Andy White Anthropology
  • Home
  • Research Interests
    • Complexity Science
    • Prehistoric Social Networks
    • Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
    • Ancient Giants
  • Blog
  • Work in Progress
    • The Kirk Project >
      • Kirk 3D Models list
      • Kirk 3D Models embedded
      • Kirk 2D images >
        • Indiana
        • Kentucky
        • Michigan
        • Ontario
      • Kirk Project Datasets
    • Computational Modeling >
      • FN3D_V3
    • Radiocarbon Compilation
    • Fake Hercules Swords
    • Wild Carolina >
      • Plants >
        • Mosses
        • Ferns
        • Conifers
        • Flowering Plants >
          • Grasses
          • Trees
          • Other Flowering Plants
      • Animals >
        • Birds
        • Mammals
        • Crustaceans
        • Insects
        • Arachnids
        • Millipedes and Centipedes
        • Reptiles and Amphibians
      • Fungi
  • Annotated Publications
    • Journal Articles
    • Technical Reports
    • Doctoral Dissertation
  • Bibliography
  • Data

My Thursday: Radiocarbon and Kirk

5/5/2016

8 Comments

 
I submitted the final grades for my class yesterday, so barring some kind of last minute disaster, my first academic year at South Carolina is done. I'm spending the last part of the week working on the radiocarbon compilation (which I'll need for my paper at SEAC in the fall), moving forward with analysis for a couple of publications I'm working on, and prepping to go in the field and then give a talk next week. My blog has been getting a lot of traffic related to the posts I wrote about the ethnographic megalithic societies of India and Indonesia last year (most of them should come up if you search on "megaliths").  I wish I had time to look at that stuff again right now, but I don't.

I wanted to post this histogram showing the distribution of the ~9,100 dates (intercepts) currently in the radiocarbon compilation (here's the map of the dates I made yesterday). There's a pretty clear trend of an increasing number of dates through time.  Part of that, I think, almost certainly reflects the emphasis that archaeology in the Eastern Woodlands places on the Woodland and Late Prehistoric/Mississippian societies that largely post-date 2000 RCYBP (and the fact that those societies tend to produce large sites with lots of datable deposits). But I think the chart below, as unrefined as it is, is probably also telling us something very basic about demographic change.  There's an inflection point in the number of dates toward the end of the Middle Archaic period (about 5500 RCYBP) that corresponds in time to when we see (generally) more intensively occupied sites, indicators of decreasing mobility, and increasing use of plants that are later domesticates. Yes, I'm saying intensification.
Picture
Distribution of the RCYBP intercepts of 9,129 radiocarbon dates from the Eastern Woodlands.
I think I've found a path forward that will let me extract morphometric data from the 3D models of Kirk points that I've been producing (I've got 41 models uploaded to Sketchfab so far, with a goal of 100 from Allendale County, South Carolina, to serve as the basis for a paper). I found a software package called Landmark (available here for free) that was developed at UC Davis for use with biological materials (i.e., irregularly shaped things).  It allows you to load in a 3D model, place markers and curves on the surface, and export the coordinates of the points for analysis.  I've spent the day learning how to use the software, and have generated a small data set of five points and four curves from ten of my Kirk point models.  The next step is to figure out how to go from the XYZ coordinates that the software exports into something that I can meaningfully analyze.  I don't think that the data analysis package I use (JMP) will do things like Procrustes analysis and, honestly, I've never attempted to analyze a 3D dataset and will need to do some reading to figure out how to start.  If any of my bioanthropology friends have done this sort of thing with morphometric data from skeletal remains and have some advice, I'm listening. Please do not tell me to learn how to use R.
Picture
Screenshot of a couple of Kirk models in Landmark. The software lets you define a set of landmarks on one item and then semi-automatically transfer them to another. Then you can export the XYZ coordinates that describe the locations of the points and, somehow, can be used to describe the shapes of curves that are defined.
8 Comments
Derek Anderson
5/5/2016 12:28:42 pm

Check out Surovell and Brantingham (2007) for a discussion of radiocarbon dates over time: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030544030700012X

Surovell did at least one follow-up article and based on my Google search for their article, it looks like a handful of other people have been looking at similar patterns, too.

Reply
Andy White
5/5/2016 12:39:44 pm

Cool - thanks!

Reply
Shane Miller
5/5/2016 01:48:11 pm

What if that inflection is the frequency of shell mounds popping off (i.e. better preservation context)?

Andy White
5/5/2016 02:05:44 pm

Which would/could be associated with . . . wait for . . intensification?

Stuart Fiedel
5/6/2016 08:44:53 am

Demographic inferences would be more meaningful if you used calibrated bins. But anyway, note stasis from 4000 to 2000 rcbp, with a drop at 2800 coinciding with climate crisis (Grand Solar Minimum, etc.). Initial use of pottery and incipient horticulture seem to have no discernible immediate impact.

Reply
Andy White
5/7/2016 03:27:20 am

Sure - it's just a quick and dirty distribution of the uncalibrated intercepts as they sit in the database right now.

Reply
Steve Timmermans
7/17/2016 02:04:21 pm

Hi Andy

You should be able to enter the 3D coordinates into program CANOCO, and perform the multi-dimensional, multi-variate, non-parametric model examination that I explained to you in a previous thread (I think on Facebook).

