In order to ensure sufficient sample sizes, bioarchaelogical studies of individual health in prehistory must often rely on assemblages that demonstrate high inter-individual variability in skeletal completion. Determining whether higher insult frequencies in particular individuals result from their greater skeletal preservation is a key step in understanding ancient health and disease. This study uses a simple new z-score residual approach to control for inter-individual differences in skeletal completion while comparing multiple variables. To test this method, a sex- and age-balanced sample of 85 adult individuals was selected from five Middle and Late Woodland sites in Illinois: Helton (11GE540), Gibson (11C5), Ledders (11C132), Ray (11BR104,) and Carter (11GE624). Data on the frequency of nine different health indicators were collected, and statistically significant period- or sex-based differences in osteoarthritis, alveolar resorption, and hypoplasias were observed, illustrating the utility of this approach for bioarchaeologists concerned with the effects of skeletal completion on assessments of prehistoric health.

This project considered the deposition history of a burned structure located on the Kalispel Tribe of Indians ancestral lands at the Flying Goose site in northeastern Washington. Excavation of the structure revealed stratified deposits that do not conform to established Columbia Plateau architectural types. The small size, location, and absence of artifacts lead us to hypothesize that this site was once a non-domestic structure. We tested this hypothesis with paleoethnobotanical, bulk geoarchaeological, thin section, and experimental firing data to deduce the structural remains and the post-occupation sequence. The structure burned at a relatively low temperature, was buried soon afterward with imported rubified sediment, and was exposed to seasonal river inundation. Subsequently, a second fire consumed a unique assemblage of plant remains. Drawing on recent approaches to structured deposition and historic processes, we incorporate ethnography to argue that this structure was a menstrual lodge. These structures are common in ethnographic descriptions, although no menstrual lodges have been positively identified in the archaeological record of the North American Pacific Northwest. This interpretation is important to understanding the development and time depth of gendered practices of Interior Northwest groups.

In this day when, according to perhaps too sanguine recent reports, physical anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, folklore, and archaeology are happily converging, it was a shock to hear that a relatively well-known archaeological site on the north side of the Grand Dalles of the Columbia River in the state of Washington is commonly referred to as Wakemáp (rhymes with “lakemap”). According to John M. Corbett of the U.S. National Park Service who has recently visited this old site, originally described in 1805 by Lewis and Clark, such a completely anglicized pronunciation is now common currency among the various archaeological field parties who have been working at or near the site during the last few years, and he never heard of or thought of it as being pronounced otherwise.

Actually, the near-correct pronunciation is Wakemap (rhymes with “knock ‘em up”). (For a phonetic rendering see Spier and Sapir 1930: 164.) The name is Wishram in derivation, as given by Sapir (1909:201), and the traditional site was so identified and designated by Schenck and myself in 1924 (Strong, Schenck, and Steward 1930: 6, 8), and by the Indians in that vicinity.

The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and traditional assemblages remained intact as the artifacts and ideas moved farther from their places of origin. The current study analyzes the distribution and deposition of blue-green stone mosaics, a craft technology that was well established in Mesoamerica by the Late Preclassic period (300 BC–AD 250) and spread to the U.S. SW by the start of the Hohokam Pioneer period (AD 475). We assess the spatial distribution, contextual deposition, and morphology of mosaics at sites within Hohokam Canal System 2, located in the Phoenix Basin of Arizona. We use these data to infer mosaics’ social value and function within Hohokam social structure. Analyses suggest that, although the technology of mosaic making may have originated in Mesoamerica, the contexts and ways in which mosaics were used in the Hohokam regional system were decidedly Hohokam.

In the first millennium AD, peoples across the North American Arctic began to use and exchange metal. A group known as the Late Dorset (AD 500–1300) were the first to widely exchange metal in the Eastern Arctic. However, due to differential taphonomic processes and past excavation methods, metal objects in existing collections are rare although geographically widespread. This has led to metal being seen as a broadly exchanged but uncommon raw material among Late Dorset. This article expands the known scale of Late Dorset metal use by analyzing the blade slot thicknesses of bone and ivory objects from sites across the Eastern Arctic and comparing them to the thicknesses of associated lithic and metal endblades. These results demonstrate that Late Dorset used metal at least as frequently as stone for some activities. Given the few and geographically discrete sources, metal would have been exchanged over thousands of kilometers of fragmented Arctic landscape. The lack of similar evidence in earlier periods indicates intergroup interaction increases significantly with the Late Dorset. It is through these same vectors that knowledge and information would have flowed. Metal, consequently, represents the best material for understanding the maximum extent and intensity of their interaction networks.

Drills and projectile points from a site often share a similar shaped base, and it is typically assumed that these drills are reworked hafted points. Measurements of triangular-shaped drills and triangular arrow points from an Iroquoian site indicate that, on average, these drills had narrower bases and were thicker than points. Additionally, most preserved point foreshafts from the western United States are too short if used as a simple drill shaft, and most dart and arrow shafts are too long to serve as convenient drill shafts if used with a strap or bow drill. These data call into question the assumption that drills were reworked hafted points at Iroquoian and possibly other sites.

Modified teeth and jaws have long been recognized as important ceremonial objects during the Middle Woodland period of eastern North America. Direct evidence for the manufacture of the objects is exceedingly rare because they are typically recovered from mortuary contexts or ceremonial caches. Here, we present multiple lines of evidence pointing to the manufacture of modified teeth and jaws at the Moorehead Circle post enclosure within the Fort Ancient Earthworks. The convergence of protein residue, lithic use-wear, and faunal data indicate that bear and likely canid bones were modified by artisans working within the Moorehead Circle. These findings add an important new layer of understanding to our knowledge of these objects, human–animal relations, and craft production in the Middle Woodland.

This is the second in a series of 3 articles describing recent finds by the writer in northern Honshu, Japan. The first article (AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 12- 31) was devoted to an introduction to the series and to the description of sites and materials of the Jomon (Neolithic) period. This article is a description of the protohistoric (Haji period) sites found and explored in Kamikita Gun, Aomori Prefecture, Honshu. These sites are primarily those of small villages, in 3 instances fortified by a ditch or an earthen wall. The outstanding characteristic of all these sites is that the old house pits can still be located by the circular, saucer-like depressions showing on the present surface. In addition to the concentrations of house pits which represent villages, many individual house pits may be found scattered about the region.

The transition to maize agriculture frames important cultural shifts in the Eastern Woodlands. However, the tempo and mode of this transition are unclear, particularly when analytical techniques are not standard across the region. In this article, we present evidence of directly dated maize macrobotanical fragments from the Turpin site in southwest Ohio that date between cal AD 552–649 and 684–994. These dates add to current dialogues on the spread of maize in the American Midcontinent and help further situate the Middle Ohio Valley as a cultural crossroads through which people and ideas flowed. We echo suggestions that, to refine our understanding of the introduction of maize into the region, we must develop pan-regional analytical standards and create multiple working hypotheses at a variety of scales.