@mastersthesis {535, title = {A model for assigning temper provenance to archaeological ceramics with case studies from the American Southwest}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1998}, school = {University of Arizona}, abstract = {Well-designed provenance studies form the basis from which questions of human economy and behavior are addressed. Pottery is often the subject of such studies, requiring geological and archaeological evidence to establish patterns of ceramic economy. A generalized theoretical and methodological framework for provenance studies is presented, followed by specific considerations for ceramic provenance studies. Four main sources of variation affect pottery composition: geological distribution of resources, geological resource variability, differential economic factors affecting resource use, and technological manipulation of materials. Post depositional alteration is also considered. This ceramic provenance model provides explicit guidelines for the assessment of geological aspects of provenance, since geological resource availability affects acquisition by humans and thus archaeological research designs, in which interdependent geological and archaeological scalar factors must be balanced against budgets. Two case studies illustrate the model. The first is of sand-tempered pottery from the Tonto Basin, Arizona, where the bedrock geology is highly variable giving rise to geographically unique sands. Zones with similar sand compositions are modeled using actualistic petrofacies, the Gazzi-Dickinson point-counting technique, and multivariate statistics. Methods used to create a petrofacies model are detailed, as is the model{\textquoteright}s application to sand tempered utilitarian sherds from three Tonto Basin project areas. Data analysis reveals strong temporal and spatial ceramic production and consumption patterns. The second is of crushed-schist-tempered Hohokam pottery. Crushed schist was often used to temper pre-Classic Hohokam plain ware pottery in central Arizona{\textquoteright}s middle Gila River valley. Systematic investigation of rocks from the Pinal Schist terrane in the middle Gila River valley was conducted to assess how many sources were exploited prehistorically, and whether schist or schist-tempered pottery were exchanged. Chemical analysis shows that the sources can be statistically discriminated from one another. Schist source data were compared to schist extracted from plain ware sherds and to unmodified pieces of schist recovered from two archaeological sites. Preliminary indications are that schist was derived from several sources. This model provides a flexible, archaeologically relevant framework for assessing temper provenance. Hopefully, archaeologists and petrologists alike will use it to define ceramic provenance research problems and communicate effective solutions to one another.}, keywords = {Geology}, url = {http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=737676271\&sid=19\&Fmt=2\&clientId=43922\&RQT=309\&VName=PQD}, author = {Miksa, Elizabeth J.} } @mastersthesis {725, title = {Modeling changes in faunal use and availability on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico}, volume = {M.A.}, year = {1994}, school = {University of Arizona}, abstract = {This thesis tests the hypothesis that resource depletion accompanied aggregation on the Pajarito Plateau. It does so by examining changes in faunal resource availability and resource use during the Coalition and early Classic periods. The prehistoric deer population was estimated using precipitation data, following Young (1979). This estimation was used as a measure of potential resource availability for the periods concerned. Based upon the model, the mule deer population was expected to increase from the Coalition period to the early Classic period. Resource use was measured using faunal assemblages from 10 sites from the Pajarito Plateau. The sites examined in this thesis support various expectations which would suggest that resource depletion occurred on the Pajarito Plateau. It was found that changes in resource use could not be explained by environmental change alone. Thus, it appears that resource depletion on the Pajarito Plateau may have been due to human impact on the environment. }, url = {http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=748075101\&sid=57\&Fmt=2\&clientId=43922\&RQT=309\&VName=PQD}, author = {Rebeeca McKim} } @mastersthesis {515, title = {Modellierung der Zusammenh{\"a}nge zwischen der variation von klimatischen Elementen des Wasserhaushalts und dem Radialzuwachs von Fichten (Piecia abies (L.) Karst.) aus Hochlangen des S{\"u}dschwarzwald}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1994}, school = {University of Freiburg}, author = {Kahle, Hans-Peter} } @mastersthesis {695, title = {Modeling prehistoric climatic variability and agricultural production in southwestern Colorado: A GIS approach}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1990}, school = {Washington State University}, abstract = {A model with high temporal and spatial resolution has been developed for a 1816 km$\sp2$ area of southwestern Colorado to examine the potential effects of past climatic variation on dryland maize agriculture and sustainable population during the late Mesa Verde Anasazi occupation of the area (A.D. 