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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 22 (2018) 298

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep

An introduction to archaeological approaches to Holocene economies T

This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural volume draws upon recent livelihood. The reader will notice that apart from their focus upon time
research on the Holocene and underscores the economy as the cate- period (Holocene) and the essential theoretical framework (economy),
gorical level of analysis for this epoch. The articles in this volume the contributors use a wide variety of methodologies including scan-
pursue three broad economic research topics: natural resource pro- ning electron microscopy, archaeobotany and paleoethnobotany, geo-
curement and use; the spatial distribution of natural resources and chemical characterization of major and minor elements, interpolation
mobility; and, diet breath and human evolutionary ecology. of spatial data obtained from orthophotomap and Geographic In-
Understanding prehistoric human economies has long been of interest formation System (GIS) software, multivariate statistical analyses, and
to archaeologists, often in the context of human subsistence based on petrography.
the analyses of faunal and floral remains. More recently, other en- This volume is intended to emphasize interdisciplinary analytical
vironmental parameters have attracted the attention of archaeologists approaches to understanding prehistoric economies during the
including natural and human modified landscapes, the availability and Holocene epoch. Although this volume is by no means a comprehensive
spatial distribution of food and raw material resources, and how people overview of why archaeologists investigate prehistoric economies
moved in response to these ecological variables. during the Holocene or the techniques used to investigate them, the
This volume consists of a core group of seven papers from various articles do provide a wide range of current methodologies. While the
regions of the world including the Baffin Island of Canada, central Asia, main audience for this volume consists of archaeological specialists in
central Mexico, the Middle East, the Pampas and Patagonia of South the Holocene and prehistoric economies, I fervently hope that archae-
America, the southeastern United States, and the western Iberian ologists interested in new interdisciplinary and creative approaches to
Peninsula. The papers were selected for their specific temporal em- analytical methodologies will also appreciate it.
phasis on the Holocene. Indeed, the articles in this volume span from
the late Pleistocene-early Holocene transition to the late Holocene. References
They cover the full range of social and cultural complexity from the
mobile hunting and gathering late Paleoindians in the lower Tennessee Isaac, B.L., 1984. Introduction. In: Research in Economic Anthropology. Vol. 6. JAI Press,
River valley and Paleo-Eskimo on Baffin Island to the sedentary city- Greenwich, pp. 1–25.
Tankersley, K.B., 2017. Geochemical, economic and ethnographic approaches to the
state stone carvers at Teotihuacan, the largest prehistoric city in the evaluation of soil, salinity, and water management in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. J.
western Hemisphere and the sixth largest city in the world at the time of Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 12, 378–383.
habitation.

Following Isaac (1984:4) and, more recently, Tankersley Kenneth Barnett Tankersley
(2017:380), the theoretical focus of the articles in this volume is on Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
prehistoric economies defined as the processes of production (extrac- 45221, USA
tion, transformation, elaboration), consumption (use, including final Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221,
use), distribution (circulation, locational and appropriation move- USA
ments), and exchange (two-way, hand-to-hand movements) of goods E-mail address: kenneth.tankersley@uc.edu
and services that originate, sustain, enhance, or reproduce human


Department of Anthropology, PO Box 210380, 481 Braunstein Hall, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0380, USA.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.07.021

Available online 01 August 2018


2352-409X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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