Risk and Agricultural Intensification During the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico

The relationship between the development of hydraulic agriculture and the formation of sociopolitical hierarchies is a major issue in studies of the evolution of early civilizations in the Basin of Mexico and elsewhere. Previous explanations of agricultural intensification have emphasized population pressure and the effects of settlement nucleation and distance to markets. Neither factor, however, adequately explains the shift to hydraulic farming at relatively low population levels in arid and semi-arid environments. This paper attempts to demonstrate that risk of crop failure was significant in promoting land-use intensification and the development of hydraulic agriculture during the Formative period in the northern Basin of Mexico.     

Aspects of health in prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia: Indicators of stress in response to the intensification of rice agriculture

Numerous bioarcheological investigations have suggested that as agriculture intensifies, levels of physiological stress and poor health increase. However, previous research in Southeast Asia suggests that a decline in health was not universal. This study aimed to provide the first investigation of human health during the intensification of rice agriculture in the large skeletal sample from the prehistoric site of Ban Non Wat, Northeast Thailand (1750–420 b.c .). Health was analysed using two indicators of childhood stress, the prevalence of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), a measure of early childhood stress, and stature, as a measure of late childhood stress, were collated for 190 adults. Sex‐specific diachronic relationships between the prevalence of LEH and stature were explored. For both sexes, initially the prevalence of LEH was found to decrease and then increase over time. Stature remained constant over time for males, although for females stature increased initially, then decreased. Early childhood stress was not significantly correlated with stature in females (P = 0.185), but high levels of LEH were unexpectedly correlated with taller male stature (P = 0.017). Our findings suggest an initial improvement in health during agricultural intensification at this site, likely related to a reduction in physiological perturbations and maintenance of a nutritious diet during this time. The subsequent deterioration in health may reflect geomorphologically and archaeologically indicated variation in environmental conditions and consequential sociocultural changes. We suggest that the sex‐differences in the relationship between stature and LEH may relate to the timing of stress and/or catch‐up growth. Am J Phys Anthropol 153:484–495, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

From the mouths of babes: Dental caries in infants and children and the intensification of agriculture in mainland Southeast Asia

Many bioarchaeological studies have established a link between increased dental caries prevalence and the intensification of agriculture. However, research in Southeast Asia challenges the global application of this theory. Although often overlooked, dental health of infants and children can provide a sensitive source of information concerning health and subsistence change. This article investigates the prevalence and location of caries in the dentition of infants and children (less than 15 years of age) from eight prehistoric mainland Southeast Asian sites collectively spanning the Neolithic to late Iron Age, during which time rice agriculture became an increasingly important subsistence mode. Caries prevalence varied among the sites but there was no correlation with chronological change. The absence of evidence of a decline in dental health over time can be attributed to the relative noncariogenicity of rice and retention of broad‐spectrum subsistence strategies. No differences in caries type indicating differences in dental health were found between the sites, apart from the Iron Age site of Muang Sema. There was a higher prevalence of caries in the deciduous dentition than the permanent dentition, likely due to a cariogenic weaning diet and the higher sensitivity of deciduous teeth to decay. The level of caries in the permanent dentition suggests an increased reliance on less cariogenic foods during childhood, including rice. The absence of a temporal decline in dental health of infants and children strengthens the argument that the relationship between caries and agricultural intensification in Southeast Asia was more complex than the general model suggests. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Phaseolus (Fabaceae) in Archaeology: AMS

Beans of several species were domesticated in tropical America thousands of years ago, to be combined with maize and other crops in highly successful New World agricultural systems. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal associated with Phaseolus in archaeological sites, in Mexico and Peru indicated the presence of domesticated beans as early as 10 000 years ago. However, direct dates on the beans and pods themselves by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) do not provide evidence for the cultivation in Mexico of common beans, P. vulgaris, and teparies, P. acutifolius, before about 2500 B.P. in the Tehuacán Valley, and of common beans about 1300 years ago in Tamaulipas and 2100 years ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. AMS dates support the presence in the Peruvian Andes of domesticated common beans by about 4400 B.P. and lima beans by about 3500 B. P. and lima beans by about 5600 B.P. in the coastal valleys of Peru. The late appearance of common and lima beans in the Central Highlands of Mesoamerica supports the importance of missing evidence that may be obtained from prehistoric agricultural sites in western Mexico and in Central America which are located within the range of the wild populations of these species. Additionally, biochemical studies of subsamples of the dated specimens should be carried out in order to extend the molecular evidence for the independent domestication of North and South American common beans.     

