C Michael Barton
Biographic Data
| ID | 79401 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C Michael Barton |
| GIVEN NAMES | C Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Barton |
| SIGNATURE | BARTON C M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2561-1927 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 945 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 52 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Agentblocks
Lessons for an invisible future from an invisible past
The interrelated concepts of risk and resilience are inherently future-focused. Two main dimensions of risk are the probability that a harmful event will happen in the future and the probability that such an event will cause a varying degree of loss. Resilience likewise refers to the organization of a biological, societal, or technological system such that it can withstand deleterious consequences of future risks. Although both risk and resilienc…
A multi-method approach with machine learning to evaluating the distribution and intensity of prehistoric land use in Eastern Iberia
The present study seeks to better understand the coupling of social and biophysical systems during the late Pleistocene and Holocene, a period characterized by changing interglacial conditions as well as human population expansion and intensified ecosystem management. The approach consists of a combination of patch-based archaeological survey methods, sediment column sampling for paleoenvironmental data, geospatial analysis, and machine learning …
Sine Qua Non
Past human population dynamics play a key role in integrated models of understanding socio-ecological change over time. However, little analysis on this issue has been carried out for the prehistoric societies in the Lower Danube and Eastern Balkans area. Here, we use summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates to investigate potential regional and local variation population dynamics. Our study adopts a formal model-testing approach to …
From Artifacts to Cultures
Cultural taxonomies in the Paleolithic-Old questions, novel perspectives
The bond mechanism between steel and concrete can be compromised during a fire and is one of the least investigated phenomena in concrete research. In this work we present a thorough review of the experimental data available on this topic. The results from the tests reported by a number of researchers have been systematically collected in a database. This work also reports the results obtained in the bond strength tests carried out on four batche…
From Narratives to Algorithms
The static, fragmentary nature of the archaeological record requires us to construct models of past human dynamics. Traditionally, these have been in the form of narratives that can make compelling stories but are difficult to evaluate. Recent advances in numerical and computational modelling offer the potential to create quantitative representations of human systems and carry out experiments in social dynamics that would otherwise be impossible.…
Human Behavioral Ecology, Domestic Animals, and Land Use during the Transition to Agriculture in Valencia, Eastern Spain
9. Human Behavioral Ecology, Domestic Animals, and Land Use during the Transition to Agriculture in Valencia, Eastern Spain was published in Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture on page 197
Wandering through the Mesolithic. An archaeostatistical approach to explore the mobility patterns in eastern Iberia
Landscapes, climate change & forager mobility in the Upper Paleolithic of northern Spain
Patch-based survey methods for studying prehistoric human land-use in agriculturally modified landscapes
A Bayesian Approach for Timing the Neolithization in Mediterranean Iberia
In this paper, we compile recent 14 C dates related to the Neolithic transition in Mediterranean Iberia and present a Bayesian chronological approach for testing the dual model , a mixed model proposed to explain the spread of farming and husbandry processes in eastern Iberia. The dual model postulates the coexistence of agricultural pioneers and indigenous Mesolithic foraging groups in the Middle Holocene. We test this general model with more re…
Are the intensities and durations of small-scale pottery firings sufficient to completely dehydroxylate clays? Testing a key assumption underlying ceramic rehydroxylation dating
Lithics, landscapes & la Longue-durée – Curation & expediency as expressions of forager mobility
The Breaking of Ochred Pebble Tools as Part of Funerary Ritual in the Arene Candide Epigravettian Cemetery
We present the analysis of 29 human-transported limestone pebbles found during recent excavations (2009–11) in the Final Epigravettian levels at the Caverna delle Arene Candide, Italy. All pebbles are oblong, most bear traces of red ochre and many appear intentionally broken. Macroscopic analyses demonstrate morphological similarity with pebbles used as grave goods in the Final Epigravettian necropolis excavated at the site in the 1940s. Mediterr…
The Settlement of the American Continents
Experimental socioecology
The origins of agriculture in Iberia
Here we discuss the importance of using the rich and growing database of high-precision, audited radiocarbon dates for high-resolution bottom-up modelling to focus on problems concerning the spread of the Neolithic in the Iberia. We also compare the spread of the Late Mesolithic (so-called Geometric) and the Early Neolithic using our modelling environment. Our results suggest that the source of radiocarbon data used to evaluate alternative hypoth…
