the field. Names suggested within these discussions include archaeohistory, the archaeology of capitalism, colonial archaeology, historical archaeology, world systems archaeology, and industrial archaeology (see Industrial Archaeology), all reflecting aspects of a multi-faceted Mexican historical archaeology which takes into consideration the significant political and economic changes in a worldwide setting following CE 1492. Despite this ‘war of words’ over the designation of a recent development in Mexican archaeology in general, it is generally understood that what is practiced as historical archaeology in non-Mexican settings is what is practiced in Mexico today. Historical archaeology in Mexico is a discipline which makes use of both archaeological and historic data studying the material remains of any postcontact historical period. This is possible whenever there is a documentary record providing additional information about the materials and contexts recovered in archaeological investigations. Historical archaeology in general, and in Mexico in particular, studies the

materials related to European cultural expansion throughout the world beginning in the fifteenth century and ending with industrialization or the present day, depending on local conditions. As so defined, historical archaeology can make important contributions to contemporary anthropology by examining the processes of European expansion, exploration, and colonization as well as those of culture contact and imperialism. These processes form a basis for one of the most dynamic periods in world history, reflected both in documents and material culture, recovered by archaeological investigations (see Historical Archaeology: As a Discipline). Discussions have also addressed the relationships of Mexican historical archaeology to current archaeological theoretical perspectives ranging from historical particularism, to culture history, processual (new archaeology) (see Processual Archaeology), postprocessual (see Postprocessual Archaeology), and Marxist archaeology (see Marxist Archaeology), alone or in various combinations. In some projects, theoretical positions have included critical theory and Iberoamerican social archaeology. In addition, there have also been debates about legal issues related to the national patrimony as well as more mundane, but relevant, topics such as artifact taxonomic systems. Historical Archaeology Institutional Contexts – INAH

As noted above, investigations in Mexico are varied in part because of their many different institutional contexts. Today the major institutional context includes, as mandated by law in 1972, the Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia (INAH), whose relevant dependencies in Mexico City and in the regional state offices are obligated to carry out archaeological salvage and rescue operations, not only for preconquest remains but also for those of the Colonial and post-Independence periods whenever archaeological deposits and structures would be adversely affected by contemporary activities. Examples of such activities include Mexico City’s still ongoing Metro construction, along with, there and elsewhere, the maintenance and construction of roads, sewer and water systems, dams, reservoirs, canals, and water supply systems. Also included are architectural restoration projects, building expansion, and building demolition. Site reports from such operations in salvage and rescue historical archaeology in Mexico, although not widely distributed, provide valuable information on associated artifacts and architecture, and on laboratory and technical analyses of the materials recovered. Initially, the results of such research were

AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico 187

not always fully published. However, there are now increasing numbers of books and articles presenting the results of research, thus enriching the record for Mexico and for Hispanic America as well. At times, many of these data have been used to examine general theoretical questions of culture contact and acculturation along with the construction of Colonial and Independence period social systems, identities, and meanings. Such questions would be addressed by both documentary records and archaeological material correlates. Historical Archaeology Institutional Contexts – Academic Settings Domestic and Foreign

Although academic historical archaeology in Mexico does include the salvage and rescue of historical archaeological materials, more frequently archaeologists from academic settings try to combine such salvage and rescue operations with problem-based research projects tied to a variety of theoretical perspectives on social and cultural dynamics and evolution. In general, these would be related to studies of those processes leading to the modern world and to capitalism. In Mexico, the rise of national systems and national identities as well as the appearance of new social and ethnic identities would characterize these studies. Formal academic training in historical archaeology in Mexico is relatively rare. Undergraduate courses in historical archaeology have occasionally been offered at the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, and at the University of the Americas in Cholula, Puebla. The Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi will include historical archaeology as part of the bachelor’s program. However, there is only one graduate program in historical archaeology at the National School of Anthropology and History. There are very few active full-time professional historical archaeologists in Mexico, most being Prehispanic archaeologists who have extended their interest through chance or design into the historic periods. Regional Cultural and Administrative Variability in Time and Space

Further differentiation in the subject matter of Mexican historical archaeology is introduced by the great degree of Prehispanic regional cultural variability within Mesoamerica between various state systems such as the Maya, the Zapotec, the Aztec, and the Tarascans. In the immediately adjacent culture areas to the north such as the Greater Southwest, the peninsula of Lower California, and northeastern Mexico, there were many non-state-level cultures ranging from hunting and gathering nomadic people to sedentary agrarian villages.

The Spanish empire governed these areas, from Panama to what is now the Southwest United States, through three audiencias (Guatemala, Mexico, and Guadalajara) with political, judicial, and fiscal powers. Although they overlap, the borders of Mesoamerica, with complex state systems, the Greater Southwest with village agriculturalists, and the peninsula of Lower California and northeast Mexico with hunters and gatherers, do not coincide completely with those of the audiencias or of Mexico today. Communities may have participated in several larger cultural, political, and economic systems during their existence. Beyond the variations present in indigenous cultures and imperial administrative structures, additional complexity was provided by the different regional origins of Spanish settlers from the Iberian Peninsula. Many of these regional cultural variations and their impact on Hispanic America have been discussed in detail by George Foster in his 1960 monograph on culture and conquest. In addition, there was extreme variability in the kind of church institutions introduced initially for Christian conversion and subsequently maintained for the spiritual care of the indigenous people as well as Spanish settlers. Variations occurred in the order of regular clergy present and the nature of the transition to secular clergy in some areas. Additional regional and local differences in Mexico were brought about by demographic decline due to disease, the acquisition of land and the introduction of Spanish-owned ranchos and haciendas, and the exploitation of metal ores and petroleum resources. The impact of these too would vary according to the time period and political situation in the imperial center of Spain, and during the Independence period, in Mexico City, capital of the new republic.

Themes of Historical Archaeological Investigations in Mexico Recent urban expansion and economic development have severely impacted the physical remains of Mexico’s past, both Prehispanic and postconquest. Given the almost five centuries of Colonial and Independence period construction in Mexico, major population increases during the twentieth century associated with urban renovation, expansion, and industrialization, along with an underlying pervasive concern for the preservation and rehabilitation of the cultural heritage of Mexico, it should not be surprising that historical archaeology has come of age in Mexico during the last half of the twentieth century. These processes are especially true for all areas within the orbit of Mexico City, but also increasingly relevant for provincial cities and small towns in the countryside, also undergoing similar population and

188 AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico

economic growth. In one sense, historical archaeology is most abundant in urban settings where most of the religious, secular, and private buildings occur. Much recent historical archaeology has accompanied, in various guises, the saving, restoration, refurbishing, and recycling of imperiled buildings, some religious, some governmental, some industrial, and some private residences (the latter when especially luxurious and occupied by members of Mexico’s colonial elite, being referred to as palaces). In many cases, such structures are located in the older sections of cities in Mexico, such as the Historic Center (Centro Histo´rico) of Mexico City. Religious Institutions through Their Buildings

Of all the themes of historical archaeology in Mexico, a shared, widespread interest in the preservation and investigation of religious buildings from the very beginnings of Mexico through the nineteenth century is the greatest unifier of the practitioners of historical archaeology today. Mexico is the legal owner of all religious buildings in the country, and they are everywhere, throughout the country, in various stages of use and disintegration. They range in time from the early sixteenth century to the twentieth century. These buildings are a legacy of anticlericalism which can be seen in the expulsion of the Jesuits and the appropriation of their possessions, through the Liberal Reforms of the nineteenth century, the socialist revolution of the early twentieth century, and the subsequent closing of the churches. The recognition in the twentieth century that many of these monumental structures could be refurbished and used to attract tourists marks the beginning of an official positive interest in those buildings. Although archaeology is usually carried out at such sites, frequently the archaeological part of the investigations has been subordinated to the architectural rehabilitation of the structures. Missions, their convents, and indigenous residential areas Early interest in missions and their associated convents was expressed by American scholars after the acquisition of substantial areas of Mexico by the United States in the nineteenth century. Such interest continues today as demonstrated by the three volumes edited by D. H. Thomas. Archaeological investigations were in part stimulated by cultural geographers under the tutelage of Carl Sauer in the Southwestern US and in northern Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s. Elizabeth Graham in her 1998 article on mission archaeology has detailed many of these studies, including the Maya areas in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, along with those borderlands from California to Florida once under

Spanish and later, in places, Mexican control before being ceded to the United States. Studies of missions often emphasize first-contact and conversion contexts because of the importance of the Church in converting the indigenous peoples. As first-contact contexts, these are linked with those historical and archaeological studies interested in contact within a broader cultural framework. Research on a sixteenth century town church and associated residential convent in central Mexico by Charlton in 1969 and published in 1973 deals essentially with the same topic. In central Mexico, when many towns were abandoned at the end of the sixteenth century due to depopulation as a result of introduced epidemic diseases, the churches and residential complexes were also abandoned. Since these missed out on later Colonial and Independence period modifications such as towers and facade updates in eighteenth century style, they preserve the structure of the church when it had a major conversion mission-like function. Examples of continuing studies of mission sites and artifacts occur in northwestern and northern Mexico at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. Similar studies of mission sites have been carried out in the Mexican state of Durango, the peninsula of Baja California, and in the American state of New Mexico. Many mission studies have been part of current consolidation of standing buildings related to efforts to increase tourism in Mexico. There are some additional studies in D. H. Thomas’ edited volume I for these regions, and in volume III for the Maya area in Mexico and Central America. Ledesma in 1998 reported on research and consolidation at a mission site in the Sierra de Tabasco founded in 1537 but occupied sporadically until 1709 when it was permanently abandoned (Table 6). Carlos Navarrete investigated another similar site in Chiapas in the 1960s, while Ferna´ndo Corte´s de Brasdefer investigated Oxtankah, a mission site in Quintana Roo. It should be remembered that mission archaeology is in part evidence of the initial spread of Spanish culture in Mexico (and areas to the south and north now outside of Mexico’s borders). Such missions are generally later in time in the northern and southern areas than those churches that began as missions in central Mexico. Today, such sixteenth century mission churches or chapels, when they have survived, are usually treated as parish churches rather than as missions (see Table 4). Mexico City convents (nunneries) Since the 1970s, Mexico City has been the locale of major conservation projects that included as part of the research the architectural history of the affected buildings as well as information about the different archaeological materials recovered, mostly human burials and, in

AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico 189

some cases, ceramics and other artifacts. As noted previously, we have summarized in six tables the Mexican archaeological and historical investigations published in a memoir on Mexican historical archaeology, edited by Ferna´ndez Da´vila and Go´mez Serafı´n in 1998. The studies have dealt with numerous convents (nunneries) including that of San Jero´nimo, home of the famous seventeenth century nun, Sor Juana Ine´s de la Cruz. Fournier carried out studies of the European and oriental tradeware and published these in 1990. Other examples of nunneries studied in Mexico City include La Concepcio´n (see Table 1) and the Colegio de San Joaquı´n of the Carmelite Order. Mexico City convents (monasteries) Monasteries have also recently been studied in Mexico City. The Convento de Betlemitas was founded in the final third of the eighteenth century and entrusted to the Order of Nuestra Sen˜ora de Bethlem whose main charges were the care of ill but convalescing patients and the education of children from poor families. Architectural restoration of the extant structures was combined with extensive archaeological excavations. The remaining architecture of Santo Domingo, a Dominican foundation, has also been investigated through archaeology and documents (Table 1). Convents (monasteries and nunneries): Investigations in other regions of Mexico Outside of Mexico City (see Tables 2 and 3), but still in the Basin of Mexico, studies of hydraulic works were carried out at the Jesuit monastery complex of Tepozotla´n. Outside of the Basin of Mexico, but still in the Central Highlands, there have been similar recent studies at the monasteries of San Francisco, Tlaxcala, and Huejotzingo, Puebla, in the high plateau of Mexico, directly east of the Basin of Mexico. In the city of Puebla, archaeological excavations were carried out exposing the remains of the sixteenth century Convento de San Francisco as well as at the Convento (Nunnery) de San Jero´nimo. We may also include here rescue archaeology described by Mendoza Garcı´a in the city of Guanajuato in architectural studies accompanied by archaeology at the Templo de San Diego. To the south, in the City of Oaxaca, major restoration and investigation were conducted at the Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n. The Casa del Artesano in Huichapan, Hidalgo, to the north, is another provincial example of archaeological research during the refurbishing of part of the complex for a Casa de Cultura. Mexico City churches Mexico City has had numerous historic preservation projects which included

the architectural histories of church structures and information from the associated archaeological materials, including burials and ceramics and other artifacts. These are mostly stand-alone churches but often have convent-like residences attached to them. Herna´ndez Pons has noted that archaeological research located the first cathedral of Mexico City, the Capilla de Necatitla´n, as well as complementing engineering work during attempts to stabilize the present cathedral. Other churches of note in Mexico City are Santa Teresa La Antigua, La Santa Cruz y Soledad de Nuestra Sen˜ora, San Juan de Dios, the parish (in Xochimilco) of San Bernardino de Sena, and the Jesuit chapel of San Pedro and San Pablo. Herna´ndez Pons et al. list many others (Table 1). Although not a church, the Palacio de la Inquisicio´n did carry out church-related business and has also been investigated archaeologically. Churches and chapels in other regions of Mexico These include churches in many different areas (see Tables 3 and 4). In San Luis Potosı´, there have been minor archaeological operations at the Chapel of Aranzazu. Alvarez Franklin describes the search for documentation on a now-ruined church in Cuilapan, Oaxaca. Also in Oaxaca, Matadamas carried out salvage archaeology at a Prehispanic mound behind, and possibly extending under, a sixteenth century church in Teotitla´n del Valle. Crespo and Cervantes have carried out an ethnoarchaeological and documentary study on household oratorios among Otomı´ families in Quere´taro and Guanajuato. Secular Institutions through Their Buildings

The structures mentioned here include Colonial and Independence period governmental structures, hospitals, private residences (often referred to as palaces), presidios, and monuments. There is uneven archaeological treatment of these structures with heavy emphasis being placed upon those in Mexico City, and much less on similar structures in other areas. As is the case for religious structures, the historical archaeology carried out is usually associated with major restoration and maintenance of these structures and is always in a secondary role to the restoration and architectural history. Secular structures: Governmental, medical, and residential Mexico City These include the Palacio Nacional, on the east side of the Zo´calo near the Metropolitan Cathedral. This site was a center of governmental power before and during the Colonial and Independence periods. The Castillo de Chapultepec has served as a fortified hilltop, a military school, and

190 AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico

the residence of Maximilian and Carlota before becoming a present-day museum. Other structures examined archaeologically are the Hospital Real de los Naturales and the Hospital del Amor de Dios, which at the end of the Colonial period was converted into the Fine Arts Academia de San Carlos. Residences studied include La Casa del Marque´s del Apartado. Research by Eduardo Matos Moctezumas in the Centro Histo´rico of Mexico City has extended to include excavations to provide information on the urban character of the city as well as to identify many houses whose occupants are known. Monuments archaeologically investigated in Mexico City (see Table 1) include that of the Molino del Rey, erected to commemorate the Mexican heroes of the war with the United States in 1847. Secular structures: Urban archaeology Outside Mexico City We have included here a study of the evolution of a town plan in San Blas, Nayarit, described by Arciniega, and the circular town plan of Culiaca´n, Sinaloa, reported by Moguel and Carballal. The archaeology undertaken by INAH in the city of Aguascalientes as part of a modern urban project designed to develop an underpass system for traffic and reported by Valencia also falls into the category of urban salvage or rescue archaeology, some of which did more than merely define areas of previous occupations based on test pits. In the city of Guanajuato, excavations were conducted around the Teatro Juarez (1873–94) preparatory to carrying out restoration plans. Research was also carried out in the Palacio de Corte´s in Cuernavaca during the restoration of the building. In Me´rida, the Casa Montejo has been investigated and restored. Presidios in the northern borderland and the northwest of Mexico have been focal points of archaeological investigation, often emanating from across the United States–Mexico border, similar to the impulse for the study of religious buildings, especially missions, and as we shall note, ceramics. Not only were northern presidios studied archaeologically but so were some nineteenth and twentieth century forts in Puebla and Veracruz (see Table 4). Secular structures: The archaeology of industry Industrial archaeology as part of historical archaeology is taking its first few steps in Mexico (see Tables 1–3 and 5). More historians than archaeologists have shown an interest in Mexican industrial development. In part, this is due to the absence of legal protection and required archaeological investigations at sites from the late nineteenth and the twentieth century unless they are in a historic district or are important time-markers on their own.

Some recent research incorporating studies of industrial sites have been published in the Ferna´ndez Da´vila and Go´mez Serafı´n edited volume. Salas carried out investigations at the tobacco factory of the Ciudadela in Mexico City on the foundations of the late eighteenth century structure. Archaeological research in the city of Puebla by Alvarez Santiago encountered the foundations of textile factories first established there in 1884. Mining, a major Colonial and Independence period activity, has been studied by Oviedo Ga´mez at Pachuca and Real del Monte in the northeast Basin of Mexico. Another industrial site, Molino de Papel in the southeast of the Basin of Mexico, is mentioned by Peralta. The production of lime and ceramics at the Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzma´n should be considered an industrial site, albeit of a much smaller scale than the nonhousehold industries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The same is true for the production of Colonial period obsidian scrapers (probably for cattle hides) at the famed Cerro de las Navajas obsidian mines used in the Prehispanic period, as related by Pastrana and Fournier. Although greater than household production, the level of scraper production is not in the same league as that of nineteenth and twentieth century industrial production. In northwest and northern Mexico, mining facilities including towns have been surveyed in the Pima–Opata region of Sonora as well as in Chihuahua, Durango, and the state of New Mexico. In the state of Chiapas, De la Cruz and Lee (Table 6) have reported on the archaeology of a foundry. Secular structures: The archaeology of ranching and farming Ranches and haciendas Ranches and haciendas in rural areas are the physical manifestation of a system which ensured that land and labor were available for food production for the cities. The buildings were the residences and working areas of Spaniards or members of the Indian elite. These buildings today, where they are extant, belong to individuals or to towns. Although the land was nationalized after the 1910–20 revolution, the buildings were, for the most part, not taken over by the government, being included in a small parcel of land left with the former owners. They differ from religious buildings in another way; the system they represent was and is detested by the local village farmers who had to work in the system because of land shortages. There is great regional variability in the scale and timing of such buildings. Of interest are the ranches and haciendas where the laborers were housed instead of commuting daily to their work. The owners

AMERICAS, NORTH/Historical Archaeology in Mexico 191

of these enterprises had taken control of land either by renting it through compliant indios principales or by purchasing it outright. Although we have a good sequence of such ranches and haciendas in the northeastern Basin of Mexico, we lack excavation of a single structure at any one time. At the moment, Harold Juli is conducting excavations at a nineteenth century hacienda in Puebla. Underwater archaeology The underwater or nautical archaeology of Colonial period sites has become a valuable adjunct to terrestrial historical archaeology because of the ability to date with some certainty the ships being excavated. This is important because of the good associations between the dated shipwreck and the artifacts, including ceramics, found on board as Marken has noted in 1994. The main proponent of these studies has been Pilar Luna Erreguerena. She includes a brief overview of Mexican underwater archaeology in a paper in the Ferna´ndez Da´vila and Go´mez Serafı´n edited volume with an example of the search for the 1631 fleet. Later, in 2001, she co-edited a volume of papers on underwater archaeology. Regional Projects

These types of projects, surveys, and excavations undertaken by Mexican and American archaeological teams, working individually or in collaboration, in central and northern Mexico as well as in the Maya lowlands and other regions, are usually derived from avowedly scientific research agendas, based on a variety of theoretical frameworks. Such projects include those directed by Fournier in the Mezquital Valley and Charlton in the Teotihuacan Valley. Rani Alexander carried out similar research in the Yucatan as did R. B. Brown and Fournier in Chihuahua, and Janine Gasco in the Soconusco. The basic point of these projects is to recover archaeological materials from indigenous sites at the time of contact and beyond, in some cases up to the time the project was carried out. This means dealing with the reaction of the indigenous people to the new economic, social, and political order brought by the Spanish conquerors. The key to understanding these developments are the settlement patterns which include the native communities and the introduction of ranches and haciendas as a means whereby the Spaniards, and the Mexican elite after Independence, appropriated labor and land at the expense of the indigenous people. At times, missions, forts, and road systems are important as well. Artifact Analyses

One of the trends leading to historical archaeology in Mexico was an interest by collectors, and then by

archaeologists, in gaining a solid ceramic chronology, especially from majolicas. This led such scholars as John Goggin to carry out excavations in the 1940s in Mexico at various historic sites, usually church and convent complexes. Studies of majolicas continue today with the use of neutron activation analyses. Studies of all kinds of materials, such as ceramics including figurines, obsidian, and metal tools, are represented in the Ferna´ndez Da´vila and Go´mez Serafı´n edited volume (Tables 1–3). Osteological Studies of Burials

Human skeletal remains have been located in Colonial period cemeteries in both rural and urban contexts. Descriptive osteological analyses have been carried out defining the age structure and health status of the deceased. Added to these studies have been analyses for lead poisoning and dietary data through isotopic analyses (see Stable Isotope Analysis).

Conclusions Mexican historical archaeology is alive and well. Although it is necessary to combine two disciplines in innovative ways to develop research questions and to interpret data recovered, this does not seem to be an impediment in its growth. The growth of Mexican historical archaeology is tightly linked to salvage archaeology when buildings or urban streetscapes are being modified. Such a link will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future. At the same time, archaeologists are increasingly recognizing that the inclusion of a postconquest component in regional studies will enlarge upon the written word alone in understanding how today is linked to the past. See also: Africa, Historical Archaeology; Americas,

North: Historical Archaeology in the United States; Americas, South: Historical Archaeology; Historical Archaeology: As a Discipline; Methods; Industrial Archaeology; Marxist Archaeology; Postprocessual Archaeology; Processual Archaeology; Stable Isotope Analysis; Underwater Archaeology; Urban Archaeology.

Further Reading Andrews AP (2006) Historical Archaeology in the Maya Area: A Working Bibliography. http://faculty.ncf.edu/andrews/ research/habib.htm accessed Feb 2007. Charlton TH (1973) Post-Conquest Developments in the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico, AD 1400–1969, Part I, Excavations. Report

192 AMERICAS, NORTH/Lower Central America No. 5, Office of the State Archaeologist. Iowa City: Office of the State Archaeologist. Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.) (1998) Primer congreso nacional de arqueologı´a histo´rica, memoria. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia. Foster GM (1960) Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 27: Culture and Conquest, America’s Spanish Heritage. New York: Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc. Fournier P (1990) Evidencias arqueolo´gicas de la importacio´n de cera´mica en Me´xico, con base en los materiales del exconvento de San Jero´mino. Coleccio´n Cientı´fica 213. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia. Fournier P and Miranda F (1992) Historic sites archaeology in Mexico. Historical Archaeology 26: 75–83. Graham E (1998) Mission archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 27: 25–62. Herna´ndez Pons E (1998) Arqueologı´a histo´rica en Me´xico: Antecedentes y Propuestas. In: Ferna´ndez Da´vila E and Go´mez Serafı´n S (eds.). pp. 1–26. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia. Kelly KG (2005) Historical archaeology. In: Maschner HDG and Chippindale C (eds.) Handbook of Archaeological Methods vol. II, pp. 1108–1137. New York: AltaMira Press. Luna P and Roffiel R (coordinators) (2001) Memorias del congreso cientı´fico de arqueologı´a subacua´tica ICOMOS. Coleccio´n Cientı´fica 435. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropologı´a e Historia. Marken MW (1994) Pottery from Spanish Shipwrecks 1500–1800. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. Noguera E (1934) Estudio de la cera´mica encontrada donde estaba el Templo Mayor de Me´xico. Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueologı´a, Historia y Etnografı´a 1, 5th Epoca, pp. 267–282. Mexico: Talleres Gra´ficos de la Nacio´n. Thomas DH (ed.) (1989–1991) Columbian Consequences (3 vols.). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Lower Central America Anthony Ranere, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Holocene A geologic time period from c. 10 000 BC to the present when the climate approximated to that witnessed today. Intermediate Area An archaeological culture area that includes Lower Central America and northwestern South America; so named because it sits between the Mesoamerica and Peru culture areas. Late Pleistocene A geologic time period from c. 16 000 to 10 000 BC at the end of the last glaciation when mean annual temperatures were c. 5–8 C below modern values. swidden A form of agriculture where forest patches are cleared, burned, and planted for a short time period (2–5 years is common) and abandoned when crop yields drop; also known as shifting cultivation or slash-and-burn cultivation. terrane A geological unit that has been transported from a distant location and then accreted onto the edge of another plate during subduction.

Introduction Central America (CA) is normally considered to encompass all countries south of Mexico and north of Colombia – that is, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. While this is a convenient definition in terms of modern political boundaries, it does not serve us well in looking at the region’s prehistory. During the Late Pleistocene, Early Holocene, and Middle Holocene (c. 15 000–3000 BC) (all dates mentioned in this article are calibrated unless specifically identified as 14C dates) an argument could be made that a discussion of Central American prehistory should encompass an area extending from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the southern end of the Panama Isthmus and perhaps beyond. During the Late Holocene (3000 BC to present), the cultural trajectories in the northern and southern portions of CA diverged into the widely recognized ‘Mesoamerican’ cultural pattern and a less well-defined ‘Intermediate Area’ cultural pattern. These patterns, of course, extended both north and south of CA. The boundary between these two areas initially falls in western Honduras but late in prehistory, the southern boundary could be extended along the Pacific Coast as far south as the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. In this overview, the territory from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Panama–Colombian border will be under review for the early portion of Central American prehistory. Once the division between Mesoamerican and Intermediate Area cultures becomes clear, this review will focus on the southern part of CA or what is often referred to as Lower Central America (Figure 1).

The Landscape Central America has only been a terrestrial bridge between the North and South American continents for about 2.5 million years. Previously, much of CA was a narrow peninsula at the southern end of North America and earlier in the Miocene, an island arc that existed in the area where eastern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama are today. The geology of CA owes many of its features to its placement in the region where there are a number of geological plate boundaries. The subduction of one plate under another has led to uplifting and folding of the crust to form highlands and the volcanic arc that gives much of CA its distinctive character. The sliding of one plate by another along the Motagua Fault in Guatemala and Honduras results in frequent earthquakes, some of them quite massive. Earthquakes are also common along the volcanic arc in CA where the Cocos Plate is diving down below the Caribbean Plate.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Lower Central America 193

Lower Central America

Northem Central America

Figure 1 This digital image of Central America shows both landscape topography and ocean bathymetry. Northern Central America falls within the Mesoamerican cultural area while Lower Central America falls within the Intermediate cultural area. Reproduced with permission from NASA. Image can be found at http://visibleearth.nasa.gov.

N

Volcanic rocks Marine sedimentary basins

Nicaragua

Old subduction zones Exotic terranes

Nicoya Trench

30

60

mi

Volcanoes

Costa Rica

0

South America

Panama Osa

COCOS RIDGE

Burica Coiba Trench Panama Transform Fault

Azuero

Figure 2 A geologic map of Lower Central America that shows the location of exotic terranes and part of the Panama transform fault that separates the Cocos and Nazca plates. From Coates AG (1997) The forging of Central America. In: Coates AG (ed.) Central America: A Natural and Cultural History, pp. 1–37. New Haven: Yale University Press. Reproduced with permission.

Plate movements have also carried exotic terranes (a geological unit that has been transported from a distant location and then accreted onto the edge of another plate during subduction) into this area between the North American and South American plates adding to the diversity of geological formations in CA. Some of these terranes, like the Maya Terrane, which extends from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

to the Motagua Fault, and the Chortis Terrane, which extends south from the Maya Terrane into central Nicaragua, are large and make up significant portions of CA. Other terranes, like those that form the core of the Pacific Coast peninsulas of Nicoya, Osa, Burica, and Azuero in CR and Panama, are much smaller additions to the Central American landscape (Figure 2).

