Anthropological Archaeology Underwater: Hunting Architecture and Foraging Lifeways beneath

494 Pages·2016·25.31 MB·English

Anthropological Archaeology Underwater:
Hunting Architecture and Foraging Lifeways beneath the Great Lakes

by

Ashley Kate Lemke

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Anthropology)
in the University of Michigan
2016

Doctoral Committee:

Professor John M. O’Shea, Chair
Research Associate Professor Michael B. Collins, Texas State University
Professor Daniel C. Fisher
Professor Kent V. Flannery

© Ashley K. Lemke 2016
DEDICATION

Anthropologists have a made a study of kinship – the ties that bind one human to another.
Whether fictive, or familial, meat-sharing partners, joking relationships, or mentors; it is with
this broadest definition that I dedicate this work to my kin. To all of you, and to each of you,
there is no one I would rather be bound to.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Every good anthropological archaeologist knows it’s not the things, but the people that
really matter. With that, I send my sincere thanks and gratitude to the following:
The University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology provided the
institutional support for the research conducted specifically for this dissertation, as well as my
entire career in Ann Arbor. Those individuals that have been particularly helpful include Kay
Clahassey, Amy Winchester, and Lauren Fuka. Funding for this research was provided by the
National Science Foundation as well as the John and Linda Halsey Great Lakes Research Fund.
Additionally, I’d like to thank the Michigan Archaeological Society for all their support and
interest over the years, as well as the images used in Chapter 4.
The AAR Research Team represents an ideal collaboration of colleagues and dear friends
and this research relied on my partnerships with Lisa Sonnenburg, Robert G. Reynolds and his
graduate students at Wayne State University including, Dustin Stanley, Thomas Palazzolo, Areej
Salaymeh, and in memory of Gerald Larson, as well as the help of University of Michigan
undergraduate students Megan Krajewski, Tom Steffans, and Briana Gladhill and of course,
Michigan Adventure Diving and the Great Lakes Wrecking Crew, most especially Tyler Schultz,
Michael and Lori Courvoisier, Derek and Chantelle King, Chris Gula, Annie Davidson, and
Betsy Campbell. My sincere thanks for research support go to Jamey Anderson, Colin Tyrrell,
Guy Meadows, and Brian Abbott. My current and future research would be impossible without
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Blue Traveler (Parker Boats) and Jake (Outland Technology). Overall, I can never thank John
O’Shea enough for taking me aboard and introducing me to the Greatest of Lakes.
My fellow students at UMMAA and all my dear friends – thank you! Most especially,
Kimi Swisher, Tim Everhart, Kara Pazan, Györgyi Parditka, and Eric Rupley. Every finishing
graduate student needs to be reminded of how they felt at the beginning. For this, I thank the
2015 Michigan Archaeology cohort (or “Brohort”) Jim Torphy, Nick Trudeau, and Yuchao
Zhao. Jo Osborn and Katie Lacy are my dearest friends and truly brilliant women whom I am
extremely proud to call colleagues. Along those lines, I’d like to thank my Anthropology family
especially Geoffy Hughes and most of all - Bethany Hansen. I cannot imagine where I would be
without you.
Michael Collins for always believing in me. The Gault Family – all of you! Especially
Clarke Wernecke, Nancy and Tom, Cinda Timperley, Robert Lassen (and Carol and Peter!), Jen
Anderson, Sergio Ayala, Brendan Nash, and in loving memory of Sam who taught me that
archaeologists are the cowboys of science.
The Ruthven Museum and all its society. Dan Fisher and Scott Beld have earned my deep
gratitude, the former for serving on my committee, the later for fantastic talks and field
experiences – and both for the opportunities to meet the Morrison Lake and Bristle Mammoths.
My deep and unending appreciation goes to the UMMAA Curators. Robert Whallon for
Archaeology I – it changed my life. Raven Garvey for endless advice and fun. Kent Flannery and
Joyce Marcus, because of you I can take my trowel anywhere in the world.
John O’Shea – it’s been a joy and privilege, Captain. Everything else you know.
And of course, and always, my family: Mom, Dad, and Big Sisters.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ iii
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................1
Organization ........................................................................................................................... 5
A Note about Terminology ....................................................................................................... 8
A Note about Dates .................................................................................................................. 9
CHAPTER 2 The Problem with Studying Hunter-Gatherers in the Past ...................................... 10
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 10
Normative Views of Hunter-Gatherers in Anthropology ......................................................... 11
Limitations of the Ethnographic Record ................................................................................. 12
Enter Archaeology .................................................................................................................. 16
Research Philosophy .............................................................................................................. 17
CHAPTER 3 Hunter-Gatherers and Hunting Architecture ........................................................... 19
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 19
Definition and Problem Orientation ....................................................................................... 21
A Global Phenomenon ............................................................................................................ 21
Hunting Architecture and Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways ............................................................ 57
Archaeology of Hunting Architecture .................................................................................... 65
CHAPTER 4 The Ancient Great Lakes: Paleoenvironment and Archaeology throughout the
Pleistocene-Holocene Transition .................................................................................................. 88
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 88
Lake Levels and Paleoenvironment during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition .................. 91
