TY - THES T1 - Human response to environmental hazards: Sunset Crater as a case study T2 - Anthropology Y1 - 2008 A1 - May, Elizabeth KW - Archaeology AB - Natural disasters and rapid environmental changes have resulted in a continuum of responses by human societies throughout history. A model is proposed that incorporates cultural and environmental aspects of human response to natural disasters. The 11 th century eruption of Sunset Crater volcano in northern Arizona is used as a case study in which the archaeological record and dendrochronological and geomorphological evidence are combined to characterize the nature of the human response. The model predicts that the population at Sunset Crater would have been pressured to move, or to move and make cultural or technological adaptations following the eruption. The model has utility in diverse conditions and can be used to interpret archaeological remains and facilitate modern disaster response. JF - Anthropology PB - University of Arizona VL - MA UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1564017781&sid=16&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER - TY - THES T1 - Analysis of Radial Growth Patterns of Strip-bark and Whole-bark Bristlecone Pine Trees in the White Mountains of California: Implications in Paleoclimatology and Archaeology of the Great Basin Y1 - 2006 A1 - Ababneh, Linah N. KW - Geology AB -

Dendrochronology focuses on the relationship between a tree’s growth and its environment and thus investigates interdisciplinary questions related to archaeology, climate, ecology, and global climate change. In this study, I examine the growth of two forms of bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva): strip-bark and whole-bark trees from two subalpine adjacent sites: Patriarch Grove and Sheep Mountain in the White Mountains of California. Classical tree-ring width analysis is utilized to test a hypothesis related to a proposed effect of the strip-bark formation on trees’ utilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This effect has grown to be controversial because of the dual effect of temperature and carbon dioxide on trees’ growth. The proposed effect is hypothesized to have accelerated growth since 1850 that produced wider rings, and the relation of the latter topic to anthropogenic activities and climate change. An interdisciplinary approach is taken by answering a question that relates temperature inferences and precipitation reconstructions from the chronologies developed in the study and other chronologies to Native Americans’ subsistence-settlement patterns, and alpine villages in the White Mountains. Strip-bark trees do exhibit an enhanced growth that varies between sites. Strip-bark trees grow faster than whole-bark trees; however, accelerated growth is also evident in whole-bark trees but to a lesser degree. No evidence can be provided on the cause of the accelerated growth from the methods used. In the archaeological study, 88% of the calibrated radiocarbon dates from the alpine villages of the White Mountains cluster around above average precipitation, while no straightforward relationship can be 10 established with temperature variations. These results confirm that water is the essence of life in the desert.

PB - University of Arizona VL - PhD ER - TY - THES T1 - Dendroclimatology in the San Francisco Peaks region of northern Arizona, USA Y1 - 2000 A1 - Salzer, Matthew W. KW - Paleoecology AB - Millennial length temperature and precipitation reconstructions from tree rings are developed for the northern Arizona region and applied to questions regarding the nature of the cultural-environmental interface in the northern Southwest, the role of explosive volcanism as a forcing mechanism in temperature variability, and the state of late 20th century climate compared to the range of natural variability of the past. A 2660-year long bristlecone pine tree-ring chronology from high elevation in the San Francisco Peaks of northern Arizona is calibrated with instrumental annual mean-maximum temperature data to reconstruct temperature. Three 1400-year long lower elevation tree-ring chronologies, developed from both living trees and wood from archaeological sites on the Colorado Plateau, are calibrated with instrumental precipitation data (October-July) to reconstruct precipitation. The juxtaposition of these two reconstructions yields paleoclimatic insights unobtainable from either record alone. Results include the identification of wet, dry, cool, and warm intervals and the identification of periods of high and low variance in temperature and precipitation. Population movement into the Flagstaff area in the second half of the 11th century is attributed to relatively warm wet conditions. The role of temperature decline in the 13th century merits additional consideration in the prehistoric regional abandonment of the Four Corners area. Many of the reconstructed cold periods are linked to explosive volcanism. The second half of the 20th century is the warmest in the period of record, and extremely warm/wet conditions have persisted since 1976. PB - University of Arizona VL - PhD UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=731919721&sid=18&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER - TY - THES T1 - A model for assigning temper provenance to archaeological ceramics with case studies from the American Southwest Y1 - 1998 A1 - Miksa, Elizabeth J. KW - Geology AB - 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’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’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. PB - University of Arizona VL - PhD UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=737676271&sid=19&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER - TY - THES T1 - The Dendrochronology of the Navajo Pueblitos of Dinétah T2 - Anthropology Y1 - 1997 A1 - Towner, Ronald Hugh KW - Cultural anthropology AB - Pueblito sites include masonry structures and forked-stick hogans in defensible positions in the traditional Navajo homeland of Dinetah. Pueblitos have been a key piece of evidence used to infer a massive immigration of Puebloans into the Navajo country following the Spanish Reconquest of New Mexico. Archaeological and tree-ring evidence places the sites in their proper temporal and geographic perspectives and suggests that immigration has been overstated as a factor in models of Navajo cultural development. An expanded pueblito site tree-ring database illuminates early Navajo wood use behavior, the temporal and spatial patterning of pueblito site occupations, and relationships between climate and the Navajo occupation and abandonment of Dinetah. Wood use behaviors identified at the pueblito sites include construction with freshly cut and stockpiled timbers, beam reuse, repair and remodeling of structures, and dead wood use. Different selection criteria by the builders, combined with differential preservation, have resulted in different qualitative and quantitative data for pueblitos and forked-stick hogans. The wood use model developed has serious implications for dating early Navajo structures. The tree-ring and archaeological data indicate that most pueblitos are neither temporally nor spatially related to Puebloan immigration or the Spanish Reconquest. Masonry structures and hogans at the sites are contemporaneous and were constructed by Navajos for protection against Ute raiders. Furthermore, most pueblitos were occupied for relatively short periods of time and the regional population density was much lower than has been previously assumed. A dendroclimatic reconstruction indicates that the 1300s and late 1400s were both periods of relatively stable and favorable conditions that may have facilitated Navajo entry into the Dinetah. The drought of 1748, often cited as a cause of the abandonment of the Dinetah, was a single-year event and probably not a “push” in the abandonment. The wide geographic distribution of early Navajo settlement has been ignored because of the spectacular nature of and good preservation in pueblitos. A new model of Navajo ethnogenesis is based on a different early Navajo population distribution and a variety of other means of incorporating non-Athapaskan elements into Navajo culture. JF - Anthropology PB - University of Arizona VL - PhD UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=739840121&sid=21&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER - TY - THES T1 - A History of Archaeological Tree-Ring Datin: 1914-1945 T2 - Anthropology Y1 - 1997 A1 - Nash, Stephan Edward KW - Science history AB - Dendrochronology, the science of assigning precise and accurate calendar dates to annual growth rings in trees, was the first independent dating technique available to prehistorians. Archaeological tree-ring dating came of age at a time when North American archaeologists concerned themselves primarily with time-space systematics, yet had no absolute and independent dating techniques available to guide their analyses. The history of archaeological tree-ring dating from 1914 through the end of World War II is often reduced to discussions of the discovery of specimen HH-39 on June 22, 1929 and considerations of the National Geographic Society Beam Expeditions of 1923, 1928, and 1929. The development and integration of archaeological tree-ring dating is in fact much more complex than these simplistic histories indicate. The “bridging of the gap,” as symbolized by the discovery of HH-39, represents merely the culmination of an intense 15-year long research effort that included at least seven “beam expeditions” and a great deal of laboratory and brilliant archaeological research. By 1931, four Southwestern archaeological research institutions had hired dendrochronologists to conduct archaeological tree-ring dating in support of their various research interests. By 1936, dendrochronology was being applied in support archaeological research in the Mississippi Valley and Alaska. By 1942 however, Southwestern archaeological tree-ring dating once again became the exclusive domain of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, and by 1950 efforts to extend tree-ring dating to other parts of North America as well. A controlled analysis and comparison of tree-ring sample collection activity, correspondence, unpublished research records, and the publication record relevant to North American archaeological tree-ring dating from 1914 to 1945 provides a chronicle of important events in the development of archaeological dendrochronology, provides an understanding of the processes through which tree-ring dating became incorporated in increasingly sophisticated archaeological analyses and interpretations of Southwestern and indeed North American prehistory, serves as a case study for a proposed unilineal model of the development and incorporation of analytical techniques in archaeology, and lays the foundation for a body of theory regarding the development of ancillary chronometric and archaeometric techniques and their application to archaeological problems. JF - Anthropology PB - University of Arizona VL - PhD UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=739840221&sid=5&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER - TY - THES T1 - Tsegi Canyon Cliff Ruin Beam Coring Project: A Dendrochronological Analysis of Six Sites in the Tsegi Canyon Complex, Northeastern Arizona