Scientist explores archaeological record by studying Mongolian reindeer herder camps

For years, Todd Surovell has studied an ancient Paleoindian site in Colorado and wondered why he would find concentrations of tools in one spot or a particular type of tool in another. He had to go to Mongolia to find the answers.

This composite time-lapse photo shows every spot Mongolian people occupied in a reindeer herder camp Sept. 15, 2014. 
Todd Surovell, a UW professor of anthropology and director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and 
Anthropology, heads the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project. The project’s primary goal is the development 
of spatial theory of human behavior for application to archaeological problems [Credit: Todd Surovell]

Surovell, a University of Wyoming professor of anthropology and director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, is an expert in Paleoindian archaeology. He heads the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project, which has a primary goal of developing spatial theory of human behavior for application to archaeological problems.

In essence, he is interested in understanding how people decide where to do the things they do.

“I’m interested in how people use space from an archaeological perspective,” Surovell says. “We might, for example, identify prehistoric households and examine how people used space, both inside and outside. We also might ask how the spaces in different households were used, whether similarly or differently.”

For a number of years, Surovell and his colleague, Nicole Waguespack, a UW associate professor of anthropology, studied the Barger Gulch archaeological site that dates back 12,500 years and is located in Middle Park, Colo. There, they recovered more than 75,000 chipped stone tools and artifacts. Sometimes, a large number of various tools would be found in one spot. Other times, similar tools would be found in another.

From studying spatial patterns in the Middle Park site, Surovell surmised that Folsom people, nomadic hunter-gatherers, lived in round-shaped structures with fires in their centers. Artifacts preferentially accumulated to one side of the house (east or west), and often toward the back, or south side, of the home.

“Archaeologically, all you see are spatial patterns in chipped stone artifacts. There is no house or physical architectural remains,” he says.

In order to understand archaeological spatial patterns and how they translate into past human behavior, Surovell, as a scientist and a researcher, wanted to see how nomadic people use space in real life.

“To interpret human behavior from the past was not easy,” Surovell concedes. “I wanted to see nomadic people in the real world, and how they use space in the real world.”

So, Surovell traveled to the Khovsgol Province of Mongolia to study the Dukha (pronounced Do-ha), nomadic reindeer herders of Tuvan descent. Like the Paleoindians of the past, the Dukha of today live in rounded homes, called an ortz, with iron stoves located in the middle. The structures somewhat resemble teepees.

He has traveled to the northeast Asian country five times, and in all seasons, as part of the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project, which began in 2012. Ethnoarchaeology is the study of living peoples for the purpose of developing tools for improving interpretation of the archaeological record. This project differs from traditional spatial ethnoarchaeology, in that Surovell shifted the focus from the mapping of material remains to the direct mapping of human behavior. To do so, he has used a combination of observational mapping and time-lapse photography coupled with photogrammetry, or mapping from photographic imagery.

For example, one composite time-lapse photo that was taken shows all camp occupants -- in all of the spaces they occupied in exterior camp space -- over the course of a 12-hour day. Photos were taken roughly every three minutes from a camera perched atop a fiberglass mast. Cameras relied on battery and solar power. In all, about 300 photos were shot and then combined into the composite photo that accompanies this story.

“That is unique to the project. The big innovation in our project is this idea of mapping people as they go about their lives,” Surovell says. “Technically, it wasn’t possible to do this with high precision until recently. Imagine being in a place with no electricity, and you want to map how they (Mongolians) go about their lives. So, we turned to time-lapse photography.”

A Dukha summer camp in the West Taiga.  Nine families live here. One ortz is used mostly as a rental for tourists 
[Credit: Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project]

The goal was to precisely map people in camp sites over frequent intervals. The information can be used to develop spatial datasets which, in turn, allow Surovell and his research team to understand how people make space-use decisions. Spatial datasets included information on a person, his or her sex, age, activity, equipment, household membership and weather.

Initial results suggest that human spatial behavior on small scales is highly patterned, predictable and explainable.

During his five separate treks to Mongolia, Surovell has lived in seven different camps. The days are long, filled with lots of hard work just for basic survival.

“It’s physically challenging. It’s cold in winter -- 40 below regularly every night,” he recalls. “In summer, it freezes almost every night. It’s rustic. You sleep on the ground. You can’t take a shower for months on end. I bring freeze-dried food. You have to ride in on a horse or a reindeer.”

During the spring, Surovell often rode a reindeer -- the Dukhas’ mode of transportation -- to help haul firewood to summer camps with the family with whom he stayed and studied. He says he paid attention to being careful, knowing medical help was often three or four days away. Still, his body was beaten up, and he typically lost 8-10 pounds during each trip.

