D K Grayson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1237 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D K Grayson |
| GIVEN NAMES | D K |
| FAMILY NAME | Grayson |
| SIGNATURE | GRAYSON D K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9547-6268 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 61 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1581 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 61 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 21 |
Explaining Pleistocene Extinctions
Overkill and the North American archaeological record—not guilty by association? A comment on Wolfe and Broughton (2020)
Early human dispersals within the Americas
Complex processes in the settling of the Americas The expansion into the Americas by the ancestors of present day Native Americans has been difficult to tease apart from analyses of present day populations. To understand how humans diverged and spread across North and South America, Moreno-Mayar et al. sequenced 15 ancient human genomes from Alaska to Patagonia. Analysis of the oldest genomes suggests that there was an early split within Beringia…
Sex and Death on the Western Emigrant Trail
"During the winter of 1846-1847, members of the Donner Party found themselves stuck in the snows of the Sierra Nevada on their journey to California, losing many in their group to severe cold and starvation. Those who survived did so by cannibalizing their dead comrades. Today the Donner Party may be the most famous group of American overland emigrants to struggle through life-threatening conditions, but it is not the only one. Ten years after th…
Were Hominins in California ∼130,000 Years Ago
In a controversial study published in Nature, Holen et al. (2017) claim that hominins fractured mastodon bones and teeth with stone cobbles in California ∼130,000 years ago. Their claim implies a human colonization of the New World more than 110,000 years earlier than the oldest widely accepted archaeological sites in the Americas. It is also at odds with genetic and fossil evidence for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) o…
Giant Sloths and Sabertooth Cats
As the Ice Age came to an end, North America lost a stunning variety of animals. Mammoths, mastodon, llamas, ground-dwelling sloths the size of elephants, beavers the size of bears, pronghorn antelope the size of poodles, and carnivores to chase them--sabertooth cats, dire wolves, American lions and cheetahs; these and many more were gone by 10,000 years ago. Giant Sloths and Sabertooth Cats surveys all these animals, with a particular focus on t…
Revisiting Paleoindian exploitation of extinct North American mammals
Obituary
The Great Basin
Covering a large swath of the American West, the Great Basin, centered in Nevada and including parts of California, Utah, and Oregon, is named for the unusual fact that none of its rivers or streams flow into the sea. This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Fl…
Middle-Holocene climates and human population densities in the Great Basin, western USA
Much of western North America saw higher temperatures and lower precipitation during the middle Holocene. The Great Basin became much drier and warmer than it is today, causing major shifts in lake levels, treelines, plant community composition, and vertebrate distributions and abundances. To assess the impact of climate change on middle-Holocene human population densities in this region, we examine the frequency structures of radiocarbon-dated a…
A Dialogue with Don Dumond
Don Dumond is one of the leading figures of American archaeology. Here, and with his active assistance, I explore his long, productive, and continuing saga. Together we trace his youth, his military career and remarkable marriage and then move on to an exploration of the formation of his areas of expertise in the archaeology of Mesoamerica and Alaska and his fruitful interest in human demography
Bibliography of Don E. Dumond
Bibliography of Don E. Dumond Donald K. Grayson and Roger K. Harritt This list is current as of June 2010. Publications that Dumond co-authored and which show him as the first author are indicated by an “and,” while the word “with” is used to identify those publications where he was a second or third author. Omitted are reviews, notes, and unpublished monographic research reports. 1957 Eater of Dust. New Mexico Quarterly 27(12):56–66. 1961 Swidde…
The large mammals of Roc de Combe (Lot, France)
Being John Yellen
"Comment on "Redefining the Age of Clovis
Waters and Stafford (Reports, 23 February 2007, p. 1122) provided useful information about the age of some Clovis sites but have not definitively established the temporal span of this cultural complex in the Americas. Only a continuing program of radiometric dating and careful stratigraphic correlations can address the lingering ambiguity about the emergence and spread of Clovis culture.
