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EXPANDED APPLICATIONS FOR DENDROCHRONOLOGY IN ARCHAEOLOGY: AN ECOLOGICAL INTERFACE

EXPANDED APPLICATIONS FOR DENDROCHRONOLOGY IN ARCHAEOLOGY: AN ECOLOGICAL INTERFACE. James H. Speer and Karla Hansen-Speer Indiana State University Washington University in St. Louis. Anthropogenic Ecology. Extent to which people have affected their local landscape

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EXPANDED APPLICATIONS FOR DENDROCHRONOLOGY IN ARCHAEOLOGY: AN ECOLOGICAL INTERFACE

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  1. EXPANDED APPLICATIONS FOR DENDROCHRONOLOGY INARCHAEOLOGY: AN ECOLOGICAL INTERFACE James H. Speer and Karla Hansen-Speer Indiana State University Washington University in St. Louis

  2. Anthropogenic Ecology • Extent to which people have affected their local landscape • Examples include check dams, canals, rock mulching • Minnis 2000; Wagner 2003

  3. Resource Availability • How the environment provides resources for human populations • A logical extension of anthropogenic ecology is the feedback of how humans affect resource availability

  4. Dendroarchaeology • Construction Dates • Culturally Modifies Trees

  5. Pueblo Bonito Vegas and Latillas

  6. Pueblo Bonito Vega

  7. Dendroclimatology • Temperature • Precipitation • Palmer Drought Severity Index • Dean 1988; Grissino-Mayer 1995, Ahlstrom et al. 1995, Stahle et al. 1998; van West and Dean 2000 Grissino-Mayer et al. 1997

  8. Dendroecological Records • Fire History • Insect Outbreak Reconstruction • Stand-Age Structure • Mast History

  9. Fire History

  10. Swetnam et al. 1999

  11. Fire History • Many chronologies in the American Southwest extending back to A.D. 1600 • Chronologies in the Eastern US extending back to A.D. 1800 • Examine Native American and historical fire use • Pyne 1982; Swetnam 1990; Agee 1993; Vale 2002

  12. Pandora Moth Reconstruction

  13. Pandora Moth Reconstruction Speer et al. 2001

  14. Insect Outbreak Reconstructions • Insects as a known food source • Ethnographic studies of pandora moth consumption • Bearing on settlement patterns • Aldrich 1912; Blake and Wagner 1987; Fitzgerald 1992

  15. Stand-Age Structure at the Alscheid Rock Shelter • Located in Illinois approximately 20 kilometers from the Mississippi River • Repeated and intensive use by Native Americans as a campsite from ca. 4700 B.C. to A.D. 1400 • Vegetation type is Temperate Deciduous Forest

  16. CASP Hickory species 21% ULSP Elm species 16% QUAL White Oak 12% OSVI HopHornbeam 9% QURU Northern Red Oak 7% AMAR Downy Serviceberry 6% SAAL Sassafras 5% CODR Roughleaf Dogwood 5% FRSP Ash species 5% QUMA Blackjack Oak 3% ACSA Sugar Maple 3% QUIM Laurel Oak 2% CEOC Hackberry 2% JUVI Eastern Red Cedar 2% TIAM American Basswood 1% CACA American Hornbeam 1% DIVI Persimmon 0% RHCO Dwarf Sumac 0% Speer and Arntzen, unpublished data

  17. Mast Reconstructions • Reconstruction of the periodic fruiting of plants • Currently mast records are short and sparse

  18. White Oak Regional Chronology Speer 2001

  19. Conclusions • Dendroecology can provide a variety of useful records to examine anthropogenic ecology and resource availability • These records can contribute to archaeological interpretation • Historic as well as prehistoric archaeology may benefit from these records • More collaboration between dendrochronologists and archaeologists is encouraged

  20. Acknowledgements • We would like to thank the following funding agencies • National Science Foundation • Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research • USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station

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