Radiocarbon dates, climatic events, and social dynamics during the Early Neolithic in Mediterranean Iberia
De la prospección sistemática al laboratorio GIS en La Canal de Navarrés
El trabajo que presentamos se ha desarrollado en el marco del proyecto NSF “The Emergence of Coupled Natural and Human Landscapes in the Western Mediterranean”, en el área comprendida por la actual comarca de La Canal de Navarres. Este espacio se convierte en uno de las áreas elegidas para un programa de recogida de datos centrado en la prospección sistemática “off site “ o “patch-based” (Barton et al. 2004; Dunnell 1992). Los datos relativos a l…
AEA 2012 Conference Reading
The Western Mediterranean, spanning southern Italy to Portugal, can be considered a single archaeological unit where the diagnostic characteristics of Early Neolithic contexts share common elements, marked by the spread of Cardium-Impressed ceramics. Although some consensus exists regarding the origin of these wares in southern Italy, the debate surrounding its process of expansion to the west remains open. Iberia is a key region for the analysis…
The formation of lithic assemblages
Complexity, Social Complexity, and Modeling
Bayesian Estimation Dating of Lithic Surface Collections
In glacial environments beyond glacial terrains
Late Pleistocene Technology, Economic Behavior, and Land-Use Dynamics in Southern Italy
This paper proposes a new methodology to study prehistoric lithic assemblages in an attempt to derive from that facet of prehistoric behavior the greater technoeconomic system in which it was embedded. By using volumetric artifact density and the frequency of retouched pieces within a given lithic assemblage, it becomes possible to identify whether these stone tools were created by residentially mobile or logistically organized foragers. The link…
The formation of lithic assemblages
A new approach to interpreting late Pleistocene microlith industries in southwest Asia
Archaeologists have long assumed that morphological variability in microliths primarily reflects cultural differences among the makers. This forms the basis for differentiating major cultural/temporal traditions in the late Epipalaeolithic of southwest Asia. An alternative explanation for morphological variability is proposed which emphasizes the dynamic aspects of lithic technology in hunter-gatherer societies and questions current explanations …
Modeling Human Ecodynamics and Biocultural Interactions in the Late Pleistocene of Western Eurasia
Art as information
Proceeding from the information exchange theory of style, we argue that the changing temporal and spatial distributions of mobile and parietal art in Paleolithic Europe are related aspects of a single evolutionary process: alternating selective pressures differentially favoring the expression of assertive and emblemic style over the 30–7 kyr BP interval. These pressures result from demographic and social change across the European subcontinent in…
Dynamic landscapes, artifact taphonomy, and landuse modeling in the western Mediterranean
The Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, is characteristic of many Mediterranean landscapes. It has been sporadically reoccupied over the course of at least 80 kyr. Its landforms have undergone various geomorphic processes resulting from late Quaternary environmental fluctuations. During the Holocene, the valley has been modified by millennia of extensive land clearance, cultivation, and terracing. As a result, the evidence for human activity and…
Long-Term Socioecology and Contingent Landscapes
Lithics, landscapes & la Longue-durée – Curation & expediency as expressions of forager mobility
Standing at the gates of Europe
Beyond Style and Function
Chipped stone artifacts are a significant, and often the only available, record of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The assemblages from four Middle Paleolithic sites in the Iberian peninsula form the basis of a study that addresses the behavioral significance of the variability in these objects. Artifact edges form the primary focus of this analysis, and permit morphology to be quantitatively characterized. Variability is generally continuous for t…
The Upper Paleolithic in Mediterranean Spain
Land-Use Dynamics and Socioeconomic Change
The Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, serves as the focus of a study of long-term temporal and spatial dynamics in human land use. The data discussed here derive from intensive, pedestrian, non-site survey. We employ the concept of artifact taphonomy to assess the various natural and cultural processes responsible for accumulation and distribution patterns of artifacts. Our results suggest that the most significant land-use changes in the Polo…
In glacial environments beyond glacial terrains
Stone Tools, Style, and Social Identity
Because of their prevalence in the archaeological record, chipped stone assemblages have long been used for the identification of social entities and the tracing of cultural relationships through space and time. To do this, archaeologists have focused primarily on variations in lithic morphology. Although the forms of stone artifacts are determined by a combination their utilitarian function, 'style', and the physical constraints of knapping diff…
Radiocarbon dates, climatic events, and social dynamics during the Early Neolithic in Mediterranean Iberia
Perception of change in freshwater in remote resource-dependent Arctic communities
Complexity, Social Complexity, and Modeling
Cultural taxonomies in the Paleolithic-Old questions, novel perspectives