194 AMERICAS, NORTH/Lower Central America

The closing of the seaway between the Caribbean and the Pacific 2.5 million years ago led to what is know as the Great American Faunal Interchange in which the faunas of North and South America that had been isolated for millions of years were suddenly provided the opportunity to expand into new territory and did so in quite dramatic ways. North and South American floras, equally isolated, also intermingled for the first time in millions of years. The emergence of the Central American Isthmus had equally dramatic effects on the character of the oceans on either side of the isthmus and the life forms that each supported. The initiation of strong glacial cycles shortly after the closure of the Central America seaway (and perhaps triggered by this closing) also affected the character of the region. Sea levels varied as much as 180 m and, at times of maximum glaciation, exposed the continental shelf and greatly increased the land area of CA. The geologically recent uplifting of oceanic crust and repeated volcano activity have created the highland core of the Panama–Costa Rica corridor. The relatively low ranges east of the Panama Canal give way to increasingly high mountains moving west into the Talamancan Range of western Panama and Costa Rica where numerous peaks exceed 3000 m in elevation. In Panama, coastal lowlands tend to be more extensive on the Pacific side of the isthmus than on the Caribbean side, while the situation is reversed in Costa Rica. Extensive lowlands along the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua extend across the isthmus to the Pacific Coast in the Nicaraguan depression that holds the large lakes of Managua and Nicaragua. The continental divide dips to only 45 m above sea level (asl) in this region, even lower than the 180 m asl is found where the Panama Canal is now located. North of the Nicaraguan depression, the interior of CA consists of highlands whose cores are ancient uplifted deposits of the Chortis and Maya terranes with more recent additions resulting from the volcanic eruptions that formed the southern portion of the highlands bordering the narrow Pacific coastal plain. The highlands end at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a lowland depression where the continental divide dips below 250 m. The great limestone platform that forms the lowlands of the Peten, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula was raised above sea level at the end of the Cretaceous by the collision between the Maya and Chortis terranes. The susceptibility of limestone to dissolution by water has produced the distinctive karst topography of this vast lowland region with its cenotes, vast underground caverns, and dearth of surface water. The diversity of landscapes from coastal lowlands to mountainous interiors of diverse geological substrates

support an equally diverse biota. CA, as described by Spanish chroniclers in the sixteenth century, was a mosaic of forests, savannas, and agricultural fields; a landscape that had been modified by humans over the course of thousands of years. In the absence of human interference, the current climate of CA would support a range of vegetation formations from tropical rain forests and various seasonal forest formations to savannas and thorn scrub formations. All of CA lies between 7
130 at the Panama–Colombia border to 21
360 at the northern tip of the Yucatan peninsula, firmly within the tropics. Seasonal variation in temperatures is modest; over the course of a year, average monthly temperatures vary only by 1–6
C. Mean annual temperatures vary from 20–27
C as one moves upwards from the lower elevations of tierra caliente (hot lands – up to 1000 m in elevation) to 15–19
C in the midelevations of tierra templada (temperate lands – from 1000 to 2000 m asl) to below 15
C at the highest elevations of tierra fria (above 2000 m asl). Rainfall amount and distribution are highly variable across the Central American landscape, with some areas receiving upwards of 5000 mm annual rainfall evenly distributed throughout the year, and others receiving less than 1000 mm annually concentrated in a 6–7-month wet season. Rainfall tends to be higher and more evenly distributed throughout the year in Caribbean watersheds. Pacific watersheds tend to have lesser amounts of rain that is more seasonally distributed. During the months from December through April, the northeast trade winds blowing out of the Bermuda–Azores highpressure cell sweep over the warm Caribbean and bring moisture-laden air to the region. As these warm, moisture-laden winds are forced upward by mountain slopes, they cool and drop their moisture on the Caribbean side of the Central American Isthmus. As the air mass warms on its descent down the leeward side of the mountains, it has no excess moisture to yield as rain and, as a consequence, much of the Pacific side of Central America has a 4–6month dry season when little rain falls. Differences in bedrock geology, soils, elevation, rainfall, vegetation, and oceans have resulted in landscapes with highly diverse resources and equally diverse adaptations that human populations have made to them over time.

History of Archaeology Early attention to archaeological remains in Central America focused on the architecture and statuary of the region’s ancient cities and towns and on the handsomely crafted gold, shell, semiprecious stone, and

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elaborate ceramics that often accompanied the burials of important people. Early researchers writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made contributions that can still be profitably consulted. Works by Walter Lehmann (all of CA), Carl Hartman (Costa Rica), E. G. Squier (Nicaragua and Honduras), Carl Bovallius (Nicaragua), J. F. Bransford (Nicaragua and Costa Rica), Earl Flint (Nicaragua and Costa Rica), Anastacio Alfaro (Costa Rica), William H. Holmes (Panama), and Sigvald Linne (Panama) fall within this category. A focus on chronology with an emphasis on ceramics characterized much of the archaeological research in CA during the first twothirds of the twentieth century and beyond. Over the course of his long career, Samuel Lothrop wrote major monographs on ceramic sequences in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, but is perhaps best known for his two-volume report on excavations at the Sitio Conte cemetery in Panama. Other researchers contributed to building regional chronologies in CA: among them are Doris Stone (Honduras, Costa Rica), Wolfgang Haberland (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama), Claude Baudez (Honduras, Costa Rica), Michael Coe (Costa Rica), Stanley Boggs (El Salvador), and Matthew Stirling (Costa Rica, Panama). This work focused almost exclusively on the last 2000 years of prehistory when populations were living in permanent settlements with agriculturebased subsistence economies that generated highly visible refuse and often above-ground architectural features. The excavation of the Monagrillo site in Panama, reported by Gordon Willey and Charles McGimsey, extended the age of pottery production in Central Pacific Panama back an additional 2500 years, to 3000 BC. Charles McGimsey’s excavation of the nearby Cerro Mangote (6810  110 BP (c. cal 5700 BC)) was the first stratified Preceramic site excavated in CA. The transformation in archaeological approaches that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s was reflected in a host of new orientations for archaeological projects undertaken in Lower Central America by a cohort of then young archaeologists, many of whom are still active in the field. Settlement patterns, the use of animal and plant resources, exchange systems, the first colonizers, the origins of agriculture, and the evolution of social complexity are just some of the topics that came under investigation. Our current knowledge of Central American prehistory, as outlined in the following sections, owes a great deal to the research of Richard Cooke, Francisco Corrales, Robert Drolet, Pat Hansell, Paul Healy, John Hoopes, Fred Lange, Olga Linares, Dolores Piperno, Anthony Ranere, Michael Snarskis, and Payson Sheets, among others.

Early Human Occupations Central America landscapes have changed in many important ways since the first human groups entered the region during the last major glaciation (Figure 3). Temperatures were c. 5–6
C lower than they are today and rainfall was reduced by perhaps 30–40%. The massive glaciers in the world’s polar regions held enough water to lower sea levels over 100 m and expose the continental shelf, which for parts of CA, added significant areas of dry land, particularly along the Pacific site of Panama and the Caribbean side of Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Reconstruction of Late Pleistocene vegetation at coring localities in Panama (La Yeguada, El Valle, Monte Oscuro, and Gatun Lake), Costa Rica (La Chonta), and the Peten region of Guatemala (Lakes Salpeten and Quexil) indicates that areas now receiving in excess of c. 2000 mm of rainfall annually would have been forested during the last glacial stage, whereas areas with annual rainfall below c. 2000 mm were likely to have had open savanna or low scrub vegetation. These more open formations would have been located on the Yucatan Peninsula, including the Peten and Belize, along the Pacific coastal plain from El Salvador to northwestern Costa Rica, and the Pacific coastal plain along Panama Bay. Still in all, large areas on the Pacific side of CA receive over 2000 mm of rain annually, including an area stretching from central Costa Rica to Central Panama and the area near the Colombian border. Most of the Atlantic watershed of CA receives well over 2000 mm of rain annually. While it seems clear that the late glacial landscape of CA contained more extensive open habitats than at any time during the Holocene (that is, until massive forest clearing for cultivation was underway), it was still a largely forested landscape. The Late Pleistocene landscape in CA was populated by at least 15 genera of large herbivores that did not survive to see the Holocene. These include the mastodon-like gomphotheres (Cuvieronius tropicus and Haplomastodon), mammoth (Mammuthus), megalonychid and megatheriid giant ground sloths, including the huge Eremotherium, glyptodonts (Glyptodontidae), giant armadillos (Pampatherium and Chlamytherium), a horse (Equus (Amerhippus)), the rhinoceros-like Toxodon, the camel-sized Macrauchenia, Paleolama, giant capybara (Neochoerus), flat-headed peccary (Platygonus), and bear (Arctodus). Included in this list are browsers, grazers, and omnivores adapted to a range of forest, forest edge, and open thorn scrub/savanna environments. While none of these taxa has been found in association with human artifacts in CA (bone was not preserved in the sites excavated to date with Late Pleistocene cultural

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Figure 3 A map showing the reconstructed vegetation of Central America during the Late Pleistocene and the coring localities that provided the information for this reconstruction. The location of major Paleoindian localities are also indicated. Adapted from Ranere AJ and RG Cooke (2003) Late Glacial and Early Holocene occupation of Central American tropical forests. In: Mercader J (ed.) Under the Canopy. The Archaeology of Tropical Rain Forests, pp. 219–248. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Reproduced with permission.

deposits), some have been found in archaeological sites of northern South America (see Americas, South: Northern South America). At the site of Tibito´ in the Bogata Basin, Cuvieronius, Haplomastodon, and Equus (Amerhippus), as well as extant fox (Cerdocyon) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus), were associated with human activities 14C dated to 11 740  110 BP (11 638 BC). Haplomastodon was found in association with an El Jobo lanceolate point at Taima-Taima, Venezuela, dated c. cal 13 400 BC. The same layer as the mastodon and El Jobo point also yielded glyptodont, mylontid sloth, horse, bear, and felid remains. Elsewhere in Venezuela (at the site of El Vano), El Jobo points have also been found in direct association with the giant ground sloth Eremotherium rusconii. We can say very little about the nature and timing of the earliest migrants into and through the Central American Isthmus; those who were ancestral to the groups documented further south in sites like Monte Verde in Chile, Taima-Taima in Venezuela, and Tibito´ in Colombia, among others. There are no firm archaeological sites that reflect the presence in CA of any groups older than the Paleoindian Clovis populations.

Diagnostic Paleoindian fluted points of the Clovis and Fluted Fish-tail types have only been found in two stratified sites in CA that have reported radiocarbon dates, Los Tapiales in the Guatemalan Highlands and Cueva de los Vampiros in the Pacific coastal plain of Panama. Los Tapiales is an open-air site located at an elevation of 3150 m in what is currently an alpine meadow. 14C dates of 11 170  200 BP (c. cal 11 200 BC) and 8810  110 BP (c. cal 7960 BC) bracket deposits from which 100 tools and nearly 1500 flakes were recovered, including a fluted point base and a channel flake. The excavators, Ruth Gruhn and Alan Bryan, view the occupation as short term and believe that the 14C date of 10 710 þ 170 BP (c. cal 10 700 BC) is the best estimate of its age. At Vampiros, cave deposits bracketed between 14C dates of 11 550  140 BP (c. cal 11 460 BC) and 8970  40 BP (c. cal 8150 BC) contained the blade portion of a Fluted Fish-tail point and overshot thinning flakes characteristic of Clovis-reduction techniques (but not Fish-tail-reduction techniques). Similarly aged deposits have been excavated at three other Central American sites; La Piedra de Coyote (14C dates of 10 650  1350 BP (10 250 BC) and 10 020  260 BP (9680 BC)), located in the Guatemalan Highlands

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near Los Tapiales, Aguadulce Shelter (14C dates of 10 725  80 BP (c. cal 10 825 BC), 10 675  95 BP (c. cal 10 785 BC) and 10 529  284 BP (c. cal 10 490 BC)), located in the coastal plain of Central Pacific Panama near Vampiros, and Corona Shelter (14C date of 10 440  650 BP (c. cal 10 115 BC)), located in the foothills of Central Pacific Panama. Although no clearly diagnostic tools were recovered, all three sites yielded bifacial thinning flakes consistent with those produced in manufacturing fluted points. Although undated, a number of Clovis and Fluted Fish-tail points have been found in Central America, some as part of surface site assemblages and some as isolated finds. The site of Turrialba (also known as Finca Guardiria), at 10 ha in area, is by far the largest Paleoindian site known for CA. It is located at an altitude of c. 700 m on terraces of the Reventazo´n River in the Atlantic watershed of Costa Rica. The region receives 4000 mm of rain annually and would be covered in evergreen forest if not for human intervention. The entire site area has been cultivated and all of the over 28 000 flakes and tools have been recovered from the surface or the plow zone. Large numbers of fluted Clovis points were recovered, as well as bifacial preforms and other tools often found with other fluted point assemblages, that is, snubnosed keeled scrapers, end-scrapers with lateral spurs, burins, and large blades. Another important Clovis site is the La Mula West workshop, Central Pacific Panama, where erosion has left workshop debris and the rare finished tools exposed on the ground surface or buried in reworked deposits. Over 80 biface fragments were recovered from the site, including 12 basal fragments that had been either fluted or basally thinned. Spurred end-scrapers, burins, gravers, and blades were recovered at La Mula West as well. The only near-complete specimen recovered would be lost in a collection of early North American Clovis points. The lithic reduction sequence reconstructed on the basis of the broken bifaces and manufacturing debris, including a number of overshot flakes and hundreds of thinning flakes, is nearly identical to the sequence reported for North American Clovis workshops. Although there is no direct date for the La Mula West assemblage, 15 years before its discovery, an isolated hearth 14 C dated to 11 300  250 BP (c. cal 11 215 BC) was found eroding out of sediments near the site. This seems an appropriate age for an assemblage that shares the same lithic reduction sequence and projectile point form as the early Clovis assemblages in North America (Figure 4). Two additional sites in Panama have yielded bifaces and workshop debris that can be assigned to the Paleoindian period. One, the Neito quarry/

workshop, is located in the Azuero Peninsula west of La Mula West and contains the same translucent chalcedony material preferred by the La Mula West Clovis flintknappers and evidence of similar reduction techniques. The second site, the Westend workshop, is located in the Chagres River drainage near the Panama Canal on the shores of an island in Lago Alajuela (Madden), an artificial lake that stores water to supply the operation of the Panama Canal locks. At low water, workshop debris covering an area c. 1 ha in size is exposed on the eroded surface. Although thousands of thinning flakes are present (most with small, heavily ground platforms) only two preforms and no finished points were recovered. However, elsewhere on eroded shorelines of Lago Alajuela, six Fish-tail points and one ‘waisted’ Clovis point have been picked up. The preponderance of Fish-tail points in the lake basin and the absence of overshot flakes in the Westend assemblage indicate that Fish-tail points and not Clovis points were the desired end product. Additional isolated fluted points of both Clovis and Fish-tail varieties have been found in a number of different contexts in CA, including the Belize Lowlands, Guatemala Highlands, both the lowlands and highlands of Costa Rica, and the foothills and coastal plain of Pacific Panama. While Paleoindian sites and isolated finds are relatively few in number, they are found in a wide range of geographic and ecological settings. Paleoindian lithic remains have been found above the Late Pleistocene tree line (Los Tapiales and Piedra de Coyotes) in highland Guatemala, in montane closed-canopy forests elsewhere in Guatemala (Guatemala and Ocozocoautla valleys) and Costa Rica (Turrialba and the Arenal region), in lowland closed-canopy forests (Lago Alajuela in the Chagres Basin), and in open savanna/thorn scrub lowlands (Belize, northwest Costa Rica, and Central Pacific Panama). Paleoindian groups were clearly able to move about through the entire range of geographic and environmental settings found in CA during the Late Pleistocene. This ability may have more to do with an emphasis on hunting rather than on gathering by these populations; Clovis and Fish-tail points are, after all, hunting weapons and no specialized plantprocessing tools have been found at Paleoindian sites. Hunting techniques are relatively easy to transfer from one environment to another and meat eating is not a hazardous undertaking. On the other hand, learning what plants can be safely consumed in newly encountered environments, or learning how to render the plants safe for human consumption can be a timeconsuming process. The picture that is emerging of CA Paleoindians is one of small mobile groups moving though a range of environments in pursuit

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(i) Figure 4 Artifacts from the Clovis workshop of La Mula West, Panama: a and b, point preforms broken in manufacture; c–f, overshot flakes, a characteristic feature of Clovis point manufacture where the opposite side of the preform is removed in the thinning process; g–i, late-stage fluted preforms broken in the manufacturing process.

of game but perhaps tethered to high-quality sources of stone for manufacturing their skillfully made projectile points.

Archaic Hunter–Gatherers and the Introduction of Agriculture Palaeoenvironmental records from lake cores in both northern and southern regions of CA document the changing landscapes resulting from the warmer and moister climate that marked the Late Pleistocene/ Early Holocene transition. Mean annual temperatures increased 5–6
C while annual rainfall increased 30–40%. As a result, forests expanded into previously open habitats in many parts of CA and

plant species moved 600–900 m higher in elevation (Figure 5). At least 15 genera of megafauna that once roamed through CA were now extinct, including the mastodont-like gomphotheres (Cuvieronius tropicus and Haplomastodon), mammoth (Mammuthus), megalonychid and megatheriid giant ground sloths, including the huge Eremotherium, glyptodonts (Glyptodontidae), giant armadillos (Pampatherium and Chlamytherium), a horse (Equus (Amerhippus)), and, perhaps, the rhinoceros-like Toxodon, the camel-sized Macrauchenia, Paleolama, giant capybara (Neochoerus), flat-headed peccary (Platygonus), and bear (Arctodus). The cultural response to this changing landscape was a gradual increase in the importance of plant

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foods in the diet. Emphasis is on ‘gradual’ here since tool assemblages during the period from 10 000 to 6000 BC were still dominated by bifacial projectile points and other tools important in hunting and butchering activities. Archaic sites are found in the same regions that have yielded Palaeo-Indian sites, but in larger numbers. In a probabilistic survey of seven 500 m-wide transects covering a total distance of 74.5 km in the Santa Maria Valley of Central Pacific Panama, 16 Archaic components have been identified compared to seven Palaeo-Iindian components. Although more impressionistic, this same pattern appears to hold elsewhere in CA. The overall population of CA remains small during the Early Holocene and hunting remains important, to judge by the lithic assemblages. Faunal remains are generally not preserved in these sites, but at the Santa Marta Rockshelter, Chiapas, at the northern boundary of CA, white-tailed deer, red deer (or mazama), peccary, tapir, squirrel, agouti, and armadillo were recovered in layers with 14C dates of 7320  300 BP (c. cal 6180 BC) and 6910  310 BP (c. cal 5795 BC). Nonetheless, there are clear signs of an increased emphasis on plant foods by the middle of this period

in the form of specialized plant-processing tools, palaeobotanical evidence for forest clearing, and microfossil remains of both wild and domesticated plants. The initial cultivation and domestication of plants was early and remarkably widespread in tropical America. Archaeologists, palaeobotanists, and molecular biologists are still trying to determine the time, place, and ancestral species for many of the crops brought under domestication in the Americas. We do know, however, that this process was underway both in north and south of CA by the ninth millennium BC and that a number of these crops were being cultivated in CA shortly thereafter. Our earliest evidence of agricultural activities in the form of actual plant remains comes from the Aguadulce, Carabali, and Ladrones shelters as well as from other sites in Central Pacific Panama. Microfossil remains of several domesticates including maize (pollen, phytoliths, starch grains), squash (phytoliths), arrowroot (phytoliths, starch grains), leren (phytoliths, starch grains), manioc (starch grains), and bottle gourd (phytoliths) have been recovered in multiple contexts dating from the sixth and seventh

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Figure 6 Maize (Zea mays) starch grains from Gran Cocle´ sites: a, Rio Cobre; b and c, Cueva de los Ladrones; d, Aguadulce Shelter; e and f, Zapotal. Scale bars ¼ 10 mm. From Dickau R (2005) Resource Use, Crop dispersals, and the Transition to Agriculture in Prehistoric Panama: Evidence from Starch Grains and Macroremains. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia. Reproduced with permission.

millennium BC (Figure 6). A 16 700-year long record from the Yeguada Lake core preserves a record of vegetation disturbance by human populations beginning around 11 000 BC in changes in pollen, phytolith, and charcoal flux. Gradual increases in the amount of forest burning reflected in the Yeguada sequence from c. 11 000 to 6000 BC, with a noticeable jump in charcoal influx around 7600 BC, is consistent with the archaeological survey and excavation data that indicate modest increases in the population density over this time period in the region and early cultivation of at least one domesticate (arrowroot) by 7600 BC. The escalation of burning likely represents the use of small kitchen or house gardens in a still primarily forested landscape. A major increase in charcoal along with secondary forest and open-terrain taxa in the pollen and phytolith records at 6000 BC identifies the initiation of intensive slash-and-burn agriculture

in the area. Yeguada Lake is located at 650 m asl in the Santa Maria River watershed, the setting for a probabilistic archaeological survey that identified a twofold increase in sites during the Early Preceramic time period (9600–6000 BC) relative to the previous Palaeo-Indian Period and a nearly eightfold increase in sites (from 16 to 124) between the Late Preceramic Period (6000–3900 BC) and the previous Early Preceramic Period. A second core from Monte Oscuro on the Pacific coastal plain also gave clear indication of extensive forest clearance for swidden agriculture. Maize phytoliths from the Monte Oscuro core at 6000 BC and maize pollen from the Yeguada core at 5630 BC complements the microfossil records of maize and other early domesticates from archaeological sites in the region. Excavated sites and lake core sequences that extend back into the Middle and Early Holocene (i.e., before c. 4000 BC) are not common in CA. Rockshelter excavations in western Panama have sequences going back only to 5500–6000 BC. However, they do provide evidence of plant cultivation in the way of starch grains for many of the same plants identified from Central Panama. Lake core sequences in eastern Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Tabasco, Mexico all show that forest clearance and swidden agriculture was widespread in CA by 2000 BC or earlier. A shift away from complete reliance on terrestrial resources to the use of coastal resources is first recorded at around 6000 BC at opposite ends of the region. The site of Cerro Mangote, located on the Pacific shores of Central Panama, contained abundant remains of fish, mollusks, and crabs as well as mangrove-associated species of birds and raccoons. Maize starch grains recovered from Cerro Mangote tools indicate that like other Central Panama sites, farming was part of the subsistence package. Moreover, marine shell and faunal remains from marine and estuarine species are found in a number of coastal plain and foothill sites up to 40 km inland during this 6000–3900 BC Late Preceramic period. This evidence, plus the fact that Cerro Mangote appears to have been seasonally occupied in the Late Dry Season/Early Wet season, points to a settlement system of seasonal transhumance for the region during the Late Preceramic. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, the earliest Chantuto phase shell middens date to 5500 BC. Because the early Chantuto phase sites were primarily shellfish-collecting stations, with some additional exploitation of coastal lagoon/estuary system resources to be sure, they too probably represent groups who are farming away from the coastline in Chiapas; maize phytoliths dating to 3500 BC were recovered from one of the Chantuto middens.

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There is a major shift in technology as Central American populations turn to a greater reliance on plant species, both cultivated and collected, after 6000 BC. In many parts of CA, best documented in Panama and the Pacific coastal zone of Chiapas, bifacial flaking disappears from the technological repertoire of these populations to be replaced by industries characterized by random reduction of cores to produce flakes that are used with little or no modification. Bipolar reduction is used when the raw material consists of small pebbles. Various kinds of handstones and bases also appear in assemblages as early as 7000 BC in Panama and perhaps as early in Chiapas to judge from the assemblages recovered from the Santa Marta Rockshelter. The dominant tools in Panama are edge ground cobbles and associated cobble/boulder bases, tool types that are also widespread at this time in parts of northern South America. The archaeological record for CA becomes very much richer with the introduction of ceramics into the material culture of its inhabitants. In part, this is simply a consequence of the ease with which ceramic sites can be located compared to earlier sites that only preserve stone tools. However, in part this richness reflects the increasingly sedentary communities and productive economies based on agriculture that subsidized a range of activities and interactions beyond those dictated by subsistence requirements. This is not to say that the introduction of ceramics is everywhere associated with major sociocultural changes in societies. The earliest pottery yet documented in CA,

the 3900–1250 BC Monagrillo pottery type from Central Panama, is found associated with the same lithic assemblages in use during the earlier Late Preceramic period. Indeed, many of these Late Preceramic sites continue to be occupied during the Early Ceramic. Sites do tend to be larger, and are found in larger numbers in the Caribbean watershed, but the pattern of seasonally occupied settlements, swidden agriculture, and the exploitation of a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic resources carries over from earlier times with little change (Figure 7). The timing of the appearance of pottery in CA is quite variable, as is the character of the pottery. Monagrillo pottery is rather poorly constructed: lowfired pottery made of local clays in limited shapes with infrequent incised and red-painted decorations. It cannot be definitively linked with any of the earlier pottery types from South America. In contrast, the early Tronadora pottery complex found from Central Costa Rica to the Pacific coastal region of Nicaragua, partially contemporary with Monagrillo ceramics at c. 2500–1250 BC, looks like it has evolved from some as-yet-unidentified predecessor. Contemporary or near-contemporary ceramic complexes (La Montan˜a, Chapparo´n, Los Suen˜os, Curre´) are documented from other regions in Costa Rica (Figure 8). Yet the first appearance of pottery moving north from this region gets younger. The Bara complex found along the Pacific coast of Guatemala dates from 1600 BP, and complexes in the highlands of Guatemala and along the Atlantic watershed are younger still. Interaction

Figure 7 Aerial photograph of Monagrillo, the type site for the earliest pottery in Central America. The site is on a peninsula currently extending into a salt flat, but when the site was occupied (c. 3500–1200 BC) the peninsula was surrounded by water.

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Figure 8 Sherds from early ceramic complexes in Costa Rica: a–n, La Montan˜a; o–z, Chaparro´n. Photo Maritza Gutie´rrez. From Snarskis MJ (1981) The archaeology of Costa Rica. In: Benson E (ed.) Between Continents/Between Seas: Pre-Columbian Art of Costa Rica, pp. 15–84. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

among groups throughout CA and beyond was clearly a long-standing and ongoing process. The adoption and passing on of South American domesticated plants to Mexico and Mexican domesticates to South America is an easily documentable consequence of this interaction. One senses, however, that while Central American communities appreciated the utility of pottery, they chose to manufacture pots to their own standards. Moreover, given the variation in timing for the first appearance of pottery in adjacent areas – Central Panama adopted pottery by 3900 BC, western Panama not until 650 BC – not all groups were immediately convinced of its utility.

Settling Down Widespread permanent settlements in CA were not established until after groups had been growing crops for several thousand years. Productive agricultural systems capable of supporting permanent villages are found throughout the region dating back to between 4500 and 2500 years ago. By this time, the alignment of the northern sector with Mexico above the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and that of the southern sector with northern South America, give meaning to the concepts of ‘Mesoamerica’ and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the ‘Intermediate Area.’ In the area now

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designated Mesoamerica, the development of stratified societies first into chiefdoms (see Americas, Central: The Olmec and their Contemporaries) and later into ancient states (see Americas, Central: Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya) occurred relatively rapidly. In contrast, settled village agriculture did not lead immediately to stratified societies in Lower Central America; indeed, in some regions like the western Costa Rican Highlands and the lowlands along the Atlantic coasts of Nicaragua and eastern Panama, the egalitarian nature of these agricultural societies continued right up until contact. Stratified societies or chiefdoms did evolve in a number of Lower Central American regions from Central Honduras through Atlantic Costa Rica to Central Pacific Panama, but this emergence did not follow fast on the heels of the appearance of large permanent settlements. The different cultural trajectories witnessed between the northern and southern sectors of CA almost certainly had their roots in the Late Preceramic Period (c. 6000–3900 BC). Genetic and linguistic divergence among modern Chibchan-speaking populations in Lower Central America both point to a time depth of c. 7000 years for the initial isolation of populations and languages. The cultural boundary between Gran Cocle´ (Central Panama) and Gran Chiriquı´ (western Panama/eastern Costa Rica) is clearly identifiable in the archaeological record by 5500 BC (Figure 9). The emergence of large sedentary agricultural villages is the most obvious indication that a major threshold had been crossed in CA. Other indications include the introduction of well-made ceramics, differential treatment of the dead (specialized cemeteries for social elites situated apart from the villages), the appearance of craft specialization, and the initiation of regular intra- and inter-regional exchange. The explosion of craft specialization and the production of luxury goods has no precedent in Late Preceramic/ Early Ceramic periods even in places like Gran Cocle´ where a number of such sites have been recorded and excavated. Specialization is not limited to esoteric goods like shell ornaments and various object and adornments of semiprecious stone. Utilitarian objects like polished stone celts, metates, manos, and chipped stone stemmed points and blades also appear to be in the hands of specialists. Even so, most scholars see this first period of permanent settlement as representing egalitarian tribal societies where status was achieved, much like the ‘Big Man’ societies of highland New Guinea, rather than ascribed or inherited as would be the case for chiefdoms. While most researchers working in Lower Central America see continuity in the cultural sequences and presumably in the populations responsible for them, there are clear influences from both Mesoamerica

and South America where craft specializations have longer histories. In some cases, prestige goods recovered from Lower Central America can be traced to neighboring regions. Such is the case for obsidian blades and other tools recovered in Northeast Honduras and the Greater Nicoya region of Pacific Nicaragua, and some of the jade objects recovered from sites in Costa Rica. The use of spiny oyster (Spondylus) shell as the raw material of choice for prestige goods along the Pacific coast of Panama was likely inspired by a similar but earlier use of Spondylus along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. Some of the gold pieces recovered from Panama and Costa Rica may have been fabricated in Colombia, although it now seems clear that most of the gold objects found in Lower Central America were manufactured there.

