Karen R Adams
Biographic Data
| ID | 76562 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen R Adams |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen R |
| FAMILY NAME | Adams |
| SIGNATURE | ADAMS K R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Crow Canyon Archaeological Center |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 80 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Nutritional Content of Five Southwestern US Indigenous Maize (Zea MaysL.) Landraces of Varying Endosperm Type
Any relative nutritional differences among the diverse maize (Zea maysL.) landraces traditionally maintained in the Greater Southwest are little understood. In this article, we investigate a range of nutritional traits of five indigenous maize landraces in the US Southwest based on different kernel endosperm types: pop, flour, flint, dent, and sweet. We present macronutrient and micronutrient values for accessions of each landrace grown in the sa…
Ancient Grains
We report here the first domesticated amaranth ( Amaranthus spp.) seeds to be identified at a Chacoan great house, from the northern New Mexico site known as Aztec North, where they were found in a context that dates to the mid to late twelfth century AD. Amaranth has long been recognized as an important prehispanic resource in this region, evidenced by the archaeological record of both wild and domesticated forms and by the traditional knowledge…
Earliest evidence for human use of tobacco in the Pleistocene Americas
An in situ and morphometric study of maize (Zea mays L.) cob rondel phytoliths from Southwestern North American landraces
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America
How people decorate their bodies provides insight into cultural expressions of achievement, group allegiances, identity, and status. Tattooing has been hard to study in ancient societies for which we do not have tattooed mummies, which adds to the challenge of placing current body modification practices into a long-term global perspective. Historic studies document the practice of tattooing among many Indigenous North American groups. While the d…
Ancient Southwest U.S. Seed Caches
Relatively rare concentrations of ancient plant remains as caches and other forms of storage can provide important insights regarding many aspects of life not revealed by the typical archaeobotanical record. Before making archaeological interpretations it is important to determine if the source of an ancient plant concentration is the result of human storage and caching (cultural) or non-human animal nesting and caching (natural) activities, or a…
Non-agricultural Recurrence, Mobility, Adaptation, and Groundwater Variations on the Lower Bajada , Sonoran Desert, USA
The construction of a solar-power-array on Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, prompted the archaeological investigation of one of the most completely excavated Archaic period sites in the Sonoran Desert. Beginning with the Middle Archaic period and continuing to the early Historic period, people visited this location to gather and process wild plants, particularly mesquite. Despite the long occupational history, the plant-processing tools and techniqu…
Late Holocene hydroclimatic change at Cienega Amarilla, west-central New Mexico, USA
A late Holocene carbonate spring mound and associated wetland deposits at Cienega Amarilla, New Mexico, contain a 4000-yr record of geomorphic, paleoenvironmental, and hydroclimatic change on the southern Colorado Plateau. Forty-four 14 C dates support a century-scale chronostratigraphic framework. Pollen, plant macrofossil, mollusk, ostracode, and soil analyses indicate rapid spring mound growth and wetland expansion beginning ~2300 cal yr BP, f…
Plants
Beginning 4,000 or more years ago in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest, the most varied and sustained interactions between regional inhabitants and the plants of their environments took place within the context of agricultural economies. Even though a recurrent paradigm portrays the Southwest/Northwest as harsh and agriculturally marginal, the region is rich in the archaeological legacy of Indigenous cultivators who produced harvests over …
A New Record of Domesticated Little Barley ( Hordeum pusillum Nutt.) in Colorado
Little Barley Grass (Hordeum pusillum Nutt.) is a well-known native food domesticated in the U.S. Southwest by prehistoric Hohokam farmers in Central and Southern Arizona. This domesticated grass has recently been recovered from a late Basketmaker III community in southwestern Colorado, far from its well-known Hohokam region. Although travel or trade could explain this new Colorado record, we review morphological, ecological, and other types of e…
Solanum jamesii
The Solanaceae family of plants provides edible fruit (i.e., tomatoes, husk tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplant), tubers (i.e., potatoes), and plants used for leisure activities (i.e., tobacco) that are useful to humans. Several wild members of this family grow in the U.S. Southwest and some were eaten by the Ancestral Puebloans. We present evidence here that the Ancestral Puebloans in the Four-Corners region of the U.S. Southwest-the states of Ari…
Water Management at Pueblo Bonito
