R H Towner
Biographic Data
| ID | 3932 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R H Towner |
| GIVEN NAMES | R H |
| FAMILY NAME | Towner |
| SIGNATURE | TOWNER R H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4811-734X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 71 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
In MemoriamWilliam J. Robinson 1929–2021
Traversing the Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains
Wiggle-Matched Red Cedar from a Pre-Monumental Occupation at Kincaid Mounds, Illinois, USA
Wiggle-matched 14C dates anchored an 82-year floating cedar tree-ring chronology from the basal layer of a Mississippian Period mound to AD 1170 ± 9 (1σ) (outermost ring). Although numerical cross-matching showed preference for a temporal placement consistent with the 14C dates and visual matching, statistical scores were below critical thresholds for annual crossdating. Sapwood-corrected terminus post quem dates for the material, and their strat…
Culturally Modified Trees
Modification of forest trees can occur from a variety of factors. Both cultural and natural processes can injure trees and many injuries can be dated dendrochronologically. Distinguishing between types of injuries, however, is important for understanding past human land-use practices and delineating different activities or processes that impact the forest. In the Zuni Mountains of New Mexico, USA, we have identified trees intentionally peeled for…
The Curious Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga Menziesii) Trees in Schulman Grove, Mesa Verde National Park, Southwestern Colorado, USA
In 1954, archaeologists James Allen Lancaster and Don Watson and dendrochronologist Edmund Schulman asserted that a small grove of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirbel] Franco var. glauca [Beissener] Franco) trees in Navajo Canyon on the west side of Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park contained evidence of stone-axe-cut tree limbs. In 1965, archaeologists Robert Nichols and David Smith published an article entitled 'Evidence of Prehist…
Navajo Archaeology
The dominant anthropological and archaeological narrative of “Navajo” culture is that upon entering the northwestern New Mexico in the sixteenth century, bands of Athapaskan hunter-gatherers began an acculturative process that led them to adopt and assimilate Pueblo, Spanish, Mexican, and American cultural institutions. The anthropological and archaeological concept “Navajo,” created through Western scholarship by non-Diné, does not align with Di…
Bryant Bannister
This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected].
Arboreal archaeology and early Navajo land use
Slash and Trash
Early Navajo land use in northwestern New Mexico
Big Bead Mesa (LA 12351) is the most famous Navajo archaeological site ever investigated and has played an important role in the interpretation of Navajo culture history. It remains a sacred place to the Navajo, both for historical and spiritual reasons. Pioneering work by Dorothy L. Keur resulted in the publication of the first Society for American Archaeology Memoir and brought Navajo archaeology national recognition. James Hester used Big Bead…
Collecting and Caring for Tree-Ring Samples in the Southwest
Dendrochronology is the most precise and accurate dating technique available to archaeologists, with resolution to the year and sometimes season. As biological specimens from human-produced contexts, dendroarchaeological samples inherently contain three kinds of information: chronological, behavioral, and environmental. The purpose of this short article is to educate archaeologists on how to avoid degrading any of these three types of information…
Cambium-Peeled Trees in the Zuni Mountains, New Mexico
Cambium-peeled trees are relatively common in ponderosa pine forests of the Intermountain West. Found from British Columbia to southern New Mexico, cambium-peeled trees have been interpreted as (a) a response to famine conditions related to climatic variations, (b) a response to conflict-related food shortages and scheduling issues, (c) a sweet or delicacy, and (d) a medicinal product used to treat various internal and external ailments. This pap…
Reflections On the Foundation, Persistence, and Growth of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Circa 1930–1960
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, it is appropriate to reflect on the origin of the LTRR and the oft overlooked early period of its history. The period from the “Bridging the gap” event in 1929 to the semi-retirement of A.E. Douglass in 1958 was a crucial time in the development of the LTRR. Although this paper focuses on the history of the LTRR between those events, at points the history of the LTRR…
Early Navajo Archaeology on McKean Mesa, Denétah
The early-eighteenth-century Navajo occupation of Dinétah in northwestern New Mexico has been the subject of research for almost one hundred years. Dinétah Navajos built a plethora of structure types, including forked-pole hogans, sweat-lodges, and masonry pueblitos. Using data from an intensive survey and tree-ring sampling project around McKean Pueblito and data from other block surveys, this research expands on the efforts to delineate aspects…
Historical Dendroarchaeology in the EI Malpais Area
Assessing the Importance of Past Human Behavior in Dendroarchaeological Research
Dendroarchaeological samples can contain three kinds of information: chronological, behavioral, and environmental. The decisions of past people regarding species selection, beam size, procurement and modification techniques, deadwood use, and stockpiling are the most critical factors influencing an archaeological date distribution. Using dendrochronological samples from prehistoric and historic period sites in the same area of eastern Utah, this …