Vertebral osteophytosis in prehistoric populations of central and southern Mexico

One hundred and thirty-eight skeletons from five Mexican archaeological sites were studied. Seventy-three of these were from Tlatilco where hunting and agriculture were the main subsistence activities. This Pre-classic group occupied an area northwest of Mexico City from 1100 to 600 B.C. Neighboring territory was intensely cultivated by the Postclassic Tlatelolco people between 1250 and 1521 A.D. Only 29 skeletons from this large group were sufficiently complete for this study. Every individuals in the latter group, except one young male adult, showed some degree of osteophytosis. The findings at Tlatelolco are paralleled by those from 46 individuals from Xochicalco, Morelos (600–900 A.D.), La Quemada, Zacatecas (900–1200 A.D.), and Coixtlahuaca II, Oaxaca (1300–1400 A.D.). Sixty-nine per cent of the 21–30 year old group (26 individuals from the latter three groups) showed Stages I–III, slight initial ridging to mushroom-like eversion of the vertebral bodies. In the next two decades 100% (13 persons) showed involvement, the three older Coixtlahuaca males having partial ankylosis (Stage V).     

Non-Boserupian Ecology and Agricultural Risk: Ethnic Politics and Land Control in the Arid Southwest

Numerous cases of increasing population without fallow shortening or intensification without population pressure have been cited as disproof of the Boserup model of agricultural change. In this paper we argue that the model is an efficient explanation for agricultural change but only when certain agroecological conditions are met: higher marginal input costs must be both necessary and sufficient to raise production. Elsewhere, conditions are non-Boserupian, and other kinds of responses should be expected. Wupatki, a prehistoric agricultural frontier, is a case in point. Boserupian intensification was mostly impossible here, and with population influx, fanners turned instead to sociopolitical means of protecting the land base for extensive agriculture. A contemporary example from Nigeria illustrates territorial control by groups consolidated along ethnic lines. The strategy of relying on increasing numbers and monumental construction to back up territorial claims had unintended long-term consequences that led to abandonment of Wupatki. [agricultural change, political ecology, settlement patterns, prehistoric Southwest, West Africa]     

The archaeological remains of leucaena (Fabaceae) revised

Archaeological specimens of Leucaena (Fabaceae; Mimosoideae) previously published (Tamaulipas, Tehuacan Valley, and Oaxaca Valley) which are housed at the Departmento de Prehistoria, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, were reexamined. Selected remains from Tehuacan were observed with scanning electron microscopy and ultrastructural features were compared to material from herbarium specimens. External epidermis near margins of legume valves provided identification characteristics (stomata abundance and morphology, texture, pubescence). In Tehuacan, L. leucocephala subsp. glabrata was found in addition to two previously reported taxa—L. esculenta and L. diversifolia subsp. stenocarpa (L. pueblana). Acacia sericea, a wild tree with edible legumes, was frequently misidentified as Leucaena. In Guilá Naquitz, Oaxaca, all samples reported as L. esculenta were identified as another edible, wild legume tree, Conzatia multiflora. Chronology was assigned following published reports and, also for Tehuacan, the field catalogue. Possible use was assigned based upon evidence of chewing and insect damage, indicating ripeness of legumes. No direct evidence of cultivation was found. However, the presence of L. esculenta in Tehuacan (since ca. 4000-1000 B.C.) and of L. I. glabrata (since ca. 300 B.C.-A.D. 780) suggests their introduction there as a cultivated plant.     

Cosmic gourds: Cucurbit and Crescentia effigy pottery of coastal Ecuador

This paper treats the identification of modeled images of cucurbits —gourds and squash—in the ceramics of the Late Formative Era (or Chorrera culture) of coastal Ecuador (ca. 900 B.C. to 100 A.D.). These images provide good evidence for the sophisticated cultivation of cucurbits by the native peoples of the coast of South America from very early time periods in Ecuador. Their importance in the iconography of Late Formative cultures certainly demonstrates that the domestication of fruits with both hard and soft rinds must have been well established by the time ceramic production had begun. Depictions of combinations of animals with cucurbit-shaped bodies in the mortuary ceramics of the Late Formative period also demonstrate that cucurbits were an essential part of life (and death) on the coast of Ecuador.     