Still, he enjoyed the simplicity of living in the moment and being away from technology.

“It’s wonderful, physically challenging, and they don’t speak English. I had to learn Mongolian,” Surovell says.

Surovell says spatial patterns of tools used at the Colorado Middle Park site could be used at Wyoming’s archaeological sites, including the Mammoth Kill site near Douglas, the Hanson site in the northern Big Horn Basin and at Hell Gap.

“I don’t know if there are obvious, practical benefits of this work. The major benefits are largely academic,” he says. “Architects who design workspaces would probably be very interested in those kinds of data of how people use space.”

Funding and sponsorship of the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholars Program and the George C. Frison Institute. Surovell says he has a few publication papers in the works and, ultimately, he says his group -- which includes Randy Haas, a UW postdoctoral researcher, and Matthew O’Brien, an assistant professor of anthropology at California State University-Chico -- plans to write a book about the research experience.

“A lot of these things, they do became obvious when you see it in the real world,” Surovell says. “We have found, for example, that the distribution of light is an important factor governing the performance of many activities in interior spaces. I don’t go to a dark closet to read a book. We knew people tended to gather around a stove.

“I suspect how Mongolians use their spaces is fairly similar to how we use our homes, too,” he says. “I hope this research will give us insight into spatial patterns worldwide and not just in Colorado.”

Source: University of Wyoming [April 15, 2017]

byUnknown

in Anthropology, Indigenous Cultures, Mongolia, Society

April 15, 2017

Scientist explores archaeological record by studying Mongolian reindeer herder camps

For years, Todd Surovell has studied an ancient Paleoindian site in Colorado and wondered why he would find concentrations of tools in one s...

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Archaeologists unearth ancient pithouse in British Columbia's Fraser Canyon

An ancient pithouse at Bridge River in the Fraser Canyon that spanned about 1,500 years and included 17 distinct layered floors ending at the European fur-trade era is providing unique insight into the lives of early First Nations, archaeological research reveals.

A new archaeology study is revealing fantastic details about an aboriginal pithouse at Bridge River 
in the Fraser Canyon spanning about 1,500 years and including 17 distinct layered floors 
ending at the European fur-trade era [Credit: PNG]

“For the entire Pacific Northwest region, this is the best documented, long-lived aboriginal house in the archaeological record,” confirmed Anna Marie Prentiss, a professor of anthropology at the University of Montana in Missoula. “We have exquisite detail, with all these floors.”

About every 20 years, the Bridge River people built a new roof on the pithouse and a new layer of dirt floor as a living area. Each layer or floor reveals details specific to that time period, be it the rise and fall of salmon stocks, the creation of artwork such as pendants, the trade in iron and beads, the processing of deer pelts, even the raising of domestic dogs for human consumption.

The excavation site is about two kilometres upstream of the Fraser River confluence next to the current Bridge River village. Band chief Susan James says her people — 457 members, about half of them living on reserve — had a general knowledge of their ancestors but not to the level of detail unveiled by archaeologists. “We’ve found it fascinating, it’s all been learning for us,” she said. Band tours of the site are available to the public.

Prentiss explained that Pithouse 54 was excavated over four seasons. Her book, The Last House at Bridge River, is about to be published.

“We realized this house had something special, an extraordinary record,” she said.

The dig found 157 dog bones on various floors, several featuring cut marks from defleshing. Although the Bridge River dog is related to Siberian dogs, it was considered its own unique breed. The thinking is that younger dogs up to 2.5 years old risked being eaten. Older dogs were typically kept as family pets and for work, including for transport and as a warning system for the village.

Dogs were also thought to be a delicacy at Bridge River, said Prentiss, who obtained her doctoral degree from Simon Fraser University. “When (explorer) Simon Fraser visited the Lillooet people (1808) he was served a feast of dog meat. That kind of says it all right there.”

The pithouse was not occupied consecutively for 1,500 years. It was abandoned three times, including about 1,000 years ago. A decline in salmon bones suggest fewer fish migrating through the Fraser Canyon during an era known as the Medieval Warm Period.

The house also expanded in size and shape, at times rectangular or round, over the generations. At its peak, it might have housed 30-40 people.

Pithouses were badgered into the ground to provide extra warmth in winter and cooling in summer, reflecting the more extreme climates of the Lillooet area.

The top layer of the pithouse is thought to span the late fur-trading period from 1835 to 1858. Researchers found numerous artifacts of the period, including: Venetian glass beads painted red, green and white; an iron horseshoe; a finger ring; machine-made bone buttons; and three stone spindle whorls, suggesting weaving yarn from dog or mountain goat hair.