The Navajo Depopulation of Dinétah
The ancestral heartland of the Navajo people (Diné) is Dinétah, an area of northwestern New Mexico centered around the Largo and Gobernador drainages. The date of the Navajo entry into the area remains the subject of debate, but there is abundant evidence of an intensive and extensive Navajo occupation of the area in the 1500s-1700s. There is also ample evidence that the area was depopulated, if not abandoned, by the 1770s. Traditionally, the Nav…
Understanding Dating Applications
A recent critique (Espenshade, 2004) of an application of luminescence dating in New Mexico represents a misreading of the original work and a misunderstanding of how dates should be interpreted in archaeology. It is well known that the dating event (what is actually being dated) and the target event (what one wants to date) can differ. This difference accounts for the discrepancies noted in the New Mexico study and also makes problematic Espensh…
Editor's Page
"Editor's Page." KIVA, 67(3), p. 229
Archeological dendrochronology in the southwestern united states
Dendrochronology, the science of tree‐ring dating, is the most accurate and precise nondocumentary dating method available to researchers studying the recent past. Tree‐ring dates are accurate and precise to the year and sometimes the season, and have no associated statistical uncertainty or standard error. Other prominent archeological dating techniques that use natural materials (for example, radiocarbon and archeomagnetism) have been calibrate…
Correspondence in Tree-Ring and Thermoluminescence Dating
Dating of early Navajo residence and special use sites, ca. A.D. 1500-1775, has been hampered by a lack of datable materials and poor precision in radiocarbon results. Methods described in this paper use materials ubiquitous at early Navajo sites in northwestern New Mexico and employ a dual strategy involving tree-ring dating of nonarchitectural wood and thermoluminescence assay of ceramics and burned rock. Comparison of samples obtained from a n…
The Dendrochronology of Palluche Canyon, Dinétah
The ancestral Navajo homeland of Dinétah in northwestern New Mexico contains hundreds, if not thousands, of Navajo archaeological sites that date from the A.D. 1500S through the late 1700s. A subset of these sites, known as pueblitos, are masonry structures located in defensible positions on boulder tops, mesa rims, and other topographically isolated settings. This paper presents dendrochronological data from the newly discovered site of Twine Ho…
Editor's Page
"Editor's Page." KIVA, 65(1), p. 5
Editor's Page
"Editor's Page." KIVA, 64(3), p. 309
The Garden Canyon Project
This report presents the results of rock art recording and analysis, and archaeological test excavations in two small rockshelters on the Fort Huachuca military reservation in southeastern Arizona. The sites were investigated as part of the Legacy Resource Management Program Demonstration Project #21 under the auspices of the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District. The Garden Canyon Pictograph Site (AA E…
Projectile Point Rejuvenation
This paper presents the results of the experimental production, use, and rejuvenation of 30 projectile points. Breakage patterns and morphological change of points resulting from rejuvenation are documented. The debitage produced during each stage of the experiment was examined from a technological perspective and assessed in terms of its archaeological visibility. The assemblages resulting from point production and rejuvenation are quite differe…
Dating in Exposed and Surface Contexts
Correspondence in Tree-Ring and Thermoluminescence Dating
Dating of early Navajo residence and special use sites, ca. A.D. 1500-1775, has been hampered by a lack of datable materials and poor precision in radiocarbon results. Methods described in this paper use materials ubiquitous at early Navajo sites in northwestern New Mexico and employ a dual strategy involving tree-ring dating of nonarchitectural wood and thermoluminescence assay of ceramics and burned rock. Comparison of samples obtained from a n…
La 2298
Tree-ring dates from Tapacito Ruin (LA 2298), the earliest securely dated Navajo pueblito, have played a central role in the interpretation of the Gobernador phase of Navajo history. Although previous research provided general parameters for the site occupation, the lack of provenience data for many of the tree-ring specimens left several questions unanswered. Research conducted in 1990 confirms the early occupation of the pueblito and offers sug…
The Navajo Depopulation of Dinétah
The ancestral heartland of the Navajo people (Diné) is Dinétah, an area of northwestern New Mexico centered around the Largo and Gobernador drainages. The date of the Navajo entry into the area remains the subject of debate, but there is abundant evidence of an intensive and extensive Navajo occupation of the area in the 1500s-1700s. There is also ample evidence that the area was depopulated, if not abandoned, by the 1770s. Traditionally, the Nav…
Collecting and Caring for Tree-Ring Samples in the Southwest
Dendrochronology is the most precise and accurate dating technique available to archaeologists, with resolution to the year and sometimes season. As biological specimens from human-produced contexts, dendroarchaeological samples inherently contain three kinds of information: chronological, behavioral, and environmental. The purpose of this short article is to educate archaeologists on how to avoid degrading any of these three types of information…