The Emergence of Hierarchical Societies Full-blown chiefdoms, similar in most details to those described by the early sixteenth-century Spanish chroniclers, make their appearance over much of Lower Central America during the first millennium AD, a judgment based on a wide range of archaeological evidence. Estimated sizes of a chiefly territory based on either ethnohistoric or archaeological data range from 60 to 300 km2 and estimated populations from 1000 to 10 000 persons. Chiefs and the chiefly elite lived in large villages or towns inhabited by upwards of 2000 persons. A number of features distinguished chiefly centers from other settlements in addition to size. While these distinguishing features varied from place to place, they include specialized residences for the chiefs and chiefly elites, often built on raised platforms, monumental stone statuary, and accumulation of wealth in the form of prestige goods. Nowhere is the wealth accumulated by the elite in Lower Central America more visible than at the famous Sitio Conte cemetery in Gran Cocle´ first excavated in the 1930s by Samuel Lothrop. The cemetery was in use over the 200-year period between AD 750 and 950. The personages buried here are predominantly adult males including all the central figures. The amount of funerary ceramics, gold, worked semiprecious stone, jewelry, the accompanying skeletons of numerous males and females (sacrificed captives and concubines?) – all point to the accumulation of luxury items in quantity as markers of high social status. Grave 74, excavated by J. Alden Mason, contained the following items: 3496 beads, 188 ear rods, 91 stone and gold ear rods, 45 gold appendages for ear rods, 87 bells, 29 medallions (repousse´ disks with geometric designs), 17 chisels, 13 plaques (repousse´ disks with figurative designs), 4 cuffs, 2 pendants, 23 overlays for bone, resin, and ivory objects,

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Figure 9 A map showing the approximate boundaries between the subregions of Lower Central America. The base map is from the Houghton Mifflin website http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cent_amer_pol.pdf

6 wristlets or anklets, 30 miscellaneous overlays, 4 nose ornaments, 2 nose clips or ear-rings, 1 bar, and a copper bell. Sitio Conte along with the contemporary ceremonial center El Can˜o just across the river, with its monolithic columns, paved causeway, and earthen burial mounds, represents an elite precinct without parallel in Gran Cocle´. It is the uniqueness of the Sitio Conte/El Can˜o complex that has led Cooke to propose the emergence of a larger social group than the chiefdom. The central place that wealth accumulation held as a marker of elite status in Gran Cocle´ can be seen in

cemeteries associated with other chiefly centers of the region. Grave goods in these cemeteries include many of the same items recovered at Sitio Conte´ albeit on a more modest scale. Most of these cemeteries have been looted and the associated grave goods widely dispersed in both private collections and museums. An exception is the cemetery at Cerro Juan Diaz along the east coast of the Azuero peninsula, a site that served at various times during the last 2000 years before contact as a major settlement and ceremonial center as well as a cemetery. Although badly looted, archaeological fieldwork carried out over a 10-year

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(f) (e) Figure 10 Late Preceramic polychrome vessels from Gran Cocle´, Panama: a–e, Macaracas style vessels from the site of Cerro Juan Dı´az; f, Montijo Transitional Style vessel from Las Huacas cemetery. From Cooke RG, Sa´nchez HLA, and Udagawa K (2000) Contextualized goldwork from ‘Gran Cocle´’, Panama. In: McEwan C (ed.) Pre-Columbian Gold, pp. 154–176. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.

period has resulted in proper chronological placement for luxury items like gold, semiprecious stone, and shell as well as ceramics and more utilitarian objects (Figures 10 and 11). Elsewhere in Lower Central America, large stone sculptures are a hallmark of chiefly centers. At the western Panama highland site of Barriles, the hierarchical character of the society is embodied in the sculpture of a man wearing a conical hat, a gold pendant suspended from his neck, and a human trophy head in each hand seated on the shoulders of another man, perhaps a captive (Figures 12 and 13). Other monumental stone sculptures from Barriles include large (2 m long) legged metates adorned with human heads and large barrel-shaped forms that gave the site its name. Barriles also contained a 30  50 m raised platform paved with stone slabs and boulders, paved causeways and petroglyphs. Further west in this Gran Chiriquı´ region, large sites with ceremonial precincts first appear around AD 400–600, as was the case with the Barriles site in the highlands of western Panama. These sites contain mounds, carved stone barrels, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic statues, and ceramic figurines wearing conical hats similar to those recovered in western

Panama. A unique addition to the ceremonial furniture are symmetrical stone spheres ranging up to 2.5 m in diameter and 15 tons in weight. The large ceremonial center of Rivas and associated Panteo´n de la Reina ridge-top cemetery in the Rio General watershed yielded evidence that indicated the presence of some sort of social network or alliance that incorporated multiple chiefdoms. Rivas was initially a habitation site, but sometime after AD 1000 it was transformed into a ceremonial center whose apparent use was in mortuary ritual culminating in the burial of elite personages in graves dug into the ridge that rose above the Rivas site. The uniqueness of this ceremonial center–cemetery complex recalls the Sitio Conte–El Can˜o ceremonial–cemetery complex in Gran Cocle´ (Figure 14). In the Central Highlands and Atlantic watershed regions of Costa Rica, evidences of social stratification are found in a number of burial sites dated between AD 300 and 700. The cemetery El Tres de Gua´cimo, tentatively dated between AD 400 and 500, contained at least 25 elite burials marked by low stone mounds along with another 100 or more additional graves. These elite burials contained a large number of jade objects, gold ornaments, tubular beads, mace heads,

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Figure 11 Gold objects from Gran Cocle´, Panama: a, from El Can˜o excavations; b–d, from Tomb 2 at Mira Flores; e, from El Cafetal; f, from Tomb 47 at Las Huacas; g–i, from El Can˜o; j–m, from Cerro Juan Dı´az, Operation 3. From Cooke RG, Sa´nchez HLA, and Udagawa K (2000) Contextualized goldwork from ‘Gran Cocle´’, Panama. In: McEwan C (ed.) Pre-Columbian Gold, pp. 154–176. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.

slate mirror backs, ceramics, and over 60 metates. The gold objects in this site suggest ties to Gran Cocle´ and northern Colombia, and the jade objects to Mesoamerica. Other cemeteries in this region have yielded reworked Olmec jades and Maya artifacts like slate mirror backs, some with hieroglyphic inscriptions. After AD 1000 a number of large villages with mounds and other architectural features are found in the Atlantic watershed. The largest site, Guayabo, was 1 km2 in size and contained over 50 mounds (many of them stone lined), paved causeways, stone statues, and an underground water system. The cobble-lined circular mounds, paved causeways,

and stairs of these Costa Rican sites recalls similar architectural features of the Tairona sites of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia and serves to reinforce the shared cultural features among groups stretching from Costa Rica south into Colombia (Figure 15). Northwest Costa Rica and the Pacific lake districts of Nicaragua form the archaeological region of Gran Nicoya. This area is sometimes considered part of Mesoamerica and, in fact, three groups speaking Mesoamerican languages, the Chorotega, Nicarao, and Subtiaba were in residence in Gran Nicoya when the Spanish arrived. The timing of the arrival

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for these groups is not entirely clear, but they were in the area long enough to adopt many of the local traditions. Nonetheless, until the arrival of these Mesoamerican groups, perhaps as late as the fourteenth century, the cultural patterns in Gran Nicoya seem very much a part of the Lower Central America/ Intermediate Area sphere. As was the case in some other Lower Central American areas, the strongest evidence for the emergence of hierarchical societies comes from large elite cemeteries. Las Huacas, located on the Nicoya Peninsula and first excavated by

Hartman at the turn of the twentieth century, contained graves with jade pendants, mace heads, and large numbers of metates dating to the period of AD 300–500. Although the details of the grave associations have long been lost, Las Huacas has been interpreted as a specialized cemetery for the elite from several settlements and perhaps more than one polity. In northeastern Honduras, at the northern boundary of Lower Central America, social complexity is most clearly seen in villages with large-scale public architecture. Located on a terrace above the Talgua River, the Talgua Village site, dated between AD 600 and 900, contained 80 house mounds, the largest reaching 2.5 m in height. Some of the mounds were faced with cobbles, recalling the pattern seen in the Atlantic watershed of Costa Rica. An unusual feature of this site was the discovery of a plaza covering at least 1000 m2 constructed of river cobbles to a depth of 2 m. The Altas de Subirana site in the Culmı´ Valley contains house mounds, stone causeways, paved plazas, and stone monoliths, all features that predated AD 600. Unlike the rest of Honduras, there is little evidence of Maya influence in this northeast region at the time large village sites make their first appearance. This is equally true of later centers like the Rio Claro site, dated between AD 1000 and 1400. The site included over 50 mounds constructed of clay and faced with boulders in an area of 8.5 ha. Some of the long low mounds held long houses up to 50 m in length. The site had a central mound 7 m in height with two opposing boulder ramps overlooking the larger of two plazas at the site. The elaborately carved large-legged metates, stone sculptures, and pottery of Northeast Honduras all suggest southern rather than Mayan/Mesoamerican influences.

Summary Figure 12 Stone sculpture from Barriles, Panama of one man wearing a conical hat and holding two trophy heads sitting on the shoulders of another. From Stone DZ (1972) Pre-Columbian Man Finds Central America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

The results of archaeological, linguistic, and genetic research to date in Lower Central America point to cultural continua over much of the area from a

Figure 13 A large ceremonial metate with human trophy heads carved around the perimeter of the sculpture. From Stone DZ (1972) Pre-Columbian Man Finds Central America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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Figure 14 A plan view of a portion of the Rivas site, Gran Chiriquı´, Costa Rica showing the use of boulders on the edges of house mounds, plazas, and other enclosures. Adapted from Quilter J (2004) Cobble Circles and Standing Stones: Archaeology at the Rivas Site, Costa Rica. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Reproduced with permission.

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Figure 15 A plan view of the Guayabo de Turrialba site showing cobble-faced house mounds, cobble-delineated enclosures, paved causeways, and artificial watercourses. From Fonseca ZO (1981) Guayabo de Turrialba and its significance. In: Benson E (ed.) Between Continents/Between Seas: Pre-Columbian Art of Costa Rica, pp. 104–111. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Reproduced with permission.

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common source, presumably the Paleoindian Clovis culture that once existed throughout the area over 12 000 years ago. The increase in population, decrease in mobility, increased reliance on local plant resources, and the addition of cultivation to the subsistence base all fostered divergent cultural trajectories in different subregions of CA. The archaeological cultures of Gran Cocle´ and Gran Chiriquı´, for example, are clearly differentiated by at least 6000 BC. By the sixteenth century, Gran Cocle´ and Gran Chiriquı´ and all other Lower Central American subregions held numerous autonomous polities, oftentimes speaking mutually unintelligible languages, yet they remained valid cultural areas. This suggests that groups within each subregion interacted with each other to a greater extent than with groups in neighboring subregions. Nonetheless, Central American populations embraced new technologies from outside the region, including agriculture, ceramics, metallurgy, shell and lapidary arts, while preserving their cultural traditions. See also: Americas, Central: Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya; Early Cultures of Middle America; Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica; The Olmec and their Contemporaries; Americas, South: Northern South America; Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction in the Lowland Neotropics; Plant Domestication.

Further Reading Coates AG (ed.) (1997) Central America: A Natural and Cultural History. New Haven: Yale University Press. Cooke RG (2005) Prehistory of native Americans on the Central American Land Bridge: Colonization, dispersal, and divergence. Journal of Archaeological Research 13(2): 129–187. Hoopes JW (2005) The emergence of social complexity in the Chibchan World of Southern Central American and Northern Colombia, AD 300–600. Journal of Archaeological Research 13(1): 1–47. Lange FW (ed.) (1992) Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. Lange FW (ed.) (1996) Paths to Central American Prehistory. Niwot, CO: University of Colorado Press. Lange FW and Stone DZ (eds.) (1984) The Archaeology of Lower Central America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Linares OF and Ranere AJ (eds.) (1980) Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama. Peabody Museum Monographs, 5. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Piperno DR and Pearsall DM (1998) The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. San Diego: Academic Press. Ranere AJ and Cooke RG (2003) Late Glacial and Early Holocene Occupation of Central American Tropical Forests. In: Mercader J (ed.) Under the Canopy. The Archaeology of Tropical Rain Forests, pp. 219–248. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Sheets PD and McKee BR (eds.) (1994) Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica Susan Toby Evans, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary altepetl Pronounced ahlTAYpeht, a Nahuatl (Aztec) word meaning ‘water-hill’ which signified the city-state in the Aztec empire. animatism A belief that inanimate things (objects, landscape features, natural phenomena) are imbued with a living spirit. This concept was fundamental to the belief systems of the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica. Aztec Empire The polity forged by the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan (which later became Mexico City) and its allies. At its height, at the time of the European intrusion into Mexico in AD 1519, it drew wealth from city-states from much of the area covered by modern Mexico. calpulli A land-holding social unit in Aztec society of Postclassic Mesoamerica. Each calpulli consisted of families with shared rights to farmland, and a local civic-ceremonial focus consisting of an administrative headquarters (usually the palace of the local lord) where policy matters would be discussed and tribute accumulated, a shrine, a ‘young men’s house’ (telpochcalli) to coordinate training for military and public service. Mesoamerica An archaeological culture area consisting of much of the extent of modern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. It is one of the six areas in the world where civilization and state-level political organization arose independently. Quetzalcoatl Pronounced KETZahlCOHaht, a Nahuatl (Aztec) word meaning ‘feathered serpent’ and referring to an important deity in Mesoamerica from the Olmec culture of the Formative period through the Late Postclassic period. Quetzalcoatl was a bringer of life to humankind, and patron of the fine arts. Templo Mayor The Great Temple of the Aztecs in their main capital, Tenochtitlan. Recent excavations have revealed seven construction stages, and these remains and associated buildings form an archaeological park in the heart of Mexico City.

Mesoamerican Culture History The Postclassic period (AD 900–1521) in Mesoamerican culture history is the final pre-Columbian era in a long sequence that extends back to the first humans in the geographical region we know as ‘Middle America’. Middle America comprises the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. Middle America’s northern boundary is defined by the arid reaches of northern Mexico and its southern boundary is the junction of Panama with South America. ‘Mesoamerica’ is a culture area, and it lies completely within Middle America, and consists of most of modern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

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Mesoamerica is defined by the widespread presence of a set of shared traits, but perhaps the most important of these was the cultivation of maize (corn) as a staple crop. The cultural limits of Mesoamerica are the same as the cultivation limits of maize over consistently large areas. The high caloric and protein value of maize permitted the development of large and dense population aggregates, farming villages, and, eventually, diverse and sophisticated cities. Crop surpluses supported the growth of nonfarming specialists, artisans who created material goods, and administrators who organized the economic, political, and spiritual sectors of society. Mesoamerica’s culture history began before maize was cultivated, with the nomadic hunters of the Palaeoindian period. By the end of the succeeding Archaic period, mobile hunter-foragers were experimenting with cultivation of progenitors of domesticated maize. The next period, the Formative, is initiated by the establishment of farming villages with maize cultivation. By AD 1000, the Olmec culture had established societal and artistic complexity in Mesoamerica, and by the close of the Formative period, in the third century AD, Mesoamerica’s first true cities were rising. The next period, the Classic, was first defined by the sequence of dates in the native calendar of the Maya culture. The dates were carved onto standing monuments (stelae) that extolled the accomplishments of Maya kings, and this practice was thought to begin at around AD 300 and continue until AD 900. Although the definition of this ‘Classic’ period was based on limited information, subsequent archaeological research found that it was a time of cultural accomplishment all over Mesoamerica. Not only were there Maya kingdoms, but, in the Central Highlands of Mexico during the Early Classic period, the great city of Teotihuacan was in its prime, as was the city of Monte Alba´n in the Oaxaca Valley (see Americas, Central: Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya). By the Late Classic period, these legendary places were losing power, and political importance was shifting to other centers, such as El Tajı´n in the lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico and Xochicalco in the Central Highlands. By AD 900, the great Maya ceremonial centers were being abandoned. The Postclassic period was thus first defined in contrast to the presumed idyllic cultures of the Classic, and Postclassic traits such as militarism and mercantilism were thought to represent a kind of cultural degeneration. We now know that peoples of the Classic period were enthusiastically and frequently engaged in hostilities and in trade, so these traits seem to be long-term trends in Mesoamerican culture history, and not specific to the Postclassic

period. Most scholars use AD 900 as the point at which the Postclassic period begins, and use AD 1521 as the end date, because in that year the dominant political confederation, the Aztec Empire, was defeated by combined forces of the armies of native societies antagonistic to the Aztecs, and the Spaniards led by Herna´n Corte´s.

Phases of the Postclassic Period This span of time of over 600 years encompassed three distinct phases. The Early Postclassic, AD 900– 1200, was the era during which the great cities of Tula and Chiche´n Itza´ dominated the cultural landscape, both apparently strongly influenced by the cult of the Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl in Nahuatl, the Aztec language), which spread over Mesoamerica. During the Middle Postclassic, AD 1200–1430, citystages flourished in many regions, and in some areas, such as Michoaca´n and the Central Highlands of Mexico, ambitious rulers began to consolidate these small polities into larger confederations. The Late Postclassic, AD 1430–1521, saw these aggregates grow to empires known, respectively, as the Tarascan empire (ruled from the city of Tzintzuntzan in Mexico’s Michoaca´n region), and the Aztec empire (ruled principally from the city of Tenochtitlan, which became Mexico City). A large part of the territory of what is now modern Mexico came under the sway of one or the other of these major capitals, and the rest of Mesoamerica interacted with them through trade or war. The Late Postclassic period is sometimes called the Aztec period because Aztec culture dominates our view of this time. Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, was conquered in 1521 but remained the most important city in Colonial period New Spain (as Mexico was then called), and remained the capital, its present name (Mexico City) being derived from the name of the dominant Aztec group, the Mexica (pron. maySHEEkah). Furthermore, Aztec history and customs were amply documented, which is not true of other Late Postclassic cultures. We have eyewitness accounts by the Spanish conquistadores themselves (Hernan Corte´s’s letters, Bernal Dı´az del Castillo’s accounts), and later accounts by Spanish clergy and laymen interested in Aztec culture (e.g., by Fray Diego Dura´n, Fray Bernardino de Sahagu´n, Alonso de Zorita). Most books in the native style were destroyed as promoting heresy against the Catholic religion of the Spaniards, but a few were saved as oddities or were copied, providing another important source of information, and are widely available today

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in facsimile editions (e.g., Codex Borgia, Codex Mendoza, Codex Telleriano-Remensis). Members of Aztec noble families also wrote histories in this Early Colonial period (Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxo´chitl’s Obras Histo´ricas; the Annals of Cuauhtitlan). Because information about Aztec culture dominates the repertoire of sources, scholars tend to use it often to interpret the customs and history of other cultures in Mesoamerica, those of the Postclassic, and those much earlier. This practice is sometimes necessary because of the difficulty of interpreting the material culture record recovered by archaeology, in cases where no written documentation exists. Thus, for many reasons, the once-mighty Aztecs have cast a long shadow over Mesoamerican culture history. Their empire flourished a mere 90 years, however, which puts into perspective the importance of understanding other cultures of the 600-year-long Postclassic period. Early Postclassic Period, AD 900–1200

In the Early Postclassic period, Mesoamerica’s Classic period regionalism was overcome by shared cultural trends that spread quickly over vast areas. This process is exemplified by the emergence of two dominant sites: Tula in the Central Highlands of Mexico and Chiche´n Itza´ in the lowland Yucata´n peninsula. The sites are nearly at the same latitude, but 1000 mi apart. They share an architectural style which is characteristic of Tula’s locale, the Central Highlands of Mexico, but it is far from clear that Chiche´n Itza´ was built under Toltec influence. In fact, some scholars argue that Chiche´n predates Tula, but because we do not have the same kind of chronometric dates from both sites, the issue cannot, at this time, be resolved. Tula In Tula’s period of greatness, AD 900–1150, the site covered nearly 16 km2 (c. 6.4 mi2) and had a population estimated at 60 000. The city had been constructed on a new grid that obliterated an earlier and much smaller settlement. Its ceremonial center echoed certain features of Teotihuacan, but the architecture was innovative in its use of massive blocky pyramids, colonnaded buildings, and huge sculptures. Pyramid B is topped by enormous figures, males in battle gear, and also by columns with attributes of important Postclassic deities such as Tezcatlipoca, the all-powerful trickster god, and Quetzalcoatl (‘quetzal-bird serpent’ or ‘feathered serpent’), bringer of life and patron of fine craft work and important aspects of knowledge, such as keeping the books of history and divination. Other deities known from Tula who are important throughout the Postclassic period are Tlaloc (the storm god), Xipe

Totec (flayed skin god who represented agricultural renewal), Tlazolteotl (the wise old woman to whom confessions were made), and Xochiquetzal, a goddess who oversaw human sexuality and textile arts. The importance of ritual human sacrifice is stressed in bas relief sculpture depictions, and by the free-standing ‘chacmool’ form, a reclining figure used as a sacrificial altar. Tula’s size and grandeur was probably based on a combination of militarism and trade. Trade routes ran to the West Mexico and north as far as the Puebloan cultures of what is now the United States Southwest. Those cultures flourished at the same time as did Tula, and show traits such as the use of the ball court and certain trade goods that indicate contact with Mexican cultures, but do not show that the Toltecs of Tula had an empire that inspired the development of Puebloan cultures. The Toltecs carried distinctive trade goods by which we can track their contacts, direct or indirect, with areas to the south and east. One item diagnostic of Toltec trading patterns, and also found in later cultures, was the wheeled ceramic figurine, typically depicting a dog or other animal, its feet pierced to accept front and rear axles that bore wheels. These figurines have been called toys, but they almost certainly served a sacred rather than an entertainment function. Mesoamericans revered any object or phenomenon that seemed to possess a lifelike vitality, because they believed that the world around them was animated by spiritual forces, and anything that moved had this energy. The use of the wheel in Mesoamerica was never extended to practical applications, as it was in the Old World. For one thing, there were no domestic animals large enough to pull a conveyance like a cart (all goods were carried in packs by human porters, or, where possible, in canoes), and so there was no springboard for the inventive design of gears and machinery, as happened in the Old World. Another item diagnostic of Toltec trade was Plumbate ware, with a distinctive glossy deep gray finish. It was produced along the Pacific coast of Chiapas and Guatemala, but was found at both Tula and Chiche´n Itza´, as well as at countless other sites contacted by Tula in the Early Postclassic period. A further stimulant to trade was the development, in West Mexico, of metalworking. This was apparently a set of techniques first introduced from South America by sea contacts along the Pacific Coast. In the first stage of Mesoamerican metalworking (AD 600/800–1200), copper was smelted and poured into casts. Simple forms were further worked by hammering, and more complicated forms were cast using

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the lost-wax technique. The most popular items produced by the lost-wax method were bells, small spherical tinkling devices that were worn in groups in the costumes of lords, deity impersonators, and long-distance traders. Metal’s ability to produce sound was one of its most important features in Mesoamerican culture. Another was its reflective brilliance, and in the second stage of metalworking (AD 1200– 1521), gold and silver were used to produce a range of decorative devices. Alloys of several metals were developed. Thus, Mesoamerica can be said to have achieved a ‘Bronze Age’ technology, but it was seldom used to produce utilitarian objects, in contrast to the metalworking traditions of the Old World. Metal objects were widely traded, and while Toltec merchants may have strongly influenced the flow of trade in western and northern Mexico, trade along the lowlands edging the Gulf of Mexico was in the hands of Maya ethnic groups variously known as the Chontal, Putu´n, and Itza´. These traders took goods along the coast around the Yucata´n peninsula and also into the interior. In 1502, on his fourth voyage to the New World, off the east coast of Yucata´n, Christopher Columbus saw a canoe at least 15 m (c. 50 ft) long, with 25 oarsmen plus the traders and their families, and goods including woven cotton mantles, obsidian blades, copper ax forms (thin sheets of copper used as currency), and cacao beans to be processed into chocolate. Thus the goods included tropical lowland products (cotton, cacao) and those from the highlands far to the west (obsidian, copper), indicating that these traders were handling a wide variety of goods from all over Mesoamerica. Chiche´n Itza´ This other great center of the Early Postclassic was a Maya site colonized by the ethnic Itza´ group in the ninth century AD. Its name means ‘mouth of the well of the Itza´’ and the well probably refers to the great Sacred Cenote (sinkhole), or Well of Sacrifice, 24 m (c. 80 ft) in diameter, with its water level an equal distance below the ground surface. Into this well were thrown all manner of precious materials such as carved jades, copper bells, and carved wooden items, and also human sacrifices, but forensic methods are powerless to determine whether or not the skeletal remains are those of beautiful virgins, as popular legends report. Chiche´n Itza´’s architecture reflects two distinct traditions, Maya and Central Mexican, and in some cases a fusion of the two, such as in the Caracol, a circular structure with features permitting tracking of astronomical events. Other buildings are more clearly in the Central Mexican style, and these huge structures dominate the area extending south from the

Sacred Cenote. The Castillo is a 23 m (c. 75 ft) high four-sided stepped pyramid decorated with feathered serpent motifs. The Temple of the Warriors and its associated buildings are of the same style as Tula’s Pyramid B complex, and show the same use of columns on top of the pyramid, and colonnaded halls at its base. Surviving murals at the Temple of the Warriors show battle scenes, and also canoes in use that are of the same type as the one Columbus saw. The Great Ball Court at Chiche´n Itza´ is Mesoamerica’s largest, 146 m (c. 479 ft) long and 37 m (121 ft) wide, and it is one of 13 at the site. The ball game was played all over Mesoamerica, and the action was somewhat like that of soccer: teams or solo players moved a rubber ball around a court, trying to score goals. Europeans would not know about rubber-ball-centered sporting events until the sixteenth century, when an Aztec team toured Europe, but in Mesoamerica this ancient tradition dates back to at least 1500 BC, the time of the earliest known formal ball court (Paso de la Amada, in Chiapas, Mexico). Countless games were probably played on any cleared field, however. We know from Late Postclassic sources that teams and equipment had become formalized and that gambling on the outcome was common. It should be noted that in Mesoamerica the ritual component of these games was essential, and that the rubber ball was an expression of vitality that was critical to this spiritual aspect. Mesoamericans believed in animatism: objects, landscape features, and natural phenomena that are regarded as passive or inanimate to the Western mind were regarded as having sacred living spirit, and the rubber ball, with its capacity to move would be regarded as sharing in the animatism that enlivened the world, and which must be revered. Elsewhere in the Early Postclassic Chiche´n Itza´ is thought to have gone into decline at about the same time as did Tula, in the latter part of the twelfth century AD. The Itza´ established a new center at a Yucata´n site called Mayapan, which had a smaller and shabbier copy of the Castillo pyramid. Mayapan’s wall enclosed a closely packed area of mostly residential buildings, covering 4.2 km2 (1.7 mi2), with a population that may have numbered 12 000. Members of the Itza´ group also pushed into the Guatemala Highlands, establishing sites among groups such as the Quiche´ Maya. Toltecized groups also pushed into southern Mesoamerica, establishing Nahuatl-speaking enclaves as far south as El Salvador. Cholula was located in the Puebla Valley in the eastern Central Highlands of Mexico, and had a long history before becoming a major capital in the

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Postclassic. Its Postclassic identity was shaped by the arrival of migrants from the north, who defaced its Great Pyramid, though it remained, by volume, the largest structure in the pre-Columbian New World. The major ceremonial focus at Cholula became the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl (demolished after European intrusion), marking the city as the pre-eminent center for worship of the feathered serpent god, and drawing pilgrims to the site. The migrations that brought adherents of the cult of Quetzalcoatl to Cholula were part of what seem to have been widespread population displacements. Ethnohistorical accounts written down in the native tradition, but after the European intrusion, said that Cholula’s established ethnic groups were displaced by migrants from the northwest. These migration accounts figure in the ethnic histories of many groups in the Postclassic, and some scholars believe that such migrations were exaggerated in order to glorify the courage and hardiness of tribal ancestors. However, overwhelming archaeological evidence indicates that there were many significant shifts in cultural patterns all over Mesoamerica, ranging from ceramic styles and mortuary practices to agricultural techniques and layouts of residences. Furthermore, some languages became widespread over many areas, and these include Nahuatl and its close variants, and also Mayan, which became important along the eastern gulf lowlands which border the Central Highlands of Mexico. These changes are typical effects of migrations. Many migration accounts dealing with the Central Highlands cite a place of origin called Aztla´n, whose heart was a cave called Chicomoztoc. In Mesoamerica, caves were regarded as sacred apertures of the living earth, perfectly suitable for the origin point of revered progenitors. In fact, Cholula, which is geographically placed between Tula and the gulf lowlands, seems to have been influenced from both directions, and also by its proximity to the increasingly important city-states of the Mixteca, whose territory extended from the southwestern Puebla plain down into the Valley of Oaxaca and to the Pacific coast. These Mixtec regions were never strongly unified; their political system was based on the independence of small cities, each ruling its surrounding hinterland, the rulers related to each other through generations of marriage alliance, and all claiming divine descent. The Mixtecs kept track of genealogical matters through their painted books (see, for example, the Codex Borgia), and the masterful cartoon-like style of their illustrated writing system became a kind of symbolic shared script over the Central Highlands in the Postclassic period. The association between Mixtec towns and Cholula was close,

and Cholula became an important center of ceramics in this style, which became known as ‘Mixteca-Puebla style’. Middle Postclassic Period, AD 1200–1430

This stretch of over 200 years marks a transition between the proliferation of small states focused upon modest cities, and the beginning of the Aztec Empire, centered upon the Basin of Mexico in the Central Highlands of Mexico, and Tarascan Empire, based in the Michoaca´n region of western Mexico. These were to become two huge and complex states that transformed the territories they conquered, and influenced many others beyond their reach. ‘Aztec’ is a modern word, a shorthand term developed by scholars to refer to the Nahuatl-speaking ethnic groups who saw themselves as descended from migrants from Aztla´n. Thus, there were ‘Aztecs’ all over the Central Highlands of Mexico by AD 1200, but the Aztec Empire of the Late Postclassic was in great part the work of one of these groups, the Mexica, mentioned above. Specifically, the most powerful segment of the Mexica was the group called the Tenochca, who founded the city of Tenochtitlan in about AD 1325, and since that time their city has grown from a modest temple pyramid surrounded by a few huts to the largest metropolis in the Americas, Mexico City. But in AD 1200, the Mexica was just one of many ethnic groups that had moved, over many years, from a homeland that had become inhospitable. Their migration accounts describe many stops where they settled and worked for a while, and Tula in its prime was among them. After these stops of several years each, they would move on, finally reaching the Basin of Mexico, where, unfortunately, other groups before them had claimed all the arable land. So they camped on a barren abandoned lava flow and lived off the lizards that flourished there. In time their toughness and their willingness to serve existing city-states as mercenary soldiers impressed their neighbors, and they were given permission to settle in other more comfortable locales, but in each case their aggressiveness frightened their hosts into rescinding hospitality. Finally, they occupied a swampy island in the Basin of Mexico’s central lake and there established Tenochtitlan. By about AD 1376, they had permission to establish their own noble dynasty; their first ruler, Acamapichtli, was descended from a union between a Mexica and a noble from Culhuacan, a basin town that claimed a line of descent from the rulers of Tula. For about 50 years, the ennobled Mexica flourished on their island, establishing closer ties with other noble lineages in the basin and serving as highly