Researchers also found heaps of deer bones, burned rocks from boiling, 250 hide scrapers, and 135 stone arrow points, evidence that aboriginals were trading skins with fur traders, a period when beaver populations had collapsed.

“The fur-trade material lets us see what life was like just before the onslaught of the gold rush,” Prentiss says. “We’ve never had that kind of insight.”

The pithouse, which is part of a larger settlement, contains no evidence from the gold-rush starting in 1858 in the area, she said. After that, aboriginals are thought to have lived in cabins.

Prentiss is presenting her findings at the Society for American Archaeology conference, which opens Wednesday in Vancouver and is expected to attract 5,000 visitors through this weekend.

Author: Larry Pynn | Source: Vancouver Sun [April 07, 2017]

byUnknown

in Americas, Archaeology, Canada, Indigenous Cultures, North America

April 07, 2017

Archaeologists unearth ancient pithouse in British Columbia's Fraser Canyon

An ancient pithouse at Bridge River in the Fraser Canyon that spanned about 1,500 years and included 17 distinct layered floors ending at th...

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Study reveals 10,000 years of genetic continuity in northwest North America

A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their home in northwest North America more than 10,000 years ago.

Researchers are analyzing DNA from ancient individuals found in southeast Alaska, coastal British Columbia, Washington
state and Montana. A new genetic analysis of some of these human remains finds that many of today's indigenous peoples 
living in the same regions are descendants of ancient individuals dating to at least 10,300 years ago 
[Credit: Julie McMahon, University of Illinois]

"Our analysis suggests that this is the same population living in this part of the world over time, so we have genetic continuity from 10,000 years ago to the present," said University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi, who led the study with University of Chicago postdoctoral researcher John Lindo; Penn State University biology professor Michael DeGiorgio; Rosita Worl, the director of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, Alaska; and University of Oklahoma anthropology professor Brian M. Kemp.

The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also suggest that these early American peoples had a complex population history, the researchers report.

The new work comes on the heels of earlier studies of ancient Americans that focused on mitochondrial DNA, which occurs outside the nucleus of cells and is passed only from mothers to their offspring.

"Mitochondrial DNA just traces the maternal line - your mother's mother's lineage - so, you're missing information about all of these other ancestors," said Lindo, the first author on the paper. "We wanted to analyze the nuclear genome so we could get a better assessment of the population history of this region."

The team looked at genomic data from Shuká Káa (Tlingit for "Man Before Us"), an ancient individual whose remains - found in a cave in southeastern Alaska - date to about 10,300 years ago. They also analyzed the genomes of three more individuals from the nearby coast of British Columbia whose remains date to between 6,075 and 1,750 years ago.

"Interestingly, the mitochondrial type that Shuká Káa belonged to was also observed from another ancient skeleton dated to about 6,000 years ago," Kemp said. "It seems to disappear after that. The nuclear DNA suggests that this is probably not about population replacement, but rather chance occurrence through time. If a female has no children or only sons, the mitochondrial DNA is not passed to the next generation. As a male, Shuká Káa could not have passed on his own mitochondrial DNA; he must have had some maternal relatives that did so."

The researchers turned their attention to nuclear DNA, which offers a more comprehensive record of a person's ancestry.

"DNA from the mitochondria and Y chromosome provide unique yet sometimes conflicting stories, but the nuclear genome provides a more comprehensive view of past events," DeGiorgio said.

"The data suggest that there were multiple genetic lineages in the Americas from at least 10,300 years ago," Malhi said.

The descendants of some of those lineages are still living in the same region today, and a few are co-authors on the new study. Their participation is the result of a long-term collaboration between the scientists and several native groups who are embracing genomic studies as a way to learn from their ancestors, said Worl, who is Tlingit, Ch'áak' (Eagle) moiety of the Shangukeidí­ (Thunderbird) Clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered From the Sun) in Klukwan, Alaska.

"We supported DNA testing of Shuká Káa because we believed science ultimately would agree with what our oral traditions have always said - that we have lived in southeast Alaska since time immemorial. The initial analysis showed the young man was native, and now further studies are showing that our ancestral lineage stems from the first initial peopling of the region," said Worl, who also is an anthropologist. "Science is corroborating our oral histories."

Author: Diana Yates | Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [April 04, 2017]

byUnknown

in Americas, Anthropology, Canada, Genetics, Indigenous Cultures, North America, USA

April 04, 2017

Study reveals 10,000 years of genetic continuity in northwest North America

A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western c...

Read More