The Archaeology of Large-Scale Manipulation of Prey explores the social and functional aspects of large-scale hunting adaptations in the archaeological record. Mass-kill hunting strategies are ubiquitous in human prehistory and exhibit culturally specific economic, social, environmental, and demographic markers. Here, seven case studies—primarily from the Americas and spanning from the Folsom period on the Great Plains to the ethnographic present in Australia—expand the understanding of large-scale hunting methods beyond the customary role of subsistence and survival to include the social and political realms within which large-scale hunting adaptations evolved. Addressing a diverse assortment of archaeological issues relating to the archaeological signatures and interpretation of mass-kill sites, The Archaeology of Large-Scale Manipulation of Prey reevaluates and rephrases the deep-time development of hunting and the themes of subsistence to provide a foundation for the future study of hunting adaptations around the globe. Authors illustrate various perspectives and avenues of investigation, making this an important contribution to the field of zooarchaeology and the study of hunter-gatherer societies throughout history. The book will appeal to archaeologists, ethnologists, and ecologists alike. Contributors: Jane Balme, Jonathan Driver, Adam C. Graves, David Maxwell, Ulla Odgaard, John D. Speth, María Nieves Zedeño

Early hunter-gatherers in North America spent significant time and energy to secure a reliable food supply. One means of doing so involved the use of large-scale traps—rock and/or wood features constructed through group or communal effort to trap or ambush migrating artiodactyls such as bighorn sheep or pronghorn antelope. Designed to concentrate large numbers of prey animals for easier slaughter, large-scale traps also open an important window for the study of prehistoric social patterns involved in the design, construction, and successful capture of large game en masse—alliance building, trade, revelry, match making, and other cultural activities. This important new research from Bryan Hockett and Eric Dillingham examines the archaeological evidence for large-scale traps over the past 9,000 years in North America’s Great Basin. The authors provide field identification methods, hard data, and archaeological examples of game trap features, focusing their inquiry on the Great Basin region of eastern California, western Utah, and Nevada. Large-scale trap features are found worldwide, and wherever they are found, they exhibit similar characteristics. The first comprehensive book devoted to describing large-scale traps across the entire Great Basin, this work is among the first to provide such a depth of research for any region, anywhere in the world. Ample color illustrations as well as informative maps, drawings, and tables enhance this careful study of ancient communal hunting practices. Offering important insights drawn from some of the oldest large-scale trap structures in the world, Large-Scale Traps of the Great Basin will occupy an important place in the literature of the early inhabitants of North America.

Archaeological research on the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods has tended to focus on rock shelters, caves, large game kills, and occasionally butchery sites. Diversity in Open-Air Site Structure across the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary examines a diverse range of open-air sites—bounded both naturally and culturally—in Siberia and Germany and throughout North America. Open-air sites are difficult for researchers to locate and, because of depositional processes, often more difficult to interpret; they contain many superimposed events but often show evidence of only the most recent. Working to overcome the limitations of data and poor preservation, using decades of prior research and new analytical tools, and diverging from a one-size-fits-all mode of interpretation, the contributors to this volume offer fresh insight into the formation and taphonomy of open-air sites. Contributors: Douglas B. Bamforth, Ian Buvit, Brian J. Carter, Robin Cordero, Robert Dello-Russo, George C. Frison, Kelly E. Graf, Bruce B. Huckell, Michael A. Jochim, Joshua D. Kapp, Robert L. Kelly, Aleksander V. Konstantinov, Banks Leonard, Madeline E. Mackie, Christopher W. Merriman, Matthew J. O’Brien, Spencer Pelton, Neil N. Puckett, Beth Shapiro, Todd A. Surovell, Karisa Terry, Steve Teteak, Robert Yohe

As one of the most significant economic innovations in prehistory, hunting architecture radically altered life and society for hunter-gatherers. The development of these structures indicates that foragers designed their environments, had a deep knowledge of animal behavior, and interacted with each other in complex ways that reach beyond previous assumptions. Combining underwater archaeology, terrestrial archaeology, and ethnographic and historical research, The Architecture of Hunting investigates the creation and use of hunting architecture by hunter-gatherers. Hunting architecture—including blinds, drive lanes, and fishing weirs—is a global phenomenon found across a broad spectrum of cultures, time, geography, and environments. Relying on similar behaviors in species such as caribou, bison, guanacos, antelope, and gazelles, cultures as diverse as Sami reindeer herders, the Inka, and ancient bison hunters on the North American plains have employed such structures, combined with strategically situated landforms, to ensure adequate food supplies while maintaining a nomadic way of life. Using examples of hunting architecture from across the globe and how they influence forager mobility, territoriality, property, leadership, and labor aggregation, Ashley Lemke explores this architecture as a form of human niche construction and considers the myriad ways such built structures affect hunter-gatherer lifeways. Bringing together diverse sources under the single category of “hunting architecture,” The Architecture of Hunting serves as the new standard guide for anyone interested in hunter-gatherers and their built environment.

This volume expands perspectives on infrastructure that are rooted in archaeological discourse and material evidence. The compiled chapters represent new and emerging ideas within archaeology about what infrastructure is, how it can materialize, and how it impacts and reflects human behavior, social organization, and identity in the past as well as the present. Three goals central to the work include: (1) expand the definition of infrastructure using archaeological frameworks and evidence from a wide range of social, historical, and geographic contexts; (2) explore how new archaeological perspectives on infrastructure can help answer anthropological questions pertaining to social organization, group collaboration, and community consensus and negotiation; and (3) examine the broader implications of an archaeological engagement with infrastructure and contributions to contemporary infrastructural studies. Chapters explore important aspects of infrastructure, including its relationality, scale, history, and relevance, and provide archaeological case studies that examine the social repercussions of infrastructure and the various ways it has materialized in the past. This compilation ultimately expands the discourse of infrastructure in archaeology and social sciences more broadly. Social scientists can turn to this volume for insights into an archaeologically informed perspective on infrastructure relevant to the study of past and current human behavior.

The CADIC’s Geological Resources Program will soon turn 40 years of fruitful development. During this period many projects were carried out and others remain to be implemented. In the course of time three generations of researchers have been formed. Mentioning names would be unfair to those that could be involuntarily omitted. There is still a long way to go. The eagerness for knowledge should not stop. This book is a tribute to all those people who have worked in the different projects of pure and applied science, and educational, and human resources training, granted to this founding program and associated laboratories of the regional center of CONICET in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. The twenty papers which constitute this book have a genuine Latin appeal, having been written by 50 authors based in Argentina and Spain. All this contributions are concerned with Fuegian geological resources. Everyone concerned with this work hopes that it will prove a fitting and lasting memorial to Nacho Subías, whose personal contribution to our knowledge of this geology was outstanding.

Houston and Southeast Texas have an ancient, storied prehistory. Using data from hundreds of archeological site reports, a changing coastal landscape modeled through time in 3D, historical information on Native Americans taken from the accounts of the earliest European visitors, and digital GIS mapping to weave it all together, this book recounts the development of the physical landscape of this region and the cultures of its Native American inhabitants from the peak of the last ice age until the Spanish colonial era. Its 504 pages are illustrated with nearly 350 full color maps, charts, drawings and photographs.