Arboreal archaeology and early Navajo land use
Early Navajo Archaeology on McKean Mesa, Denétah
The early-eighteenth-century Navajo occupation of Dinétah in northwestern New Mexico has been the subject of research for almost one hundred years. Dinétah Navajos built a plethora of structure types, including forked-pole hogans, sweat-lodges, and masonry pueblitos. Using data from an intensive survey and tree-ring sampling project around McKean Pueblito and data from other block surveys, this research expands on the efforts to delineate aspects…
Historical Dendroarchaeology in the EI Malpais Area
The Dendrochronology of Palluche Canyon, Dinétah
The ancestral Navajo homeland of Dinétah in northwestern New Mexico contains hundreds, if not thousands, of Navajo archaeological sites that date from the A.D. 1500S through the late 1700s. A subset of these sites, known as pueblitos, are masonry structures located in defensible positions on boulder tops, mesa rims, and other topographically isolated settings. This paper presents dendrochronological data from the newly discovered site of Twine Ho…
Archaeological Chronometry
where change is gradual and continuous, moving from relatively simple to more complex. In fact, recent research demonstrates that this was not the case. A new discussion on possible cannibalism among the Anasazi also is treated in descriptive terms. An anthropological perspective, particularly important when discussing such a sensitive topic, is largely missing. Chapter 9 examines the post-archaic of eastern Colorado, beginning with a discussion …
The Garden Canyon Project
This report presents the results of rock art recording and analysis, and archaeological test excavations in two small rockshelters on the Fort Huachuca military reservation in southeastern Arizona. The sites were investigated as part of the Legacy Resource Management Program Demonstration Project #21 under the auspices of the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District. The Garden Canyon Pictograph Site (AA E…
Early Navajo land use in northwestern New Mexico
Big Bead Mesa (LA 12351) is the most famous Navajo archaeological site ever investigated and has played an important role in the interpretation of Navajo culture history. It remains a sacred place to the Navajo, both for historical and spiritual reasons. Pioneering work by Dorothy L. Keur resulted in the publication of the first Society for American Archaeology Memoir and brought Navajo archaeology national recognition. James Hester used Big Bead…
Projectile Point Rejuvenation
This paper presents the results of the experimental production, use, and rejuvenation of 30 projectile points. Breakage patterns and morphological change of points resulting from rejuvenation are documented. The debitage produced during each stage of the experiment was examined from a technological perspective and assessed in terms of its archaeological visibility. The assemblages resulting from point production and rejuvenation are quite differe…
La 2298
Tree-ring dates from Tapacito Ruin (LA 2298), the earliest securely dated Navajo pueblito, have played a central role in the interpretation of the Gobernador phase of Navajo history. Although previous research provided general parameters for the site occupation, the lack of provenience data for many of the tree-ring specimens left several questions unanswered. Research conducted in 1990 confirms the early occupation of the pueblito and offers sug…
President's Page
Dating in Exposed and Surface Contexts
Editor's Page
"Editor's Page." KIVA, 65(1), p. 5
Editor's Page
"Editor's Page." KIVA, 64(3), p. 309
Archaeological Chronometry
where change is gradual and continuous, moving from relatively simple to more complex. In fact, recent research demonstrates that this was not the case. A new discussion on possible cannibalism among the Anasazi also is treated in descriptive terms. An anthropological perspective, particularly important when discussing such a sensitive topic, is largely missing. Chapter 9 examines the post-archaic of eastern Colorado, beginning with a discussion …
The Dendrochronology of Palluche Canyon, Dinétah
The ancestral Navajo homeland of Dinétah in northwestern New Mexico contains hundreds, if not thousands, of Navajo archaeological sites that date from the A.D. 1500S through the late 1700s. A subset of these sites, known as pueblitos, are masonry structures located in defensible positions on boulder tops, mesa rims, and other topographically isolated settings. This paper presents dendrochronological data from the newly discovered site of Twine Ho…
Editor's Page
"Editor's Page." KIVA, 67(3), p. 229
Archeological dendrochronology in the southwestern united states
Dendrochronology, the science of tree‐ring dating, is the most accurate and precise nondocumentary dating method available to researchers studying the recent past. Tree‐ring dates are accurate and precise to the year and sometimes the season, and have no associated statistical uncertainty or standard error. Other prominent archeological dating techniques that use natural materials (for example, radiocarbon and archeomagnetism) have been calibrate…
Correspondence in Tree-Ring and Thermoluminescence Dating
Dating of early Navajo residence and special use sites, ca. A.D. 1500-1775, has been hampered by a lack of datable materials and poor precision in radiocarbon results. Methods described in this paper use materials ubiquitous at early Navajo sites in northwestern New Mexico and employ a dual strategy involving tree-ring dating of nonarchitectural wood and thermoluminescence assay of ceramics and burned rock. Comparison of samples obtained from a n…
