Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pl... more Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene populations may be a result of increased left humeral robusticity due to muscle loading from increased use of bow hunting. This paper provides a basis for considering the causes of such changes by assessing the overall intensity and level of asymmetry in the distribution of muscle activation and muscle force among living male archers. In this experiment, 20 right-handed archers drew a replica of the self bows characteristic for the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic. We measured activation of eight muscles (biceps, triceps [long head], triceps [lateral head], deltoid [anterior part], deltoid [middle part], deltoid [posterior part], infraspinatus, and latissimus) using surface electromyography. We observed about a 15%–28% left bias in total maximum muscle force. The main muscles employed were triceps (lateral head), deltoid (middle part), and deltoid (posterior part) on both sides and triceps (long head) on the left arm. The most asymmetrical toward the right arm was the activation of biceps (123% right bias in mean muscle activation) and toward the left was triceps (long head) and triceps (lateral head) (70%–110% left bias in mean muscle activation). We conclude that left biased asymmetry in maximum muscle force produced during bow shooting may be responsible for the increase in robusticity of the left humerus and that the pattern of activation of specific individual muscles suggests that archery may be identifiable in the prehistoric record using skeletal features associated with muscle activity.
Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pl... more Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene populations may be a result of increased left humeral robusticity due to muscle loading from increased use of bow hunting. This paper provides a basis for considering the causes of such changes by assessing the overall intensity and level of asymmetry in the distribution of muscle activation and muscle force among living male archers. In this experiment, 20 right-handed archers drew a replica of the self bows characteristic for the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic. We measured activation of eight muscles (biceps, triceps [long head], triceps [lateral head], deltoid [anterior part], deltoid [middle part], deltoid [posterior part], infraspinatus, and latissimus) using surface electromyography. We observed about a 15%–28% left bias in total maximum muscle force. The main muscles employed were triceps (lateral head), deltoid (middle part), and deltoid (posterior part) on both sides and triceps (long head) on the left arm. The most asymmetrical toward the right arm was the activation of biceps (123% right bias in mean muscle activation) and toward the left was triceps (long head) and triceps (lateral head) (70%–110% left bias in mean muscle activation). We conclude that left biased asymmetry in maximum muscle force produced during bow shooting may be responsible for the increase in robusticity of the left humerus and that the pattern of activation of specific individual muscles suggests that archery may be identifiable in the prehistoric record using skeletal features associated with muscle activity.
Experimental grinding has been used to study the relationship between human humeral robusticity a... more Experimental grinding has been used to study the relationship between human humeral robusticity and cereal grinding in the early Holocene. However, such replication studies raise two questions regarding the robusticity of the results: whether female nonathletes used in previous research are sufficiently comparable to early agricultural females, and whether previous analysis of muscle activation of only four upper limb muscles is sufficient to capture the stress of cereal grinding on upper limb bones. We test the influence of both of these factors. Electromyographic activity of eight upper limb muscles was recorded during cereal grinding in an athletic sample of 10 female rowers and a nonathletic sample of 25 females and analyzed using both an eight- and four-muscle model. Athletes had lower activation than nonathletes in the majority of measured muscles, but most of these differences were non-significant. Furthermore, both athletes and nonathletes had lower muscle activation during ...
Abstract This paper takes a comparative approach to consider the role of storage technology in ea... more Abstract This paper takes a comparative approach to consider the role of storage technology in early agricultural communities in the Central European Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) in light of research in the US Southwest. In particular, it outlines likely technological and social factors underlying storage type and location, with particular consideration of surface versus underground storage, and visible versus private storage. Several interpretations of LBK patterns and how they might be evaluated derive from this comparison. In particular, some types of LBK longhouses may have had two storage areas at opposite ends, with grain stored at the back or northwest end of the house, and perhaps fodder in the front southeast end. In addition, the limited use of underground storage in the LBK implies stable and secure settlements composed of relatively autonomous households, though this pattern undoubtedly varied regionally and perhaps deteriorated over time. These conclusions are not intended as definitive, but rather as suggesting directions for further investigation of variation in space and time in the early Central European Neolithic.