Recent archaeological investigations at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon reveal that residents constructed a large diversion channel during the eleventh century A.D. as dramatic growth resulted in the expansion of the building onto the main valley floor. Sediments in the diversion channel reflect repeated episodes of flooding, rather than slow moving water typically found in irrigation canals, and archaeobotanical data indicate deposition during lat…
Prehistoric Puebloan yucca ( Yucca ) quids with wild tobacco ( Nicotiana ) contents
Unburned yucca (Yucca) quids with wild tobacco (Nicotiana) contents have been preserved within Antelope Cave in northwestern Arizona. Although the cave was visited during the Archaic, Southern Paiute, and Euro-American periods, material culture remains and radiocarbon dates indicate the heaviest use by the Virgin Anasazi (a.d. 1–1000). Quids are wads of fiber twisted or knotted into a ball for insertion into the mouth. Ten of the quids examined w…
The Siren Site and the Long Transition from Archaic to Late Prehistoric Lifeways on the Eastern Edwards Plateau of Central Texas
On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Siren site (41WM1126), a prehistoric multi-component site in the Interstate Highway 35 right-of-way along the South Fork of the San Gabriel River in Williamson County, Texas. The work was done to fulfill TxDOT’s compliance obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiq…
Archaic Period Shell Middens, Sea-Level Fluctuation, and Seasonality
Five recent radiocarbon assays on wood charcoal within archaeological sites from the Puerto Peñasco area, Sonora, Mexico indicate use of the marine resources of the northern Gulf of California area during the Middle Archaic through the Late Archaic periods, ca. 3800 B.C.-A.D. 100. The archaeological shell middens of the region are generally thought of as remains associated with Ceramic period Hohokam marine shell collecting forays with there bein…
The diffusion of maize to the southwestern United States and its impact
Our understanding of the initial period of agriculture in the southwestern United States has been transformed by recent discoveries that establish the presence of maize there by 2100 cal. B.C. (calibrated calendrical years before the Christian era) and document the processes by which it was integrated into local foraging economies. Here we review archaeological, paleoecological, linguistic, and genetic data to evaluate the hypothesis that Proto-U…
Evidence for Domesticated Amaranth From a Sedentary Period Hohokam House Floor at Las Canopas
Flotation-processed fill from an inverted bowl on the floor of a late Sedentary period house floor (A.D. 1020–1150, calibrated 1-sigma range C-14 date) at the Las Canopas site on the Salt River in Phoenix, Arizona, yielded approximately 1,500 charred amaranth seeds along with domesticated maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) kernels, tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seeds. The amaranth seeds are morphologically differen…
Investigations of Paints on Ancestral Puebloan Black-on-white Pottery Using Magnetic and Microanalytic Methods
Pottery Paint and Other Uses of Rocky Mountain Beeweed (Cleome SerrulataPursh) in the Southwestern United States
The Rocky Mountain beeweed plant (Cleome serrulata Pursh) has had a variety of uses for Native Americans in the Southwestern United States from ancient times to the present and, within historic time, has been used to some extent by Mexican-Americans. This paper reviews the scientific taxonomy, common nomenclature, ethnographic uses, and archaeological occurrences of Rocky Mountain beeweed, or guaco. Particular attention is given to the question o…
Moisture Effects on the Morphology of Ears, Cobs and Kernels of a South-western U.S. Maize ( L.) Cultivar, and Implications for the Interpretation of Archaeological Maize
Evaluating Visual Criteria for Identifying Carbon- and Iron-Based Pottery Paints from the Four Corners Region Using SEM-EDS
Paint types on black-on-white pottery in the prehistoric American Southwest have had significance for both chronological and sociocultural interpretations. Visual attributes have formed the basis for distinguishing carbon- and mineral-based paints on ancient black-on-white pottery in the American Southwest for over 60 years. In this study, an SEM-EDS (scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer) system was first used to make…
Determining the Fuel Constituents of Ancient Hearth Ash Via ICP-AES Analysis
Plant Microfossils from Archaeological Sites
Microscopic plant parts such as pollen grains and small seeds, systematically and carefully secured from archaeological sites, can significantly increase our understanding of prehistoric man and his relation to plants. Questions pertinent to botanical research should be drafted during the planning stage of an excavation, and plant specialists consulted so that appropriate pollen and flotation sampling procedures and techniques can be agreed upon.…
Determining the Fuel Constituents of Ancient Hearth Ash Via ICP-AES Analysis
Water Management at Pueblo Bonito
Recent archaeological investigations at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon reveal that residents constructed a large diversion channel during the eleventh century A.D. as dramatic growth resulted in the expansion of the building onto the main valley floor. Sediments in the diversion channel reflect repeated episodes of flooding, rather than slow moving water typically found in irrigation canals, and archaeobotanical data indicate deposition during lat…