Understanding Dating Applications
A recent critique (Espenshade, 2004) of an application of luminescence dating in New Mexico represents a misreading of the original work and a misunderstanding of how dates should be interpreted in archaeology. It is well known that the dating event (what is actually being dated) and the target event (what one wants to date) can differ. This difference accounts for the discrepancies noted in the New Mexico study and also makes problematic Espensh…
The Navajo Depopulation of Dinétah
The ancestral heartland of the Navajo people (Diné) is Dinétah, an area of northwestern New Mexico centered around the Largo and Gobernador drainages. The date of the Navajo entry into the area remains the subject of debate, but there is abundant evidence of an intensive and extensive Navajo occupation of the area in the 1500s-1700s. There is also ample evidence that the area was depopulated, if not abandoned, by the 1770s. Traditionally, the Nav…
Assessing the Importance of Past Human Behavior in Dendroarchaeological Research
Dendroarchaeological samples can contain three kinds of information: chronological, behavioral, and environmental. The decisions of past people regarding species selection, beam size, procurement and modification techniques, deadwood use, and stockpiling are the most critical factors influencing an archaeological date distribution. Using dendrochronological samples from prehistoric and historic period sites in the same area of eastern Utah, this …
Historical Dendroarchaeology in the EI Malpais Area
Early Navajo Archaeology on McKean Mesa, Denétah
The early-eighteenth-century Navajo occupation of Dinétah in northwestern New Mexico has been the subject of research for almost one hundred years. Dinétah Navajos built a plethora of structure types, including forked-pole hogans, sweat-lodges, and masonry pueblitos. Using data from an intensive survey and tree-ring sampling project around McKean Pueblito and data from other block surveys, this research expands on the efforts to delineate aspects…
Reflections On the Foundation, Persistence, and Growth of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Circa 1930–1960
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, it is appropriate to reflect on the origin of the LTRR and the oft overlooked early period of its history. The period from the “Bridging the gap” event in 1929 to the semi-retirement of A.E. Douglass in 1958 was a crucial time in the development of the LTRR. Although this paper focuses on the history of the LTRR between those events, at points the history of the LTRR…
Cambium-Peeled Trees in the Zuni Mountains, New Mexico
Cambium-peeled trees are relatively common in ponderosa pine forests of the Intermountain West. Found from British Columbia to southern New Mexico, cambium-peeled trees have been interpreted as (a) a response to famine conditions related to climatic variations, (b) a response to conflict-related food shortages and scheduling issues, (c) a sweet or delicacy, and (d) a medicinal product used to treat various internal and external ailments. This pap…
Collecting and Caring for Tree-Ring Samples in the Southwest
Dendrochronology is the most precise and accurate dating technique available to archaeologists, with resolution to the year and sometimes season. As biological specimens from human-produced contexts, dendroarchaeological samples inherently contain three kinds of information: chronological, behavioral, and environmental. The purpose of this short article is to educate archaeologists on how to avoid degrading any of these three types of information…
Bryant Bannister
This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected].
Arboreal archaeology and early Navajo land use
Slash and Trash
Early Navajo land use in northwestern New Mexico
Big Bead Mesa (LA 12351) is the most famous Navajo archaeological site ever investigated and has played an important role in the interpretation of Navajo culture history. It remains a sacred place to the Navajo, both for historical and spiritual reasons. Pioneering work by Dorothy L. Keur resulted in the publication of the first Society for American Archaeology Memoir and brought Navajo archaeology national recognition. James Hester used Big Bead…
Navajo Archaeology
The dominant anthropological and archaeological narrative of “Navajo” culture is that upon entering the northwestern New Mexico in the sixteenth century, bands of Athapaskan hunter-gatherers began an acculturative process that led them to adopt and assimilate Pueblo, Spanish, Mexican, and American cultural institutions. The anthropological and archaeological concept “Navajo,” created through Western scholarship by non-Diné, does not align with Di…
The Curious Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga Menziesii) Trees in Schulman Grove, Mesa Verde National Park, Southwestern Colorado, USA
In 1954, archaeologists James Allen Lancaster and Don Watson and dendrochronologist Edmund Schulman asserted that a small grove of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirbel] Franco var. glauca [Beissener] Franco) trees in Navajo Canyon on the west side of Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park contained evidence of stone-axe-cut tree limbs. In 1965, archaeologists Robert Nichols and David Smith published an article entitled 'Evidence of Prehist…
Archaeology (22 works) · Geography (21 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · History (13 works) · Tree-ring climate responses (13 works) · Archaeology and Natural History (10 works) · History (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Navajo (8 works) · Dendrochronology (7 works)