implique l'accord avec les conditions générales d'utilisation (). Toute utilisation commerciale o... more implique l'accord avec les conditions générales d'utilisation (). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d'une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright. Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques
Abstract This paper proposes and tests the idea that a major change in technology associated with... more Abstract This paper proposes and tests the idea that a major change in technology associated with the grinding of cereals may account for changes in asymmetry in the upper arms of women in the Neolithic through Iron Age across a large area of Europe. It has been observed that bilateral asymmetry in humeral strength (i.e., polar section modulus) decreased to near zero in early agricultural females, but increased again during the Iron Age. These changes in asymmetry in females have been interpreted as the direct consequence of the adoption of the saddle quern at the start of the Neolithic and its subsequent replacement by the rotary quern in the Iron Age. To test the impact of these alternative cereal grinding methods, we tested the efficiency of saddle and rotary quern grinding with 16 female volunteers and the effect of grinding on muscle activity of the upper limb with 20 female volunteers. We used electromyography to measure muscle activity in the pectoralis , deltoideus , infraspinatus and triceps muscles and adjusted muscle activity for efficiency and muscle size. Saddle quern grinding was 4.3 times less efficient than rotary quern grinding and produced a significantly higher amount of coarse- and middle-grained flour but a significantly lower amount of very fine grained flour than rotary quern grinding. Saddle quern grinding showed symmetrical muscle activity in all four studied muscles, whereas rotary quern grinding yielded consistent directional asymmetry in a majority of muscles even during bimanual rotation. Saddle quern grinding required about twice as much muscle activity per kg of grain when adjusted for muscle size than rotary quern grinding. Our results support the view that saddle quern grinding may have played a major role in the decrease in directional asymmetry in humeral strength in early agricultural females and that the adoption of the rotary quern during the Iron Age may have increased humeral directional asymmetry mainly because of increased asymmetrical loading and the reduced time needed for grinding in favor of other manipulative tasks.
Rocek, Thomas R. 1998 Pithouses and Pueblos on Two Continents: Interpretations of Sedentism and M... more Rocek, Thomas R. 1998 Pithouses and Pueblos on Two Continents: Interpretations of Sedentism and Mobility in the Southwestern United States and Southwest Asia. In Seasonality and Sedentism: Archaeological Perspectives from Old and New World Sites, Thomas R. Rocek and Ofer Bar-Yosef (eds.). Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 199-216.
... Seasonality and sedentism: Archaeological perspectives from Old and New World sites. Post a C... more ... Seasonality and sedentism: Archaeological perspectives from Old and New World sites. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Rocek, Thomas R. Author: Bar-Yosef, Ofer. PUBLISHER: Peabody Museum of Archaeology ...
The pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the southwestern United States is widely viewed as a period ... more The pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the southwestern United States is widely viewed as a period combining increasing sedentism and agricultural dependence. This paper argues that sedentarization and degree of agricultural dependence need not be directly linked across the transition, and that two kinds of preservational biases influence the appearance of a linkage. First, sample size effects result from better archaeobotanical preservation at large, relatively sedentary pueblos, compared to pithouse settlements that are often smaller and less intensively occupied. Second, differences in storage technology increase the likelihood of carbonization of domesticates at pueblos. Quantitative paleoethno-botanical data from the Dunlap-Salazar pithouse site and Robinson site pueblo in south-central New Mexico illustrate these problems. Dunlap-Salazar has lower quantities of domesticates in its flotation samples than Robinson pueblo. When preservational differences are taken into account usin...
Several classes of data collected from Northern Black Mesa, Arizona, are used to identify seasona... more Several classes of data collected from Northern Black Mesa, Arizona, are used to identify seasonality among nineteenth- and twentieth-century Navajo sites. The data include informant accounts, site layout and composition, hogan doorway orientations, and terminal tree-ring condition from dendrochronological samples. While each class of data yields information regarding an aspect of site seasonality, analysis reveals that more than one kind of information is represented by the various data sources. Specifically, hogan doorway orientation and tree-ring seasonality provide mutually reinforcing evidence regarding season of site construction; other data relate to the season of site use. These results suggest refinements in the assessment of Navajo site seasonality, as well as providing more general information regarding the identification of site season in archaeological contexts. In addition, the recognition of the alternative seasonal information provided by the different kinds of data,...
... Page 8. 14 MEGHAN CL HOWEY AND THOMAS R. ROCEK 1983, 1987; Bronitsky and Hamer 1986; Feathers... more ... Page 8. 14 MEGHAN CL HOWEY AND THOMAS R. ROCEK 1983, 1987; Bronitsky and Hamer 1986; Feathers 1989; Schiffer and Skibo 1987; Schiffer et al. ... In this process, potters balance different "performance characteristics" of vessels (Schiffer and Skibo 1987:607). ...
Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pl... more Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene populations may be a result of increased left humeral robusticity due to muscle loading from increased use of bow hunting. This paper provides a basis for considering the causes of such changes by assessing the overall intensity and level of asymmetry in the distribution of muscle activation and muscle force among living male archers. In this experiment, 20 right-handed archers drew a replica of the self bows characteristic for the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic. We measured activation of eight muscles (biceps, triceps [long head], triceps [lateral head], deltoid [anterior part], deltoid [middle part], deltoid [posterior part], infraspinatus, and latissimus) using surface electromyography. We observed about a 15%–28% left bias in total maximum muscle force. The main muscles employed were triceps (lateral head), deltoid (middle part), and deltoid (posterior part) on both sides and triceps (long head) on the left arm. The most asymmetrical toward the right arm was the activation of biceps (123% right bias in mean muscle activation) and toward the left was triceps (long head) and triceps (lateral head) (70%–110% left bias in mean muscle activation). We conclude that left biased asymmetry in maximum muscle force produced during bow shooting may be responsible for the increase in robusticity of the left humerus and that the pattern of activation of specific individual muscles suggests that archery may be identifiable in the prehistoric record using skeletal features associated with muscle activity.
Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pl... more Previous research has suggested that reduced humeral asymmetry in robusticity in European Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene populations may be a result of increased left humeral robusticity due to muscle loading from increased use of bow hunting. This paper provides a basis for considering the causes of such changes by assessing the overall intensity and level of asymmetry in the distribution of muscle activation and muscle force among living male archers. In this experiment, 20 right-handed archers drew a replica of the self bows characteristic for the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic. We measured activation of eight muscles (biceps, triceps [long head], triceps [lateral head], deltoid [anterior part], deltoid [middle part], deltoid [posterior part], infraspinatus, and latissimus) using surface electromyography. We observed about a 15%–28% left bias in total maximum muscle force. The main muscles employed were triceps (lateral head), deltoid (middle part), and deltoid (posterior part) on both sides and triceps (long head) on the left arm. The most asymmetrical toward the right arm was the activation of biceps (123% right bias in mean muscle activation) and toward the left was triceps (long head) and triceps (lateral head) (70%–110% left bias in mean muscle activation). We conclude that left biased asymmetry in maximum muscle force produced during bow shooting may be responsible for the increase in robusticity of the left humerus and that the pattern of activation of specific individual muscles suggests that archery may be identifiable in the prehistoric record using skeletal features associated with muscle activity.
Experimental grinding has been used to study the relationship between human humeral robusticity a... more Experimental grinding has been used to study the relationship between human humeral robusticity and cereal grinding in the early Holocene. However, such replication studies raise two questions regarding the robusticity of the results: whether female nonathletes used in previous research are sufficiently comparable to early agricultural females, and whether previous analysis of muscle activation of only four upper limb muscles is sufficient to capture the stress of cereal grinding on upper limb bones. We test the influence of both of these factors. Electromyographic activity of eight upper limb muscles was recorded during cereal grinding in an athletic sample of 10 female rowers and a nonathletic sample of 25 females and analyzed using both an eight- and four-muscle model. Athletes had lower activation than nonathletes in the majority of measured muscles, but most of these differences were non-significant. Furthermore, both athletes and nonathletes had lower muscle activation during ...
Abstract This paper takes a comparative approach to consider the role of storage technology in ea... more Abstract This paper takes a comparative approach to consider the role of storage technology in early agricultural communities in the Central European Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) in light of research in the US Southwest. In particular, it outlines likely technological and social factors underlying storage type and location, with particular consideration of surface versus underground storage, and visible versus private storage. Several interpretations of LBK patterns and how they might be evaluated derive from this comparison. In particular, some types of LBK longhouses may have had two storage areas at opposite ends, with grain stored at the back or northwest end of the house, and perhaps fodder in the front southeast end. In addition, the limited use of underground storage in the LBK implies stable and secure settlements composed of relatively autonomous households, though this pattern undoubtedly varied regionally and perhaps deteriorated over time. These conclusions are not intended as definitive, but rather as suggesting directions for further investigation of variation in space and time in the early Central European Neolithic.
implique l'accord avec les conditions générales d'utilisation (). Toute utilisation commerciale o... more implique l'accord avec les conditions générales d'utilisation (). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d'une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright. Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques
Abstract This paper proposes and tests the idea that a major change in technology associated with... more Abstract This paper proposes and tests the idea that a major change in technology associated with the grinding of cereals may account for changes in asymmetry in the upper arms of women in the Neolithic through Iron Age across a large area of Europe. It has been observed that bilateral asymmetry in humeral strength (i.e., polar section modulus) decreased to near zero in early agricultural females, but increased again during the Iron Age. These changes in asymmetry in females have been interpreted as the direct consequence of the adoption of the saddle quern at the start of the Neolithic and its subsequent replacement by the rotary quern in the Iron Age. To test the impact of these alternative cereal grinding methods, we tested the efficiency of saddle and rotary quern grinding with 16 female volunteers and the effect of grinding on muscle activity of the upper limb with 20 female volunteers. We used electromyography to measure muscle activity in the pectoralis , deltoideus , infraspinatus and triceps muscles and adjusted muscle activity for efficiency and muscle size. Saddle quern grinding was 4.3 times less efficient than rotary quern grinding and produced a significantly higher amount of coarse- and middle-grained flour but a significantly lower amount of very fine grained flour than rotary quern grinding. Saddle quern grinding showed symmetrical muscle activity in all four studied muscles, whereas rotary quern grinding yielded consistent directional asymmetry in a majority of muscles even during bimanual rotation. Saddle quern grinding required about twice as much muscle activity per kg of grain when adjusted for muscle size than rotary quern grinding. Our results support the view that saddle quern grinding may have played a major role in the decrease in directional asymmetry in humeral strength in early agricultural females and that the adoption of the rotary quern during the Iron Age may have increased humeral directional asymmetry mainly because of increased asymmetrical loading and the reduced time needed for grinding in favor of other manipulative tasks.
