Late Woodland In The Kansas City Locality

Abstract

14WYB, situated near Edwardsville, Kansas, is a single-component site representative of terminal Kansas City Hopewell. Comparisons with other components with similar artifact assemblages, which are radiocarbon dated, demonstrates this terminal period to be from ca. A.D. 500 to A.D. BOO, and equivalent to early Late Woodland in the Illinois River Valley. Settlement and subsistence changes are not recognizable at this time, but do occur between A.D. BOO and A.D. 1000, perhaps as reflection of the adoption of agriculture as important to the subsistence base during the late Late Woodland period.     

The Yeo Site (23CL 199):

Abstract

In 1976 Alfred E. Johnson proposed a subsistencesettlement model for Kansas City Hopewell. The model consisted of a subsistence territory encompassirig a drainage upon which a large permanent village settlement was located near its mouth with a series of smaller specialized ancillary sites located up from the village. Limited corn and squash horticulture would be present in the latter half of the occupation too. A test of such a model would be actual limited activity sites. The Yeo site, a late kansas City Hopewell site, is a hickory nut/marsh elder seed collection/storage station. It is exactly the type of site necessary to substantiate such a model. Also, such a test implies the testing of the notion that there are “specialized, limited activity sites,” sites which are important to some of the suppositions of the New Archaeology. Additionally, the presence of the combination of hickory/cultivated marsh elder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa) utilization within the context of an upland oak-history forest may be interpreted as supporting Asch and Asch’s (1978) model of marsh elder domestication.     

Settlement Pattern Variability in Brush Creek Valley,Platte County,Missouri

Abstract

During the summer of 1971, a field party from the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted an intensive archaeological- ·survey along Brush Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River four miles west of Parkville, Missouri. Data collected during this survey provides a preliminary characterization of the local environmental setting and a comparativecontrastive statement on prehistoric settlement pattern variability from the Early Archaic to the Steed-Kisker phase.

Topographic, geological, and botanical features of importance in establishing the parameters of effective biophysical environments for prehistoric occupants are summarized, and four resource zones tentatively identified: an upland prairie zone, an oak-history forest zone, a river-bottom forest zone and the Missouri River itself. Although the time depth for these resource zones is unknown, their presence throughout the history of man’s presence is a possibility.

Aspects of the human occupation and utilization of Brush Creek valley, which began as early as 8000 B.C., are viewed as adaptations to the local environmental setting. During the Archaic period (8000 B.C.-A.D. 1), £rush Creek valley was apparently exploited by hunters and gatherers who established short-duration camps. A large and probably permanent village was established during the period of Kansas City Hopewell occupation (A.D. 1-500), although small, temporary, camps were also in evidence. The Late Woodland occupation (A.D. 500-1 000) is marked by small sites with little evidence of any long term occupation. The final occupation of the valley, by Steed-Kisker peoples (A.D. 1 000-1250), is characterized by a pattern of many small homesteads occupied by populations who made their living through a combination of hunting, gathering, and horticulture.     

A Tentative Cultural Sequence for the Snyder Site,Kansas

Abstract

Prior to the past decade documentation for the Archaic period in Kansas has not been substantial. One reason evidence has been slow in emerging is the discovery that Archaic sites are often buried under several feet of overburden, maKing their detection difficult. The Snyder site (14BU9), north of ElDorado in Butler County, Kansas, is such a site. Four tentative phases are defined: Butler, Walnut, El Dorado, and Chelsea.     

Late Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in Southwestern Kansas

Abstract

During the summer of 1975, an intensive archeological site survey was carried out by the University of Kansas in the Cimarron National Grassland, southwestern Kansas, for the U.S. Forest Service. Work focused on the recovery of data to enable the determination of site functions in order to develop a predictive model of prehistoric site locations for the High Plains of western Kansas. Eight functional site types were derived from analysis of recovered stone tools and fauna remains. Analysis of site physiographic data with respect to site functions made it apparent that landform, the availability of water, and raw materials are resources which had statistically significant effect on prehistoric site location strategy in southwestern Kansas. Moreover, for functional site types some physiographic variables are more important than others. It is suggested that the results of this study are applicable to other portions of the High Plains.     

The Elliott Site (14Ge303): A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Initial work at the Elliott site, Geary County, Kansas, reveals three cultural components: Archaic (Munkers Creek?), Woodland, and Smoky Hill, spatially distributed over the site in five clusters. The Woodland cluster (14GE312) was tested and is reported here. The data suggest a tentative Schultz focus affiliation.     

The West Island Site, 14PH10, A Keith Focus Plains Woodland Site in Kirwin Reservoir Phillips County,Kansas

Abstract

Salvage excavations at a badly eroded site, now an island in the Kirwin Reservoir of west-central Kansas, produced pottery and other artifacts indicative of the Keith Focus. Although the site remains undated, it should fall at ca. A. D. 600.     

Interannual variability of pollen productivity and transport in mid-North America from 1997 to 2009

Understanding the causes of interannual variability in atmospheric pollen concentration is an important but elusive goal for public health and environmental change. We analyzed long-term daily records of pollen counts from urban Kansas City, Missouri, USA collected from 1997 to 2009 for three pollen groups: Ambrosia, Poaceae, and a third group which is mostly composed of arboreal pollen types. The annual pollen index varied from 8,368 to 80,822 over the thirteen-year period. Although Ambrosia pollen is often thought to be associated with droughts and disturbance, years with high Ambrosia pollen were associated with high summer precipitation to the south of Kansas City. Years with high Poaceae pollen were associated with high spring precipitation to the south of the city. In support of the southern influence to Kansas City pollen, Ambrosia and Poaceae pollen mostly arrived on southern winds. In contrast to the other two pollen groups, the arboreal pollen was most associated with growing season precipitation to the east of Kansas City, although it was still highest on days with southern winds. Based on the correlations with climate, the severity of an upcoming allergy season may be predicted with early-season precipitation data, while short-term severity can be forecast from local weather patterns.     