Treponemal disease in the middle Archaic to early Woodland periods of the western Tennessee River Valley

The high frequency of late prehistoric New World treponemal disease is attributable to the demographic changes concomitant with the adoption of agriculture. However, these demographic changes in group mobility and site density episodically preceded intensive plant domestication, suggesting possible staggered temporal change in observed treponemal disease case frequency. Thirteen convincing and an additional two probable (N = 581) cases of treponemal disease were identified in an eight-site skeletal sample spanning the Middle (6,000-3,000 BCE) to Late (2,500-ca. 1,000 to 500 BCE) Archaic and Early Woodland (500 BCE-0 CE) periods from the western Tennessee River Valley. Treponemal disease cases are infrequent in both the Middle (3/115, 2.6%) and Late (2 to 4 cases, 相似文献   

Hawaii as a Model System for Human Ecodynamics

The human ecodynamics approach in archaeology privileges landscape as a core concept, asserting that there can be no environment or ecosystem detached from humans and their behavior. Drawing on recent research of a multidisciplinary biocomplexity project, I explore in this article the Hawaiian archipelago as a model system for studying human ecodynamics. Natural patterns of biogeochemical and climate gradients constrained the development of intensive agroecosystems over 1,000 years. An early phase of exponential population growth was linked with agricultural intensification of terraced irrigation systems, primarily on the older islands. After C.E. 1400, expansion of population onto the leeward slopes of the young islands of Maui and Hawai'i was accompanied by intensification of dryland agricultural field systems. These changes were in turn linked to significant transformations of social and political formations, including restructuring of the system of land tenure and descent group organization, and the imposition of a system of surplus extraction organized around a ritual hierarchy of temples.     

Dental paleopathology and agricultural intensification in south Asia: new evidence from Bronze Age Harappa.

Patterns of dental disease among Bronze Age people of the Indus Valley Civilization are currently based on early and incomplete reports by non-specialists. This deficiency precludes accurate diachronic analysis of dental disease and its relationship with increasing agriculturalism in the Indian subcontinent. The objective of this paper is to document prevalence of dental disease at Harappa (2500-2000 B.C.), Punjab Province, Pakistan, comparatively evaluate the Harappan dental pathology profile, and use these data to assess theories regarding the dental health consequences of increasingly intensive agricultural dependence. Pathological conditions of the dentition included in the study are abscesses, ante-mortem tooth loss (AMTL), calculus, caries, hypoplasia, hypercementosis, pulp chamber exposure, and alveolar resorption. The Harappan dentition exhibits a dental pathology profile typical of a population whose subsistence base is agriculture. Dental caries at Harappa are present in 6.8% (n = 751) of the teeth and 43.6% (n = 39) of the more completely preserved dental specimens. The use of a caries correction factor is recommended to permit an estimate of caries induced AMTL in calculating the caries prevalence. All dental lesions are present at higher rates in this Harappan study sample than were reported in previous investigations, and important differences in prevalence of dental disease occur between the genders. Prevalence of dental disease increases in the greater Indus Valley as subsistence becomes more intensive and as food preparation and storage technology becomes more efficient.     

Fresh investigations into the natural and anthropogenically influenced vegetation of the earlier Holocene in the Elbe-Saale Region,Central Germany

At present the central part of the Elbe-Saale area is characterized by subcontinental climatic conditions. Palynological investigations at Zöschen show that, even in pre-Neolithic times, the composition of the primeval forest in this part of Germany had its own distinctive features. On the basis of the palynological results, the existence of natural steppe Holocene is improbable, the region being covered by forests since ca. 9 500 B.P., i.e. the Preboreal. The appearance of anthropochores or culture dependent plants and the beginning of flood loam sedimentation as a result of soil erosion indicate human impact from ca. 6 000 B.P., i.e. the end of the older Atlantic. At Eilsleben changes of tree and shrub frequencies are combined with the occurrence of anthropogenic indicator herb species. These palynological features suggest agricultural expansion phases that are interrupted by regression phases in the early and middle Neolithic (ca. 6 500-2 500 B.P.).     

Adult stature and age at menarche in Zapotec-speaking communities in the Valley of Oaxaca,Mexico, in a secular perspective

Adult stature and the age at menarche among individuals from Zapotec-speaking communities in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico are considered in a secular perspective. Four sets of observations are utilized: (1) adult stature in males and females from five rural communities; (2) age at menarche in adult women and school girls from a single rural community; (3) earlier studies of adult stature in the Valley of Oaxaca; and (4) estimated stature from long bones excavated in various archaeological sites in the Valley of Oaxaca. There were no significant differences among the five communities for stature; hence, the data were pooled for analysis and comparison. Results of linear regression of stature and stature adjusted for the estimated effects of aging after 30 years of age on year of birth indicate negligible secular changes in either sex. Comparisons with statures from earlier surveys, the earliest dates to 1899, also indicate negligible changes. When adult women are grouped according to age, there are no differences in mean ages at menarche between the older and younger women. Mean age at menarche for the total adult sample is 14.53 ± 0.08 years, which compares favorably with the probit estimate for school girls, 14.70 ± 0.32 years. These results thus suggest virtually no secular change in adult size and maturity of the Zapotec-speaking population in the Valley of Oaxaca over the past 80 years. Differences in stature between contemporary populations and estimated statures from long bones from several archaeological sites in Oaxaca are small, and thus suggests little secular change over the past one to two–thousand years.     