Rocek, Thomas R. 1998 Pithouses and Pueblos on Two Continents: Interpretations of Sedentism and M... more Rocek, Thomas R. 1998 Pithouses and Pueblos on Two Continents: Interpretations of Sedentism and Mobility in the Southwestern United States and Southwest Asia. In Seasonality and Sedentism: Archaeological Perspectives from Old and New World Sites, Thomas R. Rocek and Ofer Bar-Yosef (eds.). Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 199-216.
... Seasonality and sedentism: Archaeological perspectives from Old and New World sites. Post a C... more ... Seasonality and sedentism: Archaeological perspectives from Old and New World sites. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Rocek, Thomas R. Author: Bar-Yosef, Ofer. PUBLISHER: Peabody Museum of Archaeology ...
The pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the southwestern United States is widely viewed as a period ... more The pithouse-to-pueblo transition in the southwestern United States is widely viewed as a period combining increasing sedentism and agricultural dependence. This paper argues that sedentarization and degree of agricultural dependence need not be directly linked across the transition, and that two kinds of preservational biases influence the appearance of a linkage. First, sample size effects result from better archaeobotanical preservation at large, relatively sedentary pueblos, compared to pithouse settlements that are often smaller and less intensively occupied. Second, differences in storage technology increase the likelihood of carbonization of domesticates at pueblos. Quantitative paleoethno-botanical data from the Dunlap-Salazar pithouse site and Robinson site pueblo in south-central New Mexico illustrate these problems. Dunlap-Salazar has lower quantities of domesticates in its flotation samples than Robinson pueblo. When preservational differences are taken into account usin...
Several classes of data collected from Northern Black Mesa, Arizona, are used to identify seasona... more Several classes of data collected from Northern Black Mesa, Arizona, are used to identify seasonality among nineteenth- and twentieth-century Navajo sites. The data include informant accounts, site layout and composition, hogan doorway orientations, and terminal tree-ring condition from dendrochronological samples. While each class of data yields information regarding an aspect of site seasonality, analysis reveals that more than one kind of information is represented by the various data sources. Specifically, hogan doorway orientation and tree-ring seasonality provide mutually reinforcing evidence regarding season of site construction; other data relate to the season of site use. These results suggest refinements in the assessment of Navajo site seasonality, as well as providing more general information regarding the identification of site season in archaeological contexts. In addition, the recognition of the alternative seasonal information provided by the different kinds of data,...
... Page 8. 14 MEGHAN CL HOWEY AND THOMAS R. ROCEK 1983, 1987; Bronitsky and Hamer 1986; Feathers... more ... Page 8. 14 MEGHAN CL HOWEY AND THOMAS R. ROCEK 1983, 1987; Bronitsky and Hamer 1986; Feathers 1989; Schiffer and Skibo 1987; Schiffer et al. ... In this process, potters balance different "performance characteristics" of vessels (Schiffer and Skibo 1987:607). ...
.. 5. Social archaeology ArizonaBlack Mesa (Navajo County and Apache County). ... Rocek examines the 150-year-old ethnohistorical and archaeological record of Navajo settlement on Black Mesa in northern Arizona. Rocek's study, the first of its kind, not only reveals a rich array of interacting factors that have helped to shape Navajo life during this period but also constructs a valuable case study in archaeological method and theory, certain to be useful to other researchers of nonurban societies.
Late Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers and Farmers of the Jornada Mogollon, 2018
Rocek, T. R., and N. Kenmotsu (eds.)
2018
Late Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers and Farmers of the... more Rocek, T. R., and N. Kenmotsu (eds.) 2018 Late Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers and Farmers of the Jornada Mogollon. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
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.. 5. Social archaeology ArizonaBlack Mesa (Navajo County and Apache County). ... Rocek examines the 150-year-old ethnohistorical and archaeological record of Navajo settlement on Black Mesa in northern Arizona. Rocek's study, the first of its kind, not only reveals a rich array of interacting factors that have helped to shape Navajo life during this period but also constructs a valuable case study in archaeological method and theory, certain to be useful to other researchers of nonurban societies.
2018
Late Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers and Farmers of the Jornada Mogollon. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.