The bond mechanism between steel and concrete can be compromised during a fire and is one of the least investigated phenomena in concrete research. In this work we present a thorough review of the experimental data available on this topic. The results from the tests reported by a number of researchers have been systematically collected in a database. This work also reports the results obtained in the bond strength tests carried out on four batche…
Landscapes, climate change & forager mobility in the Upper Paleolithic of northern Spain
A Taphonomic Perspective on Neolithic Beginnings
Stone Tools and Paleolithic Settlement in the Iberian Peninsula
The assemblages from four sites in Spain and Gibraltar form the basis of a study that addresses the behavioral significance of the variability in Middle Paleolithic chipped stone artifacts. Quantitative analysis of artifact edge morphology forms the primary focus of this work. It is suggested that (1) morphological variability is generally continuous for the features examined, (2) retouched and unretouched lithics are extremes in a continuum of t…
Bayesian Estimation Dating of Lithic Surface Collections
Beyond the Graver
The Breaking of Ochred Pebble Tools as Part of Funerary Ritual in the Arene Candide Epigravettian Cemetery
We present the analysis of 29 human-transported limestone pebbles found during recent excavations (2009–11) in the Final Epigravettian levels at the Caverna delle Arene Candide, Italy. All pebbles are oblong, most bear traces of red ochre and many appear intentionally broken. Macroscopic analyses demonstrate morphological similarity with pebbles used as grave goods in the Final Epigravettian necropolis excavated at the site in the 1940s. Mediterr…
Phantom cultures of the Levantine Epipaleolithic
We thank those whose interest in the Levantine Epipalaeolithic has led them to comment on our research. Such public discussion of differing interpretations is vital to understanding the past. In this article, we briefly respond to some of the points raised by those writing in this issue (G.A. Clark, N. Goring-Morris, D.O. Henry and J.L. Phillips) and in a previous issue (Fellner 1995; Kaufman 1995) of ANTIQUITY
A Note on Biases in Early Excavations at Mugharet El-Wad and Nahal Oren
Chipped stone artifacts usually comprise the bulk of recovered materials from the archaeological sites of the ear Her span of prehistory. As such, they are used to describe and characterize particular time spans, as well as geographical regions within those time spans. It is imperative, therefore, that these descriptions and characterizations be as accurate as possible. It is widely recognized, however, that early excavators in most parts of the …
Stone Tools and Paleolithic Settlement in the Iberian Peninsula
The assemblages from four sites in Spain and Gibraltar form the basis of a study that addresses the behavioral significance of the variability in Middle Paleolithic chipped stone artifacts. Quantitative analysis of artifact edge morphology forms the primary focus of this work. It is suggested that (1) morphological variability is generally continuous for the features examined, (2) retouched and unretouched lithics are extremes in a continuum of t…
Beyond Style and Function
Chipped stone artifacts are a significant, and often the only available, record of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The assemblages from four Middle Paleolithic sites in the Iberian peninsula form the basis of a study that addresses the behavioral significance of the variability in these objects. Artifact edges form the primary focus of this analysis, and permit morphology to be quantitatively characterized. Variability is generally continuous for t…
Art as information
Proceeding from the information exchange theory of style, we argue that the changing temporal and spatial distributions of mobile and parietal art in Paleolithic Europe are related aspects of a single evolutionary process: alternating selective pressures differentially favoring the expression of assertive and emblemic style over the 30–7 kyr BP interval. These pressures result from demographic and social change across the European subcontinent in…
A new approach to interpreting late Pleistocene microlith industries in southwest Asia
Archaeologists have long assumed that morphological variability in microliths primarily reflects cultural differences among the makers. This forms the basis for differentiating major cultural/temporal traditions in the late Epipalaeolithic of southwest Asia. An alternative explanation for morphological variability is proposed which emphasizes the dynamic aspects of lithic technology in hunter-gatherer societies and questions current explanations …
Beyond the Graver
Beyond the Graver
Burins have long been considered to represent a special class of stone tools, used primarily for engraving. A number of studies, however, have indicated that burins functioned in a variety of very different ways. This study finds evidence that burins were used as cutting/scraping tools, engraving tools, hafting elements, and bladelet cores at three late Pleistocene sites in SW Asia. We suggest that burins should not be considered as a class of to…
Pattern in the Epipalaeolithic of the Levant
The ANTIQUITY paper by Neeley & Barton (1994) - hereafter 'N&B'- prompted responses published in the June number last year: Fellner (1995) and Kaufman (1995). Here are more (all shorter than the full versions received), together with a response from Barton & Neeley (B&N) that rounds off the present discussion. The debaters have seen others' contributions, so there is some cross-comment within them. The questions and the issues are old fundamental…