901-1300). The data generated by the model are used to evaluate a question of long standing in the Northern Southwest: whether climatic variability was severe enough to disrupt agriculture and promote the abandonment of the Northern San Juan Region toward the end of the 13th century. The model incorporates techniques and data sets that have not been used together before. Long regional dendroclimatic records are used to retrodict 1070 years (A.D. 901-1970) of June Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI)--measures of stored soil moisture--for area-specific soils. Reconstructed PDSIs are reexpressed in terms of their local equivalent in potential maize yield. The integration, quantification, and visual display of these productivity values are coordinated through geographic information systems (GIS) technology. The method results in the production of (1) annual maps depicting the variable character of the potential agricultural environment and (2) annual values for total maize productivity, which can be translated into the population size and density that can be potentially supported on that yield. From these, multiple year estimates of a sustainable population or carrying capacity are made. The results indicate that there was always enough productive land somewhere in the study area to support thousands of persons (e.g., 31,363 persons or 21 persons/km$\sp2$ minimum in the 1470.36 km$\sp2$ study area over the 400-year period), even in the documented dry times of the middle 12th and late 13th centuries. It would seem, therefore, that climatic variability was never so extreme in the Mesa Verde area that decreased agricultural production can be cited as the sole or even primary cause of the 13th century depopulation of the region. }, keywords = {Anasazi}, url = {http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=747133751\&sid=7\&Fmt=2\&clientId=43922\&RQT=309\&VName=PQD}, author = {Carla Van West} } @mastersthesis {508, title = {Mathamatical Analysis of Geophysical Data}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1981}, school = {Universit{\'e} catholique de Louvain}, author = {Guiot, Joel} } @mastersthesis {452, title = {Methods for Analyzing Climatic Variations in the North Pacific Sector and Western North America for the Last Few Centuries}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1975}, school = {University of Wisconsin}, abstract = {The investigation of summer and winter climatic variations in the North Pacific sector and western North America during the last few centuries is the subject of this study. Tree ring widths from western North America are used as indicators of the past climate. It is shown that large scale spatial patterns of temperature and precipitation anomaly which are in turn related to large scale spatial patterns of pressure anomaly, i.e., to the general circulation. A spatial correlation method is chosen to identify and describe the major types of general circulation, as reflected in anomaly patterns of sea-level pressure, during the 20th Century. Five such anomaly type-patterns are identified for summer and four for winter. These are each associated with an assemblage of generalized weather patterns and a corresponding pattern of temperature and precipitation anomaly in the United States, as well as with a spatial anomaly pattern of tree ring widths from 49 sites over western North America. The occurrence of one of these ring width patterns for some year in the past is suggestive of the corresponding occurrence of the associated climatic anomaly type. Orthogonal eigenvector techniques are then selected for use in the development of a statistical model to estimate departure patterns of sea-level pressure using the ring width departures as predictor data. The model is first calibrated using available pressure data since 1899. The model is then applied to estimate winter pressure departure patterns since 1700 A.D. As a means of summarizing these climatic reconstructions, the estimated pressure departure pattern for each winter is compared with each of the type-patterns using correlation coefficients as a measure of comparison. The time series of correlation coefficients between a type-pattern and each winter{\textquoteright}s estimate departure pattern provides an indicator of the occurrence, or non occurrence, of the corresponding anomaly type through time. Graphs of the time series of correlation coefficients corresponding to each of the four type-patterns are presented as indicators of reconstructed winter climatic variations for approximately the last two and one-half centuries. If an estimated pressure departure pattern is highly correlated with one of the type-patterns, the simultaneous occurrences of the temperature and precipitation anomalies associated with 20th Century occurrences of that pressure type-pattern are implicitly specific. These implicit estimates of temperature and precipitation anomaly are then independently verified using available data for the United States from the last half of the 19th Century. The climatic reconstructions are in good agreement with the recorded data and are found to complement and augment the findings of other investigators.}, url = {http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=760425931\&sid=12\&Fmt=1\&clientId=43922\&RQT=309\&VName=PQD}, author = {Blasing, Terrence Jack} }