Evidence for Domesticated Amaranth From a Sedentary Period Hohokam House Floor at Las Canopas
Flotation-processed fill from an inverted bowl on the floor of a late Sedentary period house floor (A.D. 1020–1150, calibrated 1-sigma range C-14 date) at the Las Canopas site on the Salt River in Phoenix, Arizona, yielded approximately 1,500 charred amaranth seeds along with domesticated maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) kernels, tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seeds. The amaranth seeds are morphologically differen…
Earliest evidence for human use of tobacco in the Pleistocene Americas
Investigations of Paints on Ancestral Puebloan Black-on-white Pottery Using Magnetic and Microanalytic Methods
Pottery Paint and Other Uses of Rocky Mountain Beeweed (Cleome SerrulataPursh) in the Southwestern United States
The Rocky Mountain beeweed plant (Cleome serrulata Pursh) has had a variety of uses for Native Americans in the Southwestern United States from ancient times to the present and, within historic time, has been used to some extent by Mexican-Americans. This paper reviews the scientific taxonomy, common nomenclature, ethnographic uses, and archaeological occurrences of Rocky Mountain beeweed, or guaco. Particular attention is given to the question o…
Evaluating Visual Criteria for Identifying Carbon- and Iron-Based Pottery Paints from the Four Corners Region Using SEM-EDS
Paint types on black-on-white pottery in the prehistoric American Southwest have had significance for both chronological and sociocultural interpretations. Visual attributes have formed the basis for distinguishing carbon- and mineral-based paints on ancient black-on-white pottery in the American Southwest for over 60 years. In this study, an SEM-EDS (scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer) system was first used to make…
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America
How people decorate their bodies provides insight into cultural expressions of achievement, group allegiances, identity, and status. Tattooing has been hard to study in ancient societies for which we do not have tattooed mummies, which adds to the challenge of placing current body modification practices into a long-term global perspective. Historic studies document the practice of tattooing among many Indigenous North American groups. While the d…
Ancient Grains
We report here the first domesticated amaranth ( Amaranthus spp.) seeds to be identified at a Chacoan great house, from the northern New Mexico site known as Aztec North, where they were found in a context that dates to the mid to late twelfth century AD. Amaranth has long been recognized as an important prehispanic resource in this region, evidenced by the archaeological record of both wild and domesticated forms and by the traditional knowledge…
A New Record of Domesticated Little Barley ( Hordeum pusillum Nutt.) in Colorado
Little Barley Grass (Hordeum pusillum Nutt.) is a well-known native food domesticated in the U.S. Southwest by prehistoric Hohokam farmers in Central and Southern Arizona. This domesticated grass has recently been recovered from a late Basketmaker III community in southwestern Colorado, far from its well-known Hohokam region. Although travel or trade could explain this new Colorado record, we review morphological, ecological, and other types of e…
Solanum jamesii
The Solanaceae family of plants provides edible fruit (i.e., tomatoes, husk tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplant), tubers (i.e., potatoes), and plants used for leisure activities (i.e., tobacco) that are useful to humans. Several wild members of this family grow in the U.S. Southwest and some were eaten by the Ancestral Puebloans. We present evidence here that the Ancestral Puebloans in the Four-Corners region of the U.S. Southwest-the states of Ari…
Prehistoric Puebloan yucca ( Yucca ) quids with wild tobacco ( Nicotiana ) contents
Unburned yucca (Yucca) quids with wild tobacco (Nicotiana) contents have been preserved within Antelope Cave in northwestern Arizona. Although the cave was visited during the Archaic, Southern Paiute, and Euro-American periods, material culture remains and radiocarbon dates indicate the heaviest use by the Virgin Anasazi (a.d. 1–1000). Quids are wads of fiber twisted or knotted into a ball for insertion into the mouth. Ten of the quids examined w…
Archaic Period Shell Middens, Sea-Level Fluctuation, and Seasonality
Five recent radiocarbon assays on wood charcoal within archaeological sites from the Puerto Peñasco area, Sonora, Mexico indicate use of the marine resources of the northern Gulf of California area during the Middle Archaic through the Late Archaic periods, ca. 3800 B.C.-A.D. 100. The archaeological shell middens of the region are generally thought of as remains associated with Ceramic period Hohokam marine shell collecting forays with there bein…
The Siren Site and the Long Transition from Archaic to Late Prehistoric Lifeways on the Eastern Edwards Plateau of Central Texas
On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Siren site (41WM1126), a prehistoric multi-component site in the Interstate Highway 35 right-of-way along the South Fork of the San Gabriel River in Williamson County, Texas. The work was done to fulfill TxDOT’s compliance obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiq…
