Prehistoric Man and His Environments

A Case Study in the Ozark Highland

1st Edition - May 10, 2014
Editors: W. Raymond Wood, R. Bruce McMillan
Language: English
Paperback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 0 7 3 0 - 8
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 2 0 7 3 - 4

Prehistoric Man and His Environments: A Case Study in the Ozark Highland offers a preliminary model for the paleoecology of the western Ozark Highland in Missouri for the last… Read more

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Prehistoric Man and His Environments: A Case Study in the Ozark Highland offers a preliminary model for the paleoecology of the western Ozark Highland in Missouri for the last 35,000 years and an interpretation of how humans have adapted to and exploited the area for the 10,500 years they are known to have lived there. The model, a set of hypotheses that includes a putative explanatory framework for the observations made at Ozark, is based on more than a decade of interdisciplinary fieldwork. Comprised of 14 chapters, this volume begins with a background on the interdisciplinary studies undertaken in the Pomme de Terre River Valley. The research has centered on the post-glacial deposits at the Rodgers Shelter and on five nearby spring bogs, each of which contained the bones of extinct mammals, pollen, and other material dating from late Pleistocene and early Holocene times. The archaeological investigations and subsequent analyses of these sites are discussed in detail. Sedimentary processes, changing subsistence patterns, material culture, and human burials at Rodgers Shelter are then analyzed. The final chapter describes the direction of research in the Ozark Highland, including plans to test aspects of the proposed model. This book will be of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, geologists, and botanists.

List of Contributors

Acknowledgments

I The Program

1 Interdisciplinary Studies in the Pomme de Terre River Valley

2 The Pomme de Terre Study Locality: Its Setting

Geography and Geology

Mineral Resources

Soils

Climate

Flora

Historical Models

Fauna

References

II Quaternary Environments

3 Late Quaternary Geology of the Lower Pomme de Terre Valley

Older Terrace Deposits

Intermediate Terrace Deposits

Floodplain Deposits

Summary and Conclusions

References

4 Late Quaternary Biotic Records from Spring Deposits in Western Missouri

Flora and Radiocarbon Dates

Fauna

Discussion and Summary

References

III The Question of Man's Antiquity

5 Man and Mastodon: A Review of Koch's 1840 Pomme de Terre Expeditions

The St. Louis Museum

Koch's Fossil Discoveries

The Osage Country

The Missouri Leviathan

An Evaluation

References

6 Archaeological Investigations at the Pomme de Terre Springs

Trolinger Spring

Boney Spring

Koch Spring

References

IV Man and his Environment

7 Rodgers Shelter: A Record of Cultural and Environmental Change

Physical Description

Excavation Strategies

Correlation of Levels

8 Sedimentary Processes at Rodgers Shelter

Analytical Procedures and Results

Rodgers Shelter Stratigraphy

References

9 Changing Subsistence Patterns at Rodgers Shelter

Plant Foods

Fauna

References

10 Material Culture at Rodgers Shelter: A Reflection of Past Human Activities

Functional Artifact Categories

Activities

References

11 Human Burials from Rodgers Shelter

Burial 1

Burial 2

Pathologies

Discussion

Conclusions

References

12 The Dynamics of Cultural and Environmental Change at Rodgers Shelter, Missouri

Analysis of Chronological Variation

Changing Patterns of Human Adaptation

Environmental Change and Cultural Adaptation

References

V Synopsis and Epilogue

13 A Summary of Environmental and Cultural Change in the Western Missouri Ozarks

14 Models in Western Missouri Paleoecology and Prehistory: The Future

Project Bibliography

VI Appendices

Appendix A Potential Food Plants of the Western Missouri Ozarks

Appendix B Forest Density and Nut Production Potential for the Rodgers Shelter Area

Index

Life Sciences

Physical Sciences & Engineering

Social Sciences & Humanities

Health

Prehistoric Man and His Environments

A Case Study in the Ozark Highland

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