Deciphering North American Pleistocene Extinctions
The debate over the cause of North American Pleistocene extinctions may be further from resolution than it has ever been in its 200-year history and is certainly more heated than it has ever been before. Here, I suggest that the reason for this may lie in the fact that paleontologists have not heeded one of the key biogeographic concepts that they themselves helped to establish: that histories of assemblages of species can be understood only be d…
Holocene bison in the Great Basin, western USA
Bison (Bison bison) were widespread in the eastern and northern parts of the Great Basin (the area of internal drainage in the arid western USA) during the late Holocene, particularly after 1600 14
Measuring Skeletal Part Representation in Archaeological Faunas
Rural financial counsellors play an important role by recognising signs of distress in farmers and referring them to appropriate psychological supports. However, this is a demanding role and ensuring counsellors have appropriate services to refer farmers to, and support with their own well-being, is imperative
Ungulates and the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition at Grotte XVI (Dordogne, France)
A requiem for North American overkill
North American overkill continued
Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction
Specialized Early Upper Palaeolithic Hunters in Southwestern France
Explaining the Development of Dietary Dominance by a Single Ungulate Taxon at Grotte XVI, Dordogne, France
The Archaeological Record of Human Impacts on Animal Populations
The Archaeological Record of Human Impacts on Animal Populations
A requiem for North American overkill
Changing Diet Breadth in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Southwestern France
Specialized Early Upper Palaeolithic Hunters in Southwestern France
Ungulates and the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition at Grotte XVI (Dordogne, France)
Alpine faunas from the White Mountains, California
On the Pleistocene Antiquity of Monte Verde, Southern Chile
The potential importance of the Monte Verde site for the peopling of the New World prompted a detailed examination of the collections from that locality, as well as a site visit in January 1997 by a group of Paleoindian specialists. It is the consensus of that group that the MV-II occupation at the site is both archaeological and 12,500 years old, as T. Dillehay has argued. The status of the potentially even older material at the site (MV-1, ∼ 33…
Explaining the Development of Dietary Dominance by a Single Ungulate Taxon at Grotte XVI, Dordogne, France
Revisiting Paleoindian exploitation of extinct North American mammals
Measuring Skeletal Part Representation in Archaeological Faunas
Rural financial counsellors play an important role by recognising signs of distress in farmers and referring them to appropriate psychological supports. However, this is a demanding role and ensuring counsellors have appropriate services to refer farmers to, and support with their own well-being, is imperative
Bone transport, bone destruction, and reverse utility curves
The Great Basin
Covering a large swath of the American West, the Great Basin, centered in Nevada and including parts of California, Utah, and Oregon, is named for the unusual fact that none of its rivers or streams flow into the sea. This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Fl…
Late Pleistocene mammalian extinctions in North America
Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction
Diet Breadth, Adaptive Change, and the White Mountains Faunas
Stone Tool Assemblage Richness during the Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic in France
The effects of sample size on some derived measures in vertebrate faunal analysis
On the Methodology of Faunal Analysis
Although faunal analysis has a long history in archaeological studies, little emphasis has been placed upon the development of methodologies which would allow the valid and reliable analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites. The most crucial decision which a faunal analyst must make as regards the statistical manipulation of his data concerns the proper unit to use in that manipulation. The 2 units which seem to have gained most popula…
The Evidence for Middle Palaeolithic Scavenging from Couche VIII, Grotte Vaufrey (Dordogne, France)
Minimum Numbers and Sample Size in Vertebrate Faunal Analysis
Of the measures currently available for quantifying the abundance of taxa within archaeological and paleontological vertebrate faunas, the minimum number of individuals per taxon is most frequently employed. This paper explores the relationship between the minimum number of individuals (MNI) calculated for a given taxon and the number of specimens (E) from which these values were calculated. Several approaches for controlling for the complex inte…
North American overkill continued
Terminological problems in quantitative faunal analysis
The present state of terminology in quantitative faunal analysis is chaotic. New terms are continually being introduced which are redundant, contradictory, and/or inadequately defined. This situation is most clearly brought out in the examples presented and in the table of abbreviations which accompanies the text. Suggestions are put forward for correcting these problems and it is argued that adoption of this or a similar system will greatly faci…
Were Hominins in California ∼130,000 Years Ago
In a controversial study published in Nature, Holen et al. (2017) claim that hominins fractured mastodon bones and teeth with stone cobbles in California ∼130,000 years ago. Their claim implies a human colonization of the New World more than 110,000 years earlier than the oldest widely accepted archaeological sites in the Americas. It is also at odds with genetic and fossil evidence for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) o…
Biostratigraphie et paléoenvironnements du début du Würm récent d'après les grands mammifères de l'Abri du Flageolet I (Dordogne, France) / Biostratigraphy and paleoenvironments at the onset of the re…
L'étude des grands mammifères représentés dans le gisement aurignacien et périgordien du Flageolet I a été menée dans le but de préciser la biostratigraphie et les paléoenvironnements du début du Wiirm récent dans la région concernée. Ce travail se divise en trois parties, la première vise à caractériser les taxons présents. Les carnivores sont assez nombreux ( 9 taxons différents) mais peu abondants : le nombre de leurs vestiges ne représente qu…
