Carla S Hadden

University of Georgia | UGA · Center for Applied Isotope Studies

Shell ring archaeological sites are one of the most visible site types along the lower South Atlantic Coast of the United States. These cultural sites are large, circular to arcuate piles of mollusk shells with some reaching over three meters in elevation and over 100 m in diameter. They are comprised largely of mollusk shells (e.g., Eastern oyster...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258979.].

We present new chronologies that inform the timing and tempo of shell ring and shell mound construction on the South Atlantic Bight. Our project combines recently acquired dates with legacy radiocarbon dates from over 25 rings and mounds to provide a higher-resolution chronology regarding the occupation and formation of this larger landscape of the...

Wiggle-match dating of tree-ring sequences is particularly promising for achieving high-resolution dating across periods with reversals and plateaus in the calibration curve, such as the entire post-Columbian period of North American history. Here we describe a modified procedure for wiggle-match dating that facilitates precise dating of wooden mus...

El Japón is a 16th century hamlet site in the marshlands of the southern Basin of Mexico in central Mesoamerica. Radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dating and OxCal modeling of human bone collagen (n = 11) identifies a range of burials at El Japón cemetery from 1550–1650 cal. CE. The refined chronology identifies use of this rural settlement well after the onset...

Radiocarbon dates on marine shell and other materials of marine origin appear significantly older than contemporaneous samples of terrestrial/atmospheric origin. Misunderstandings regarding the mechanisms that give rise to this “marine reservoir effect” (MRE), the terminology used to define it, and the mathematics used to describe it cause many coa...

El Japón is a sixteenth century hamlet site occupying the marshlands of the southern Basin of Mexico in central Mesoamerica. Radiocarbon dating and OxCal modelling of human bone collagen (n=11) identifies a range of burials at El Japón cemetery from 1550–1650 cal. CE. The refined chronology identifies use of this rural settlement well after the ons...

This study examines the timing, tempo, and logic of fishery taskscapes at two Woodland villages (ca. AD 325–1040) on the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico (USA). A multi-proxy combination of zooarchaeological attributions, light stable isotope analyses, and related approaches reveals cyclical aspects of the temporality of taskscapes at thes...

The goal for many PhD students in archaeology is tenure-track employment. Students primarily receive their training by tenure-track or tenured professors, and they are often tacitly expected—or explicitly encouraged—to follow in the footsteps of their advisor. However, the career trajectories that current and recent PhD students follow may hold lit...

Historical ecology has revolutionized our understanding of fisheries and cultural landscapes, demonstrating the value of historical data for evaluating the past, present, and future of Earth’s ecosystems. Despite several important studies, Indigenous fisheries generally receive less attention from scholars and managers than the 17th–20th century ca...

Sediments along the Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) of North America have been the focus of numerous paleontological investigations and yielded a diverse array of vertebrate remains; yet the depositional environments associated with their preservation are poorly understood. In this study, we present a multidisciplinary analysis of the depositional env...

Circular shell rings along the South Atlantic Coast of North America are the remnants of some of the earliest villages that emerged during the Late Archaic (5000–3000 BP). Many of these villages, however, were abandoned during the Terminal Late Archaic (ca 3800–3000 BP). We combine Bayesian chronological modeling with mollusk shell geochemistry and...

Relatively little is known about Nubia’s genetic landscape prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE. Here, we increase the number of ancient individuals with genome-level data from the Nile Valley from three to 69, reporting data for 66 individuals from two cemeteries at the Christian Period (~650–10...

Many organisms living in the ocean create tests, shells, or related physical structures of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ). As this is most often from dissolved inorganic carbon, using organisms that create calcium carbonate structures for climate research and dating purposes requires knowledge of the origin of carbon that is incorporated. Here, we giv...

Circular shell rings along the Atlantic Coast of southeastern North America are the remnants of some of the earliest villages that emerged during the Late Archaic Period (5000 – 3000 BP). Many of these villages, however, were abandoned during the Terminal Late Archaic Period (ca 3800 – 3000 BP). Here, we combine Bayesian chronological modeling with...

Study of 686 bone tools and debitage from a Late Woodland site in coastal Alabama has led to recognition of a distinctive bone technology practiced in coastal regions of the northern Gulf of Mexico during the Middle and Late Woodland periods (350-1100 AD). Virtually the entire assemblage was manufactured from metapodials of white-tailed deer (Odoco...

Despite the prevalence of Woodland-period middens on the Gulf of Mexico’s northern coast, Woodland fisheries remain poorly known. Vertebrate and invertebrate assemblages from Plash Island (1BA134; cal AD 325–640) and Bayou St. John (1BA21; cal AD 650–1040) suggest this period was more than a prelude to Mississippian farming. Much of the coastal Woo...

Nubia has been a corridor for the movement of goods, culture, and people between sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, and West Eurasia since prehistory, but little is known about the genetic landscape of the region prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE. We report genome-wide data for 66 individuals from the...

Recent archaeological excavations on Rakahanga Atoll, Northern Cook Islands, produced one of the earliest examples of dog ( Canis familiaris ) remains found on East Polynesian atolls. Direct dating of these and other Pacific Island fauna by AMS is complicated by a number of factors. (1) The animals’ diets may consist of marine and terrestrial prote...

A single Northern Hemisphere calibration curve has formed the basis of radiocarbon dating in Europe and the Mediterranean for five decades, setting the time frame for prehistory. However, as measurement precision increases, there is mounting evidence for some small but substantive regional (partly growing season) offsets in same-year radiocarbon le...

Radiocarbon dating is rarely used in historical or contact-era North American archaeology because of idiosyncrasies of the calibration curve that result in ambiguous calendar dates for this period. We explore the potential and requirements for radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis to create a time frame for early contact-era sites in northeast N...

In coastal and island archaeology, carbonate mollusk shells are often among the most abundant materials available for radiocarbon (14 C) dating. The marsh periwinkle (Littorina irrorata) is one of these such species, ubiquitously found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States in both modern and archaeological contexts. This paper pre...

In southwestern Florida, USA, terraformed landscapes built almost entirely of oyster shells (Crassostrea virginica) reflect a unique pre-Columbian tradition of shell-built architecture. The ability to reliably date oyster shells is essential to identifying spatial, temporal, and functional relationships among shellworks sites, yet to date there has...

A time frame for late Iroquoian prehistory is firmly established on the basis of the presence/absence of European trade goods and other archeological indicators. However, independent dating evidence is lacking. We use 86 radiocarbon measurements to test and (re)define existing chronological understanding. Warminster, often associated with Cahiagué...

Between 1985 and 2014, the number of US doctoral graduates in Anthropology increased from about 350 to 530 graduates per year. This rise in doctorates entering the work force along with an overall decrease in the numbers of tenure-track academic positions has resulted in highly competitive academic job market. We estimate that approximately79% of U...

Summary statistics for ranking and placement averages by subdiscipline for programs listed in S2–S4 Tables. (DOCX)

US anthropology doctoral recipients by year relative to numbers of US anthropology doctorates who obtained anthropology faculty positions. (DOCX)

Summary of biological anthropology market share divided into 10-year increments beginning with 1974. (DOCX)

Summary of sociocultural anthropology market share divided into 10-year increments beginning with 1974. (DOCX)

Summary of Anthropology department (all subfields) market share divided into 10-year increments beginning with 1974. (DOCX)

Summary of archaeology market share divided into 10-year increments beginning with 1974. (DOCX)

Biogeochemical analyses of eastern oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ) are frequently included in environmental monitoring and paleoecological studies because their shells and soft tissues record environmental and dietary signals. Carbon isotopes in the mineral phase of the shell are derived from ambient bicarbonate and dissolved inorganic carbon (DI...

Archaeological investigations of the age and origins of marine shell beads are important for understanding the emergence and maintenance of long-distance trade networks in prehistory. In this paper we expand upon and re-examine the incremental carbon ( ¹⁴ C and δ ¹³ C) and oxygen (δ ¹⁸ O) isotope data from two Olivella biplicata shell beads from th...

Over the past 30 years, the number of US doctoral anthropology graduates has increased by about 70%, but there has not been a corresponding increase in the availability of new faculty positions. Consequently, doctoral degree-holding archaeologists face more competition than ever before when applying for faculty positions. Here we examine where US a...

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is an ubiquitous estuarine shellfish taxon in eastern North America and one of the most abundant materials available for radiocarbon (14 C) dating. We examine spatiotemporal variability in carbon reservoir effects among pre-bomb oysters from Apalachicola Bay, USA, a river-influenced estuary on the northern Gul...

Strombus alatus and Busycon sinistrum are large marine gastropods that are frequently recovered from archaeological contexts in southeastern North America. We previously proposed a reservoir age offset (ΔR) for B. sinistrum from the northern Gulf of Mexico region based on known-age pre-bomb 20th-century specimens. We also reported significant varia...

Beads manufactured from marine shells originating along the Pacific Coast have been found at numerous sites in the western United States. Because they were conveyed across substantial distances and widely exchanged during ethnographic times, researchers generally assume that shell beads were also traded prehistorically. By examining the spatial and...

Beads manufactured from marine shells originating along the Pacific Coast have been found at numerous sites in the western United States. Because they were conveyed across substantial distances and widely exchanged during ethnographic times, researchers generally assume that shell beads were also traded prehistorically. By examining the spatial and...

Analysis of the trace element chemistry of otoliths via Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has become common in fisheries-related work, allowing biologists to trace connectivity between habitats over the life cycles of fish. For archaeological specimens, elements from the outer edges of archaeological otoliths h...

Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA Isotopic evidence from animal hones deposited in urban contexts offers a landscape perspective into urban life, hinting at where animals lived before reaching their final resting place in the city. Here, we use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope evidence from cattle (Bos taurus) bones e...

Body dimensions of animal remains provide evidence for subsistence technologies, seasonality of hunting and fishing, and generalized resource stress. Studies that rely on reconstructed body dimensions of fishes rarely address the possibility of differential preservation or recovery, which may result in inaccurate representations of size classes. We...

This article presents radiocarbon data for known-age, pre-bomb marine gastropods, Busycon sinistrum and Strombus alatus, collected between AD 1924 and 1946 from nearshore environments of the Florida Panhandle, on the north¬ern Gulf of Mexico. Δ14C was measured in whole crushed juvenile specimens (n = 7) and terminal edges of adult specimens (n = 6)...

The goal of this interdisciplinary project was to examine seasonal aspects of Woodland settlement patterns and resource use on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico from the perspective of two Woodland-period archaeological sites. The sites are located on the Alabama coast near Mobile Bay. Very little research has been conducted in this area for...

Excavations at the Tibes ceremonial site over several field seasons produced an abundance of vertebrate and invertebrate faunal remains. We use data from the zooarchaeological analysis of these remains to address various aspects of subsistence practices at the site, including the human role in animal selection and transport to the site, change thro...