新石器时代关中地区人类生业模式演变的生物考古学证据

农业的起源与发展,改变了人类食物资源的获取方式。作为史前文化发展的中心,关中地区史前人类生业模式演变规律与影响因素的探索,将为北方地区农业的起源、发展与传播,文化交流对农业发展的影响,人类对环境变迁的适应等热点问题研究提供重要依据。本文对关中地区史前不同文化、不同遗址人与动物骨骼的稳定同位素以及动植物遗存进行了综合分析。结果显示,受文化的发展与交流、区域地理环境的差异、气候的演变等因素影响,关中地区史前先民生业模式呈现时空差异。老官台文化先民的生业模式中旱作农业与狩猎采集并重。仰韶文化早期,旱作农业成为先民生业模式的主体,但不同区域发展水平不同;另外,家畜饲养的发展速度要滞后于农作物。仰韶文化中、晚期至龙山文化早期,水稻与小麦先后传入,形成以粟、黍旱作农业为主,兼营水稻、大豆等的多元化农业结构;水稻对仰韶文化中期先民的食谱产生影响,而同时期家畜饲养主要依赖于粟黍类农作物。龙山文化,黍、粟农业比重下降,水稻含量相对增加,并对先民与家畜的食谱产生影响;肉食获取方式以饲养活动为主,渔猎活动为辅。     

Restoration and Rehabilitation of Species-Rich Grassland Ecosystems in France: a Review

In France the alteration of species-rich grasslands is due mainly to agriculture and civil engineering projects (roadways, dams, ski resorts, etc.). The restoration of such ecosystems has been tested in many regions and after many sorts of degradation. According to the level of initial degradation, different responses can be envisioned. Some variations are presented of a general model of restoration and rehabilitation: (1) rejuvenation of fallow land by grazing with rustic animal breeds in wetlands or chalk grasslands in south and northwestern France, (2) restoration by recovery of extensive agricultural management in intensive agricultural areas such as the Rhône or Meuse Valleys, and (3) rehabilitation by appropriate ecological engineering carried out in grasslands degraded by intensification, ski-track, or civil engineering installations. Despite some positive results, these undertakings have not always had the expected effects and therefore should not provide alibis for the destruction of natural grasslands. In general, the success of such undertakings depends on the maintenance in the surrounding areas of protected seed source reservoirs and on the persistence of a diversified landscape pattern permitting connectivity between these seed sources and the restoration or rehabilitation sites.     

The Relative Decline in Women's Contribution to Agriculture with Intensification

This paper suggests why the intensification of agriculture is associated with a relative decline in women's participation in agriculture. The statistical evidence described here is consistent with the theory that women contribute relatively less to agriculture when it becomes intensive because their domestic work and fertility have increased. It is also argued that most men may be able to contribute more to agriculture in societies cultivating intensively because hunting, warfare, and trade are not so likely to pull them away from crop production [women's contribution to subsistence, agricultural intensification, time allocation, fertility, cross-cultural]     

Variation in ancient Egyptian stature and body proportions

Stature and the pattern of body proportions were investigated in a series of six time-successive Egyptian populations in order to investigate the biological effects on human growth of the development and intensification of agriculture, and the formation of state-level social organization. Univariate analyses of variance were performed to assess differences between the sexes and among various time periods. Significant differences were found both in stature and in raw long bone length measurements between the early semipastoral population and the later intensive agricultural population. The size differences were greater in males than in females. This disparity is suggested to be due to greater male response to poor nutrition in the earlier populations, and with the increasing development of social hierarchy, males were being provisioned preferentially over females. Little change in body shape was found through time, suggesting that all body segments were varying in size in response to environmental and social conditions. The change found in body plan is suggested to be the result of the later groups having a more tropical (Nilotic) form than the preceding populations.     