Phantom cultures of the Levantine Epipaleolithic
We thank those whose interest in the Levantine Epipalaeolithic has led them to comment on our research. Such public discussion of differing interpretations is vital to understanding the past. In this article, we briefly respond to some of the points raised by those writing in this issue (G.A. Clark, N. Goring-Morris, D.O. Henry and J.L. Phillips) and in a previous issue (Fellner 1995; Kaufman 1995) of ANTIQUITY
Rediscovering Darwin
Stone Tools, Style, and Social Identity
Because of their prevalence in the archaeological record, chipped stone assemblages have long been used for the identification of social entities and the tracing of cultural relationships through space and time. To do this, archaeologists have focused primarily on variations in lithic morphology. Although the forms of stone artifacts are determined by a combination their utilitarian function, 'style', and the physical constraints of knapping diff…
Evolutionary Theory in Archaeological Explanation
In spite of the the fact that archaeology embodies the study of change, it is only within the last few years that neo-Darwinian theory has begun to have an impact on archaeological explanation. This lack of acceptance of neo-Darwinian theory in archaeology is in part the result of a long history of archaeologists misunderstanding the processes and expectations of evolutionary theory. This volume attempts to illustrate the applicability of neo-Dar…
The Upper Paleolithic in Mediterranean Spain
Land-Use Dynamics and Socioeconomic Change
The Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, serves as the focus of a study of long-term temporal and spatial dynamics in human land use. The data discussed here derive from intensive, pedestrian, non-site survey. We employ the concept of artifact taphonomy to assess the various natural and cultural processes responsible for accumulation and distribution patterns of artifacts. Our results suggest that the most significant land-use changes in the Polo…
A Taphonomic Perspective on Neolithic Beginnings
Dynamic landscapes, artifact taphonomy, and landuse modeling in the western Mediterranean
The Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, is characteristic of many Mediterranean landscapes. It has been sporadically reoccupied over the course of at least 80 kyr. Its landforms have undergone various geomorphic processes resulting from late Quaternary environmental fluctuations. During the Holocene, the valley has been modified by millennia of extensive land clearance, cultivation, and terracing. As a result, the evidence for human activity and…
Long-Term Socioecology and Contingent Landscapes
Late Pleistocene Technology, Economic Behavior, and Land-Use Dynamics in Southern Italy
This paper proposes a new methodology to study prehistoric lithic assemblages in an attempt to derive from that facet of prehistoric behavior the greater technoeconomic system in which it was embedded. By using volumetric artifact density and the frequency of retouched pieces within a given lithic assemblage, it becomes possible to identify whether these stone tools were created by residentially mobile or logistically organized foragers. The link…
Resilience Lost
Peeples, M. A., C. M. Barton, and S. Schmich 2006. Resilience lost: intersecting land use and landscape dynamics in the prehistoric southwestern United States. Ecology and Society 11(2): 22. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-01868-110222
Exploring the land
Perception of change in freshwater in remote resource-dependent Arctic communities
Standing at the gates of Europe
The emergence of human uniqueness
Although scientists are aware that humans share the same biological heritage as do all other organisms on the planet, the reliance of Homo sapiens on culture and cooperation has resulted in what can best be described as “a spectacular evolutionary anomaly.” 1:11 The extra‐somatic adaptations, technological dominance, and success of our species in colonizing every terrestrial habitat have no parallel. 2 Moreover, Homo sapiens accounts for about ei…
Surviving the Holocene
For hunter-gatherer groups, the dramatic changes in climate at the end of the last glacial cycle necessitated rearrangement of land use, including shifts in mobility strategies, settlement location, and resource use. We examine these behavioral changes using lithic attribute data as well as spatial distributions of artifacts and features. Using data from intensive survey and excavation, we trace human ecological response through the onset of the …
Human Behavioral Ecology and Climate Change during the Transition to Agriculture in Valencia, Eastern Spain
Using the behavioral ecological model of ideal free distribution (IFD), McClure, Jochim, and Barton (2006) identified the tight linkage between agricultural subsistence strategies, herd management, and long-term dynamics of human land use. Missing from their discussion, however, was placing these changes into a broader environmental context. The IFD provides a useful heuristic device to illustrate cost-benefit decisions within a spatial context. …
Archaeology (43 works) · Geography (43 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (39 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (35 works) · Geology (18 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Ecology (17 works) · Physical geography (15 works) · History (14 works) · Biology (13 works)