Giant Sloths and Sabertooth Cats
As the Ice Age came to an end, North America lost a stunning variety of animals. Mammoths, mastodon, llamas, ground-dwelling sloths the size of elephants, beavers the size of bears, pronghorn antelope the size of poodles, and carnivores to chase them--sabertooth cats, dire wolves, American lions and cheetahs; these and many more were gone by 10,000 years ago. Giant Sloths and Sabertooth Cats surveys all these animals, with a particular focus on t…
Human Life vs. Science
Statistical Inference and Northeastern Adena
Ritchie and Dragoo's hypothesis concerning Adena migration into the northeastern United States is examined and found lacking because of sample characteristics. An alternative, probabilistic explanation for the index pattern which they found is offered, and it is suggested that data on northeastern Adena are too scanty to allow any type of valid statistical analysis
On the Methodology of Faunal Analysis
Although faunal analysis has a long history in archaeological studies, little emphasis has been placed upon the development of methodologies which would allow the valid and reliable analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites. The most crucial decision which a faunal analyst must make as regards the statistical manipulation of his data concerns the proper unit to use in that manipulation. The 2 units which seem to have gained most popula…
A Review of the Evidence for Early Holocene Turkeys in the Northern Great Basin
Faunal remains recovered from the lower levels of the Connley Caves (south central Oregon) in the late 1960’s were attributed to turkey ( Meleagris gallopavo ), thus implying a major prehistoric range extension for this bird. Reanalysis of the Connley Caves avifauna demonstrates that this material should have been assigned to sage grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ), and that the original investigators erred by confusing sexual dimorphism with t…
Terminological problems in quantitative faunal analysis
The present state of terminology in quantitative faunal analysis is chaotic. New terms are continually being introduced which are redundant, contradictory, and/or inadequately defined. This situation is most clearly brought out in the examples presented and in the table of abbreviations which accompanies the text. Suggestions are put forward for correcting these problems and it is argued that adoption of this or a similar system will greatly faci…
News and Short Contributions
Minimum Numbers and Sample Size in Vertebrate Faunal Analysis
Of the measures currently available for quantifying the abundance of taxa within archaeological and paleontological vertebrate faunas, the minimum number of individuals per taxon is most frequently employed. This paper explores the relationship between the minimum number of individuals (MNI) calculated for a given taxon and the number of specimens (E) from which these values were calculated. Several approaches for controlling for the complex inte…
Significance' in Contract Archaeology
Significance' is evaluated from the perspective of federal agency land management practices and compared with the perspective of significance as a measure of research value
The effects of sample size on some derived measures in vertebrate faunal analysis
Archeology
Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology
The Basic Counting Units
Taxonomic Richness, Diversity, and Assemblage Size
Archaeological associations with extinct pleistocene mammals in North America
An Analysis of the Chronology of Late Pleistocene Mammalian Extinctions in North America
Some 35 genera of mammals became extinct in North America as the Pleistocene came to an end. Current attempts to explain those extinctions generally assume that all of the losses took place between 12,000 and 10,000 yr B.P., even though 13 of the 35 genera lack radiocarbon dates of reasonable validity that would place them in this 2000-yr period. Analyses of the structure of the radiocarbon chronology available for the extinct taxa suggest that s…
Quantitative Zooarchaeology
Discusses the problems involved in the quantification of bones and teeth from archaeological and paleontological sites. The text deals with the units that are routinely used to measure the abundances of the animals that contributed their remains to produce a given faunal assemblage. The ways in which faunal analysis can detect, and perhaps avoid, the aberrations that characterize those measurements are examined. -- AATA
Bone transport, bone destruction, and reverse utility curves
The chronology of North American late pleistocene extinctions
Donner Party Deaths
During the summer of 1846, the 87 members of the Donner Party travelled an untested route between Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and the Humboldt River, Nevada. As a result of delays caused by this choice, they became stranded by heavy snows on the east flank of the Sierra Nevada. By the time the last member of the party was rescued, 40 had died. Analysis of the pattern of deaths among the Donners shows that survivorship within the party was mediated alm…
Alpine faunas from the White Mountains, California
Late Pleistocene mammalian extinctions in North America
Differential mortality and the Donner Party disaster
The story of the Donner Party combines powerful American themes. The beginning of the tale is immersed in the romance of the western frontier and in the American dream of improving life by taking bold steps. The end of the tale, in contrast, is awash in death and cannibalism. No wonder Americans learn the story as children; no Grimm's fairy tale can match it. However, detailed analyses of the patterning of Donner Party deaths suggest that the sto…
Diet Breadth, Adaptive Change, and the White Mountains Faunas
The Desert's Past
The Evidence for Middle Palaeolithic Scavenging from Couche VIII, Grotte Vaufrey (Dordogne, France)
Geography (50 works) · Archaeology (44 works) · Biology (32 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (32 works) · Paleontology (27 works) · Evolution and Paleontology Studies (23 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (21 works) · Ecology (21 works) · Geology (21 works) · History (21 works)