The Archaeology of Large-Scale Manipulation of Prey explores the social and functional aspects of large-scale hunting adaptations in the archaeological record. Mass-kill hunting strategies are ubiquitous in human prehistory and exhibit culturally specific economic, social, environmental, and demographic markers. Here, seven case studies—primarily from the Americas and spanning from the Folsom period on the Great Plains to the ethnographic present in Australia—expand the understanding of large-scale hunting methods beyond the customary role of subsistence and survival to include the social and political realms within which large-scale hunting adaptations evolved. Addressing a diverse assortment of archaeological issues relating to the archaeological signatures and interpretation of mass-kill sites, The Archaeology of Large-Scale Manipulation of Prey reevaluates and rephrases the deep-time development of hunting and the themes of subsistence to provide a foundation for the future study of hunting adaptations around the globe. Authors illustrate various perspectives and avenues of investigation, making this an important contribution to the field of zooarchaeology and the study of hunter-gatherer societies throughout history. The book will appeal to archaeologists, ethnologists, and ecologists alike. Contributors: Jane Balme, Jonathan Driver, Adam C. Graves, David Maxwell, Ulla Odgaard, John D. Speth, María Nieves Zedeño

The first detailed analysis of Native metalworking in the Protohistoric/Contact Period From the time of their earliest encounters with European explorers and missionaries, Native peoples of eastern North America acquired metal trinkets and utilitarian items and traded them to other aboriginal communities. As Native consumption of European products increased, their material culture repertoires shifted from ones made up exclusively of items produced from their own craft industries to ones substantially reconstituted by active appropriation, manipulation, and use of foreign goods. These material transformations took place during the same time that escalating historical, political, economic, and demographic influences (such as epidemics, new types of living arrangements, intergroup hostilities, new political alliances, missionization and conversion, changes in subsistence modes, etc.) disrupted Native systems. Ehrhardt's research addresses the early technological responses of one particular group, the Late Protohistoric Illinois Indians, to the availability of European-introduced metal objects. To do so, she applied a complementary suite of archaeometric methods to a sample of 806 copper-based metal artifacts excavated from securely dated domestic contexts at the Illiniwek Village Historic Site in Clark County, Missouri. Ehrhardt's scientific findings are integrated with observations from historical, archaeological, and archival research to place metal use by this group in a broad social context and to critique the acculturation perspective at other Contact Period sites. In revealing actual Native practice, from material selection and procurement to ultimate discard, the author challenges technocentric explanations for Native material and cultural change at contact.

An integrated set of seven volumes designed to teach novice archaeologists and students the basics of doing archaeology.