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Human Adaptations in the Pleistocene-Holocene Great Lakes ............................................. 109
Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 131
CHAPTER 5 Archaeology and Anthropology of Rangifer Hunting ........................................... 134
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 134
Rangifer Natural History ...................................................................................................... 135
Archaeology of Rangifer Hunting ......................................................................................... 147
Ethnographic Cases of Rangifer Hunting Architecture ........................................................ 183
Ethnographic Analogy and the Archaeology of Rangifer Hunters ........................................ 193
CHAPTER 6 The Evolution of Submerged Site Archaeology .................................................... 205
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 205
History of Archaeology Underwater ..................................................................................... 207
The Investigation of Submerged Sites ................................................................................... 218
The Importance of Submerged Sites ...................................................................................... 220
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 227
CHAPTER 7 Interdisciplinary Investigations on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge ......................... 228
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 228
The Study Context ................................................................................................................. 229
Environmental Modeling: Geoarchaeological and Paleoenvironmental Research ............. 242
Agent-Based Computer Simulation …................................................................................... 256
Archaeological Research ….................................................................................................. 261
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 296
CHAPTER 8 A Model of Foraging Lifeways on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge .......................... 298
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 298
Hunting Architecture and Material Correlates on the AAR .................................................. 298
Discussion and the Creation of a Model ................................................................................ 312
CHAPTER 9 Testing the Model: Alpena-Amberley Ridge Results ............................................ 320
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 320
New Research ....................................................................................................................... 321
Results ….............................................................................................................................. 331
Evaluating the Model ............................................................................................................ 365
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 374
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CHAPTER 10 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 376
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 376
Great Lakes Caribou Hunters ............................................................................................... 377
Hunting Architecture and Foraging Lifeways …................................................................... 386
Anthropological Archaeology Underwater …....................................................................... 388
Future Prospects ................................................................................................................... 390
REFERENCES CITED .............................................................................................................. 392
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1. The annual cycle of Tibetan antelope and associated traditional hunting strategies,
(adapted from Huber 2005) .............................................................................................. 28
Table 3.2. Estimated number of people participating in communal caribou hunting with hunting
architecture ....................................................................................................................... 60
Table 3.3a. Formal attributes of hunting architecture components and associated animal state,
(adapted from Friesen 2013, see also O’Shea et al. 2013:41, Table 1) ............................. 72
Table 3.3b. Formal attributes of hunting architecture components and associated animal state,
(adapted from Friesen 2013, see also O’Shea et al. 2013:41, Table 1) ............................. 73
Table 3.4. Inferring social and economic variables from hunting architecture …......................... 75
Table 3.5. Relationship between prey body size, typically butchering behavior, an
archaeological expectations for hunting architecture sites ................................................ 79
Table 4.1. Ancient Great Lakes water levels ................................................................................. 93
Table 4.2. Major advances of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and associated lake stages, (adapted
from Carr 2012:34, Table 2.1; Karrow 2004, Fig.1.1) ….................................................. 95
Table 4.3.Primary phases of Pleistocene-Holocene transition vegetation succession in the Great
Lakes ................................................................................................................................ 97
Table 4.4. Lake Stanley stages ................................................................................................... 103
Table 4.5. Generalized early Holocene vegetation succession in the Lake Huron basin …........ 106
Table 4.6. Relevant culture history in the eastern Great Lakes ................................................... 112
Table 4.7. Absolute dates from Paleoindian sites in the Great Lakes basin ............................... 113
Table 5.1. Rangifer seasonal round ............................................................................................ 142
Table 5.2. Local extinction of Pleistocene reindeer ................................................................... 149
Table 5.3. Upper Paleolithic chronology and primary phases …................................................. 156
Table 5.4. Radiocarbon dates from the Whipple site, (adapted from Curran 1984) .................... 176
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