Amidst the Dust and Ash: Rethinking the Archaeology of Caves in Eastern America

Several people had issues with the first upload's volume so I'm giving it a second shot. Abstract: This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic periods. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation intensity, and function. Focus is placed on using the often overlooked feature assemblages to discern these activities. Data suggest that the changing use of many caves and rockshelters is not one of longer term occupation as base camps, as has been previously argued, but rather as specialized field camps dedicated to the processing of mast resources. This shift takes place as Middle Holocene warming prompted hunter-gatherers to adopt a more logistical mobility strategy in order to take advantage of the spatio-temporal variance associated with increased mast availability. It is further argued that these sites were likely locations of women’s activities and that foraging in the Midsouth involved groups of women engaged in daily tasks centered around mast, tasks that over time imbued caves and rockshelters with symbolic meaning such that they came to function simultaneously as both processing camps and as persistent places of ritual significance in the hunter-gatherer taskscape. the article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276167843_Revisiting_the_Role_of_Caves_and_Rockshelters_in_the_Hunter-Gatherer_Taskscape_of_the_Archaic_Midsouth Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nfosaaen_archaeology Related Content Excavating Features: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/iyokvGlewck Dust Cave Summary: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/Cn1EfFs6gfk On Archaic Climate Change: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/LNgEWP8Gfe0 On Human Behavioral Ecology pt1: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/N5O9P2dXU4A On Human Behavioral Ecology pt2:https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/b_uk0P8bZcQ On Hunter-Gatherer Theory: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/gX4nR4Qb_DM Western Appalachian Cave Research pt. 1: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/ierw1ixMQMU Western Appalachian Cave Research pt. 2: https://www.seevid.ir/fa/w/uqjCuGLzgHo