CANOCO will allow you to not only examine the 3D multi-variate coordinate data of the Kirk Project point database, but also many other attributes such as spatial information (e.g., Lat/Long), chert type, degree of blade serration, landscape attributes (e.g., proximity to ephemeral or permanant wetlands, stream tributaries, soil types, elevation, etc.). I think that you can even enter data from other multivariate analyses. For example, I think that you can perform Principal Component Analyses, and enter the PC1 (i.e., shape) and PC2 (size) vector data within a broader, more holistic, multi-variate Canonical Correspondence Analysis. Following this, you can then examine any relationship that you can visualize from the CCA models, using either probabilistic parametric tests, and/or AIC (Akaike's Information Criteria) model inferencing. I would also expect that you could enter data from a Landmark analysis within the CCA, possibly as a substitute to other data such as the Principal Components Analysis data.

http://www.microcomputerpower.com/catalog/canoco.html

Reply
Steve Timmermans
7/17/2016 02:18:47 pm

I should also add that CCA performs an indirect gradient model, as opposed to other direct gradient (Correspondence Analsis, Principal Component Analysis) approaches, which I understand is less restrictive and more parsimonious.

Reply



Leave a Reply.


    All views expressed in my blog posts are my own. The views of those that comment are their own. That's how it works.

    I reserve the right to take down comments that I deem to be defamatory or harassing. 

    Andy White

    Follow me on Twitter: @Andrew_A_White

    Email me: andy.white.zpm@gmail.com

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Picture

    Sick of the woo?  Want to help keep honest and open dialogue about pseudo-archaeology on the internet? Please consider contributing to Woo War Two.
    Picture

    Follow updates on posts related to giants on the Modern Mythology of Giants page on Facebook.

    Archives

    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    3D Models
    AAA
    Adena
    Afrocentrism
    Agent Based Modeling
    Agent-based Modeling
    Aircraft
    Alabama
    Aliens
    Ancient Artifact Preservation Society
    Androgynous Fish Gods
    ANTH 227
    ANTH 291
    ANTH 322
    Anthropology History
    Anunnaki
    Appalachia
    Archaeology
    Ardipithecus
    Art
    Atlantis
    Australia
    Australopithecines
    Aviation History
    Bigfoot
    Birds
    Boas
    Book Of Mormon
    Broad River Archaeological Field School
    Bronze Age
    Caribou
    Carolina Bays
    Ceramics
    China
    Clovis
    Complexity
    Copper Culture
    Cotton Mather
    COVID-19
    Creationism
    Croatia
    Crow
    Demography
    Denisovans
    Diffusionism
    DINAA
    Dinosaurs
    Dirt Dance Floor
    Double Rows Of Teeth
    Dragonflies
    Early Archaic
    Early Woodland
    Earthworks
    Eastern Woodlands
    Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
    Education
    Egypt
    Europe
    Evolution
    Ewhadp
    Fake Hercules Swords
    Fetal Head Molding
    Field School
    Film
    Florida
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Forbidden History
    Four Field Anthropology
    Four-field Anthropology
    France
    Genetics
    Genus Homo
    Geology
    Geometry
    Geophysics
    Georgia
    Giants
    Giants Of Olden Times
    Gigantism
    Gigantopithecus
    Graham Hancock
    Grand Valley State
    Great Lakes
    Hollow Earth
    Homo Erectus
    Hunter Gatherers
    Hunter-gatherers
    Illinois
    India
    Indiana
    Indonesia
    Iowa
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jim Vieira
    Jobs
    Kensington Rune Stone
    Kentucky
    Kirk Project
    Late Archaic
    Lemuria
    Lithic Raw Materials
    Lithics
    Lizard Man
    Lomekwi
    Lost Continents
    Mack
    Mammoths
    Mastodons
    Maya
    Megafauna
    Megaliths
    Mesolithic
    Michigan
    Middle Archaic
    Middle Pleistocene
    Middle Woodland
    Midwest
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    Mississippian
    Missouri
    Modeling
    Morphometric
    Mound Builder Myth
    Mu
    Music
    Nazis
    Neandertals
    Near East
    Nephilim
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    Newspapers
    New York
    North Carolina
    Oahspe
    Oak Island
    Obstetrics
    Ohio
    Ohio Valley
    Oldowan
    Olmec
    Open Data
    Paleoindian
    Paleolithic
    Pilumgate
    Pleistocene
    Pliocene
    Pre Clovis
    Pre-Clovis
    Prehistoric Families
    Pseudo Science
    Pseudo-science
    Radiocarbon
    Reality Check
    Rome
    Russia
    SAA
    Sardinia
    SCIAA
    Science
    Scientific Racism
    Sculpture
    SEAC
    Search For The Lost Giants
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Sitchin
    Social Complexity
    Social Networks
    Solutrean Hypothesis
    South Africa
    South America
    South Carolina
    Southeast
    Stone Holes
    Subsistence
    Swordgate
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teeth
    Television
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Topper
    Travel
    Travel Diaries
    Vaccines
    Washington
    Whatzit
    White Supremacists
    Wisconsin
    Woo War Two
    World War I
    World War II
    Writing
    Younger Dryas

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly