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The End of an Era? Early Holocene Paleoindian Caribou Hunting in a Great Lakes Glacial Refugim
... Over the past decade, a series of papers has developed the claim that stone features on the submerged Alpena-Amberley Ridge (AAR) in Lake Huron provide unique insight into the Paleoindian caribou-hunting economies of the Great Lakes (e.g., Lemke 2015a; O'Shea 2017, 2019;O'Shea, Lemke, and Reynolds 2013;O'Shea and Meadows 2009;Sonnenburg, Lemke, and O'Shea 2015). The AAR, a narrow ridge that extends across the Huron basin, was exposed as dry land during portions of the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene, within the period 11,200-8300 cal yr BP (9900−7500 14 C yr BP) (Lemke and O'Shea 2019). It measures approximately 110 km long by an average of 15 km wide (Lemke and O'Shea 2017, 2). ...
... A decade of work on the AAR has produced a total of 17 pieces of chipped stone debris and a small scraper (Lemke 2015c;Lemke and O'Shea 2019). This assemblagethe large majority of which came from a single sitehas become an important part of the case for caribou-hunting behavior on the AAR: ...
A series of papers has developed the claim that stone features on the submerged Alpena-Amberley Ridge (AAR) in Lake Huron provides unique insight into the Paleoindian caribou-hunting economies of the Great Lakes. The documented human occupation of the AAR dates to the late Early Holocene (about 9000 calendar years ago): however, a time when glacial ice was far to the north and the region was occupied by hunting-gathering societies with ties to the western Great Plains and the deciduous forests of the Eastern Woodlands. Key elements of the caribou hunting scenario as presented are poorly explained, contradictory, and/or ecologically unsound. Ethnographic and archaeological data demonstrate the use of structures for hunting other kinds of large game, presenting possibilities for alternative explanations. Constructing a satisfying explanation of the AAR features will require expanding the scope of investigation to develop
and test multiple hypotheses that engage with the terrestrial archaeological record.
... The hunting architecture located beneath Lake Huron is similar to terrestrial known structures, such as those described above, and specifically those for targeting caribou. The AAR provides an ideal ecological niche for caribou at the end of the Pleistocene and human hunters took advantage of this narrow landform to construct drive lanes, hunting blinds, and other features to exploit these animals (Lemke and O'Shea 2019). Structures on the AAR vary in shape and size but can be categorized as either simple or complex (O'Shea 2015;O'Shea et al. 2014), the former representing small features such as caches or small hunting blinds, and the latter describing large structures that often incorporate numerous simple structures, resulting in large, complicated sites with associated drive lanes, hunting blinds, cul-du-sacs and other features (Fig. 6). ...
... For example, it can be determined that caribou hunting across the AAR 9,000 years ago was largely seasonally structured, with large, cooperative groups hunting in the spring, and smaller, likely family groups hunting using simpler structures in the fall. The number of animals targeted, as well as their state was variable across these seasons as well (see also Lemke and O'Shea 2019;O'Shea et al. 2014) and the formal nature of the structures can reveal detailed information concerning subsistence strategies and group cohesion and dispersal in the Early Holocene Great Lakes. ...
Built structures to aid hunting activities, such as drive lanes and hunting blinds, have been documented on every continent with the exception of Antarctica. This global phenomenon dates to at least 12,000 years ago and is found across time, space, environments, and cultures. While there is increasing study and documentation of such sites, they are prone to destruction and are not always recognized, resulting in a lack of large-scale comparative studies. However, this widespread pattern deserves greater attention as it can reveal unique facets of social and economic life, particularly in the context of hunter-gatherer societies. Such constructions are literal niche construction, created to increase the yield and predictability of wild animal resources. They represent an investment in the landscape, organization of communal labor, a detailed knowledge of animal behavior, all the while creating socioeconomic tensions concerning permanent facilities and who owns them and the resources they generate among otherwise egalitarian populations. This paper presents a global overview of such features, and the anthropological theory and archaeological method to systematically study such sites. This methodology will be applied to a brief case study, analyzing some of the oldest hunting architecture on the planet, those submerged beneath Lake Huron.
... Although this once "nascent discipline" (Franzén and Barkman 1972;Gusick and Faught 2011) has grown from its shipwreck-focused beginnings (Bass 1966(Bass , 1967Throckmorton 1970) to a thriving subfield yielding data that contributes to a vast array of major questions within the anthropological discipline (e.g., Astrup et al. 2019;Bailey and Flemming 2008;Benjamin et al. 2011;Clausen et al. 1979;Easton 1993;Evans, Flatman, and Flemming 2014;Faught 1996Faught , 2004Faught and Donoghue 1997;Fedje and Christensen 1999;Fedje and Josenhans 2000;Fischer 1995;Ford 2011;Gagliano et al. 1982;Garrison 2000;Geddes, Guilaine, and Monaco 1983;Gifford 1983;Halligan et al. 2016;Josenhans et al. 1995Josenhans et al. , 1997Lemke and O'Shea 2019;Masters 1983;Masters and Flemming 1983;Sakellariou and Galanidou 2016;Stright 1990Stright , 1995, the "epistemological orientation of archaeology to terra firma" (Easton 1992, 35) remains prevalent in broader archaeological practice and acts to marginalize those data gathered from submerged landscapes. ...
... While broader acceptance has lagged in the United States, the importance of the MCL concept and the submerged data that are integral to their study are gaining more widespread acceptance within both academia and industry. This is in no small part due to the efforts of numerous researchers who have worked to make data from submerged landscapes available and relevant to the broader archaeological discipline (e.g., Adovasio andHemmings 2009, 2010;Bailey and Parkington 1988;Bickel 1978;CEI 1977;Clausen et al. 1979;Clausen, Brooks, and Wesolowsky 1975;Dunbar et al. 1992;Evans, Flatman, and Flemming 2014;Faught 1996Faught , 2002Faught , 2004Hoyt, Kraft, and Chrzastowski 1990;Johnson and Stright 1991;Lemke and O'Shea 2019;Masters 1983Masters , 1985Masters , 1996Masters , 1998Masters and Flemming 1983;Pearson et al. 1986;Pearson, Weinstein, and Kelley 1989;Stright 1986Stright , 1990Stright , 1995Watts, Fulfrost, and Erlandson 2011;Webb 2006). Since Westerdahl's (1992) initial description of the MCL model, archaeologists' interpretation of the concept has broadened to one that includes multiple perspectives and use in both historic and precontact studies of culture (e.g., Carvalho, Bettencourt, and Coelho 2016;Duncan 2006;Ford 2011;Kennedy 2010;Lira 2017;Parker 2001;Tuddenham 2010;Westerdahl 2003). ...
Defining a maritime cultural landscape relies on recognizing both the landscape and seascape as integral to maritime societies. While this concept has been part of anthropological studies for decades, data from the submerged portion of the maritime landscape is often overlooked. The maritime archaeological work needed to collect these data has historically been marginalized within the broader archaeological discipline, but is slowly gaining widespread acceptance. More island and coastal researchers have begun integrating land- and sea-based data into their project designs, promoting recognition of the importance of sea-based data from submerged landscapes and encouraging understanding that maritime cultural landscapes shaped and are shaped by maritime societies. Among the many maritime cultural landscapes worldwide, we present two examples from California that exemplify how researchers are conceptualizing maritime landscapes and gathering data necessary for a holistic view of maritime societies and the spaces that influence their cultural development.
... 10,000-8,000 BP, a large swath of land was exposed in the Lake Huron Basin that linked modern-day Michigan with Ontario (Lewis 2016;Lewis et al. 2007). The same area is now part of a submerged paleolandscape and since 2008, O'Shea and his team have been conducting underwater archaeological research in Lake Huron to investigate human occupation in the area (Lemke and O'Shea 2019;O'Shea and Meadows 2009;O'Shea et al. 2014). ...
Archaeometric techniques are used in every facet of modern archaeology: from site discovery to laboratory analysis. The increased incorporation and adaptation of various technologies and their scientific applications has resulted in new lines of evidence for understanding past behavior. However, the rapid ascent of new techniques into archaeological science has also resulted in a multitude of issues related to technique accessibility and/or applicability, measures of quality control, and use and interpretation of resultant data. One way to mitigate these issues is through increased inter-laboratory collaborations. Generally speaking, most inter-laboratory studies are conducted to illustrate the reproducibility and replicability of results between instruments/facilities, while overlooking how these types of collaborations can bolster archaeological research and refine results through multiple discrete analyses. After briefly discussing the history of science in archaeology, this paper will present a case study featuring an inter-laboratory collaboration between three archaeological science facilities in the United
States to study obsidian recovered from a submerged early Holocene site in Lake Huron. This collaboration allowed for the determination that the obsidian originated from a geologic source in Oregon located over 4,000km away. The results highlight
both the need and the significance of collaborative archaeological science.
... Systematic research on the AAR has revealed numerous stone-constructed hunting sites, artifacts, and paleoenvironmental data (e.g. Lemke 2022; Lemke and O'Shea 2019;O'Shea et al. 2014O'Shea et al. , 2021Sonnenburg, Lemke, and O'Shea 2015;Sonnenburg and O'Shea 2017). ...
The archaeology of inundated cultural landscape sites is not new and is an important component of the global record, yet these sites are distinct from shipwrecks and other site types underwater. Just as on land, underwater sites are subject to a dynamic range of formation processes, which must be analytically controlled. However, there are lingering misconceptions about underwater sites, specifically how they are formed, how much has been preserved, and their contribution to the broader field of archaeology. This paper discusses issues of preservation, context, and formation processes using misunderstandings of the Pompeii premise in underwater research as a conceptual guide. Ultimately acknowledging that, just as on land, archaeological sites underwater are diverse and unique, with site-specific pre- and post-depositional transformations. Different sites supplement each other, and the unique preservation underwater makes them a particularly valuable complement to the terrestrial record and a vital part of world archaeology.
It is widely accepted that caribou were an important resource for Paleoindian economies and lifeways in northeastern North America. The existence of large aggregation sites, such as Bull Brook, further suggests that hunters employed mass capture communal hunting methods for caribou exploitation during their seasonal migrations. As zooarchaeological remains are scarce in this region of acidic soils, site interpretations must often rely on historic or ethnographic analogs to determine the seasonality of these hunts, and on this basis, often predict that communal hunting of caribou took place in the fall. In contrast, new data from underwater sites in Lake Huron provide empirical archaeological evidence for communal hunting and social aggregation in the spring. It is suggested that this divergent pattern of seasonal exploitation is due to distinct paleoenvironment and larger populations of caribou at the end of the Pleistocene – resulting in unique hunting and social strategies seen only in the past.
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