The Fire Cloud Site (39BF237), Buffalo County,South Dakota

Abstract

A bottle-necked cache pit was excavated near Old Fort Thompson, Buffalo County, South Dakota in June of 1955 by a University of Kansas field party as part of a non-reservoir salvage project.

The site is interesting due to the presence of three variants of Talking Crow Straight Rim pottery apparently unreported up to this time. These consist of a square orifice vessel, a vessel incorporating what most closely resembles Stanley Tool Impressed incised lip decoration, and a vessel bearing three bands of differing design motifs on the lip and upper rim exterior.

This site is tentatively assigned to the Fort Thompson focus of the Pahuk aspect. It probably dates to the first half of the 18th century.     

The possible role of uric acid in the ecology of Histoplasma capsulatum

Summary The results of this study indicate thatHistoplasma capsulatum in its saprophytic form is able to utilize the major nitrogenous constituent of avian manure as a nitrogen source. In addition, the enzymes responsible for the pathway of uric acid degradation to inorganic nitrogen have been demonstrated in cell-free systems. These enzymes include uricase, allantoinase, allantoicase, and urease. The uricase ofHistoplasma appears to be a cell wall or cell membrane-associated enzyme, while the other enzymes were located in the soluble portion of cell-free extracts. Cell-free extracts ofCryptococcus neoformans are actively uricolytic.It is suggested that this ability ofH. capsulatum hyphae to utilize uric acid and related compounds as growth substrates may in part explain the indisputable ecologic association of this pathogenic fungus with avian and possibly chiropteran-associated soils and habitats in those areas endemic for histoplasmosis.From the Research Laboratories, Veterans Administration Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, the Department of Biology, University of Missouri at Kansas City and the Department of Microbiology, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas. Supported by VA-8200 funds.Portion of a Thesis presented by the senior author to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Missouri at Kansas City as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts.     

Ichnology of a Pennsylvanian Equatorial Tidal Flat—The Stull Shale Member at Waverly,Eastern Kansas

Ichnology of a Pennsylvanian Equatorial Tidal Flat—The Stull Shale Member at Waverly, Eastern Kansas, M. Gabriela Mángano, Luis A. Buatois, Ronald R. West, and Christopher G. Maples, 2002, Kansas Geological Survey, Bulletin 245, 133 p., ISBN 1-58806-321-6.     

Systemic Change and Lithic Debris: The Nine Mile Creek Survey

Abstract

Data from 55 archaeological sites located during the course of a survey of a portion of Nine Mile Creek northeast of Lawrence, Kansas were analyzed as the focus of a seminar at the University of Kansas in 1969. The recognition of significant variation in lithic debris samples from the Nine Mile Creek sites resulted in the development of a seriational procedure and an explanatory model in terms of temporally changing subsistence patterns.     

Archaeological Investigations at the Budenbender Site,Tuttle Creek Reservoir,North-Central Kansas, 1957

Abstract

By means of a contract with the National Park Service, and additional support from the University, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted archaeological salvage investigations in the northern part of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir of north-central Kan5as in 1957. Excavations were conducted at five sites, of which the Budenbender site (14P04) proved most productive. The present report describes excavations at Budenbender, the discoveries made, and interprets the data from the excavations in terms of current archaeological interest and taxonomic usages. The single house completely excavated at Sudanbender is identified as a component of the Central Plains tradition, and is placed in the Smoky Hill regional variant of that tradition.     

Two Nebraska Culture Storage Pits from Doniphan County,Kansas

Abstract

The materials from two Nebraska culture storage pits located in Doniphan County, Kansas are described. Comparisons made with the pottery and stone artifacts from previously-described Nebraska culture sites show a considerable resemblance.     

Fristoe Burial Mounds from the Prairie Border Region of Southwestern Missouri

Abstract

Three burial tumuli in southwestern Missouri near the Kansas line, indanger of destruction, were excavated by the University of Missouri. These sites, the Alberti, Amity, and Clemons Mounds, are all interpreted as components of the Fristoe Burial Complex, a Woodland mortuary complex of the we stern Ozarks. The identification of these sites as components of this manifestation has extended the geographical range of the Fristoe Burial Complex to the eastern edge of the continuous prairies of extreme western Missouri and eastern Kansas.     

German-Russian Catholic Social Organization

Abstract

The 18th century German agrarian village system has persisted on the plains of western Kansas as a consequence of a Roman Catholic centered social system. The acculturation process has been retarded by the centripetal forces of church, village, and kinship identities.     

A Human Skeleton from an Apache Baking Pit

Abstract

A human skeleton found in an Apache baking pit in Scott County, Kansas, is that of a 22 or 23 year old male, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall. It is probable that he was a Cuartelejo Apache of ca. 1700.     

Polyhedral Cores from Northeastern Kansas

Abstract

Basic data are offered on the presence of polyhedral cores from the surface of several sites in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, not heretofore reported.