Mid-Holocene environmental and human dynamics in northeastern China reconstructed from pollen and archaeological data

A pollen record from the Taishizhuang site (40°21.5′N, 115°49.5′E) located in the transitional forest-steppe zone near the present-day limit of the summer monsoon is used to reconstruct vegetation and climate. Quantitative biome reconstruction suggests that between ca. 5700 and 4400 cal. years B.P. temperate deciduous forest dominated the vegetation cover around the Taishizhuang site. After that time the landscape became more open and the scores of the steppe biome were always higher than those of the temperate deciduous forest except for two oscillations dated to ca. 4000 cal. years B.P. and ca. 3500 cal. years B.P. However, ca. 3400-2100 cal. years B.P. the common vegetation became steppe and the landscape was more open in comparison with the previous time interval. The results of the pollen-based precipitation reconstruction suggest that annual precipitation was ca. 550-750 mm (ca. 100-300 mm higher than present) during the mid-Holocene ‘forest phase’, and ca. 450-650 mm during the following ‘forest-steppe phase’. From ca. 3400 cal. years B.P. during the ‘steppe phase’ annual precipitation was similar to modern values (ca. 300-500 mm). Archaeological records from 100 sites prove the habitation of northeastern China during the prehistoric and early historic periods from ca. 8200 cal. years B.P., but do not provide evidence of the use of wood resources intensive enough to influence the regional vegetation development and to leave traces in the pollen assemblages. Both archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data support the conclusion that changes in pollen composition in northeastern China between 5700 and 2100 cal. years B.P. reflect natural variations in precipitation and not major deforestation caused by humans.     

Erosion, Geological History, and Indigenous Agriculture: A Tale of Two Valleys

Irrigated pondfields and rainfed field systems represented alternative pathways of agricultural intensification that were unevenly distributed across the Hawaiian Archipelago prior to European contact, with pondfields on wetter soils and older islands and rainfed systems on fertile, moderate-rainfall upland sites on younger islands. The spatial separation of these systems is thought to have contributed to the dynamics of social and political organization in pre-contact Hawai’i. However, deep stream valleys on older Hawaiian Islands often retain the remains of rainfed dryland agriculture on their lower slopes. We evaluated why rainfed agriculture developed on valley slopes on older but not younger islands by comparing soils of Pololū Valley on the young island of Hawai’i with those of Hālawa Valley on the older island of Moloka’i. Alluvial valley-bottom and colluvial slope soils of both valleys are enriched 4–5-fold in base saturation and in P that can be weathered, and greater than 10-fold in resin-extractable P and weatherable Ca, compared to soils of their surrounding uplands. However, due to an interaction of volcanically driven subsidence of the young island of Hawai’i with post-glacial sea level rise, the side walls of Pololū Valley plunge directly into a flat valley floor, whereas the alluvial floor of Hālawa Valley is surrounded by a band of fertile colluvial soils where rainfed agricultural features were concentrated. Only 5% of Pololū Valley supports colluvial soils with slopes between 5° and 12° (suitable for rainfed agriculture), whereas 16% of Hālawa Valley does so. The potential for integrated pondfield/rainfed valley systems of the older Hawaiian Islands increased their advantage in productivity and sustainability over the predominantly rainfed systems of the younger islands.     

The usefulness of caries frequency,depth, and location in determining cariogenicity and past subsistence: A test on early and later agriculturalists from the Peruvian coast

Dental markers have been used to unravel particularities of paleodiet, subsistence, social structure, and health. This article aims to compare oral pathology among four pre‐Columbian groups with different degrees of agricultural and socio‐cultural development but comparable ecological conditions who lived on the coastal desert of Peru. Three of these groups are assigned to distinct phases of the Formative Period (2500–1 BC), a time critical for our understanding of the development of agriculture and social complexity. The fourth group corresponds to the Late Intermediate Period (1000–1470 AD), when agriculture had its apogee and society was highly stratified. In this study we test whether there is an increase (1) in the frequency of carious lesions and (2) in caries depth, and (3) if there is a shift from occlusal to extra‐occlusal caries locations with the development of agriculture. Therefore, we analyze the frequencies of carious lesions and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL), the caries distributions by age, sex, and type of tooth, as well as the tissues affected by, and the location of the carious lesions. Since there are no significant differences in the frequencies of carious lesions and AMTL between the groups, we reject hypothesis 1. In contrast, caries depth does increase, and caries location changes from occlusal to extra‐occlusal sites with agricultural development. However, we can only corroborate hypothesis 2 and 3 when taking into consideration dental wear. Thus, we recommend that caries depth and locations should be used with evaluations of dental wear to reconstruct subsistence in ancient populations. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:75–91, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.