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regarded mercenaries for the Tepanecs, the most powerful ethnic group in the basin. The Tepanec confederation was comprised of sets of local citystates, the Mexica among them. But tensions arose between the Tepanecs and the Mexica, and the latter joined forces with other disaffected client states and overthrew Tepanec authority in about AD 1430, taking over the confederation that would become the core of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs are among the most familiar of preColumbian cultures; the Tarascans are not. In part, this is because the Aztecs controlled much of the area first encountered by the Spaniards in AD 1519, the gulf lowlands. Their influence was very widespread, and their language, Nahuatl, had become a lingua franca over a large area. However, while the Aztec empire expanded in many directions, in the late fifteenth century it was blocked, one valley west of their heartland, the Basin of Mexico, by the eastern outposts of the Tarascan domain, whose history during the Middle Postclassic bears parallels with that of the Mexica. The Tarascan core area, Michoaca´n, was an ethnically mixed region, and the Tarascans established themselves near Lake Pa´tzcuaro in the Early Postclassic. The founder of the Late Postclassic dynastic line, Tarı´acuri, unified the core region around Pa´tzcuaro in the early fourteenth century. The Tarascan language, Pure´pecha, is something of an isolate, resembling no other Mesoamerican language. However, the Tarascans shared in many typically Mesoamerican traits: a solar vague year (365 rather than the modern 365.25 day solar year); a calendar of 18 months of 20 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end; the veneration of caves, mountains, and springs; veneration of serpents and butterflies; the importance of human sacrifice, and autosacrifice (self-infliction of penitential wounds); and the ball game. Another trait that they shared with the Aztecs, to the east, was the practice of forging tribute empires out of city-state confederations. Late Postclassic Period, AD 1430–1521

In the Early and Middle Postclassic periods, over much of Mesoamerica, the dominant political format was the city-state. In the Nahuatl language the term was alte´petl, ‘water-hill’, conveying the geographic ideal of a town’s location, on a hill near water. In a larger sense, the alte´petl concept was similar to the Classical Greek polis in that it encompassed an independent political unit consisting of a central community and the hinterland it governed. Each such city-state was basically self-sustaining, though exploitation of local resources would encourage specialization in craft production and trade. In the

alte´petl, tributes from local farmers sustained the central town’s governing elite, including the hereditary nobles who ran the government and markets, and the priests who ran the temples and schools. These tributes were the profit from the local political system, and any ambitious ruler could see that if several city-states could be joined into a confederation, part of their tribute profit would be channeled up to the city-state heading the confederation. In the Basin of Mexico, this is what the Tepanecs had done, and the Late Postclassic begins when this confederation was taken over, after the ‘Tepanec War’, by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan and their close allies, the Acolhua of Texcoco (another city in the Basin of Mexico) and Tepanec separatists, the three ethnic groups forming a ‘Triple Alliance’ that would forge an empire. Social structure and ownership of resources One important transformation of traditional culture occurred among the Mexica at the time of the Tepanec War, and this was the institution of private ownership of farmland by individual nobles. As the Mexica rulers told the story much after the fact, the commoners were reluctant to fight the Tepanec War, so the lords promised that if the effort was unsuccessful, they would henceforth serve the commoners. However, if the war was successful, the commoners would relinquish their rights to conquered lands. This alleged pact highlights an important turning point: the spoils of war, the lands of Tepanec commoners, were not distributed among the Mexica commoners as had been the custom, but seem to have become a kind of private property of individual Aztec lords. Prior to this, and in common with many ancient civilizations, land and other property were held by corporate groups (such as the Aztec commoners’ calpulli land-holding groups), or land would be held by a temple dedicated to a god, or by the government, to be used by rulers and lords to support the costs of office. But in the case of the spoils of the Tepanec War, land became a commodity for an individual’s use and choice of disposition: it could be conveyed as an inheritance, or gambled away on a ball game or board game (patolli). Of course, the lands confiscated after the Tepanec War advantaged the elites, not the commoners, but the arrangement also insured that Tenochtitlan’s character would be firmly urban, because its resident commoners did not have the opportunity to establish farms on the mainland, but stayed in their island city. The commoners in Aztec society constituted the vast majority of the population, by far the most numerous social class. There was considerable variation in affluence and privilege within this class, with

AMERICAS, NORTH/Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica 215

most commoners working at farming and artisanry; they would tend the fields assigned to them in their calpulli rural village, and each household would produce the simple goods required for day-to-day life (wooden and stone tools, textiles). Some households would specialize in the production of items like ceramic vessels or votive figurines, and trade these in local and city markets, where other goods and specialty imported items could be obtained. Some farmers, such as those whose lands were confiscated by victorious nobles in war, became reduced in status to the level of tenant farmers. A few commoners were as wealthy and powerful as nobles. In fact, some commoners who distinguished themselves in warfare were awarded noble status with its privileges, which included the rents from farms worked by tenant farmers, the right to wear certain insignia and garments, and the right to attend the daily gathering of nobles in the main courtyard of the local palace. Other important commoners were the long-distance traders, the pochteca, who not only moved valuable goods (jaguar skins, jade, precious metals, and fine textiles) over great distances, but also served as spies when the Triple Alliance lords wanted to expand the empire into some unpenetrated part of Mesoamerica. Native histories recount several instances of pochteca merchants being killed in the line of duty, upon which the Aztec empire’s armies would march to the scene and annex the territory, sometimes sending the local population back up to Tenochtitlan to carry the loot and end their lives as human sacrifices. Aztec society also encompassed slaves, people who were owned by others and were servants, but there was no class of slaves; these were individuals who had been reduced to this status through criminal activity or plain bad luck. If their families could afford it, their freedom could be purchased. If not, they risked being purchased to serve as a human sacrifice (see Social Inequality, Development of). During the Late Postclassic period’s first 89 years, from 1430 to the arrival of Corte´s in 1519, the Mexica and their allies would expand the original confederation of a few city-states into an empire drawing tribute from dozens of regions extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific coast. They would also expand the political structure of the citystate, first into the simple amalgamation of city-states into confederations, and then, as the organization grew and became more complicated, the Mexica streamlined it so that the political empire of the Aztecs was a vast profit-making enterprise, its provinces ruled by tame local lords or Mexica military governors, overseen by accountants and bureaucrats, and kept intact by fear of Mexica reprisals.

Customs of Aztec warfare, for example, dictated that vanquished warriors be captured alive so that they could be sacrificed to the gods. Human sacrifice was ostensibly a means of repaying the gods for the gift of life to humankind, but it was also an important means of maintaining respect for the power of the Aztec empire to inflict pain. The major venues for human sacrifice in the Late Postclassic period were the temple pyramids in each city. One of the largest was Tenochtitlan’s Great Temple (Templo Mayor). The temple itself has recently been excavated and is now visible in Mexico City, and its seven episodes of building, starting in the early fourteenth century, were occasions for human sacrifice on a massive scale. The major expansion that was dedicated in 1487 probably brought the temple-pyramid’s height close to 100 ft (c. 30 m), with two temples topping the pyramid, dedicated to Tlaloc and to Huitzilopochtli, the Mexica patron deity of war. The dedication ceremony is said by one source to have involved over 80 000 victims, though others put the number at 20 000, which is far more likely, given the logistics of guarding, feeding, and sacrificing such a large number of people. The victims would have been war captives and other unfortunates sent by allies as human tribute, and also civilians from towns that resisted incorporation into the empire. Watching from pavilions in the area surrounding the temple were rulers from citystates both allied and hostile. The latter would have been brought to the city under cover, to avoiding alerting the commoners who fought the wars that there was collusion between rulers. While the ostensible motive for the ceremony was spiritual, to honor the gods, the political message was clear: the fate of those who resisted the Aztec Empire was death, sacrifice to Aztec gods. The spectacular size of this 1487 ceremony and the pomp associated with it would have made it the largest celebration in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, yet like many displays of political propaganda from all of human history, this one’s glitter and gore hid an uneven conquest record and an uncertain future. The emperor at the time was Ahuitzotl, who vigorously pushed out the boundaries of the Aztec empire. He was also responsible for the last great construction effort to beautify Tenochtitlan. The lake-bound city was subject to periodic flooding, and after extensive damage by one during his reign, Ahuitzotl rebuilt it, taking care to include gardens and plantings among the temple complexes and palaces. By AD 1519, when the Spaniards arrived, the city held about 125 000 people, twice the size of contemporaneous cities in Spain.

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The emperor who succeeded Ahuitzotl was Motecuzoma the Younger (aka ‘Montezuma’), who reigned from 1502 until 1520. In 1519, when Corte´s and his company arrived, they were lodged in the second greatest palace in Tenochtitlan. They had Motecuzoma live with them as a protected hostage, and although many Tenochca and Texcocans wanted to rise up against the Spaniards and kill them, Motecuzoma’s fatalism and compromised position made action difficult. The Spaniards and Motecuzoma and his courtiers lived together for six months and their shared pastimes consisted of feasting, gambling, hunting, and being entertained by courtesans; these were patterns of courtly life that were familiar in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica and Renaissance Europe. The eyewitness accounts that the Spaniards wrote of life among the Aztecs emphasize the many familiar aspects of this civilization. The Iberian Peninsula had just undergone a long series of battles to drive Moslem populations back to Morocco in northwestern Africa, and the conquistadors often likened the Aztecs to the ‘Moors’, as they called Moroccan Moslems. The palace architecture was similar, as was the practice of polygyny (‘many wives’ for one husband), and the general social order, with its large group of farmer-artisans supporting a much smaller and wealthy group of bureaucrats and scribes, merchants, luxury artisans, and nobles. But for all these societal parallels, the Spaniards possessed certain advantages in the battle of one great civilization against another. One obvious advantage the Europeans had was metal and simple machinery, including guns. This suite of technologically sophisticated devices and implements was probably of less importance than the diseases they brought to a people with no resistance to them. Smallpox and measles raced ahead of invading armies, destroying and demoralizing the natives. The Spaniards also brought horses, much larger than any Middle American mammal, and fierce war dogs. They also fought battles differently; the Aztecs fought to take captives, not to kill, and grouped whole cadres of soldiers under the direction of standard bearers. The Spaniards killed Aztec standard bearers and as many soldiers as they could, thus removing Aztec officers, who were also nobles. The conquest of the Aztec empire was finalized with the fall of Tenochtitlan in the summer of 1521, after a siege lasting 3 months which destroyed much of the city. Corte´s successfully lobbied to make the Aztec capital the site of the new capital of the Spanish colony, New Spain, and the Spaniards organized their newly conquered vassals into work parties to build the city. The organization of the Aztec empire was, however, left largely in place, a workable means

of drawing taxes from a huge conquered population that persisted at least until the end of the sixteenth century. Elsewhere in Mesoamerica, the Spaniards continued the conquest, with the fall of the Tarascan empire in 1530. Some areas, however, resisted conquest. Deep in Yucata´n, the last remnant of the Itza´ remained independent at their capital of Tayasal until 1697. In time, however, all of Mesoamerica became Spanish provinces, and the concerted efforts toward conversion to Christianity, eradication of ancient cultures, and isolation of New Spain from contacts with nations other than Spain worked toward making the ancient cultures there a shadowy presence. See also: Americas, Central: Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya; Early Cultures of Middle America; Lower Central America; The Olmec and their Contemporaries.

Further Reading Berdan FF, Blanton RE, Boone EH, Hodge MG, Smith ME, and Umberger E (1996) Aztec Imperial Strategies. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Codex Borgia (1993) (c. 1500) The Codex Borgia. Dı´az G and Rodgers A, restorers, Byland BE, intro- and commentary. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. Codex Mendoza (1992) (c. 1541–42) Codex Mendoza. Volume 3: A facsimile reproduction of Berdan FF and Anawalt PR (eds.) Codex Mendoza. Berkeley: University of California Press. Codex Telleriano-Remensis (1995) (1563) Codex TellerianoRemensis, Manuscrit Mexicain 385, Bibliothe`que Nationale of Paris. Facsimile reproduction, Part I of Codex TellerianoRemensis: Ritual, Divination, and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript, by Keber EQ, pp. 1–104. Austin: University of Texas Press. Corte´s H (1986) (1519–26) Letters from Mexico. Pagden A (trans. and ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. de Landa FD (1978) (1566) Yucata´n before and after the Conquest. Translated with notes by Gates W (orig. 1937) New York: Dover. de Sahagu´n FB (1569) (1950–82) General History of the Things of New Spain (Florentine Codex). Anderson A and Dibble C (transl.), 13 vols. Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah. de Zorita A (1994) (1566–70) Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relations of the Lords of New Spain. Keen B (trans. and intro.) Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. Dı´az del Castillo B (1956) (1560s) The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. Garcia G (ed.), Maudslay AP (trans.), Leonard IA, intro. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy. Dura´n FD (1994) (1581) The History of the Indies of New Spain. Translated, annotated, and introduced by Heyden D. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. Evans ST (2004) Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. London: Thames and Hudson. Pollard HP (1993) Tarı´acuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. Smith ME and Berdan FF (eds.) (2003) The Postclassic Mesoamerican World. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

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The Olmec and Their Contemporaries Mary DeLand Pohl and Christopher von Nagy, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary complex (ceramics) A term used to denote a recurring pattern of association of pottery vessel types, decoration, pot color, or technical attributes found within a region. Pottery complexes are demarcated both temporally and spatially. Early Formative period A period in Mesoamerican history marked by sedentism, social ranking, and inter-regional trade networks that culminate in the Early Horizon. Epi-Olmec During the Late Formative period, after the abandonment of the influential center of La Venta c. 400 BC, Soke populations both continued earlier Olmec traditions and exhibited cultural variability at sites such as Tres Zapotes and El Marquesillo in southern Veracruz. Formative period (Mesoamerica) Generally the first two millenniums of settled life in Mesoamerica, the second and first millennium BC, when villages, towns, and, later, cities and other features of Mesoamerican cultural and political-economic life begin to appear. The initial blush of sedentism is associated with mixed economies in many areas of Mesoamerica with maize playing a variable part. By the second half of the first millennium BC, however, the agrarian economy was focused on the traditional dependence on maize and lysine-producing beans. horizon Distinctive cultural traits such as art styles and architectural plans appear over a wide area. The Olmec horizon style occurs from West Mexico to El Salvador. Archaeologists recognize an Early Horizon primarily influenced by San Lorenzo and a Late Horizon primarily influenced by La Venta. interfluve A region, generally of elevated terrain, between two drainage systems. isotopic data Several isotope systems preserved in human osteological material are of relevance to archaeology. Plant and marine metabolic processes are characterized by isotopic fractionation, that is the discrimination of one kind of isotope or element over another. Isotopic variants of carbon (12C and 13C), nitrogen (14N and 15N), and strontium substitution for calcium are example systems. In some environments, the degree of dependence on maize, a xeric tropical grass, on marine resources, and the general tropic level of the population may be tracked. logograph A component of a writing system that represents a phonetic word as a single graphical sign. Middle Formative period A period in Mesoamerican history marked by the formation of small to medium-scaled, rank-based societies with polity centers marked by an emerging architectural tradition characterized by the creation of plazas, platform structures, and pyramids. The cultural foundations of Mesoamerican political economies, including concepts of kingship, the calendar, writing, among others, develop during this period if not earlier. palaeodistributary A senescent distributary channel of a river delta often still visible on the surface to some degree demonstrating various stages of infilling and lateral erosion by younger distributaries. Deeper palaeochannels may be completely buried. Ancient levees associated with palaeochannels are often associated with older settlement systems.

palaeolevee An ancient levee associated with a buried or partially infilled palaeodistributary. quincunx An arrangement of five dots within a square or rectangle such that the four apexes of the quadrangle are each associated with a dot and the remaining dot is positioned in the center equidistant from the apex points. settlement hierarchy Archaeologists deduce modes of sociocultural integration by examining patterns of settlement on the landscape. A hierarchy of site types exhibiting at least three tiers (e.g., primate center, regional center, farming village) marks a state-level society.

Introduction Shortly before the Spanish Conquest, Aztec priests buried an ancient Olmec carving as an offering in their paramount temple, the Templo Mayor, at the heart of their capital Tenochtitlan in central Mexico. This small greenstone figure, a 2000-year-old object originally from distant Gulf Coast lands, symbolizes the fundamental place that the Olmecs held in Mesoamerican culture. It represents the crystallization of a constellation of cultural traits that first appeared in the Formative period and were to continue as the foundation of indigenous culture in Mesoamerica as late as Aztec times. These cultural traits were tangible signs of significant social changes that took place in Formative Mesoamerica. This was the time of a transition in social structure that led to the emergence of rulers who centralized power and institutionalized social hierarchy. Traditionally, scholars have considered the Olmec to have represented an advanced chiefdom type of society. Nevertheless, evidence emerging for multi-tiered settlement patterns, imposing palace structures, and gifting relationships with elites in distant lands strongly suggests that the Olmec had a state-level society. Here we trace the emergence of core Mesoamerican social structure and cultural traits and examine the role of the Olmec in shaping their development. We focus on the Olmec sites of the Mexican Gulf Coast region. There is disagreement over the role played by the Olmec polities of southern Veracruz and western Tabasco during the roughly thousand year-long period during which the Mesoamerican (see Americas, Central: Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya; Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica) cultural framework of rulership, gift economics, trade, gaming, religiosity, literacy, and historical praxis emerged. Over the course of the twentieth century, one group of scholars came to favor a ‘mother culture’ model giving the Olmec preeminence in the formation of Mesoamerican cultural patterns. Another group of scholars has favored a more decentralized vision of inter-regional cultural hybridization whereby emerging polities across the central core of Mesoamerica mutually contributed to, and participated in, the discourse

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Olmec archaeology began in earnest with the work of Mathew Stirling. Stirling began in the Gulf Coast Olmec region in 1938 with the intention of investigating major sites, including Tres Zapotes in Veracruz. Later work at Tres Zapotes was undertaken by Christopher Pool. Philip Arnold and Susan Gillespie, among others, have worked at a variety of Early and Middle Formative Olmec sites within the Tuxtlas Mountains. San Lorenzo became the focus of an intensive project during the late 1960s under the direction of Yale University’s Michael Coe and Richard Diehl. Coe and Diehl were the first to develop a well-researched ceramic chronology tied to radiocarbon dates. Ann Cyphers and her coworkers undertook later work at San Lorenzo. Stacy Symmonds, Carl Wendt, and others have conducted systematic research in the Coatzacoalcos basin adjacent to San Lorenzo. The nearby ritual shrine site, El Manatı´, with its sequence of spring-focused caches of ceremonial celts and wooden busts, was excavated by Ponciano Ortı´z Caballos and Ma. del Carmen Rodriguez. Following Frans Blom’s initial visit to La Venta in Tabasco, Stirling excavated the site and was followed by Heizer, Drucker, and the Mexican archaeologist Pin˜a Chan. More recently, work at La Venta was renewed by Rebecca Gonza´lez Lauck and coworkers. William Rust documented a network of settlement beyond the polity core, possibly similar in organization to that documented by Cyphers and colleagues around San Lorenzo. Work at several sites subsidiary to La Venta by archaeologists, including Mark Raab at Isla Alor and Mary Pohl and Kevin Pope at San

of creation of statecraft and its attendant systems of rituality and symbol. The most important of the Olmec contemporaries are the sites of Coapexco, Tlapacoya, and Tlatilco in the in the Basin of Mexico, Chiapa de Corzo, San Isidro, and Libertad in Chiapas, Chalcatzingo in Morelos, Teopantecuanitla´n in Guerrero, La Blanca in west Guatemala, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador. The investigations are the work of archaeologists such as Grove, Gillespie, Cyphers, Niederberger, Tolstoy, Paradis, Martı´nez Donjua´n, Love, and Clark and other New World Archaeological Foundation archaeologists.

Background of Olmec Studies Scholars recognize that the Olmec were a key factor in the foundation of Mesoamerican culture, but there is disagreement about what the term Olmec refers to and who the Olmec were. Historically, the term Olmec has signified a particular art style, a constellation of cultural traits, the materialization of an emergent rituality associated with developing Mesoamerican political economies, and a regional archaeological culture that developed within the Gulf coastal lowlands of the Mexican state of Veracruz and adjacent Tabasco during the centuries between roughly 1500 and 400 BC (Figure 1). The first recognition of the distinctive complex of art associated with the archaeological Olmec is attributed to Jose´ Melgar who published an account of a colossal carved head at Tres Zapotes in 1871.

22⬚N

20⬚N Chalcatzingo

18⬚N

Tres Zapotes

La Venta San Lorenzo

Juxtlahuaca

16⬚N

Pijijiapan Mazatan 14⬚N Chalchuapa 500 km

12⬚N 104⬚W

100⬚W

96⬚W

92⬚W

88⬚W

84⬚W

80⬚W CvN

Figure 1 Map of the Olmec region within Mesoamerica showing important sites mentioned in the text. The three major Olmec sites, San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes are shown with 50 km radius circles, approximations of possible zones of primary economic interaction. La Venta acquired resources, boulders and cobbles for grinding stones, larger stone for sculpture and architectural elements, and volcanic ash for pottery temper, from as far or further afield than the 50 km circle shown here. Both San Lorenzo and La Venta acquired raw materials for sculpture from the Tuxtla Mountains. Secondary and tertiary centers associated with each Olmec capital are well contained within these circles.

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Andre´s, has provided detailed ceramic, palynological, and subsistence history for the La Venta region. Further east, following initial work by Edward Sisson, Christopher von Nagy undertook a systematic survey of the Plan Chontalpa region documenting a network of ancient Olmec settlement along a series of ancient distributary channels. Significantly, these projects have provided robust palaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and palynological data on subsistence systems. Historical linguists such as Terrence Kaufman have determined that speakers of the Mixe-Soke language group, specifically the Soke, are the probable descendents of the ancient Olmec.

Olmec Political Economies The Olmec represent the culmination of milleniums of lowland Mesoamerican cultural development that resulted in a burst of sociopolitical change during the course of the second millennium BC, reaching an apogee during the Early Horizon period that saw San Lorenzo’s dominance and participation in the foundations for later Mesoamerican political and economic systems during the Middle and into the Late Formative periods. During the roughly 1600 years represented by these developments, the societies of the southern Gulf lowland region of Veracruz and the adjacent Tabasco Coastal Plain underwent fundamental economic and cultural transformations that saw the rise of a mixed agrarian economy in the rich, seasonally flooded lowlands of the region, followed later by shifts toward the classic Mesoamerican maize-based subsistence economy, the emergence of complex social and political-economic networks reflected in archaeological settlement hierarchies, the differentiation of society into a ranked and

occupationally differentiated population, the emergence of kingship, political rituality, and the development of the foundations of writing. A diverse subsistence base, consisting of wild plant and tree use, a range of domesticated species, wild mammal, reptile, and fish species, as well as coastal shellfish, constituted a rich, cyclic resource base that provided a calorie and protein base that allowed for the florescence of complex culture in the region. Within the exceptionally rich region of the riverine and deltaic lowlands (Figure 2), this resource base fueled the emergence of complex networks of communities ranging from small hamlets located along natural levees, larger villages and village clusters, some with evidence of community structures, to towns and polity capitals such as San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes. Though the complexity of the San Lorenzo region appears unmatched during the Early Horizon, later developments in the Olmec region are part of the developing mosaic of Mesoamerica and demonstrate multifaceted linkages with other regions. Stylistic links, commodity and gift exchanges, and outright expansions out from the Olmec Gulf Coast lowlands suggest a complex picture of interrelationships and rivalries. Chronology of the Olmec Heartland

In general terms, the chronology of the Olmec can be divided into the Initial Formative, Early Formative, Middle Formative, corresponding to the Olmec proper, and the Late Formative, characterized by a series of Epi-Olmec societies that continued to experiment and innovate. Archaeological evidence for very early populations is largely absent, either buried under meters of alluvium, laterally eroded by meandering channels, or lying unremarked and potentially deflated

Figure 2 Modern canoe in a palaeodistributary of the Grijalva River delta. Photograph by Christopher von Nagy.

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in upland areas where erosion may have dominated long-term landscape processes. The earliest evidence for a ceramic-using population corresponds with the Ojochi or Pellicer ceramic complexes of the Coatzacoalos river basin, El Manatı´, and the western Grijalva delta in Tabasco (see Table 1 and Figure 3). This pottery tradition demonstrates significant stylistic links to southern Chiapas paralleling the linguistic suggestion of a northern immigrant group of Sokean speakers. Cultural patterns, such as ritual beverage consumption, are an important aspect of the pottery tradition from this early period through to the beginning of the post-La Venta Epi-Olmec period. The apogee of San Lorenzo and the Coatzacoalcos River region coincides with the last part of the Early Formative period and, due to the widespread appearance of Olmec iconography on pottery and other artifacts, is sometimes termed the Early Horizon. Early

Formative populations are present but poorly understood in the area of Tres Zapotes and are present in low density in the Tuxtlas. Like the Coatzacoalcos floodplain, the western Grijalva delta has a substantial Early Formative occupation to the east of La Venta. The Middle Formative period marks a population expansion into new areas, such as Laguna de los Cerros, the fringe of the Grijalva delta where La Venta is located, but a general collapse in the Coatzacoalcos lowlands. Dense populations are documented along a number of distributary channels in the Grijalva delta. The Middle Formative Olmec region is marked by several ceramic horizons, which like the Early Horizon complexes, document connections ranging from coastal Chiapas to the south, the Usumacinta region to the east, and Central Mexico to the west. In the east, an increasingly evident Maya presence is noted at the end of the Olmec period. This

Table 1 Overview chronology of the Olmec Complex 1500–1250 BC 1775–1500 cal BC

Pre-Early Horizon complexes Figure 3 column A Early Ojochi complex pottery around San Lorenzo and Pellicer complex pottery in Tabasco mark the beginning of the documented ceramic traditions of the Olmec region. Bottles, simple to slightly complex bowls, simple dishes, plain and red slipped vessels dominate collections at this point. Tecomates are very common. Reduplication of botanical forms – squash and gourds – is an important aspect of this tradition. Rimmed vessels similar to Oco´s examples from southern Chiapas are common. Increasingly common use of differential firing of, in particular, bottles for ritual beverage consumption.

1250–900 BC 1450–1005 cal BC

Early Horizon complexes Figure 3 column B Early Horizon phase pottery from the Olmec area manifests a series of changes linked to the formation of an extensive horizon marked by distinctive gouge-incised and ‘Olmec’ iconography and curvilinear, often pars pro toto references to elements of the broader emergent Early Formative signary. Drop in the frequencies of bottles indicating important changes in the social use of fancy pottery. Dishes with flared sides, outcurved dishes, plain and striated tecomates, and rim bolstering manufactured of white-clear through, black clear through, white-slipped, and differentially-fired pottery are typical elements of assemblages. Some areas of interior Chiapas, such as the Grijalva corridor at the now flooded site of San Isidro demonstrate strong similarities to coastal pottery traditions.

900–400 BC 1005–400 cal BC

Middle Horizon complexes Figure 3 columns C, D, and E Ceramically, the Middle Formative can be divided into successive complexes. Initial Middle Formative complexes are characterized by flared bowls and dishes, some with massively everted rims, and commonly decorated with variations on the ‘double-line break’ motif, plain smaller tecomates, and larger cooking tecomates, later ollas, are common forms (column C). Perhaps as early as 700 BC a ceramic shift occurs with the appearance of composite silhouette dishes with flared walls and a variety of other novel forms (column D). A wide range of forms was produced, including flared wall serving dishes and plates linked to public feasting and rituality. Sometime around 500 BC shifts in bowl and plate design occur with the introduction of saddle-rimmed bowls (column E), wide-rimmed, flared-wall dishes, and changes in surface decoration. Repeated, close stylistic similarities to coastal Chiapan pottery.