Plant Microfossils from Archaeological Sites
Microscopic plant parts such as pollen grains and small seeds, systematically and carefully secured from archaeological sites, can significantly increase our understanding of prehistoric man and his relation to plants. Questions pertinent to botanical research should be drafted during the planning stage of an excavation, and plant specialists consulted so that appropriate pollen and flotation sampling procedures and techniques can be agreed upon.…
Plant Microfossils from Archaeological Sites
Microscopic plant parts such as pollen grains and small seeds, systematically and carefully secured from archaeological sites, can significantly increase our understanding of prehistoric man and his relation to plants. Questions pertinent to botanical research should be drafted during the planning stage of an excavation, and plant specialists consulted so that appropriate pollen and flotation sampling procedures and techniques can be agreed upon.…
Determining the Fuel Constituents of Ancient Hearth Ash Via ICP-AES Analysis
Moisture Effects on the Morphology of Ears, Cobs and Kernels of a South-western U.S. Maize ( L.) Cultivar, and Implications for the Interpretation of Archaeological Maize
Evaluating Visual Criteria for Identifying Carbon- and Iron-Based Pottery Paints from the Four Corners Region Using SEM-EDS
Paint types on black-on-white pottery in the prehistoric American Southwest have had significance for both chronological and sociocultural interpretations. Visual attributes have formed the basis for distinguishing carbon- and mineral-based paints on ancient black-on-white pottery in the American Southwest for over 60 years. In this study, an SEM-EDS (scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer) system was first used to make…
Investigations of Paints on Ancestral Puebloan Black-on-white Pottery Using Magnetic and Microanalytic Methods
Pottery Paint and Other Uses of Rocky Mountain Beeweed (Cleome SerrulataPursh) in the Southwestern United States
The Rocky Mountain beeweed plant (Cleome serrulata Pursh) has had a variety of uses for Native Americans in the Southwestern United States from ancient times to the present and, within historic time, has been used to some extent by Mexican-Americans. This paper reviews the scientific taxonomy, common nomenclature, ethnographic uses, and archaeological occurrences of Rocky Mountain beeweed, or guaco. Particular attention is given to the question o…
The diffusion of maize to the southwestern United States and its impact
Our understanding of the initial period of agriculture in the southwestern United States has been transformed by recent discoveries that establish the presence of maize there by 2100 cal. B.C. (calibrated calendrical years before the Christian era) and document the processes by which it was integrated into local foraging economies. Here we review archaeological, paleoecological, linguistic, and genetic data to evaluate the hypothesis that Proto-U…
Evidence for Domesticated Amaranth From a Sedentary Period Hohokam House Floor at Las Canopas
Flotation-processed fill from an inverted bowl on the floor of a late Sedentary period house floor (A.D. 1020–1150, calibrated 1-sigma range C-14 date) at the Las Canopas site on the Salt River in Phoenix, Arizona, yielded approximately 1,500 charred amaranth seeds along with domesticated maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) kernels, tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seeds. The amaranth seeds are morphologically differen…
Archaic Period Shell Middens, Sea-Level Fluctuation, and Seasonality
Five recent radiocarbon assays on wood charcoal within archaeological sites from the Puerto Peñasco area, Sonora, Mexico indicate use of the marine resources of the northern Gulf of California area during the Middle Archaic through the Late Archaic periods, ca. 3800 B.C.-A.D. 100. The archaeological shell middens of the region are generally thought of as remains associated with Ceramic period Hohokam marine shell collecting forays with there bein…
The Siren Site and the Long Transition from Archaic to Late Prehistoric Lifeways on the Eastern Edwards Plateau of Central Texas
On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Siren site (41WM1126), a prehistoric multi-component site in the Interstate Highway 35 right-of-way along the South Fork of the San Gabriel River in Williamson County, Texas. The work was done to fulfill TxDOT’s compliance obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiq…
Prehistoric Puebloan yucca ( Yucca ) quids with wild tobacco ( Nicotiana ) contents
Unburned yucca (Yucca) quids with wild tobacco (Nicotiana) contents have been preserved within Antelope Cave in northwestern Arizona. Although the cave was visited during the Archaic, Southern Paiute, and Euro-American periods, material culture remains and radiocarbon dates indicate the heaviest use by the Virgin Anasazi (a.d. 1–1000). Quids are wads of fiber twisted or knotted into a ball for insertion into the mouth. Ten of the quids examined w…
Water Management at Pueblo Bonito
