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

"The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast" Symposium at SEAC: Our Contribution

11/9/2017

12 Comments

 
I'm currently in Tulsa, OK, at the 2017 Southeastern Archaeological Conference. I took a break this afternoon from papers and talking to hole up in my hotel room and put the finishing touches on the presentation I'll be giving tomorrow. I'm honored to be senior author on a paper with David Anderson (University of Tennessee). Our paper will be last tomorrow in a marathon symposium organized by Shane Miller (Mississippi State University), Ashley Smallwood (University of West Georgia), and Jesse Tune (Fort Lewis College).

I'm really looking forward to the session, which will present summaries, updates, and syntheses of work from across the Southeast. It's intended to be a 20-year update to the work that culminated in the landmark Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast volume that was published in 1996. Congratulations are due to the organizers who conceived of the symposium and pulled it off.

I briefly discussed our paper back in September. Significant work has happened since then, and I'm pretty happy with the result. The point of doing a "big" paper like this, in my view, is to attempt to identify and describe patterns that require explanation. We used information from three large datasets -- PIDBA, DINAA, and an always "in progress" compilation of radiocarbon dates -- to investigate patterns of population stability/fluctuation during the Paleoindian period in the Eastern Woodlands.

As of now (rushing through this blog post so I can go out to dinner) I like the result: a six period chronological/geographical model identifying the time/space parameters of population stabilities and fluctuations. As I listen tomorrow to region-by-region updates on what we know about the Paleoindian period in the Southeast, I will almost certainly learn of many things that are wrong. But I will be listening to the results of others' work with a model in mind. That's useful. As the famous quote goes: "all models are wrong, but some are useful." To me, a useful model is a machine for thinking that makes predictions about the world that can be evaluated. So I'm looking forward to seeing what I got wrong. I wish I had a big piece of paper I could spread out on a table so I could take notes time period by time period, region by region.

After this updated photograph of Woody Guthrie, I'll post images of a few key slides from the presentation. I'll put the whole thing on my Academia page tomorrow after the dust settles. [Update 11/13/2017: the presentation is available here.]
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
12 Comments
Bob Jase
11/10/2017 07:15:43 am

The Renaissance may come back yet.

Reply
Chris Widga
11/11/2017 06:12:01 pm

Very cool. We're also working this from the faunal community side (dates and ecology). At some point we will meet in the middle!

Reply
Andy White
11/11/2017 06:34:50 pm

Hey Chris. I was reading some of your bison stuff during my travels back. I have questions for you!

Reply
pferk
11/12/2017 06:27:40 am

wow... this paper makes me want to do some research in the east [i'm in the es]

Reply
juliet link
11/12/2017 05:09:52 pm

what are "Clovis Variant" ppks?

Reply
Andy White
11/13/2017 10:37:57 am

PIDBA uses it (I think) as a generic term for points that people understand as being closely related to Clovis but lacking their own distinctive name.

Reply
Stuart Fiedel
11/13/2017 08:06:18 am

I think you've created a problem by including the undifferentiated fluted points in your period A. Some of them might be Clovis, some might be a thousand years younger. Who knows? This has a particularly severe effect in New England. Although there seem to be a few "classic" Clovis points scattered over the region, most researchers believe the earliest inhabitants were carrying slightly younger Gainey-like points (King's Road/Whipple). So it's very unlikely that there is a population decline at ca. 12,800; rather, there is a rapid expansion.

Reply
Andy White
11/13/2017 10:40:40 am

I agree. The full presentation as I gave it is now up on Academia.edu, so you can see the maps from the rest of the analysis and my initial attempt at a "six time" model. I don't see evidence of a decline in New England, but rather the opposite (steady occupation after initial entry ca. 12,800 cal BP).

https://www.academia.edu/35116570/Structure_Density_and_Movement_Large-Scale_Datasets_and_Basic_Questions_about_Early_Foraging_Societies_in_the_Eastern_Woodlands_SEAC_2017_

Reply
E.P. Grondine
11/18/2017 08:29:09 am

Hi Andy -

Perhaps I'll get some time to go through your paper in detail, but in the meantime..

An important point to remember: the point types are technologies, and their use may indicate simply an adoption of a technology rather than a population movement. This is certainly true for Clovis, and then you have the adoption of the atlatl, as well as changes in food sources (types of animals hunted) to consider.

When looking through the data, keep in mind the annual migration ranges of the food animals as well. Good luck.

Reply
Andy White
11/19/2017 05:55:53 am

Hi E.P.,

Just curious: do you explain the importance of flossing to your dentist when you go to get your teeth cleaned? do you quiz your mechanic on the workings of an internal combustion engine when you take your car in?

Just curious.

The points you raised are, of course, relevant. But you're talking to someone who does this stuff for a living and been publishing and thinking about it for many years. My slides don't have much text, as I usually just use slides as visual illustrations and cue cards for talking. But you will find it to your benefit to look at the full presentation (linked in the post) before commenting on its content.

Also -- I deleted your comment on the pottery post because you (again) posted a link to one of your YouTube videos that is not related to the post in any way.

Reply
Bill Wagner
2/3/2018 12:06:35 pm

Seriously neat stuff, Andy. Thank you.

Two nits:

1) Folsom and Midland are not infrequently found together.

2) Gramly's ground-breaking work on Cumberland is, once again, apparently ignored. He makes a convincing case that it preceded Clovis. Published (free !) @ ASAA site. Recommended.

FWIW

Reply
Bill Wagner
2/3/2018 06:12:02 pm

Another nit :

3) Gramly got 12,350 +/- 50 rcybp @ Sugarloaf. Which would put Gainy into category "C"

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: aawhite@mailbox.sc.edu

    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

    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
    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