400–BC 400–cal BC

Epi-Olmec complexes The failure of La Venta around 400 BC marks the end of the thousand year period generally understood as ‘Olmec.’ Sites such as Tres Zapotes continued as major focal points of population. Innovations in the Late Formative or Epi-Olmec period such as the development of a fully developed writing system occurred during this period. At Tres Zapotes and other sites around the Tuxtlas there is an essential continuity in the types and forms produced. In Tabasco, the collapse of La Venta coincides with the spread of Maya ceramics into western Tabasco.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Figure 3 Ceramics of the Olmec region. (a) Pre-Early Horizon bottles and contemporary forms. (b) Early Horizon gouge-incised and selected contemporary forms. (c) Selected Early Middle Formative forms associated with Early La Venta and neighboring sites. (d) Middle Formative forms associated with the apogee of La Venta. (e) Middle Formative forms associated with the terminal Formative occupation at La Venta with design similarities to Tuxtla and Tres Zapotes forms. Redrawn from von Nagy 2003 and (vessel B3) Coe MD and Diehl RA (1980) In: The Land of the Olmec. The People of the River. Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press.

phenomenon is also evidenced in the Isthmus focus of Epi-Olmec societies such as Tres Zapotes and the society that produced the La Mojarra stela, lasting until the arrival of increasingly strong Central Mexican influence ultimately tied to Teotihuacan. Calendar dates for Olmec ceramic phases and complexes are based on an increasingly large and reasonably well-contextualized set of radiocarbon assays, including samples from well-delineated middens in bell-shaped or larger pits or on palaeobotanical remains using accelerator dating. Nonetheless, many dates still derive from charcoal recovered in fill and less ideal contexts. Early Olmec dates calibrate well, but Middle Formative date calibration presents a particular and yet unresolved challenge due to changes in the production of upper atmosphere 14C. Dates in the range of roughly 800–400 BC (c. 1005–400 cal BC) are exceptionally difficult to use. Calibrated probability ranges allow for errors of a hundred years or more. A date in the uncalibrated range of 750–400 BC has a high probability of falling within any portion of this range. Due to this problem, phase and complex boundaries should remain tentative. Olmec Subsistence Strategies and Food Ritual

Olmec foodways comprised a varied diet. Patterns of consumption of maize, sunflower, and manioc as well as wild foods such as squash and nuts of the corozo plam established in the Archaic period by c. 5000 BC underwent elaboration during the Early and Middle Formative periods after 1500 BC. Domesticated beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) were added to the menu. Domesticated dog (Canis familiaris) was the single most important source of meat (10% of the vertebrate

remains) at San Lorenzo in the Early Formative period. Early Formative Olmec also focused on aquatic resources, particularly snook (Centropomus or robalo), an estuarine fish that would have been available near San Lorenzo during the rainy season floods, and mud turtles (the closely related species Claudius, Kinosternon, and Staurotypus). Larger terrestrial mammals such as deer were scarce. A shift in the Middle Formative period set the course for dietary preferences characteristic of later Mesoamerican cultures (Figure 4). Data available for the La Venta client site of San Andre´s show a new focus on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), especially in deposits that represent remains of feasting. This shift might have had ritual symbolic significance in terms of an Olmec predator/prey or victor/ vanquished ideology with deer representing the prey. Later elites, such as the Maya, would copy this hallmark of the Olmec diet. Maize was a significant element of the diet as well as the iconography and early glyphs though its position was more restrained than seen in later Mesoamerican cultures. San Andre´s excavations uncovered maize cobs radiocarbon dated to the seventh century BC, and maize starch grains and residues have been detected on grinding stones from Middle Formative feasting contexts at the site. Nevertheless, carbon isotope data from human bone found in the same feasting refuse indicates that maize made up only about 50% of the diet. The Classic period Maya, by comparison, ate a diet of up to 90% maize. Maize and sunflower consumption may have been a marker of Olmec ethnic identity. Some present-day Nahuatl-speakers believe that consumption of maize

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Figure 4 Formative period botanical remains from San Andre´s, Tabasco. (a) Maize (Zea mays); (b) Chile pepper (Capsicum annuum); (c) sunflower achene (Helianthus annuus); (d) calabasa silvestre (Cionosicyos macrantha). Identifications and photographs by David Lentz.

is a way of taking in the energy of the sun, and past sunflower seed consumption might have had similar connotations. Unequivocal representations of maize and sunflower are unexpectedly rare in Olmec iconography as well as in well-preserved archaeological deposits, however. One iconographic example of maize is an engraving on a royal scepter that shows maize poking out of the belly of a composite crocodilian animal, and the same element appears transformed into a glyph on a serpentine block from Cascajal that is inscribed with early writing. Actual remains of Olmec offerings yielded a different emphasis, namely the abundance of the natural land. Botanical remains that Ponciano Ortiz and Marı´a del Carmen Rodrı´guez recovered from the sacred spring at El Manatı´ included offerings of local wild vegetation (leaves, fruit pits, nuts) rather than cultigens.

The Settled Landscape Mesoamerica is a geographically diverse region in which a mosaic of early polities and regional populations participated in inter-regional connections manifested by the exchange of goods and spread of representational systems and political-economic structures embodied in the appearance of Early Horizon style and later Middle Formative, motifs, icons, and design conceptualizations. These early polities and centers of population are frequently associated

with riverine floodplains, valley floors, and other landscape zones of relatively high natural productivity and fertile soils that could support the emergent agricultural economy. In lowland coastal Mesoamerica, Early Formative sedentary populations are often associated with swamp and estuary environments where resource availability was relatively high. In Chiapas along the Pacific Coast, for instance, archaeological settlement, macrobotanical, ground stone, iconographic, and isotopic evidence indicate that the rise of sedentism and the formation of small polities were associated with these high productivity ecozones. Only later during the Middle Formative period did the subsistence economy begin to assume its classic Mesoamerican form. Current research in the Olmec region strongly supports the implications of this historical model. The Olmec inhabited a diverse and enormously productive natural landscape, a mosaic of landforms, soil types, and risk factors comprising seasonally flooded, subsiding deltaic and river floodplain lowlands, generally lateritic rolling coastal plain interfluve and upland, and the volcanic highlands of the Tuxtla Mountains. A diversity of resources and challenges characterize the region. Current settlement data demonstrate that during the Early Formative period most of the region’s population was probably concentrated along river corridors where the combination of rich, annually renewed soils, migratory birds, floodplain and delta-inhabiting mammals, and, importantly, seasonally and annually available fisheries resources made these ideal locations for a population pursuing a mixed economy based on a variety of crops, fisheries, and other resources. Later, during the Middle Formative period, population appears to have expanded onto adjacent upland areas. A series of major rivers disgorges waters from highland and coastal plain watersheds across the Gulf Coastal plain. North to south these rivers include the Papaloapan, the San Juan, the Coatzacoalcos, the Uspanapa, the Tonala´, the Grijalva, and far to the east beyond Olmec territory, the Usumacinta. In Veracruz, rivers cut through a rolling terrain of laterized uplands forming interfluve-demarcated river floodplains with complex riverine depositional features that, towards the coast, are of late Holocene date and correlate with the stabilization of sea-level rise. The Tabasco Coastal plain is a vast low lying deltaic plain composed primarily of Late Holocene deposits of the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers, along with a series of smaller rivers such as the Tonala´. Documented Olmec settlements are present within the western portion of this delta in a region of surfaceexposed, relatively undisturbed palaeodistributaries of the Grijalva delta of second through first millennium BC dates. Fragments of settlement systems that

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escaped later erosion through active channel meandering document Olmec settlement configurations at various points in time. Conspicuous by its absence is a robust sample of Olmec households. Little is known about the density of houses on or off of welldocumented sites in the many small ‘tells’, or accretions of settlement, of the Coatzacoalcos floodplain and Tabasco Coastal Plain. San Lorenzo and the Coatzacoalcos Floodplain

The major polity capital of San Lorenzo is embedded in a landscape composed of Holocene floodplain features, in particular, palaeochannels with attendant meanders, cut-offs, and other typical river floodplain landforms. Archaeologist Stacy Symonds conducted extensive survey of the sustaining area of San Lorenzo, documenting surviving components of the settlement system. Settled localities include the San Lorenzo plateau and points along the boundaries of the floodplain, as well as numerous locations along levees. Many hamlets were raised above nominal flood stage either through accretion of the house lot or hamlet mound or through the deliberate construction of raised flood platforms, palafitos in local parlance. By the apogee of San Lorenzo, a three- to four-tiered settlement hierarchy evolved in the area. Sculpture is associated with the primate center, as well as with second-tier settlements, such as Loma del Zapote. San Lorenzo spreads some 500 ha across the plateau with a central core of dense occupation approximately 300 ha in area. Within this core were palaces such as the Red Palace and ritual areas. Loma del Zapote may have encompassed an area of as much as 400 ha. Work around San Lorenzo has revealed some data on Olmec households. Ann Cyphers’ work on the main plateau documented the development of terracing associated with Olmec domestic architecture. Within the hinterland, individual houselot locations associated with artificial platforms on palaeolevees were common in some areas. These small artificial or accretional mounds range from 18–40 m across and probably represent the accumulated deposits of single successive households. Unfortunately, little is known about the structure of Olmec houselots and households in these lowlands. Augering and excavation of a handful of houselots suggests that a central house structure may have been surrounded by a cleared lot of up to 50 m in width. Large, shallow excavated hearths are a feature, perhaps common, of such households. La Venta and the Tabasco Coastal Plain

La Venta is embedded in a dynamic deltaic environment constructed over the course of Late Holocene

following the deceleration and stabilization of sealevel rise. Cyclically deposited delta distribution channels, upland margins, salt-dome rises, and estuary flanks served as focal points of settlement. In Tabasco, the dominant site form is a low tell, locally known as an isla, comprised of successive midden, house floor, house collapse, and platform deposits. A three to four tier settlement system around La Venta focused on the Barı´ and Blasillo palaeodistributaries. San Andre´s is one of the larger sites in this system. The presence of sugar and other extensive cultivation to the east of La Venta in the Plan Chontalpa area allowed for a detailed study of tell density and distribution along a single major distibutary channel. Archaeologist Christopher von Nagy demonstrated a high density of slightly clustered tells along this channel. These tells range in height from tens of centimeters to meters above the crest of channel levees. A significant proportion of occupations is shown to be embedded in the matrix of the levee and are invisible in surface survey, however. Buried sites are common, as are zones were channel activity that postdates the formation of sites has largely obliterated traces of occupation. Data from San Andre´s, near La Venta, suggest that houses may have been placed on low earthen foundations as high as several tens of centimeters. They may also have had floors raised slightly over the exterior. Shallow, excavated hearths are present in the floors at this site. Also present at San Andre´s are a series of deep, large pits. These may have been used for storage, although some evidence suggests their use for the creation of high temperature fires. Large pits similar to those at San Andre´s are also present at La Venta. Small pavements of extensively reburned sherds are also a feature at San Andre´s. Tuxtlas Settlement

Settlement in the Tuxtlas paints a different picture from that associated with major lowland polities. Here, a settlement hierarchy was lacking until the Late Formative period. Amber VanDerwarker has shown that the nature of the broad-based subsistence system was a significant factor in the lack of development of hierarchy in the Tuxtlas. Hierarchy developed in conjunction with emergence of a strongly maize-focused subsistence economy and after recovery from a series of Early and Late Formative volcanic eruptions that devastated the region.

The Ritual Landscape The Olmec were the first in Mesoamerica to institutionalize kingship with elites closing rank at the top of a hierarchical social order. Olmec material culture,

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including ceremonial offerings of precious imported materials, large-scale urban architecture, and monumental sculpture, provides a road map to that fundamental social process, demonstrating the stages by which it evolved. A sacred landscape formed the platform upon which early kings founded their authority. The juxtaposition of an area of high ground with a water source characterized this landscape, which the Aztecs were later to call Water Mountain. It represented the place of creation, the source of life, or the navel of the world, the moral locus of royal power. In the Gulf Coast region, worship at hills associated with springs have been traced back to the early third millennium at El Manatı´, according to Ortiz Caballos and del Carmen Rodrı´guez, coincident with the spread of agricultural communities and the evolution of crops such as maize. By the Early Formative period (1600–1200 BC) offerings of highly polished celts of exotic greenstone, some oriented to the cardinal directions, had been deposited together with rubber balls in the spring, which symbolized the point of entry into other worlds. Emergent kings co-opted this sacred template at San Lorenzo (San Lorenzo Phase, 1150–900 BC), commandeering what was then a high island plateau strategically located in the middle of a Coatzacoalcos River tributary according to data produced by Michael Coe, Richard Diehl, and Ann Cyphers. The heart of the ritual center was a royal processional way aligned along the north–south axis of the plateau. Lining this processional way were at least 10 colossal stone heads representing portraits of past and present rulers. Sarcophagus-shaped thrones linked living kings directly with their ancestors, who are visible from cave-like openings in the stone. The founding of Middle Formative centers marks a departure from the glorification of individual rulers and their royal bloodlines and the new objective of creating a heavenly place notes John Clark. As kings consolidated political power in the Middle Formative period (900–400 BC), they used the force of mimesis or mimicry to capture the ritual power of a sacred landscape. These Late Phase Olmec centers featured the ambitious construction of huge pyramids replicating the primordial sacred mountain. La Venta’s elites built atop a prominent salt dome that already dominated a now-extinct riverine environment. The pyramid is 30 m (98 ft) high and has a volume of about 100 000 sq. m (130 800 sq. yd). Carolyn Tate notes that the salt dome, now carrying its human-made mountain, was aligned to three real mountains arrayed in a triangular configuration to the south. The number three, expressed everywhere in the world (for example in majestic mountains, the celestial star cluster

of Orion’s Belt, down to the humble stones of the domestic hearth) was itself a magical entity that infused the Olmec world-view. La Venta’s plan accessed all three levels of the Olmec universe. The pyramid touched the heavens. Serpentine mosaic pavements in the form of the quincunx, comprising the four directions and the center, as well as mirror-studded, cruciform caches of celts symbolizing the world tree, represented the surface of the earth. Huge pits filled with many layers of massive serpentine blocks represented seas deep within the earth according to Kent Reilly. La Venta Olmec innovated with stone stelae carved with images of deities and royal narrative scenes, which they inserted into the earthly plane. Sacred directionality and verticality encoded within the architecture of La Venta is reduplicated in incised and carved scenes throughout the Olmec world on larger sculpture and smaller ceremonial items such as greenstone celts. Following the sacred water-mountain template, Olmec royal ceremonial plans included constructed water features to symbolize access to the earth’s fertility. Drains made of imported basalt must have had ritual as well as utilitarian uses, judging from associated sculpture. A San Lorenzo drain system went through a stone deity figure and led to a boulder carved into a basin in the shape of a huge duck. La Venta sculptors chose a more explicit image of fertility, fashioning a large basin in the form of a woman’s vulva. Olmec ceremonial precincts were alive with color. Traces of plaster and paint on one of the San Lorenzo stone heads and in the mouth of a Teopantecuanitlan deity together with the presence of an uncarved stela excavated by Rebecca Gonza´lez Lauck at La Venta indicate that artisans painted their stone monuments. San Lorenzo’s stone sculptures were arranged in ensembles and set in a huge plaza paved with red sand and yellow gravel. La Venta’s color scheme was stunning. Brown soil shot through with thousands of tiny bits of greenstone shimmered. Blue-green serpentine pavements were filled with clays and sands in olive green, blue, yellow, black, gray, pink, cinnamon, and purple hues, all imbued with symbolic meaning. Many of these offerings were buried soon after their construction and were invisible to ritual celebrants. Red paired with its contrasting color green was a dominant color combination. Red cinnabar covered jadeite offerings, and the whole site was covered in a cap of red clay in its final construction phase. La Venta’s cosmic character derived from its celestial orientation. The hallmark Olmec site orientation to 8 west-of-north, its significance still obscure, was an ancient alignment that appeared early and persisted through the Olmec period. Olmec kings chose to found a ceremonial center on La Venta’s salt dome

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because its long axis is oriented to this sacred principle. The line that ran through the center of La Venta’s ceremonial precinct also matches this orientation and points directly to the central mountain of the cluster of three south of the center. The mountain is visible from the top of the pyramid. The central bars of each of La Venta’s mosaic pavements further parallels this alignment, and the four elements of the quincunxes are positioned at the intercardinal points where the sun rises and sets at the solstices. Olmec ceremonial centers also had a strong orientation to the sun as the principal animating force of nature. Most importantly the elevated ground, the plateau at San Lorenzo and the salt dome at La Venta for example, would catch the first rays of the sun at sunrise. The Enclosure at the heart of Early Formative (1000–800 BC) Teopantecuanitla´n featured Olmec-style monumental sculptures positioned so that the shadows cast by two of them passed through the center as the sun rose and set on the spring equinox. Loma del Zapote, located on the river below the San Lorenzo summit, featured sculptures of a kneeling humans facing the rising and setting sun. Backs of colossal carved heads at San Lorenzo itself are angled so that the king’s portraits faced upwards towards the sky. The present-day Mije term for the annual time periods and stations in the calendar, wi:npeht, means ‘eye rising’, perhaps explaining the orientation of the sculptures’ eyes. A key new solar feature of great significance in the La Venta cosmic city (Complex D) was an E-Group configuration that was designed to track movements of the sun. A long platform and a radial structure were arranged opposite each other on the east and west sides of a plaza. Standing on the radial platform looking east, an observer could track the solstices at either end of the long structure and the equinoxes in the center. This architectural arrangement was widely copied at Soke sites along the Grijalva such as Chiapa de Corzo and at Maya sites in the Mirador Basin in northern Guatemala, according to John Clark. The E-Group is central to Classic Maya site planning, including to the site of Uaxactun, where the construction was first identified in the area archaeologists designated as Group E. The Olmec kings posed as shamans dressed up as the sharp-eyed harpy eagles, allies of the storm and sun gods, a conceit that embodied the rulers’ insight into unseen forces of fecundity. The Olmec eagle-king painted sitting on a sarcophagus throne over the entrance to Oxtotitla´n cave has huge eyes. Olmec elites may have enhanced their vision with psychotropic substances that produced ecstatic trance. The snuffing trays were likely greenstone ‘spoons’ with a central depression, scored or incised with a figure in

flight, a common vision associated with ingestion of drugs, or topped with the crenellated eyebrow of the harpy eagle, another reference to supernatural vision. A San Lorenzo sculpture (Loma del Zapote Monument 11) shows male figure wearing such a ‘spoon’ suspended from his neck, ready for use. The ballgame, so central to all Mesoamerican cultures, mimicked the sun’s cosmic cycle into and out of the Underworld. Olmec kings politicized the ballgame, adding human sacrifice, probably including war captives. A San Lorenzo carving depicts a jaguar mauling a probable ballplayer, and La Venta Stela 2 shows the king with a harpy eagle on his back attacking rival players with animal guises, one the whitetailed deer. These carvings support the idea suggested above that Olmec kings had adopted a theory of history expressed as the relationship of the victor to the vanquished (or predator/prey) known for the later Maya. Blood needed to be drawn to ensure plenty of lifegiving water as well as sun. Children and infants were sacrificed during the Early Formative San Lorenzo phase at the El Manatı´ spring and in the Middle Formative period in the pillared enclosure in the sacred compound at La Venta (Monument 7, Tomb A). Human remains were placed as offerings under monuments at San Lorenzo. La Venta’s Altar 4 shows an eagle-clad king holding a captive tied to a rope, and human bones occurred in feasting refuse at its client site San Andre´s. Kings performed autosacrifice to draw their own blood on behalf of the community as well, judging from real and jadeite effigy stingray spines deposited in caches in La Venta’s sacred precinct. Pilgrimage to sacred hotspots was a core attribute of Olmec ritual life. At the height of San Lorenzo’s power, pilgrims traveled to El Manatı´ springs to deposit sacred insignia of kingship such as wooden busts of male and female ancestors accompanied by precious jadeite jewelry and scepters, one with a shark’s tooth and a bird effigy at either end. A finely carved dark greenstone footprint effigy captures the essence of the journey. La Venta’s sacred spot was probably Rı´o Pesquero, the now-destroyed Veracruz site from which many gorgeous jadeite objects have come. The jadeite representations of the king from Rı´o Pesquero constitute a radical departure from the ancestral wooden busts or even the royal colossal heads of the Early Formative period. The Rı´o Pesquero engravings show the king as a divine being. One celt shows him as the embodiment of the world tree in the center of the quincunx holding the harpy eagle as a ceremonial bar. Caves as well as springs were pilgrimage destinations to enhance the king’s divine status. Both natural features provided portals to other worlds and access to supernatural power and abundance as well as

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B

Monument 13

E

A

Celts from cache

Tombs A, B, and E

Structure A-2 Basalt column fence

Adobe platform Mottled sandy clay fill Mosaic pavement

Necropolis Complex A

Serpentine block offering Tomb C

Figure 5 Perspective view of Complex A, La Venta. After Drucker P (1952) La Venta, Tabasco: A Study of Olmec Ceramics and Art. Washington, DC: Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, figures 10, 14, 19, 20, 22, 47, and 61.

sacred, life-giving water. Murals in Juxtlahuaca and Oxtotitla´n caves in Guerrero preserve a record of Olmec painting traditions in the service of pilgrimage and ritual. A male striding figure is an iconic image in Formative Mesoamerican art; it occurs on early stelae with evidence for writing and the calendar at sites such as La Venta and Takalik Abaj, for example. Middle Formative La Venta elites expanded the pilgrimage phenomenon, notes John Clark, installing royal Olmec images all along routes of travel as well as in remote locations. Along the ancient east–west intercoastal Pacific overland route with access by river to the Grijalva Basin, they carved the rock face at Pijijiapan with the image of a ruler flanked by two women in front of a cave entrance for instance. An example of a remote location is a sculpture of an eagle-helmeted ruler raising a four-segmented pole representing the world tree way at the top of San Martı´n Pajapan volcano in the Tuxtla Mountains. The image of the ruler duplicates that of one (Monument 44) found at the Stirling Acropolis, the royal palace at La Venta, establishing the mountain top as the king’s royal domain. La Venta’s rulers understood that enactment of ceremonies on sacred stages kept the universe in play and

kept them in power as divine kings (Figure 5). They likely designed La Venta’s sacred landscape to draw pilgrims to worship at the ceremonial center itself. Many participated in the animation of the world. The feet of pilgrims wore down a pavement at the center of La Venta’s ceremonial precinct. Music, drinking, and feasting were core elements of the action. La Venta Offering 3 contained miniature greenstone flutes along with beads in the shape of brewing pots. At San Andre´s, the La Venta client site 5 km to the northeast of the ceremonial center, feasting refuse contained large platters, drinking cups, and brewing jars. La Venta’s Altar 7 (Figure 6) brings the oracular element from the caves to the ceremonial precinct. The central image is a huge duck-billed head projecting form a cave niche. To the duck’s right is a figure with bubble-like speech signs floating up to a sacred crossed band sign in a cartouche, a glyph-like element probably referring to portals to the gods. The condition of the altar and the associated imagery suggest night ceremonies. On the back of the altar, nocturnal kinkajou and owl figures join the diurnal harpy eagle. The surface of the altar was flaked off as though by strong heat, perhaps from torches staked

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Figure 6 La Venta Altar 7. Most altars have a seated figure in the niche. This altar is unique because it has a masked colossal head with a duck’s beak mask in the niche. The use of such masks may have been linked to oracular speech in the context of ritual or dance. The bucal mask is compared to a pottery waterfowl beak from the nearby site, San Andre´s. Line component after Follensbee (2000: figure 105).

nearby. Numerous grooves over the top of the altar suggest that the celebration involved the ritual sharpening of axes. Olmec kings built their palaces within the ceremonial precincts. Ann Cyphers has excavated the impressive Red Palace at San Lorenzo, a substantial construction with its platform substructure, red floors, and basalt roof support, steps, and drain. The Stirling Acropolis is believed to have been the residence of La Venta’s paramount elites, but it remains unexcavated. The difference between the Red Palace and the Stirling Acropolis was that the Red Palace was a royal residence while the Stirling Acropolis, surrounded by the pyramid, E-Group, and the ballcourt, was a sacred one. The colossal heads have captured archaeologists’ attention as the portraits of male Olmec rulers. The figures’ helmets have been thought to denote male ballplayers. La Venta figurines and sculpture demonstrate that women as well as men wore helmet-style headgear, however, and one must recognize that some of the colossal heads may represent royal women as well as men, suggests Billie Follensbee. There is a good possibility that the Olmec may have been bilateral, as were most pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies. Several images portray a male ruler flanked by one or two women. The Pijijiapan relief, La Venta Stela 5, and La Venta Offering 4 are examples. The older women may represent the founding lineage. A tumpline carried by the woman on Stela 5 makes multilayered reference to her as both a nurturing bearer of food as well as the sacred relics that ‘planted’ La Venta as a sacred center. This description of Olmec ritual precincts underlines the thematic commonalities among sites but demonstrates how Mesoamerica’s first kings advanced their

status from royal to divine through their architectural and iconographic programs. Olmec elites played on basic human psychological instincts such as desire for communion with higher powers, altruism towards the community, and attraction to memorable events in a world that is essentially unmemorable. Anyone who has witnessed the pull of the present-day regional, now Christian pilgrimage to Tila, La Venta’s successor, can attest to the compelling, even coercive, power that such phenomena exert. Olmec kings used monumental constructions to advertise their power and monopolize labor and material resources, thereby preventing contenders from mounting any serious challenge to their authority. Competition played a part in driving the evolution of royal power. The Early and especially the Middle Formative periods saw the growth of royal pilgrimage centers competing with San Lorenzo and La Venta. Teopantecuanitlan and Chalcatzingo offered access to alternative versions of sacred landscape, caves and the water-mountain topography. The evidence for captives and sacrificial victims in the context of feasting and the ball game suggests that physical coercion, warfare, and raiding were a factor in the political landscape. In this regard, the Olmec differed from their contemporaries in Oaxaca, where warfare played a significantly more overt role in state formation. The Oaxaca pattern of physical coercion was to become the dominant one in Mesoamerica culminating in the Aztec state. Writing and the Calendar

Olmec elites developed writing in connection with their ritual practices, including the celebration of calendrical cycles. Mesoamerican people devoted enormous effort to developing and observing calendrical events, which focused on divination and prophecy. Olmec religious

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Figure 7 San Andre´s roller stamp. Date indicative signs are compared to the Epi-Olmec Long Count initial series glyph from Stela C at Tres Zapotes. San Andre´s is a subsidiary elite site of the Olmec polity capital, La Venta, located some 5 km from the center. Redrawn after Pohl, et al. 2002.

art is filled with iconographic messages. The evolution of writing involved the conversion of these images to language messages whereby the reader gets the writer’s precise message through representations of words, syllables, or consonants and vowels of a language. Writing was an important tool of early kings because it allowed them to capture and transmit the power of a message in a manner similar to their ability to capture the power of the sacred landscape by reproducing it (Figure 7). The representation of walking provides a good example of the process. The Early Formative greenstone carving of a footprint from El Manatı´ is essentially a proto-glyph. The image conveys the action, and the medium conveys its sacredness. The footprint sign then appears transformed into a written verb accompanying a striding figure on Middle Formative Monument 13 from La Venta. Early iconographic and writing technology relied heavily on the roller stamp, which acted as a small printing press. The inked stamp would leave its mark when rolled across the human body, cloth, or bark paper. A Middle Formative greenstone mask from Rı´o Pesquero demonstrates how the living human body was a prime medium for the transmission of written messages, which were also considered to have a life of their own. The fact that most early writing was probably applied to skin and other perishable materials accounts for the scarcity of evidence for its existence. Another early illustration of the evolution of writing occurs on an Early Formative roller stamp from Tlatilco in the Basin of Mexico dating to c. 1100 BC. The stamp shows a possible early Venus glyph aside a canonic Olmec-style head, all aligned with the quincunx and an early version of the flowershaped k’in glyph, a logograph denoting the word for ‘sun’ or ‘day’. Through iconographic image and written word, the roller stamp conveys the message of the sacred center of the world in connection with calendrical ritual. The stamp’s message summarizes the essence of Olmec religious culture.

Data from San Andre´s are significant given the fragility of evidence for Formative period writing and the shaky context of most early finds. San Andre´s has yielded firmly dated evidence for writing on a roller stamp and on greenstone plaques that formed jewelry, perhaps an earspool. The artifacts occurred in the context of ritual feasting refuse that could be dated through both radiocarbon assay and pottery chronology to c. 650 BC. One greenstone plaque features the royal double merlon motif inside a cartouche signifying its status as a written word. These glyphs are logographs, signs that represent words or concepts. The writing demonstrates that the Olmec had the 260-day divinatory almanac, which they were probably instrumental in developing and disseminating throughout Mesoamerica. This sacred calendar was comprised of a sequence of 13 numbers and 20 named days, whose permutations took 260 days to cycle through. The San Andre´s roller stamp shows the glyph for the day sign three ajaw. In addition to the San Andre´s find in a feasting deposit, calendrical notations have also been reported from other special contexts, Oxtotitla´n cave and Teopantecuanitla´n, where one of the monoliths in the ceremonial Enclosure bears a flower and two bars, possibly a very early record of the 10-Flower day sign. The Olmec used one or more logographs to advertise special messages and events in public contexts, and they also wrote longer texts, perhaps for more esoteric purposes. The Cascajal serpentine block, 26 cm by 21 cm, found in a quarry north of San Lorenzo and El Manatı´, contains strings of glyphs that in some cases demonstrate patterned structure. Many of the pictograph-like glyphs represent objects of ritual significance, such as the maize cob, flaming bundle of faggots, ‘spoon’, and throne. The fact that the block had a concave face suggests that its text was erased and re-inscribed, perhaps many times. The block probably dates to the end of the Early Formative period or the Middle Formative period.

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Early Mesoamerican writing is characterized by variability in form. Many glyphs are idiosyncratic and evidently went extinct. Others such as the calendrically-oriented ajaw and k’in glyphs persisted and were adopted by other groups such as the Maya, who went on to develop Mesoamerican writing and the calendar most fully. Local, Regional, and Extra-regional Exchange through Trade and Gifting

Olmec social, political, and religious structure demanded that energy be focused on importing substantial amounts of material into this stoneless, Gulf Coast floodplain habitat. Tons of basalt came to San Lorenzo, by river raft and overland, from the Tuxtla Mountains some 60 km to the northwest where remains of stone working have been found at Cerro Cintepec volcano. Stone masons carved high-quality, finegrained porphyritic basalt into royal sculptures while coarser stone went for utilitarian technologies such as maize-grinding tools known as manos and metates. La Venta’s elites expanded on San Lorenzo’s stone sources. To the north, the island of Roca Partida in the Bay of Campeche provided naturally formed basalt columns for the sacred enclosures in Complex A. Most of the stone sources for monuments and offerings came from the south, however. Cerro Zempoaltepec provided schists, andesites, and diorites for sculptures. Olmec elites were the first to designate greenstones (jadeite, serpentine, schist, gneiss, green quartz) as the standard of sacred preciousness symbolizing the life force in water and vegetation in Mesoamerica. The standard evolved over time according to Olaf Jaime’s study of over 1000 artifacts from El Manatı´ (1600 BC), El Macayal (1200–1000 BC), La Merced (1000–600 BC), and La Venta (1000–400 BC). The Olmec used distinctive blue-green, black, and dark green jadeite and serpentine in the Early Formative period (1600–1200 BC). Sources for these stones occurred at a distance of up to 1000 km from the Gulf Coast region in eastern Guatemala’s Motagua Valley, especially the Tambor River area. Craft workers carved beads, celts, and representations of animals out of this extremely hard stone, transforming them into sacred objects of power through their labor. In Middle Formative times (1000–400 BC), as Olmec elites at La Venta engaged in conspicuous consumption by constructing earthen mounds accompanied by massive serpentine offerings and caches, the dark greenstones gave way to serpentine and yellow-green jadeite. The Middle Formative sources were closer, that is, the Oaxaca-Puebla area (Cuicatlan, Sierra de Juarez, Tehuitzingo), perhaps influenced by rise of competing polities and balkanization of

frontiers Jaime suggests. Quality of stone working declined significantly in many cases. Many of the greenstone artifacts were deposited in an unfinished state. William Rust uncovered evidence of serpentine working areas in Complex E, to the northeast of La Venta’s sacred Complex A. Olmec elites at La Venta monopolized the most desirable yellow-green stone, leaving their client supporters to make do as best they could in the face of poor supply lines. Allison Perrett’s study of greenstone from the subsidiary site of San Ande´s showed that the material was unexpectedly abundant but was inferior in color and texture, exhibiting a blue-green hue compared with La Venta. Evidence for serpentine debitage at San Ande´s, though scarce, demonstrates that the material was worked locally, however. Complex networks of long-distance trade and exchange define Formative period Gulf Coast urban societies. Obsidian and ceramics provide the best opportunity to gauge the extent of these connections because the material is plentiful, many sources are known, and scientists can trace the sources accurately. The data indicate that the Olmec drew on diverse resources from a broad geographical area and probably used social alliances to facilitate these supply lines. Sharp-edged obsidian was in high demand in Mesoamerica, and trade in prismatic obsidian blades is closely associated with the emergence of elites. The obsidian data, which are based on systems of visual identification assisted by neutron activation analysis, demonstrate that the Olmec drew on a surprising number of sources though only a few dominated. Robert Cobean showed that the obsidian from the Early Formative San Lorenzo phase at San Lorenzo came predominantly from Guadalupe Victoria, Puebla, in Central Mexico, which at c. 300 km to the northeast was the closest source to the site. Other obsidian came from El Chayal, Guatemala, perhaps with participation of inhabitants of Kaminaljuyu´. The probable route for the El Chayal obsidian was along the Soconusco coast and over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The La Venta obsidian data indicate major changes in obsidian production and procurement in the Middle Formative period. As many as nine sources were represented at La Venta. Travis Doering reports that the dominant sources changed to Paredo´n in Central Mexico and to San Martı´n Jilotepeque in Guatemala, each more than 500 km from La Venta in opposite directions and not the closest available. Obsidian may have moved from Central Mexico south via the trade center of El Viejo´n on the Veracruz coast. The Guatemalan obsidian indicates a change in route along the Motagua river to western Guatemala and then down the Grijalva river via the trading site

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of San Isidro to the Gulf Coast. Whereas obsidian blades had previously been manufactured near the quarry sites, now macrocores were traded and manufactured into blades in elite-controlled workshop areas such as at La Venta Complex D. The La Venta site had high quantities of the golden-green Pachuca obsidian from Central Mexico, confirming the fact that it was a highly prized commodity. There is strong circumstantial evidence of elite involvement in obsidian manufacture and distribution at La Venta. A spent obsidian core incised with the sacred insignia of a harpy eagle was placed in a royal offering (Tomb C) in the most holy precinct of Complex A. Moreover, the obsidian from the subsidiary site of San Andre´s, 5 km northeast of the paramount center, came from the same sources as those at La Venta. The San Andre´s obsidian showed no evidence of local manufacture, and it was a scarce commodity, occurring primarily in the ritual feasting context. Inhabitants of San Andre´s completely utilized what obsidian they were able to obtain from La Venta using bipolar flaking techniques. Recent neutron activation analysis by Jeffrey Blomster of carved white ware fine paste ceramics and source clays from San Lorenzo and six other regions in Mesoamerica indicates the presence of long-distance trade in ceramics extending from the Olmec region to the Highlands. In this study, fine paste Early Horizon ceramics were demonstrated to be both of local manufacture and imported from the San Lorenzo region. The implications of this study place Early Formative San Lorenzo in a paramount position vis a` vis the social interaction, gifting and trade systems that underpinned the formation of the Early Horizon beginnings of Mesoamerica. There are clues to the social impact of this geographically extensive, labor-intensive economic activity, for example, in the formation of alliances along trade routes. The enactment of social relations typically involved gifting of pottery in Mesoamerica, and the neutron activation data tracing the movement of pots out of the Gulf Coast heartland are tangible testimony to alliance corridors. Middle Formative Grivalva sites with strong Olmec influence provide hints that these alliances might have involved marriage between royal Olmec women and local lords. For example, New World Archaeological Foundation excavations at Chiapa de Corzo uncovered the burial of a woman, possibly an imported

Americas Migrations

royal female lineage founder, accompanied by La Venta-style pottery. Ephemeral pieces of evidence from sites such as this in the Grijalva drainage provide hints of complex social relationships generated by Olmec trade and exchange.

The Olmec in Mesoamerican History The Olmec are significant because they show the evolution of complex society in Mesoamerica. The urban centers, multi-tiered settlement systems, monumental constructions, craft production, and elaborate trade and exchange systems document the fact that the Olmec were developing the state. A comparison between San Lorenzo and La Venta reveals how Olmec kings advanced their status from royal to divine, as they redesigned their centers as cosmic cities, expanded their settlements, and widened their trade networks. The dynamic of competing pilgrimage centers was a key factor in centralization of power, one that was eventually to feed warfare on and offstage in the Late Formative and especially the Classic periods. Later Mesoamerican rulers, particularly the Soke and the Maya, were to model themselves on the Olmec by copying their architectural plans, including pyramids, stelae, altars, and E Groups, adopting their writing systems, and mining their sites for jadeite paraphernalia with which to purchase holiness. See also: Americas, Central: Classic Period of Mesoamerica, the Maya; Postclassic Cultures of Mesoamerica; Ritual, Religion, and Ideology; Writing Systems.

Further Reading Benson EP and de la Fuente B (1996) Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art. Clark JE and Pye ME (2000) Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Coe MD and Diehl RA (1980) In the Land of the Olmec. The People of the River. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas Press. Diehl R (2004) The Olmecs. America’s First Civilization. New York: Thames and Hudson. Drucker P (1952) La Venta, Tabasco: A Study of Olmec Ceramics and Art. Washington, DC: Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution. Grove D (1970) The Olmec Paintings of Oxtotitlan Cave, Guerrero, Mexico. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. Grove D (ed.) (1987) Ancient Chalcatzingo. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pool C (2007) Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. New York: Cambridge University Press.

See: New World, Peopling of.

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AMERICAS, NORTH Contents American Southwest, Four Corners Region Arctic and Circumpolar Regions California and the Sierra Nevada Eastern Woodlands Great Basin Historical Archaeology in the United States Plains Plantation Archaeology Rocky Mountains Sub-arctic

American Southwest, Four Corners Region Paul F Reed, Center for Desert Archaeology, Bloomfield, NM, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Archaic period Archaeologically defined period of human occupation in Four Corners region, from 5500–600 BC. Chaco Canyon Ancient center of Puebloan society and culture in northwest New Mexico, which reached its peak from AD 1050–1100. Clovis culture (also Llano culture) A prehistoric Native American culture that first appears in the archaeological record of North America around 11 000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. Dine´tah Ancestral homeland of Navajo people, located in northwest New Mexico. Dine´tah phase Earliest period of Navajo residence in Four Corners region, from AD 1450–1630. Folsom complex An early archaeological complex of North America characterized by a distinct leaf-shaped projectile point called a Folsom point. Four Corners The survey point at the intersection of the four US states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona and the high desert plateau region surrounding that point in the southwestern United States. Gobernador phase Period of Navajo occupation in Four Corners region from AD 1630–1755. Palaeo-Indian period Earliest archaeological period of human occupation in the Four Corners Region, from ca. 10 000–5500 BC.

In this article, we will explore the lives of ancient peoples in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest from about 10 000 BC until AD 1755. This region is illustrated in Figure 1. We will do this in a logical fashion – by starting with the beginning of

human occupation (which archaeologists describe as the Palaeo-Indian period) and ending with the latest archaeological period of occupation (by the Navajo people). We will discuss the archaeological findings and lifeways of four cultural groups or periods over this 12 000-year span of human occupation: PalaeoIndian groups, Archaic groups, ancient Puebloan people, and the Dine´ or Navajo tribe. The first two groups – Palaeo-Indian and Archaic – are not discrete ethnic or cultural groups. Rather, archaeologists use Palaeo-Indian and Archaic to refer to discrete periods of time in the early history of North America. Because of the great antiquity of Palaeo-Indian and Archaic sites and the sparse nature of their archaeological remains (consisting primarily of worked stone tools and lithic chipping debris), it is difficult to identify discrete ethnic or cultural groups in these periods. Acknowledging that we cannot specify ethnic groups for these early periods, we will nevertheless discuss these periods in a similar fashion to the later sociocultural and ethnic groups (the ancient Puebloans and the Navajos) in this article.

Palaeo-Indian Period (10 000–5500 BC) The Palaeo-Indian period (c. 10 000–5500 BC) represents the first conclusive evidence of human occupation in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. In comparison to other areas of the West and Southwest (e.g., the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico or Colorado’s Western slope), the Four Corners region has seen little in the way of Palaeo-Indian research. Although PalaeoIndian sites have been found throughout the region, very few have been excavated. Thus, the general discussion of Palaeo-Indian lifeways and archaeology that follows is based largely on evidence from surrounding regions of North America.

232 AMERICAS, NORTH/American Southwest, Four Corners Region

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The Palaeo-Indian period is characterized as a time when the ancient inhabitants depended primarily on hunting of large game animals. During this time, archaeologists believe that the dominant subsistence strategy involved hunting a limited number of large mammals – what archaeologists describe as megafauna including mammoths, mastodon, giant sloths, and ancient bison. This is not to say that plants were not gathered and eaten – they were. Nevertheless, residential sites were located primarily in areas on the migration routes of the megafauna. Gathering and

use of plant materials occurred as a secondary activity in these locales. Thus, the majority of Palaeo-Indian sites represent areas where large mammals were killed and butchered. These sites contain large spear points and other tools are found in association with the butchered bones of large mammals. Four complexes or temporal phases have been defined for the Southwest Palaeo-Indian people: Clovis (10 000–9000 BC), Folsom (9000–8000 BC), Plano (8000–7000 BC), and Cody (7000–6000 BC). Figure 2 illustrates Clovis period stone tools. General

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Figure 2 Photograph of Clovis period tools, including distinctive fluted spear points. Photograph by Jonathan Mabry.

changes in adaptation and stone tool kits occurred during the transition from one phase to the next. Distinctive projectile point styles are used to separate these phases. In general, the Clovis complex is marked by the hunting of large and currently extinct megafauna (e.g., mammoth, mastodon). The Folsom complex continued the tradition of big game hunting except that large and now-extinct bison was the usual prey. During the Plano phase, a continuation of Folsom traits continued. In fact, some researchers believe that the Plano complex is not temporally separate from the Folsom. The Cody complex is viewed as a time when hunting essentially modern bison comprised the primary subsistence pattern. Some Palaeo-Indian sites are known from across the Four Corners region, including southeast Utah and southwest Colorado. Similarly, a few Clovis and Folsom projectile points have been reported from northeast Arizona: near the Hopi villages and in the Cow Springs–White Mesa area. The San Juan Basin of northwest New Mexico also has several documented Palaeo-Indian sites.

Archaic Period (5500–600 BC) Many archaeologists understand that the succeeding Archaic period (5500–600 BC) in the Four Corners region developed out of the existing Palaeo-Indian adaptation. However, archaeologist Cynthia IrwinWilliams suggested that the Palaeo-Indian occupants abandoned the region when bison herds could no longer be supported and migrated east. In this view, Archaic people of the northern Southwest were immigrants to the area. In another view, archaeologist Jesse Jennings suggested that the Archaic period dates back to 8000 BC in some areas and that

Archaic folks were contemporaneous with the PalaeoIndians. At this point, sufficient evidence does not exist to prove or refute any of these alternatives. IrwinWilliams’s Archaic sequence is presented below, as it is most specific to the Four Corners region. In addition, other Archaic sequences have been proposed, most notably Alan Schroedl’s for the northern Colorado Plateau, which is briefly discussed below. In general, the Archaic period is characterized by the replacement of the previous big-game hunting adaptation with a subsistence (food gathering) strategy focused on a mixed utilization of a large variety of plants (wild grasses, seeds, nuts, fruits, roots, or tubers) and animals (including deer, elk, antelope, bison, rabbits, and a variety of rodents). Plant resources were particularly important and a seasonal pattern of exploitation, with groups moving frequently, is inferred. In 1973, archaeologist Cynthia Irwin-Williams developed a cultural sequence for the Archaic occupation of the northern American Southwest based on her work in the Arroyo Cuervo area of northwest New Mexico (Table 1). The sequence is called the Oshara tradition and has five phases (periods of time): Jay phase (5500–4800 BC), Bajada phase (4800–3200 BC), San Jose phase (3200–1800 BC), Armijo phase (1800– 800 BC), and En Medio phase (800 BC–AD 400). Figure 3 illustrates the changes in projectile points and other stone tools through the phases defined as part of the Oshara tradition. During the Jay phase (5500–4800 BC), people located their habitation sites predominantly at or around canyon or drainage heads. These sites were generally small and seemed to represent a full range of activities: hunting, plant gathering, and stone tool manufacture. A wide variety of stone tools have been found on Jay sites, including well-made projectile

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points. According to Irwin-Williams, ground stone was absent. However, more recent research in the Four Corners area has documented the presence of ground stone artifacts on Jay phase sites. The basic Table 1 Cynthia Irwin-Williams’s 1973 Oshara Tradition Phase

Dates

Jay Bajada San Jose Armijo En Modio

5500–4800 BC 4800–3200 BC 3200–1800 BC 1800–800 BC 800 BC–AD 400

Jay adaptation appears to have involved a mix of both hunting and plant gathering activities. Numerous Jay phase sites are known in the Four Corners region. As envisioned by Irwin-Williams, the following Bajada phase (4800–3200 BC) represents continuous development from the preceding Jay phase. Regional population increased, as indicated by an increase in the number of occupied sites. Sites used by people in the Bajada phase seemed to show task-specific organization; that is, groups of people went on short-term trips from home base camps to gather plants, find suitable raw material for stone tools, hunt, or undertake other activities. Cobble and rock ovens and Material culture

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Figure 3 Chart showing changes in Oshara Tradition phases. From Irwin-Williams C (1973) The Oshara Tradition: Origins of Anasazi Culture. Contributions in Anthropology 5(3). Portales: Eastern New Mexico University, figure 7, with permission.

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roasting pits made their first appearance during this phase and stone tools were more refined, perhaps suggesting a better adaptation to the plants and animals used as food resources. Bajada phase sites are known from across the Four Corners region. During the San Jose phase (3200–1800 BC), dramatic changes occurred in relation to earlier phases. The number and size of sites, and, thus, people on the landscape, increased dramatically. Larger, more specialized activity sites with numerous fire pit or hearths and underground ovens were used for the first time during the San Juan phase. The tool assemblage was diversified with the appearance of large chopper tools, pounders, and basic grinding stones (i.e., shallow basin metates and one-hand manos). Quite a few San Jose phase projectile points (mounted on darts and throw with an atlatl) were serrated (with jagged edges), suggesting that a sharp cutting edge was important. Figure 4 illustrates the use of the atlatl in the ancient Southwest. Overall, the distribution of sites and tools suggests that a mixed subsistence strategy was practiced, using both plant and animal foods. Resource exploitation became more systematic, intensive, and inclusive. Numerous San Jose phase sites have been found in the Four Corners region. During the subsequent Armijo phase (1800– 800 BC), a critical change in subsistence occurred that was to influence the later course of Archaic and Early Puebloan development across the region: the introduction of maize or corn agriculture. Corn represented a

Figure 4 Figure illustrating use of the atlatl to throw darts. From Fagan, B. (1991) Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent. London: Thames and Hudson, with permission.

dependable, seasonal resource that provided sufficient food for large numbers of people, and that also had the potential to provide a surplus. Interestingly, although corn was introduced to the Four Corners region by at least 1200 BC (and probably earlier), the basic Archaic period subsistence pattern did not change dramatically (see Puebloan section below for a more thorough discussion of maize agriculture). Habitation sites during the Armijo phase were very large and the number and density of sites documented indicates substantial population growth across the region. Tools increased in variety and number and ground stone became common. An elaboration of ceremonial items is also apparent. Most important, perhaps, is that a pattern of seasonal aggregation first appeared during the Armijo phase. Groups of people who were normally dispersed across the landscape through the winter months began to aggregate into larger settlements in the summer. Although practiced, maize agriculture was not critical to the subsistence pattern during this phase. In relative terms, Armijo phase sites occur frequently in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, and across the Four Corners region. Although the succeeding En Medio phase (800 BC– AD 400) was included in Irwin-Williams’s Oshara tradition, many Southwest archaeologists believe that the latter portion of the phase (c. 600/400 BC– AD 400) represents the Basketmaker II occupation of the Early Puebloans (see discussion below). IrwinWilliams believed that the people of the Oshara tradition evolved into the Early Puebloans but she never identified the precise period for this transformation. During the early portion of the phase (800–100 BC), agriculture became increasingly important and population continued to grow. Use of ground stone tools (basin-shaped metates and onehand manos) increased proportionately with increasing dependence on agriculture. Also, the presence of a strong seasonal, annual cycle of movement is clear by this time, as groups moved across the landscape to find and exploit different resources (e.g., gathering pin˜on nuts at higher elevations in the fall and harvesting grasses at lower elevations in the late spring). En Medio phase sites are common across the Four Corners region. In 1976, Alan Schroedl developed a cultural sequence for the Archaic period on the Colorado Plateau that differed significantly from Irwin-Williams’s formulation. Schroedl’s sequence has four phases: Black Knoll (6300–4200 BC), Castle Valley (4200– 2500 BC), Green River (2500–1300 BC), and Dirty Devil (1300 BC–AD 500). The phases are differentiated based on diagnostic projectile points and perceived changes in population. The Black Knoll phase

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is characterized by Pinto and Northern Side-notched points. During the latter part of the phase (5000– 4200 BC), Schroedl postulated a dramatic increase in population, as evidenced by an increase in the density of artifacts on sites. The subsequent Castle Valley phase saw the widespread occurrence of Rocker, Sudden, and Hawken Side-notched points early in the period. Schroedl suggested that the population increased after 3000 BC, following a slight decrease earlier in the phase. During the latter portion of the phase, Humboldt and McKean projectile points became common. The third phase is the Green River, which is characterized first by San Rafael Side-notched points, and later by Gypsum projectile points. Finally, the Dirty Devil phase witnessed the continuation of Green River point styles. Schroedl postulated a low population during this final phase. Schroedl’s sequence was built largely upon data from several cave sites in southern Utah and northern Arizona: Danger Cave, Hogup Cave, Sudden Shelter, and Cowboy Cave. Before discussing the ancient Puebloan sequence, a perspective on the Archaic is offered here that differs considerably from both Irwin-Williams and Schroedl. In 1986, archaeologists Mike and Claudia Berry undertook a critical review of the Archaic period in the American Southwest. They made several important points: (1) most of the Archaic models currently used in the Southwest are deficient in one way or another, (2) models currently used are of little utility in understanding change through time, (3) models currently used are not supported by the chronological evidence, and (4) the premise of in situ cultural development is simply not supported by the data. Berry and Berry did not undertake a comprehensive review of Irwin-Williams’s sequence because very little of the relevant data had been published. Berry and Berry were skeptical that the Oshara tradition data would support Irwin Williams’s concept of in situ, gradual evolution from Jay phase hunter-gatherers to Later Puebloan agriculturalists. With regard to the northern Colorado Plateau Archaic sequence, Berry and Berry noted that a plot of absolute chronological dates produced a pattern that is more indicative of intermittent occupation than gradual increase in occupational intensity through time. Specifically, they highlighted a 1000-year gap in the occupation of the Colorado Plateau from 4000 to 3000 BC. Schroedl also evidently observed this gap but nevertheless chose to define a phase (Castle Valley) to fill the gap. This is a clear example of what Berry and Berry called phase-stacking to achieve the illusion of continuity. Another discontinuity is present in Schroedl’s Dirty Devil phase, from 1000 BC to AD 1. Berry and Berry suggested that Schroedl ignored this gap to allow for continuity.

As an alternative to models of gradual evolution and in situ development for the Archaic period, Berry and Berry offered a punctuated (or intermittent) model. They argued that the Southwest is essentially an arid and inhospitable environment that invited exploration by Archaic hunter-gatherers only during specific periods of increased effective moisture and proportionately greater biotic productivity. Thus, to believe that any area in the Southwest was continuously occupied throughout the period is incorrect. Rather, Archaic groups came and went as conditions allowed. In this view, Archaic peoples are seen as adapting to local environments and making small adjustments in their use of various stone tools and in their seasonal migrations. Also inherent in this view is the belief that, at certain times, large portions of the Southwest were simply not hospitable to human groups. Thus, temporary abandonment of many areas across the Southwest is to be expected. Berry and Berry constructed a basic summary of the Archaic era using period designations only as organizational devices. Period I, dated from 8000 to 3000 BC, is characterized by sparse population of the entire Southwest. The period is correlated with a general time of decreased moisture, the Altithermal, which limited the productivity of the area. Culturally, the groups that occupied the area are unknown. The culmination of the period was a widespread abandonment from 4000 to 3000 BC. Period II, dating from 3000 to 1000 BC, saw an intensive occupation across the Southwest. A reversal of effective moisture levels occurred and resource productivity was high. Unprecedented levels of cultural activity were achieved during this period. Period III lasted from 1000 BC to AD 500. Berry and Berry characterized this period as post-Archaic because of the introduction of maize agriculture. Although agriculture did not have an immediate impact, it set into motion a cycle that completely revolutionized the Archaic way of life and set the stage for Formative (Puebloan) developments. Nevertheless, hunting-gathering continued to be of considerable importance during this period, as well as later in the Puebloan period. In what is perhaps the most significant deviation from conventional southwestern wisdom, Berry and Berry posited a major influx of people during this period, as represented by stylistically diverse projectile points. They suggested that the inception of maize agriculture probably represents an influx of people from some external (and unknown) source area. This suggestion is in sharp contrast to the model of continuous in situ development that has been postulated for the Archaic to Puebloan transition by other Southwestern archaeologists.

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The work of Berry and Berry is important, as it adds a new perspective on the Archaic period and encourages archaeologists to examine their data and their preconceived notions of the archaeological record. In a general sense, their work parallels that of other Southwest archaeologists who have expressed dissatisfaction with traditional and gradualistic interpretations of the archaeological record. Given the incomplete nature of the Archaic database, however, alternative interpretations are clearly possible. The gaps that Berry and Berry have identified may represent actual abandonments or discontinuities, or they may merely reflect the differential nature of the data. Similarly, the inception of agriculture is not necessarily attributable to the influx of new people. Indeed, some archaeologists postulate that hunter-gatherers took to agriculture to maintain their lifestyle and remain foragers. Phil Geib’s recent summary of the radiocarbon record for the central Colorado Plateau evaluated both the traditional view of Archaic occupancy of the area and Berry and Berry’s punctuated model. Geib plotted more than 130 radiocarbon dates from 64 sites and weighted the raw data to produce a bar graph. Geib considered the influence of different factors (including preservation and sampling factors) on the distribution of dates, concluding that although preservation was not a significant factor, sampling bias in the form of lower visibility of certain sites may be responsible for some of the patterning seen in the chronology. Biases aside, Geib’s analysis did not identify the gaps in the record observed by Berry and Berry. The Middle Archaic gap, identified by Berry and Berry between 6000 and 5000 BP is not evident in the record for the central portion of the plateau. The decrease in radiocarbon-dated sites does reflect, in Geib’s view, a change in settlement pattern and lower population density but does not constitute a complete abandonment of the plateau, as suggested by Berry and Berry. A second occupation hiatus described by Berry and Berry, and interpreted as another complete abandonment of the area, occurred between 3000 and 2500 BP. During this period, the number of radiocarbon dates dips but some sites are still occupied. In sum, Geib’s work provided support for a model of long-term continuity in Archaic occupation of the central Colorado Plateau and he saw no evidence to support the idea that the Archaic period as a sequence of major population abandonments and intrusions on a pan-regional scale (as proposed by Berry and Berry). Nevertheless, he did not discount the importance of migration as a factor influencing changes during the Archaic period, and Geib acknowledged that more data are needed, particularly for the Middle Archaic.

Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Cultural Sequence The arguments of Berry and Berry notwithstanding, many Southwest archaeologists support the position that the Early Puebloan people developed from Oshara tradition and other Late Archaic groups who practiced incipient agriculture across the northern Southwest. Although local temporal sequences have been developed for a number of areas, the generalized Pecos Classification (developed by A. V. Kidder in 1927) is still used by most archaeologists to provide regional consistency and for reference (Table 2). The first period defined for the ancient Puebloans is Basketmaker II, which, as discussed above, overlaps the latter portion of the En Medio phase as defined by Cynthia Irwin-Williams. Basketmaker II Period (600 BC–AD 500)

The Basketmaker II period is dated between 600 BC and AD 500 in different parts of the northern Southwest. Basketmaker II, as currently defined at maximum, then, is as long as the remainder of the ancient Puebloan sequence. Basketmaker II is a critical stage in Puebloan development because it was during this time that the use of cultigens became a significant part of subsistence. The spread of agriculture, in turn, led to a more sedentary lifestyle. General traits of the period include construction and use of small pit houses, large storage cists, shallow grinding slabs, corner and side-notched dart points, the atlatl, one-hand manos, and cradleboard burials. The importance of agriculture, along with the initial use of ceramic containers, is what separates the Puebloans during the Basketmaker II period from earlier and contemporary Archaic populations. Figure 5 illustrates Early Pueblo corn agriculture with use of a digging stick. Various models relating to the adoption of agriculture among the Puebloans have been proposed, many of which have overlapping elements. From an evolutionary point of view, the adoption of agriculture may be seen as providing a selective advantage for the Puebloans that the gathering of wild plant foods did Table 2 A. V. Kidder’s 1927 Pecos Classification. Modified for the Four Corners region of the American Southwest Period

Dates

Basketmaker II Basketmaker III Pueblo I Pueblo II Pueblo III Pueblo IV and V

600 BC–AD 500 AD 500–750 AD 750–900 AD 900–1150 AD 1150–1300 Post AD 1300

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Figure 5 Depiction of early Puebloan corn agriculture using a digging stick. Salmon Ruins Museum collection.

not. In the absence of strong selective pressure, explaining why the use of cultigens would have become important is difficult. The most important selective advantage of cultigens is their dependability and predictability as contrasted with natural plants. Thus, initial use of cultigens probably relates to their seasonal predictability in given areas. It has also been suggested that hunter-gatherers who could most easily fit the demands of cultivation into their seasonal rounds would be most likely to practice agriculture. There are, of course, other parameters involved in the adoption of agriculture, but for the present discussion, understanding that the predictability of cultigens was a key factor is sufficient. In any case, there is good evidence that the Early Puebloans in certain areas (e.g., Cedar Mesa, Utah and Black Mesa, Arizona) were largely dependent on maize agriculture by the Early Basketmaker II period. Recent work has broadened our understanding of the Late Basketmaker II period, and the transition to Basketmaker III and Pueblo I. Using data from a project on the Rainbow Plateau of Arizona, Phil Geib and Kimberly Spurr identified perhaps the earliest use of pottery in the northern Southwest at AD 200. They also found good evidence of the transition between Basketmaker II and III between AD 200 and 450, filling a gap that Mike Berry and other archaeologists had identified. Geib and Spurr identified maize-dependent groups during the Basketmaker II interval. Other findings were related to turkey domestication and early use (by about AD 200) of the bow and arrow. Perhaps the most important contribution Geib and Spurr made is the understanding that

the transition from Basketmaker II to III was not a smooth, coordinated process. The traits they discussed – initial manufacture of pottery, dependence on maize agriculture, use of the bow and arrow, turkey husbandry, and the introduction of beans into the Puebloan diet – were not linked together as a suite and were not all introduced at the same time. Rather, these traits developed at different rates on the Rainbow Plateau and across the northern Southwest. Studying early pottery production, Lori Reed, Dean Wilson, and Kelley Hays-Gilpin contributed significantly to a new understanding of the Late Basketmaker II and Early Basketmaker III interval. Although archaeologists have observed brown ware pottery at Puebloan sites for at least 40 years, Reed and her colleagues were among the first to address the brown ware problem regionally. Archaeologists in the Southwest are accustomed to a simple dichotomy in pottery: brown is Mogollon and gray is Puebloan. In reality, a Puebloan brown ware tradition underlies the gray in most areas. This research documented the widespread occurrence of Puebloan brown ware and proposed combining many types previously split out, offering a few combined types that bring coherence to our understanding of brown ware pottery across the region. A large Basketmaker II population is inferred for Black Mesa, Arizona; a dramatic increase from Archaic times is apparent. By 600 BC, a firm commitment had been made to agriculture on Black Mesa. Basketmaker II settlements across the Southwest generally occur on terraces above major drainages and have been documented throughout the greater San

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Juan Basin and across the Four Corners region. These sites date in the interval from 800 BC to AD 400 and most contain maize. Lithic tool kits at these Early Basketmaker sites are indicative of an Early Puebloan adaptation, with debitage, cores, and tools showing use of local raw materials. The use of stone raw materials and the core reduction strategies reflect a more constricted range of movement in the region relative to earlier Archaic people, with fast, efficient reduction of locally available stone raw materials to produce usable tools. Basketmaker III Period (AD 500–750)

Recent work suggests that the Basketmaker III (AD 500–750) period was different than portrayed in conventional southwestern wisdom. Perhaps because of the contrast in A. V. Kidder’s original 1927 Pecos Classification (Basketmaker vs. Pueblo), southwestern archaeologists have viewed both Basketmaker periods (II and III) as transitional between the huntinggathering cultures of the Archaic period and the agricultural Puebloans, beginning in Pueblo I. In contrast, some Basketmaker II sites represent the remains of groups dependent on agriculture. Furthermore, by Basketmaker III, sedentary agricultural populations were living across the region. Such adaptations have been documented in the Mesa Verde, Colorado, area, in the La Plata Valley, New Mexico, on Cedar Mesa, Utah, and at several locales along the eastern and western slopes of the Chuska Mountains, among other areas. This revised view of Basketmaker III, with fully sedentary populations dependent on maize agriculture, is supported by recent stone tool and lithic studies, studies of pottery production and technology, and the latest rock art research. Figure 6 shows two Early Pueblo corn granaries in a rock shelter in southeastern Utah.

Basketmaker III remains in many areas of the northern Southwest apparently represent in situ continuity from Basketmaker II. Important characteristics of this period across the Southwest include large, formal pit houses, the introduction and use of the bow and arrow, two-hand manos and trough metates, gray ware and early red and unslipped white ware ceramics, and an increasing dependence on agriculture. Long, linear blocks of adobe rooms are associated with Late Basketmaker III sites. Figure 7 illustrates the floor of an abandoned Basketmaker III pithouse. Basketmaker III sites are relatively common on southern Black Mesa and in the Low Mountain area of Arizona, but are apparently absent from northern Black Mesa. In the San Juan Basin, Basketmaker III sites are relatively common and are scattered throughout the area. Pueblo I Period (AD 750–900)

The Pueblo I period (AD 750–900) in the Southwest is generally characterized by the extensive use of surface rooms and pueblos, constructed mostly of masonry or jacal. Kivas of various sizes where religious ceremonies were presumably held became common during this period. The widespread production and use of both neckbanded gray ware and early black-on-white painted ceramics is also a defining trait of the period. Agricultural production continued to be of importance for Puebloan subsistence. Areas with significant Pueblo I populations include Mesa Verde, Dolores area, the upper La Plata River Valley, and Chaco Canyon. In the Western Pueblo area, Pueblo I is viewed as an elaboration of patterns established during the preceding period. This period apparently represents a time of

Figure 6 Photograph of early Pueblo granaries in a rock shelter in southeastern Utah. Photograph by author.

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Figure 7 Early Puebloan (Basketmaker III period) pithouse at Cove, Arizona. Photograph by author.

continued low population density in the Glen Canyon area. Site frequencies are low, much as they are in areas further to the north and east. It is possible, of course, that many Pueblo I sites are obscured by the more obtrusive Pueblo II deposits and simply have not been identified. In the San Juan Basin, Pueblo I sites, although not as common as those of earlier or later periods, are present in moderate numbers; because of this, little population change is inferred for the Four Corners region during this period. Pueblo II Period (AD 900–1150)

The period from AD 900 to 1150, described as the Pueblo II period, is thought by many archaeologists to represent the apogee of ancient Puebloan cultural development. This view is due largely to the impressive remains found in Chaco Canyon (centrally located in the San Juan Basin, southeast of our Four Corners region) and the system that evolved around it. However, Pueblo II represents the time of greatest population dispersal across the entire Southwest, and much of this activity was clearly beyond the Chacoan realm. Across the Southwest, Pueblo II is a period of dramatic increase in site frequency and population. Salient traits of the period are multiple-room masonry structures with associated kivas and formalized middens, numerous black-on-white, red, orange, polychrome, and corrugated ceramics, extensive exchange networks and the development of alliances, sophisticated agricultural practices, and large complex sites. Figure 8 shows a Gallup black-on-white ceramic bowl. This basic pattern is apparent in the Western Puebloan area of northeast Arizona and southeast

Figure 8 Photograph of Gallup black-on-white ceramic bowl, distinctive of the Pueblo II period. Photograph by Lori Stephens Reed.

Utah. The majority of sites in lower Glen Canyon date to this period, indicating an intensive occupation. Site location in the canyons and valleys was apparently linked to the presence of alluvium and arable land. These lowland sites appear to be relatively limited functionally. Highland sites, in contrast, exhibit more evidence of a broad range of functions and activities, and appear to have been occupied yearround. Puebloan settlement on Black Mesa peaked during this period and then declined; the area was effectively abandoned by Late Pueblo II.

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Chacoan Society during the Pueblo II Period Ancient Puebloan society in Chaco Canyon at its peak (AD 1050–1100) was characterized by a number of traits that set it apart from previous, contemporary, and subsequent Puebloan communities and sites. First, Chacoan structures, known as great houses, were built in a monumental style (with three or four stories typical) similar (but unrelated) to the European Medieval castles of the same period in the Old World. Pueblo Bonito is the largest and grandest of all the great houses (Figure 9). Chacoan great houses are distinct from the majority of Puebloan structures of earlier and later periods because of their symmetrical construction and massive architecture described as core-veneer. The massive walls (up to a meter thick) consisted of a

rubble, dirt, or masonry core with inner and outer veneers of carefully selected, shaped sandstone slabs (Figure 10). The imposing size and height of these structures, and other factors, support the idea that the great houses were landscape monuments (in addition to having other functions). As monuments, the great houses were intended to impress and awe local residents, as well as outsiders. One of the more compelling aspects of the Chacoan landscape was the network of roads that were constructed between about AD 1050 and 1100. Perhaps 400 miles of roads have been detected using aerial photography and many segments have been ‘groundtruthed’, – confirmed by a field inspection. Typically, the roadways are very wide (up to 9 m or about 30 ft)

Figure 9 Photograph of Pueblo Bonito (Chaco Canyon) in 1921, prior to major excavations by Neil Judd and the National Geographic Society. Salmon Ruins Museum collection.

Figure 10 Photograph of fine Chacoan masonry in wall of Tower Kiva (built at AD 1090) at Salmon Pueblo. Photograph by author.

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across, and run straight across huge expanses of territory, climbing steep mesas and descending directly into canyons. Moving beyond the confines of Chaco Canyon proper, we see that the flourishing society centered at Chaco was quite far-flung (Figure 11). Archaeologists are literally finding new Chacoan-affiliated sites, outliers, every few years in increasingly remote areas. Nevertheless, at the present time, perhaps 150 Chaco outliers dating between AD 1050 and 1125 are known. As a group, these sites are similar to those found in Chaco, but are generally smaller in size, have fewer rooms, fewer kivas, many do not meet Chacoan standards for architecture, and most are surrounded

by clusters of smaller sites (villages, smaller pueblos, and nonresidential, farming, and other special-use areas). Notable exceptions include the ancient Aztec and Salmon communities in the Middle San Juan region, both of which were as large and well constructed as any great house in Chaco Canyon. Figure 12 is an historic photograph of Salmon Pueblo, taken by Timothy O’Sullivan in 1874. In extent, Chacoan outliers are found across four modern American states. Chimney Rock Pueblo lies several miles west of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and represents the northeastern outpost of Chacoan settlements. Guadalupe Pueblo lies far to the south of Chimney Rock in New Mexico, in the southeastern portion

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Figure 12 Historic photograph of Salmon Pueblo in 1874, taken by photographer Timothy O’Sullivan of the Wheeler Expedition. Note the photographer posing in the middle of frame. Salmon Ruins Museum collection.

of the Chacoan world. Moving across New Mexico to the northwest, the Cottonwood Falls great house in southeast Utah lies near the northwest edge of Chacoan influence. Lastly, Wupatki in northeast Arizona is the westernmost example of a site that shows evidence of Chacoan contact and influence. This far-flung area was larger than New England, and illustrates the vast spread of Chacoan material culture (things like architecture and pottery) and religious-ceremonial influence in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Although they share traits in common with each other, and with great houses in Chaco Canyon, almost every outlier identified thus far has unique characteristics. Thus, understanding the relationship between Chaco Canyon and outlying sites of Chacoan age and affiliation is one of the challenges for Puebloan archaeologists. In fact, the very word itself – outlier – implies a relationship between a center (Chaco Canyon) and a site outside the center (an outlier) that was probably highly variable from site to site. In recent years, Chacoan archaeologists have begun to question these relationships and concentrate more of their research on the outlying sites. This new work has led some to question the existence of an integrated Chacoan ‘system’. In place of an integrated, centrally controlled society, some archaeologists have proposed that the Chacoan world is better described as a confederation of largely independent political entities. Outside Chaco Canyon itself, and an area referred to as the Chaco Core, this is the view adopted here: that the larger Chacoan system was a loose confederation of affiliated but mostly independent Puebloan villages that looked to Chaco Canyon as a religious-ceremonial and economic center.

Pueblo III Period (AD 1150–1300)

The Pueblo III period (AD 1150–1300) across the northern Southwest is characterized by aggregation, continued production of black-on-white and corrugated ceramics, an increase in the production of polychrome ceramics, continued importance of agriculture, and perhaps minor population decreases throughout the period. During Pueblo III times, most of the Colorado Plateau saw the culmination and termination of its Puebloan occupation. Early in the period, a continuation of the earlier Pueblo II adaptation is apparent. Later, after AD 1250, several new patterns emerged. Population was consolidated and aggregated into fewer and larger sites, and the total number of sites decreased. Defensible locations were occupied in the Kayenta region and elsewhere, and there are indications that warfare was ongoing. Figure 13 shows Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. The collapse of the Chacoan system occurred in Early Pueblo III, by AD 1150. Later in the period (c. AD 1200), many sites experienced a resurgence in population. In the Middle San Juan region, Aztec Ruins and Salmon Ruins reached their peaks in the mid1200s as local and regional population boomed. The greater Mesa Verde region also reached its zenith during the Late Pueblo III period, by AD 1260. Finally, many other former Chacoan sites, including Chaco Canyon itself, were revitalized with new populations and growth in the mid-late-1200s. The end of the Pueblo III period is marked by widespread abandonment of most areas across the Colorado Plateau (for habitation purposes) and concentration of population into a few areas (e.g., the Hopi mesas and Little

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Figure 13 Photograph of large defensible Pueblo III site of Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Salmon Ruins Museum collection.

Colorado areas in Arizona, the area around Zuni, New Mexico, and the many pueblos located along the Rio Grande and its tributaries in New Mexico). Pueblo IV and V (post-AD 1300)

During the Later Pueblo IV and V periods, Western Puebloan groups aggregated in a few locations – Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, and the Little Colorado River area. The Eastern Pueblo area received many of the people emigrating from the Four Corners region, and large villages grew along the Rio Grande and its tributaries. Little or no evidence of Pueblo IV or V occupation is present in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. Although wandering groups of Puebloans probably made limited use of the area, no permanent occupation of the area occurred until Navajo groups arrived in the AD 1400s.

Navajo Cultural Sequence At the present time, archaeological discussion of Early Navajo remains in the San Juan Basin and adjacent areas is complicated by the absence of a current, accurate model for the arrival of Athabascan peoples (Navajo and various Apachean groups) in the Southwest. Nevertheless, early tree-ring dates derived from recent excavations at Early Navajo locales in the upper San Juan area make it clear that older models placing the Navajos in the Southwest after the time of Spanish contact, after AD 1540, must be revised. Recent work by archaeologist John Torres-Nez (among others) suggests that Early Navajo

folks entered the northern Southwest in the AD 1400s and took a migration route (from the north) along the western slope of the Rocky Mountains through the modern state of Colorado (see Americas, North: Rocky Mountains).

Dine´tah Phase The earliest period of Navajo occupation in the San Juan drainage area is termed the Dine´tah phase, defined as the period during which the Navajo settled in the Southwest. Although extensive work in the Navajo Reservoir District (Dine´tah area) was conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, no indisputable evidence of Navajo occupation prior to AD 1700 was uncovered. Thus, in the final report, archaeologist Frank Eddy chose not to use the Dine´tah phase, instead identifying the period from AD 1550 to 1700 as Indeterminate Navajo. Nevertheless, more recent research has confirmed the original definition of the Dine´tah phase, and extended its beginning. Briefly sketched, the Navajo occupation of the upper San Juan area began between AD 1400 and 1500. This topic remains a controversial one, although most Early Navajo researchers now agree that the Navajo were present in northwestern New Mexico by AD 1500. Our view is that the Navajo probably entered the northern reaches of Dine´tah early in the fifteenth century, but were not established before the late AD 1400s. Site LA 55979, a Navajo habitation located in Dine´tah that is tree-ring dated to AD 1541, certainly supports this interpretation.

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Figure 14 Photograph of early Navajo Gobernador phase forked-pole hogan, Redrock Valley, Arizona, with Prayer Rock in the background. Photograph by author.

Dine´tah phase sites (between AD 1450 and 1630), are characterized by brush structures, forked-pole hogans, light ceramic and lithic artifact scatters, and hearths. Dine´tah structures often contain east- or southeast-facing doorways and frequently have associated ash piles to the east or southeast, similar to modern Navajo structures and homestead layouts. Although the Navajo of the Dine´tah phase were assumed by Navajo Reservoir Project archaeologists to have been nonagricultural hunter-gatherers who lived in highly mobile bands, recent research indicates that at least some Dine´tah phase groups were practicing agriculture and were perhaps as agriculturally dependent as were later Gobernador phase populations. Of particular significance is that the earliest, best-dated Dine´tah phase site (LA 55979) contains abundant evidence of corn, including burned cobs, and some evidence of beans, which indicates that maize, at least, and perhaps beans, were grown by the inhabitants. Contact with other groups, such as the Eastern and Western Pueblos, began during the Early Dine´tah phase and continued on a limited basis into the Gobernador phase. During the 1500s and early 1600s, the Spanish were apparently uninterested in the more mobile inhabitants of the Dine´tah region. Spanish attention was focused on the sedentary Pueblo villages along the Rio Grande. Navajo–Puebloan interaction and exchange in the Early Dine´tah phase has been demonstrated by the presence of Jemez Black-on-white and Jeddito Yellow Ware ceramics on several dated sites. Other materials such as Pedernal chert from the Jemez-Abiquiu District, obsidian from the Jemez Mountains and the Flagstaff, Arizona area, and copper pigments from the Ojo Caliente

District have been recovered from Dine´tah phase sites. These raw materials were undoubtedly obtained through trade networks or by means of procurement expeditions. As suggested by Reed and Reed the social contact and exchange relationships established between the Navajo and Puebloan groups during the Dine´tah phase provided a means for Puebloan people to seek refuge with the Navajo during the Pueblo Revolt (AD 1680) and Spanish Reconquests (AD 1692 and 1696). Figure 14 shows an Early Navajo forked-pole hogan in northeastern Arizona.

Gobernador Phase The Gobernador phase (AD 1630 and 1755) was originally defined as a period of extensive Puebloan influence manifested by the influx of Pueblo refugees fleeing the Spanish Reconquest. This phase is evidenced by the presence of high numbers of northern Rio Grande and Hopi ceramics, the manufacture of Gobernador Polychrome ceramics (which resemble Puebloan ceramic styles), the construction of defensive structures or pueblitos (which resemble Puebloan architecture), and the appearance of Puebloan-style masked dancers and kachina-like figures in Navajo rock art. This evidence of Puebloan influence is augmented by historical documentation of increased Navajo–Puebloan political interaction and trade and by the presence of Puebloan groups among the Navajo following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Beginning in the early 1600s, Navajos began producing a polychrome ceramic now known as Gobernador Polychrome (in addition to their characteristic utility ware, Dine´tah Gray). The occurrence of this polychrome ceramic at Navajo sites is considered one of

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the primary temporal markers for the Gobernador phase. The similarity of Gobernador Polychrome to contemporary Puebloan polychrome vessels (e.g., Rio Grande Glaze Ware, Tewa Polychrome, and Sikyatki Polychrome) prompted early researchers to suggest that it was produced by Pueblo refugees. Considering that Gobernador Polychrome occurs at sites dating at least 50 years prior to the Pueblo Revolt, it is unlikely that it was initially produced by Pueblo refugees. The multistylistic character of Gobernador Polychrome, incorporating design styles, design layouts, and color patterning present on both Eastern and Western Pueblo pottery, further supports Navajo production and innovation. Given the social ties that probably existed between the Navajo and Pueblo and the fact that Navajo tradition acknowledges intermarriage between the two cultural groups, we recognize the potential influence resulting from a Puebloan potter marrying into a Navajo family. Nevertheless, Gobernador Polychrome ultimately represents a Navajo ceramic type produced over a period of approximately 150 years in the Dine´tah region. Along with defensive pueblitos, Gobernador phase sites exhibit a wide range of variability in habitation types. Dwellings may include any combination of forked-stick hogans, masonry-walled pueblitos, lean-tos, and ramadas. The range of site complexity for habitations is difficult to specify, but pueblito sites range from 1 to 35 rooms and may have as many as eight associated hogans. A great variety of traded ceramics is found at habitation sites, as well as at associated limited activity, non-habitation sites. These ceramics include Rio Grande Glaze Ware, Rio Grande Biscuit Ware, Jemez Black-on-white, Tewa polychromes, and Eastern Keres, Zuni, and Hopi wares. Obsidian from the Abiquiu and Jemez areas is also present.

Evidence of imported ceramics (e.g., Rio Grande Glaze Ware and Biscuit Ware, Jemez Black-on-white, Tewa Polychrome) and lithic raw materials (e.g., obsidian from the Abiquiu and Jemez, New Mexico areas) is more abundant during the Gobernador phase than during the Dine´tah phase; this has been attributed both to exchange and to the presence of Pueblo refugees at Navajo pueblito sites. Gobernador phase sites contain ceramics produced by both Eastern and Western Pueblo groups. However, no archaeological data beyond the presence of trade ware ceramics and Puebloan-like architecture demonstrates that the pueblito sites were built or occupied by Pueblo refugees. The only data that support this inference are from historic Spanish documents. Figure 15 shows an Early Navajo pueblito site from the early eighteenth century. Many researchers of Navajo archaeology and culture have focused on the acculturative processes operating during the Gobernador phase and the changes that took place in Navajo population and culture. James Hester and Joel Shiner discussing their work on Gobernador phase sites in the Navajo Reservoir in the 1960s, explained Navajo acceptance of Puebloan traits as a fusion of Puebloan and Navajo characteristics that changed Navajo culture forever. Ethnologists Bailey and Bailey echoed this theme, suggesting that Gobernador phase Navajo were biological and cultural hybrids, neither Athabascan nor Puebloan, but a product of both. As discussed above, there is little evidence to support the largescale, permanent presence of Puebloans among the Navajo that would have been necessary to constitute a site unit intrusion and a truly hybridized culture. By contrast, we, and other researchers, explain the presence of Puebloan pottery and architecture, and the resultant influences on Navajo culture, largely as

Figure 15 Photograph of early Navajo site, Frances Canyon pueblito, northwest New Mexico. Photograph by author.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions 247

a result of interaction and diffusion, along with ‘migration’ of small numbers of Puebloans who became part of Navajo groups. The origin of at least two Navajo clans is attributed to Puebloan refugees – the Black Sheep clan (with refugees from San Felipe) and the Coyote Pass clan (with individuals from Jemez). Such an interpretation accords well with the hypothesis presented here and, again, does not provide support for a complete transformation of Navajo culture and hybridization with Puebloan culture. Rather, Navajo culture incorporated Puebloan people, ideas, and certain customs, but remained essentially Athabascan. The entire concept and definition of the Gobernador phase is undergoing revision. Archaeologists Reed and Reed have discussed the evidence indicating that the manufacture of Gobernador Polychrome began as early as the 1630s in some areas, more than 60 years prior to the purported beginning of the Gobernador phase. Ron Towner’s work on the dendrochronology of the area suggested that most of the pueblito sites were not constructed until the 1720s, more than 30 years after the main exodus of Puebloan people from the Rio Grande area is assumed to have occurred. Thus, it is probably a misnomer to describe these sites as ‘refugee’ phenomena. In addition, a study of pueblito location and visibility has suggested that the pueblito system was largely a defensive response to Ute raiding that is ethnohistorically documented to have increased in scale and intensity after 1720. The suggestion that the construction of the pueblitos was a response to Ute pressure is not, however, new. Roy Carlson made such a suggestion in 1965 while reporting on Earl Morris’s work from the 1920s. In sum, recent work has changed our understanding of the Early Navajo Gobernador phase and the cultural evolution and history of the Navajo people. See also: Americas, North: California and the Sierra Nevada; Great Basin; Plains; Rocky Mountains.

Further Reading Cordell LS (1997) Archaeology of the Southwest. San Diego: Academic Press. Dykeman DD (ed.) (in press) Navajo Lifeways. Boulder: University of Colorado Press. Frison GC (1991) Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains, 2nd edn. San Diego: Academic Press. Hogan P (1989) Dine´tah: A Reevaluation of the Pre-Revolt Navajo Occupation in Northwestern New Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Research 45(1): 53–66. Irwin-Williams C (1973) The Oshara Tradition: Origins of Anasazi Culture. Contributions in Anthropology 5(3). Portales: Eastern New Mexico University.

Judge WJ (1973) The Paleo-Indian Occupation of the Central Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Matson RG (1991) The Origins of Southwestern Agriculture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Pitblado B (1994) Paleoindian Presence in Southwest Colorado. Southwestern Lore 60(4): 1–20. Reed PF (ed.) (2000) Foundations of Anasazi Culture: The Basketmaker-Pueblo Transition. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. Reed PF (2004) The Puebloan Society of Chaco Canyon. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Towner RH (1993) Defending the Dine´tah: Pueblitos in the Ancestral Navajo Homeland. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press. Towner RH (ed.) (1996) The Archaeology of Navajo Origins. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press. Varien M and Wilshusen RH (eds.) (2002) Seeking the Center Place: Archaeology and Ancient Communities in the Mesa Verde Region. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press. Vierra BJ (ed.) (1994) Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology in the American Southwest. Portales: Eastern New Mexico University.

Arctic and Circumpolar Regions William W Fitzhugh, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary biface A stone tool formed by removing flakes from both faces or sides. burin A tool flaked into a chisel point for inscribing or grooving bone, wood, leather, stone or antler. colonization Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populates a new areas. Colonization encompasses all large-scale emigrations of an established population to a ‘new’ location, such as immigration, the establishment of expatriate communities, and the use of guest workers. ethnography The branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures. Eskimo/Inuit The indigenous people of the Arctic, from eastern Siberia to Greenland. lithic analysis The analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques to determine source of the raw material and function of stone tools. permafrost Soil or rock that remains below 0  C throughout the year, and forms when the ground cools sufficiently in winter to produce a frozen layer that persists throughout the following summer. potlatch An elaborate ritual of redistribution and gift-giving practiced by the peoples of the Northwest coast. ungulate Mammals with hoofs, in the Arctic this includes the Siberian staiga antelope, musk-ox, and caribou and reindeer (reindeer are domesticated caribou).

248 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions

Introduction In 1576, when Martin Frobisher landed on Baffin Island in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, he was welcomed by a hail of arrows from Inuit. (The term ‘Inuit’ is used in this article to refer to the current native residents of the Canadian Arctic and Greenland and their immediate ancestors, formerly called ‘Eskimos’. Eskimo is a term of uncertain origin but probably derives from a northern Algonquian Indian group which later came to be applied to Labrador Inuit and by extension to all native peoples of the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland. The term ‘Eskimo’ remains in use to refer collectively to prehistoric peoples and cultures of the North American Arctic and as a term referring to all native groups, including Sugpiak, Yup’ik, Siberian Yupik, Inuit, and Kalladlit (Greenlanders) where no other term exists.) Their physical features, reinforced bows, iron tools, and copper ornaments encouraged the Cathay Company’s search for a northwest passage to the Orient (Figure 1). Frobisher’s discovery of an Asian population living successfully in an Arctic environment raised questions

that intrigued Europeans of the time, and historians and anthropologists ever since. Who were their ancestors? Where did they come from? How long have they lived in the Arctic? And how did they manage to survive – even flourish – in one of Earth’s most hostile environments? During the past century, anthropologists and archaeologists have discovered some answers. Some have come from the Inuit themselves; however, most come from archaeological finds in frozen Arctic soils. From these remains we have learned how Arctic peoples adapted to and occupied the harshest regions on Earth for thousands of years, making unique contributions to society through such inventions as the kayak, insulated clothing, snow goggles, toggling harpoons, etc. Studies of northern peoples also have led to better understanding of human origins and history. Paradoxically, Eskimos – one of the last people to be drawn into contact with Western society – retained traditions established by humans adapting to Arctic conditions during the last Ice Age. Consequently, Eskimos, northern Indians, and Siberians are our

Figure 1 Martin Frobisher’s encounter with Inuit near Kodlunarn Island, outer Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, in 1576. Drawn by John White. (British Museum Library).

AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions 249

only ethnographic analogs for interpreting human life in the Upper Palaeolithic, when Arctic environments extended far south of their modern boundaries and covered most of Europe and Central Asia. Much of human history in Eurasia during the past 70 000 years was lived under arctic and subarctic conditions, and this experience became a prerequisite for entering the Americas via Bering Strait. Not only were America’s first peoples arctic-adapted, but the residue of their experience and that of subsequent Beringian immigrants is part of the cultural and biological heritage of all New World peoples, past and present. This article summarizes the history of arctic cultures and modern research themes in the North American sector of the circumpolar region. Survival in Arctic regions requires special technological, social, economic, and spiritual systems. In the following sections, we consider how these conditions have been met to sustain humans and their cultures over thousands of years. Geographic coverage conforms primarily to the tundra, but includes some subarctic coastal regions in Alaska and Labrador occupied by Eskimo peoples (Figures 2 and 3).

The Arctic Environment To the uninitiated, the Arctic is a vast expanse of featureless tundra, mountains, or sea ice that seems at first

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glance inimical to human life. Yet, within this sea of uniformity is a surprising diversity of landforms, geography, biota, marine conditions, and climates. The region itself is huge. Ranging from 51 N in southern Labrador to 83 N in North Greenland, Arctic tundra and shrub tundra encompass mountains, plains, deserts, and bogs, and host a diverse biota of land and sea mammals, avifauna, invertebrates, fish, and – not least – a plague of insect pests. These resources are not distributed evenly, spatially or seasonally. While humans can easily starve in winter on the interior barrens, the nearby coast may be alive with food resources. Some areas devoid of life for months erupt into a cornucopia of food during a brief season of abundance each year, while others are permanent ecological hot spots (see Seasonality of Site Occupation). In addition to seasonality, weather – always the Arctic wild card – has a huge impact on animals and their availability to hunters. Although Arctic regions are less diverse than temperate and tropical regions, some species are present in great concentration. Subarctic and Arctic marine zones have more diverse food chains and greater number of species than northern forest and Arctic tundra regions, and therefore have greater ecological and cultural stability, while the latter have simple food chains, low species diversity, and frequent disruptions from fire and winter icing, and their boom-andbust population cycles make human life precarious.

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250 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions

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To survive under these conditions, Arctic peoples developed variants of four major ethnographic adaptation types: (1) specialized adaptations to caribou hunting on the northern interior (Nunamiut and Caribou Inuit); (2) specialized adaptations to coastal and marine resources (Aleut, St. Lawrence Island Yupik); (3) generalist adaptations involving dual economies with winter hunting on the interior and summer hunting and fishing on the coast (Inupiat Eskimos, Central Inuit); or (4) herding of domestic reindeer, a technology not practiced in North America but prevalent in Eurasia. Resource-rich areas like the Bering and Chukchi Seas, Foxe Basin–Hudson Strait, and Davis Strait– Labrador Sea have supported human populations on a long-term basis and fostered some of the highest levels of Arctic cultural development. River outlets where fish, seals, and white whales congregate also have high population potential. Other areas, including much of the Canadian High Arctic and northern Greenland, have few resources and little or episodic settlement history. Over-hunting by humans – either by itself or superimposed on natural animal or climatic cycles that resulted in freezing of polynias (ice-free zones) or icing of ungulate foraging grounds – has been a frequent cause of human extinction or abandonment in High Arctic regions. Similar catastrophes occurred in Alaska due to severe storms, volcanism, earthquakes, and tidal waves. Resource variation that results in ecological ‘patchiness’ has led archaeologists to use ecological and

biogeographical concepts like ‘hot spots’, ‘core areas’, ‘peripheries’, and ‘voids’ to help interpret Arctic culture history. In general, long-term settlement and continuity occurs in areas where animal resources are more predictable and abundant. In contrast, resource-poor or unstable regions tend to have episodic settlement history and less cultural and demographic continuity. For these reasons, human communities in the Arctic tend to be widely spaced and have low populations, except in the most productive resource zones. Early contact population sizes closely follow scaling factors determined by resource abundance and predictability, and these gradients also determined limits on cultural complexity and sociopolitical development. Extremely high population levels, complex art, social hierarchies, warfare, and presence of craft specialists found among Northwest Coast and Pacific Eskimo cultures are more weakly expressed north of the Aleutians in Alaska and are even less well-developed in the Central Canadian Arctic and Greenland. However, these patterns are only general tendencies; variation in technology, social conditions, human response, leadership, and a host of other conditions intersect ecological constraints (see Cultural Ecology). Instances of artistic florescence have occurred in the midst of economic and social privation, as seen during a period of starvation at Ammassalik in East Greenland in the late 1800s, or the blossoming of Late Dorset art during a period of climatic change and cultural upheaval c. AD 1000–1300.

AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions 251

Western Arctic: Alaska

Palaeo-Alaskans

The North American Arctic (including Greenland) was the last large continental area except Antarctica to be occupied by humans (Figure 4). Considering that Arctic-adapted humans migrated from Asia into Alaska c. 20 000–15 000 BP across the grassy Arctic tundra of the Bering Land Bridge, it is remarkable that the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and northern Labrador remained uninhabited until 4200 BP. (Unless otherwise stated, dates given as ‘BP’ or ‘years ago’ are in uncalibrated radiocarbon years; ‘AD’ or ‘BC’ dates indicate calendar or calibrated radiocarbon years. In general, dates are given as BP except for the last thousand years, when calendar dates areused to facilitate comparison with historical records.) Similarly, while Palaeo-Indian archaeological sites are abundant south of the retreating ice sheets 11 000 years ago, the Eastern Arctic was not colonized until well after the disappearance of glacial ice and establishment of modern conditions 5000– 6000 years ago. This delay in occupation is mirrored in much earlier times by the east-sloping trend in Eurasian Arctic colonization: 40 000–60 000 years ago in Western Siberia, 35 000–28 000 in the Lena and Yana River basins, 15 000–13 000 in Alaska, and 4200 in Greenland.

Following the initial peopling of Alaska from Siberia, probably between 15 000 and 13 000 BP, a variety of complexes appear in central and southern Alaska between 11 000 and 7000 BP. Although having different names (Beringian, Denali, Palaeo-Arctic, PalaeoIndian, Nenana, Late Tundra) and slightly different meanings, these complexes or traditions (whose organic assemblages are rarely preserved) share small microblades, various biface styles, and burins, slotted bone points, and a variety of unifacial scrapers and knives. Complications of dating, small sample size, and classification history make it difficult to extract cultural information from these assemblages, and some have suggested they may all be seasonal, functional, refuse, or chaıˆne-ope´ratoire variants of a single cultural tradition. All of these groups descend generally from Late Dyuktai Palaeolithic and Early Sumnagin Mesolithic traditions of Siberian big game hunters and lived in mobile camps primarily in forested regions. These assemblages form the basis for later interior Alaskan and Northwest Canadian traditions that continue using bone points armed with microblade insets and include bifaces that begin to be broadly side or corner notched. Known as Northern Archaic in Alaska and Northwest Microblade in the

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252 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions

Yukon, their sites are found at interior lake, river, and forest locations where large game and fishing provided resources for peoples whose lives were probably similar to ethnographic Athapaskans. The major exceptions to this pattern are the Anangula and Akmak sites, from radically different settings. Akmak, a northern interior riverine site probably dating about 9500 BP, has a large core, blade, and burin assemblage similar to Anagula but also has a microcore industry, large bifaces, and disk scrapers. Anangula, by contrast, is a marine-oriented site in the Eastern Aleutians dating c. 8000 BP whose setting required a sea mammal economy supplemented by coastal foraging; its unifacial technology based exclusively on a macrocore and blade industry may be a local version of Siberian Mesolithic industry (see Maritime Archaeology). Anangula and other early sites along the Pacific coast of Alaska and northern Northwest Coast were occupied by core and blade-using people who exploited a wide range of coastal and marine resources, probably using barbed harpoons. Anangula is larger and was occupied for a longer period than contemporary interior sites, and by 8000 BP its people used oil lamps and lived in large multiseason coastal base camps similar to those of most other ethnographic North Pacific peoples. Further, this implies a strong distinction between coastal and interior peoples in adaptation and settlement patterns, a feature which has also continued, culturally, linguistically, and to some extent biologically, until the present. It also suggests that maritime-adapted coastal communities, now inundated, must have been present along the Pacific coasts of Alaska at even earlier dates. Clovis-like fluted points are found occasionally in northern and western Alaska and northwesternCanada where they are thought to date to 11 000– 9000 years ago; however, their context and associations are poorly understood, and most archaeologists consider them a late northern variant of classic Clovis culture.

model’ that links development of cultural complexity to economic intensification in a predictable, highproductivity marine resource zone. Laughlin also tackled the Eskimo origin problem from the perspective of Aleut cultural geography. Whereas Collins and Jenness had emphasized the Bering Strait and its Siberian connection as the nexus for Eskimo origins, Laughlin proposed Aleuts descended from early maritime peoples of the southern coast of the Bering Land Bridge who retreated to the Alaska Peninsula and from there colonized the Aleutian Chain. The Anangula blade site was a crucial link in his argument and became the foundation for his belief in the movement of proto-Eskimo populations north along the Bering Sea coast, thereby founding the Eskimo maritime cultural tradition that later spread to Chukotka, Canada, and Greenland. Laughlin’s Eskimo theory, now discounted in favor of a Siberian–Beringian origin, was developed before much was known about the prehistory of the Aleutians or mainland southwest Alaska (Figures 5 and 6). Recent work in both areas reveals a 9000 year history of occupation by a succession of increasingly specialized sea-mammal-hunting societies whose

Aleutian Islands and Pacific Coast

The idea of long-term cultural continuity in the Aleutian Islands was vigorously promoted initially by William S. Laughlin, who not only envisioned 10 000 years of continuity in maritime technological development and subsistence technology but also saw persistence in religious ritual, human biology, and language. Laughlin’s ‘Aleut survival’ model based on gradual culture change, limited population influx, isolation from Asia, and slow cultural diffusion from the Alaska mainland has proven a convincing application of biogeographic theory to Arctic prehistory. Today, these ideas are expressed in terms of a ‘maritime stability

Figure 5 Aleutian barbed harpoon for hunting whales with aconite poison, c. AD 1000 (23.6 cm; SI-NMNH A395958, 395999).

AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions 253

Figure 6 Ivory figures with Asiatic facial features, seal effigy crest, hair topknots, and marked limb joints. Found at Port Moller, Alaska, but of unknown age and function (SI-NMNH A492418, 6, 7, left to right).

Figure 7 ‘‘Natives of Oonalaschka, and Their Habitations,’’ by John Webber, artist on Captain James Cook’s expedition to the North Pacific in 1778 (courtesy of Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, SI-NMNH).

peoples lived in large central-place villages (Figures 7 and 8). Developing out of an Anangula base with the addition of a ground slate (in Kodiak), biface industries (in the Aleutians), and use of atlatl/spear thrower-propelled harpoon darts and nontoggling harpoons by at least 7000 BP, these early maritime cultures soon displayed signs of social hierarchy,

political complexity, and artistic traditions comparable to Northwest Coast cultures. These features are strongly expressed in the Margaret Bay and Kachemak phases in which dwellings and settlement size increase together with signs of warfare and ritual (perhaps cannibalistic) treatment of human remains, probably slaves, are evident. The last thousand years display increasing

254 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions Radiocarbon years BP

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Palaeo-Arctic (presumed across entire region) Figure 8 Culture history of southwest Alaska. LIA stands for Little Ice Age.

population growth, multifamily dwellings, chiefly hierarchy, and other results of social, economic, and political intensification later documented by European explorers and Russian traders and missionaries. Growing success in maritime adaptation is documented by progressive expansion of settlement westward, requiring increasingly longer water passages from the Alaska Peninsula, reaching Umnak and Fox Islands by 8000 BP, Amchitka and Rat Islands by 4500 BP, and Near Islands by 2500 BP. The existence of distinct archaeological traditions in the Aleutians, Kodiak, Bering Sea, and Northwest Coast suggests that the divisions seen today in ethnicity, language, and human biology are rooted thousands of years in the past. Rough conformity with environmental zones affirms the influence of geography on origins and maintenance of cultural traditions in this region. At the same time, migration, diffusion, and other types of culture contact occur across these boundaries. Similarities in harpoons, spear-throwers, graphic styles, wooden bowl and ladle forms, house

types, kayaks, ceremonial hats, labrets, and other personal ornaments indicate cultural borrowing was widespread across porous, shifting Indian–Aleut– Eskimo borders, driven by institutional warfare, slave-taking, potlatch ceremonialism, trade in exotic materials, craft and art specialization (see Interpretive Art and Archaeology; Craft Specialization; Figure 9). Language borrowing and genetic mixing is also documented. More distant influences like slat armor, fortified village and refuge sites, and sinew-backed bows reached this region from Siberia and Bering Strait. Throughout this sequence, continuity and gradual elaboration of cultural forms are dominant features of the southern Eskimo–Aleut tradition. Despite mixing on its southern border with Indians, the Kodiak and Aleutian traditions remained Eskimo/Aleut in general type and were subject to periodic influences from the Bering Sea. Following introduction of microblades with the earliest Asian settlers, the next major intrusion occurred shortly after 4000 years ago when Arctic Small Tool tradition

AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions 255

(ASTt) peoples appeared on the Alaskan Peninsula and in Cook Inlet from the north. Although not penetrating Kodiak Island, its influence reached the Eastern Aleutians. This Siberian Neolithic-related tradition, including a tool kit based on microblades and delicate collaterally flaked bifacial arrowpoints, knives, and bipoints, as well as burins, arrived in Alaska so

suddenly that it almost certainly reflects the movement of Siberian people into Alaska. Known as Western ASTt in Alaska, its expansion into southwest Alaska comes with cooling climate and a southward expansion of sea ice to the Alaska Peninsula, and lasted until c. 3300 BP, coincident with a major phase of volcanism, after which it amalgamated with the pre-existing Aleutian and Sugpiak traditions of the Pacific coast. Western Alaska

Figure 9 Funerary mask from the Unga Island whaler’s burial cave in the Shumagin Islands, collected by William Healy Dall in the early 1870s (NMNH A13002).

Siberian ASTt people appeared a few hundred years earlier, c. 4500 BP, in Norton Sound, carrying the first bows and arrows to appear in Western North America (Figure 10). Known here as the Denbigh Flint Complex, the new armament helped them spread rapidly, exploiting caribou and salmon. At least initially, marine mammal hunting was not an ASTt specialty; however, sealing, including sea-ice hunting (which is suggested at a few sites), may also have been practiced and became common by Choris times. The largely aceramic Western Arctic Small Tool tradition (Figure 11) establishes the basis for the ceramic Norton Tradition and its Old Whaling, Ipiutak, and Norton/Near Ipiutak phases until the onset of Western Thule tradition about AD 1000. Norton lithics display evolved Denbigh styles with delicate arrowpoints and harpoon endblades, skin scrapers, and ground burin-like tools; decorated Asian-derived ceramic vessels also appear for the first time, suggesting longer periods of coastal settlement, sufficient firewood, and sea mammal hunting. Toggling harpoons, darts, and antler arrowheads are present, and

Figure 10 Arctic Small Tool tradition artifacts from the Cape Denbigh, Seward Peninsula, Alaska (University of Alaska Museum).

256 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions Alaska Northern Kotzebue-Barrow

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Figure 12 Old Bering Sea harpoon counterweight or ‘winged object’, depicting semi-human spirit-controller (SI-NMNH).

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Figure 11 Prehistory of Western Alaska.

lip labrets – another Asian introduction – appear. Large coastal and interior settlement sites with cemeteries are found for the first time, and a growing seasonal specialization on sea mammal hunting begins to rival the importance of caribou. Toward the end of this period, c. 1500 BP, Ipiutak village and cemetery sites at Point Hope exhibit an elaborate burial cult with strong links to Siberian shamanism and masking, and artistic elaboration of tools, implements, and ritual objects bearing images of fantastic creatures. Not least, forged iron traded from Siberia makes its first appearance in America in the form of tiny slivers used for engraving tools. This seemingly small technological change accelerated the development of one of the world’s greatest native art traditions and may have contributed to the Thule movement into Canada. Beginning about 2000 BP, concurrent with Late Norton tradition sites on the Alaska mainland, a highly specialized maritime hunting tradition known as Thule or Northern Maritime began to emerge at sites on St. Lawrence and Punuk Islands and along the shores around Bering Strait, appearing first in Chukotka. After developing for nearly 1000 years, about AD 1000, it suddenly spread east into Canada and Greenland where it is known as Eastern Thule. The origin of Eskimo culture is most closely linked to the Western Thule tradition and its ASTt predecessors. The early phases of this tradition display implements with highly decorative fine-line engraving depicting

beastly helping spirits, animal spirit masters, and semi-human transformational spirit beings to aid the hunt and protect the hunter from harm (Figure 12). Similar tattooed designs have been found on frozen human bodies dating to the Okvik/Old Bering Sea cultures that initiate this tradition. Ivory engraving was initially done with stone tools at Okvik sites, but in later OBS, Punuk, Ipiutak, and Thule phases forged Siberian iron was universal. Deep middens and large sod house villages signify large populations and a flourishing economy based on the huge migrating herds of walrus that pass annually through Bering Strait. However, whaling harpoons and float gear in OBS sites indicate that shortly after 2000 BP, people began to hunt large whales, and by Punuk times (c. 1500–1000 BP) whaling had become the economic mainstay for many communities, enabling population growth and clan-based sociopolitical development. Punuk also brought an increase in warfare, signaled by the appearance of Asian bone slat armor, sinew-backed bows, execution burials, fortified sites, and other trappings of conflict (Figure 13). Punuk’s successor, Western Thule, become increasingly enmeshed in a growing cycle of trans-Beringian trade, raiding, and warfare fueled by pressure from Cossacks in Western Chukotka and, after 1750, by direct ship-based Russian and European trade to coastal native groups (see Ships and Seafaring). Beginning about 2000 years ago, another economic revolution took place. While North Pacific and Beringian peoples were learning to hunt large marine

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mammals, peoples of the Siberian interior began herding reindeer and using dog- or reindeer-drawn sleds. More than just a novel technology, reindeer herding and animal-powered sleds transformed Siberian peoples from hunters to herders and reverberated throughout every aspect of their lives (see Animal Domestication). Freed from precarious lives as hunters, sled traction enabled people to travel long distances in both winter and summer, and by the sixteenth century Chukchi herders had become skilled warriors and traders who successfully resisted the incursions of Russian Cossacks, with whom they fought as well

Figure 13 Armor vest of bone slats and walrus hide from nineteenth century Bering Strait Eskimo. Slat armor first appears about 2000 years ago in Chukotka Old Bering Sea sites (SI-NMNH CL-596).

as traded. Chukchi became powerful middlemen, exchanging Russian and Chinese iron, tobacco, tea, beads, and other goods with Bering Strait Eskimos in return for Alaskan furs, jade, hides, and ivory. Despite its rapid spread throughout northern Eurasia, probably from a South Siberian origin about 2000 years ago, reindeer herding never crossed Bering Strait until the 1890s, when it was introduced in a government experiment to alleviate Eskimo starvation resulting from the near extermination of whales and walrus by American vessels. While these developments were taking place, Northwest Alaskan Eskimos were experiencing more centralized leadership and social control that came with manning whaling crews and dealing with Siberian traders and warriors. One result was that hunting art and ceremony lost its artistically based spiritual value in the communities north of Norton Sound and began a slow decline, until by historic times it survived mainly in southwest Alaska and the Aleutians (Figure 14). South of Bering Strait, the coast was too shallow for large whales, and Thule and Siberian influence was diminished, although warfare became prevalent here also in the late prehistoric period. Somewhat isolated in the resource-rich Yukon–Kuskokwim delta, Bering Sea Central Yup’ik Eskimos fished and hunted seals and walrus, and by historic times had the highest density of any Eskimo population in the Arctic. Living in permanent villages, they maintained a complex ceremonial life, created world-class art comparable to Pacific Eskimos and Northwest Coast Indians (Figure 15), and continued to produce elaborately decorated hunting implements styled in an evolved form of Old Bering Sea art that shows little influence from Punuk or Western Thule culture. Unfortunately, there

Figure 14 Toggling harpoon heads from Ipiutak, Punuk, Old Bering Sea, and Late Punuk cultures (left to right) illustrating decline in decoration of hunting implements in Western Alaska Eskimo cultures between AD 500 and 1000, coincident with the advent of whaling (SI-NMNH A346914l , A346907, A353767; Univ. of Alaska UA85–150–1261).

258 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions

Figure 15 Yup’ik Bering Sea Eskimo tunghak festival mask from Lower Yukon River depicting the spirit-controller of game who lived in the moon. Collected in 1879 by Edward Nelson (SI-NMNH 33118).

is almost no archaeological record of the intervening 1500 years in this deeply sedimented, permafrost delta region.

Eastern Arctic: Canada and Greenland The appearance of Punuk whalers in Bering Strait set the stage for the second major cultural wave to wash out of Alaska into the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, disrupting and eventually replacing the Palaeo-Eskimo tradition that had migrated from Alaska 3000 years earlier (Figure 16). Set against the cultural and environmental diversity of Alaska, the Eastern Arctic sequence of Pre-Dorset, Dorset, and Thule cultures appears unilineal and deceptively simple. The Eastern Arctic also exhibits considerable regionalism and cultural diversity, with periods of parallelism in Canada and Greenland and a varied history of European contact. Its independence from Alaska, relative lack of engagement with subarctic Indian cultures, and long periods of cultural stability are its most distinctive features. Excepting the Thule revolution, its prehistory is dominated by a gradualist approach to change, perhaps a cultural response to tightly constrained environmental conditions. Unlike Alaska, where forest cover, submergence, volcanism, earthquakes, tidal waves, and coastal erosion have hindered site discovery, geology and botany in the Eastern Arctic have been friendlier to the archaeologist. Postglacial isostatic uplift has preserved sites associated with former shorelines; absence of shrub and forest cover facilitates site discovery; and limestone bedrock, permafrost, and low

summer temperatures have preserved organic remains throughout much of the region. Culturally and environmentally, the Eastern Arctic is a very different world from the trans-Beringian and Pacific Alaska region. The coast from Barrow to the Mackenzie River, although having abundant caribou, is poor in coastal shelter and marine mammal resources and has long been known as a population void and a cultural and linguistic boundary. Alaskan cultures rarely penetrated further east, and Eastern Arctic cultures rarely influenced Alaska. Once across this threshold, a new ecological ‘basin of attraction’ opens, drawing people eastward. The Mackenzie Delta offers rich fish and beluga resources, and the Canadian Arctic coasts and islands have herds of musk-ox and caribou. The Arctic islands and mainland both have char and other fish. Seals are widely available but lack concentration except in Foxe Basin, Hudson Strait, and the Davis Strait and Labrador Sea coasts, where harp seals, walrus, and sea birds also are abundant. Beluga are present in river mouths and along the southern Arctic coasts, whereas narwhal frequent High Arctic waters. Large whales – bowheads and Greenland right whales – frequent the larger island passages and Davis Strait– Labrador Sea regions, while humpbacks have a subarctic Atlantic range. All of these resources are subject to fluctuations and periodic collapse from factors such as changes in climate, ocean temperature, and sea ice distribution; closing and opening of ice-free polynias; icing of caribou and musk-ox pasture; and forest and tundra fires, predation, and other disruptions. Lacking the insurance policy of Alaska’s large fish runs, Eastern

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2500 Key: Neo-Eskimo (Inuit) Culture Palaeo-Eskimo Culture Greenlandic Norse Figure 16 Culture classification of North Alaska and Eastern Arctic prehistory.

Arctic peoples had to solve subsistence problems with their wits and their feet. Wide-ranging transport, interregional social and economic networks for informationsharing, dispersed demographic structure, flexible social organization, adaptable technologies, intimate knowledge of environmental conditions, and other cultural practices were prerequisites for survival. In the Western Arctic, these characteristics were often overshadowed by trade, politics, and military issues. For human exploitation, this ecological structure created a patchwork of local environments ranging from core or focal resource zones with relatively longterm sustainability, to resource-poor zones where human survival was possible only for short periods or under favorable conditions. This characteristic is best exemplified in Greenland, where Christian Vibe demonstrated correlations between animal population levels, climate, and drift ice cycles, with profound implications for cultural history. Similar models have helped explain episodic, short-term occupations of High Arctic Canada and Greenland, where occupation sequences correlate with warm climate, open polynias, and presence of driftwood and musk-ox or caribou. In these locations, a small pioneering group may exploit local ‘resource capital’ for a few generations during a warm period, only to face an eventual crisis from unsustainable hunting practices, colder climates, or changed ocean currents.

Eastern Palaeo-Eskimo Tradition

About 4200 BP, small bands of ASTt hunters expanding east from northern Alaska colonized Canada’s Arctic Islands, northern Hudson Bay, Greenland, and northern Labrador. Known in three regional variants, Early Pre-Dorset in the central Arctic, Independence I in the High Arctic (Figure 17), and Saqqaq in West Greenland, they hunted caribou and musk-ox with spears and bows and arrows and took sea mammals with small barbed male-socket and open-socket harpoons. Climatic conditions were warm, and driftwood from Siberia and Alaska was widely available. Winter and summer dwellings were simply tents bisected with axial pavements with central fireplaces for roasting and cooking with boiling stones. During the late Early Palaeo-Eskimo period, soapstone oil lamps and slab box boiling stone hearths begin to appear (Figure 18). In addition to harpoons and leisters, stone tools were flaked from colorful cherts and agates and had ritual and aesthetic as well as functional qualities. Over the roughly 1500 year tenure of the Early Palaeo-Eskimo tradition, tool styles changed gradually: serrated edges gave way to straight edges and facial grinding on burins and bifaces increased, and in West Greenland Saqqaq became a dominant feature of lithic technology. Toward the end of this period, Early PalaeoEskimo culture evolved into a new complex known

260 AMERICAS, NORTH/Arctic and Circumpolar Regions

Figure 17 Independence I culture artifacts from Peary Land (courtesy of Smithsonian HNAI 1984/Arctic, vol. 5, p. 530, fig. 2).

in northern Greenland as Independence II and in Labrador and Newfoundland as Groswater; it is also sometimes known as Transitional Palaeo-Eskimo (c. 2800–1800 BP). Continuities in axial house form and tools link this phase with Pre-Dorset and Independence I cultures, with whom it also shared subsistence and settlement systems based on winter land hunting and summer coastal hunting of seals and walrus. Soapstone lamps became more common; box hearths were rare; and in Newfoundland a burst of spectacular artistry developed in the manufacture of delicate bifacial points. A remarkable feature of the period is its ‘horizon-style’ distribution. Nearly identical architecture and tool styles occurred throughout the Eastern Arctic; lithic materials and

other commodities were traded great distances; and territorial boundaries reached southern Hudson Bay, southern Labrador, Newfoundland, and eastern Quebec, where it lasted as an outlier until 1800 BP. The centuries after 2500 BP in northern Hudson Bay gave rise to the first phase of the Late Palaeo-Eskimo Dorset culture. With continuity from late Early Palaeo-Eskimo technology and housing, Early Dorset produced several innovations, including improvements in harpoon technology, ground burin-like gravers, tip-fluted points, and introduction of rectangular soapstone cooling vessels. While axial architecture continues, shallow semi-subterranean houses appear for the first time, and their seaward location indicates winter hunting of seals and walrus at the off-shore

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Figure 18 Late Pre-Dorset axial pavement house with box hearth and central oil lamp hearth at Nukasusutok-2 site near Nain, Labrador.

ice edge. Concurrently, hunting of land game declines and a growing economic focus on maritime resources begins, coincident with the onset of the coldest period in the Holocene. Middle Dorset (2200–1200 BP) appears earliest in the Central Arctic core area and replaces or transforms Early Dorset in Labrador about 1800 BP, lasting until c. 1400 BP. Except in Newfoundland, where a regional Groswater-influenced variant develops, Middle Dorset technology changes are largely stylistic. Winter sod houses become larger, deeper, and sometimes have shallow entrance passageways (Figure 19). Intensification of sea mammal hunting from fall to spring from sina-oriented land-based villages reaches its peak, producing thick middens filled with the bones of seals, walrus, ducks, divers, and sea birds, sometimes caribou. Middle Dorset middens often contain ritual objects like masks, effigies, bone shaman’s teeth, and art pieces carved from soapstone, ivory, antler, and sometimes wood, as well as complex multi-ply cordage made from musk-ox hair. During this period, Dorset sites shift southward, disappearing from High Arctic Canada and northern

Greenland, and large village sites like Port au Choix develop in western Newfoundland near winter harp seal-hunting grounds. Late Dorset (1300–700 BP) brings warmer climate that induced a resurgence of Dorset people back to the High Arctic islands and western Victoria Island, probably by population expansion from Central Arctic and Baffin core areas, and initiated changes in housing and settlement patterns. In Labrador, Middle Dorset sod dwellings are replaced by large fall tent camps with axial pavements having two or three hearths, and lithic tools document stylistic change from Middle Dorset implements. Abandonment of winter-long dwelling sites suggests people had developed a more specialized adaptation to winter ice hunting and were living in snow-house dwellings at the ice edge. As a result, Late Dorset middens are thin and often lack organics due to absence of permafrost. Where preservation occurs, especially in the Central Arctic, Late Dorset exhibits an explosion of animal carvings, human figurines (Figure 20), amulets, human-face mask petroglyphs, shamans’ paraphernalia, and ornaments, in addition to finely crafted boxes,

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Figure 19 Plan of Middle Dorset winter house at Koliktalik, near Nain, Labrador.

containers, harpoons, and other implements. This period also exhibits a striking new settlement type: large summer gathering sites containing multifamily ‘longhouses’ with rock walls and internal hearth alcoves, or sometimes just wall-less open-air hearth rows (Figure 21). Scores of longhouses, interpreted as seasonal gathering sites to affirm social solidarity, facilitate trade and spouse exchange, and conduct religious ceremonies, have been found throughout Dorset territory, absent only in Labrador, where this phase is missing until after 900 BP due to Indian occupation of the coast. Late Dorset people also began to obtain meteoric iron from the Cape York meteor fall in Greenland for use as knife and harpoon blades, and occasional pieces of smelted Norse copper and iron. Ronald Nash once described the Palaeo-Eskimo tradition as a tightly constrained system. This is an

apt description for a culture that adapted to harsh environmental pressures by fine-tuning its program rather than exploring new approaches, technologies, or subsistence strategies. Palaeo-Eskimos were highly traditional people whose house architecture, tool types and styles, and general way of life changed little over hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. Some of their customs were strangely maladaptive, like the disappearance of the bow and arrow and the twist drill, both present in Early Palaeo-Eskimo culture. What did change was a gradual shift from a land- to a marinedominated economy, from surface tents to sod houses, and, in Late Dorset, introduction of snow-house dwellings. Dorset people also developed an increasingly integrated social network involving trade and ritual exchange, and more elaborate shamanistic art evolved. Dorset people seem not to have interacted with Indians,

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even when they occupied southern Labrador, Newfoundland, and Quebec territories where Indian groups were close neighbors. Other than possible Choris influence in the Early Dorset Lagoon Complex in the Western Canadian Arctic, there is little evidence of interactions to the west and marginal contact with the Norse. Pre-Dorset and Dorset people seem to have lived in a self-circumscribed world, interacting only with each other and their spirits. That they did so successfully for 3000 years is a remarkable achievement

for a network of small societies inhabiting a vast region linked only by tenuous threads of social contact and economic exchange. Archaeologists have sought to explain both continuities and discontinuities in Palaeo-Eskimo cultural sequences with the aid of ecological and biogeographic models. Although research and debate continue, archaeological evidence supports the general validity of a biocultural ‘core area’ and ‘core pulsation’ models in Eastern Arctic prehistory. Long-term cultural continuity and evolutionary development is most evident in the resource-rich Central Arctic corridor from Igloolik to the Atlantic coast, while discontinuous sequences and voids are documented in peripheral regions, including Greenland. Secondarily, the causes of culture change in the northern peripheries is usually absence or depletion of resources due to climate change or unsustainable hunting, whereas abandonment and repopulation of extended southern peripheries like Labrador and Newfoundland is a function of interethnic (Indian) competition. Eastern Neo-Eskimo Tradition

Figure 20 Middle Dorset soapstone figurine from Shuldham Island, Saglek, Labrador (The Rooms/Newfoundland Museum).

Sometime after 1000 BP, the archaic spiritual prism through which Dorset people viewed their world shattered. The sudden arrival of groups of Alaskan whale-hunters may not have been catastrophic initially, because the Alaskans were few and their settlements were confined to the northernmost waterways of the Central Arctic. Successful bowhead hunts provided huge stores of meat, oil, and dog food, making it unlikely that Early Thule people competed directly with Dorset hunters at first. However, the appearance of outsiders with sinew-backed bows, large umi