Recent archaeological investigations at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon reveal that residents constructed a large diversion channel during the eleventh century A.D. as dramatic growth resulted in the expansion of the building onto the main valley floor. Sediments in the diversion channel reflect repeated episodes of flooding, rather than slow moving water typically found in irrigation canals, and archaeobotanical data indicate deposition during lat…
Late Holocene hydroclimatic change at Cienega Amarilla, west-central New Mexico, USA
A late Holocene carbonate spring mound and associated wetland deposits at Cienega Amarilla, New Mexico, contain a 4000-yr record of geomorphic, paleoenvironmental, and hydroclimatic change on the southern Colorado Plateau. Forty-four 14 C dates support a century-scale chronostratigraphic framework. Pollen, plant macrofossil, mollusk, ostracode, and soil analyses indicate rapid spring mound growth and wetland expansion beginning ~2300 cal yr BP, f…
Plants
Beginning 4,000 or more years ago in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest, the most varied and sustained interactions between regional inhabitants and the plants of their environments took place within the context of agricultural economies. Even though a recurrent paradigm portrays the Southwest/Northwest as harsh and agriculturally marginal, the region is rich in the archaeological legacy of Indigenous cultivators who produced harvests over …
A New Record of Domesticated Little Barley ( Hordeum pusillum Nutt.) in Colorado
Little Barley Grass (Hordeum pusillum Nutt.) is a well-known native food domesticated in the U.S. Southwest by prehistoric Hohokam farmers in Central and Southern Arizona. This domesticated grass has recently been recovered from a late Basketmaker III community in southwestern Colorado, far from its well-known Hohokam region. Although travel or trade could explain this new Colorado record, we review morphological, ecological, and other types of e…
Solanum jamesii
The Solanaceae family of plants provides edible fruit (i.e., tomatoes, husk tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplant), tubers (i.e., potatoes), and plants used for leisure activities (i.e., tobacco) that are useful to humans. Several wild members of this family grow in the U.S. Southwest and some were eaten by the Ancestral Puebloans. We present evidence here that the Ancestral Puebloans in the Four-Corners region of the U.S. Southwest-the states of Ari…
Non-agricultural Recurrence, Mobility, Adaptation, and Groundwater Variations on the Lower Bajada , Sonoran Desert, USA
The construction of a solar-power-array on Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, prompted the archaeological investigation of one of the most completely excavated Archaic period sites in the Sonoran Desert. Beginning with the Middle Archaic period and continuing to the early Historic period, people visited this location to gather and process wild plants, particularly mesquite. Despite the long occupational history, the plant-processing tools and techniqu…
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America
How people decorate their bodies provides insight into cultural expressions of achievement, group allegiances, identity, and status. Tattooing has been hard to study in ancient societies for which we do not have tattooed mummies, which adds to the challenge of placing current body modification practices into a long-term global perspective. Historic studies document the practice of tattooing among many Indigenous North American groups. While the d…
Ancient Southwest U.S. Seed Caches
Relatively rare concentrations of ancient plant remains as caches and other forms of storage can provide important insights regarding many aspects of life not revealed by the typical archaeobotanical record. Before making archaeological interpretations it is important to determine if the source of an ancient plant concentration is the result of human storage and caching (cultural) or non-human animal nesting and caching (natural) activities, or a…
An in situ and morphometric study of maize (Zea mays L.) cob rondel phytoliths from Southwestern North American landraces
Ancient Grains
We report here the first domesticated amaranth ( Amaranthus spp.) seeds to be identified at a Chacoan great house, from the northern New Mexico site known as Aztec North, where they were found in a context that dates to the mid to late twelfth century AD. Amaranth has long been recognized as an important prehispanic resource in this region, evidenced by the archaeological record of both wild and domesticated forms and by the traditional knowledge…
Earliest evidence for human use of tobacco in the Pleistocene Americas
The Nutritional Content of Five Southwestern US Indigenous Maize (Zea MaysL.) Landraces of Varying Endosperm Type
Any relative nutritional differences among the diverse maize (Zea maysL.) landraces traditionally maintained in the Greater Southwest are little understood. In this article, we investigate a range of nutritional traits of five indigenous maize landraces in the US Southwest based on different kernel endosperm types: pop, flour, flint, dent, and sweet. We present macronutrient and micronutrient values for accessions of each landrace grown in the sa…
Archaeology (19 works) · Geography (19 works) · Biology (10 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (9 works) · Ecology (8 works) · Botany (7 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Geology (7 works) · Agronomy (6 works) · Geology (6 works)