T2 - Anthropology Y1 - 1997 A1 - Wright, William Edward KW - Archaeology JF - Anthropology PB - University of Arizona VL - MA ER - TY - THES T1 - Simulated Anasazi Storage Behavior Using Crop Yeilds Reconstructed from Tree Rings: A.D. 652-1968 T2 - Anthropology Y1 - 1983 A1 - Burns, Barney Tillman AB - A clear understanding of interactions between the arid Southwestern environment and that area’s prehistoric inhabitants has been a goal of Southwestern archaeology. This research has reconstructed annual corn and dry bean crop yields for southwestern Colorado from A.D. 650 to 1968, as well as the amounts of those foods available for each of those years. Colorado’s five southwestern county dry farming corn and dry bean crop records were combined to create two regional crop series. Modern technology’s increasing influence was recognized as being present in the two series. This influence was felt to parallel Colorado’s statewide fertilizer consumption and was removed using a multiple regression procedure. Two modern technology free regional crop series resulted. These two series, along with the original two historic crop series were calibrated against five Four Corners tree-ring chronologies from four localities. Both Douglas-fir and pinyon were employed in the calibration. The calibration process used multiple regression so that each series’ current annual crop yield could be predicted using one or more of 25 separate dendrochronological predictors. The regression equation deemed most suitable for predicting each of the four crop series was utilized to reconstruct annual crop yield estimates for the A.D. 652-1968 period. Normal verification was impossible since additional independent crop data were lacking. The reconstructed crop yield series were evaluated statistically. Portions of them were compared against historically recorded events. These two types of testing suggested that the retrodictions were probably valid. The crop yield reconstructions provided the basic data for four sets of storage simulations that attempted to determine corn and dry bean availability for each year from A.D. 652 to 1968, given certain assumptions about the levels of storage technology available to the Anasazi of southwestern Colorado. A. E. Douglass’ A.D. 1276-1299 “Great Drought” appears to be confirmed. A number of additional famines or food crises have also been recognized. In addition, periods when food was super abundant have been identified. It now appears that much of the Four Corners large public construction projects were undertaken during and perhaps because of these periods of excess surplus. JF - Anthropology PB - University of Arizona VL - PhD UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=752071671&sid=6&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER - TY - THES T1 - X-ray Densitometric Measurement of Climatic Influence on the Intra-Annual Characteristics of Southern Semiarid Conifer Tree Rings T2 - Geoscience Y1 - 1983 A1 - Cleaveland, Malcolm AB - Annual tree-ring width of Southwestern conifers growing on dry sites exhibits sensitivity to variation in climatically created moisture stress. Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and pinyon in the eastern San Juan Basin in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado were sampled at four sites to investigate covariation of climate with intra-annual anatomy. The sites possessed characteristics that created different amounts of physiological stress in trees. Increment borer samples were glued into wooden mounts and machined to approximately 1.0 mm thickness by a special router-planer. All samples were crossdated by comparing climatically controlled synchronous patterns of ring widths. Moving slit X-ray densitometry (at Forintek Canada Corporation Western Forest Products Laboratory, Vancouver, British Columbia) objectively defined the earlywood zone (large, low density cells) and latewood zone (smaller, denser cells formed late in the growing season) in each ring. The densitometer measured eight parameters for each ring: ring, earlywood, and latewood width, minimum and maximum density, and mean ring, earlywood, and latewood density. Individual radial series were standardized (i.e, transformed to indices with 1.0 mean and homogeneous variance) by fitting curves and dividing annual values by the corresponding curve values. Density series proved more difficult to standardize than widths and usually correlated more poorly among individual radii of the same data type. Statistical characteristics of site summary density chronologies differed from width chronologies. Response functions using monthly mean temperature and total precipitation showed climate influenced all data types. Low moisture stress increased ring, earlywood, and latewood width and ring, maximum, and latewood density. High moisture stress increased minimum and earlywood density. No width or density type consistently covaried more than any other with climate. Linkage of climatic variation with density parameters differed considerably from that reported in the literature for conifers growing in wetter, cooler climates. Southwestern conifers posed unique densitometric technical difficulties. Selection of sites that caused moderate physiological stress and samples with few missing rings proved critical. Acquisition of density data required much more time and effort than optical measurement of ring width, but yielded valuable intra-annual data. Intra-annual densitometric data hold great promise for reconstruction of seasonal paleoclimate. JF - Geoscience PB - University of Arizona UR - http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=752888331&sid=23&Fmt=2&clientId=43922&RQT=309&VName=PQD ER -